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/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 14h 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 5h ago

Doesn’t matter at this point. They’re already getting extorted for severance…

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u/knight_gastropub 4h ago

Yeah almost nothing left to lose.

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u/Keated 1h ago

I think in this instance OP is the king and the manager is the one missing

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u/numbersthen0987431 13h 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 10h 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/Basic_Loquat_9344 2h ago

The loss of severance is the downside.

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u/followyourvalues 1h ago

There is still unemployment

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u/PrettyKitten32 26m ago

Is that legal? Can OP type the original job requirements instead? Is there some kind of patent law that can be used here?

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u/IndependentClue1206 9m ago

I agree with this. I would not document it. What can they do? Fire me? 😂

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u/Catfactss 12h ago

Bingo

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u/Own_Laugh_5080 6h ago

This is all management fucking does.

I’m an art director for commercial photography/video. I have to leave breadcrumbs out for management to snatch up and take credit for as bait so they won’t end up fucking up any creative processes out of spite because they didn’t feel like the most amazing employee in the room.

It’s fucking hard wasting time to do that.

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u/knight_gastropub 4h ago

Why else would she ask them to document it? Absolutely go over her head. The threat of losing severence over it also sounds like bullshit cooked up to scare OP.

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u/MakeshiftApe 3h ago

This needs to be higher up. This is probably why OP is getting let go in the first place. Manager wants to take credit, so they're letting OP go and asking OP for a step by step that they can pass off as their own.

Definitely go up the chain.

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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/Turkuleco182 5h ago

Exactly, lol. "Looking for a new manager." Dude, he's right there, the employee who produced that kind of process improvement!

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u/MaleficentPapaya4768 3h ago

Possible but not guaranteed. Good technical skills often don’t translate to good management skills.

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u/Dense-Fisherman-4074 1h ago

Yeah, you could risk invoking the Peter Principle. Definitely reward the employee, but whether a promotion is the right reward depends on where the employee with thrive best.

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u/_sedozz 11h 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/Crankbait_88 7h ago

Fuck. That. Guy.

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u/deltalitprof 4h ago

Your manager's manager should instantly know of this. Classic liquidation of a threat by your manager. This policy needs to be understood by his superior.

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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/DryPaint51 3h ago

That definitely sounds like public schools for you. My mom retired after teaching for 37 years at the same elementary school. They rewarded her with a small little desk clock.

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u/corporaterebel 4h ago

That's not how gubbmint works.

Source: am IT for big gubbmint

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u/scandal1313 8h ago

I would go to upper management saying you were hoping this type of work product would earn you a promotion to work on more advanced tasks and you understand the role is being cut but was wondering if any other processes (like your managers lol) need automated. Say the documentation is complicated because its advanced and you didn't know it was expected but was wondering if any advancement opportunities existed or roles you could transfer your skillset into. Me personally I would not provide the documentation but start with a write up explaining macros and how to formulate them in general.

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u/gomurifle 8h ago

Since they are letting him go anyway should he copy his boss' boss on this? 

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u/Wit-wat-4 6h ago

Right??

Almost never are these kind of people “only” useful at improving a single thing and nothing else. I’d have moved them to a new position or project so fast!

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u/bigmacher1980 5h ago

This is exactly who I want to work for and good for you recognizing this is a valuable employee. This is what I strive to do as a middle manager. Hell that person can take my job if they are good

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u/anooname 1h ago

good answer - op should contact the m.d!

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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/ukemike1 16h ago

That's a sure fire path to life and job satisfaction. Not. "Keep me onboard so that I can help you fire lots of others!" This is how you go from being Smegol to Gollum. F that. Malicious compliance is the answer.

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u/Zeratav 16h ago

Malicious compliance is the dream. Paying bills is the answer.

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u/Cryesncoding 15h ago

Work management cucks out of a job not underlings. 

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u/Latter-Safety1055 9h ago

But I'm really good at automation, I find it very fun, and I really want to automate the shit out of anything I can get my grubby little hands on. How do you square that circle?

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u/goregoon 8h ago

Either a full time position that expressly details that as your job description - or - automating as much as you can of your current duties without telling anyone. Doing the latter could help you land an interview for the former.

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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/truncatedvisuals 18h ago

This. Try this first.

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u/wasteoffire 18h ago

People keep bringing up how many labor hours they saved but the company only gets those savings by cutting the position. They're paying the same either way. Now they're realizing those savings by giving the task to an employee that will work fewer hours.

