totient: (yield)
[personal profile] totient
In the two weeks leading up to last Thursday, Vanu Inc fired seven people, all "for cause" though none of the causes with which I am familiar are ones I would normally consider firing offenses. My boss Jim was the first one; I was the last (at least so far).

In my own case, I should have seen it coming: my political capital was mostly with Jim and I was a strong ally of his. I took my most recent position there in order to get to work for Jim and to see if I could put together an effective organization, and it was pretty clear by a week after Jim was fired that I'd have to start from scratch in order to accomplish the second goal. So, I had been planning to speak to another manager there about an internal transfer. Had I not been approved for that -- and I know there are people there who want to move and have not -- then I don't think it would have been long before I quit, recession or no recession. Still, I wasn't expecting it to be so quick, or on these terms.

Vanu, Inc was a great place to work for almost the entire time I was there. I will miss many of my coworkers, and I learned some fun things along the way. I won't soon take another director-level position so many reporting steps away from the CEO in such a small company; the politics in that configuration are just too treacherous.

Tactically, [livejournal.com profile] miss_chance and I should be OK; this is actually reasonably good timing for a break. I've had a week to put together a resume and I'm a lot more relaxed now than I was three weeks ago, which I needed. I have an intriguing meeting set up for tomorrow, and I'm hoping for many more -- if you've got any interesting leads, please let me know.

Date: 2009-02-20 07:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lillibet.livejournal.com
Amen to this. There's been a lot of scrutiny lately of companies firing people instead of laying them off, in order to avoid paying unemployment costs.

That said, glad you're able to enjoy the break and I hope something exciting and new finds you soon.

Gee, maybe it's time for all y'all to get together and see if there's a startup in the making :)

Date: 2009-02-20 02:32 pm (UTC)
jered: (Default)
From: [personal profile] jered
WTF "for cause" without a performance plan or anything? That's totally bogus. Nail 'em to the wall. What "cause" did they give?

I mean, everyone's an at-will employee around here anyway, so trying to avoid having to pay unemployment is just petty.

Date: 2009-02-20 02:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] palmwiz.livejournal.com
Oh, I'm totally filing for unemployment, and I doubt they'll have the temerity to contest, let alone win.

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