My Boss Fired Me For "Being Too Expensive" After 18 Years Leading Engineering; His Panicked Calls...

we can get three junior engineers for your salary he smirked during my termination meeting nothing personal just cost cutting my name is Victor Hail 55 years old lead systems engineer at Veltria Housing for 18 years i'd built their entire infrastructure from scratch architected every expansion kept everything running so smoothly that the executives forgot how much the company depended on me until they decided they couldn't afford me anymore i sat across from Graham Vickers the new chief technology officer who'd been with the company for all of 6 months he was 42 wore designer glasses and had an MBA from Cornell he'd been brought in to modernize operations which apparently meant cutting the most experienced staff first the severance package is generous said Diane from human resources sliding a folder across the table 2 months salary plus your acred vacation time i nodded took the folder and said "Thank you is that all you have to say? " Graham looked almost disappointed maybe he'd expected me to argue or threaten legal action give him something to tell the board about how difficult I was being "what would you like me to say most people in your position have questions concerns," I shrugged "seems pretty straightforward to me. " Graham exchanged glances with Diane who looked equally perplexed by my calm what they didn't understand was that I wasn't calm i was just done there's a difference well we'd appreciate your help with the transition Graham continued the new engineering team will need some guidance on the system architecture perhaps a consulting arrangement for a few weeks i'll think about it I said knowing I wouldn't we shook hands i cleared out my desk without complaint 18 years of work fit into a single cardboard box i nodded goodbye to a few colleagues who looked away awkwardly afraid the same fate awaited them as I walked to my truck in the parking garage my phone buzzed a text from Allen the database administrator I'd hired 12 years ago this is Vic the whole team's freaking out i didn't respond at home I sat on my deck overlooking Lake Ontario nursing a glass of bourbon watching the sunset paint the water copper my wife Elaine placed a hand on my shoulder "what will you do now?

" I shrugged "something will turn up. " What Graham didn't know what he hadn't bothered to learn was that I hadn't just built their systems i had customcoded large sections myself with minimal documentation because the company had always refused to fund a proper documentation team only I understood the deep redundancies the hidden security layers the intricate network architecture and I wasn't planning to explain it to anyone now I started at Veltria Housing back when it was called Bay View Properties a small real estate management firm with four apartment complexes and a dozen employees their entire IT infrastructure consisted of two desktop computers a fax machine and a dial-up internet connection the owner Harold Bay hired me away from a consulting gig in Syracuse we're expanding he told me need someone who can build us something solid over 18 years I'd turned that rudimentary setup into an integrated property management system that handled everything from tenant applications and background checks to automated maintenance requests and rent collection across 63 properties in four states i'd built it piece by piece adapting upgrading refining as the company grew when Harold retired 5 years ago his son Justin sold the company to a private equity firm that rebranded it as Veltria Housing they kept me on impressed by what I'd built but things began to change new executives new priorities quarterly targets became more important than long-term stability my warning signs came gradually first they rejected my proposal for a documentation team too expensive they said we'll get to it next quarter that quarter never came then they started bringing in consultants young MBA types who talked about disrupting property management and leveraging cloud solutions they'd sit through my explanations of our system architecture with glazed eyes then recommend off-the-shelf solutions that wouldn't integrate with our custom infrastructure i kept pushing back explaining why their approach wouldn't work showing them the custom code that made our system unique eventually they stopped inviting me to planning meetings elaine noticed it before I did "they're pushing you out," she said one night over dinner "you need to prepare. " I brushed her off "they need me no one else understands how the whole system works together.

