Just venting here:
On January 26, 2023 I was fired for the first time in my nearly 15 year career. To say it came as a shock would be an understatement. I recognized the workplace was toxic. Management was toxic, and the place generally sucked… but I did my job and never had any disciplinary issues. I had been with this very large shoe and apparel company based in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 3 years. I was hired right as COVID started and was based in the NYC office. The first two years were amazing and I truly enjoyed my job. When my manager decided to leave for another role with a different company was the point where things started getting shitty. My manager was amazing and I didn’t understand how much he shielded me and others from the craziness coming out of the corporate HQ.
The first red flag was the time it took to find his replacement. The job market was still hot at the time and I was shocked that they were unable to fill this vacancy. After nearly a year I get introduced to my new boss. She was an interesting character to say the least. It didn’t take me, and my team, long to realize how this new manager operated. Her goal seemed to be to pit the team against each other. She made it a point to tell my team that I was holding them back from meeting their full potential. She told them that I was actively working to ensure they didn’t get promotions. Normally, this would have been concerning, but I had a great relationship with my team. We were always incredibly open and there were no surprises. Naturally they would come to me when she would have those conversations with them. We continued to navigate this new situation in hopes that she would find something to keep her busy aside from creating drama.
So for two months we continued our work and the new boss set the priorities for the whole team. This whole time, I was preparing to go on FMLA in September as my wife and I were expecting our 3rd child. This shoe company was all about “family.” It was the typical corporate family bullshit line, but 12 weeks is 12 weeks. So I got my team prepped and informed them they could reach out to me with any issues as I’m always around to support them. Initially everything was fine. Team was doing well and I was enjoying my time at home. Once issues started popping up at work, my phone started ringing. Not my manager, but other managers across the organization who I typically worked with. They were expressing that this new lady apparently didn’t know what she was doing. So, I tried to reach out to her and help out a bit, and was immediately reprimanded for reaching out while on leave. Okay, I get it… technically she was correct, so I let things be.
When I finally return in November, I have a meeting set up with my manager the morning of my first day back at work. A week earlier, one of my highest performers on the team walked in and quit without any notice. This person reached out to me prior to doing so and expressed that they couldn’t take it anymore. They said that our boss was toxic and, as an Asian American female, a number of things had been said that she felt was inappropriate. For that reason she was resigning without notice.
In this meeting with my manager, I learned that I was apparently to blame for my teammate’s departure. Furthermore, I was told that I had failed to set my boss up for success before I left. That’s correct, I didn’t set my boss up for success before I went out on FMLA.
Per policy, I was required to take my former teammate’s grievances to HR. I did so later in the week and was informed that it would be investigated, and I would be protected from retaliation (lol.) 2 months later I was fired for cause with 3 days left in the month. I received no severance, I lost my employer provider healthcare at the end of the month, and being the only income with 3 small children meant this was a massive hit to the family. The reason for the termination was that I “failed to live up to the expectations of the role.” Apparently there was an incident on Christmas Day that I didn’t respond to. Typically our internal security team would alert me to issues around the country and my team and I would respond accordingly. With it being Christmas Day, they naturally had the day off and I never received a phone call.
I tried to express this to HR and my manager, yet was told this decision is final. I had apparently been a shitty employee the whole time I had worked here. This too came as a shock as I had received more than one spot bonus specifically for my performance.
At the end of the day, I’ve learned that everyone else who had experienced similar situations (shockingly there were quite a few) were given packages on their way out the door and I was not as I was not a protected class of individual.
My attorney is working with their legal dept, but it seems the SOP here is to run out the clock. It’s incredibly frustrating that there’s next to no recourse for employees here in the US. I will say that my old boss did get fired less than a year from when she started because she pulled some of the same shit with employees outside of the US. They literally reported the same issues I had months earlier, but they were actually protected I suppose.
Not sure what other options exist at this point other than continuing to apply for jobs. I landed a better position with a better org about 2 months ago, but the offer was rescinded due to “discrepancies from your former employer.” So they likely torpedoed me there as well. I can confidently say that this organization is the worst company I’ve ever worked for and I hope no one here ever makes the mistake of working for them.