Ditto. The guy bled for the company yeah, but the reason why I feel sympathy for him is not because he was kicked out despite working so hard. Even though he might have bled for the company and worked with executives with questionable integrity and technical appreciation, he deserved to be kicked out as soon as he stole the switches and put them up on eBay.

No, the reason why I feel sympathy for this guy is that he was so socially inept that he couldn't figure out how to talk with other people, build business relationships, build team relationships, and manage others without being a two-faced jerk (don't take it personally, Mahler, I want to prove to Koon that I care only about success and will sacrifice anyone for it?). The guy was just too out of his element for the battles he needed to face.

He may have been technically very good, despite being socially awkward, and some jerks may have taken advantage of that. But that in no way justifies or accommodates the bad decisions he made. He's essentially taking the stance that two wrongs make a right, and so I think he has a really poor sense of right and wrong.