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Tell Us Your Stories About Your Worst IT Job Ever

SunTrust Banks recently laid off 100 IT workers, yet required them to “provide help if needed” for two years as part of their severance agreement. Does this not even surprise you?

Computerworld reports on SunTrust’s wacko severance deal, which saw an estimated 100 experienced IT professionals lose their jobs. On top of having to train their own replacements, the employees’ severance agreement contains a “continuing cooperation” clause. The clause demands they remain essentially on-call for the next two years—while receiving no additional compensation for any future involvement. One lawyer who spoke to Computerworld sees this as unenforceable and “a clear violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.” It’s adding insult to considerable injury.

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Cooperation agreements like this are generally intended for C-Level executives, who might reasonably be expected to consult down the line. It’s rare to include them for IT professionals, and we hope SunTrust gets a lot of blowback on this batshit expectation.

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Were you ever subjected to a requirement like the SunTrust employees? Or did you work for a company so crappy this doesn’t even faze you? From horrible customer service interactions to horrific HR, tell us in the comments about the awful stuff you’ve seen on the IT beat. What’s the worst job experience you’ve had?

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[Computerworld]

Zombie computer professional with the world on fire image via Shutterstock

[UPDATE] We received a statement from SunTrust Banks on the severance policy: “It is a rare occasion when we need to call a former employee. The ‘continuing cooperation’ clause in our severance agreements is designed to assist the company under scenarios that arise infrequently when we need access to knowledge possessed by a former employee, primarily related to regulatory or legal matters. SunTrust has never used this provision to require a former employee to be ‘on call’ to help conduct day-to-day business in any way.”

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Contact the author at kaila@gizmodo.com, or follow on Twitter @kailahalestern