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?
•
u/SnooKiwis2161 10h ago
This is exactly it.
I automated a lot of my job using copilot. I told no one. Even if I did, not one is going to be able to reverse engineer it, and a lot of this "vibe coding" i did with AI's help is contingent with all other processes remaining exactly the same forever. But when Jan in accounting decides to add a random new data field or Sven in marketing strategy makes a new marketing segment and of course, none of these brainiacs decide to consult or coordinate with anyone, it will all fall apart because no one outside of me has sufficient curiousity, interest, or ability to ask the right questions to keep the automation going.
I learned a lot in the process but the biggest lesson is no one gives a sh*t enough to do what I did.