So, my first original post and I think it fits here. Sorry if its a bit long.
At my previous work I was a project-engineer for a company producing windows. I used to handle bigger clients who bought from 200K to 8M.
First of, I loved my work, my coworkers were great and the products were great too. Management though, not so much.
It was a family company and anyone who was family could get a job. Which meant our head sales didn't know a thing about windows, neither did our sales CEO and our CEO. We had no technical CEO onboard.
Because they sold a lot of wrong or impossible stuff we were overloaded quickly and after about a year in it resulted in me having a burn out. As said the coworkers were great, so was HR and they got me through it all and helped where they could.
So I got back and started slow with one project and after a couple of months I felt I could do one more. This was my max by then since I was barely recovered.
The 2 projects I handle were sold by our CEO and, to be honest, were a good sell. Nice clients, good intel and reasonable delivery dates.
Our head of sales (SM), nephew of owners, sold a giant project, 6.5M, and could not find any engineer with space. Thing is, this salesperson knows nothing and sells impossible projects.
After going around for a couple of times he came to me and the following was happening:
SM: You need to take this project
Me: No, I'm barely managing those 2 I already got.
SM: No one else has time or knowledge to do so.
Me: Still no time.
SM: You need to.
Me: If you want to, put them on the other files and I'll see to it.
He was happy, left them there and gone. So I called the client, known to me, and explained I did not have any time to work on it. I said he would get his windows by week 14, but next year instead of this year. Ofcourse he wasn't happy. I told him he could always go to our CEO, since he could prioritize what needed to be done.
Now our client followed my advise and called the CEO. This resulted in the following:
CEO: OP, you need to do this, this is important
Me: But I am already working on project 1 and 2 and got no more space for 3.
CEO: doesn't matter you need to do 3.
ME: So 3 is more important then 1 and 2?
CEO: You need to do 3.
ME: Understood.
So now I had to drop project 1 and 2. So I called both clients and told them the following, with a little more feeling since I liked both clients:
I'm really sorry, but our CEO thinks you are not important anymore. CEO told me to drop your projects and work on project 3. You will get your windows but probably 30 weeks late. I know you dont like it, but it's not my call. Please call CEO since he can prioritize.
Surely within 2 hours a mildly furiating CEO stood next to me and we had the following conversation:
CEO: What did you do?
ME: What you told me to.
CEO: You need to do all 3 projects.
ME: I told you, I can't.
CEO: You need to do all 3. You cannot call the clients and say they are not important.
ME: You said they are not important, not me.
CEO: If you want to play it like that please leave.
ME: So, I am fired?
CEO: Well If you want to play it like that, yes, you can leave after this month (legally)
ME: Well, I accept and take my 4 weeks notice as my vacationdays (we had 37 days)
CEO: Well eeeeh but eeeeh who's gonna, well no, not like that, welll eeeeh.
ME: Heey, coworker 1, you heard him right?
Coworker 1: Yes, yes I did, you just got fired.
Coworker 2: Fired, you? Yes we did hear, we will miss you, goodluck.
Coworker 3: Well, thats not very wise of you CEO, to just fire your last engineer who knows to do ABC.
Senior Engineer: Sorry, did I just hear you fired OP, are you mad, we cant loose anyone.
Me: I'm sorry guys, I'll see you in 3,5 weeks were I will transfer my projects.
I called all the clients, told them I was taken of all the projects and as soon as possible any of my coworkers would take their projects.
Before my vacation ended I was hired to start right after my vacation at a very nice architecture office. I still have contact with my former coworkers of which 30 quite within the year after my leave.
It trully was all on management. Sad but true.