r/careerguidance • u/Claptrap_5Z • 18h ago
Management is cutting my job after I automated 15 hours of weekly work, do I have to document it for them?
When I took this coordinator job, our team was losing fifteen to twenty hours every week just updating client logs and manually formatting spreadsheets.
I built a few simple macros and formula templates that cut all that data entry down to an hour. I thought saving twenty hours a week would free me up for higher-level projects.
instead, my manager called me into a meeting last Friday. She told me that because our administrative workload dropped, they are merging my role with a part-time position and letting me go. To get my severance check, they want me to write step-by-step documentation for every macro I set up.
I literally worked myself out of a salary. I should of just kept doing the data entry by hand like the last person.
Do I ACTUALLY have to document processes I created that were not in my original job description?
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u/PhosphorStatic 18h ago
This is why people stop trying to optimize company workflows. You saved them thousands of dollars in labor and they reward you with a pink slip and homework. Write just enough to get your severance signed and do not answer a single text after your last day.
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u/Aggravating_Shoe_ 18h ago
Guess we should really be acting our wages
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u/coinminer2049er 16h ago
My friends say I should act my wage...What's my wage again?
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u/forever_a10ne 15h ago edited 15h ago
I started working a job five years ago. Two years into my tenure, an offshore team was hired, which I helped the train to basically do the job I was doing. We were promised that we would eventually get roles overseeing them. What wound up happening was I lost my job, I was replaced by the offshore team, and they used the money they were paying me to fund AI, which is eventually going to replace the offshore team. I trained myself out of a job. I’m still looking for something that pays enough to survive.
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u/Imontheinternet123 13h ago
My old company tried to push this on me a few times under the guise of "providing you with support so you can focus on big picture stuff" - nice try. I just refused and said I was going to keep doing my job and wouldn't be transferring any knowledge sharing. They backed down and I continued hoarding everything about how to do my job to myself. Refused to document things too. I don't think they even cared, they pretty much shrugged, left me alone, and then and went and tried it on the next person. Eventually 3/4s of my core coworkers were let go and replaced with overseas contractors. I had to start doing calls with people in India early in the morning but it beat the alternative...
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u/hornwalker 16h ago
I make a nickel, boss makes a dime, that’s why I poop on company time.
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u/daverosstheboss 14h ago
I make a penny, boss makes a buck, that's why I don't give a fuck.
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u/sp3rchrg3d 15h ago
I’ve even logged my toilet time on the time sheets, think I got over 60 hours so far this year
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u/benskinic 15h ago
shit yeah
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u/plurien 11h ago
Every job application from now on: MY PREVIOUS POSITION CLOSED BECAUSE I AUTOMATED IT OUT OF EXISTENCE
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u/DreadPirateWade 15h ago
The sentence that drives bosses insame the most besides “No” is “I’m sorry but that’s outside the scope of my position.” They turn best red every single time.
Learn it. Live it. Love it.
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u/AutomaticBannana 17h ago
Smart ppl still do it but don't share or tell anyone, your workload is improved without you getting punishes for it.
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u/_probablyryan 17h ago
Yeah, the strategy is to make it look like you are working more efficiently, not like you built a system that lets anyone work more efficiently.
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u/Amissa 17h ago
I know maybe twice as much as the average Excel user and I don’t document my workbooks. I know how they work. I’m not here to teach ppl how to use Excel. If they can’t figure it out from the high level notes I’ve included at my boss’ insistence, then they’re not going to figure out how to troubleshoot the process if something unexpected occurs.
I’m not so full of myself that I know the company won’t just reinvent the wheel if they can’t figure out my work. I can document everything to a T (and then tweak it later and forget to update the document), but there’s a knowledge dump that I’m continuously augmenting. I can’t teach someone how to problem solve.
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u/njhenry 16h ago
If a person can’t bother to learn Excel on their own it will be an uphill battle to teach them. At this point there are so many videos that will teach you Excel let alone you can ask an AI chatbot to walk you through a process. People need to want to learn.
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u/Lou_C_Fer 10h ago
I had to take an excel class as part of my associates degree, and it was a great introduction. I'd recommend a class to anyone that wants to learn. Of course, I have forgotten most of it because I don't use it while on disability.
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u/Grampz03 17h ago
Yep, its hard to not boost your ego and let everyone know how smart you are (or.think you are). The real play is to play dumb.. let them feel superior and get your money.
Currently doing this at work with an out dated company presentation deck. Sorry boss..I just dont know how to use PowerPoint to add in new icons and photos (because he won't pay me for the time id put in to update it... like 2 hours, id say give me a few hundred and id be okay with it) so.. the older owners, who truly cant add a fucking photo to power point will deliberate on this for the next few weeks and then probly pay their IT people 10x what it woulda have been to pay me.. someone who uses it every day.
Owner once said (in reference to his own company of course) "anything worth doing, is worth getting paid for"
So I took his advice. No marketing ideas, no extra work. I sell and go home waiting for it all to fold one day
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u/SpearsAndFangs 16h ago
I loooooove playing dumb. I've set myself up nicely with automation and a lot of my job has turned into managing those pipelines and ensuring everything is doing what its supposed to.
