Former employer not happy with me

About two months ago I asked both my manager and the owner if we could come up with a salary structure for my position. I brought it up to them because of the fact that I had not received a raise in almost two years. I thought it was a clever way to bring it to their attention to see if they would tell me that my position ends at x amount of dollars per hour so I could work towards a goal over time.

Unfortunately my plan did not succeed. I was frustrated when the owner told me that I was advancing faster than anyone in the entire company and that I needed to slow down on the technical side to focus more on project management. Hearing that really ticked me off due to the fact the owner is so hands off. He is not involved in daily operations and has no clue that over the past year I had been driving projects from start to finish either on my own or working with the desktop team. After that I started looking for other job opportunities in my area.

During my job search I let my manager (Which is also more a team lead than MGMT) know that I had landed a couple of interviews and that I would be pursuing them pretty aggressively. I told him in confidence that he would not tell the owner as I didn't want him to get upset. I know it sounds naive and looking back I should have known better not to tell him but I really felt this situation was different because the firm I work at is so small (6 Consultants) and I always really got along with this person and trusted him. In any case, he sure enough told the owner. Now I'm sure you're under the impression that the next thing that happened is the owner confronts me about this and is upset........what actually happened is the complete opposite. He never said a single word to me about it for over a month and half.

Fast forward to this week. I notice a job posting at a company that one of my former managers currently works for. I apply, come in for an interview that night after work, come in for a second interview the next evening, and get a job offer after the second interview. Everything looks great and the position is a nice step in the right direction for me. I accept the offer and let him know that I will need to give notice ( Two weeks). So here it is Wednesday. I give notice to the owner and he blows up! Tells me how betrayed he feels that I would leave them in the cold while being short staffed and nonetheless that I am going to the competition. I simply told him that first off the "short staffed" situation is and has always been out of my control and that I did not want to argue with him, I was only there to deliver my resignation letter and work with him on the transition out of the company. After I said that he told me to clear out my desk and go to a client site for the next two days so that I wasn't at the office.

This whole situation made me feel upset because I felt like I always was a good employee and that I was disrespected upon exiting the company.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

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Comments

networker050184

Sounds like you worked for some real winners there. How do they expect to keep employees without compensating them? No raise in two years is actually a pay cut.

Hopefully you find yourself in a much better situation. Good luck!

kriscamaro68

He sounds like an asshat that whines when he doesn't get his way. It also sounds like this firm is going under already and its good that you got out when you did. I would just quite today and not show up to the client site. Also congrats on the new job.

N2IT

Yep just went through that almost same exact situation. It's a form of bullying, try to let it go and disassociate yourself with those people as soon as possible. It's a good thing he told you to clear out and head to the site. Tough it out and stick to your 2 horrible weeks if that's what you agreed to. It's a terrible feeling I know it's just awful, but there are a lot of a holes out there and you just met one of these wonderful creatures. It will pass but stay with you quite sometime. If you made a post this long about it, it clearly is effecting you.

For validation purposes you did nothing wrong from my view point. You delivered a message to them which they didn't care for. Remember the root of anger is fear and he is scared to lose another resource. O well not your problem, they should of had a better succession plan in place, they obviously did not.

Lost in all this nonsense is the fact you have a new job. Congratz!

Tritium

Don't feel bad. I was once sued by an ex employer for a non compete contract that was fabricated after my employment ended. My signature was literally photocopied over to the document...poorly might I add.

Get outta there and don't look back!!!

snokerpoker

Thanks for the positive comments!

I agree with all of you. I'm def ready for the change and can't wait! Today is my final day, he didn't let me do two weeks. Which is pretty lame on his part because now he has no coverage for a large client due to one employee being out on vacation.

Heny '06

Keep it professional, Managers know the stars and can see the ones who have the talent and should do everything they can to keep them. I respect the ones who do, even if it doesnt work in their favor [employee still leaving]. I dont like the ones who basicly just turn a blind eye, its their loss onward and upwards my friend. "Keep it moving"

jdancer

Your above story just reminds me that I will tell *NO* one at work about opportunities elsewhere. Just be professional and give your two weeks notice for the next time. Like they say, "It's nothing personal. It's business."

dales

Had the same recently when I moved jobs, I handed my notice in and boss went off the chart at me saying do I realize how much S*&t I'd left him in and how the world was my oyster with them etc, I just said its nothing personal I've just got an op thats too good to miss. On my last day I did get a card (which I was surprised about) but he had not signed it and he refused to talk to me all the previous month. Oh well their loss I guess.

