Akshay Kedari
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

I’ve been through the exact same thing, I was the only employee in a two-guy owned tech company. I’ve sometimes written code for the software product at 2 in the morning, taken calls over dinner, missed important family events, fallen ill due to the stress and eventually I fell into a slump.

I put in my resignation after 1.5 years without another offer in hand because I just could’nt withstand the inhospitable work culture anymore. The girl I was seeing at the time immediately blocked me when I told her this, can’t blame her who’d date a guy with an uncertain future.

My grandfather passed away around the same time, I took some days off for his funeral. When I returned, they actually had the gall to say how displeased they were because I took ‘Holidays’. All I thought was to stick out the last 10 days of my notice period and exit the place professionally.

My last week of work they began pressuring me to extend my notice period to another month because there was a lot of work and they had forgotten to find a replacement. moreover, they also wanted to attend a family event next month and wanted me to stay back to handle all the mess, I snapped — told em and that I will not do that, that was a dark day for me.

They kept my last two months pay, denied me an experience letter and refused to give recommendation should some company call to verify my experience. I tried getting a job as a programmer but the non-existance of an experience letter meant rejection from every potential employer for a sr. position.

I left programming as a result. Had to start from scratch. But, everything is good now, got a new job as a digital marketer in a good firm and life is slowly recovering.

I had read this article before when I was contemplating quitting, now that I’m in a good place I felt that I’d share my story too and say Thank you. This post was a major support and got me out of the slump.