I had been unhappy with my job (100% remote) since I gave my supervisor feedback and she started ignoring me literally 2 months in. This was the only supervisor I had at the time. The feedback was on the disorganized onboarding process which left me confused about what my tasks were and the high expectations she had for my role without ever truly explaining what those expectations were. Terrible manager and organizational structure. I ended up letting leadership know that she’d been ignoring me for days and was given another supervisor from my team, who I later learned was her supervisor too (I’m still confused as to why she didn’t tell me this when I started; I think she wanted to make herself seem more lateral to her own supervisor?).
Since we were on the same team, we had to go through a “mediation” process where leadership essentially coddled her the entire time. Whatever. After that unresolved process, I tried to focus on my work, even though my old manager continued to make things difficult by pretty much only communicating with me when it was to criticize or question my work (I think she was just intimidated by me tbh). Regardless, I did a lot during my time there. I brought in a contracts management system, an expense management system, totally revamped the intake process, and recovered $300K in past due invoicing that they had put off for years in the first 2 months of taking on that project, among other things to try to bring our virtual team “closer” together. Even though my old manager made a point to ignore my contributions, my new manager encouraged my work and was committed (she said) to keeping me on the team, even if that meant finding another place in the small nonprofit to place me. Cool.
Then the new CEO started. All profit and ego driven, and totally ignoring the structural issues in the company, for example she immediately wanted to write a statement on Kyrie Irving (has absolutely nothing to do with our work) her first week. Not to mention, my team (new and old supervisors, with the help of someone from leadership) was still in a kind of mediation process, trying to figure out who does what on the team and how responsibility should be split. No one ever called my old manager out for ignoring me for months. So, finally fed up, less than a year in I decided it was time to start seriously looking for a new job. Last week, I did absolutely nothing but work on my resume and apply for new jobs on the clock. Then, my supervisor asked to meet at 4pm on a Friday. Annoying, but fine. I was thinking up ways to explain why I hadn’t actually done any work that week.
I joined the call, and my new supervisor and the CEO were already on. After my supervisor mumbled some words of appreciation, the CEO acknowledged that leadership no longer thought I “was a good fit” and it was clear that I “wasn’t happy,” so they decided to end my employment effective immediately. They said they’d get back to me this week with more information on my severance package. I felt blindsided and was definitely annoyed they fired me without working out my severance first (like wtf), but I couldn’t deny that I felt an instant sense of relief. In that moment, I didn’t care anymore. And I was GRATEFUL to my instinct for starting to look for new jobs and not wasting my last week doing work for those people.
I realized that no matter how much you try to show that you’re a team player, jobs will retaliate against you for advocating for yourself. Leadership gave me all this false praise for highlighting a lot of the structural issues the company had and while patting my back, were slyly taping a target there. I’m more upset about the injustice done in general than I am upset for myself. Firing me for no reason before Christmas is definitely cold, but fuck it I guess my winter vacation starts early? Still haven’t heard about my severance though. This is the first time in the organization’s history that they’ve let someone go so idk it’s kind of legendary, but also no surprise they can’t even let someone go efficiently.
I realized that I was too good for them. I wish I would’ve left on my own terms, but lesson learned. I know why the CEO made the decision she did (I was making less than everyone else, so it was definitely a partially financial decision, and I wish she would’ve just said that instead). All I know is that CEO is liable to run that organization into the ground, and I’m happy I won’t be around to watch it happen. I’m going to take the rest of the year to recoup. I already have an interview this week for a job I applied for last week, and I feel like everything is going to work out for me.
But fuck that job.
Tl;dr: I had issues with a teammate who started as my manager. I was let go by the new CEO last week for not “being a good fit.” Some bs but fuck it I’ll be okay.