Freelance employee quits after being overworked and underpaid for 8 months, 4 years later he sees they're still using his Dropbox, so he deletes everything: ‘[Everything] they've been relying on for years will be gone.'

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Feb 25, 2026 6:00 PM EST

The audacity of an incompetent employer to continue to secretly use your work, that you have saved in your personal (and that you pay for) Dropbox account for years after you quit, is bonkers. And yet, that is exactly what happened to this guy…

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  • Man typing on his laptop, drinking a coffee, looking quizzical at his screen
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
    Man typing on his laptop, drinking a coffee, looking quizzical at his screen

  • About 4 years ago, I was a video editor in the marketing team of a large company.
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  • I was earning just slightly more than the minimum wage, and I was required to produce up to 60 short videos a day for their social media.
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  • The job was freelance with a flimsy contract, and I was really desperate for the money.
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  • The workload was insane, and honestly, I don't know how I endured it for 8 months, especially with that garbage salary.
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  • Sometimes you really just have to put your head down and try to muscle through your workdays. Only with the hope of someday being able to quit and find big and better things can you do what you gotta do. However, sometimes you just can't thug it out anymore and you have to put your foot down. Will that always work out in your favor? Maybe not immediately, but standing up for yourself will always be better for you going forward.

    When this guy asked for a tiny raise, they fired him. They said he wasn't a good team member and his work was useless. So they let him go, and he left unhappy. He wasn't even a full-time hire, and he didn't even ask for the market standard rate for his position. It was months before he could find another job. But he did, and guess what? Four years later, he found out they were still using his work all of the time. The work that they deemed unusable. Well, if it's so unusable, then I guess you wouldn't mind if he deleted it…

  • The work environment itself was very toxic, and everyone was undermining each other. I felt like the managers intentionally pitted people against each other just to watch the drama unfold.
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  • I tried my best to distance myself from all of it, but the mental stress on top of the crazy work schedule was extremely difficult
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  • After 8 months, I had a meeting with management. I showed them clear data - analytics, engagement graphs, and how the traffic from my content directly converted to - sales proving how much value my work brought to the company.
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  • I asked for a raise that was still much lower than the industry standard, but it would have made a huge difference for me.
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  • The next morning, they fired me. The official reason? I wasn't a 'team player' and my content didn't have the 'impact' they wanted.
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  • I was furious and suddenly found myself unemployed. It took me a few difficult months to get back on my
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  • Fast forward to today. I was cleaning out an old Dropbox account and noticed a shared folder that was still very active.
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  • It turned out to be that company's folder. They were still using it - a folder I created, that belongs to me, and for which I personally pay the subscription.
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  • Over 20 of their employees were accessing it daily, using my project files, custom LUTs, motion graphics templates, and sound effect libraries to run their entire social media video strategy.
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  • This is my account and my intellectual property. They never paid me for any of it.
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  • So, I downloaded a backup for myself, then permanently deleted the shared folder and everything in it.
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  • Employee typing on his computer at his at-home office
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
    Employee typing on his computer at his at-home office

  • The company that hired him, underpaid him, basically called him useless, then fired him was STILL using his work four years later… That kind of audacity isn't sold over-the-counter. That is prescription strength! That is crazy. He was paying for that storage space himself, and they didn't think he would catch on?? Well, now they are finally being forced to face the consequences of their actions. What will they do now? It's not like they can reach out to him and ask for his assets. The same assets they said they didn't like and that they used against him to fire him. Yeah, now that feels like crazy talk. We hope this man is able to get a front row seat to the crumbling effect his deletion will have on his past employers. If you're going to treat your employees poorly, then expect the same kind of treatment back…

  • When they come in tomorrow, every video asset they've been relying on for years will be gone.
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  • To II with them. Moving to remote jobs where I can find more respect for people hard work, more oppurtunities and more stable work community gonna start the interviews journey ..
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  • I'm also surprised by the incredible development of Al like interview man which will make companies stop being toxic to their employees ..
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  • Al guarantees you'll pass the interview and get a job as quickly as possible. edit: I'll update the post if I hear further!
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  • I am weirdly excited to hear from them edit 2 some in comments says "you don't own the work" The contract written was quite wishy washy on this, but it was stated that anything I filmed ultimately belonged to me and I had the freedom to use it and show it off freely outside of our contract.
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  • However the contract doesn't state exactly what happens to video after termination, mainly because they assured me that I would be needed for years to come after they saw what I was offering.
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  • Everything was rushed when I left, and honestly I just wanted to leave as soon as possible and forgot about contract rights
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  • RamblingManUK You went easy on them. They are lucky you didn't replace all the shared assets with
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  • No-Day7452 To hI with them indeed
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  • DiscountExtra2376 Dude, knowing the labor involved in editing videos, it seems impossible to create 60 short videos a day. Some of my heavily edited videos that are like 3 minutes have taken me 8 hours to make. I'd be like, no you're going to get maybe 8 videos a week.
    via RINewsJunkie

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employee work video editing jobs contract employee freelance workplace quitting
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