A toxic relationship that Gust tolerated for 18 months, which turned him toxic too. Fine, so he was just treading water till his own bonuses cleared, but that was his choice.
He was contracted and paid to do a certain job, and ended up doing a different, harder job which presumably wasn’t in his contract and for which he wasn’t being paid. That was his choice. I know, geeks are bad at saying “no”, but work-to-rule is a thing for a reason, and you don’t have to be a douche about it; unfailingly, excruciatingly polite is its own weapon too.
And then Gust turned various independent OSS projects toxic as well, even though his fight was not theirs. And the people they’re chucking abusing at now are not the abusive management who used Gust as their personal doormat, but ordinary employees down in the trenches just trying to do their own jobs.
I’m not sure where you’re getting the “subjected to further abuse after his resignation” from; there’s nothing in the article about that.
Nobody comes out of this one looking good, except for OP, who is just trying to do his job as best he can. His post is tagged “unprofessional-behavior” and he’s not wrong about that.
And Gust hasn’t done himself any favors either if/when that reputation follows him to future jobs. I get that he’s angry and burnt out and that’s leading him to make poor decisions—been there, done that—but like I say, if you don’t look after yourself you’re no good to anyone. I know I wouldn’t want to hire someone coming off the back of that shitshow lest they bring all their toxic baggage with them and infect my business too.
I understand Gust, cos there’s a bit of Gust in many of us, but he chose to take the abuse far longer than I would have before cutting my losses and getting out. And much of that abuse was ultimately self-inflicted because he chose to let himself be taken for a ride (because geeks love to be Helpful), instead of apologizing profusely that he was not qualified, competent, nor contracted to do work so far out of his job description. And sad to say the world is full of people (at all social and professional levels) who’ll be happy to take good-willed naive suckers for everything they’re worth (hell, just look at US politics!).
But the moment Gust turned abusive himself—boom, whatever sympathies I had for him as another fallible human being are done, and I’ve no interest in fellow geeks crafting a Robin Hood narrative just because it pleases them to do so.