I used to recently work for a worldwide technology company, don't want to be too specific. I was terminated from said company for literally going over my managers head with a concern about a serious matter, after I told my manager several times about the issue and no correction was made by him. Any other corporation and I would have been fine, this one and they go for your throat..
I loved working with new materials and processes, and learned new information every day. Every Phd loves to explain things, and I love asking questions. I loved knowing that a process I developed was the worlds first successful materials property measurement in certain high temperature production environments of the material. It felt great to think through, develop a theory, test the theory and verify that it worked all myself. I received company recognition and reward for the development, and it took the process far ahead of any other company in that area, and allowed new material development due to its success.
I hated that I knew how much profit the new technology process was going to make my company.. Millions of dollars across several technologies that the company can apply and optimize materials development for the technology space. Its just beginning to be applied and used for development of new materials at my ex company, and if the software they can develop from the process is invested in, the company can make millions more by licensing the software out to other companies for big, big dollar amounts. As far as 6 months ago, the process I developed has not been successfully duplicated and the measurements they are recording are way off from actual, by at least 25% at 1550*C. Should have thought about that before I was fired, but I've seen them refuse to pay someone an extra 6 months salary so he could retire six months later to train people of his knowledge and skill sets that he acquired over 30+ years with the company. They literally were stuck because the knowledge he had in his head about a process the company developed and had forgotten, and failed to secure a knowledge base of. He was eligible for a employer sponsored retirement package when they went around on Jan. 1st with the early out packages. He put in for retirement, and the company then realized he was almost their entire knowledge base of the process left currently working at the company worldwide. They asked him to stay, saying the packages would probably be the same next year in Jan., but they couldn't promise him they would even have early outs next year. He came to a decision that he would stay six months and document and train all his knowledge to a new group of employees, if they would give him the same package six months later, after their training was completed. That knowledge that he had was easily worth 20 million for the company, easily worth that much. They told him to get ****ed. They would not change the package date and they would not hire him as a contractor to transfer all his knowledge. This simple act of straight forward thinking would have only cost them an additional $40k over a six month period, it was literally the joke of the site. They refused to pay someone an extra half years salary, and push back his early retirement package date six months later, so they created a program to re-gain his knowledge and insight for around 12 million dollars. There were no others alive in the world that had his knowledge and skillsets that the company could hire as a consultant for the technology, no one wanted to work with a corporation that has a reputation as being a slimey bully around the school yard. Its literally what the whole thing boiled down to, their refusal to negotiate and flex policy with an employee that was completely reasonable about his retirement program. This is a non-union company so no guidelines that couldn't have been changed in a special circumstance would have been an issue, they were just being asswholes.
