In February 2020 I started my first permanent role in the UK. I grew to really enjoy my job and the work I was doing. I even ended up buying my first home which happened to be five minutes walk away from this place to save on my hour commute. Two years into the role I asked for a raise of £2,000/yr more because another company on the other side of town had offered me that. My boss and director at the time said I was already overpaid and not worth it. Me and the colleagues I was friends with were shocked. They kept saying how everyone would be lost without me. They even exposed they were on the salary I asked for which really upset me. It upset me as we were doing the exact same work.
I departed and in March 2022 started my new role at the company located on the other side of town. It's only been a year, but again I've worked really hard at this place. I've gone above and beyond. One teammate broke their toe so I went on a business trip for them voluntarily. I did overtime once for software testing. Another department got sad when streaming services got permanently blocked and they couldn't listen to the radio anymore so I bought them a portable radio from the charity shop. I didn't have to do any of this stuff, but I did to be nice and hope it wouldn't go unnoticed.
The week before last I came in on Monday to find out my boss had been working in their notice period and was leaving the following Monday. We were all shocked. Then the next day we were hauled into a meeting to learn half the team was being made redundant. My boss boasted in their final week how they knew this information. We have NDAs so they probably couldn't tell us, but it's still shitty to use that information to their advantage and get a new job.
I agreed to enter the pool to keep my job. The criteria was being judged by my boss before they left based on all the work I've done in my time there. I was told I didn't pass this test. They held my minor mistakes over my head and cared about nothing else. Oh, she sent an email with Regards instead of Regards? They said that meant I have no attention to detail skills. It really upset me. One of the people chosen to stay on lied about having an expired passport to get out of business travel and shops on eBay during working hours. This is so bullshit in my opinion. I worked hard all year and for what? The company has no suitable alternative roles to offer me.
I went and applied for my boss's job as in the past I did work as a team leader once. I managed a team of 20 people. My current team is just 8 people. My boss's boss and HR kept saying they only wanted to hire someone with management experience and I am the only one on the team with that experience. They told me Friday they won't bother interviewing me for the role. I don't have the right experience even though the time I led a team was the same type of team I'm on. They will be interviewing two colleagues from my team with zero management experience.
I know I just need to accept my redundancy and move on, but like I really don't understand the point in working hard anywhere if this is how people like me get treated. Has anyone else experienced something similar?