So this happened a few months ago, but figured it’s a good story for this subreddit.
I was working as a data analytics manager at a staffing firm, doing really well, highly respected across senior leadership, etc. One of the senior leaders that I had a great relationship with was removed from his role due to the vaccine mandate (not the point of the story, and also the mandate was rescinded a few weeks later effectively making his removal pointless) was moved to essentially not doing any meaningful work for the company. He was hired by another smaller staffing firm to become CEO a few months after that happened. Fast forward a few months and I get reached out by a third party recruiting company about interest in building out the data analytics group at this new company. This is where the story ramps up in craziness.
I mentioned this opportunity to my closest friend at my current company and it essentially got leaked to my VP/boss that was in discussion with a “direct competitor”. About 15 minutes after he found out I am sitting in our general counsel’s office with my VP getting grilled like it’s a police interrogation about my interaction with the company and specifically the senior leader that left to become CEO. They were threatening to put me in a lawsuit directed at him because I was contemplating leaving. All the while they were giving me compliments and saying not to leave, but still giving me that veiled threat. I was immediately put on paid leave until I made a decision on where I would work. Within minutes they locked me out of the building and access to all floors. I didn’t even make it to my floor before they revoked. My VP had to let me in to grab my personal belongings.
So over the next two days I met with both companies to give me their final offer. I was torn between the two and asked my current company if I could have the weekend to think this through (I texted them this on Thursday afternoon). Well the next morning, my current company fired me because they didn’t like my level of commitment to them because I wasn’t ready to take their offer Thursday.
So just a conversation with a recruiter lead to me getting terminated from the company. Best part is my now forever company got to dictate the messaging for my departure and said I was stealing their proprietary data and giving it to the new company, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Many people on my team won’t even talk to me now because they think I betrayed the company. Pretty unfortunate, but the good news is the new company supported me through this entire process and offered to cover all legal fees if my old company decided to add me to the lawsuit. Never have I felt a company turn their loyalty on someone they claimed to admire so quickly. Lesson learned.
Tl;dr – talked to a direct competitor through a third party recruiting firm, old company finds out. Puts me on paid leave and subsequently fired me the following day for not being dedicated enough to them