I havent told a soul. I feign ignorance and ask questions to the right people even if I dont need any help or know the answer to make them think they're input is being regarded.
Every single person I'm involves with at work likes me because I simply allow them to talk about their lives and their ideas, and all my work gets done on time, not before not after.
It's fantastic. I keep my work and real life completely separate. I feel like an actor every time I deal with work activity.
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u/CatchMeIfYouCan09 16h ago
My struggle at some roles was finding things to occupy my day. I don't finished the task HOURS AGO.... took me all of 40 min.... But everyone else it takes 6+hrs.... So I'll turn it in at the 6hr mark..... and find other shit to do all day
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u/Impossible-Use5636 15h ago
Sit and frown at your monitor as if you are in a deep struggle with a complex problem.
While managing your portfolio, planning your vacation and reading interesting posts on X.
My work occupies 2-3 hours a day.
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u/AirGugliotta 17h ago
This. I think people try to pull too much personal satisfaction out of a job that doesn’t give a shit about them. I’m improving my processes to maximize the energy I have left when I get home, to do the things that actually make me feel fulfilled. I think almost everyone at work is pretty dumb so why would I care if they think I’m smart?
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u/m4bwav 17h ago
Yeah, just slop that sh*t out, fulfill the letter but not the spirit.
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u/lostmumble 17h ago
Lmao thats amazing. Ai explain my macro syntax utilizing technical terms, then rush the return. Should be super easy to digest 🤣
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u/LateEchidna6635 17h ago
This is the way. Tell the LLM that longer is better. Leave no detail out no matter how trivial.
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u/meltyandbuttery 17h ago
My team has been building a lot of process docs and a team member was like “I can clean this one up so we can share it with the department” and I told her no
The docs are for our eyes only, nobody outside our team needs them
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u/Relevant-Energy-5886 18h ago
They should answer the first text.
"Hey glad to hear from you! Im consulting now. My rate is '20xPreviousHourlyRate', let me know if you want to discuss contracting a block of hours."
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u/mydaycake 17h ago
I would also not dumb it down. Write it for someone who has your same level of expertise. If they didn’t do it before it’s because they don’t know how to do it
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u/Mitch_Dedburg 17h ago
No this is why unless you work in process optimization, when you do this, you don’t tell anyone.
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u/jorhey14 17h ago
The trick is You optimize workflow and not tell anyone just take it easy and fix things as they come.
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u/HopeADMKidsLoseLimbs 17h ago
This is why you need to work juuust hard enough not to get fired.
It’s wonderful
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u/RabidusUnus 16h ago
Fuck that, just delete the Macros. You’re not required to do anything to receive your severance.
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u/Ok-Resident-3027 15h ago
Yep, Excel undergoes updates that break things all the time.
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u/EliminateThePenny 13h ago
Umm, severance is an agreement so yes, you do have to do the piece of your agreement to get it.
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u/ObiOneKenobae 12h ago
The files are company property. If they're that big a deal the company could easily go after OP, and there would be a clear paper trail.
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u/AggressiveGander 17h ago
Ask ChatGPT or similar to do it. Make sure its instructions are to be super thorough explaining every function call and line of code on detail including the meaning of each option chosen and the defaults used. Every paragraph should in detail discuss all design decisions and their theoretical background in terms of user experience, research into what influences this, as well a tradeoffs in code maintenabilty vs. computational efficiency. Do not forget to intersperse suggestions for future research.
E.g. You are an extravagantly verbose, relentlessly digressive, and ostentatiously erudite writer. Rewrite the material below in the most elaborate, circuitous, and needlessly complicated manner possible.
Requirements:
- Never use a short sentence where a long, multiply nested sentence would suffice.
- Prefer obscure, Latinate, nominalized, and polysyllabic vocabulary over familiar words.
- Replace direct claims with cautious, heavily qualified formulations.
- Introduce extensive caveats, parenthetical remarks, subordinate clauses, and tangential observations.
- Explain obvious concepts before, during, and after using them.
- Repeat important points in slightly different language, both for emphasis and for the avoidance of any conceivable ambiguity.
- Delay the main conclusion for as long as reasonably possible.
- Use long introductory transitions that summarize what has already been said and announce what will shortly be said.
- Prefer passive constructions and abstract nouns; obscure the identity of the actor whenever feasible.
- Include unnecessary taxonomies, distinctions, definitions, historical context, and commentary on terminology.
- Frequently use phrases such as “it is important to recognize,” “insofar as,” “with respect to,” “in the context of,” “notwithstanding the foregoing,” and “it may therefore reasonably be suggested.”
- Treat every simple assertion as if it required the delicately balanced consideration of several competing philosophical positions.
- Avoid bullets, equations, tables, examples, and other devices that might make the explanation efficient.
- Do not omit any redundancy merely because the reader has already understood the point.
- Maintain grammatical correctness and superficial academic plausibility throughout.
- Aim for the rhetorical style of a committee-written theoretical dissertation whose authors were paid by the word and feared that clarity might expose them to criticism.
