CEO tries to fire and replace employee with 2 interns when they take PTO to recover after 13-hour shifts: 'I told them, pay me triple my wage and I'll consider [coming back]'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jan 31, 2025 12:00 PM EST

There's something ultimately insulting, in a primordial sort of way, about your employer supposing that you're replaceable in your work. It's this weird catch-22 and mind-twisting situation where if things are going well for your department or role, your employer assumes that it must be easy—they could do it too. But as soon as things take a downturn or have cynical forecasting, you're the first one getting a finger pointed in your direction. They almost never have the right of it either… and probably have no appreciation for the fact that without you in your role, they'd be up a creek somewhere without a paddle.

Still, at the first chance they get, they'll be marching in some fresh-faced intern or automated intelligence program, refusing to make eye contact with you as they ask you to train them up with some mumbled half-based excuse about expanding your department—which they've never really discussed with you prior. It's pretty clear what's happening here: you're being replaced and being asked to train yourself out of a job.

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  • There's nothing better than the glowing satisfaction that settles on you when your boss realizes that their plan was half-baked—or just never really even made it into the oven. The replacements are struggling, or the program has faults and poor training and automation; now they want you to come back on, and the power of negotiation is in your court. Like John Henry against the machine, you've prevailed. But hopefully, you're fairing better than John does at the end of the fable. 

    This worker did pretty well for themself after being asked to come back to work when everything went belly up after they were fired for taking PTO after becoming increasingly frustrated about the fact that they had been repeatedly denied promotion after operating their whole department by themself. The CEO laid a plot to replace them with free labor which backfired spectacularly. 

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    "My boss hired two interns to replace me and asked me to train them after they were planning to fire me."

    I'm going to start out by saying that English is not my first language and I wasn't sure that this story belongs here as this is my first time posting. I used to work in Media Intelligence which is a really niche market in the country that I am from. I started as an assistant and learnt everything from scratch as I switched from the hospitality industry (Pretty big step I know) I was eager to learn and was really interested in what they do as I was trying to get into media back then.
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    First of all, as I learnt everything from scratch, I got really good at what I do after just six months working there. I was in a three person team and I had one of the best bosses and a rally good colleague which were veterans in the Industry. Both of them helped me a lot to get me where I am then. They left the company after just a year there as upper management was just plain hot garbage. The company had four changes in direction within a year and it was stressing my team out. They did ask me
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    The story, after my boss and colleague left, it was just me in my team and I was in charge of a few markets. I was asked to be on-call for technical support and was not offered anything in return. At the time, I was p ed but also trying to prove myself, I obliged. I got really stressed out from working thirteen hours a day for a few months at that point and I kept asking my manager to hire more people as I can't be working like this and it's stressing me out. My manager went on and on saying the
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    One day, the CEO of the company came and we had dinner as he was growing close to me since I was the only one person left who actually know the in and out of the old and new system that the company used. Keep in mind, this CEO is a cheapskate and will try all and every way to sk you dry. He asked me what I wanted to change in the company during dinner so I started of with asking for two new hires for my team where he gave me the same answer as my manager so I asked him for a promotion and a rais
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    As a normal person would expect, after working thirteen hour days for months, you would need rest. I had almost three weeks of PTO saved and I needed the rest. The manager threatened to fire me if I took any PTO as no one was able to do what I did. I took the PTO anyways, I got well rested and all was good until I came back. There were two new faces and I was pretty confused so I asked my manager who were they and she told me they were my replacements. She told me my notice was two months and I
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    Here is the part where the Malicious Compliance happens, since the manager did not know how things work. She told me to train the interns on the legacy systems to "know better" on how the company was built up and I did just that. She told me strictly to just train the interns on the legacy and she will be dealing with the rest. Sure, I'll do just that.
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    It was until my last week when the sh really hit the fan. My manager found out that I have been only giving training on the legacy system and I didn't give them my notes with tips on how to run the system that needed to be used for daily operations. My manager called in the CEO and the Managing Director to hold a meeting with me asking me why I hadn't trained my replacements properly. I just told them I did what my manager told me to which the manager denied until I forwarded the CEO and MD the
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    After I left the company, I was patiently waiting for the call that was bound to come. It was my manager, she demanded me to get back to work and said that the firing was just a prank blah blah blah. I told them, pay me triple my wage and I'll consider it, they called me crazy and ended the call. It's been two months since that call and based on a good friend from another department, my old manager is neck deep in this sh show. TLDR: Fire me from taking PTO, get f_ed.
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    Edit: Thank you for the kind and nice comments, and to those who think i'm making this up you're entitled to have your opinion but, f you Edit 2: So I've gotten into contact with my ex-colleagues. My ex-manager is now exploring Greener-Pastures and the two interns quit after a bit. The company had to scrap the new system. where they spent ALOT developing and then had to buy out another company specializing in system development and maintenance which costed them twelve million dollars. Guess who'
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    . Shaqattack10 · 2h ago "the firing was Just a prank" ist such a ridiculous Thing to say
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    No-To-Newspeak 2h ago Two things: you followed her instructions to the letter, and you got her orders in writing. We'll played.
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    Easy-Mix8745 • 2h ago hey, please also give the updates on what happens next Imao
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    Corrosive Alkonost • 2h ago Ah, manglement.
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    Extreme-Slice-1010 1h ago • If it was me, I would quit on the spot so I also don't have to train the intern.
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    Illuminatus-Prime 47m ago • One former employer had me train a new guy. Later, I found out he's my new supervisor as well. He got caught dealing dr is out the back door. They had me train another new guy to be my supervisor. This time, I trained him only on every pre-revision product, and his first presentation with a potential customer imploded when the customers seemed to know more about the products than he did.
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    They had me train yet another new guy to be my supervisor (you'd think they'd have learned by then). This time, I trained him straight from the manual -- the first draft of the manual that I had been writing. His first customer demo went south when the product he was demo'ing started smoking and caught fire mid-way through the demo.
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    Why did I have to train so many supers? My best guess is because they all had MBA degrees from private colleges, and I had "only" an MSEE degree from a state university. Maybe the C-level types just couldn't believe that an engineer would know what he was doing.
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    sinwarrior • 1h ago . and said that the firing was just a prank "you reap what you sow" -OP, probably
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    Sagaincolours • 49m ago So many of these posts are about IT. It is funny, but it also exposes how important IT is nowadays, while so many people - in general and in management - don't understand it. Hire people for manegement who understand it,
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