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Once, at my first job, the CEO of the company sent a group email in which he essentially lambasted my ability to do my job.

I wasn't even hired as a programmer, I was a data entry guy who learned how to code on the job, and at this point I was literally the only person writing code for the company. I regularly worked 12+ hours every day, and even though I had to learn practically everything on my own I was still getting things done -- at least, I would have gotten things done if the CEO didn't keep pulling me off of my projects to work on whatever his latest ultra-important-idea-of-the-week was. I was even working for an 8 hr/day, 5 day/week salary, putting in extra hours for free.

But no, my sacrifices and hard work weren't good enough in the CEO's eyes, and he chose to say that to multiple people in an email, including investors in our startup. I don't remember exactly what was said, but whatever it was made me so livid I couldn't do any work; every time I sat down to code, I thought about that email and it so infuriated me that I couldn't concentrate. It took me twelve hours just to calm down enough to get back to coding.

After that, I refused to communicate with the CEO except through my boss, the CTO.

Comments
  • 21
    @ClemFrieckie I'm not. Two months after the aforementioned email, he brought in a buddy of his that was willing to do dev work for nothing but shares in the company. Since I couldn't compete with that (can't feed my family on shares alone, y'know), I was let go shortly thereafter. Fortunately, I was able to pick up a new job immediately after.

    Now I'm contracting at a company with multiple programmers for more than twice the rate I was paid at the startup, and I get paid for every hour worked. I'm blessed, frankly.
  • 3
    @Jantho1990 Hows that free developer working out for them?
  • 4
    Did you reply to group mail? I know I'd left a hell of a reply :)
  • 1
    Following up...
  • 1
    Dev abuse 😠
  • 1
    @cjbatz He left to take a job working with Amazon Fresh. The site is somehow still up, I guess the CEO just keeps conning people into keeping it alive. Hell, last I checked a lot of my work was still there. :P
  • 0
    @WildOrangutan I did not, but only because I still needed the job at that point.
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