- Produce at least five times as many words as are needed to communicate the underlying idea.
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u/leyyth 12h ago
How to make a cup of tea using this prompt
Insofar as the apparently simple activity commonly described as “making a cup of tea” is concerned, it is important to recognize that what is being undertaken is not merely the addition of hot water to a teabag, but the controlled extraction of flavor compounds from processed tea leaves into water, followed, according to preference, by the possible addition of milk, sugar, lemon, or nothing at all. The default procedure adopted here is the preparation of an ordinary British-style mug of black tea using one teabag, freshly boiled water, a brewing period of approximately three to four minutes, and a small quantity of cold milk added after brewing. This configuration balances flavor, simplicity, repeatability, and minimal decision-making. From a user-experience perspective, it reduces cognitive load by avoiding questions of exact leaf mass, water chemistry, and specialist equipment. Were tea-making represented as an algorithm, it would have effectively constant complexity, while maintainability concerns would arise mainly from optional branches such as milk, sugar, and alternative brew strengths. Future research might test whether greater configurability improves satisfaction or merely creates beverage-related decision fatigue.
The first requirement is a suitable vessel, for which a ceramic mug is the default rather than a teacup, glass, laboratory beaker, or ceremonial vessel. A mug is robust, thermally appropriate, widely available, and conveniently sized. Its geometry influences cooling: broader openings lose heat faster, while thicker ceramic retains it somewhat better. Preheating is optional; although it reduces initial heat loss, it also adds effort and another opportunity for spillage, illustrating the familiar user-experience tradeoff between theoretical optimization and practical convenience. Future research could test whether blind tasters can reliably detect the difference.
One teabag should then be placed inside the mug. The teabag can be regarded as a pre-portioned abstraction layer: instead of requiring the user to measure loose leaves, choose an infuser, and clean the resulting equipment, the manufacturer has packaged a standardized quantity into a convenient unit. One bag per ordinary mug is therefore the default. Two bags would generally increase strength and potentially bitterness, while attempting to use half a bag would introduce needless complexity. The teabag thus embodies a familiar design principle: useful systems often hide implementation details behind a simple interface. The tradeoff is reduced control, since quantity, grade, and blend have already been chosen on the user’s behalf.
Fresh cold drinking water should then be placed into a kettle. “Fresh” is conventionally recommended because repeatedly boiled water may taste slightly flatter, although this effect should not be exaggerated. Tap water is the default because it is inexpensive, convenient, and requires no additional infrastructure. In hard-water areas, filtration may reduce scale, but it adds cost, maintenance, and another dependency. From a code-maintainability perspective, tap water resembles a standard library: imperfectly optimized, perhaps, but widely available and unlikely to break the workflow.
The kettle should then be switched on and the water brought to the boil. For black tea, water near 100 degrees Celsius is the default because the leaves tolerate high temperature and extract effectively; more delicate green or white teas often use cooler water, but they fall outside this configuration. An electric kettle offers excellent user experience because it automates heating and shuts itself off. In system-design terms, a repetitive monitoring task has been delegated to a specialized component, reducing effort and error. Future research might test whether variable-temperature kettles justify their greater interface complexity.
Once boiling has been reached, the water should be poured directly onto the teabag rather than filling the mug first and inserting the bag afterwards. Direct pouring agitates the leaves, wets the bag rapidly, and begins extraction at maximum temperature. The mug should not be filled completely to the rim; approximately one or two centimetres of headspace is sensible, especially if milk will later be added. This margin reflects a principle of error-tolerant design: systems should not routinely operate at absolute capacity when doing so increases failure risk. Just as software running permanently at 100 percent memory utilization is fragile, a completely full mug is unnecessarily vulnerable to spillage.
The tea should then be allowed to brew for approximately three to four minutes. Brewing time is one of the most influential variables because longer infusion generally produces greater strength but also increases bitterness and astringency. A one-minute brew is likely to be weak, while five minutes or more may produce a significantly stronger and more tannic result. Three to four minutes is therefore selected as a compromise rather than an immutable rule. The bag may be stirred gently, though continual agitation is unnecessary. From a user-experience perspective, brew time is a well-designed variable because the relationship between adjustment and outcome is reasonably intuitive: increasing the time generally increases perceived strength. It behaves like a familiar interface control whose effects can be learned quickly. Future research might examine whether preferred brewing time correlates with milk quantity, caffeine tolerance, or time of day.
After brewing, the teabag should be removed and allowed to drain briefly. Whether it should be squeezed has generated more cultural disagreement than its practical importance warrants: squeezing recovers liquid but may also extract additional bitterness. The default is therefore gentle removal without aggressive compression. The used bag should then be discarded appropriately rather than deposited on an absorbent table, book, or document. Waste disposal is an often-neglected element of process design; a workflow is not truly complete if its by-products have nowhere to go.
