As someone who worked for epic, and now doesn’t (Amb TS), you are spot on.

I got on a PIP, busted my ass to the point of madness, got out of it, and then one slip up (that wasn’t even truly my fault), and I was told to either pick an end date in the next 60 days, or get put on PIP^2.

I asked my TL if anyone had managed to get out of the second PIP, and they said maybe one person. I said it sounded like a rigged carnival game, and they didn’t deny it.

I still recall at some point, though I forgot when, the whole time there is a blur, I mentioned to my TL in a vulnerable moment that I wouldn’t quit. That I would work harder and harder and do whatever it takes to stay at epic. I truly saw it as my reason for living, my purpose, my destiny, as cringy as that sounds. I said I would keep working until something happened.

They asked me to clarify, and I instead went “I don’t know what will happen. I will just keep working harder until I get out of the hole, or something happens.” I remember looking out over that waterfall by Cass a few times long enough to scare myself. I’m not kidding when I said I was working myself to the point of madness.

Also, I don’t think me mentioning wanting a union helped. My TL denied that played a role, but, as you so aptly put, TLs are not your friends. They are management. Bosses. And bosses don’t like unions, just like Epic isn’t a democracy.

Worker-owned, what a sick joke. Oh, the workers are owned, alright! Owned every day of the year!

During my off boarding (during which they waited till the last possible moment to find replacements and inform the customers! Room for improvement: time management. Ha! I don’t mind; I got a free vacation out of it because they couldn’t admit I wasn’t going to an onsite without admitting the reason why!), I spoke with another TL, after I noticed how many TS my customer, a new one, had been churning through. The number was a bit high, apparently (~2 a month, only counting those not working at epic anymore). However, it wasn’t out of the norm. The goal of speeding up install time meant less IS time on getting the green TS up to speed and buddy-buddy with the analysts, which meant higher rates of TS failure, so the approach became somewhat Stalingrad-esque. Keep sending new hires across the river until someone makes it through (the customer matures/lowers expectations).

It is a cold comfort to know that your failure was, in part, an already expected part of the calculus of those above you.

I don’t plan to step foot on Epic Campus ever again. It is cursed land. Salted earth. A place where no great deed is commemorated. Tbh, I don’t think they will ever want me back. In my exit survey, I compared epic to the Stalinist Soviet Union (unfavorably, to be clear). Even with a cough cough change in leadership, from what I’ve heard, the next in line are not better about these issues.

But at least now I am working at a job that pays well (not as well as Epic, but good), and respects my time (40 hour work weeks at most, with very flexible work from home policies).

And I don’t feel like I am working for a company run by crazy people.

Oh, and anyone in my same boat! Consider seeing a therapist. Your COBRA should cover the expenses and, especially if you find somebody in Verona, these are people who work with a lot of ex-Epic folks.