Company suffers massive financial hardship after forcing out irreplaceable worker: 'The [department] racked up eight-figure losses'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Mar 16, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Usually, it's wise to have multiple persons capable of maintaining the continuity of the important areas of your organization. This means not having a single employee who knows essential company processes, secrets, codes, and passwords that can't otherwise be found, learned, or replicated by someone else. If you happen to have one of these workers in your organization or someone who is otherwise essential to the operation of your business, you will do well to treat them well. It would certainly be a bad idea to try and push them out of your business over some petty power struggle without first orchestrating a transferral of their responsibilities. 

Well, that's basically what happened to this worker who handled the international accounts for this logistics operation. Their relationships and methods were known only to them, so when their petty employer tried to force them out. When no one was able to replicate their methods, the department suffered "eight-figure losses".

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  • 01
    "They have no idea where to even start."
    via Onur Binay
  • 02
    I left behind a dead-man's- switch in the company workflow when I sensed I was about to be bullied into quitting. First of all, the story is a bit older, but I will keep stuff rather ambiguous at times just for my own safety. I don't know how much my company can find out. I hope I can put it into words so everyone understands, especially as English is not my first language. Also there will be a TL;DR at the bottom. Also also, there are some google- translations in this so please be merciful.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 03
    So! Let's get started! I started working in logistics at a company that builds things. That was just as covid was starting actually. When I started, we were 5 people in the team, but one of the guys quit soon after. This is important because it was a very good insight into how my department operates when they don't need or want a certain someone around. They will not outright fire you, since then they have to pay you a severance. But instead, they will bully you into quitting.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 04
    I saw pretty much the whole package. Excluding them from meetings and important events. Putting them down in public, lecturing them, never noticing good work done, but always making sure everyone knows about work that is poorly done. Drowning someone in work and then berating them when they inevitably can't keep up. It was outright childish at times. I didn't register it at the time but it was a really valuable lesson for later.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 05
    I was put in charge of managing our overseas suppliers (among other things). About half of our material came from overseas, most of that from China. While it seems like a big task for someone new, it wasn't done out of malice. Genuinely everyone believed we were going to get a guy in China for the Chinese supplies, then I'd be left for the handful of others. It seemed fair.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 06
    But we never got that guy for China. And I was left with all overseas suppliers. Another important thing is that just in this project the company had decided to change the work flow for overseas suppliers. This is because due to covid the price of shipping containers had exploded. To explain it as simply as possible:
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 07
    Previously the suppliers were responsible for filling our containers and bringing them to the harbor, we were responsible for picking them up from the harbor and bringing them to us. However, due to demands and many other things, sometimes we just needed 2 or 3 pallets of parts where a dozen or more could fit inside a container. So, we were shipping a lot of air.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 08
    The new work flow would have the suppliers bring the parts to an external warehouse (one in the US, one in China) then we would load them into containers to get the containers as full as possible, and then bring them to the harbor and then into our plant. This way we needed to rent far fewer containers.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 09
    This complicated things because it erased the direct contact from us to the suppliers. And there was no official method how we were going to keep in contact with suppliers, tell them how many parts we need, how to package them, if there were any changes requested, etc...
