I've been working at a tech company for the past few years. Overtime, I slowly moved up into a management role. As someone in my 20s, I never thought I would have an opportunity like that this early in my life. I had so much pride in my work and genuinely was proud of myself for getting to where I was at.
Around the time I moved into that management role we started to have a lot of turnover (outside my team), followed by huge rounds of new hires. Very quickly, I was one of few people in the company that was a part of the old guard. My responsibilities unofficially expanded further, as different departments had questions and needed help navigating day to day operations.
Suddenly my time was split between managing my department and supporting other endeavors across the company at scale. Something I could manage, but it was getting difficult.
Then the CEO approached me to also start work on a new project. A disruptive product that was technically under the scope of our current parent company. I would keep my current responsibilities but work on this new exciting product in conjunction with my current full-time job. Excited to advance my career further and prove myself I accepted.
That was a mistake.
This new product was essentially in the earliest of start up phases and there's quite a few common challenges a company of that size faces. Suddenly I found myself as the only person on that team who was capable of building any sort of plan for both sales and marketing, despite only being hired to lead marketing efforts.
Very early on I started coming home from work at 7pm and venting to my girlfriend about how I feel like I entered an unwinnable situation. I was working on this new product, where it was difficult to move the ball forward, and I was still a huge part of a completely separate operation that constantly had me working after-hours to put out fires.
This continued for months. I really thought critically on how I can make sure both projects are getting the attention they deserve. I eventually worked to move an employee over from the main product to help build out our team on the start up.
Adding an additional person to the project was a game changer. We collaborated together to build a plan for revenue. She was taking a reign on the sales side of things, and I was able to start focusing on marketing. I was pretty happy to actually have some support for once.
Then suddenly, everyone's demeanor above me changed. The people I called friends for years were short, and quick to throw complaints my way. That person we brought on, suddenly became my boss on the project. Something just didn't feel right, but I chalked it up to paranoia.
Fast forward 2-3 weeks later, to today. I was in a normal meeting, my direct report was joking with me, pushed me to come into the meeting so I could provide insight. Meeting ended. I'm walking back to my office, and he quickly asks if I can join him in a separate room.
I walk in – and the CEO & HR Lead are sitting there.
Fuck.
They go through the whole speech. They ask if I have any questions. I tell them I'm stunned. I ask why I'm being let go. The CEO pauses, spews some word salad, and eventually lands on “Well, you've never shown me anything I've ever been impressed by.”
Which just continued to not make sense to me as I got promoted to my position due to my performance, he personally asked me to join the start up because he was impressed by me for years.
Then the critique came, that I work too hard and was spreading myself thin.
That's when it became clear to me there was no real reason, it was just my turn to fall on the sword. If there is a logical reason – I'm being fired because how much was on my plate at any given moment. Which I just would've been fired for neglecting. It was, in fact, an unwinnable situation.
I had nothing to say at that point. I looked over to my ex-boss, and he couldn't even look me in the eye. When I asked for feedback he just stared at his shoes. I knew that he personally knows I put my heart into the company.
I later found out they fired two other people on the same day – so hey, maybe it was money issues, but who knows.
I worked overtime almost everyday, neglected relationships, neglected my personal health, etc. only to be used as a scapegoat the moment it became convenient to do so.
So… What can you learn from my mistakes?
- Think twice before taking on a risky project. With risk comes consequence, and in hindsight, I should've realized that the project going south (even if the whole operation is flawed) could land on my head.
- If you've identified a need for help on a team, the right thing to do for the company could be to help get someone else involved. But know you're voluntarily harming your job security.
- Don't devote your life to your job. Know your limits. I chose to prioritize it out of everything else in my life and genuinely feel like I'm a worse person because of it. Humans need breaks.
- Your co-workers aren't your friends. That ex-boss of mine, we talked daily, would go out to lunches/dinners, constantly sending memes and texting. To the point where I was expecting some sort of “Hey man, good luck!” text afterwards. Nothing. In fact, all those co-workers and other departments I helped… Only two of them reached out. Honestly destroyed my soul that I put that much effort into helping everyone to be met with radio silence. But hey, maybe I was just being naive.