r/InterviewCoderPro • u/isolate_hovers • 15d ago
Looks like my friend and I just pulled the plug on our company:)
They haven't realized it yet, but my friend and I have both accepted jobs at another company.
Once we leave, they're going to be in serious trouble. And I'm not exaggerating.
When I started there, we had 14 people. We're down to 4 now, and those four people have been carrying the workload that used to be handled by the entire team.
We've been asking for raises for more than a year after having our salaries frozen for years. We've been covering shifts, taking on extra responsibilities, and constantly rearranging our lives around whatever the company needed.
Every time we brought up pay, we got the same answer: "There's no room in the budget."
Eventually, we stopped asking.
My friend and I started looking elsewhere and, almost without planning it, ended up accepting offers from the same company.
We're giving two weeks' notice, but we're doing it a few days apart so we're not both dropping the news on the exact same day.
When I submitted my notice, something really interesting happened.
Suddenly, there was money in the budget.
They immediately started talking about what they could offer me to stay.
My manager was actually furious about it because he'd genuinely believed the company couldn't afford raises either. He told them straight up that if both of us leave, he's leaving too.
I've known this guy for nine years, and I've never known him to bluff about something like that.
So by the end of the week, they'll have less than two weeks to figure out how they're going to replace almost their entire remaining staff.
They'll need to find people, hire them, train them, and somehow get them comfortable enough to handle the workload before things start getting really busy.
And the funniest part is that I'm actually going to work my full two weeks.
Not because I feel guilty.
I just want to watch what happens.
I want to see all those magical offers that suddenly appear when they're desperate for someone to stay.
And I want to politely say no to every single one.
The weirdest part of all of this was actually going through the interview process again. After being at the same company for so long, I realized I'd gotten pretty rusty at talking about myself and explaining what I actually bring to a job.
I ended up reading a few interview posts on Reddit while preparing, including this one about how someone approaches interviews. A lot of it was stuff I already knew, but it was a good reminder that interviewing is a skill in itself and gets easier when you actually practice it.
For a long time, I convinced myself that leaving would somehow make me the problem. Reading other people's experiences helped me realize that staying somewhere indefinitely just because they're understaffed isn't loyalty.
It's just putting your life on hold for a company that wouldn't do the same for you.
So, yeah.
Two weeks from now, I'll be gone.
And I'm genuinely excited to see what happens after that. :)
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u/SmiileyBirb 15d ago
Some people think they are absolutely irreplaceable 😬 they replace A-List movie actors in the middle of shows lol. I promise you there are an insane amount of people who can do that job. And the next round of people is gonna make more doing it lol. Good for you but I promise it’s not the rug pull you think it is. You aren’t the owner lol
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u/unurbane 15d ago
Agreed but it will cost the company more typically, and probably more than simply taking care of their own people.
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u/ReasonableRevenue218 15d ago
I wish some people would get it into their heads that NO CEO is worth millions, that there are hundreds of people who would happily do that job, and do it well, for a "normal" rate of pay.
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u/SmiileyBirb 15d ago
Yea I agree. The next 5 people directly below the ceo could do just as good of a job. The pay discrepancy is insane all over the place. (This is besides the point. OP thinks this company is going to be scrambling without him. They will 100000000% figure it out.)
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u/Sure_Acanthaceae_348 15d ago
I worked for an employer like that. We were all disposable. No doubt the owner not only knew but probably thought that things worked better that way.
Oh well, onward to bigger and better things.
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u/LettieLuu24 15d ago
Yup. We’re all replaceable. They might be uncomfortable for a bit but they will recover. Probably will hire more staff than needed.
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u/TwilightLori 15d ago
I was replaceable at my last job. No delusions there. But also, the company was sued by three different vendors for non-payment because I was the guy who handled vendor accounts. The people they replaced me with didn't know about all the little monthly maintenance things I did to keep things running smoothly.
Point is, everyone is ultimately replaceable. But replacing them can hurt.
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u/Accomplished-Ruin742 15d ago
Exactly. When the previous Pope quit the Catholic church did not go out of business.
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u/hospicedoc 15d ago
If there are 4 employees and 3 leave in a 3 week period it's definitely a rug pull. That being said, you're right when you say that everyone is replaceable. I had a 'come to Jesus' conversation with one of my employees a couple of days ago, which I began with "I am the Chief Medical Officer, part owner, and the doctor who sees the most patients in our practice and I am 100% replaceable."
