Employee takes $275k a year promotion, does nothing for nearly 2 years after company reorganization: 'It was genuinely a nightmare'

An employee who had spent years working for a big tech company was left with this problem when he and his family moved from the West Coast to New York for a promising promotion. When the person who had hired him got laid off in a reorganization, he was left with nothing to do at his job during the day.

He spent nearly two years in this situation, but he didn't enjoy the lack of responsibility. He felt like he needed to be doing something more.

I feel like I stole >$500k from my company...

_{Hall_Educational}

So I work for one of the tech giants. I've been at the company for nearly a decade, and have held 5 different roles.

In early 2025, I received an offer to join a new team in what was a really big step up for me at the time. However, the day I joined the team, in typical tech fashion there was this massive re-org. The manager and director who hired me were both let go.

So essentially I had just moved to NYC and had no idea what the job or team was going to look like anymore. I said, let's give it a week or two, meet the new manager, and go from there.

Didn't happen.

So there I was. Making ~275k a year, on a team, with zero responsibility or management direction. Doing nothing.

And I don't mean "oh it was like sending a couple emails here and there, taking a BS meeting, and calling it a day." I mean, literally, doing nothing.

I was binge watching YouTube and Netflix at the office in one of the cafes. I was new to NYC so id just go try a new famous spot for lunch a couple times a week. I walked every inch of Manhattan over the course of those ~2 years.

I was completely unassigned. This may sound like it was a dream scenario lol, but it was genuinely a nightmare. I had uprooted my family's life from the west coast to move to Nyc for this massive promotion, and instead I did absolutely nothing.

And it's not like I didn't try. I spent months trying to ask for more work, more exposure to the business. However the new manager that was hired was genuinely the dumbest person id ever met in tech. This person was making over $500k / year and I truly look at both my company and the tech world differently because of her.

So after a while of truly trying to have work to do, I gave up. I started just staying home most days. My wife would go to work and id go to the gym in my apartment, make a big breakfast, drink coffee and sit on my balcony overlooking the city, and just laugh at the absolute absurdity of the corporate tech world.

Last week, after 6 months of interviewing, I finally landed a role (same company) that actually was a big step up for me. I'm only 1.5 weeks into it and I'm already feeling the effects of doing no work for ~2 years. I feel completely behind, and so rusty. It's a good thing though and I'm extremely grateful to have finally made it out to the other side to a role and job I'm very proud of.

But wow. Now that I can look back on things objectively, what an absolutely hilarious ride. The tech world is so weird and awesome but mostly weird. I'm not sure there're many places where a random person can just slip through the cracks like that making the kind of money we do. And looking back on it, I was by a wide margin, making the least amount of money on the team I was assigned to, which makes me think they just felt bad for me and didn't wanna let me go? Idk. But it's over thankfully 😅

Do I feel bad? Admittedly I did for a while. I felt like I was a useless expense, especially after years of being so used to bringing in a lot of revenue as a good salesman. But after a while I just got angry. And then after the anger faded I decided to use this extremely unique scenario to my advantage and just try and enjoy it. Spent a ton of time with my wife on days she didn't work, tried every restaurant I could across NYC, and got a mental break. And now I'm excited to be back :)

Aside from feeling guilty about not doing anything, he wanted the chance to use his experience and expertise instead of letting it go to waste. Although most people would agree that it isn't always healthy to live to work, a lot of us are also grateful for the sense of purpose it gives us. You can't have that when you aren't doing anything in your day-to-day.

I think this happens more often than people realize. My boss at one company joked that that is exactly how he rose to leadership in a very famous national bank. There was a merger, direct leadership was laid off, he wasn’t important enough to be noticed when idle, spent his days hanging out and working out, only to be promoted since he was the last man standing.

You didn’t steal - it was a byproduct of them rushing to “find value” in removing headcount and making their own mistakes.

_{NabeIasGoldenCane}

I worked for a dirtbag for 2 years when he left abruptly for a giant new role in a very established company, tasked with starting up a new division. About 90 days in I think he realized he was in way over his head and needed to bring in his old team that had made him look so good for so many years. He immediately started courting me and trying to convince me to come work for him. When asked me for the 5th time in just a few weeks what it would take for me to leave my company and come to work for him, I throw out an absurd number. He said no problem and asked me to fly in the next week and sign the paperwork. When I got there and it was time to sign the contract, I hesitated because on the second page they had misspelled my name. He took my hesitation as displeasure with the contract and offered me another $50,000 sign on bonus on the spot. He literally wrote the check while I was sitting there at the table. I couldn’t believe it. I “worked” for him for 18 months and it was the worst job of my life. He was not closing any business and there was nothing to do and I constantly was worried that at any moment everyone would figure out what was really going on. It was truly the most unhappy I’ve ever been, but I was grateful for the money and for the bump in title to my résumé which lead to a job I love now. I’m glad you made it out the other side.

_RedditOrange

If i put in 30 hours of actual work a week, it's a crazy busy week for me. My usual is 20. Sometimes 10.

I get paid $250K a year. I give no ****s. But ask anyone I work with or for and they'll have nothing but great thing to say about me.

That's how you play the game. Never apologize.

_{Calm_Clam_Bake}

I know this will be hard to believe for some, but it does happen. My partner worked for a leading apparel company, fully remote on the supply chain side, and had zero responsibilities. $130k salary in LCOL area, and never delivered a single product or initiative in ~2 years. She spent a year of that time looking for a job and had the same response you did after landing a new role with an actual workload. Most people would say “why would you leave?” And that’s because bull**** jobs don’t last forever and they make you rusty

_{bemorethanaverage}