‘Please come back': Programmer laid off in favor of new college grad hire, management desperately attempts to rehire him after finding out all their files are deleted

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Mar 26, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

People get laid off all the time. Especially when you're over 40. See, companies like to hire new kids, fresh out of college, ones who will conform easily to policies, and accept jobs for way less pay.

Then, the companies realize their mistake, and they pay dearly for it. Because these new hires have no idea what they're doing. They can't code, build prototypes, and make the customer happy. This senior programmer was laid off after new management swooped in and hired a new kid. The programmer knew that they were laying him off because cha-ching… money. But he couldn't do anything about it, so he decided to exit with grace. Before he left, his company told him to 'delete all files' off a hard disk that had a lot of customer data. He tried warning them what would happen, but hey, who ever listens to IT?

The proof is in the pudding… Scroll down to read all about it. Next up, a customer who accidentally turned off his own mobile data for 20 minutes, then demanded the company give him compensation.

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  • 01
    -content/upl Ptps://d2042" srcset width 13 13, https://insta.com/wp-cont 12. 76, https://insta.com/ 36.png 382, https://kinsta.com/ 06.png 61b" sizes="(max-width: 1300 ts.txt file</p></div odesrobots.txtc/code> file, it might y robots.txt files):</p> need to add to fix the bl default cco now the de a fresh install): min-ajax.php</stre crad it.</p>/ classep-captio row"https://kin tps://kinst obots-fil ots-fi "Sorry I deleted all the files you wanted me to delete..."
    via Canva
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    Sorry, I deleted all the files you told me to delete.
    via u/oldman712
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    My job was to design and write software prototypes for individual high-value customers. If they liked it well enough, then a real software engineering team would build the real product. Occasionally, I would run the prototype for a few months while the customer evaluated if they wanted to buy the real project. Now these prototypes are not a lot of code, but they do run with a lot of data. Even compressed, it can be a terabyte or more. Having done this work for years, I've accumulated a small dis
    via u/oldman712
  • 04
    can be very useful when a customer asks for something just like we did last year, but with a small change or two. The company resisted buying hard drives for this, but it saves me so much time, I ended up buying one or two a year myself until I accumulated about 10 of them. Figure over $1000 worth of external drives. Then unexpectedly management changes, new management thinks they can replace old software guy with a cheaper new software grad and I am laid off,
    via u/oldman712
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    with two weeks to "train" my replacement. (Yes, it's blatant age discrimination, but impossible to fight, so I just went for a graceful transition to my next job.) Except, I have $1000 of personal disk drives with old customer data on them. Company insists that no ex- employees may take any company data off premises and all files must be deleted. I don't want to just leave the drives at the company, but they insist I must delete all data before taking them home. So I offer:
    via u/oldman712
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    1. They can buy them from me 2. I will eventually use them for something else, but I can leave the data on them in case someone needs it Not good enough. New manager insists I must delete all data and all backups before I remove the drives. Okay. That's what I do. Six months later, I get a series of desperate phone calls. New software grad has been unable to build any new prototypes. Old customers are calling to get old prototypes updated, and new software grad has no idea how to do that. Execut
    via u/oldman712
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    Sorry, I've got a new job now. And even if I didn't, I cannot just modify the old prototype because you insisted I delete all old copies of it. If I did want to modify it, I'd first have to re-create it from scratch. The code still exists in their source control, but the data is the heart of the prototypes. And that old series of six month's apart data we collected is gone for good, no matter what. Sorry, you sc. d yourselves exactly like I told you would happen. Hope whatever you saved by hirin
    via u/oldman712
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    KastorNevierre · 2 yr. ago I had a similar experience while working as a contractor. I was brought on to work on an open source platform, a linux based custom CMS for call center agents at a large firm. 6 months into the contract, they decide we have to integrate with a microsoft LDAP service. I've never touched the thing before, but I give it a try. They give me some scuffed 14GB VMware hard drive files to boot as the LDAP server instead of an actual integration, and I can't get these things to
    via u/KastorNevierre
  • 09
    After those two weeks I get a call that I'm being let go from the contract because "it's not a good sign that I can't get the development environment running" - never mind that I've singlehandedly built 70% of their entire platform and demoed it to them 3 times along the way. So after the call is over, they send me an email giving me parting instructions, and one of the steps on the list is to delete all files related to my work immediately and that I have 24 hours to comply. Remember how I said
