I was hired by a huge company to assist with developing software for a new VAX/VMS computer. I was hired because I had decades of experience with this computer system, and also because they could find no one else who had experience with its relational database management system.

The project was well underway when I was brought on board, but they were just starting to make actual runs with real data. It was a BATCH system, not real-time. Anyway, when they started running the system, it took DAYS for a single run to complete. They asked me what to do about it. I discovered the problem: there was ONE LINE OF CODE that needed to be deleted. I knew exactly WHY this line of code caused the problem: It caused the computer to START THE ENTIRE PROCESS OVER after a mere 100 records had been processed. I explained to them why this happened and that the simple removal of this line would eliminate the delay, reducing the run time from days to 5 minutes. They would NOT believe me. They would NOT just give me a chance to prove my point by running the process with the line removed. They fired me.

So, they fired the ONE EXPERT who was hired because he understood the system because my solution did not agree with their methodology.