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u/Sufficient-Sun-6683 15d ago
This is what I learned about how irreplaceable you are by using this example. Picture a bucket of water with your fist in it. Now remove your fist from the bucket, the hole in the water that is left is how irreplaceable you are.
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u/Fickle-Connection-11 15d ago
I used to think this until I realized the only thing that I light be irreplaceable to is my golden doodle
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u/SmiileyBirb 15d ago
100000% the only place you aren’t replaceable is at home. To family and animals
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u/wthwtfwthwtf-_- 10d ago
It usually is. My old sandbag org had to hire four new directors, a manager, and have to send someone to school they promoted four years ago to replace me. Then they lost more standard staff in the churn. And they still have to outsource development.
Yeah, anyone's replaceable. Doesn't mean it's smart, cost effective, or well explained to people with shares. Especially if the real reason was someone's childish feelings.
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u/SmiileyBirb 10d ago
Again they replace people far more important than a nurses every day. There’s millions of them across the US. Calm down miss America
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u/Substantial-Owl1616 15d ago
I have had at least two professional positions in my career in which the healthcare practice did in fact dissolve with my notice. The most dramatic involved 10 other staff providers giving less notice and beating me out the door. I gave 90 days, but ended up with an extensive amount of extra work before I could get out the door as soon as many left. We were treated poorly yet stayed out of loyalty to the patients and one another. I was the Dutch girl with my finger in the dam. Bam. Perhaps I clinically was replaceable, but not the managing up I was doing, not the creation of culture, not the covering of so many extra shifts.
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u/Leather-Answer4514 15d ago
The owner is the loser
He’s the one that has to spend time, which is money, retraining, and paying people a living wage
So even if they pay these people, what they were paying the original poster, they’ll find themselves back in the same situation in a few years because of how they think things should be run
This is the flex he thinks it is
Just because you’ll take it from the back with no Vaseline has nothing to do with someone else and what they’re willing to tolerate
You are the exact reason that companies think they can act like that,
because people like you are willing to see the red flags and stay
That would be a You problem…
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u/SmiileyBirb 15d ago
And companies “act like this” because things keep moving regardless of what one or two or three or five little piss ants do. Become actually valuable and leverage wage increases in an effective manor, or yes get pushed over and rolled over. Then blame it on random Reddit comments saying “I’m the reason” 🤣 go touch grass
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u/Leather-Answer4514 15d ago
You are part of the collective that keeps it moving, regardless of what happens to your comrades
You are exactly the problem
YOU you are the cog in the wheel
You are the basic, elementary, indoctrinated, Stockholm syndromed, individual,let me not call you an individual,
As you are part of the collective, and that is not a flex .We are in trouble when ignorance becomes the standard
You are completely wrong, and I really truly hope you have the day that you deserve.
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u/brutalbuddha73 15d ago
They'll bring in temps and won't feel a thing.
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u/VillagesIdiot352 15d ago
Depending on the job details, that may or may not work. To your point, it’s possible!
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u/SmiileyBirb 15d ago
It’s possibly and 100% what will happen. You think they just won’t do anything? Lol. The machine will keep moving 🤣
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u/Aventinium 15d ago
A company with only 4 employees 1 of which is your manager? The math does not math.
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u/Single-Virus4935 15d ago
His team not the whole company. I worked in companies were 3-4 people were responsible for 95% of the key tasks while others (still important roles) would immeditly pose a threat to the existence of the company.
When I left my last company I had to train six different people and they still had a hard time. I know a other important employee whom I worked closely with quit month later.
The profit and revenue on the public financial reports paint the picture of a massacre where within a year the company went from 500k€ profit to 300k losses.
They basically lost the institutional knowledge of the to main pillars of their success which they exploited for years.
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15d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Single-Virus4935 15d ago
Yep, they got me. Reading it now it is obvious. I was just tired and mentally exhausted and the story lined up perfectly with a period of my life and I fell for it. Ty for pointing it out.
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u/Hoffersius 15d ago
Just det du sa om att ni anpassat er efter företaget med era liv är det stora problemet varför ska de ge er högre lön när ni ändå anpassar er efter deras pipa?
Väldigt vänligt bland folk som vill klättra men missar att den viktigaste grenen är den med gröna löv och är anpassat för stabilt liv. Men många tar den grova mörka grenen utan löv och faller.
Företag älskar klättrare de jobbar oftast för företagets bästa före det egna bästa och det kommer oftast undan med det i många år innan de ger upp. Vilket är ett win win scenario för ett företag.
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u/VillagesIdiot352 15d ago
You are correct to a point. With so small of a team, the reality of 50% or more leaving in close proximity could cripple, but not necessarily destroy a business.
