Leaving the Mad House

I work in a small company that has 12 people. Most of them are not tech savy, do not get along with each other and scream like whiny children. They rely on me for a lot of office support. I'm smart, kind and have always been respectful of others. But a lot of good this has done me!

Several months ago, a new supervisor was brought in and given a lot of room to make changes in the organization. SHE bitched about how awful situations were and started hiring her friends and friends of friends to work at our company. It has now turned into a frikkin family reunion!!!!

It didn't take long before two camps were formed: us, the old staff --- verses -- them, the family)

The "family" gets to laugh it up, have extended lunch breaks and unexplained absences and vacation days. The old staff work early and late hours, get to have lovely meetings about performance issues and get publicly humiliated for every thing we do. Sadly, I fall into the category of the old staff. I don't deserve being humilated and recently submitted my resignation.

My resignation didn't seem to phase anyone. However, now that I'm nearing my last day, folks are suddenly panicking.
My supervisor has practically camped outside my door for fear that I have vital information stored in my head and that I can't leave without divulging secrets. The information stored in my head is called SKILL and TALENT. And these f##kers don't have it. You are born with it.

One of the new people who has been the most verbal bitch to me asked if I had any work tips or information that I need to share with him. I wanted to sock that son-of-a-**** in the nose. Instead, I simply said "NO". He walked away, but I'm sure that this won't be the end of it. He'll go ratting to the supervisor that I'm holding back secrets.

I'm feeling so angry, yet so calm, and so twisted. I don't know what to feel.

POST A COMMENTSouthernProgrammer(12/21/2007)
Congratulations on leaving the madhouse! IMO, it is always alarming when a manager starts their duties by bringing over friends and cronies. This signals the new manager has decided everyone is incompetant or the new manager needs to be surrounded by a bunch of yes-people.

The situation you describe, old hires vs new hires, is a 'push out'. This is where the manager pushes the old work force out by replacing them with his/her own team of selected people. I have gone through this and have also been part of 'the old staff'. It is a very humiliating situation to be in.

The only information you should divulge before leaving is information needed by your replacement. IE: Passwords, support phone numbers, etc. You do not need to divulge information pertaining to your skills: IE: "I fixed Alices Excel problem by...." Again, congratulations.


ResearchScientist(12/21/2007)
I would not even divulge passwords or whatnot! If you have another job lined up or are independently wealthy burn the Mother F#cking bridge to the ground!!!! I would not care if they lost vital years of work over my departure. I would come in to work on my last day dressed to go to the Bahamas and tell them that you hit the lottery and you are never coming back! Call all of them poor working slobs and treat them like servants. When you walk out the door for the last time turn around and toss a dime to someone and say, "Treat yourself to something nice!"

UnsupportedSupport(12/21/2007)
Wow, I can empathize. I am the support person for 13 people at a small business. Very, very non-tech savvy. I would go so far as to call at least half of them tech-retarded.

While gathering kindling for my own bridge burning ceremony, another idea occurred to me. Instead of letting it all burn down, when they don't know how to do anything after I am gone, I will offer my services as a consultant for about $115 an hour plus mileage with a minimum one hour charged per request.

the confessor(12/21/2007)
Yea and verily, huge congrats on getting out...better days are ahead!!
As far as secrets go, they obviously know nothing about the business. Even if you gave them an honest and exhaustive run-down of everything, they wouldn't understand it, and will either blame you or even try to call you in to fix it for free. Bye-bye loser family!!!!

CK(12/21/2007)
$115 !!! I would say $200 with a minimum number of hours (regardless if you work all the hours or not!).

Squee(12/30/2007)
Congratulations!

b3(12/31/2007)
I was in a similar situation, and can only congratulate you for leaving. I left, and it took my former company a full 3 days to feel the impact of my leaving. I was getting phone calls for a week with the owners asking me how I performed my job. I told them they were the ones that hired me, they should know. I was also the technical contact for the company. My guess is it will take them 3 or 4 people to do the work I was doing, as I was already doing 3 or 4 people's work. Best of luck.

rodriguez(01/16/2008)
you should have the place fumigated while they are inside

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