Reply to post: Happened to me once

Happened to me once

Having worked for a company for ~£15,000/yr (not in the UK), I was laid off in a most unfriendly manner, no handover, no severance, I didn't even get my belongings returned.

I found a new job soon after, managing devices made by my previous employer. They were reliable, but getting long in the tooth and two years later we needed to make a decision. Continuing with the same was out of the question since we were informed that end of service life was imminent and we couldn't accept the risk. We could spring up for a new solution by the same company, which cost quite a bit (over £10m, plus continued ~£2m per year in licenses and support which was more than the earlier running cost of some £1m/yr), but would be fairly straightforward to set up and manage. Or, decide on a cheaper solution (£2m plus £250,000/yr) that would cost us a lot of headaches in the transition period. All in all, I would be the one most affected and I would probably get the boot since I was the only one who knew the old systems well enough (that was the reason I was hired in the first place).

To my amazement, the managers told me they are partial to continuing with the more expensive option since we know it works. That would keep me my job, too.

However, that would be completely unprofessional. I decided that we make the switch, and I take full responsibility for getting it up and running and training other admins on it. The transition went unbelievably smoothly.

I was called in by my manager soon after the new system was up and running. I went to his office, saw him seated there and some other guy that I haven't met before. I fully expected the same treatment as at I had before and after the initial niceties (good job and all that), he said that it's a shame I won't be working for him anymore. I asked on what terms are they letting me go. He said shocked that there's no way they will let me go after such a great experience and that I got a promotion (the other guy was my new boss) and a new project to manage.

I found out later that my manager at the previous company as well as his boss were both fired over this debacle when they found out how exactly they lost their biggest contract in the country.