Please Go. You Can Stay.

Photo by Milad Fakurian@fakurian on Unsplash

It’s not every day you get fired, then unfired, then possibly fired again by another company you don’t even work for yet.

Sure, I knew that the company I worked for were not competent. What I didn’t realize is that there was no real limit to what they might mess up.

Indecision

They say the worst decision is indecision. But apparently, nobody told my last employer that before they moved to lay me off, particularly as they quickly moved to ask me to stay in confusion over whether they should keep me or not.

Unfortunately, the company did this all in such a way as to make me feel quite worthless. I wasn’t given any love, wasn’t told that I might be wanted in the slightest. 

Layoffs, But Make It Awkward

It was one of those days when you open your inbox and see a calendar invite from HR. We were pulled into a meeting and got told that our jobs were being shipped out to TCS, and we’d be getting an email telling us about what would be going on “before close of play”. If you’ve been reading my posts, you’ll already know I got two because they were not able to action this properly, but I did get my offer of severance.

I came to understand the wider situation. They wanted to keep two senior devs as “knowledge holders” who would be transferred to TCS and become their employees. The kicker was that we were told might get laid off by TCS at any time after the transfer, the implication being that we were expensive onshore employees and to make the contract work TCS would need to cut their expenses at some time in the future.

My Feelings

I was offered a severance package. Not generous, but enough to consider what Netflix shows I could finally binge while updating my résumé. I did feel trepidation about needing to find a new job, but I’m not the worst at this game so I’ll probably be able to find something (although I did look up vacancies at the local supermarket and checked the requirements for driving an Uber I admit). Before I would get the payout, I would need to train my replacement. 

I started to make peace about what would happen, and the future.

It Transpired That This Would Be Tricky

Unfortunately, one of those seniors was already halfway out the door, having recently starred in the office PIP drama. Turns out, putting someone on a performance improvement plan doesn’t exactly make them feel valued and they will look for a new job. Who knew?

Cue the chaos. With only one senior dev left standing and my walking papers already drafted, HR came crawling back. They offered me and another soon-to-be-ex-colleague the option to… stay. You can join TCS, although they might fire you at any time to save costs. Or you can play it out in the job market, which as my boss said “looks tough, but it’s your choice”.

Take the Money or Take the Chance?

It was tempting to stay (well, be transferred). The market isn’t great, and job boards these days look like a museum of expired opportunities. But something didn’t sit right.

You want me now because you messed up the firing sequence? Because your PIP’d prodigy bailed before the ink dried? Because your project is now in the hands of someone who thinks version control is emailing zip files?

No thanks.

The truth is that once the transformation took place there would likely be a big mess. How is the company structure going to cope with the changes? Who is going to manage the new employees to excellence? Does anyone even care anymore?

I won’t leave you hanging on. I decided I needed to bet on myself. I walked away before they could change their minds again, with my greatest fear being that they would make me stay and transfer to TCS. I knew the money meant both freedom and a holiday in Bali, with the opportunity to take a less well paid job if I so chose.

Because when someone shows you how little they value you, I believe them the first time.

Conclusion

I had the chance to leave a dysfunctional company with severance pay in hand, and decided to not let their backpedaling confuse me.

I took the money.

I went. Smile on my face and a new opportunity dawning. Finally, I’d be able to enter the job market and perhaps do a job worth doing.