Engineer Asked for a 10% Raise, Got Fired—Then Watched His Bosses Lose Their Jobs Too; Here’s How

In the fast-moving tech industry, salary talks can sometimes lead to surprising twists. A senior software engineer recently shared on Reddit how asking for a modest 10% raise not only led to his own dismissal but also set off a chain of events that eventually got his bosses fired.

The engineer, who worked at a well-known tech firm for six years, was responsible for maintaining critical backend systems “similar to those used by Dropbox for data synchronization.” Despite carrying the workload alone, he later found out he was being paid about 10% less than his peers.

From Raise Request to Layoff

When he approached management to match his salary to others, his request was rejected. “Management said no,” he wrote in his Reddit post. Frustrated, he decided to scale back. “So I compensated accordingly and started working less and working my own hours with little regard to ‘core hours.’”

Not long after, a new director came on board, replacing his previous manager. The director confronted him after hearing “rumors that he wasn’t working regular hours.” The engineer admitted it and explained his reasons. A month later, he was laid off. “He told me that I was flagged as a case of ‘job abandonment’ in their HR system,” the post read.

Six People to Replace One

The story took an unexpected turn. A former colleague later told him that the company had to hire six people to handle the work he once managed alone, all while still paying his severance. “So, it became seven in place of one person handling the entire job,” the engineer wrote.

The results were disastrous. The software became buggier, customers began leaving, and investor confidence dropped. What started as a simple pay dispute ended up becoming a costly lesson for the company.

Leadership Faces the Consequences

The fallout didn’t stop there. The director who had fired him and the vice president who had hired that director were eventually shown the door. The company paid a steep price for ignoring what the engineer described as a “measly 10% raise.”

“All of this could have been easily avoided by giving me that measly 10% raise,” he wrote, adding with a hint of satisfaction, “Anyhow, I hope that this shows that there is still some justice left in this world. I sure got a laugh out of it!”

Sometimes laying off your critical employees is not the best idea…
byu/9ubj inLayoffs

Reddit Reacts with Strong Opinions

The post sparked a lively debate in the comments section. One user cheered him on, writing, “Good for you. If corporations can pay millions to a useless CEO and the rest of the yes-men-type executive suite, they should pay top workers as well. Hopefully those other 6 people who are still at the company leave soon.”

Another user advised him to focus on himself: “Let this layoff give you the time to reset how much you need to contribute. If the company doesn’t give you ownership rights as part of your effort, then they aren’t ‘family.’ Work your contractual agreement, and don’t sell yourself short. Work on your own hobby projects instead. Really give yourself time to reset your boundaries.”

A third commenter pointed out the irony in the company’s decision: “It always bugs me how companies are willing to nickel and dime and won’t pay a deserving employee a 10-15% raise but are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hiring the replacement candidate and training them.”

The engineer’s story, and the reactions to it, became a sharp reminder for companies and employees, of how undervaluing talent can backfire in the most unexpected ways.