Re: Helping your former company

[talexb]

Two important points have been covered here, one by you (getting appropriate authorization before logging on to the servers) and one by the respondents (make sure your current employers are OK with you giving out this kind of advice). It would be bad news if your old and new employers were competitiors, for example.

It's common to feel guilty after leaving a company -- or even hang on somewhere because of the same guilt. but it's important to hold that decision up to the harsh light of Common Business Sense.

You have to decide if it makes financial sense to stay where you are, or whether it makes more sense to leave. Temper that with the judgement you have to make about not leaving a company the first time someone waves more money in your face, of course. You also have to balance how your current employer is treating you against how prospective future employers might treat you, and gauge how the quality of work at each place compares.

I've been in the situation where I was working extremely hard and generally being ignored by my boss and the other managers. The clue by four that finally made me think was when I resolved a technical problem on a very tight deadline, saved the organization from some major egg on the face (along with furious customers) and worked through the night until 1pm the following afternoon to recover .. and no one thanked me.

On the other hand, I'm under a lot of pressure at my current job, but I'm having a lot of fun doing what I'm doing, I'm getting supprt and appreciation from my co-workers and lots of flexibilty. Sometimes it's the small things that make all the difference in that kind of situation.

Finally, toss your thoughts around with someone. It may be that even hearing yourself describing the situation will be enough for you to come to a decision -- then your sibling/best friend can sit there and drink beer and eat chicken wings while you talk about the situation and make your next decision.

[tcf03]

I've been in the situation where I was working extremely hard and generally being ignored by my boss and the other managers. The clue by four that finally made me think was when I resolved a technical problem on a very tight deadline, saved the organization from some major egg on the face (along with furious customers) and worked through the night until 1pm the following afternoon to recover .. and no one thanked me.

Im a Unix admin who regularly helps out the Windows folks via the odd script, or more (usually involving Perl) often on mission critical projects. I enjoy sitting back and watching them all pat themselves on their backs when they finish :)