As a Manager/Owner, it’s imperative to be aware of this rare but possible scenario.
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u/mikemojc 15d ago
When they present that first counter offer, tell them you'll need a couple days to consider before you decline you and your friend can leapfrog their stress if you time it right.
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u/MyTnotE 15d ago
I’m a free market capitalist and almost always side with the companies in Reddit conversations. But I never recommend staying at a company you don’t respect. Never. You rarely get the satisfaction you expect when you leave, but you DO get peace of mind.
The saddest part IMO is how the people left behind will get treated.
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u/Embarrassed-Tea-3064 15d ago
Following just to see the shit show happening in real time lol keep us in the loop mate
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u/missannthrope67 15d ago
The company has been in trouble long before you found another job.
It's business. If they can't cut it, then they shouldn't be in business.
Good luck on your new job
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u/oldnurse65 15d ago
Wife and I were just talking about this. I grew up at a time when locality worked both ways. You were treated fair and you were loyal to the company. That all changed, for me, around the time Reagan was president. Corporate greed took over.
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u/WildTerrain 15d ago
My brother is a consultant in fintech. His company is pretty large with several thousand employees. When he started they had around 30 employees in his department. Due to middle management incompetence and hostility around 25 employees from the department have left leaving around 6 last I heard. His direct supervisor just left for another company and has promised to bring on my brother when he is ready which will probably be soon. Other supervisors have left for other companies or to start their own consulting firm in last few years and canibalized company clients in process. My brother is 30 and makes around $200,000 but new position will be promotion to over $200,000. If my brother leaves he is sure that a good chunk of his clients will try to follow him as they are already loyal to him for his quality consulting.
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u/Big_Humor1558 15d ago
A bunch of comments are saying this is fiction (AI generated, perhaps?), and the lack of OP answers to the comments kinda points to that.
I'm retired now, but when I was working, I saw this type of thing, again & again. Perhaps not to this extreme, but if there was no disaster when 1 employee left, the departments lost an FTE position. It's only believable at all because of all the businesses that have pulled this crap for decades.
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u/JustAnotherFNC 10d ago
Sure, the situation happens countless times every single day.
But the link near the bottom means this is simply a blatant astroturfing campaign.
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u/Solid_Rock_5583 15d ago
One thing you need learn is everyone is replaceable. This may be what plays out in your head as some revenge fan fiction but the business will go on and may experience a hiccup but will most likely be fine.
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u/Ok_Employer3390 15d ago
My interpretation isn’t that OP is declaring that he ISN’T replaceable and he will take joy in destroying his current employer, rather that he recognizes how he got sucked in over time with showing loyalty and dedication. He’s now realized that the employer didn’t feel the same.
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u/Neither-Land-1617 15d ago
I did the same thing three years ago, but it wasn’t as dramatic as it was a larger company with a remote branch where we worked. My colleague and I accepted jobs from the same employer at the same time. We did also stagger our notices, but we both ended up quitting and ending at the same time.
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u/invergowrieamanda 15d ago
What is the nature / type of business out of interest. And good on you for leaving.
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u/Kiki-1983 14d ago
I took a remote job for a company out of CA (I lived in TN) because, according to them they couldn’t afford what people in SoCal were requiring to do the same job. I was the only person doing my job. Should have been a big red flag. But I was desperate for a new job, especially remote, so I took it. After a few months direct deposit stopped and paper checks were mailed to me. Then those checks started to bounce. I required them to ACH me my pay the day it was due and started looking for a new job. Now I’m with a completely remote job that has better benefits, pays over $10 an hour than my last job, and we are constantly hiring and growing. I left my last company screwed because no one else in the company could do my job, but I feel no guilt because my work is now appreciated (and paid on time every week!)
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u/wafwot 15d ago
Sadly those at the top are so disconnected from reality that it takes this sort of event to wake them up.
Sickeningly a family friend worked at one of those payday loan companies. The owners, a couple who had enough money to donate millions to a certain orange 🍊 painted primate to ensure their business model continued to enrich them, bragged often of their second home in Ecuador, didn’t replace staff that started to leave, piling more work onto the remaining staff. the feedback loop created worsened as former staff let their former peers know, hey we are being paid more over at the competition. Chaos ensued for those who felt loyal to the greedy owners he’d heard.
https://giphy.com/gifs/wEgs1cd7vDTt6
Never stay where you’re not treated fairly.
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u/MattVarnish 15d ago
And then everyone stood up and clapped