In 2019, I started working for a big accounting firm right after college. I already had a bit of experience because of a few internships, and I’ve always worked part-time since I was sixteen, but I was mainly hired because I spoke four languages and they had business with a lot of foreign clients.
I was hired as a consultant, but I did a lot of things. I really enjoyed organizing big files, and I had a lot of experience with Excel, since I had paid for a professional course during college, so besides my usual work of handling some clients and doing my reports, I was also doing a lot of things like sales reports, client reports, basically most of the Excel files, and a lot of computer-based tasks.
When COVID hit, and we started to work from home, I was able to automate most of my tasks for two or three months. I was able to program a code that would basically do the sales reports (the most important file) and a few more automatically, and I could update it if needed.
My boss was over the moon with the update part, but I did not tell him that it was being done automatically; I did not tell anyone, as a matter of fact. This gave me a lot of extra time to talk to clients and pick up a few extra new ones, which gave me a considerable pay rise, since I was highly appraised during the meetings with my direct boss and a few higher-ups.
Whenever I did take time off, I had to delegate all of my tasks and clients’ meetings to anyone I trusted, which was mostly Jimmy (fake name). Jimmy was a good personal friend of mine and was married to my cousin, so we would occasionally take time off at the same time for a vacation or family gathering.
I was saving my vacation days for summer and winter, and in the only days I took during 2020, I left my tasks running automatically. I told Jimmy that he didn’t need to do them, and he really didn’t ask questions since it was less work for him.
Jimmy and I also took a few days off at the same time to go to a wedding in another country. I was told by my boss that he would let it happen, but to not make it a habit to take our vacation at the same time, and that I would have to work a bit harder to thank him for his good deed. He also pointed out that my sales weren’t getting any bigger in the last few months. I reminded him that I had the highest number of sales in all the department and I was the only one with the extra tasks, but he just told me that it wasn’t a big deal, and that anyone could have done that.
So, when I went on vacation, I turned off all of my automated tasks.
This was a big deal, since it was the end of the month and my boss would need all my reports completely updated. Apparently, they had to put five people to do my tasks so that they could finish the reports, which delayed the work of that team, and the reports were late and lacked a few things that mine had.
All the higher-ups weren’t happy with my boss, since he showed them the reports late, and they were clearly a downgrade from mine, and they also commented that there was a team failing a lot of deadlines that month (which was the team assigned to do my tasks).
As soon as I got back to work, I got a call from my boss apologizing for not appreciating my work with the tasks, and asking me not to take time off at the end of the month ever again. I told him that it was an unreasonable request, and I reminded him that he already approved of my week off in two months. He straight-up told me that it wasn’t approved.
I am not an angry person, but I got really upset about that. He told me that as long as it wasn’t at the end of the month, I could take time off whenever I wanted. Okay, fine.
As soon as I got out of the call, I started looking for other jobs, and I scheduled all of my time off (about three weeks) in the next month (the busiest month for us). Most of the big clients didn’t speak English, and they only wanted to talk to me, but nevertheless, my boss approved.
Subsequently, Jimmy also scheduled time off at the same time, so despite not being the end of the month, someone had to do my tasks since I would, once again, turn them off.
Apparently, they weren’t able to handle either my clients or my tasks, so they just ignored the tasks until I got back. This caused some of the clients to get really angry, since no one could really assist them as well as I could (I actually got a call on my personal phone from one of them, asking me to assist him in my personal time).
This was a huge client. He was actually a great person who had huge respect for me, so I said it was fine as long as he came to my location (I was on vacation with my family).
Long story short, he came with a yacht and invited all of my family to go there and to the villa he rented. I spent a whole day helping him. Best of all, he was more than happy to offer me a job once he knew I was looking for other jobs, since apparently I had sent my CV to one of his buddies’ companies.
It was a great offer with lots of benefits, and the offer would also extend to Jimmy, who was actually going to work for me, with a great salary. In my country, you don’t have to give two weeks’ notice to your boss, so I just quit when I returned and told him that I wouldn’t do any of the sales reports. He was p***ed, but there was nothing he could do.
I am still in the same company, but with a higher position now. I don’t really have a schedule; I just have to travel a lot, which is fine by me.
Last I checked with a few friends that still work in my old company, they had to hire a whole team to handle my tasks, and a few of the clients quit because they weren’t satisfied with how they were being handled. Value your employees more!
