This is a bit of a weird one. I left my previous job as my boss was a psycho, the company was headquartered in another country and he ran our lab like it was is own personal empire. I wanted out so took a job with an environmental charity who was expanding into producing their own scientific research. The pay was half of what I was making previously but they offered decent benefits, flexible working hours and 7 weeks PTO. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of the job, the lab was still being built and the overall goals were very loose but it was an exit. It turned out to be my dream job! Over 3 years we built the lab to study and improve food security. We started producing some really well received work and saw our rep go from nothing to something that everyone wanted in on. We had started working with top universities and had just signed a collaboration agreement with a global research council. The CEO was impressed and fully onboard, we all get a 30% pay bump and he starts making plans to expand our facilities. Then the board of directors blindsides everyone by ousting the CEO for a younger more “dynamic” CEO. He's immediately combative, doesn't really 'get' why we need a lab and spends the next 6 months jetting around the world. Spending most of his time in Dubai. Then the pandemic strikes and everything is temporarily shuttered. We are on furlough for over a year, we get the occasional email but it's basically radio silence. Eventually we get the all staff zoom meeting, the lab is to be closed and other projects scaled back, the charity will go forward as a brand, selling our name and reputation to external projects and our long term partner will be the Chinese government. 75% of the staff are made redundant or leave in protest. The lab stands empty, over 3 million in instrumentation left to rot. I've moved on but I'm still angry that money won out against helping to make sure we all still have things to eat in the future.
TL:Dr lost my dream job in a lab at an environmental charity as the new CEO shuts everything down to sell the charity as a brand.