Jon McLaughlin

Jon McLaughlin

@jonmcl.bsky.social

Computer and sci-fi nerd, lover of new gadgets, husband to my husband, Drupal software engineer for the federal government, and Twitter refugee.

427 followers1.2K following394 posts

It’s a little absurd that in 2026 Windows 11 still doesn’t have a simple checkbox to enable auto-login on boot. I have to download something from a GitHub repository?

I am absolutely thrilled that one of our Kidde smoke detectors, the one in our bedroom that is approx 12 feet off the ground, has decided to alert us about a low battery at 5:30 AM. ☹️

Was any research done to determine how fast and by how much ACA premiums went up when the rethuglicans managed to get rid of the individual mandate was removed?

Jon McLaughlin@jonmcl.bsky.social

It’s obviously weird that he doesn’t understand that people might have *insurance* just in case they need it in the future. The other problem with just kicking people off their insurance is that it will end up driving up prices for those that remain.

I wish I could go back in time and not attend the meeting which seems to have led to my firing after 6 years of exceptional work. Moral of the story is don’t trust the company you work for. Even if they are small and try to convince you that you are valued and part of their family.

Jon McLaughlin@jonmcl.bsky.social

I’m posting this because I’m struggling emotionally with being fired and feeling like there is something wrong with me. I wanted to jot down my thoughts before they fade with time.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

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They cast me aside without giving me an opportunity to defend myself, or reconcile, or apologize to anyone. My manager’s manager said nothing during the HR meeting and there was no explanation as why I could no longer work on my primary contract (which has 3 years remaining).

I’m posting this because I’m struggling emotionally with being fired and feeling like there is something wrong with me. I wanted to jot down my thoughts before they fade with time.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

I don’t think my indirect manager even attended this particular status meeting; even though he probably should have. As far as I know, he didn’t let the client or anyone at my company know that my mom was gravely ill. This company has always relied on me to speak up in meetings, even though …

… I’m not listed as key person on this contract. Keep in mind that I am listed as KP on another contract, but they needed me more on this second contract for the past few years. The contract I needed to be removed from only had 1 month left.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

I was provided very little details and no opportunity to defend myself or to reconcile my behavior. Were there other reasons I was being fired? I may never know. Do I think that pushing back against client’s opinion in a public forum was unproductive and potentially unprofessional? Definitely.

Part of what bugs me about all of this is how my former employer handled this. Both my managers knew my mother was very sick and they knew I would probably need to take time off suddenly. My indirect manager didn’t tell me not to attend meetings, or keep a low profile and let others yak my place.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

… was a reasonable response for what was potentially seen as a rude outburst from me. People attending the call did not know what may have been a contributing factor to my emotional outburst to his false statement.

On Thu Oct 8 I was invited to a meeting with HR and my manager’s manager (who was not on the call) and told I am being fired today after 6 years of working at the company. I was told there was some sort of incident and staff at the government are insisting I be removed from the project.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

Yes, I cursed in a public meeting, but I grew up in NYC and I don’t think what I said was very offensive. Yes, I pushed back against his false statement. Yes, I should learn to keep my mouth shut when a client is expressing his opinion.

After a few days off and visiting NY for a memorial for my mom, I returned to work on Mon Oct 5 and during a brief meeting with one of my two managers, the one which I don’t report to, I was told I should remain muted on upcoming meetings and allow other team members speak more. I thought that …

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

teammates didn’t know what we are doing. I’m emotional from a call from my father telling me my mother may pass away that night (she did) and I’m emotional for not being up in NY by her bedside. My recollection of the last few minutes of the call is that I responded to his …

… statement of “no one knows what they are doing” with something like “That’s bullshit! We have all been working very hard to deliver this first milestone of the new API. I have been working very hard on this and I do know what I’m doing”.

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

View full thread

I was in the middle of explaining some details of a technical requirement that was requested of us when my father calls and I knew it was going to be bad news. I apologized for having to take the call and I muted myself and muted the meeting so I can talk to my dad instead of sending to voicemail.

When I rejoined the meeting about 5 minutes later, one of the government staff on the call was saying that he was “tired of all this and no one knows what they are doing”. I can’t recall his exact words, but I was extremely offended that he was implying I and my …

Here is my recollection of a work meeting I attended on Tuesday Sep 29. My mother died later that same day. Things I said in this meeting caused the client, the U.S. Government, to insist I be removed from the contract and my employer also decided to fire me after 6 years.

The client for this application is the federal government. Even though it was a status meeting, members of two engineering teams were in the call as well some staff from the division of the government my team was working for.

I got fired today. After 6 years of dedication to the government contractor I worked for. There were many periods of time during those 6 years where I regularly works 12+ hours a day writing complex Drupal software. I did the extra hours, without overtime pay, because I wanted to do a good job.

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One meeting that goes bad, which was literally while my mother was dying back in NY, and I’m done. They apparently didn’t think I was worth defending to whichever bureaucrat didn’t like my behavior. And they only have 1.5 months left on their contract! Good luck with the re-compete without me 😂

The moral of the story here is don’t trust people in corporate environments. Even a small business that tries to pretend they want the company to feel like family. They are lying to you and they really just want to exploit you for as long as they can get away with it.

I got fired today. After 6 years of dedication to the government contractor I worked for. There were many periods of time during those 6 years where I regularly works 12+ hours a day writing complex Drupal software. I did the extra hours, without overtime pay, because I wanted to do a good job.

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I worked for them as a contractor for a few years and then become full time W-2 employee at their urging. I did good work and I thought I had a good relationship with my teammates and with my counterparts at the government.

Apparently all it takes to be fired is one meeting where I may not have been polite enough when calling out issues on a project. That’s all they told me. Meanwhile I have warned folks on my team that I didn’t think this project was going well for multiple weeks.

I got fired today. After 6 years of dedication to the government contractor I worked for. There were many periods of time during those 6 years where I regularly works 12+ hours a day writing complex Drupal software. I did the extra hours, without overtime pay, because I wanted to do a good job.

Prior to joining this federal government contractor, I had my own small company providing web development services for a small number of clients. My business wasn’t hugely successful and then COVID happened.

Why is trump talking about Ukraine causing oil prices to rise with their attacks on Russian refineries? Isn’t Russia already under economic sanctions? Does that include not buying their oil or did the world already give up on that?

So, there’s talk (again) about a military invasion or other action in Cuba. Was the justification? Cuba is not going to build a nuclear weapon. They are not a threat in any way. Are we all just letting this orange menace do whatever he feels like?

I’m sure this is all about a few billionaires getting their grubby hands on Cuba’l for tourism. Are there any natural resources that the other oligarchs are interested in?

I know I’m probably being dumb, but why don’t all the AI companies start by hardcoding the 3 Asimov “Laws of Robotics” into all their software. Ever prompt needs to have those laws added automatically and cannot be overridden. Then add similar laws about hacking other systems.

I know I’m probably being dumb, but why don’t all the AI companies start by hardcoding the 3 Asimov “Laws of Robotics” into all their software. Ever prompt needs to have those laws added automatically and cannot be overridden. Then add similar laws about hacking other systems.

The “no hacking systems” laws would need some way of being disabled for official white hat security firms and software scanning, but maybe that’s a difficult off switch to obtain.

Philadelphia needs its own Mayor Mamdani. I moves here exactly one year ago from NYC and I feel like I missed on out on some great years to come in NYC. (I moved to Philly because I work remote and can afford a bigger home here)