I’d like to share with you what happened to me in the last few months and maybe get some tips on how to proceed.
I’m the product owner/team lead/developer in a small development team (6 people, including QA and delivery manager). The team is tight knitted and we each have our own specialty knowledge and know each other for many years. We like each other, we know our stuff really well and we have a structured and efficient process.
So, one Friday, everybody except me was made redundant on the same day, by individual video calls. I was not consulted nor informed beforehand about this decision. Actually, I had to get the news from our whatsapp group that we use outside office hours for smalltalk. Only after everybody got his call, my manager phoned me to tell me what happened. I was asked to organize “handover” and “knowledge transfer” so that business can continue uninterrupted.
So now I’m picking up the pieces and trying to puzzle everything together. I had some of the ex-colleagues come to the office for the purpose of showing me what’s where and so on but it was already clear that this is insanity.
A month later, I’m working on a new release of our software and sales is already pushing for reduced timelines. At the same time I was able to secure an additional resource to help with QA and delivery. Now comes the kicker: I have to select this new person myself in India (I’m in West-Europe) and provide training on top of it all. All of this remotely of course.
I’m sooooo ready to burn the place down! (Not literally) Even more crazy is that the same is happening with other teams as well. They had a lot of trouble finding the right people. It appears a lot of people are dishonest about their skill levels so now I will have to contend with this additional complexity on top of it all.
The company is being moved to India. It’s as simple as that. The only reason is short term cost savings for the management and shareholders at the expense of the employees. I’ve been with this company for over 20 years but now I’m one bad surprise away from burn-out. 🤯🤢🤮
While I’m already looking for another job, which might take some time, I’m going to demand a raise. Not sure how my request will be received but I stopped caring some time ago so…🤗
Update: Thanks for all the responses and sharing your experiences! I’m going to ask for a raise and monthly bonus (while I look for a new job). This conversation will be next Tuesday but the response from the CEO (or whoever decides) will most probably come at a later time. I’ll update this post again when I know more.