" That might be exactly the problem she replied 6 months ago they hired Graham as the new CTO he came from a banking software company and immediately started talking about standardization and legacy system replacement he hired three junior engineers fresh out of college had them shadowing me asking questions about the system i answered their questions but I knew they weren't grasping the complexities how could they it had taken me years to build those systems to understand the interdependencies to create the redundancies that kept everything running smoothly when problems arose last week Graham stopped by my office quick meeting tomorrow morning he said casually just a quarterly check-in i should have seen it coming the first call came 2 weeks after my termination i was in my home office updating my resume when my phone rang graham Vickers i let it go to voicemail victor it's Graham we're having some issues with the tenant portal the junior team is working on it but they're having trouble understanding some of your code architecture could you give us a call back it would just be a quick consultation i deleted the message and went back to my resume three more calls came that day each voicemail sounding increasingly desperate by evening Allan texted me systems been down all day maintenance requests aren't processing graham's losing his mind the next morning Diane from HR called victor I hope you're doing well i'm calling because we'd like to discuss a consulting arrangement just temporary to help with some current system issues the compensation would be quite generous i picked up my phone how generous $300 per hour minimum 4-hour engagement i'll think about it and get back to you," I said then hung up i sat at my kitchen table staring out at the lake elaine placed a cup of coffee in front of me "what are you thinking? " "I'm thinking they're finding out exactly what I'm worth. " Over the next 3 days the calls increased graham Diane even Justin Bayiew who was still on the board the tenant portal was down the maintenance scheduling system was throwing errors the automatic payment processing had failed affecting thousands of residents i didn't respond to any of them on day four an email arrived from Devlin Systems a regional competitor to Veltria they managed fewer properties but had been expanding rapidly the email was from their director of technology Lawrence Develin himself victor I heard about your situation at Veltria we've always admired your work from afar would you be interested in discussing opportunities with us we're looking to upgrade our entire property management infrastructure i replied and set up a meeting for the following day that evening as Elaine and I were preparing dinner my doorbell rang graham Vickers stood on my porch his designer glasses slightly a skew his normally immaculate suit wrinkled victor I apologize for dropping by unannounced but we have an emergency situation the entire system is down nothing is working the team can't figure out what's wrong or how to fix it i leaned against the door frame that sounds serious it is we need your help the board has authorized me to offer you a substantial consulting fee $500 per hour whatever it takes i thought about the cardboard box in my garage 18 years of work reduced to a few momentos i thought about nothing personal just cost cutting i thought about the documentation team they'd never approved i'm sorry to hear about your troubles I said quietly but I have an interview tomorrow something will turn up just like I thought i closed the door on his stunned face and went back to making dinner for the first time since my termination I felt a sense of peace wash over me not satisfaction not vindication just clarity i wasn't going to help them fix what they'd broken the interview with Lawrence Develin went better than expected we met at a coffee shop in downtown Rochester away from both companies offices i've followed your work for years Lawrence said stirring his coffee that integrated property management system you built at Veltria is legendary in our industry nobody else has anything close to it thank you I said it took time that's what I want to talk about time we're looking to build something similar but we don't want to start from scratch we need someone who understands the architecture the integration points the security layers someone who can build us something better than what's out there i'm interested lawrence smiled good because I'm prepared to offer you the position of chief systems architect full benefits stock options and a salary 20% higher than what you were making at Veltria it was a good offer too good almost why me i asked there are younger engineers out there cheaper ones lawrence laughed you sound like your former employer we tried that route hired three bright young engineers from top schools they built us something sleek and modern that crashes every time we get more than a 100 simultaneous users we don't need cheap we need reliable i accepted the offer the next day meanwhile Veltria's problems were escalating allan kept me updated through occasional texts the system had been partially restored but critical functions were still failing they'd brought in an expensive consulting firm that specialized in legacy system recovery a week after I started at Delin Graham called again victor please this is getting serious we've lost access to payment records for the past 3 months tenants are complaining about incorrect charges the consulting team says they need your input on the database structure i was tempted to ignore it but something made me pick up graham I'm employed elsewhere now exclusive contract i'm afraid I can't help you we'll double whatever they're paying you for just 2 days of your time it's not about the money then what is it about revenge are you enjoying watching us struggle i paused considering my answer carefully no Graham I'm not enjoying it but you made a business decision you decided my experience wasn't worth the cost now you're discovering what that actually means the board wants to discuss bringing you back full salary plus a signing bonus for a moment I felt a flicker of satisfaction but it quickly faded going back would solve nothing the same executives who decided I was expendable would be waiting for the next opportunity to cut costs i appreciate the offer but I've made a commitment to Develin Systems graham's voice hardened you know there could be legal implications if we discover you intentionally made our systems difficult to maintain non-compete clauses intellectual property concerns there it was the threat I'd been expecting the system is exactly as it was when the company repeatedly denied my requests for a documentation team i replied evenly every line of code belongs to Veltria as specified in my employment contract i've taken nothing with me except my experience but feel free to have your lawyers contact mine.

