Here's my question. Should I E-Mail the marketing owners at my now-former job links to my blog and relevant articles? I don't believe in democracy. I'll consider both arguments and the majority opinion.
I'm on the fence between "do it" and "don't do it". There's zero downside to doing it, other than the time spent writing the E-Mail, so why not?
Arguments against E-Mailing the marketing owners:
- It's their company. They're responsible for what their employees do. Even if they were totally duped, they're still responsible for the actions of their subordinates.
- It's not my $500M opportunity being flushed down the toilet. While I was working there, I had an obligation to do my best, even if it meant exposing the Rails project and idiot new manager as frauds. I am under no such obligation now. Why should I give them free consulting?
- Such an E-Mail might be viewed as "sour grapes".
- They might sue me for mentioning them indirectly in my blog, even though I never refer to them by name.
- Do they deserve a working product?
- If you start a software company with zero knowledge of software, you deserve a disaster. They should have picked a qualified technical person as co-founder. However, I could not have formed such a company, because I don't have the customer contacts they do. I could not start a financial software company because I have no marketing contacts.
- Their customers are already getting close to dropping them or losing interest. It probably could still be salvaged with a working product in the next few months.
- If they're serious about running a software company, is it their obligation to contact me?
- They might decide to hire me to write their website for them. I could do it independently, as a backup for when the Rails project fails miserably. I'm unemployed right now, and have nothing better to do!
- It'll create some extra tension for the people that screwed me over.
- They did seem like sincerely nice guys. They had no knowledge of software and got duped by con artists. Professional psychopaths take advantage of people with sincerely good intentions. In their specialty, marketing, they actually seemed to be doing quite well. They were able to sell something that doesn't exist, and never will exist unless they hire me to create it for them. (There's a small chance they could luck into someone else with a clue, but the psychopathic idiot new manager would never allow that.)
- It would be very lucrative for me, if they decided to use my version of their website and gave me even a small slice of equity.
- The marketing owners might hire me as co-founder in a future business, after this one fails. By marketing standards, they actually seemed quite impressive, although I'm not an expert at marketing.
- The Rails advocate and idiot new manager already are people I wouldn't consider working with ever again. Why should I care if they get pissed off at me?
- "FSK got fired" probably doesn't sit well with a lot of them. I doubt the idiots got approval before firing me. I didn't get "you're about to get fired" vibes from the marketing guys.
- I never did get a chance to properly say goodbye. Most of the marketing guys seemed sincerely nice.
5 comments:
If you're considering doing that, then you are not thinking rationally in my opinion.
You're going through the anger/justice phase. Unless you stand to gain materially, then why would you help them with their business after they fired you?
Your responsibility is first to FSK, and staring into the rear view mirror isn't going to help FSK advance, but it's going to trap him in the false paradigm of a bad relationship.
Profit from this scenario by finding better work, learning something, or owning their project, but if you do the latter, do it for the right reason (profit) not the wrong one (revenge).
FYI, democracy has nothing to do with seeking counsel and opinions. Don't confuse the art of listening with popularity contests. The state doesn't want you to be a good listener. It wants you to overreact and look for you to defer not only your own judgment, but the better judgment and wisdom of others. It's a way to keep critical thinkers from associating.
Don't do it. IF you want to reach them out of some lasting loyalty, you could email them ant talk to them. Your posts here are generally rants,and while they are justified, from the perspective of the people who fired you, they are going to sound bitter. (timing doesn't matter, their minds aren't open to the idea that you're the right guy, or they wouldn't have fired you.)
I think what you need to do is let the company go. There's nothing to be gained, and rightly or wrongly they had the right to fire you, just as you had the right to quit.
For your emotional health, stop caring about them.
It's hard to say. I think the marketing owners already suspect their best engineer got fired, and they know where to find you if they want you back. I don't think them seeing your blog would help convince them to rehire you at a lucrative rate. If they can't come to their senses on their own, while watching their business crumble around them, I can't see your blog do that for them. And that's really the only potential upside for you for sending the blog.
One downside I could see is if they see the non-related articles and conclude you're insane. That could be a barrier to them rehiring you at a real rate to save their business.
I would opine that you should send the marketing guys a pleasant e-mail thanking them for the opportunity. Let them know in simple terms that you could provide them a working product in 6 weeks time and that in exchange for 3 months' salary, you'll demonstrate a working product. If they like it, they can bring you on at whatever terms you negotiate and if not, you both walk away.
If they say no to the offer, then you lost the time it takes to compose the email.
Do not mention your blog. You're just burning bridges with that and it'll do you no good.
You should probably send the marketing owners and email and just explain your thoughts. It always makes sense to not burn bridges, especially if they were sincerely nice to you (and may be able to help you in the future).If you are unemployed, it may be worth a shot to try doing the project (outsourced not dealing with the idiots) as you can earn a few dollars and maybe show the Rails guys how to code.
You may not want to show the the blog for a variety of reasons, especially due to the fact that it may be pretty offensive to the owners which were the ones that did like you.
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