Employee resigns from work and saw the workplace crumble without them: 'Boss had no respect'

Editor's note: This article was originally published on October 7, 2023. It has since been updated.

Academia has a special charm with its endless curiosity, lively intellectual discussions, and profound impact on students' lives. However, the professional world can turn toxic when people lack empathy and consideration for each other. In this particular instance, the individual in question had been immersed in the IT industry for a number of years before being presented with an enticing opportunity from a private university, which they gladly accepted. What could have been an opportunity for tremendous growth and development turned out to be the worst experience. For this reason, the person took to Reddit and shared their experience.

Reddit user u/small3r1talian shared, "Context: I have been working in IT my whole working life. Several years ago, I was approached by someone who owns a small private college and offered a job. I had several years of IT experience by that time, mostly working at colleges in the area. I accepted the job. There, I was the only IT. There was no IT department. Just me. The internet was laughable. Something like 100mbps for the whole school."

The user continued, "They were trying to expand and get approval for a new program. So I took on the daunting task of getting the school up to date. They were simultaneously working to move to online tests and homework (everything was on paper when I started there), so I moved very fast to do this. I also assisted with providing whatever paperwork, spreadsheets, schedules, etc., the school needed to get their new program approval finalized. Once that was all done, I continued to work as the only IT on campus."

In their narrative, the individual recounts a pivotal moment in 2021 when they reached their breaking point. They made the decision to enroll in a program they had played a role in establishing at their school. Despite the program's rigorous entrance exam, which boasted a pass rate of approximately 10%, they managed to secure a position among the top 5 performers for that year. They shared, "Then I quit my job. That place had become the worst job I had ever worked at. The boss had no respect for anyone around them, and the office had like 6 or 7 people working in it, including me. I was constantly being accused of 'doing nothing all day' when I was working."

"When I quit, they did not hire anyone new to fill my position. They instead passed my work onto 3 other people (who of course already had their own jobs to do). I watched them struggle for about a month before another one quit," they continued.

Their work clearly was not easy and other employees decided to leave when they were handed over these tasks. "Now, one of my favorite coworkers told me that she was just offered a new job with a 40% pay increase, benefits (did I mention this job I had didn't offer benefits?) and room to grow. She is leaving in August." They also revealed, "To clarify, I'm about to graduate in like 3 months. The school might shut down, but not that fast. I'll be gone before it would affect me. I plan to graduate and promptly purchase like 8 copies of my transcript in case they go down."

People came to support their decision to leave. u/xsmacd commented, "I am here to say: stay petty. Sounds like that former boss was pocketing money by not hiring others. Keeping it as a bonus maybe?" u/lilmissaggie wrote, "This doesn’t really seem like revenge but more like natural consequences. Glad you got out!"

u/oddturnip-2019 shared, "It's a perfect case of a business not reinvesting their money into the business and suffering the consequences." u/atomikplayboy wrote, "Glad you got out and the owner is getting a dose of reality. The downside of all of this is after you leave the program your degree might not be worth the paper it’s printed on if the school closes. I’ve seen this happen to several small business schools around in my area."