If I’ve learned anything in my working life, it’s that you ALWAYS make friends with the IT people at your job.
Because if you get on their bad side, well…let’s just say it won’t be pretty.
Take a look at what happened in this revenge story from Reddit!
Don’t mess with the IT guy…
“This happened back in the late ’90s during the “dot.com era.”
During this period, if you were good at IT (and sometimes if you weren’t) employers would be fighting for you and a person could make VERY good money just by switching jobs or transferring to another city.
Sounds pretty sweet!
As an example, from 1997 through 2000 I was able to triple my salary by making strategic moves and relocating across the country.
I was working for a small software company in a niche market located just outside Boston.
I’d been working for the company for a couple of years when we all learned we’d been bought out by another company based in New Jersey.
A couple of weeks after the buyout was announced, “The Bobs” from the parent company came and interviewed each one of us, to determine what our fate would be.
I thought I did well, but it was still a nervous month or so until we found out the results.
When the inevitable restructuring was announced, I was given given the opportunity to transfer to the head office in New Jersey and report directly to the CTO as -Manager of Network Services-.
They had a deal.
The company agreed to pay for my relocation costs if I agreed to work for the company for at least one year (This will be important later.)
I would have a staff of 5 sysadmins and 2 DBAs and be responsible for all of the infrastructure, including the power generation and HVAC plant.
Of course, one of the first things I had to do was perform an assessment of all the systems to make sure everything was in order.
I found that from a technical perspective, things were just okay – there was definitely room for improvement – but what was in complete disarray was software licensing.
This didn’t sound good.
They were running an all-Microsoft shop and didn’t have ANY licenses for their server operating systems or databases.
Essentially they were pirating software like Captain Jack Sparrow.
Now it’s one thing if Little Joey runs a hot copy of Photoshop on his home PC, but it’s entirely another thing if a company of this size, in a technical field, is running ALL pirated software in their data center.
I immediately contacted the CTO, who was also a relatively new hire, to let him know what I’d found.
We agreed it was a serious issue and we prepared an agenda item for the next management meeting, with a cost estimate of nearly $100,000 to bring us in to compliance – and that was just for the servers.
Now, the senior leadership of this company were VERY rich people who made their money in the construction business and thought that jumping on the dotcom bandwagon was a good idea.
They had absolutely zero experience with a large IT infrastructure or in managing knowledge workers, but that could be a whole separate story.
We presented the dire state of our compliance and requested the funds to get legal. The request was denied, of course.
When you’re in IT, you can’t just do things like that because if it ever comes out that you’re pirating software in a business setting, they’ll go after you personally in addition to the company.
So, as a CYA, the CTO or I would bring up the licensing discrepancies at every management meeting, and we documented it on paper and in email form.
The Events:
Fast forward a few months and the poor management decisions are starting to surface.
The pipe dream of going public is slowly evaporating and they’ve taken to looking for a buyout from another company.
Things weren’t going well.
The cash burn rate is phenomenal with payroll alone… the company is circling the drain.
It comes down that I need to start laying off staff – something I’d never had to do, and let me tell you, it’s a gut-wrenching thing.
Of course, the people who made the decision want no part of looking those people in the eye during the process, so it fell to me.
Soon, I had no more staff and was doing all the work of keeping the place running myself.
I’d decided it was time for my own exit, but there was that one catch… I was still under contract to work there for a few more months, and they were using that to make me stay.
They had a plan…
If I left, I’d have to repay them thousands in relocation expenses. So, like any enterprising young man, I decided my best course of action was to try to get fired.
I told the CTO of my plan (he and I are still great friends) and he tacitly approved my course of action, while he was planning his exit as well.
I decided that since I was now the entire IT department, I deserved a bigger office.
After everyone had left for the day, I moved all my stuff upstairs where the nice offices were, and picked the largest empty one.
The next morning arrives and the evil COO walks by and does a double-take at me working away in my nice, new digs.
A few days later, Evil COO goes to my boss and tells him that I need to move because they want to consolidate office space with another company they own, and they want my office for the accountant from the construction company.
I drop an ultimatum: “Tell him if I take my stuff out of this office, it’s going to my car.”
I quickly start work on lining up a new job, and type up a resignation letter to have on hand. This lasts for another 2 weeks or so.
Evil COO again approaches my boss with an order of “No, really, he’s got to move out of that office.”
My boss advises him against this course of action, but he persists despite the warning.
Here ya go!
CTO walks in to my office and informs me of Evil COO’s demand, so I print out my letter and walk into his office, without knocking, slide my resignation letter on his desk, and walk out.
The look on his face was priceless; you’d need a shovel to scrape his jaw off the desk.
I’d already packed most of my things, so I grab the box and walk out the door.
The end? Oh, no my friends, this is only the beginning.
The Revenge:
When payday comes around, I call to inquire about my last paycheck.
Evil COO tells me they’re withholding it as compensation for the relocation expenses.
I inform him that it’s illegal to do that; they can sue me for the expenses if they want, but by law they have to pay my wages.
Here’s the deal…
He again refuses and I drop ultimatum #2: “Either you cut me a check now, or when we hang up I’m going to make 2 phone calls, and you’re not gonna like what happens.”
He said “Do what you gotta do.” “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you…”
I also found out when I asked for COBRA that they’d been deducting health insurance from my paychecks, but had never set me up with a policy, so I’d been paying for exactly nothing all those months.
This was about to get ugly.
Call #1 was to the New Jersey State Labor Board to report the non-payment of wages.
Call #2 was to the Software Publisher’s Association, which at the time represented a number of companies, including Microsoft, in licensing disputes.
I provided them with documentation of all their systems, the state of their licensing non-compliance, and offered to testify at any depositions or trials that may be required.
I also warned my CTO buddy that this was in process, and to get ready for the coming storm.
The labor board hearing came about and we went before the arbitrator.
The HR lady smugly provided the signed agreement regarding the moving expenses (which I had included in my filing anyway) thinking that would be her silver bullet.
After they made their case I argued that because I had been offered the position of “Manager of Network Services” but had to lay off my whole staff, I was no longer a manager and thus they’d breached their part of the agreement.
The arbitrator agreed.
She ordered them to write me a check on the spot for the missing wages, times 3 as a penalty, and to repay all of the healthcare premiums that had been deducted from my checks.
Phase 1 complete.
CTO reported to me that the SPA showed up with lawyers and accountants to do an audit on all their systems.
CTO provided them with the documentation that we’d presented where this was a problem, along with their responses.
Ouch!
The audit was brutal; they ended up settling for $250,000 to avoid going to court over the piracy, and the SPA paid me 10% of it as a bounty.
The settlement was one of the final nails in the coffin.
The company only lasted a couple more months and was bought out for pocket change by a competitor, just for the customer base.
Moral of the story: Don’t mess with your IT guy when he’s got big time dirt on you.”
Reddit users shared their thoughts.
This reader chimed in.
Another individual shared their thoughts.
This person weighed in.
Another reader was impressed.
Make sure the IT folks are your friends, okay?
They’ll come back and get ya if you don’t.
Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.
