Former employee keeps getting asked to fix problems after leaving company, discovers why his old managers still can’t function without him: 'She doesn’t understand anything at all'

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• My old job is still asking me to do tasks after my last day, and it turns out I was important.

  A few years ago, I joined a medium-sized company to start and oversee an important project. The salary was average, and the benefits were reasonable, but the senior managers acted as if they were doing us a great favor just by being there.  I stayed there for a good while, constantly under scrutiny, with no appreciation whatsoever, no promotions, and no opportunities for professional development.

  Not long ago, I got a new job that offered a much better salary and benefits, and a healthier work environment. I gave them early notice before leaving, a full month's notice, just out of courtesy, knowing they wouldn't fire me immediately. I made sure to leave behind complete and very detailed documentation. Despite the constant monitoring, it became clear that no one was interested in understanding exactly what I was doing or the procedures I was following. Messages on my personal email, all questions, started appearing about a week after I left.

   

• At first, the former employee tried to be polite and answer a few lingering questions out of professionalism. Unfortunately, the company quickly started acting less like a previous employer and more like they still expected unlimited free technical support. What began as occasional emails was about to turn into something significantly more absurd.

• At first, I wasn't overly concerned and continued to support my direct manager. But it seems I opened a door I didn't intend to. Just yesterday, my old manager sent me a shared file with another question, along with instructions for me to go into the sheet and fix something because she doesn't understand anything at all.

  This audacity truly shocked me, and honestly, I'm thinking of ignoring the whole thing. On top of all that, the shared file she sent to my personal email is full of confidential customer data. I thought the community here would love a story like this. Honestly, I still haven't processed what happened and I've been staring at the message for about fifteen minutes.

  -griproseate

   

   

  
   

• Once the story made its way online, people immediately started sharing horror stories about former employers refusing to let go after someone quits. Others focused on the unbelievable nerve of continuing to assign unpaid work, especially after the company had already been given detailed documentation and plenty of time to prepare for the transition.

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• Fu5i0n

  I hope you are going to invoice them for it. It’s no longer your responsibility and they have clearly no appreciation for your time or the role you had.

  Good luck in the new job 👌🏻

• johhnybdreamin

  Be careful...your new employer may have policies about outside work, especially if the former employer is a competitor. Don't lose your new job over this.

• markdesilva

  Send your old manager a quote and ask her to accept it cos you will be billing her for every query you answer. She’s taking advantage of you and she knows it and thinks she can get away with it. Ignore her and tell her what an a*s she is for sending out customer data to an outsider. If I was you I’d forward the whole thing to the company head and ask him what kind of mom and pop shop he is running.

• sminkypinky999

  Cc in your ex bosses boss … ask them where to send the invoice for works completed. Hourly rate break down at 3x your old rate to make them think that’s what you’re getting now, a final dig.

  Ex bosses boss will realise ex boss is errrrrmmm inept, realise the last few weeks they’ve probably been lying about it not being an issue that you’re not there and the hole that they’ve dug is a career grave.

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• knight_shade_realms

  Don't open the message until you have something in writing. Send her a message stating that since you aren't employed by the company you cannot touch anything dealing with customer data unless there is a consultation agreement in place. Payment up front since they have been using your services without payment since you left.

• mckenzie_keith

  The easiest thing would be to say "I have been supporting your requests so far in the spirit of being a good sport and trying to ease the transition. My expectation was that over time the requests would diminish. But this request is going to take a fair amount of time to complete. I think you need to sign me up as a contractor (1099) if you want me to do this. Let me know how you want to proceed. My rate would be [insert number here that is 2x your current hourly pay]."

  A delayed response would also send a message. Respond on like Wed saying "I don't have time to do this at the moment, so if it is pressing you may want to assign this task to one of your reports."

• fasterfester

  You should have **never** done free work from the moment you left.

  Reply with an invoice for the work you’ve already done and for this future work, with a rate that is 4x your previous hourly rate.

  If they don’t pay, just ghost them. Problem solved. If they do pay, take the nice bonus work. If it becomes too much, raise your rate or tell them you are done.

  That is a business relationship. What you are doing now is an ab*sive relationship because they are 100% taking advantage of you.

• The former employee realized the company’s constant oversight had hidden a much bigger problem: nobody else actually understood how the project functioned. While management spent years micromanaging him, they apparently never bothered learning the systems themselves, leaving the entire operation awkwardly dependent on someone who no longer even worked there.

   

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