So some context; Ive been with this smallish (“were like a family!”) company for almost 4 years and its been.. fine overall. I learned a lot in the beginning and I’m grateful for that. In November, they outsourced some of my responsibilities to an agency. Ok cool, less work on my already overflowing plate. Then slowly but surely, other responsibilities were either eliminated or distributed elsewhere (obviously a red flag). This got me a bit concerned but the real kicker was when i would receive messages about meetings and decisions DIRECTLY related to my job and I was not included. Also note, I’m the only person that does what I do at this company, so.. wtf? My emails and messages started to get short, uninterested, and sometimes rude replies – or (what mostly happened) they just ignored me for hours, days, or entirely.
Then this week it got even weirder. There’s a data report I send out every Monday to our team and largely it doesnt get any replies because it doesnt need any. But this Monday, I got quite a few emails thanking me for my hard work, making lighthearted jokes, wishing me well, etc. So, my thoughts were, either the whole office started micro-dosing and didnt share – or something is happening and its happening soon. Wednesday I got an email requesting a zoom meeting with my manager and our boss to discuss “updates within the company.” Awesome. Tried to convince myself it might be about a change in remote work/coming back to the office or something. Nope.
Fast forward to today and the meeting is scheduled for 4 pm (the hour before I’m off) and the name for the meeting is just my name. That’s never ever been a thing before, so fuck. And yup, my position is being dissolved, effective immediately.
Sorry that this is going to turn into a bit of a rant. They couldn’t have done this at the start of the day instead of having me work all day, talking to coworkers, who definitely already knew, like an idiot? Today was the deadline to finish a fairly important project, so I’m assuming that once I finished it, that was it. The past few months have just felt like i was in a shitty relationship where the other person doesnt want to break up with you, but tries to be just awful enough that you break up with them. It felt like they were playing chicken with how crappy they could be and how long I would stay. Guess I won?
Well, I have been interviewing with other jobs since I started seeing the red flags and have some potential opportunities lined up so I’m glad I stuck it out. Now I get severance and a couple weeks to focus on getting a job I might actually care about. I was going to wait until i was a little farther along in the process (and maybe had an actual offer) before leaving – or hoping to maybe have the opportunity to quit in some grand way like some of the stories on here, but it actually worked out for the best. But if you’re seeing some of these signs at your job, start looking elsewhere.
ETA: In those 4 years i was with the company, I did not receive a single raise despite making hundreds of thousands for the company. Only bonuses i got were Christmas amazon gift cards ranging from $50-$100. I talked to my manager a couple times about a raise (even if just to keep up with inflation) and it was never brought up again.
Also just a side note but, I absolutely love this video about work and I think a lot of you would appreciate it too. Ironically watched it last night and am now watching it again in a whole new light. Love this sub, and while this might not be directly related, antiwork seems to allow some work related commiseration which I desperately need rn lol. Hope everyone has a great night!