• (nodebb)

    See, this series is at least entertaining.

  • Fik of the borg (unregistered)

    This resonates so much with my last 20 years! I can't wait for part 2

  • Hmmmm (unregistered)

    TL;DR follows

    A support worker is devastated by the sudden death of Aggie, a mentor who taught them how to handle people and problems with patience and wit. The grief, plus being pushed into a promotion and denied proper time off, becomes the final push that convinces them they can’t keep living this way. What changes

    A coworker, Megan, gives them a rare moment of comfort, and that conversation turns into an honest rant about burnout, fear, and wasted years in tech support. Together they begin imagining a way out: freelancing, starting a worker-owned IT group, and encouraging others to rethink staying in miserable jobs. The turning point

    After researching the practicalities and recruiting a few interested coworkers, the narrator returns to work and goes straight to Aggie’s old office, now assigned to them. There they find Aggie’s rubber duck, a small but deeply meaningful sign that feels like a final gift and a reminder of Aggie’s influence. The ending

    Their boss assumes they’re back to accept the promotion and more responsibility, but instead they quit on the spot. Just after resigning, they receive an unexpected message from an executive asking them to come up later that day, hinting that something bigger is about to happen.

  • NeuroticNetwork (unregistered) in reply to Hmmmm

    Serious question: why?

  • (nodebb)

    "Those 'morons' keep this place running, you arrogant half-wit. Without those 'morons,' you wouldn't have a business, since you have no skills yourself, other than making money through being an asshole to those who work for you. Consider this my two-week notice, delivered as of two weeks ago."

    God, I wish I could think of these things when I'm angry and DONE.

  • (nodebb)

    Megan knows that the fancy downtown high-rise will pour strong martinis at 10:00am without judgement.

  • Klimax (unregistered) in reply to NeuroticNetwork

    Because article is full of useless overwrought fluff as if written by grafoman. And subject of article is WTF too.

  • (nodebb)

    Something about this story sounds a little familiar, only I got the black mirror version of it.

    Many years ago I was hired by a small-ish business to replace their one and only sysadmin. Nobody wanted to talk about it much at the time, but I later found out that he had had a heart attack in the office a few months earlier.

    After some confusion about just who was hiring me and who I would end up working for, an offer came and I accepted it. I showed up on the first day, met with HR, and was brought around for a chat with my new team. My new direct manager's surprised response was "Oh, did we hire you? Great. Let's get you settled in."

    That's when I was shown to my office. Or, rather, to my predecessor's office. Some effort had been made to clear out the most obvious family photos and personal effects, but his books were still on the shelves, he had personal papers stashed in the drawers and his work PC was practically untouched. A new account had been created for me, but so many business critical operations were run by little scripts that had been left on it that nobody dared even turn it off, let alone replace or re-image it.

    He had, perhaps, heard of the concept of organizing files but wanted nothing to do with it. There were directories scattered all over the place filled with whatever he happened to be doing at the time. Every time I looked for something on that PC I never knew if I would find a complicated write-only Perl program that did critical database management tasks, or a copy of his mortgage application, an unfinished letter to his wife or scans of his family photos.

    It was a very weird experience, and I left for greener pastures under a year later.

    And, ever since then, I have always appreciated showing up on the first day at a clean desk with a newly imaged PC to work on.

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