r/iOSProgramming • u/gamedev_haarlem • 6h ago
Question Ex-manager threatening legal action if I don't send github links and credentials, shall I do it?
I joined a startup about one year ago where I was slacked the credentials of our repositories, and the messages were then deleted to avoid some 3rd parties from getting them, and the url and credentials are not anywhere in our documentation.
Since the new manager joined, I've seen people being laid off pretty quickly. The QA tester goes, and the manager claims that we as a company are having the same output as before the number of bugs didn't raise (because the QA tester doesn't find bugs anymore). We told him many times that without a QA tester we are slower but the ceo/cto don't know, he probably lied to them and they base the whole performance on a metrics chart where every indicator looks green even if we are not doing well.
Then he laid off also the digital marketer and an intern who was doing a bit of everything. No visible signs of performance decline in the short run, so for the ceo/cto every indicator still looks green. The manager claims that AI will take over the job of the marketer but I'm not sure how.
The following phase was the most difficult phase: he laid off first the backend developer, which left me and the android developer as the only technical people, unable to do any meaningful backend work. Even if we begged many times and explained in detail that this will negatively affect productivity, that customers are angry and we could be in the position of not being able to ship features, it looks like he either doesn't get it or he deceived the ceo and cto to think that it was fine.
We worked like crazy, even in the weekend to ship features with nothing working and we were even handling calls with angry customers, and all what this manager does is bragging that he's able to make us go at the same speed with less employees. We go insane, 50, 60, 70 hours per week and by a tiny bit we are able to hit a deadline which saves us from being fired from a customer.
We worked until 4 AM to make it and this piece of **** you know what he does? He lays off even the android developer!
He wants to play with my ego and he tells me that I'm good and skilled enough and he trusts me to be able to cover also for his job because of AI. I ironically ask if that's how he got a new car, by getting a raise as a reward to layoff almost the entire company to the points there's only one developer (other non-technical roles I didn't mention were laid off too and we were left in 3 excluding him and the ceo and cto). He says I can do it, I burst into tears screaming, angry and sad at the same time saying that I will not keep working 80 hours for his new car, and I fired myself on the spot
I claimed being sick afterwards and cut every contact (I was supposed to give a one month notice but I'm too burned out to stay there).
Turns out that the manager didn't have the url and the credentials of our repositories containing basically everything: visual assets, android + ios project + backend, there are undocumented. He sent me an agry message claiming that he will be able to go on with the help of AI and vibe coding just to send me another (strangely polite) message asking me for information like repository urls and credentials. And I believe he doesn't even know how to clone it even if he had the credentials.
What should I do? He threatened legal action and I didn't answer, but I think that since I don't work there anymore I don't have the obligation to provide any information. Plus, considering thr fact that all this guy did was basically getting richer to lay off almost all of us, I don't think it would be nice to make him succeed. Maybe more developers have higher chances of getting hired if he's fired when the ceo/cto will manage that he lost everything because of his delusions.
What do you think? Could the company sue me?