I probably can’t give too much context at the risk someone at my place of work finds this, though as far as I’m aware, none of what I’m about to say is privileged information. My workplace does have a security team who’s responsibilities include searching the internet for leaks related to company projects and the market research team looks for references to the company and our products as part of their job.
The company I work for is the best I’ve worked for, but also the first company I’ve been at for over a year. I like to think the reason I’ve stated here and not elsewhere is because I don’t put up with bad treatment of employees. This company pays about average for the industry, it knows that team moral is valuable and so they do a lot of things that absolutely help raise morale. Instead of pizza parties we have monthly social gatherings with decent food and drinks. We have numerous company wide competitions and events, last years ping pong tournament was extremely popular and this years was shaping up to be even more serious given how much work time people were spending practicing.
The main faults of this company were trying to move away from some of the great things they were forced to do during the pandemic, trying to require people be in the office 3 days a week. In the company’s defense, my understanding is they never made a promise that they were shifting to work from home and they told people from the start to expect to be asked to return to the office once the pandemic was over. A few exceptions were made, and not just for people in management. Someone I work with lives “on the road” is able to do their job while their spouse drives them from hotel to friends house to camp site and just has to worry that they have a cell signal once a week for a meeting and every now and then their travels bring them to the office again for a few weeks.
Overall, I’ve been happy with this company and while I don’t see a long term future with them, I was planning on giving at least 2 weeks notice when I left.
One of the most important things I’ve learned after working with countless diverse groups of people at dozens of different places is that the main thing that makes a job enjoyable or not is the people you work with. And I love the people I’ve been working with here. I know a mantra of this sub is that your co-workers are not your friends but I think of it at least a bit differently. The only thing that ties us together is this job and after we move on the relationship may end but we do enjoy spending time together, will seek each other out and care about each others well being.
Well, 2 people I spent a lot of time with were terminated with zero notice on Thursday (most people don’t work in the office on Friday), as well as a 3rd person who I liked but we didn’t spend much time together. Me, the 2 people who were fired, and about 5 or so others were in the break room, playing ping pong or watching and these two received a message to go to the head of HR. Less than 30 minutes later they were back and told us they were fired and security was escorting them around the building to collect their things.
Of course they weren’t told why, from a practical standpoint, it would be stupid for HR to ever produce a reason unless they had indisputable proof of wrong doing. But that doesn’t make it right for them not to explain why. These guys were very hard workers, working in a department that is absolutely vital and already undersized; they need to be immediately replaced or the company is going to be unable to support other employees. The ONLY possible things I can think of which would have any logic behind them would be that these guys could be inappropriate at times and someone overheard something and complained, but this would really surprise me as these guys are smart and don’t make crass jokes in ear shot of co-workers that would take offense and HR has resolved disputes with other people before without needing anyone let go. Only other thing I can think of is that because these two are legitimately good friends with each other, have spent much time out of work, that one needed to be fired, perhaps a bad decision to attempt to downsize a department that is already too small, and so it was decided to fire both as the one that remained might quit or cause problems. But both of these ideas aren’t grounded in anything.
I’m just so unhappy about the situation. Everyone was enjoying themselves, our workplace had succeeded in making us feel almost like we were some sort of extended family and then they ripped two very popular members out and offered no explanation or warning.
My job is absolutely worse without those people in it, I believe everyone that spent time with them is going to be less happy at work now. They were a major part of all company events and to be honest I don’t care to participate in the up coming tournament anymore, which I recognize may sound stupid but I don’t think you realize that the execs allowed people to spend time practicing last year and this year everyone was much better and looking forward to it.
I already had plans for my next career move, the timing just isn’t quite right, but if things were a bit different I would honestly have walked out that day as well. I’d apologize to my direct supervisor who is a great guy, move all the files he’d need to document the things I worked on, and tell him I was quiting because HR was a collective idiot. I’d bet my supervisor and his boss would even provide good references for me if I did that as they are both great and understanding. But ultimately we all work for the corporation and the corporation is obviously heartless and completely selfish. That is easy to forget when the people that work for it are so friendly and enjoyable to work with.