LayoffsDec 29, 2019
BitGoFUwN81

My manager laid off me because I failed to work on something no one told me to do

I thought managers suppose to give support to their employees whenever they needs. In my manager's case, he'll verbally tell me that 'if I need anything, just ask him'. Though when I really had stuff needs his help for once, he told me I should do it all on myself, and laid me off. Honestly, I secretly think my manager never liked me for he constantly put me on a team that no other team members want. He had me do most trivial works that can't deliver impact but only support other team members. He then told me I'm not able to carry on large project by myself. For the entire time I've been with the company, I've always been given tasks that no one else desires and for the final time I'm trying to push back, he laid me off. All I ask is to distribute those tasks evenly for each team member who aren't on a tight schedule. My manager said no, so all tedious stuffs have to come to me. (I kinda feel why - I was the only Asian girl on the team, rest of them are all Americans or Europeans guys. The cultural difference made it harder to win their heart) There was reorg in the company where we all were put on different project teams (that everyone likes) and one on-call team (to solve emergent customer issues). He put my on the on-call team for three months, promising since the second week (the nature of that team aims to be rotational at first) that I'll be transitioned to a project team any time soon, which of course never happened for almost 3 mo. Of course my manager feeds me with different kinds of reasons. On the on-call team, I was once the lead. My parents came visit me and I took three days off. My manager told me since have to take vacation, I can't be the lead for that team any more. However, from that vacation I took, things started to get weird. For the record, I never take more vacation than I have on HR system. On my end of year performance review, my manager wrote that I took too much vacation and violated the vacation rule, which he agreed to review my calendar with me but never did. Also during my vacation spent with my parents, my manager put me to solve an issue on the service I coded up, in order to unblock a big customer. It was my PTO and I was in the mountain, so I technically don't have internet. So I arranged our trip shorter in order to come home fix on the issue on Saturday. <-> For the fact that I never had a say on service config, we built it in a certain way even tiny changes have to go through a full deployment which would take half a day. I constantly working on the issue for almost five days since that weekend, mainly just myself, no one else wants to help nor my manager (he though always busy with stuff) con't

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QTdN03 Dec 29, 2019

Well, this sounds awful. You won’t be treated like this at my company (Microsoft). Was this at BitGo?

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XoAY48 Dec 29, 2019

Sounds like racism. He seems to like certain people and you are not one. Managers have authority, if they misuse nothing can be done. Only thing is he would some day may pay price. You can’t do much. Just give honest feedback to HR (HR won’t help you but takes note for future) and forget/forgive . He is not worth your time.

Ironclad ⌐(ಠ۾ಠ)¬ Dec 29, 2019

How is race a factor in this? Favouritism at most, but racism? Please explain

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XoAY48 Dec 29, 2019

Both are possible. I used race because she was treated differently from European guys. But favoritism also possible in this story. Either cases are bad.

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pangzai Dec 29, 2019

Sounds awful. How big is this company? Dod you tell any of this to HR in your exit interview?

Paytm Money HegF25 Dec 29, 2019

Doesn't look like he is a leader. Just thank god and move on.

Wayfair UqId35 Dec 29, 2019

Sorry to hear you were mistreated. I had a very similar experience at my first company as well. Luckily, there are much better jobs out there! I hope you bounce back from this experience quickly and find a new job where you are treated better.

Microsoft Clippy2.0 Dec 29, 2019

Sounds like a dick. Sorry you have to go through this. All the best with finding a new role.

Ironclad ⌐(ಠ۾ಠ)¬ Dec 29, 2019

Sounds like you had a terrible manager. Feel free to ask for a referral if you are looking for a position.

Uber 2muchblind Dec 29, 2019

Speaking as a manager — 1. Your manager was shitty because communication is EVERYTHING in management. For some reason he didn’t believe you had the skills necessary to do high-impact tasks — he should have let you know why he felt this way, and what you can do to improve. 2. Three days of vacation is nothing. He was just fucking with you and trying to get you to quit. And needed a reason to get you fired. 3. Did your manager ever indicate he felt you were taking too long to do any of the tedious/menial work? Were you overcommunicating and letting him know the complexities of what you’re working on? And why it’s taking so long? It’s possible he formed some preconceived notion in his mind and stuck with it. 4. Always look to see how you could’ve improved and what you could’ve done differently, even though it ultimately wasn’t your fault. You might as well benefit and learn from the situation (as crappy as it was) Good luck — hope you find your next gig soon and your next manager is much better!

Twitch junju Dec 29, 2019

You've heard the expression, "Thrown under the bus," right? You experienced your first bad manager. Use that as a learning data point.

Expedia Group 🇮🇳 Dec 30, 2019

Yes. Very common in Tech. Bad managers are everywhere .