The Tech Industry Finally Broke the Spirit of Its Last Great Employee

Even the most loyal tech workers are throwing in the towel these days

I read the email and it crushed my soul, because of who it came from.

“I’m done. Get me out of here.”

It wasn’t exactly that concise. One would think the Last Great Employee would be so focused and so driven that they would only speak in short burst commands. But no, if you know tech industry employees, you know it’s the opposite. They’ll use 500 words when they only need five.

So in reality, the email I received late last night was all warm greetings and small talk up front, a query about my family, then an angry list of issues, then a polite plea — if I had time or maybe if there was something serendipitous right in front me — for help finding another job. Any job. ASAFP… if possible.

See the redundancy there at the end? Tech people. I swear.

So way to go, tech industry. You finally, unquestionably destroyed the spirit of your last remaining hope — the one employee who was still keeping their head down through all your shenanigans, doing excellent work without question or appropriate reward.

Let’s talk about why the Last Great Employee has finally given up, and what they should do next.

Who Is (Was) the Last Great Employee

Thank you for punching through the above hyperbole. There is a payoff, I assure you.

The Last Great Employee — “Sheila” — is a close-but-not-very-close friend of mine whom I directly worked with ages ago when she was just coming into her own as a software developer. Through the grapevine and socials, I’ve watched her develop into an amazing technical talent.

Over the last 10 years, she has worked her way from being one random face on a small startup tech team to second-to-the-CTO at the same company, now a relatively well-known tech industry standard. Through acquisition and absorption, she’s had her hands directly on some software you might be using right now. Or you might not, I mean, she isn’t at Slack or anything.