Management is cutting my job after I automated 15 hours of weekly work, do I have to document it for them?

[u/Claptrap_5Z]

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?

[u/Away-Ad-4444]

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?

[u/Claptrap_5Z → u/Away-Ad-4444]

That sounds like a quick way to lose my severance check if they catch on.

[u/Thediciplematt → u/Claptrap_5Z]

They not legally have to give her severance check but the same time it’s a much lengthier legal process for them to claw back.

You just chop it up to their incompetence and then you can charge consulting fee for 4 to 5 times your hourly rate

[u/redactid55 → u/Claptrap_5Z]

Yes, keep in mind that the people telling you all these ways to stick it to your employer don't have to deal with any of the actual consequences and don't care what happens to you at all. They get to play out their little workplace fantasies through you without any fallout. It's like how every relationship advice sub just tells people to blow it up and get a divorce and blah blah blah.

Give them whatever macro you have and move on with your life. It won't affect you at all if it works or doesn't and some minor update will break it anyway. This isn't the type of place you'd want to work long-term anyway

[u/Saneless → u/Claptrap_5Z]

Just leave out small details. Like if it's run macro, copy the cell, paste as values... Forget the "as values" part

[u/Jog212 → u/Claptrap_5Z]

Can you write a program that stops after a week?

[u/imaninjayoucantseeme → u/Claptrap_5Z]

I wrote very clear documentation on how to set up a laser etching job from Keyence. Even Keyence couldn't come up with a process that spent less than 120 seconds etching a barcode. My setup had the machine running under 30 second jobs. 

No one that remained could follow my process or duplicate my results.

If they're too incompetent to follow instructions, how is that your fault?

[u/Relevant-Energy-5886 → u/Claptrap_5Z]

How would they catch on?

[u/MrJigglyBrown → u/Claptrap_5Z]

As much as Reddit would love to see you destroy your career even further so they could laugh it off in the comments, writing shitty documentation is rhe worst avenue.

If you really need the severance then just cut your losses and write the documentation and get out of there. At the very least, if you ever need them as a reference then you can be confident you left good work on the table. If you want to take it further, do what someone above mentioned about going to the Vp, or talk to HR and determine if your severance is truly conditional based on this task. I don’t think it should be.

I’ve been wronged before and seen people be wronged. It feels unfair, but the worst thing you can do is try to be petty and get one over on them before you go. Just leave and move on

[u/CelebrationNo5541 → u/MrJigglyBrown]

How is it destroying their careers by writing sloppy instructions? If you take everything at face value. 

[u/Yakubs_2nd_Brain → u/Claptrap_5Z]

You do not need the severance. You refuse to do the documentation, quit without notice, and charge $300 an hour, minimum 4 hours, as a consultant when they call needing you to make things work

[u/PB3Goddess → u/Claptrap_5Z]

If your severance check is dependent on a project they are assigning you, that's not a severance check.

That's subcontractors your services, for which you set the rate, not them.

Severance is something they give you (when letting you go without cause) representative of your past service, to help bridge the gap until you make it into your next position.

[u/Lizakaya → u/Claptrap_5Z]

If your severance is dependent on the documenting I’d do it

[u/HopeADMKidsLoseLimbs → u/Claptrap_5Z]

They won’t. Just be clever

[u/Away-Ad-4444 → u/Claptrap_5Z]

Yep never even implied it wasnt .. its weither the fucking them or your servernce is worth more .. and if yes then try and get both..

[u/stuckinnowhereville → u/Claptrap_5Z]

How much is it?