I'm a systems engineer and was working at an education tech company based in the US.
We recently got a new VP who immediately fired my manager because he wasn't hitting ticket closure goals.
Within a few months, he started applying more pressure to the team to work extra hours and weekends to get our ticket counts down. Some after-hours work is expected for outages and urgent patching. But this was consistent and ongoing. I clearly stated that the lack of staff was not our fault, and I would not be working excessive unpaid hours due to their inability to hire more help.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when he requested that I travel several states away on 5 days notice. I told him politely that I would not be able to travel due to responsibilities at home.
He promptly scheduled a “touch base” meeting in the afternoon and I knew it was coming. He had HR on the meeting and stated that I'm not compatible with the needs of the team and company, and that I'm being let go immediately. I stated that I agree, it's not a good fit. And thanked him for his time.
They offered a 2-week severance on several conditions. However, I requested that they remove the NDA about the severance agreement itself, as well as the non-disparagement clause due to recent NLRB rulings, which they agreed to.
I already had another gig lined up so it wasn't a big deal at all. But I'm glad I stuck to my guns and didn't let myself get abused for once.