Man Charges Company Who Fired Him 10x Hourly Rate After Asking for Help

A man has shared how he was stunned that his ex-employer contacted him for help a year after he had been suddenly laid off.

A year earlier, the man, who wanted to be known by his username mits66, was working as an admin and compliance officer in a small business.

Responsible for handling and maintaining all of the company's records, he was stunned when he was suddenly laid off one day with just 30 minutes' notice.

"The layoff was very out of the blue," mits66 told Newsweek. "No one besides the owner, director, and one other employee was aware our department was going to be shut down—and none of them shared any of that until it was happening."

Just half an hour before the end of the working day, he was told that he didn't have to come in the next day.

A year later, he is now working as an admin for another business and is in much more stable employment. But was stunned when he heard from his old employer.

"I got a text from said boss, asking if I wanted to make some money on the side. I still have hard feelings, but money's money so I said yes," said mits66. "She asked if I could please transfer the entire company's old directory to the new one."

The company had recently moved operations to another state, and had realized that nobody had their directory backed up.

"Apparently, after they moved, they did not save their directory and take it with them. I was their compliance officer, and now they need me to provide proof of compliance in their new state," he explained. "The files they needed were compliance records, but the 'directory' in question was the entire directory, including past business contracts, tax records, and employee info."

He explained that he no longer had any of this information—adding that if he still had those records it would be highly inappropriate.

But the man knew he would be able to recover the files, and offered to help his old boss for 10 times his usual hourly rate.

"They did take me up on that offer. The files were easily recovered, luckily, and I helped to prepare all the past compliance records they needed," he explained. "After I finished they asked if I wanted to come back to my old job, which I refused point blank."

After refusing to go back to the old role, he shared the story on Reddit's r/antiwork subreddit where it has had over 24,000 upvotes.

In over 1,000 comments, people praised the man for charging the company to do the work.

Redditor Bromiethius said: "Don't even ballpark them a reasonable price. Go for the throat like capitalism is all about!"

"The answer is always yes....then ghost," said Fast-Reaction8521.

"Don't do it period," said Valuable-Locksmith47. "They fired you. You have no obligation to help them."