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.

Or is she?

Here’s the thing about Sheila. She never complains. She comes to work every day no matter who the overlords are that day. She fights the good fight, she manages her own work-life balance. She can code, she can lead, she can do the product and vision thing. She has opinions but she asks questions rather than makes statements.

Any tech industry or tech-adjacent company who wants a shot at success needs at least a dozen Sheilas.

Why The Last Great Employee Is Fed Up

This might not be what you think.

Sheila doesn’t work at some soul-crushing behemoth like Google or Amazon, where, I’m told, like, 90% of the employees have already quiet-quit and are just waiting out a terrible job market. Things at Sheila’s company are supposed to be good. Great. Wonderful. They are not.

As recently as a year ago, she was singing its praises — coincidentally, that was the last time I heard from her. The company is one I respect and would have bet on, if that tells you anything. I never worked there, but I know enough to know that it should be growing and breaking new ground at a point in time where tech ground is as fragile and breakable as it’s ever been, what with everyone else fussing around with AI and chatbots.

I almost don’t have to tell you why Sheila is done. Indulge me in playing some of my 2024 greatest hits for the new folks in the room.

• Half her team was laid off, the good half, it turns out.
• Which resulted in commoditization of what she does.
• Then a slashing of employee-related benefits for those remaining.
• Plus a poorly-handled return to office mandate.
• Also an ever-changing-on-whim product roadmap.
• A bunch of unrelated AI-related use cases dropped in her lap.
• And a series of see-through attempts to keep people from quitting.

Sheila is working without direction or reason or motivation. She doesn’t have the resources to meet delivery dates and there is no patience or tolerance when she misses those dates. Her boss is paranoid because morale is in the shitter. Everyone remaining on her team is looking, and they’ve told her so.

It’s not that the Last Great Employee doesn’t want to do her job anymore, it’s that she can’t.

She. Can’t.

Does This Sound Like You? Because Here’s What I Told Her

OK, first let me tell you what I’ve done, not what I think. Other people will tell you what they think. They’re full of shit.

This has, of course, happened to me before. And I took my issues to two different mentors at two completely different times in my career.

The first time was very early in my career, when the same kind of spirit-crushing was happening in the micro-software space because everyone was going crazy for the internet, including me, and not able to create any traction while companies doubled down on the desktop.

That mentor said, “If you believe in [the internet] as the future, and you think you can still believe in your company, do everything you can to make a cogent argument, and if they still resist, dust off your resume.”

In other words, when that switch gets flipped in your brain from head-down to fed up, fight first, then quit — mentally, of course, don’t storm out.

Decades later, I was 100 percent fed up with the machinations of an acquirer, and I found I was the only one on the side of logic as to where the direction of the product should go. I was tired of making the cogent argument for deaf ears, and I was ready to walk.

That mentor said, “Any port in a storm.”

Much shorter. Also 180 degrees different.

Here’s the kicker. I lost both fights and left both times.

So let’s put the two together.

Of course, I will look out for you. Not you, the reader, but if you want to follow me I’ll probably have some nuggets you can use in the future. Get out of there, just be careful you’re not trading the devil you know for the one you don’t. This spirit-sucking isn’t limited to just your company and your situation. As the title of this article makes clear, the entire tech industry is killing its golden geese and you’re probably the last goose at your company.

Also — sigh — put ***damn AI on your resume and LinkedIn. At the top. If you were forced to dabble in AI like you say you dabbled, you need to trigger the algorithms. You’re not going to get that first interview for your skills, talent, and experience, because the bots don’t care about that.

And good luck, we’re all counting on you.