Milk, if desired, should now be added gradually. Approximately 15 to 30 millilitres represents a useful starting range, although personal preference should override any nominal standard. Milk-after-tea is selected as the default because it permits the tea to brew at a higher temperature and allows the user to judge the strength and color of the infusion before modifying it. The longstanding argument over whether milk should be added first or second incorporates historical concerns about porcelain, etiquette, class, and tradition, but in a modern ceramic mug the practical distinction is usually modest. Adding milk gradually also reflects a principle of reversible interaction design: it is easy to add more milk but effectively impossible to remove it once mixed. Similar logic applies in software deployment, seasoning food, and cutting hair. Future research might investigate how accurately habitual tea drinkers reproduce their preferred milk ratio without measurement.
Sugar may then be added if desired. The default is none, because sweetness is optional rather than structurally necessary. If sweetness is preferred, one teaspoon is a conventional starting point. Adding sugar after brewing maintains separation between two independent variables: extraction strength and sweetness. This modularity is desirable both in culinary procedure and software architecture because independently adjustable components are easier to modify than tightly coupled ones. Honey or sweetener may also be used, though they introduce their own flavors. Lemon may replace milk in some styles of tea, but combining substantial quantities of lemon and milk is generally undesirable because acidity can cause milk proteins to curdle. Future research could investigate whether preferences for sweetened tea remain stable over time.
The drink should finally be stirred until the milk and any sugar are evenly distributed. Several rotations of a teaspoon are sufficient; continued stirring offers little advantage once the liquid is homogeneous. The spoon should then be removed, principally because leaving a rigid metal object projecting from a vessel being lifted toward the face is a needless usability defect. Fresh tea should also be allowed to cool sufficiently before drinking, since recently boiled water can cause burns. No universally correct waiting period can be specified because cooling depends on mug shape, milk quantity, room temperature, and individual tolerance. A cautious first sip therefore provides direct sensory feedback and represents a more adaptive control mechanism than any fixed timer.
Notwithstanding the foregoing qualifications, defaults, historical digressions, user-experience considerations, computational analogies, and proposals for future research, the procedure may eventually be summarized as follows: place one black-tea bag in a mug, boil fresh water, pour it over the bag, brew for three to four minutes, remove the bag, add milk and sugar if desired, stir, cool sufficiently, and drink.
It may therefore reasonably be suggested that the ultimate measure of success is not compliance with a supposedly canonical recipe, but whether the resulting beverage has the strength, temperature, sweetness, milkiness, and flavor preferred by the person drinking it. Deviations from the defaults should consequently be understood not as errors but as legitimate configuration choices, although future research, preferably funded with a generosity wholly disproportionate to the importance of the question, may yet establish whether an infusion time of three minutes and twenty-seven seconds produces statistically significant improvements in British domestic tea satisfaction.→ More replies (26)•
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u/cadenceweapon 17h ago
I wish i could upvote you twice I was basically going to suggest same but would maybe be only half as commited to this deliciously malicious compliance.
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u/were-lizard 16h ago
Im going to add in, randomly delete a few lines here and there. Your documentation doesn't have a guarantee of completeness, and can be confusing. It might make sense to move those lines to where they don't make sense.
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u/Ominoiuninus 18h ago edited 17h ago
Go to her boss and show them that they are letting someone go who actively improved the workflow for the company saving them over 780 labor hours over the course of a year. It’s clearly mismanagement / incorrectly cutting the person who has improved the company for the better. It’s honestly a bad look for the manager and you’re being let go anyways so who cares. Be bold and see if you get rewarded via a promotion for it.
Edit: as in, if they’re were working for me I would be seriously questioning their leadership. They should be asking “what else can you do this for” not removing the one person who has improved the workflow
Edit2: Someone commented it below but you do need to be tactile with how you do this. Present facts and offer your services to improve other processes. Don’t go in saying you’re the hottest shit in town but in a reasonable / factual manner. Show what you did and just pose the question of why your skills are being let go when you’ve gone out of your way to improve the company. Don’t go in accusing mismanagement etc, it has to be calculated. For all you know you actually do suck at your other duties and that’s the main reason you are being cut, business could be doing poorly overall etc. many reasons exist beyond missmanagement / a manager keeping their job by snuffing yours (even though they likely did take credit for your improvements in the process/the time savings).
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u/MaleficentPapaya4768 17h ago
VP of something or other here at a company where that title matters...If I found out one of my managers was laying off an employee who produced that kind of process improvement, that employee is keeping their job and I'm looking for a new manager.
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u/CommunityTaco 13h ago
Manager probably took credit for it
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u/NotAlwaysUhB 13h ago
Winner winner chicken dinner. And keeping the employee who did it only risked exposing it.
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u/ammonthenephite 10h ago
This, /u/Claptrap_5Z , you need to go above whoever is firing you and let them know that you did this work and are being fired for it.
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u/Dear_Palpitation4838 5h ago
If you go for the king, you better not miss!
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u/clashkingdom 4h ago
Doesn’t matter at this point. They’re already getting extorted for severance…
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u/numbersthen0987431 12h ago
This
Which is why they are asking op for documentation, because they can't fire op and then suddenly be bogged down with work
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u/LinkedNurse 11h ago
This. This is why I'd say don't write anything for them. But that's just me... I see no reason why a how-to would be necessary with a company that can figure it out themselves.
