Do I have any options beyond just getting another job?
February 4, 2015 3:54 PM Subscribe
I had a number of very significant achievements in the last year as part of a new and growing team. The other member of my team continually failed in ways that can’t begin to be described with brevity, was almost certainly going to keep us from meeting our project timeline, and was promoted twice in her first year. I asked why and when I got no answers became frustrated and kept asking. Then I was fired. Is there anything to be done besides the obvious, finding a new job?
I relocated for a job as an Empower Application Administrator about a year ago. This was a newly created position in a newly created group at a privately held CRO with about 400-500 employees. I was reporting to a woman that I’ll call B who managed only myself and one other person, a LIMS Application Administrator. B told me that there was a lot of opportunity in this position that she had been promoted twice in the first year (for a total of 4 pay grades that I have an educated estimate would equal about $60,000/year increase, or about a doubling of salary) and that while there was no guarantee that would happen with me, that kind of growth was possible as the group expanded. There were 2 powerful VPs, one of them (not the one at the top of management for my position) told me his vision at my interview. The board had approved a lot of money to build our group to get our LIMS and Empower software up to date and communicating with each other so that we could go to totally electronic data generation and review and significantly increase productivity. I believed in this vision and saw what needed to be done and how it would work. The total timeline was less than two years.
Over the next year I excelled in this position and received major accolades from high level group leaders, managers and directors from every department that I worked with, including the most successful computer hardware and software upgrade in the history of the company and personally putting into place electronic data archiving procedures to bring us in line with regulations, among many others. This was all done in spite of B. B screwed up each of three things that she was in charge of during the upgrade, insisting that she was right and everyone else was wrong, which caused two business to be non-functional after launch and which I had to fix, against her orders, to make the launch successful. There was another part of the upgrade that she was supposed to do, lied and said she did, but in fact did not do.
B’s utter incompetence and cruel, mean attitude caused first one LIMS administrator, then another to quit, while I finally went to HR because people that saw how she treated me in meetings encouraged me to, because her behavior made them feel uncomfortable. And I was concerned that her inability to do even the simplest things was putting our group and its goals in jeopardy. Her excuse was always that she was busy with LIMS, when I shared a cube with the administrators that quit, a big part of it was that they never, ever had anything to work on. HR said that we had communication style differences and that I needed to learn to work with her. A couple of months later, my reporting was changed to the director above her, but no pay increase, and B was still the only other Empower App Administrator to double check and sign off on my work. Everyone wondered how it was that B got so much paid vacation, literally 2-3 months’ worth when even a 20 year company veteran got about 25 days.
As my year approached I started asking what sort of good performance would merit promotion. Given that leaders from every department had complained about B, that there were people that weren’t comfortable being in a room with her, that people weren’t using the electronic work order system for my group but rather contacting me directly because they didn’t want B involved in any way, that the LIMS part of the total project almost certainly not going to meet deadline… basically that she demonstrably was never able to accomplish literally anything, and I had more major achievements in one year than I’ve ever had, in spite of her. I got no answers and pressed the question. I was spending 40-50% of my time correcting things that she messed up, and some of the major projects required a second competent administrator. People in many departments had the same concern, and voiced it.
My manager continually made excuses for her and when I pressed it finally just said “you never know what’s going on behind the scenes”. Then I sent him an email out of frustration, saying that everyone wondered what was going on behind the scenes, knowing this was all happening under the VP that B and I reported up to, that B was known to frequently meet with senior management for drinks and other social activities, and that for some reason management valued her far more than myself or anything I’d done, that the project goals wouldn’t be met, and that this mis-management bordered on fraud and was causing the company significant money. This while I was literally wasting days on end working on something (that B had screwed up) that probably couldn’t be done without a $5000 software toolkit option that would let it be done easily, and could be used to develop at least two other needed solutions, which the same VP in charge of B’s wasted salary continued to refuse to pay for.
I obviously shouldn’t have sent that email. I had a very open informal relationship with my manager (which started before he was my manager, when I was going to HR about B and he was newly promoted to management) and thought that we would talk about it at my one on one. In hindsight, that was naïve, I was fired for “insubordination”. I wasn’t given any paperwork of any kind, had never been disciplined, never signed anything, just told I was done and walked out.
I immediately emailed about 10 high level people from a wide array of departments asking if I could use them as a reference, they all agreed and couldn’t believe I was let go. I emailed HR and apologized, fell on my own sword, cited personal and family issues that had been resolved and asked for a suspension instead of termination. HR talked it over with my reporting VP and manager, and I was denied.
I know that I almost certainly just need to find another job. I’m just wondering if there are any other options. I feel like I was just trying to see the other (interview) VP’s vision to fruition and get the company making more money. I emailed the VP with the vision and asked him to call me, but he hasn’t. I’m not sure if the CEO knows about this or if there’s anything worthwhile to do through legal means. I should note that B’s a good looking African American woman, but I’m a white male so I doubt there’s anything to be done through legal means. I’m wondering if there’s anything else to be done. In the meantime I’ll be looking for a new job.