    via u/KastorNevierre
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    A week later the project manager calls me up, telling me they have a git server now and I need to upload my code. I say "What are you talking about? You instructed me under threat of legal repercussions to delete those files last Tuesday." He just kinda sounds flabberghasted at that point. He tries to walk through not paying me out for my last month of work, and I say "No no, I have that time billed and labeled out for each thing I did. It's not my responsibility to make sure you have the delive
    via u/KastorNevierre
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    jippyzippylippy · 2 yr. ago I had a similar thing happen with a small architect firm. I had my own design firm (now retired) and had been designing and updating their site for about 5 years. At the end of the final year, they told me that I was charging too much for any changes to the site (even though I had given them tons of freebies) and they were going to get a younger "more hip" designer that could do things faster and cheaper. They wanted me to give them all the files and delete what I had
    via u/jippzippylippy
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    About a year later, they called me in a panic saying that the new person screwed up their site, it was not running correctly and that they couldn't find the CD I sent them. No back-up! And somehow this person also erased all of the old files on their server as well, so had nothing to start over with. Apparently she was doing a re-design on the fly and just writing over the old files without backing anything up. But they didn't like the re-design and wanted to put the old site back up until they
    via u/jippzippylippy
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    nofunheremovealongg. 2 yr. ago Workmates partner was in this exact scenario: training inadequate replacement (rude IMO- adding insult to injury), deleting all backups over his objections, frantic kiss up phone call 4 months later. "What would it take to get you back?" "I'd consider it for (outrageous eye-watering) figure." A few futile negotiation attempts later, they actually agreed to his figure. At which point he said "Thanks, as promised, I've now considered it. NO." 6.0k Reply Share
    via u/nofunheremovealongg
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    valathel 2 yr. ago Many moons ago I worked as an engineering liaison to marketing writing prototypes we would demo during the BAFO phase of the proposal process. My company refused to give me access to the CM tool developers used since I was in the marketing dept on the org chart. At a convention I was displaying some of my prototypes and a local competitor offered me nearly double to take the role of technical lead on one of their projects, signed the contract, and handed in my 2 week notice. O
    via u/valathel
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    "It was on my computer since I had no CM access. Did IT back it up before wiping it?" "We can offer you a raise if you come back" "Nope" click I still laugh when I think about it. 4.8k Reply Share
    via u/valathel
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    PoorlyBuiltRobot 2 yr. ago edited 2 yr. ago Slightly diff but I did audio work for a woman who had her own radio show and she left me hanging one day in the middle of a job. I messaged her a few times to no avail until about six months later when she sent me a rude and panicky email saying "You had NO RIGHT to delete all our files from Google Drive!!" etc etc. Even though I would never do this on purpose I panicked and thought maybe I had fu dup.
    via u/PoorlyBuiltRobot
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    I spent a half our tracking down the files on an external (I had moved house) only for another message to come through saying "I apologize, it was my new hire" Well F K YOU for not even having the decency to tell me you got a new hire and just ghosting, and double k you for freaking out on me for something I didn't do. Lol freelancing can be fun. 2.9k Reply Share
    via u/PoorlyBuiltRobot
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    b_gumiho 2 yr. ago omg this reminds me of a somewhat similar circumstance. A SAAS company I used to work for was B2B so businesses would purchase our software to help them run a financial side of their business. Because of US Tax record laws we guaranteed that we would keep customer data, even if they left us, for at least 7 years. (In reality, we never hard deleted anyone's data, just archived it) Well, well, well... this small company owner leaves us and calls in to have all of his data delete
    via u/b_gumiho
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    well, well, well... two years later guess who is going through a tax audit and NEEDS this financial data to prove he wasn't embezzling (or whatever?) HA! We happily sent him a copy of his delete request document and wiped our hands of him. Sucks to suck, my dude. 1.5k Reply Share
    via u/b_gumiho
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    guster09 2 yr. ago "what would it take to get you back on our team?" Well, for one, you can dissolve the worst management team that got you into this mess. Next, you can resign. Only then would I EVER even BEGIN to consider working for your cheap company again. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. Reply Share 2.6k
    via u/guster09

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management vice president workplace-stories programming grad new hire laid off files it layoffs software deleted prototype coding data company malicious compliance reddit
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