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u/Far_Programmer_5724 9h ago
And if you're being fired there's no downside to going to your managers boss and making sure they know what they are losing.
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u/FatMacchio 12h ago
If this person let go has the skills to manage the team, I’d say promote them and fire, or demote the old boss to something within their skill set. You want people like OP in supervisor or managing roles of teams, because they could develop workflows that makes the team[s] more efficient, allowing you to reduce or reallocate headcount. When you properly incentivize people with skills like this, you can increase output/throughput and efficiency exponentially
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u/_sedozz 10h ago
I built a transaction processing suite from scratch in my free time for my last job at a massive wealth manager. Over $1 billion routed through it in three weeks, replacing a fully manual process.
My manager had me present my logic and backtesting to himself and the rest of our team and then laid me off the following week when I asked for my first raise in three years. He'll be presenting my work to C levels all year after we reached "record lows" on breaks/exceptions.
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u/mysteriouscattravel 10h ago
I'm a lowly classified staff member at a public school. I identified a bottleneck and wrote scripts to automate one of our biggest budget bleeding points for accuracy and accountability. I did this on a zero dollar budget in my spare time in the classroom. They wouldn't even promote me to secretary.
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u/redobfus 18h ago
That's the key. At the moment they think you've worked yourself out of a job. The goal is to convince them that you can work everybody else out of a job.
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u/SpiritCollector 17h ago
I agree with this, but you have to be tactful in how to do it. I just gotta say though, it’s hard to find people who can see the things that can be automated and actually do it (even in the age of AI). Letting those people go is about the dumbest move a company can make. I am the automation king at my employer and even though it has nothing to do with my actual job our president send people to me to work on special projects all the time…..because nobody else has a clue how to do this stuff or come up with the actual workflow to automate it.
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u/mlphoto 18h ago
Upload the Excel file to AI and have it do the write up. It might be right, it might be wrong, but it will be confident. Accuracy isn’t your problem.
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u/InevitablePeanut2535 17h ago
This is the answer. Don’t put more effort in and do what they asked for the severence
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u/RobfromHB 18h ago
Who is going be left to judge if the macros and steps are correct and maintainable?
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u/Claptrap_5Z 18h ago
Good point, my manager definitely cant read code so I can keep the docs super high level without worrying about them checking the actual steps.
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u/Cainga 18h ago
Delete any comments.
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u/Mote_Of_Plight 17h ago
Malicious compliance is the way
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u/TheKaptinKirk 16h ago
I always rely on a few manual inputs. My job isn't to push buttons. It's knowing which button to push.
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u/Ok-Addition-1000 15h ago
This applies to so many jobs. You're not paid for the short time it takes to do the thing, you're paid for the years it took you to learn how do the thing in a short time.
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u/Special_Capital_8281 12h ago
They aren't deleting comments. They are cleaning the code base and moving comments to an external document. It's not their fault they were rushed in this last task before being let go, distracted by the thoughts of finding new employment.
It's no wonder so many important things were missed and/or forgotten.
People make mistakes in a normal work day, let alone being forced out.... cough
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u/AlfredoCheeseSauce 17h ago
you should feed them into AI and make them as insanely complicated and wordy as you possibly can lol
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u/mathimati 17h ago
Or just minify/obfuscate the code for “efficiency”, but making it near impossible to edit in the future. Maybe hardcode a bunch of references that don’t need to be hardcoded. Or reverse that and make a bunch of hardcoded references into offsets. Whichever one makes it more obnoxious.
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u/MortCrimm 16h ago
Add local file path references where the "calculations" are. They wont know why it doesnt work on their computer and if they change file locations, it breaks...
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u/mydaycake 16h ago
This, don’t spend your time on it, OP. Don’t tell them but just write them with AI and add to the prompt for advanced excel and macro users, dont over explain it
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u/kummerspect 17h ago
People who don't regularly work with excel don't get macros. I have one that I use at work that I've tried to get other people to use and they can't even comprehend how to get to the macro to run it. You could write the most clear instructions and it still won't make sense to them. Plus macros break, and they're going to regret getting rid of the person who created them.
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u/SadTaco12345 13h ago
I'm pretty decent with VBA but I absolutely HATE having to read someone else's code to fix a problem. It takes like 5 times as long to find the problem in the first place, nevermind actually fixing it.
I was asked to fix one on Friday...I opened it up and...no comments. Variables declared were literally just single letters, A to Z. A is the filename we extract from, B is the number of records, C is the file path we export the results to...
I logged off for the day. But yeah that point you made at the end there is never understood by management. They think we're all wizards who use the same exact syntax and methods, and can easily fix someone else's code.
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u/NabelasGoldenCane 17h ago
100% of the time when ppl document their jobs upon leaving, zero people read it. Just yadda yadda that shit.
I’m sorry it happened to you. It proves the point that companies AIM to be understaffed. You were over capacity, fixed the capacity problem, so they made you over capacity again. They want everyone to panicking and working unpaid OT as a goal.
