Apologies in advance, English is my second language. Also sorry for the long post.
TLDR: My husband was unfairly fired when our boss flew into a fit of rage. The company is now steady falling apart while he found a job with a significant pay increase and a 90K signing bonus.
My husband (Guillermo) helped build a biotech company from the ground up while taking a massive pay cut for the experience. He helped gain some major clients for such a new company. Guillermo made such an impact, high profile clients would ask for him by name and his opinion on projects.
Guillermo was given a review that was 50/50. not too long ago. They gave fair feedback on what he could be working on with a time frame. They both agreed that he was a hard worker, the clients loved him, and the people working under him loved him as well.
Fast forward to a few months after that, there was an incident where Guillermo made a small fuck up. He went directly to the co-owner (Henry) once he knew he fucked up. He came with a solution on how to fix the matter. Henry was having one of his “bad” days and he flew into a rage. He screamed at Guillermo and pounded his desk he threw the report across the office and told Guillermo to get out of his face. After that the co-owners had a meeting that was Henry raging how he needed more from him.
The market for Guillermo's trade was competitive. The company needed more people at Guillermo's position but couldn't afford to compete with the financial incentives other companies gave. During this time Guillermo had opportunities to benefit from the market. But he felt loyal so he stayed.
This man worked 14 hour days semi regularly as well as most weekends. If Guillermo did an exceptional job, Henry was silent. If he did a pretty good job Henry was hyper critical. Henry was hot and cold with him. He would put him on work with important clients, give him projects that were important and not give him any praise for the good work. It was like he was playing defense, things only stayed the same or they got worse for him.
After this meeting Guillermo spoke to the other co-owner Otis about his progress. Otis was encouraging and quote had “Nothing to worry about” at his next review. Guillermo took this to heart and kept working his ass off. When it came time for his next review, they put it off but told him he was doing well in so many words. The co-owners decided to give Guillermo a small raise as an incentive to not jump ship.
Soon after we found out I was pregnant! Early in my pregnancy we were told its high risk. Guillermo was met with resistance when he would try to attend some critical appointments with me. Guillermo was denied remote work while I'm sick. When he asked why Henry said, “It wasn't his problem xxxconflictedxxx got knocked up”.
Henry increasingly came under more pressure. Henry had an incredibly short temper and the toxic culture became more tense. The smallest thing would set him off. Henry was just pure range and Guillermo was getting the brunt of it.
Some time later Guillermo had a disagreement on a project for the high profile client, just a difference in working styles. Guillermo coordinated with his team to fix it to Henry's preference and sent over to Henry. Guillermo was fired over this. It became clear it was a single man decision because all the senior leadership was shocked, including Otis. There was already too much work and everyone knew Guillermo was handling the work of two.
Guillermo soon after, spoke to recruiters and got interviews at competitive companies. You know how I said the market was hot for his role and experience level? It became even hotter. The industry standard salary increased further and it wasn't unheard of to get a signing bonus of a little under 100k. He took a job at a company in the biotech industry known for their great benefits and good work life balance. He has a flexible schedule and is able to work from home for the remainder of my pregnancy and will go on paternity leave. We are now debt free and will soon be able to put a down payment on a house.
The reason why I am writing this now is because Henry reached out groveling. The person they hired to replace Guillermo is incredibly incompetent (figures) and cannot keep up with his previous workload. This guy's cost them two large contracts. They cannot fire him because they are so understaffed. About 1/3 of the staff left, the environment caused persons to have mental breaks. They cannot afford to hire people to fill these positions due to the market.
The man would rather see his company burn instead of going to therapy.