I relocated for a job as an Empower Application Administrator about a year ago. This was a newly created position in a newly created group at a privately held CRO with about 400-500 employees. I was reporting to a woman that I’ll call B who managed only myself and one other person, a LIMS Application Administrator. B told me that there was a lot of opportunity in this position that she had been promoted twice in the first year (for a total of 4 pay grades that I have an educated estimate would equal about $60,000/year increase, or about a doubling of salary) and that while there was no guarantee that would happen with me, that kind of growth was possible as the group expanded. There were 2 powerful VPs, one of them (not the one at the top of management for my position) told me his vision at my interview. The board had approved a lot of money to build our group to get our LIMS and Empower software up to date and communicating with each other so that we could go to totally electronic data generation and review and significantly increase productivity. I believed in this vision and saw what needed to be done and how it would work. The total timeline was less than two years.
Over the next year I excelled in this position and received major accolades from high level group leaders, managers and directors from every department that I worked with, including the most successful computer hardware and software upgrade in the history of the company and personally putting into place electronic data archiving procedures to bring us in line with regulations, among many others. This was all done in spite of B. B screwed up each of three things that she was in charge of during the upgrade, insisting that she was right and everyone else was wrong, which caused two business to be non-functional after launch and which I had to fix, against her orders, to make the launch successful. There was another part of the upgrade that she was supposed to do, lied and said she did, but in fact did not do.
B’s utter incompetence and cruel, mean attitude caused first one LIMS administrator, then another to quit, while I finally went to HR because people that saw how she treated me in meetings encouraged me to, because her behavior made them feel uncomfortable. And I was concerned that her inability to do even the simplest things was putting our group and its goals in jeopardy. Her excuse was always that she was busy with LIMS, when I shared a cube with the administrators that quit, a big part of it was that they never, ever had anything to work on. HR said that we had communication style differences and that I needed to learn to work with her. A couple of months later, my reporting was changed to the director above her, but no pay increase, and B was still the only other Empower App Administrator to double check and sign off on my work. Everyone wondered how it was that B got so much paid vacation, literally 2-3 months’ worth when even a 20 year company veteran got about 25 days.
As my year approached I started asking what sort of good performance would merit promotion. Given that leaders from every department had complained about B, that there were people that weren’t comfortable being in a room with her, that people weren’t using the electronic work order system for my group but rather contacting me directly because they didn’t want B involved in any way, that the LIMS part of the total project almost certainly not going to meet deadline… basically that she demonstrably was never able to accomplish literally anything, and I had more major achievements in one year than I’ve ever had, in spite of her. I got no answers and pressed the question. I was spending 40-50% of my time correcting things that she messed up, and some of the major projects required a second competent administrator. People in many departments had the same concern, and voiced it.
My manager continually made excuses for her and when I pressed it finally just said “you never know what’s going on behind the scenes”. Then I sent him an email out of frustration, saying that everyone wondered what was going on behind the scenes, knowing this was all happening under the VP that B and I reported up to, that B was known to frequently meet with senior management for drinks and other social activities, and that for some reason management valued her far more than myself or anything I’d done, that the project goals wouldn’t be met, and that this mis-management bordered on fraud and was causing the company significant money. This while I was literally wasting days on end working on something (that B had screwed up) that probably couldn’t be done without a $5000 software toolkit option that would let it be done easily, and could be used to develop at least two other needed solutions, which the same VP in charge of B’s wasted salary continued to refuse to pay for.
I obviously shouldn’t have sent that email. I had a very open informal relationship with my manager (which started before he was my manager, when I was going to HR about B and he was newly promoted to management) and thought that we would talk about it at my one on one. In hindsight, that was naïve, I was fired for “insubordination”. I wasn’t given any paperwork of any kind, had never been disciplined, never signed anything, just told I was done and walked out.
I immediately emailed about 10 high level people from a wide array of departments asking if I could use them as a reference, they all agreed and couldn’t believe I was let go. I emailed HR and apologized, fell on my own sword, cited personal and family issues that had been resolved and asked for a suspension instead of termination. HR talked it over with my reporting VP and manager, and I was denied.
I know that I almost certainly just need to find another job. I’m just wondering if there are any other options. I feel like I was just trying to see the other (interview) VP’s vision to fruition and get the company making more money. I emailed the VP with the vision and asked him to call me, but he hasn’t. I’m not sure if the CEO knows about this or if there’s anything worthwhile to do through legal means. I should note that B’s a good looking African American woman, but I’m a white male so I doubt there’s anything to be done through legal means. I’m wondering if there’s anything else to be done. In the meantime I’ll be looking for a new job.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This needs to be briefer, less a litany of complaints and more of a question, sorry. Hit us up at the contact form if you want to edit it in the next hour or so. -- restless_nomad
Apply for unemployment ASAP. The burden is on them to prove to the state why you wouldn't deserve it.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:03 PM on February 4, 2015
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 4:03 PM on February 4, 2015
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posted by saeculorum at 4:02 PM on February 4, 2015 [1 favorite]