" I hung up hands shaking slightly not from fear but from anger I hadn't allowed myself to feel until now the accusation that I'd somehow sabotaged them was the final insult at Devlin I was starting fresh building systems properly from the ground up with full documentation training programs for the engineering team and redundancies that would prevent the kind of catastrophe was experiencing i wasn't going to look back anymore but I wasn't going to help them either some lessons had to be learned the hard way a month after joining Devlin Systems I received an unexpected visitor in my new office alan my former database administrator stood awkwardly in the doorway holding a laptop bag "got time for lunch? " he asked "over sandwiches at a nearby deli? " Allan filled me in on the chaos at Veltria "it's worse than you think," he said lowering his voice despite the noisy lunchtime crowd "they've lost access to historical data going back 3 years the backup systems are corrupted somehow the consulting firm is saying they might need to rebuild from scratch i wasn't surprised the backup system had multiple redundancies and security protocols that needed to be followed precisely skip one step and the entire process would fail in a way designed to protect tenant data from unauthorized access that's not all Alan continued i found something when I was trying to help the consultants understand the payment processing system graham had been planning your termination for months he'd been meeting with the board convincing them that your custom infrastructure was too expensive to maintain how do you know this allan pulled out his laptop and showed me a series of emails he discovered in the system archives emails between Graham and the board discussing the legacy staff reduction plan and specifically naming me as the first target he told them they could replace you with cheaper engineers and transition to off-the-shelf solutions within 6 months Allan said he projected cost savings of over a million dollars annually i read through the emails feeling a strange detachment one line from Graham stood out hail's custom systems are unnecessarily complex he's made himself indispensable by design not necessity there's more allan said the private equity firm that owns Veltria is planning to sell they've been prepping for this for over a year graham was brought in specifically to cut costs and make the company look more profitable before the sale now it all made sense the push for standardization the resistance to proper documentation the sudden focus on reducing senior staff costs it wasn't about improving the company it was about dressing it up for a quick flip why are you showing me this i asked alan closed his laptop because I quit yesterday and I'm not the only one half the IT department has left the consultants are estimating at least 6 months to restore full functionality maybe longer he hesitated and because Veltria's biggest client Westbrook Properties is considering jumping ship they've lost faith in the management system i thought about the implications westbrook represented nearly 30% of Veltria's revenue losing them would be devastating especially with a sale pending "what will you do now?

" I asked alan grinned "actually I was hoping Devlin might be hiring database administrators. " Later that afternoon I spoke with Lawrence about bringing Allen on board he agreed immediately we were building a team brick by brick with people who understood what it meant to create systems that lasted that evening I received another call from Graham this time his voice had lost its authoritative edge victor please the situation is critical westbrook is threatening to terminate their contract the board is questioning my decisions we need your help i'm sorry Graeme i can't help you name your price anything it's not about price it's about respect for experience for the work that goes into building something right the first time the line was silent for a moment you knew this would happen he said finally you knew exactly what would break and when no Graham i just knew what I had built and what it took to maintain it information I tried to share many times i ended the call feeling neither triumph nor regret just the quiet certainty that some lessons can only be learned through failure the opportunity came faster than I expected two months into my role at Devlin Systems Lawrence called me into his office "i just got off the phone with Jeffrey Westbrook," he said referring to the CEO of Westbrook Properties "they're officially terminating their contract with Veltria next month they want to know if we can handle their portfolio. " Westbrook Properties managed over 10,000 units across the Northeast it would more than double Develin's current operations we're not ready for that kind of scale I admitted the new system is coming along but it's only halfway there lawrence leaned forward what would it take to get ready if we had to i thought about it three more senior engineers dedicated server infrastructure and at least 8 weeks of development time even then it would be tight jeffrey's desperate veltria's failures are affecting their reputation with tenants he's willing to give us 12 weeks and fund the infrastructure expansion this was the moment the turning point if Devlin took on Westbrook and succeeded it would establish us as a serious competitor in the industry if we failed it could sink both companies let me think about the architecture I said i'll drop a plan by tomorrow that night I barely slept i sketched system diagrams mapped data migration pathways considered scaling challenges by morning I had a plan ambitious but achievable a hybrid approach that would let us onboard Westbrook's properties in stages minimizing disruption when I presented it to Lawrence he studied it carefully this is solid he said finally but I notice you've included a substantial documentation phase that adds 3 weeks to the timeline it's non-negotiable I replied that's where Veltria failed we document everything from day one we train the team on every component no single points of failure lawrence nodded i'll take your word for it let's move forward the next weeks were intense we hired five more engineers including two who had recently left Veltria alan built a database migration tool that could translate Veltria's data structure into our new system i designed a modular architecture that could scale with Westbrook's needs halfway through the project I received an email from Justin Bayiew the former owner's son who still sat on Veltria's board victor I want to apologize for how things ended the board was misled about the implications of letting you go graham has been removed as CTO we're struggling to recover and Westbrook's departure will hit us hard if you're ever interested in coming back the door is open i didn't respond 10 weeks into our 12week timeline we were ready for a staged roll out westbrook's smallest region comprising 2,000 units in Western New York would migrate first if successful the remaining regions would follow the day before the migration Lawrence called me into his office again a familiar face was waiting jeffrey Westbrook himself "so you're the system architect?

