Fired by AI, Hired by Karma

"Everyone, may I have your attention!"

Florin stood in the middle of the aisle and clapped his hands.

"I have an announcement. Ms. Taylor Lyttle has been terminated from our company, effective immediately. We thank Ms. Lyttle for her years of service, and we wish her all the best."

The office instantly fell silent. Everyone looked at me with sympathy.

I couldn't accept any of this.

I turned and stared at him. "Mr. Stretton, you know exactly why I was fired."

Florin froze for a second before smiling. "Ms. Lyttle, let's part on good terms. Your exit paperwork is already complete, so please don't disrupt everyone else's work."

I let out a mocking laugh. "Oh? When I was fixing one impossible problem after another, why didn't you say I was disrupting work then?"

Florin's face turned serious as he raised his voice. "If you want everyone to know the truth, then I won't hide it anymore. Everyone, do you know why our technology has advanced so slowly over the years? Why every major system upgrade kept getting delayed? Because someone used her seniority to force the company and her coworkers to work around her.

He pointed straight at me. "Because someone held the entire company back."

Florin waved toward the people behind him. "Mary, tell everyone what Ms. Lyttle's code is really like."

The young AI trainer, Mary Confer, stepped forward and pulled out her phone.

"I've analyzed all of Ms. Lyttle's code. Honestly, the only reason it never caused any major problems all these years was because she got lucky."

I almost laughed.

Luck?

Could luck handle the traffic spikes during massive sales events?

Could luck recover a database after one-third of it had been deleted?

Was the reason the company called me every single time something broke over the past six years just because I was lucky?

Florin continued in a solemn voice. "Ms. Lyttle, the company has to move forward. We can't let one person slow down our progress. This is the age of AI. AI can double our efficiency while cutting our costs in half. Right now, you're the biggest obstacle. You should be grateful the company gave you six years to earn a paycheck here."

I laughed from sheer anger. "I earned a paycheck here for six years? The money I made for this company over those six years is enough to support you for the next 60."

A flash of guilt crossed Florin's face, but it quickly disappeared.

His expression darkened as he shouted, "Stop trying to scare everyone. If Mary hadn't cleaned up your low-quality code line by line, fed it into the AI, and turned your experience into something useful, do you really think your stupid code would've lasted this long? Taylor, you should be thanking her for making your worthless work valuable. Otherwise, your six years here would've meant almost nothing."

The entire office fell silent.

Everyone looked at me.

After brushing a strand of hair behind her ear, Mary smiled proudly. "Ms. Lyttle, don't worry. The AI will carry on your legacy. Your code was terrible, but the AI has already rewritten all of it. You can leave with peace of mind."

My whole body shook with rage.

"So you're telling me I should thank the person who stole my code to train an AI? I should thank you for giving away the work I've poured my heart into for six years?"

Florin lowered his voice. "Don't make this harder than it has to be."

I glared at them and snapped back. "Not a chance. Just wait and see what happens over the next three days."

Florin frowned. "What do you mean?"

The moment he finished speaking, the system's alarm blared.

Someone suddenly shouted. "Mr. Stretton! The entire trading system just went into the red!"

Florin stayed calm. "Nobody panic. Bring the AI online immediately!"

He turned toward Mary. "The AI is online already, right?"

Mary began typing frantically. Her lips had turned pale. "I'm pulling up the AI's diagnostic logs. It says it has detected the problem and is already fixing it automatically."

Hearing that, Florin waved his hand. "Then let it handle everything. Everyone stop all manual operations and leave it entirely to the AI. This is the moment we've been waiting for to prove our AI transition was the right choice."