Honesty Almost Got Me Arrested
Leaving a job almost landed me in jail
“One thing you learn: if you want to reveal yourself, you also have to know where to stop.” — Keith Jarrett
Two weeks ago I wrote about leaving a job rather than compromising my integrity. Here is the rest of that story.
Leaving that job nearly got me arrested. Why? Because I was too honest. I left that job to preserve my integrity. But then I found that there is a downside to revealing too much.
This story is an excerpt from my book, Don’t Say That at Work (Affiliate link). The book contains a collection of mistakes I made throughout my software development career and advice on how to avoid making similar ones yourself. If you would like to read more like this, please consider the complete book. You can also follow me on X.
The day after I resigned from the job from the previous article, I received an email with some “exit paperwork” my former boss wanted me to complete. I read it over, and it all seemed pretty routine. It was an agreement not to solicit any of the company’s employees or clients, along with an affidavit stating that I possessed no company property or source code. Feeling relieved, I signed the documents and sent it all back to him.
