I just need to rant anonymously.
So, long story short, I clearly work at a toxic company. It’s a startup and my CEO is a raging narcissist. When he didn’t take Covid seriously I was ready to leave, but couldn’t afford to. Then I got a promotion with a large pay increase – so I took some time to learn the new job duties so I could have it on my resume.
Early this yearly, I started applying for other jobs. Nothing too aggressive, just if a position or company intrigued me, I’d apply. At the same time, I was getting head hunted. All the while, I’m severely under paid doing the work of three people at my current job.
I told one of the executives who knows I’m underpaid and overworked that I’d had some recruiters reach out to me. He’s had the same thing happen, and I can tell he’s unhappy, so we’ve discussed it a bit.
I’m pretty sure he went to my CEO and basically said ‘hey, if we don’t treat her better and pay her better, we might lose her’. I’m not upset he did this, because he had good intentions. He just doesn’t know our CEO well enough to know how he would react. I do.
Well. My CEO decided that meant that since I’m unhappy, he could ‘soft fire’ me.
Essentially, I’ve been given about two months to find a new job. If, at the end of those two months, I have not found a new job, I get two weeks severance. He’s framing this as a mutual exit plan, but really he fired me.
So what was a casual job search has turned into a dire job search because I live paycheck to paycheck. I don’t have enough savings to be able to afford to not have a job. It doesn’t help that the job market is absolutely bonkers right now and a lot of people are trying to find jobs thanks to the recent massive layoffs.
Because I no longer have time to find an ideal position, I’m now also forced to give up certain things on my wish list – like a specific salary point and a remote role.
Meanwhile, he is expecting me to continue giving my job 100% while also knowing I’m having to spend 10+ hours a week applying to jobs and interviewing.
Avoid startups at all cost. In my experience, most of the CEOs are all alike – and this isn’t the first time my CEO has pulled this move with someone.
The only positive is there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me getting out of an extremely toxic work environment.
End rant.