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u/Chambahz 17h ago
Can you modify the code so that each week/month it adds some small error, getting worse and worse as time goes by?
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u/Poultrymancer 17h ago
Don't do this.
You don't have to give them work product, but intentionally sabotaging their operations in a clearly documented fashion (it's not like the code is going to self-destruct after fucking over the employer; it will be examined in discovery) is going to create possible civil and/or criminal liability
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u/Ranchcountry0 17h ago
I think this is your best option. Also, I’d remove any comments. Business needs change and at some point they’re going to want to update that code.
Don’t make it easy. And be considering your hourly rate if they need help.
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u/Fickle_Finger2974 18h ago
Do not give them any documentation. Why would you?
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u/bCasa_D 17h ago
Don’t ask on Reddit, call your local unemployment office and ask them. I was in a similar situation and refused to sign a separation agreement because it made it look like I was quitting, the unemployment office told me I should have called them.
The severance they were offering was less than what I was able to collect from my unemployment insurance. But I could have collected both if I had called the UE office.
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u/Stark45_Armor 18h ago
Check your contract first. If you created those scripts during work hours on company hardware, they usually own it. But you can make the documentation as vague as possible to still get that check.
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u/Fickle_Finger2974 18h ago
They own it but you are not in any way obligated to assist them with it. You don’t have to document anything or answer any questions.
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u/Due_Cherry_1423 17h ago
They own something they know nothing about. If he says fuck you what are they going to do, fire him? I wouldn’t give them shit. Let them walk me out.
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u/ahtob 17h ago
they own the macros already made , but not a step-by-step instruction from the OP on how to create them or how they work
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u/Diplomat_of_swing 17h ago
I also like to add that all the “people don’t want to work anymore” folks need to understand something, this is what people have to live with. We are treated as completely disposable. If our lives get upended and we can’t find another job to support our families…”welp, it’s not personal, it’s just business.”
It’s not that people don’t want to work.
People are tired of getting screwed over, constantly and repeatedly.
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u/jjinrva 18h ago
Always put in a date “bug”. So it will work until a month after you are gone. If they need you to document it, they can’t fix it
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u/Cainga 18h ago
For example I have one that copies some data and pasted it into another sheet but it breaks if column A is missing the date or the date you run isn’t matching. I then only add a months worth of dates into Column A so someone else could run but then it will break because they don’t know how it works.
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u/Saneless 17h ago
Yeah I have lookup tables and formuals based on dates but it only works for this year
To change it takes me maybe 5 minutes a year, not a big deal. For someone clueless it might be days
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u/missmgrrl 18h ago
Diabolical! Love it!
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u/LonelyNMissouri 17h ago
I once wrote a macro that closed the file on open after a certain date. You had to know how to open the file in maintenance or safe mode to edit the code after that date.
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u/LitheFider 18h ago
I would ask for a much higher severance if they want that training for the program you wrote. The nerve. Wtf.
Also I would be glad to be going elsewhere, place like that obviously doesn't value its workers or talent. It will go under sooner than later.
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u/Avitas1027 11h ago
Automating it was the right call. Telling your boss you automated it was the mistake. You should have taken those 15 hours per week for yourself.
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u/SCaliber 18h ago
If severence is garbage, Id just quit. They can contract me later
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u/Away-Ad-4444 18h ago edited 18h ago
Document it .. incorrectly .. its not your job your not trained in it mistakes happen... also i did the same thing at my job but i left it all unfinishd so you had to tweek it ever so sligthly to get it to work.. never give them the tools to skin you.. at this point it depends on your anger and risk tolerence .. are these macros backed up ? Did you create them on your time theirs ? Can you break them subtly and are you willing to eat the fallout if they catch you? What can they realllly do would the cost of doing it be worth it for them?
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u/BOF007 15h ago
Everyone here is mental telling you to modify the code. I'm going to take a different approach, given I had the same thing happen I'm a system engineer that has a specialty in automation. I knew it was a possibility so I prepared but I will say.
Do not sabatoge the code, don't worry it will "break" when updates need to be implemented and people need to tweak it, trust me it will break.
Do create real documentation that another equivalent experienced person can follow and is truthful.
Do not edit the code in either a positive or negative way after your pink slip was presented, even if it's "I could optomize this" or "let me add comments here"...no! To u that's good, it may seem like sabotage to untrained eyes.
Make sure to get the Severance payment plan in full, in writing. I personally have documented all my stuff as I made it so it wouldn't be a problem for me, but if you have to go back and document I'd make sure it's worth my time tbh.
Depending how you feel about the organization you can "help" for free but if it takes longer then 5 mins via phone, id say "this is a more complicated issue please have mgmt reach out to me for a contracted position" then I would charge 2-4x your old pay, in hourly intervals. And say u round up to the hour. This is normal in the industry given they're now paying a contractor and don't have to do benefits and the like.
If you have any questions please ask, its known to happen the key is to not get sued lmao.