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 10
    During that time, I was left mostly alone to deal with it, and I set up a system with excel. It was mostly manual, rather simple, but it worked well. It worked so well that one of the suits even chatted with me about it for a bit since he wanted to make it a standard in future projects. And also, this is very important, I was the only person who actually knew all our overseas suppliers and their contacts.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 11
    Some of you might be able to tell where this story is going already. So, during that entire time, nobody had actually bothered to ask me to explain to them how my system worked and where I kept track of all the supplier contacts. All of this data was hidden on like slide 800 of some excel file I had saved in a folder titled "part pictures" which was otherwise filled. with pictures of parts.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 12
    Now, moving forward: As covid began dying. down, the department for whatever reason decided they don't need me anymore. I have theories but nothing certain, so I will just leave it at that. I pretty much saw precisely the same thing go down as I had seen with that one guy who had left shortly after I started. All the bullying.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 13
    I thought to myself at first that if I pull through and keep doing a good job (and I believe I did a good job), they would eventually cool down. But they didn't. After 2 months of that I said " ", and decided to just sit out and endure until the Christmas bonus we get every year, and then hand in my notice. And also, I just delayed teaching anyone how my system. worked until I was gone. And that is pretty much how it happened.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 14
    Off-Topic: For my own future employment, I actually lucked out. One of the local suppliers I was managing had a really chill guy as managing director. I gave him a call, explained I was about to be unemployed, asked if they needed staff. He then called me in to an interview, we talked about anime for an hour while his HR lady looked confused about what a "Attack on Titan" was, and he told me I can come in the moment I am done with my (then) current job.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 15
    Back on topic, a month into working at my new job, I got a call from my old job. The department manager. To his credit, he was always a reasonable guy. He told me in plain words that they have no idea where TF to even start with the Chinese suppliers. He then offered me my old job back with a very respectable pay increase. I explained that I already had a new job.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 16
    Two days later I got another call where the same manager offered me many times my monthly salary just to come in for one week and instruct my old team in how my process functioned, introduce them to all the contacts, etc. I told him I refused because of the way I had been treated by them when I worked there. He said that he understood and wished me luck at my new job and hung up.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 17
    The reason I am writing this story now: this week I randomly got in touch with some of the people in the transport department from my old job. They mentioned that in the now 10 months since I left, the logistics department racked up 8 figure losses due to wrong deliveries, over- and under deliveries, outdated parts, some suppliers cancelling their contracts and new suppliers needing to be sourced, etc... And all the blame for that fell on my old team.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 18
    My new job is fine. It's not the best job, but I get to travel a lot and get nice bonuses for it. My boss isn't around much since he married. I do sometimes regret not taking that offer for a week as an instructor. So yeah, hope you all enjoyed the read
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 19
    TL;DR Company put me in charge of managing overseas suppliers, unintentionally making me the only guy who knew the suppliers and knew the system I had created to exchange data with them. When my company started bullying me into quitting, I avoided instructing anyone from my team in how my system worked, leading to them. asking me to come back after I quit, and then racking up 8 figure losses after I refused to come back.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 20
    untranslatable 13 hr. ago 8 figures is pro. All these posts where people about how the revenge has to be such and such to be on the sub, blah blah blah. Not on this one. 1.2k Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 21
    The-Tewby OP 13 hr. ago . It does sound like much, it definitely is much for the department, but for the company the 8 figures really isn't game changing. I do like to imagine the dressing-down my old team. got.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 22
    ninjamonkeyumom 12 hr. ago Well if they are a public traded company than that loss will hurt investors. Bad growth means fewer willing to invest, and current investors pulling out.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 23
    zomgbratto 8 hr. ago Come think about it, had they offer you a low 7 figure salary for a week to come in as an instructor, it would've worth it for them. 23 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 24
    BikeBF21 13 hr. ago Missed the trick on consulting remotely for X per hour. Could have made a killing. Otherwise good show. 363 Reply Share The-Tewby OP 13 hr. ago In hindsight i could have probably negotiated something sweet. But i was glad just to have peace of mind at the time. 294 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 25
    whythecynic 12 hr. ago I'd say don't worry too much about it. As a contractor you're liable for a whole bunch of stuff you might not be aware of, you're responsible for your own insurance, and they could use it as an excuse to find something else to sue you for. Better to just let it go and sleep soundly at night. 106 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 26
    Lizlodude 13 hr. ago Props for not actually actively sabotaging the company, just because that's a great way to get sued into the ground (no idea where you're located, but it's probably still not the best idea) they just never bothered to ask, and given how you were treated, didn't feel inclined to explain. 82 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 27
