
Ask HN - I just left my job today and I'm really confused. Need urgent advice - empthrowaway
I submitted a thread yesterday asking for advice regarding my relationship with the project manager on my (ex)team [1].<p>Today after speaking with him again, he showed very little willingness to discuss anything, and simply cut me off and repeated the same accusations he made yesterday. I decided that there was no longer any reason for me to stay, so I gave notice by the end of the day.<p>He asked me when I wanted to leave, and I said today as I had already spoken to the only other dev on my team and committed and pushed all my code along with documentation I wanted to leave for the other dev. He threatened (implied) that &quot;people&quot; would be pissed if I didn&#x27;t come in tomorrow, so I agreed to go tomorrow for knowledge transfer.<p>However, 3 hours ago, he removed all access from my Basecamp, Bitbucket, and Trello accounts. I know because I checked the company GMail to make sure he didn&#x27;t suddenly send an email telling me I didn&#x27;t need to go. Just now, I tried to check company email again, but it was disabled. My impression is that at the very least, my email should not be disabled until I am completely &quot;gone&quot;. I&#x27;m not sure if this is standard practice, but now I am not sure if I should still be showing up tomorrow. I feel like I will arrive with my key disabled after 1 hour and 20 minutes of commute.<p>Any advice&#x2F;suggestions would be much appreciated. It is 11:46PM here in Vancouver so I really don&#x27;t know what I am supposed to do.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=5942912
======
tptacek
Yes, you need to show up tomorrow. Also: in the future, when you have a
conversation about when you plan to leave the company and someone asks what
date you'd like to go, pick a date 2 weeks into the future. You probably
didn't intend to refuse 2 weeks notice, but your reply could have been
misinterpreted. If your employer doesn't need/want you to stay for the 2
weeks, they'll tell you.

From this point on: stop spending cycles thinking about how your ex-employer
is treating you, and stop feeling sorry for yourself about that treatment.
It's over. Companies often have standard policies that kick in when people
give notice which include cutting off all your accounts. Those practices will
feel rude to you, but it's best not to take them personally.

Your goal at this point is to be as valuable to the team as you can be
(regardless of how you're treated by the company). That's because leaving the
best possible impression of yourself with the largest number of people at your
ex-employer is the only valuable outcome left for you at the job.

Good luck with your next job. You're in a great market, and if you don't like
your current employer, moving on is the right decision.

------
jasonkester
If it were me, I'd show up as planned.

Remember, you're the professional here. They're the company with the crazy
project manager that flipped out on you for working the hours you agreed to
work when you were hired. The rest of the company is still fine in your
opinion, and you're on similarly good terms with the rest of the dev team and
management. If they give you any grief, it's _them_ behaving badly.

Incidentally, if they do want you to come back to help with knowledge
transfer, you'll be quoting your day rate for consulting. This is not going to
be less than $1,000 per day (or fraction thereof), and will be double that if
you were anything other than a junior dev.

Good luck. Let us know four days from now when you've landed your next gig for
more money!

------
andreasklinger
Go and try to make the best impression on everyone else there.

Be friendly open. Tell people you will miss working with them. Appreciate
their good work. Try to leave with a good impression.

You are essentially leaving because the PM doesn't know what he want and can't
judge actions of other people.

In best case he will play the role of the grumpy/stressed PM. In worst case he
will try to control each step you take that day. Both is fine for you.

Try to understand it from his point of view. Most likely the team grew to fast
and is now rushing into something they do not really understand, most likely
are unsure about or have doubts on funding/survival/etc. His actions sound
like he is simply scared. Sooner or later you will meet again and see
everything from a different light.

If they ask you about future "quick calls" etc instantly agree on a hourly
rate you are comfortable with.

With all that said and done. Leave with a smile on your face. From this point
on you have nothing to loose and can only gain.

------
jlengrand
The best way to kill douchebags is by overwhelming them with kindness.

Go there, be nice, enjoy the last moments with the collegues you like, and
don't blame anyone. I feel like he is the idiot here, so be twice as gentle
with him as you are with the others.

Make him look like the guy he is in front of the others, by being nice :).

Enjoy your final check, go home and think about your next steps :).

Good luck

~~~
makerops
Can't upvote this enough.

