A sysadmin has taken to Reddit to tell the tale of a boss from hell, who has demanded – with legal letters – that he or she provide services for five years after leaving a job.

“I left the company around six months ago,” wrote a Redditor named “Setsquared”.

“Upon leaving as a nicety I explained that my two months notice wasn't enough to train my replacement so feel free to drop me an email or a text from time to time to ask general questions which may not be documented,” he or she added.

“All was well for the first two months, and then they let go of my replacement, and another member of the team left – then the craziness began.”

That craziness first manifested as a request to do some work on a VLAN. During that task, Setsquared learned that the admin passwords had all been changed to “p@ssw0rd”.

Next came a request for some work on an Active Directory server, which could have been carried out by anyone who read the documentation Setsquared left behind.

Then there came a cry for help to recover a failed server. Setsquared was decent enough to chat with the contractor hired to do that job, along the way discovering nobody had changed the backup tapes since Setsquared left the company. (Hint: Setsquared quit six months ago.)

At this point Setsquared decided enough was enough, so asked his ex-boss to leave him alone. Then this happened:

I got a letter through the door from my old company saying that my contract meant that I was responsible for any issues and need to provide a service for five years after I leave the company making reference to a clause relating to potential criminal action and that I may be called by the company to provide assistance in legal proceedings.

Lawyers at Setsquared's new employer quickly sent off a missive to quash those threats and “also drafted an agreement which meant that I could not be approached without a whole bunch of criteria being fulfilled,” we're told.

Setsquared's therefore not entirely off the hook, but is at least spared further random requests by his or her old boss. ®