Left a company I'd been at for 5 years that was becoming political and fratty. I was told repeatedly that I am not ready to be a manager. Next company will be a manager position at a big tech company. CEO had a talk with me, I said I wanted to leave the company to take time off for 6-12 months to think about myself and he said this whole thing including:
- this is NOT time off, don't use that word
- you can come back in 12 months if you want
- this is CLEARLY not asking for time off, just be honest with us
- leave if you are unhappy
- no one wants you to go
- what do you need 6-12 months for
- (I said I was going to rest) you won't last very long, this is a bad plan for a year
- reality is we have 1,500 people, we fire 5 people a week, we hire 20 a week, we are running out of space in our buildings
- I will follow you on LinkedIn to see what you do
- hope you are proud of us at this company, we are doing things no one is doing, we will be the next Google
- (I said might want to do side projects) oh you are going to start a company huh?
I felt guilty leaving after being there for 5 years and then leaving having known so many people. But then he made me feel worse by saying 'just be honest if you want to leave'. Overall was a rollercoaster of emotions as he traced through my 5 years there but then said I have a terrible plan and won't survive 12 months without working. Still think I made the right decision, they didn't give me a chance to be a manager and grow, just felt CEO was charming me at the end saying no one wants me to go.
Edit: parens around context