I was hired as a Development Operations Manager at a private school. Not a bad gig, a corner office, lush and pretty scenery, but man, I did not fit in there for reasons I will not elaborate on except to say I was neither an alumnus nor a child of one, and the difference in class was staggering. My manager was pretty, nice enough, but far too young to be an effective or competent manager. I was probably 20 years older than her. She didn't know how to manage.
The position had been empty for 3-4 months before I started, so I had a considerable hole to climb out of. Also, their development associate had quit a few weeks before I started, so from the first day I was doing the work of two people while we hired a new associate, which we eventually did about three months in. Another non-alum, also a slightly older person who, let's say, didn't fit the demographic of the school.
Did I have struggles that were my own damn fault? Probably. Was I perfect at my job? No. And wow, did I hate the two hours a day in bumper-to-bumper highway traffic. After a five-month probationary period, I could read the writing on the wall and was not surprised to be called into a Friday afternoon meeting with my manager and HR. A quick and painless meeting that went as predicted, after which I forced a congenial smile, threw my stuff in a box and was gone.
As I predicted, having nobody in that job was worse than having me in it, and asking someone to come in after the position was vacant for several months wasn't particularly appealing. It took months to find someone, but apparently they eventually did. I pitied my development associate, who had to deal with all this chaos.
Our revenge?
A month later I got a decent temp gig doing basically the same thing for another organization where again I definitely was a demographic outlier but really clicked with my co-workers. I liked the place a lot but knew that they couldn't afford to bring me on full time. When it came time to move on (to where I've been happily employed since), this org asked if I knew anyone who might be a good fit. I had just the person: the Development Associate at the private school. I reached out to her. She interviewed the following week and was promptly offered the job. She was so happy that she walked out of the school with no notice and I was training her to do my job the following day. I was a bit shocked that she didn't offer two weeks' notice, but, oh well… I bought her lunch and we dished about how awful that school was.
Apparently that caused a bit of a ruckus at the school. Weeks later I saw my former manager's position listed on LinkedIn. I shed no tears.
I wonder what would've happened if she just erased the “Does Not Meet Expectations” and submitted a “Meets Expectations” on my probationary form. She and I could've had a heart to heart over lunch in the cafeteria, we would've both agreed that I just wasn't the right person for the job, I'd let them post my position, I'd take the occasional afternoon off for an interview, and I could've spent my last week training my replacement once they were able to hire one. Ideally I would've wrapped on a Friday and started a new gig on Monday. Everybody wins. Maybe the dev associate would've stayed. Maybe the manager would still be there today.
But no. She decided to leave my position vacant instead of keeping me on while she scouted for a replacement, causing departmental chaos, and ultimately making her own position untenable.
TL/DR: A naive manager decides having nobody in my job is preferable to having me in it, chaos ensues, manager loses job.