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u/Vralo84 17h ago

Partially correct. An actually smart company would go, “Wow! We have a smart employee who can cut our wasted effort! We can use him to save time all over the company! The most profitable thing for us to do is give him more opportunities to improve our work.”

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u/MishterJ 17h ago

This is shitty management level thinking right here. The labor hours are only saved if the position is cut? How about the savings if that person can now work on other projects and opportunities for the company? Or to have that employee continue to improve other systems?

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u/phonage_aoi 15h ago

Exactly, other guy is basically describing the management equivalent of scarcity mentality.

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u/scantron-test 14h ago

Improve other systems as in get them to realize they can lay off more people and make more profit? F these companies

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u/MishterJ 13h ago

Yea agreed, fuck these companies. Capitalism incentives everything for shareholders and nothing for workers who make it all possible. 

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u/Pyjama365 11h ago

At my place improving processes would be seen as a way to take on X% more clients and get paid for doing X% more work each month, not a way to do the exact same amount of work and reduce current staff by Y%.

I suppose it depends if OP works in the kind of place where the next client is always waiting for the company to be able to fulfil the needs the clients are queuing up to have fulfilled, or whether the current amount of work they do is likely the maximum amount of work they can reasonably expect to do in their particular industry/area/circumstances.

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u/zoidao401 12h ago

It’s factual.

There’s a difference between theoretical and cashable savings, if reducing the number of hours it takes to do work just results in everyone working more slowly and/or sitting around with nothing to do, you haven’t actually saved anything.

To go from theoretical to cashable savings in this context, you either need to reduce headcount or redeploy the excess resource elsewhere. If the resource is redeployed, it either needs to be bringing in additional revenue or reducing headcount elsewhere.

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u/MishterJ 8h ago

  If the resource is redeployed, it either needs to be bringing in additional revenue

Exactly my point, and this is where smart management would redeploy if possible, or reduce headcount of underperforming employees rather than an over-performing employee. 

If employees find out a coworker was let go for making a good system improvement then this would happen: 

  just results in everyone working more slowly and/or sitting around with nothing to do, you haven’t actually saved anything.

No one else would bother making system improvements and if they did they certainly wouldn’t tell anyone. 

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u/wasteoffire 16h ago

Sure, but that is the way companies think

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u/Sea-Home-7763 16h ago

Not necessarily. Depends on the company.

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u/TwilightLori 15h ago

It's the way bad companies and MBAs think. Good businesses will use those labor hours to generate extra revenue. The goal of a company is to grow revenue and profits. Cutting labor increases profits without increasing revenue. 

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u/MishterJ 13h ago edited 13h ago

Not necessarily. Smart management thinks smarter than this. 

Edit: For example, there’s a VP in this comment section who said if he found out about this situation he’d reprimand or fire the manager and keep the employee who improved their systems. Just saying 🤷‍♂️ bad management only sees the bottom line with no foresight or perspective, smart management sees skilled workers to invest in who are improving their systems. 

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u/MPBoomBoom22 17h ago

If it’s a good company they’d have OP shift those 20 hours of data entry into data analytics.

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u/Brave-Perspective714 13h ago edited 13h ago

Yep. I had the same thing happen to me many, many years ago. I came into a position that had a lot of repetitive tasks that could be automated with basic excel macros, so I set about doing just that. Freed up about 25 hours a week!

My boss then actually asked me what skills I had that were underutilized and if I had any ideas for those extra hours.

I introduced him to the concepts of data mining and predictive modelling, and how both worked for finding the type of prospects we were in need of. But I only really knew that it existed, and some of the basics. I didn't have the in-depth knowledge to build something like that from scratch.

So he sent me all over the country to learn how. And then he got to look like a genius when our department began consistently far exceeding targets year over year.

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u/AVeryVapidBadger 15h ago

That assumes there aren't other productive things that get done with the freed up time.

So either you're a shitty manager, or have no idea how to actually manage a team

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u/not_a_regular_buoy 17h ago

That's a cruel way to think about this. If someone saves me 800 hours, I'd pull features off my backlog and prioritize them.

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u/Mountain-Bar5049 14h ago

You are 100% incorrect. The only way you'd be correct is if the person then didn't do anything else with the time that they'd freed up.

So yes, they did in fact free up X number of hours that they can now spend doing other important things that there may have not been time for. In other words, they are now capable of producing more than X hours of productivity in the year.