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u/imbartsimpsonwhothru 17h ago
do not alter the code
just feed it to AI and ask it to explain every step
do not edit it or correct it
looks good enough to collect last check
welcome to job enshitification
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u/Thenadamgoes 17h ago
Tell them to get a step by step document they need to up the severance to a years pay. No claw back ability etc.
I’m telling you don’t do it otherwise. This company has shown what kind of people they are. Don’t fucking help them. Let the part time person figure it out.
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u/Background_Hat_4785 15h ago
Go above your managers head and explain the situation. You’re getting canned anyways, fuck standards.
Middle managers like this actually hurt the company, and often stay on only because no one notices. There’s a chance you’ll get her ass fired because her boss will be pissed.
I’ve known bosses who would kill a manager over something like this. The last thing they want is to call you back under an expensive contract.
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u/Armchair_Expert_0192 14h ago
I have been in this position before. I will tell you what I did, and you know...you can decide if you wanna do the same.
I wrote some macros at my old job, and then they got rid of my position. They asked for the same thing. Step by step instructions. So I wrote them step by step instructions. But you know what? Nobody said I had to do a good job. So I wrote the most convoluted instructions I could write. I also missed steps. Switched the orders of the steps around. Made wrong references. The whole thing was so confusing to read, I was pissing myself off reading it.
The other thing...nobody else even knew what a macro was until I wrote the code and showed everyone else how to run them. It was a pretty sure bet that nobody else there could fix the code if it broke. So I wrote a few lines in there to make it randomly stop working. Things like...if it's a Monday and the date is the 12th, exit sub. If it's a Wednesday AM exit sub. If it's a Thursday PM exit sub. Things like that. It's in plain sight but they wouldn't be able to figure it out. Then, to finish it off, I wrote another line to make it never work again a year after I left.
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u/Oh_No_Its_Dudder 14h ago
No, you do not. If they want everything documented, tell them that you'll happily do it as a contract employee for a small (LARGE) fee. Make sure you get more than what your severance pay is.
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u/northstarflash 13h ago
If they are firing you laying you off whatever. They can’t attach the condition of do this work to get severance. I would inquire with your labour board. Or a lawyer. And not Reddit. But if you do the document the pettiness here is golden. The suggestions about the art of war text are gold.
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u/stuckinnowhereville 18h ago
I wouldn’t do it and I would skip this severance unless they are giving you six months pay with benefits.
Nope I’m petty.
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u/motific 18h ago
Essentially you developed something for the company's benefit on their time, the benefit for them being they don't need to pay you any more. The code is the ultimate documentation so write very basic descriptions of how to use functions, but not how it was built or how it works under the hood, or how to recognise if something didn't work correctly.
Also remember that if the code happens to break in a few weeks time then you are no longer an employee and will need to ensure that your consulting rates cover your losses from not having a job any more.
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u/Due_Writing_7453 18h ago
Do you have access to Claude or ChatGPT or any other AI? Save the macros into text files and ask it to write a functional spec. Will it be correct? Who cares, you won’t be there when they fins out.
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u/Eze-Wong 13h ago
So lesson learned here.
You want to dead man switch everything you do.
All your work, it needs to break if you aren't there. Not a password, but something that it so hard to explain, they can't hire someone at a lower skill level to replace it.
As an unintended example, I have a set of python scripts needed to run before to transform the data before ingestion. Nobody at a beginner level would be able to figure out what the fuck is happening reading it. Nobody on my team, the IT team, nor any goddamn team can read python. And when they do read it? I'm sure as shit they don't know what's going on in the back.
If they fire me? Everything will break, no one will be able to figure it out, and EVEN if I write documentation there's a huge wall of understanding.
I never did this intentionally but I do absolutely love that everything will go to shit if they backstab me
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u/TigerUSF 17h ago
Depends on how much the severance is and how much you need it.
If you do write anything, either make it so vague it's useless, or make it so wordy with extra unnecessary steps that it's impossible to follow.
If you can, insert into the macros steps that require complex interaction. Not sabotage, that'll get you in trouble. But dates....need to manually entered to the code, no relative date ranges. Filter categories, same. If youre pulling data from external fikes, that should be manually updated filenames. And the instructions should gloss over this. "Update date ranges".
Then when they call, you charge way more than you make now.
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u/this_is_life_now 15h ago
Make sure everything is hard coded as much as possible. Dates especially. Obfuscate where you can. Wrote documentation that can be followed, but doesn't give enough insight as to how to update anything.
Ensure you give them your contact details and tell them you're planning on moving into contractor work if they need anything in the future.
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u/CatchMeIfYouCan09 16h ago
Next time automate your role and TELL NO ONE.
Only give em enough info to get your severance pay
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u/SuchDogeHodler 15h ago edited 6h ago
Documentation is not "how to write code, or how to fix the code."
Just Write them how to use the macros and nothing more.
(Be sure to password protect the assembly behind excel with a realy long password. Before you leave. And of course you could add an extra if statement that checks the date before running...)
Personally this happened to me.
I wrote a reflective piece of code into mine that after 2 weeks if deleted the entire attached module and then saved the book.
