I'd like to thank capitalism for all of this

When I started writing this post, I really had no idea where it was going, it turned out to be a cathartic unload of my situation. A lot of things are vague intentionally and I could easily rock that boat by pulling up receipts, but I’d rather not go back to that situation unless I have to. Read at your own peril.

I’ve not really written about the not-so-recent events that have given me a great amount of time to sit on my sofa calculating how long I can stretch 125g of rice for, since I don’t really have the energy and I guess I’m spiralling down a hole of taking the opinions of people who I should not be giving free rent in my head to as truth.

Without going in to full details, I basically had a job I loved and the keyword here was had until I was lucky enough to get a manager who made every effort to make that worse. It wasn’t just their inability to manage that was the problem, it was the fact that they did everything they possibly could to deflect their poor decisions on to everybody else and using manipulative methods like trying to convince you to agree to the stupid decision, so when it goes south, you’re the one taking the blame.

Eventually we got to a point where I wasn’t playing that game, so instead of being a capable manager they just ignored me and that was fine. I could do what I needed, be left out of everything, and not really any feedback in either direction. A true coward’s way out.

I was then given another manager, who I had worked with before, had a good opinion of them and really did not expect the bullshit they’d pull on me a few months later.

I had been aware for sometime that the first manager wanted to push me out of the door, and it isn’t the first time they had done that either. So when I was selected for a promotion I knew exactly what it was, a setup.

Because these two people weren’t even remotely smart enough to setup what I was being asked to do, I knew once I had put everything in to a position that they could push me out and reap the rewards.

It is also worth mentioning that this new manager gave absolutely zero support or feedback either and when they pulled their hilariously poor constructive dismissal bullshit last year it was something I had already expected.

It started off with them interfering with my teams, telling them to do the opposite of my instructions which in the end started to burn me out from having to invest a lot of time cleaning up their mess. Then started the ambush meetings, where I’d be pulled in to a meeting with my team members giving me negative feedback (with this manager in the middle of this) that I was never aware of. Instead of letting them having the discussion with me directly, this person made them hold this for their ambush event.

Yet another mess to clear up for me, and I did very well considering.

This manager then decided to drop something almost too stupid I’m surprised the company humoured it, they pulled me in to a Friday afternoon no notice meeting and I was told at this point my job had already been given to the person I had just hired.

They had basically just sanctioned me without any kind of process or even any kind of feedback prior to this dumping of negative feedback without any follow up. Cool.

To say I was furious, was an understatement. While I did see some bullshit coming at me, I didn’t see the level of absolute stupidity it could be in. I put down that little attempt quite swiftly, because it wasn’t hard, its the kind of easy case an employment lawyer loves - receipts, the company taking the piss, and in front of a tribunal a hands down employer loses.

Even though it was a technical win, it wasn’t, they had broken the trust between me and the company and at that point I had only one way to go - out of the door.

A month later I get an email trying to restart this action, but again, it was all nonsense. Trying to beat me with things I had come to them to raise the flag with solutions they refused without any reason, creating impossible targets, decisions they had changed at the last second after months of my work to make sure we were all on board, made up quotes from colleagues, and trying to apply rules they never followed or even had at minimum mentioned exists (this is a startup so it lacks a lot of processes and rules).

So I had to investigate each point, pull the receipts, and formulate a response. It took me a month to actually do that and it was a 10 page email after I cut responses to individual minor points. They were literally the most unserious clowns I had ever worked with and they really thought I was that stupid.

I had two options after that, sue the shit out of them, or take a rupture conventionelle. Because I really don’t want to have to spend the next decade dealing with these clowns (if they manage to last that long) I went for the latter. The contract was done at the end of October and I was unexpectedly unemployed having to use the pay out to try and pay out big expenses as well as my rent before I joined the chômage. By the time I received my full payment from the chômage the payout was gone, mostly on rent.

Speaking of rent, what was before 1/3 of my salary is now 80% of my reduced income and covering the bills is a game of how late I can pay things or can I live on half a meal a day.

All of this because two clowns who have no self awareness of competence to behave like adults. They stole my job from me and took no serious thought of the negative effects their actions have to a person’s life, especially in the middle of an economic crisis.

I should be fucking livid about this, but actually, I’m not. Sure my life is really fucking bad right now, my mental state is hit hard because unlike them I have spent months asking myself if I am capable of doing X job as well as being in a really dark place if I’m good enough. I have also met people at some of the courses I’ve been doing who are also in the same situation, but in their case they tend to be too close to retirement to get a bite and too far from retirement to be able to get out of it.

Back on the point - why I’m not angry - I, of course, get to hear what is happening at the old place and it really is as you’d expect when your capable employees flood out the door, poorly run, going from one disaster to another, and just a total shit show that I’m truly happy that I’m not in the middle of any more.

I might be taking the brunt of Macron’s vicious changes to the support system we all pay for to get when we need it but at least I’m not an idiot who has to pay a consultant to do their job.