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u/OpenAI122191 13h ago

Or you now have an r & d dev budget to further improve.

Cutting for the sake of cutting is a race to the bottom

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u/Deep-Dimension-1088 15h ago

Cut the position, promote OP and fire the boss who's not clever enough to automate things or even tell the employee to automate them.

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u/der_innkeeper 13h ago

No.

My employees are now 20 more hours free to do something else.

One of my employees spent 25% of their time documenting our supply/inventory processes. Writing it all down.

She decided to go somewhere else, and spent a month turning it over to the new supply person.

Zero loss in the process.

The old owner, who we have kept on as senior advisor said, "huh. I didn't even notice we changed people."

Thank you.

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u/Yakubs_2nd_Brain 13h ago

Not if any semi-competent manager finds other shit for those people to do.

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u/Frequent_Opportunist 15h ago

Manager feels threatened. 

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u/NolaDoogie 11h ago

This is the way to go, since honestly OP has nothing left to lose at this point. The manager is being short-sighted and hopefully their boss won't have the same "head up ass" problem.

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u/alphex 17h ago

The person identifying the problem is usually gonna be identifying the manager who caused it. FYI. Watch your step.

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u/redactid55 17h ago

Why would you want to work at a place that operates like this anyway? So what do you gain by going around them to their boss

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u/Dense-Fisherman-4074 1h ago

The point is that it might not be the company that operates this way, it’s just OP’s boss.

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u/redactid55 1h ago

They aren't firing people without higher ups being aware and you have to question a company that puts a person like this in a management position in the first place.

In the previous places I've worked, it'd rarely an isolated incident and they could spend their time better by looking for a much better job

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u/Dense-Fisherman-4074 1h ago

Maybe higher ups are aware of the firing. But as other comments said, they may not be aware that OP is the one that made the improvement. Could be that OP’s boss is taking credit.

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u/silverfish477 17h ago

Tactful. Not tactile. They mean very different things…

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u/FactCheckYou 16h ago

i love this suggestion, damn

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u/michealdubh 16h ago

But to be sure to do all this in a "tactile" manner

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u/ManqobaDad 15h ago

Completely agreed. If i had someone on my team who was good with VBA code and improving workflow i'd be adding more projects to them and finding a promotion for them as soon as one opened up.

Firing someone whos making your process efficient is the stupidest thing i've ever heard.

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u/el_dude_brother2 15h ago

Yeah im sure your bosses boss needs to know it was yoi saving the company money but it will fall down without you. They should be sacking your boss and giving you the job

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u/Mimir_aka_Puck 15h ago

"Let's get rid of the goose. I mean, why keep it? It already laid a golden egg!"

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u/PistachiNO 15h ago

Tactile, absolutely. Touch them a lot. Especially on the face. Upper management loves that shit.

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u/YourBeltedKingfisher 2h ago

I caught this too, such a great error

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u/MallieCrew21 14h ago

I 100% agree with this!! Fight for your job!!

I joined a virtual interview I was really excited for. 7 minutes after the time, I emailed the HR person asking if it was still a good time. She never got back to me. 30 minutes later, I emailed her again from a different email chain. She responded that they waited 5 minutes and I’m not longer being considered. I realized that I was in the first teams meeting she sent, not the second one. I tried explaining, she said she pulled the attendance log and verified I wasn’t in the call and then stopped responding to my emails. I found the Director on LinkedIn and sent a mostly tactful message that clearly called out the HR rep by name and I asked to reschedule. I’m still waiting to hear back but fuck if I’m going to let that bitch get in the way of my money and financial security in this economy without a fight.

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u/FatMacchio 12h ago

Yep. You just need to plant the seed. Let the decision-maker sprout the full idea you planted, so they “trust” it and are more willing to act on it.

Sometimes even then it’s not enough, because of nepotism and cronyism. But this gives you your best chance at success

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u/wytherlanejazz 12h ago

Tactical, being tactile might get them arrested

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u/No_Gas4560 11h ago

you do need to be tactile with how you do this

tactile as in a bop right in the mouf

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u/DidjaSeeItKid 11h ago

Pretty sure you meant "tactful," not "tactile." Unless you mean OP should be ready to throw hands.

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u/Ominoiuninus 9h ago

Too late now but yes I did.