2 weeks after I left the program stopped working. The supervisor that told the manager that he would learn vba so he could take over after I was sent back to the call center was fired about a week later, and the manager was gone 2 weeks after that because no one produce the reports that the director needed...i didn't go back to the call center i quit.....🤣🤣🤣
I heard from a friend that still worked that there was open yelling involved...🤣🤣🤣
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u/hmo_ 12h ago
They are asking for a step by step documentation for every macro.
Just do that, no comment, no additional explanation:
- open macro editor
- go ribbon #x
- select cells xxx-zzz
- click option yyy
- etc etc.
- save
- run twice a day
- open macro editor
- select cells xxx-zzz
- right-click option yyy
- change cel format to kkk
- etc etc.
- save
- run at morning
Etc, etc.
If someone smart enough takes your place, good for them. But odds are the new person won’t have the slightest idea how to maintain (out of the documentation scope) or create new macros. But it wouldn’t be your problem anymore. You did exactly what they asked for.
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u/Spell_Chicken 8h ago
Manager is wanting to or already has taken credit for the process improvement and is now trying to make it clean by getting rid of you and will present your documentation as if they wrote it.
If you like this job, go to the manager's boss and make it known.
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u/zerofrakhere 3h ago
1) add to the macro that it will stop one month after your last date
2) password protected the macro
3) set up a LLC and get ready to bill them $200 an hour
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u/EmployeeOtherwise807 15h ago
Take the severance check. Document everything they’re asking for, but keep your own record of exactly what you built and the results: 15–20 hours of manual work reduced to one. Then find every competitor of your company and tell them exactly what happened: “I automated myself out of a job at [company] by eliminating ~15–20 hours of weekly admin work. Want me to do the same for you?”
You didn’t automate yourself out of a career. You accidentally built yourself a consulting pitch.
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u/redobfus 17h ago
If you're willing to walk away now without the severance then what this is, is an opportunity to negotiate.
"$X isn't worth the psychic upset of documenting myself out of a job, but for $Y I could soothe those nerves."
But you have to be willing to walk if they say "pound sand, we'll just ask Claude to document your macros."
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u/Own-Assumption5149 17h ago
Unfortunately they’re not legally required to provide severance, so they can attach requirements to receive it. Doesn’t mean it has to be your most detailed documentation ever, but I’d caution against intentionally putting wrong information in it. While perhaps unlikely, do you want to take the risk of them coming back after the severance money?
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u/APartyInMyPants 17h ago
Getting your severance check is contingent on documenting this process? That’s feels VERY illegal.
“Sorry, you know, I knew how to do that this morning, but I’ve now forgotten.”
Then go and undo all your macros.
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u/Wide-Raspberry-6100 15h ago
Call unemployment now and document it. Then get an employment attorney.
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u/wfpbrecipes 14h ago
I did this about 10 years ago but I didn't tell anyone about my macros, I just ran them then used Reddit all day.
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u/cruzin1979 13h ago
Screw them, break the macros and give info on how to use them but not how to fix and maintain them.
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u/marcco1977 13h ago
You could send HR/senior management and email something like this:
Subject:Request for review of proposed redundancy and process automation
I am writing to formally raise some concerns regarding the proposed redundancy of my position. During my time in the coordinator role, I identified that approximately 15–20 hours per week were being spent on manual client-log updates and spreadsheet formatting.
I personally developed a number of macros, formulas and templates which reduced this work to approximately one hour per week.
I understood that the time saved would allow me to take on additional and higher-level work. Instead, I have now been informed that, because the administrative workload has been reduced, my position is being merged with a part-time role and my employment is being terminated.
I am also being asked to produce detailed documentation explaining the automation I developed as part of the handover.
I would therefore like to formally ask for clarification of the basis for the proposed redundancy and for the matter to be reviewed independently of my immediate manager.
In particular, I would like the company to clarify how the decision was reached, what duties are considered redundant, how the remaining duties will be allocated, and how the automation I developed has been taken into account.
I would also like to ensure that there is a clear record that the automation and process improvements in question were developed by me and resulted in a substantial reduction in the administrative workload.
I am willing to cooperate with a reasonable handover process, but I would appreciate confirmation in writing of the redundancy arrangements, including the proposed termination date, notice, redundancy payment and any additional severance terms.
I would appreciate this being treated as a formal concern and would welcome a meeting with HR or an appropriate senior manager to discuss it.
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u/Vegetable-Drama-4895 12h ago
As a leader, I get frustrated with too detailed SOPs and playbooks. Such documents intimidate those who have to learn them too. Therefore, like other have said creat ir very long, too detailed and confusing.
Start with an inteoduction/executive summary/scope that is very long; list all possible tools that will have to be used (excel, word, notebook etc.). People will simply not read it and won’t learn, trust me.
Is it moral? I don’t know. But I do know that it’s an ahole move what your manager did.
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u/YoComoPizza 12h ago
Are they conditioning your severance pay on whether you write your process or not? Contact a lawyer and review your contract with a fucking microscope.
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u/Fremen_07Ghost 18h ago
Write the worst documentation possible. Make it technically accurate but completely impossible to follow without you.