This story is about a man who got fired after pulling an all-nighter — but ended up getting paid RM20,000 to fix his boss’s mistake.
An Urgent Task and Deadline
Some people leave and get a farewell lunch, I got an urgent task and an all nighter. It was a Thursday. The CTO – Jason – walked in and said the feature I’d been working off and on for a few months suddenly needed to be finished by tomorrow morning.
The timing was a bit weird since that feature had been on pause for so long, but I didn’t question it: I stayed up, eyes and midnight oil burning, and finished it at about 2 in the morning. The code was clean, the test case ready and I even had the merge branch prepped in Git. A few hours of sleep and I came in the next morning like nothing happened.
Ambush Termination
I walked through the door at 08:45am. By 9AM, I was in a “quick” meeting with the CEO and CTO. The CEO thanked me for my hard work and left the room. Then Jason handed me a letter: Termination, effective immediately. Three months’ salary in lieu of notice. RM30,000. All I had to do was sign.
I asked why. “Performance issues,” he said with a smirk, “Not a culture fit.”
Interesting answer to someone who’d been there for four years, trained half the team, and organised karaoke and pickleball sessions on my own time. So yeah, I was angry. But I didn’t shout. I told them I’d sign once the money hit my bank.
He agreed. So I sat there. Silent. Waiting. My phone pinged, the money was in. I signed, took photos of every page of the termination letter, slid it back, and walked to my desk.
A Clean Exit with No Drama
At my desk, I sent one last email: “Hey everyone. Today is my last day. Just got let go. Good luck guys.” Then I logged out of everything, packed my personal laptop, left my keys and access card on the table.
I had logged out of everything on my phone – Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Loom and Slack – by the time I was in the lift lobby, nothing connected my phone to their systems.
A few people Whatsapp’ed me. I ignored all of them.
The Real Reason
Only an hour passed before a friend on the inside whatsapp’ed me an explanation. A new HR policy: All senior roles now needed five years of experience and a degree.
Jason – the CTO who I’d butted heads with constantly, was convinced I wanted his job. He had engineered this knowing that I have the degree but not the five years needed. I was three months short.
The messages continued in: “Jason pushing for “standardised qualifications” before a big meeting with government officials in Putrajaya.”
It was no secret the CEO wanted the company to “look good” for the showcase. Jason used it to get rid of me, make some spreadsheets look pretty and clean up the organizational chart.
Now it’s Personal
A few hours later, my phone buzzed again. Surprise surprise, it was the CTO Jason himself, demanding to know, “Where’s the feature you coded last night?”
I was sitting at Starbucks across the street. “Still on my laptop,” I replied.
“Local test branch on my personal machine. Was going to push it but you know — got fired first thing.”
Silence. Then: “Can you send the code?”
“Per the termination letter, I’m no longer your employee. That code, passwords, and access are all confidential company property. Can’t share what legally isn’t mine anymore.” I wish I could see Jason’s face at that moment. I added, “I’m available for hire as a freelance consultancy.”
I’ve always wanted to be a consultant.
A few minutes of silence. Then: “Freelance is ok. Just help us finish and implement the feature.”
“My terms: RM500 an hour. Minimum 40 hours. I’ll implement, run tests, prepare deployment docs. No training.”
“That’s RM20K for two days’ work! That’s expensive!”
“Then miss the delivery window and pay the penalty — 1% per day on a RM250K contract. Not to mention you’ll look pretty foolish when the Big-Boss finds out you fired the tech-lead with the code this morning. I’m cheaper than the penalty. Paying me is cost effective and you keep your job.”
He started and deleted messages to me several times. I sipped coffee. Fifteen minutes ticked by. Then: “Will send contract by end of day.”
“Cool. I’ll reply tomorrow morning. Just remember — I don’t do karaoke or team building pickleball anymore.”
No Output Without Input
He thought firing me was a power move. What he didn’t realise was that the feature still cost them RM20,000 in the end. What he also does not understand is that I have been there for four years, and had built more than half the system.
I don’t need to shout, threaten, or beg. I’ll do the work, provide them with their desired output. But to keep things running? I’m just going to wait, and watch and let karma do its own QA testing.
You can replace titles and policies. But you can’t replace the people who actually built your systems in three months of experience. I hope they find someone with the necessary three months more of experience.
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