Been at this company for 4 months as a data engineer. When I started their codebase was a mess. All the code was in one folder with subfolders, the scripts were dependent on one another even if they didn’t share the domain problem, their version control was “call the IT guy to grab the backup”. In the first few months I set up a Github organization for them, put all their code into a git repo to start version control, got them to install and use IDEs instead of just VS Code, refactored some of the codebase to use SOLID standards, automated some tasks, transitioned them to a new Snowflake warehouse, and fixed several issues that was breaking their workflow. Today the CEO told me that this is an at-will state and he let me go. Didn’t explain why, just asked for the equipment back.
I didn’t get any write-ups, no one complained about my work, I was always looking for improvements, even the CEO thanked me a couple months ago for writing a word document to my managers on how I think the team can make improvements. They actually followed that doc and have been happy with it. This came from nowhere because no one brought any complaints. Today I am lost. I just need to vent and let this out.
I don’t believe you did anything wrong. It was a chicken shit move on the company’s part. Right now it is a tough time to be in technology as there have been a lot of layoffs. I would just get my resume polished up and put yourself out there again. Sorry this happened to you!
Simple, you fixed the issues and were too expensive to keep on. They didn’t tell you, but they hired you for this and that was it. It’s super shitty of them and that fucking sucks.
Contact an employment lawyer. Yes in at-will states they can fire you, but for any legal reason. If they just fired you for “no reason” then something fishy is going on for sure.
No reason is a legal reason, unfortunately.
Fwiw VSCode is an IDE.
VS is clearly an IDE, VSCode… is more arguable. For me, it’s somewhere between a heavily souped up editor and an IDE. But that’s just my opinion.
Not cool. But certainly doesn’t sound like there was anything you did to cause it. Also sounds like you’ll do just fine in any environment that lacks structure and resource (which as far as I can tell is all of them).
Cold comfort I’m sure. I would want to know why, but would expect them to be not forthcoming on the reason (I don’t have much faith in any business that fires people without providing a reason). One option might be to request a written reference. If they agree the content might reveal at least what they wish the publicly stated reason to be.
Good luck getting shit back on track, and in particular good luck keeping your head in the game during this unfair and challenging time.
That’s a lot of changes in four months, is it possible that you made people uncomfortable with the pace of change? Were the other workers able to effectively use the changes you implemented?
I’ve worked places where fixing what’s broken was actively frowned upon. Short sighted employees will confuse “why do I have to learn X” with “I’m making more work for everyone” instead of realizing “doing X will take 10 hours to learn, but save one hour a week forever”.
These are not places you want to work. You’re lucky to be free of them if this is the situation you were facing.
It’s possible the company itself needed to cut costs, maybe because they screwed up their budgeting. It’s not necessarily because of anything you did.
Unfortunate reality these days. An employer can be sued for firing people for the wrong reasons, so if they don’t have to, they won’t tell you any reasons, and if they do have to, they will make up bullshit ones.
Your actions, while correct and positive, shone a light on the incompetence of the wrong person(s), and someone(s) got in the CEO’s ear to make that stop.
Dodged a bullet, my friend.
