Technical Debt Collectors

Many years ago, I worked for a little company. The CEO was a miser of the first order.

We needed image hosting for a large client account, and the CEO was unwilling to pay for the annual image-hosting fees at the time (even though the company made millions off of the deal).

Being an enterprising individual, I figured out a way to host the images on Flickr. I saved the login information in a physical notebook and kept informing them that this is a “house of cards,” and we really need to switch to a professional service.

Several months later, I was promoted and asked for a raise to go with my promotion. The CEO said no (all promotions and raises required CEO signoff). I tried negotiating, but the CEO said no and to leave if I didn’t like it.

So, I left.

The CEO told me to “forget everything related to the job” here, and he’d sue me if I did anything with the client accounts afterwards (i.e., sabotage or steal clients).

I told him I’m leaving all my knowledge behind in the notebook in my final email to him and my manager (and bcc’d my personal email). In this email, a full inventory of what I left behind (invoices, contracts, etc.), including this entry:

Entry: “Personal notebook – account notes and reference materiel (including image hosting logins) for [accounts] – KEEP FOR REFERENCE!”

Recently, I received a “professional networking site” message from the CEO, telling me to help them with my old accounts, or he’ll sue me. Apparently, Flickr changed its terms of service, and the images were deleted.

In over ten years, nobody has updated any documentation or the image hosting. Nobody bothered checking the email account that was used to log into the Flickr account. 

I told him that I cannot help. Per his request, I forgot everything I knew about his company, and anything I knew was in that notebook I left him over ten years ago.

Seriously though, I don’t remember what I had for breakfast, technical details from that long ago… I just laugh.