    28 Berylldama 12 hr. ago I love these posts where the big wigs who have no idea how the day to day is done, randomly decide to remove "the one guy who knows what is going on" then they are SHOCKED that things go badly. It happened at my old job. They dissolved my department because we had annoying rules about brand standards only for them to realize that not following the brand standards earned them tons of fines. Idiots. 59 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 28
    throwaway47138 - 10 hr. ago I know it doesn't sound like it, but that hour taking about anime was the real job interview. I'm betting your new manager knew all about the toxic culture at your old place, and was determining if you were a part of it or a victim of it. Granted, he probably has his answer on the first 5-10 minutes, but all that chatting was him assessing if your personality would be a good fit. Clearly you passed. 51 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 29
    MarDeeCohn 13 hr. ago Good on you for standing your ground. Never understand why companies do this to themselves. 85 Reply Share The-Tewby OP. 13 hr. ago Companies (especially big ones) really enjoy doing stupid things it seems. That place used to have a
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 30
    really well functioning bike- sharing system inside the company grounds. They dumped all the bikes and replaced them with electric scooters to advertise support for e-mobility. These scooters constantly broke down and were axed by first winter. The bikes never came back. 74 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 31
    themcp 12 hr. ago You didn't put a dead man's switch in. You just didn't tell them how it worked. I had an employer that had one and only one deliverable to its clients - a monthly report of the data from the work it had done for them. They had a guy whose sole job it was to produce these reports. When I joined the
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 32
    company, the process of gathering the data was very manual and he'd have to do a lot of work to process it and produce the report., I changed the process so it was all done by software, and he could spend 20 minutes issuing commands and it would then figure out the answers for him, and all he would have to do is put it into Excel and make it pretty. It would take about one day of work a month.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 33
    However, he never did this. Not once. He made me do it for him, every time. Given that I was already working full time and had too much to do, this meant I'd have to stay overnight to do it and then work the next day. Every single time I'd offer to teach him where to find everything and even how to do it, but he would make up some lame excuse why he couldn't. He eventually said 'why should I let you teach me how to do it? Then I'd have to do it. You have to do it now, and I get paid."
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 34
    I complained to the boss, who told me to just do it. I complained to the boss every month, and he eventually told me to just do it or I'd be fired. So when he hired someone else to run the company, and she had it in for me, and she eventually got rid of me, I knew they'd crash and burn.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 35
    That month the client was not happy when they missed their deliverable and declined to pay them (after all, there was no deliverable so there was no proof anything had been done), but said they had another month to work it out and they could have the pay once they reported on the original month's work. The next month came and went, still no report, and the client fired them. A month later they ran out of money and had to let everyone go.
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 36
    A real dead man's switch would be something like "The accounting software will stop working and delete all the data if HR tells it I'm no longer on the payroll." 68 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 37
    Curious-Onlooker-001 12 hr. ago Yes. If it was Excel based it could have been activated via a macro that after a certain period of time either erased data or turned it into gibberish. 15 Reply Share FlandoCalrissian. 12 hr. ago Macros only work when you open the file. 8 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 38
    kokeda 11 hr. ago LOL I used to manage logistics for a company so 100% understand they would be as you how were telling the story. The fact that they didn't realize how they would be is amazing to me. Logistics is seriously one of the most unforgiving fields. When I left I literally felt anxious for the people taking over my position hahaha. Left them so many resources on how everything worked. 17 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 39
    imsowhiteandnerdy 12 hr. ago I think you made the right call not taking the contracting gig to bail them out. This company has a toxic culture in the way they handle and deal with their employees. What your revenge has been very successful at is extracting some well- deserved consequences for that destructive behavior. Without consequences they may never change. 14 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 40
    TheNameIsAnIllusion 13 hr. ago Tell them you'll fix it for the low, low price of a six digit figure 36 Reply Share The-Tewby OP. 13 hr. ago That ship has already sailed unfortunately. Its been 10 months by now they either figured it out or got something new in place. 26 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 41
    • Technoght 12 hr. ago They can pay you to teach them but they can't pay you to make them understand it. You're not a qualified teacher right? :) Get the money up front, be incomplete, put in the contract you don't guarantee success, and spend all your time going over things they should already know and not actually helpful. 8 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby
  • 42
    Cyborg_888 9 hr. ago Nice story. One company I was associated with tried to steal my analysis tools. I kept the source code encryted. They did not realise that. I left and it cost them at least 10 million a year. That was over 10 years ago. They still struggle without them now, I have friends that keep me informed. They spent 3 years hiring contractors to recreate my tools but it was too complex and they gave up. 9 Reply Share
    via u/The-Tewby

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