I worked for a company for the last three and a half years, the first two of which were fantastic. 2022 was rough for me and my entire team; our entire leadership structure vanished, leaving me to hold down both supervisor and manager roles simultaneously (while only getting paid for the lower of the two). My team actually flourished during this time, and when we finally had a new manager step in, I was advised that an official promotion for me was “a matter of 'when', not 'if'”.
Then the layoffs happened, as they did for a ton of tech companies. I lost almost my entire team, and only found out they were being let go five minutes before they did. I barely had time to say anything to them, and I felt sick about it. The final straw was when I was told a couple days later that the promotion I was promised was no longer on the table. To be honest, I saw that coming because of the layoffs, but I will never understand why my boss called me — while I was on vacation — to tell me the bad news. There was no information provided that couldn't have waited until I was back in the office; the only result of the way this was handled was that the second half of my vacation was basically ruined. (I know I shouldn't have answered the phone while I was on vacation, but my boss was also calling repeatedly and I thought they might have something legitimately urgent to tell me.)
Since then, I've been aggressively job hunting. I finally got an offer for a job that suited my exact background, with a raise so massive that I would've had to get promoted three times at my old company in order to match it. As the icing on the cake, I got to have a formal exit interview where I outlined exactly how my team and I had been ignored or mistreated throughout 2022, and the cowardly actions of my former boss. I doubt anything will actually come of it, but it felt good to tell someone in HR what I had experienced that was the catalyst of my leaving, especially since I was the only employee in my role and had gotten a reputation as being extremely reliable.
For those of you in rough work situations, I guess the best advice I can offer is to not give up on finding something better for yourself. I submitted hundreds of applications during the last six months, and it was frustrating to say the least when I didn't hear back, or when I'd interview and find myself ghosted after the fact. But there's always hope, and it's absolutely worth putting yourself out there to find the best opportunities for you.