Redundancy in 2014

My boss was supposed to be on leave this week so I was super surprised when he popped his head into my office on Wednesday morning at 10am and asked if we could have a quick meeting. As we walked towards the meeting room I asked him what the meeting was in regards to and he replied “Oh it’s just a chat with myself and Emanuel.”
Emanuel is the head of HR so in the 60 seconds it took to walk to the meeting room I had a pretty good idea of what was about to unfold.
Sure enough, they announced that due to declining sales and failed strategy for growth they were making my position redundant. What surprised me though is they wanted me to pack up, prepare a handover and go home all within the hour.

So I went back to my office, shared the news with my team. Then went about packing up my personal belongings. After 20 mins my boss came in to take notes on the handover. I’m an expert in one of the programs we use, a program that he’s never used before. So it was pretty entertaining to see his look of confusion when I was explaining how to produce the weekly, monthly and quarterly client reports. And how to produce the payroll reports. After he left I had a bit of time to say goodbye but it was starting to feel really awkward. My team were starting to get upset at how they’d take on my tasks on top of their own, then they started complaining about the Company etc.
I popped my head into a meeting room to interrupt Emanuel to ask him to provide me with a separation certificate so I can register straight away for unemployment. A few people overheard, Sandra started crying. So I quietly and quickly left.

It took all my effort not to run, I was that happy!

My best (work) friend Jess is on holidays at the moment with her family in Japan. So I broke the news to her via Facebook. She was pretty torn up about it so I suggested we catch up next week for lunch. The following day I called another work friend, Karen, and apologized for not stopping in to say goodbye. Once I explained the situation to her she was more than understanding and jealous, she wants a redundancy too! So I think next week there will be a group lunch where we can all catch up, outside of work, and say our goodbyes properly. The whole office situation was way too awkward and uncomfortable.

Once I was out of the office I called one of my part time staff members, Wayne. He is a difficult personality at the best of times. However this phone call was awkward as fuck. He said he was sorry to hear the news, but not really surprised. Sales have been awful for a long time now. And then he started to worry about his own employment contract, then said he needs to get off the phone to make sure his job isn’t in jeopardy. Then goes, yeah sorry about your news. I’ve put up with a fair amount of crappy behavior from Wayne but this one takes the cake. He couldn’t even take 30 seconds to ask are you ok and then listen to my answer. The phone call was all about him!

I am so damn happy to no longer be working there.... I HATED my boss with a passion. I hated him so much that I began keeping a journal of all his shitty behavior.

Once he yelled at me because he noticed that I would like friend’s Linked In updates and he got upset because I wasn’t using that opportunity to generate sales leads. I don’t even work in sales WTF and why the fuck are you YELLING at me about it.

Another time he asked me for my opinion about a quote we had generated. I was evaluating the process of how they came to the figure and said at other places I had worked at they’d normally calculated the management fee as 20% of the total cost. He then YELLS at me “NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU HAVE DONE AT OTHER JOBS.” I’ve worked at Companies who are their direct competition. You’d think he’d be interested in hearing and understanding how his competitors operate. Regardless, it’s inappropriate to YELL at your employees when they are only trying to be helpful.

Just last week we had a meeting at 10:30am. In that meeting he asked me to phone a client that morning. Our meeting ended because another Client turned up at 11am. They eventually left at 12, by which point it was lunch time. The Client he’d asked me to call, I’d tried calling the previous day at lunch time and was unsuccessful. So I thought I won’t try calling him again at lunch time, I’ll wait till the afternoon and try calling him. So I ate lunch, which only took 15mins, then thought I’ll take care of this weekly report. Then by the time I’m finished it will be time to call the Client. My boss pops his head in 5mins before I’m finished the report and asks me if I called the Client yet. I said no and then before I’m even given the chance to explain he launches into this big speech about how it’s important to the company and I need to be taking these things seriously etc etc. He automatically assumes that I’m poor at understanding the urgency and am incompetent. Instead of taking the time to ask if there’s a reason why. He may have asked for it to be done that morning but due to a Client visit that deadline wasn’t realistic. The world doesn’t operate on his time table / agenda. Sometimes things happen. Oh, and he pulled this shit in front of my staff.

So yeah, I was pretty happy to be walking out of there with a redundancy payout. I think it’s the best possible outcome really.

There were a few items I forgot in the rush to perform the handover. So I rang one of my team members the following morning to let them know. In that phone call they told me that they’re giving my account to one of my junior staff members, who happens to be really good mates with my (ex) boss. He’s 26 and about to handle one of Australia’s biggest retail accounts. When I spoke with Karen later on that day I mentioned it to her and she commented that the whole are seems to be turning into his little boys club. I couldn’t agree with that statement more.

I contacted Emanuel (HR) and confirmed my final pay out figures and then asked for them to process a mileage claim on my behalf. My (ex) boss only approved part of the distance. A few emails later he approved all of the distance and apologized for not reading my email properly the first time. I now have to wait till Tuesday for my final payment and I’m still waiting for them to provide me with my separation certificate. Then I can register for unemployment and put this whole mess behind me and look towards the future.