Fired by AI, Hired by Karma

The HR manager slid a severance agreement across the table and said coldly, "You're fired."

I froze. "Why?"

Just one week ago, my boss had praised me in the company meeting and called me one of the team's most valuable people.

The HR manager shrugged. "Ms. Lyttle, you're already 35. You don't have the energy of younger employees anymore, and you're not what you used to be. You no longer fit the company's future."

I joined this company when I was 29. Over the past six years, I wrote countless lines of code and worked through more sleepless nights than I could remember.

Every time the company faced a major system failure, I led the emergency response and saved it from catastrophic losses. And now they were telling me I was too old and too slow.

I laughed in disbelief. "So you've already copied all my experience and skills into an AI, haven't you?"

The HR manager paused for a moment before answering confidently, "AI never gets tired, never takes time off, and never asks for a raise. Once the company has an employee like that, why would we keep you?"

I looked at her. "Are you sure the AI has learned everything I know?"

She smiled. "Absolutely."

The moment I heard that, I finally relaxed.

Long ago, I had already hidden a trap inside my code to keep my skills from being copied.

The moment their AI employee went live, the company would only have three days before everything fell apart.

After I bluntly called out the company's plan to replace me with AI, Lorraine Lindsey from HR stopped pretending.

"The engineering team already finished their evaluation," she said calmly. "The AI writes code 30% faster than you, has a 50% lower error rate, and..."

She paused on purpose before smiling.

"It works 24/7. It never sleeps."

I sat there, furious.

All the experience I had built through countless sleepless nights and endless failures had been handed over to the AI like it meant nothing.

Now that I was no longer useful, they were throwing me away like garbage.

I had poured six years of my life into this company, only to end up with nothing.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the severance agreement on the desk and frowned.

"What about my severance package?"

Lorraine's expression didn't change. "The company's been struggling financially lately, so we can't offer that. We can only give you two months of your base salary as compensation."

Two months?

I had worked here for six years.

Two years ago, the system crashed on New Year's Eve. I had to leave my family dinner halfway through and rush back to the office. By the time I fixed everything, New Year's Day was already over.

Last year, one-third of the company's database was accidentally deleted. Everyone panicked. I spent 48 straight hours in the server room recovering the data by myself. When I finally finished, I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the floor.

I let out a cold laugh. "I wrote half of this company's core code. Over the past six years, I've saved this company tens of millions of dollars in losses. And now you're offering me just two months of pay?"

Lorraine smiled knowingly. "Taylor, don't say that. This industry isn't very big. If you don't cooperate, and your next employer asks why you left during a background check, we'll simply tell them you were laid off because your skills weren't a good fit for the position. That won't help your job search."

It was an obvious threat.

I laughed in disbelief and closed the agreement.

"Fine. I'll sign."

Lorraine immediately handed me a pen.

After signing, I stood up and asked, "Are you sure the AI has learned everything I know?"

She smiled confidently. "Of course. It has mastered 100% of your skills."

Hearing that, I finally felt at ease.

Long before this day came, I had already hidden a little surprise inside the code to keep anyone from copying my skills.

Once their AI employee went live, the company would run into serious trouble within three days.

As I walked out of the office, I heard Lily Sonnett calling our boss, Florin Stretton, behind me.

"She signed the papers. Everything went smoothly. She didn't make a scene."

I paused for a second before heading back to my desk to pack my belongings.

A coworker quietly asked, "Taylor, what happened? Mr. Stretton was praising you at last week's staff meeting..."

Before I could answer, Florin's voice came from behind me.