Re: Retired
I left a workplace under some very hostile conditions after they shock-audited me, hated that I passed with flying colours, but yet failed to implement even a single detail from the audit reports that fell against them (one of which was literally "decided who should be on this IT committee" - six month later, they hadn't been arsed to even come up with a list of random names).
My systems are always documented. But documentation is NOT there to teach a random idiot how to do my job. It's there to guide an equivalent professional through the peculiarities and quirks of the system.
They got my documentation. Obviously. There's no way I would refuse that. But they wanted handover. By this point, I was well-prepared and they'd made the mistake of allowing me to accumulate so many holiday days, rolled-over holidays that I missed, days in lieu etc. that they covered my notice period perfectly. So the answer was, basically, no.
And they expected me to hand over an IT system to a guy whose only previous career was managing a BMX track. I kid you not. He was supplied with the documentation, as per their request (because nobody else understood it either!), there was a one-day "handover" (which consisted of my saying to BMX-guy: "You're going to disable all my access, remove my cards, change all the critical passwords, and then sign-off that I've done so and have no further access to the system") and then I walked.
Within a month all the senior team had left. Most of the staff had changed. Everything from the website to the access control was re-done (presumably because they just didn't know how to do anything, and I was friends with the access control guys so they still used to gossip about what was going on there after I'd left). They must have spent £50k+ replacing systems they didn't understand, or couldn't work (because they were slightly technical and had things like CLIs, and not just click-and-drag things that cost a bomb to do a worse job).
But I know that I had a book of information, that anyone with the slightest IT knowledge could have just rolled open and got everything they needed in seconds, and none of that would have been necessary. And I handed it over. And they were too dumb to realise that they'd lost more money replacing me with BMX guy that they also have to pay than if they'd just kept me on and made even a token gesture towards compliance with their own (£10k!) audit.
It's a really expensive way to lose an employee of many years. And five people sued them for unfair dismissal that year. And they were investigated by government departments because of multiple whistleblowers.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
