Aftermath

As I had expected, news of my dismissal triggered a significant drop of morale. It’s not who is getting fired, but that someone at my level, who is not a political player is getting fired and the apparent reasons (or lack of) for the termination.

So far, the news has been restricted to 2 colleagues that I confide in, my immediate boss (let’s call him IB), the subordinate that he has been grooming to succeed him, and my peers in another sub-department.

Other then my 2 confidants, the rest heard it from IB.

For the last 2 years, there has already been an undercurrent of discontent in the company, mainly because the company is not progressing and the big boss seems to be doing everything except his actual job; i.e. to direct the company, grow it, lead us to make it successful, make lots of money and afford us some good bonuses. However, due to the decent, if not good, department heads, friendly colleagues, and a mostly pleasant and low pressure working environment, the need to leave isn’t very urgent. Most are just waiting for the right job to come along. Some use the opportunity to pursue further studies so they can move on to better jobs.

IB just revealed that he was considering leaving the company in the second half of this year. Now he is more resolved to. He told me his successor was very upset (about the circumstances of my termination), and the rest are now quite concerned for their own job security.

Past “retrenchment” exercises, while demoralising, weren’t as ”devastating” (for want of a better word) as the reasons given were due to poor economy, cost-cutting, and/or wholesale termination of large projects. I guess it’s something we mostly accept as part of employment, even if we don’t like it. However, in my case, there is no reasonable justification for the termination.

Although I was whining about the injustice, etc. last week, I’ve gotten over it. The world isn’t fair and while I never expected it at my level and was completely blind-sided, I should not have been surprised that I’ve been touched by corporate politics. I’ve been lucky in my career thus far; all my immediate work environments have had very little, if any, politics.

Get up, move on.

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Alright, I’ll admit it, I still want to burn his office down.

Incidentally, IB still got his way and put my appraisal down as “Good” and that got me a teeny, weeny increment. 2 digits.

Oh, hooray… * read with a big dose of sarcasm *

Anyway, the “good” rating will come in handy if I decide to pwn big boss’s ass for unfair termination.

I checked the newspapers and a few websites this weekend and found some openings for polytechnic lecturers. Business plans are still being formed, but it’s still better that I have some form of stable income.

Indignant

It feels like shit. I feel like burning his office down. I can understand if he needs to get rid of me to protect himself or his business, but at least be fair to me. Just give a good reason to retrench me and give me a good exit package. I won’t be happy, but at least it’s fair. Now I feel so indignant because I’m being asked to leave based on such a weak reason. I’ve not been warned that my performance is below expectation, my past appraisals have been good and there are no clear KPI’s for me to meet. Heck, there wasn’t even an official appraisal form last year. Other’s have gotten away with worse and are still getting away with it.

I’m considering suing for unfair termination. The company has already been sued twice, one of which is still on-going. On the other hand, the company can be a good source of contract work for me and I don’t want to burn that bridge. My grudge is with the big boss, not the company, although the company is his.

When I see my innocent collegues laughing and joking, I feel like telling them, “what is there to be happy about? You’re working for an unscrupulous boss who will fire you at his whim and fancy.”

Now I don’t know how much to trust my immediate boss. I know he is trying to help me, but he can only do so much. I’m afraid that if I tell him my plans, he might try to mediate and inadvertently tip off the big boss or screw up my case.

Whatever the case may be, I will not take it sitting down.

Political casualty

CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!

Just been told by my boss that the big boss wants me out of the company, for no good reason. We concluded it’s political because the official reason given is so weak and we can’t think of any other valid reasons. The best part is I don’t even get to play politics at my level, if I wanted to.

Long story short:

• Big boss (we think, based on his actions over the last few months) wants to start a new company.
• It will directly compete with my previous company.
• His potential partner, until recently, was in high level management in the previous company.
• Some 2 years ago, my current company bought some technology from my previous company for an insanely ridiculous sum of money (6 digits). I was transferred to this company for my knowledge in this technology.
• Now big boss wants to dump this technology. The same man who refuses to pay $40 more to buy a bunch of corporate gifts for our clients.
• It does not make sense to dump me too, because now he needs to develop his own version and (1) the best person to do it is me, (2) it is near impossible to find anyone in the market who can do this, and (3) the only obvious source for such people is the other company. But my boss has been prohibited to hire anyone from there.
• Looks to us that they want to obilerate any links to my previous company, so it cannot come after the new company for breach of intellectual property rights.

GRRRRRR!!!! This is such a stupid way to lose a job. This sucks. Makes me all the more determined never ever to let anyone else control my future.

Career followup

Just a followup to an earlier post, Career.

When I told my boss (yes, he knows I’m looking to leave and he understands) about the rejection from the statuory board, his immediate reply was that they probably alredy have a candidate in mind to fill the position. The ads were just paper-play. I didn’t believe him, until a friend of mine told me the same thing. Similarly, it was friend’s immediate reply. This friend is working in another statuory board, and he says such things were common.

Anyway, checked with a friend holding a position one step senior to the position I was applying for. His pay isn’t a lot better then my current one, so if I had gotten the job, the pay would be about the same as mine now and I’ll be working doubly hard. The only advantage is better career prospects.

In any case, AEG and I are whipping up some business plans and we want to see them through. More on those as they form up.

IUD?

Apologies for the long absence. Much has happened, but we’re still together. I’ll try to complete my draft of last weeks events soon.

But meanwhile, we’ve started talking about getting alternative contraception. We’re on condoms right now, but we love it raw. She was thinking of going back on the pill or the patch, but I don’t like either because of the possible side effects plus having to remember to take the pills or replace the patch. Fortunately, SI’s recent post reminded me of IUDs.

I’ve been reading up on them, but some feedback from experienced users will be great. Sooooo, anyone used them before? What do you think of it? Did you experience any side effects? How long have you been using it? Did it FAIL?!? And, anything else you think I should know.

So far, my readings indicate that it is even more effective then condoms for preventing pregnancy. The main prohibition is the price.

Career

Crap. I’ve come to a point where my career path has hit a glass barrier. That’s the problem with working in small companies. There’s always a point where you can’t get promoted anymore because the next logical step upward is blocked by an incumbant who is unlikely to leave anytime soon.

Furthermore, my work experience doesn’t give me many places I can move to. My work has been in a niche sector and I’ve already worked for 3 of the major companies in this sector. One has already closed down and chances of moving to better jobs in the other are slim also due to incumbants sitting in them.

A statuory board recently advertised a job that fit my experience almost to the T. I applied, but got rejected. AEG thinks it’s because I’m over-qualifed for the job. I think it’s because I don’t have certain certification and the by-the-book HR executives that scan the incoming resumes probably seived me out because of that despite my very releveant work experience. Well, there can be a thousand and one reasons for the rejection, but no point moping over it. Move on. Besides, I only intended it to be a stepping stone to re-join the private sector with the relevant experience for better job options.

I’m still on the look out for better jobs with better prospects. At the same time I’m exploring building my own business, most likely in web development focusing on Rich Internet Applications (RIA). Getting an MBA is an option too. I’m attending a talk by the Entrepreneur’s Resource Centre (ERC) tonight. That should expose some possibilities.