Throw hands if you gotta throw hands lol

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u/Reckless_Fever 10h ago

Good advice but be careful about being tactile. A little too much hands on could be misread.

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u/clamberer 10h ago

Or, if you are content to leave, not having to work your notice period or write the instructions..

Tell them you're going to work at a direct competitor. Tell the higher ups as a well. 

They'll have you off the premises that day.

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u/miniscant 9h ago

Did you mean to say, “tactful”?

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u/Micro-Naut 7h ago

This is great advice. You should complain to HR as well!!!

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u/BeowulfShaeffer 7h ago

Tactful.  Being tactile might have unpredictable effects. 

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u/Basic_User_Name3000 7h ago

I just randomly shared this story with my husband. He immediately was like “if this person is in Texas I’d love to talk with them!” OP, if you’re interested I may have a job opportunity for you. 🤪

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u/turtlebellebundy 7h ago

tactful, baby, not tactile lol

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u/FormerGameDev 5h ago

OP, this is the way

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u/corporaterebel 4h ago

Must be nice to live in Disneyland.

Unless IT is the core competency of that org, then any improvements are seen as cleaning out the toilet.

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u/Cobra52 4h ago

The likelihood of this working are slim, at any half decent org anyway. Higher ups would know exactly why workflows improved and the decision to terminate was made regardless. Also, they likely expect the workflow to return to previous levels once the employee is gone. The added expense of keeping someone on to optimize may not justify the cost.

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u/AVerySmallBeetle 4h ago

This this this this this

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u/throwitallawayinthet 3h ago

Good advice in general: if you are trying to get someone to admit there wrong, coming in with genuine questions can be great. Also strategically asking these questions such that you make the other person arrive at the point you're trying to make is even better.

Also knowing what value you're bringing to your workplace in terms of $$$.

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u/LordRybec 2h ago

This is a good answer. Too many pessimistic people suggesting passive/aggressive revenge that won't actually help the OP in the long run. The severance clause in the contract probably does not permit the company to make severance pay conditional on something like this. No need to make AI do the documentation. Check the contract, refuse to do the extra work if the contract does not require it, and if the company doesn't pay, hire a lawyer to sue.

But the reality is that the OP has developed skills far beyond what the original job required, and if this company is stupid enough to lay them off instead of laying off someone else and promoting the OP to a position of automation specialist, there are plenty of other companies that would be willing to hire someone like that. It's just a matter of pitching those skills and not taking crap when other companies with bad management undervalue those skills and try to hire to pull the same crap the first one did. I know people who do automation and training stuff as private contractors, where companies will hire them to automate specific jobs for very high pay. If you can automate away a $120k/yr job, it's well worth it for the company to pay you at least $120k to do it (they get their money back in only a year), and if you can do it in 4 months and can keep getting clients, that's easily $360k a year! The OP needs to recognize that this skill in automation is far more valuable that the skills required for the original job.

And yes, tact is important, whether approaching management in this company or interviewing for the next.

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u/IndependentClue1206 11m ago

Here’s the thing - the boss probably already knows and approved it

The most expensive liability on a company’s financials is labor

So any time they can cut labor and reduce expenses is a good day

Op did a great job and cut out 15 hours of week of administrative work, but that leaves a 25 hour week. They just didn’t have enough work left for op to do

There’s a lot of consulting work out there for someone with these skills

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u/[deleted] 18h ago

[deleted]

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u/Kommenos 18h ago

Oh boy, OP better not do that then since he might get let go!

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u/Im_crap_at_usernames 17h ago

So they have nothing to lose.

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u/APartyInMyPants 17h ago

Fun fact.

They’re ALREADY fired. You cannot get, like, Super Fired. This person has nothing to lose outside of burning a bridge that’s likely burned anyway.

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u/3xlduck 17h ago

OP is getting let go anyways.....

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u/vulcanstrike 17h ago

Then you get unemployment and don't have to write a handover, perfect

You have nothing to lose, though the company has shown utter contempt to you at this point so sabotaging it subtly on the way out is the best choice

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u/mattattack007 7h ago

Are... Are you new to this planet? In what world do you think upper management is going to give a single shit about OP? I'm genuinely curious as to how you got this delusional, have you simply not being paying attention or something?

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u/Far-Advantage-2770 4h ago

This is a waste of time and will just make you look like a psycho. Even though it's completely correct. In corpo world, it's a bad look. It will never pan out well for you. Life isn't a movie.