Yeah, I'm definitely with ya there. There was no feasible reason to keep him at the company and keep paying him. Thanks for the advice - I think I may end up reaching out to him. It's an Saas publishing platform, mostly for b2b publishing companies, but we have a couple b2c clients as well. I do mostly front-end work, with a bit of server maintenance sprinkled in. Are you in software?That asshole leader/manager guy who did that terrible thing? Maybe give him a break because he made a hard decision such as firing a good person because they just weren't working out, and while he gets blamed for it, it may have ultimately been the right choice.
btw, what sort of software dev are you involved in?
Freelance software developer :) Most of my work recently has been either in web dev or writing scripts to interface with VMH in some manner, although my secret love is C (yes I know, that makes me terrible). I tend towards the technical who isn't allowed to design anything because people have been stabbed for showing it in demo's. Instead they take my work, nod their head a few times, and then secretly have someone with some sort of design sense fix it.
ha! It isn't all sunshine and roses, but for my personality it works well. The one bit of advice I can give you now is to control your expenses with an iron grip. Don't just save, live well below your means. The lower your expenses, the less risk you take on when you do make the switch. I've seen people who want to make the switch, but can't because they can't stay afloat making less than $70-$100k. Don't be that guy or gal, and when you do go for it, you'll find it's a lot less scary than it has to be :)