July 22, 2026

vmalvey

ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WORKING INSANE HOURS…

This week’s tale is about Matthew who works in IT.  His expertise in computer programming earned him an incredible job with promotions throughout his career.  You would think that someone who knows his stuff this well would be all set.  Nope.  Not in today’s work toxic environment.  Even being fantastic at your job isn’t enough to secure your position.

AT FIRST IT ALL SEEMED GREAT…

When Matthew first started at his latest company, he was thrilled with the position.  His team consisted of other like-minded professionals who were all willing to work together to complete the job.  As a quick background for people who don’t know, IT teams typically develop or update systems that a company uses such as the IVR, the automated system that takes all incoming calls and routes them accordingly, or the system that contains all of the accounts where your information lives so that when you call into a company, the phone operator can easily and accurately retrieve your information.  So, keeping that in mind, let’s get back to Matthew’s story.   Matthew’s team designed/updated programs within budget and timeline, tested for bugs and other problems prior to going live, then half the team would stay up late to “go live” when the new/updated program was pushed into the real environment.  By going live with the new/updated programs after-hours, it ensured that if there were any issues, the new/updated programs could be backed out, leaving the program currently in place there and still functioning.  Now, when I say after hours, I mean starting at 11 pm until the program is all set which can last up to 7 am the next day.  Thus, the half of the team who worked through the night on these programs would be off the next day as compensation time while the other half covered the workload for the area.  Everything ran extremely smoothly.

THEN THE COMPANY STARTED CUTTING COSTS FOR THE WORKER BEES…

Everything was working as it was designed.  Once again, the guys at the top decided to step in to muck up the works.  They looked at the team and thought it was too big, so they literally cut the team in half, telling them that they could handle the workload with half the resources.  What that meant in real life for these guys was that whenever something had to go live, the entire team that was left was expected to work through the night THEN show up for work at 8:30 am the next morning!  They couldn’t even work from home!  Nope; the executives expected these team members to get up after not going to bed until 3 am in time to be in their office desks at their regularly scheduled hour of 8:30 am.  They didn’t even get a delayed arrival time!  Absolutely no compensation time or overtime pay was given.  They were told it was part of their job and, if they didn’t like it, there were lots of other people who would gladly replace them.  How is that for support from your leadership?  Sheesh!

ENOUGH ALREADY…

Matthew had enough!  After having worked almost 28 days straight for 24 hours, he felt like the walking dead, unable to even function in his personal life due to pure exhaustion.  Finally, he spoke up and told his bosses that he wanted to work from home after working through the evenings as he had an hour commute to work.  He informed them that it would save him 2 hours of commuting time which would simply make him more productive.  How do you think they reacted?  Do you think his leadership told him that made sense?  Once again, NOPE!  They refused his request, informing him that he needed to be in the office as it was policy.  Period.  No exceptions.

NO REVENGE?  WRONG AGAIN…

Matthew paid for speaking up because he was laid off two weeks later.  There were a number of other people laid off as well, but he was the only one from his department.  As such, his boss could say that the layoff wasn’t merit based, but rather it was simply part of the quarterly layoffs occurring across the company.  With this type of layoff, no justification is needed, but Matthew knew why his name was added to the list.

HAVE YOU BEEN A VICTIM OF REVENGE?…

Were you a victim of a revenge layoff?  I know a number of people who have contacted me that felt they were specifically targeted due to speaking up.  Personally, I always spoke up as I believe it’s important to stand up and, while I know it wasn’t popular with the immediate management directly above my boss, I still did it as I feel as long as you are professional about your approach there is nothing wrong with offering your opinion.  It’s only small, insecure people who can’t handle that type of employee.  So, let me know!  I’d like to hear YOUR story!