‘I gave them 24 hours': Senior programmer gets demoted for ‘performance issues’ after a health crisis, so he diverts all his managerial duties to his boss, ends up demanding a 10% raise and a 4-day workweek after they beg him to come back

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Apr 17, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

Nothing feels better than being the most irreplaceable employee in the workplace. Like an unbeatable demigod, your job is secure, and nobody can challenge that. With this power, you can leverage raises, better hours, PTO whenever you want, and benefits that far exceed the new hires. Usually, this type of job security is earned through hard work and cleverness, so once a worker reaches that level, they can take a bit of a breather (finally). 

But when this all-star employee struggled with some health problems, his boss seemed to forget how valuable his presence was in the workplace, even though he was still wrangling his programming team from a hospital bed. Despite a quick unraveling of the crew's productivity, this clueless boss decided to place the blame on his best manager, offering him an 'easy out' in the form of a demotion. To teach the boss a lesson in workflow, he didn't fight back, letting the flood of his old responsibilities wash over his boss. 

Keep scrolling for the fallout and the groveling that occurred when upper management realized how indispensable their programming manager really was—and the rock-solid benefits that came out of it.

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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "Stripped of Manager Position ... OK I Can Do That"

    I was a manager of a programming department. I initially had 5 programmers reporting to me and I was able to spend half of my time programming and half managing.
    via blueboy714
  • I had always gotten exceeds or far exceeds expectations on my annual reviews. About 10 years later my team had 25 people and I was spending less and less time programming. Fast forward a few years and I missed 2 months
    via blueboy714
  • during the year for a surgery and hospital stay and in my annual review my boss (who knew nothing about programming) told me I was not doing a good job and the programming department was missing deliverable dates
    via blueboy714
  • (probably because I was in the hospital). They wanted me to go back to just programming and I was stripped of my manager and only focus on programming. I was ped off but I told him that I can do that.
    via blueboy714
  • I told my former staff what had happened and told them to direct ALL questions to my boss (who knew zero about programming). He was overwhelmed and soon senior management figured out
    via blueboy714
  • that my boss was the problem not me. They canned him and replaced him with the VP of programming in the UK (I am in the US). She was great since she started as a programmer and was an excellent boss in general.
    via blueboy714
  • Since I was just a programmer now - all of the managers were in the UK and I told my former staff to direct all questions to their new bosses in the UK. Since there was 6 hour time difference and we only overlapped 2 or 3 hours each day
    via blueboy714
  • that made getting questions answered in a timely fashion quite difficult. In the meantime my health wasn't the best and my doctor told me I should go to a 4 day/32 hour work
    via blueboy714
  • week so I my health wouldn't continue to suffer. Since my employer was a strict 40 hour week company I looked for another job and got 8 job offers in about a month. I was ready to resign.
    via blueboy714
  • Finally after a few months my new boss asked me to be a manager again because of the time difference between US & UK and because I most experience as a programmer in the company. Instead I gave her my resignation
    via blueboy714
  • and explained why. She asked me what it would it would get me to stay and I told I wanted a 10% raise and wanted to work 4 day/32 hour work work. I gave her 24 hours to respond. She spoke to higher ups and finally came back the next day and agreed.
    via blueboy714
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Rensuto this brought a single tear to my eye. love when malicious compliance turns into a fat W
    via Rensuto
  • Compulawyer Great story. I think you sold yourself short when you only asked for 10%. That sounds like a 25% situation to me.
    via Compulawyer
  • Lonely-Coconut-9734 . Impressed that the company had people smart enough to realize that a mistake had been made and they worked to resolve it.
    via Lonely-Coconut-9734
  • jsting Glad it worked out, but that initial boss is stupid AF. You are coming off FMLA and he demotes you when you get back. Big old lawsuit if you wanted it. He can say "performance down" but any lawyer worth their salt is salivating at that timing.
    via jsting
  • apposite apropos told I wanted a 10% raise I'm sorry that working in the US has conditioned you to only be satisfied with a 10% raise
    via apposite apropos
  • niobiumnnul You knew your value. Well done.
    via niobiumnnul
  • justaman_097 Well played! It looks like everyone gets what they want.
    via justaman_097

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