" Jeffrey said standing to shake my hand lawrence has told me a lot about you "all good I hope," Jeffrey smiled "he says you've built us something that won't break down every time we add a new property something that will grow with us that's the plan i also hear you used to work for Veltria i nodded unsure where he was going with this they're in trouble you know the private equity firm is trying to sell but with Westbrook leaving and their system still not fully functional they're not finding many interested buyers he paused except one who's that i asked though I suspected the answer devlin Systems Lawrence said were considering making an offer at a substantial discount to what they were valued at 6 months ago i looked between them processing the implications if that happens Jeffrey continued we'd want someone who understands both companies to lead the integration someone who could salvage what's valuable from Veltria's infrastructure while transitioning everything to your new architecture are you asking if I'd be willing to work on that i clarified lawrence nodded only if the acquisition goes through and only if you're comfortable with it i thought about the irony the system I'd built the people I'd trained the company that had discarded me all potentially coming back under my direction i'd be willing I said finally but I have one condition we do it right full documentation proper training no shortcuts agreed lawrence said "We've learned that lesson as I walked back to my office I felt no vindication no desire for revenge just the simple satisfaction of knowing that good work done right eventually speaks for itself 6 months later I stood in the lobby of what had once beenria Housing's headquarters the sign now read Delin Integrated Property Management the acquisition had gone through for less than a quarter of what the company had been valued at before my departure lawrence and I walked through the office greeting former Veltria employees who would be staying on through the transition some looked away awkwardly others smiled with relief a few those who had worked closely with me over the years nodded with quiet understanding graham was gone along with most of the executive team that had approved my termination justin Bayiew had stayed on as a consultant helping ease the transition with legacy clients when we reached the server room my old domain I paused through the glass I could see the hardware I'd specified the blinking lights of systems I'd designed "want to go in? " Lawrence asked "no need," I replied "we'll be migrating everything to the new infrastructure anyway. " In the main conference room the remaining Veltria staff had gathered for the announcement lawrence introduced me as the chief integration officer who would be overseeing the technical transition "many of you already know Victor," he said "he built the original systems that ran this company for nearly two decades now he'll be guiding us through the integration of both companies technologies into something better than either had before.

" As I looked out at the faces some familiar some new I felt no triumph no desire to say "I told you so. " What would be the point instead I spoke briefly about the transition plan the timeline the support that would be available to everyone during the process i emphasized that no one would be left behind due to cost cutting measures the irony wasn't lost on anyone in the room one year after the acquisition Devlin Integrated Property Management had become the largest property management company in the Northeast the migration was complete with all properties now running on the new system I designed fully documented properly staffed and functioning smoothly on a crisp autumn morning I drove to the office for a final meeting with Lawrence "the leaves along Lake Ontario had turned brilliant shades of red and gold a fitting backdrop for the conclusion of this chapter. " "The board approved your proposal," Lawrence said as soon as I sat down the technical education division will launch next quarter you'll have full autonomy to design the curriculum and hire instructors this had been my condition for staying after the integration was complete not a higher title or more money but the creation of a division dedicated to training the next generation of systems engineers and architects teaching them not just how to code but how to build things meant to last thank you i said that means a lot no thank you Lawrence replied what you've built here it's remarkable not just the technology but the culture around it the documentation the knowledge sharing the emphasis on quality over quick fixes later that afternoon I cleared out my integration office unlike my hasty exit from Veltria this was a planned transition to my new role as I packed my things Justin Bay View knocked on the door "got a minute?

" he asked we walked to the small courtyard outside the building "my father asked about you," he said "he's retired in Florida now but he still follows company news he was glad to hear you were back in a manner of speaking. " "How is Harold? " I asked "good fishing a lot.