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Bizarre HR: How to automate your work and get a promotion

A man who automated his work when he was hired to do it manually is either a "scumbag" or company saviour, according to his colleagues and friends. What do you think?

A poster on social media site Reddit, whose work involved a lot of manual data entry, told other users of the site he had figured out a script which does all his work for him.

The code he programmed did so much of his work he was able to "work about 8 hours a week doing real work. The rest is spent playing games on my phone or reading Reddit."

"So Reddit, am I a scumbag? My friends call me a scumbag," he asked.

The poster, named CS-NL, then updated the thread to explain he got fired when his boss found out about him programming on company time, but was re-hired when the head of the company found out how much time and money his new script could save the company.

He had also refused to hand over the password for the programme to his former employers.

"I met with him [the boss] a week later. I asked if I was doing anything wrong or immoral, and he said that the only issue was that I coded it on company time when I wasn't supposed to, and that the app not only was fine... but also saved [the company] lots and lots of money and they never even realised it."

He said they came to an agreement in which he would be re-hired to implement his programme across the board. He is now the lead software engineer managing his own department and earning a better salary.

It also appears the so-called "scumbag" has a heart.

"I agreed only if the current employees wouldn't be fired and would be put in different places in the company," he wrote. "We came to a compromise that some useless people would be let go but he could find jobs for the rest."

"A handful were kept on the original team but their job was changed from manual input to now working with the tool I built."

So what do you think? Scumbag or company saviour?

Read the original thread here

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