~~~
jlengrand
:)

------
DjangoReinhardt
This seems more than petty childish behavior to me. This might sound very much
out there, but for the sake of argument, just hear me out.

Are you sure your company isn't downsizing? All of his actions so far point to
the possibility that he (the company?) wanted you to quit. And if he (they)
did want you to quit, he (they) could have given you the pink slip?

The most obvious question that follows is, why you. Well, you did say you
joined them recently, so there's less to worry about the knowledge transfer.
Maybe they want to save on the severance package? Maybe they want to do it
quietly without spreading panic?

The whole thing seems a bit suspicious to me. If you choose not to
investigate, just make sure you deal with it professionally - see
vishaldpatel's response [1].

A part of me tells me that you may just have dodged a bullet. Good luck for
your future. :)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5951062](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5951062)

------
quietthrow
He is probably trying to humiliate you by having you come in and at the same
time take all your access. You should go in however if he crosses the line
escalate the issue politely to his boss asking what you should do when you
have resigned and he wants you to come in but have nothing for you to do.

Remember its a two way street. May be your are young or don't know what to do
and he senses that and he is just taking advantage of your situation. I would
also talk to a lawyer and see what your options are. At the end don't be
afraid to act (polite but strong) otherwise the regret will stay with you.

Good luck

------
grumps
I saw your post last night but was too tired to respond and apparently I am
too late now.

As some of the others have stated, be the professional one here. As a PM -
he/she/it sounds to be fairly awful but I haven't walked a mile in their shoes
so it's hard to judge. It does sound like there's trouble in paradise there...
As fun as it is to fantasize about the "F __k you, F __k you, I like you, F
__k you... " scene it doesn't benefit you ever. I was at very similar
situation at my first job. It was a very similar situation but I saw the
handwriting on the wall and I found a new job. Shortly after I left they
started offering early retirement and then eventually they started the
layoffs.

------
danso
Just go. The PM asked you to come in, so it is on him. Disabling your email
isn't out of line, as they want you to not receive any more official company
email at this point

------
DoubleCluster
It's best practice to immediately lock someone out from all accounts if they
are leaving on bad terms. You don't want them to be sending nasty emails to
customers or to delete company data. It almost never happens but sometimes
someone snaps and creates a big mess.

You should come and maybe bring something nice for the people you enjoyed
working with. Make sure you have a talk with the project managers boss and
tell him why you are leaving. Furthermore you should act professional so don't
involve your colleagues. It's nasty but it's between you, him and his boss.
Your colleagues will figure it out anyway.

Best of luck finding a new job!

------
vishaldpatel
You should go in to collect your final check. Also, if they'd like to hire you
for knowledge transfer, then have a consulting rate and arrangement that you'd
be comfortable with in mind. Keep it professional.

------
spencer_ftw
You should go and wrap things up. The day will be short, but if you can get
the formalities out of the way, it'll make things smoother. Get your final
check, and if you've vested any shares, ensure you have documentation that
outlines what you hold. Then leave the place with a smile on your face and a
genuinely good attitude; there's nothing in it for either you or them to have
bad blood after you've gone.

------
meerita
Just don't touch anything. Go to the company and finish the leaving process.
Anything you may try to do in the system can be seen as a problem.

------
caseyf7
This does happen occasionally. Could be a paranoid exec or just an IT guy who
has vacation planned tomorrow so he turned your accounts off tonight. Just go
and be nice. Don't air your grievances, it will only make you look bad and
everyone else is probably aware of the problems anyway. You made the right
decision - things rarely get better. Trust your gut.

~~~
p8952
I would not say this was 'paranoid' behaviour, but rather standard operations
procedure. Leaving access to email accounts after someone has been let go is
just asking for a nasty email sent to all contacts.

------
gadders
As I thought yesterday, the PM is a dick. And I say this as a PM, I'm not
biassed against them :-)

In these situations, people don't remember what happened, but they will
remember how you reacted. Be super nice and professional, so that everyone is
left wondering "Geez, why did we let him go?"

------
codeonfire
No way would I go if it's 80 minutes. That is like $25 to get down there and
back. Why travel down there only to be not allowed in the building? I usually
stick all the keys and crap in a letter size envelope and mail it.

------
amccloud
Go, they should have your final check waiting for you.

------
ethanazir
Make no apologies and admit no wrong doing.