The only thing you can do in that situation is be professional and not rise to others unprofessional actions, and be glad that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Iristheangel

From the sounds of it, he would have reacted poorly whether or not you told you supervisor. You probably won't get a letter of recommendation out of the situation but you were a good employee from the sounds of it and gave them two years to give you a raise. You also went directly to them before you decided to look elsewhere so they had more chances to fix the situation and keep you than they deserved.

Good luck at your new opportunity

Zartanasaurus

At my last employer, I kept it a total secret that I was looking for another job except for my direct supervisor who was a friend outside of work. A coworker told me he used my then director as a reference which didn't work out too well. It's a shame people feel the need to act that way. I've had conversations with my current director about what I plan to do after I leave this place and even gave me advice and offered to help get me in somewhere he had contacts if I wanted. Best boss I've ever had up to this point.

ziggi138

Wow, this became a wall of text.

I had something similar happen to me. At my first IT job, I was the lowest paid tech with the most responsibilities. I pulled my boss aside and requested a raise since people starting out were making more than me. He told me to "quit being a baby and get back to work". I said ok and went on about my duties.
I applied for a job at a Data center that night and got a call back the next day. They set up the interview and I requested that day off with my boss. My boss asked me why I needed off and i flat out told him that it was for an interview. He fired back and said that i could have the day off, but there was no shot i was going to get the job because he wouldn't allow it. Now He didn't know anything about the job or where i was interviewing. No one in the company did.
I didn’t hear anything back from the company I interviewed with for about 2 weeks. Once I got the offer letter and accepted it, I typed up a formal resignation letter and was going to present it to him. Well, he was nowhere to be found (as usual). So I just left it on his desk before I left for the day. I also announced to my co-workers the next day that I was leaving.
He flipped his lid and was telling me that he felt so betrayed that I was leaving and that I was one of his best techs. He even tried to give me a counter offer to keep me. I told him that he would have to beat the offer I received from the Data Center, otherwise I was leaving. He offered me 3 dollars more an hour and I quickly rejected it telling him that the offer I got from the Data center was about 8 dollars more per hour. He didn’t believe me, so I pulled up the email and showed him. I then told him that had he given me the raise I asked for ($3 per hour) back when I asked for it, I would have been happy and wouldn’t have even applied for the job at the data center.
Of course, he flipped his lid and started yelling and cussing. I just looked at him dead in the eye and said, don’t ever talk to me like that again. Before, I was afraid I would get fired. Now I don’t care. If you fire me, I get an extra vacation. He didn’t talk to me for the rest of my time there.

webgeek

Move on, their loss, and Congrats on the new gig.

I hate it when employers try to hold employees back from achieving their goals.

Congrats again!

Zartanasaurus

ziggi138 wrote: »

He fired back and said that i could have the day off, but there was no shot i was going to get the job because he wouldn't allow it.

Good grief.

volume

snokerpoker wrote: »

So here it is Wednesday. I give notice to the owner and he blows up! Tells me how betrayed he feels that I would leave them in the cold while being short staffed and nonetheless that I am going to the competition.

Just remember, every 2 weeks, you and your employer are even.

kurosaki00

wow some harsh stuff in this thread...

I seriously dont know where that "your moving to fast chill" comment came from, I mean it literally sounds to me he told you "You are doing good, please dont".
2 years without a raise doing good work, the least they can offer you is a "Right now we're a bit tight on budget but we're working with staff budget".
Or let me talk my superior about it, etc. So many right answers for it.

I agree you didnt do anything wrong (besides telling a co-worker youre leaving).

Xyro

kurosaki00 wrote: »

wow some harsh stuff in this thread...

It sounds like you've been very lucky. I was thinking there was nothing too bad going on here in comparison with some of the items I've seen lol.

kurosaki00

Xyro wrote: »

It sounds like you've been very lucky. I was thinking there was nothing too bad going on here in comparison with some of the items I've seen lol.

A worse doesnt make a bad good.
I didnt meant harsh as in Ive never seen something so despicable!
More like harsh as in it is harsh.

Xyro

kurosaki00 wrote: »

More like harsh as in it is harsh.

So even though you've seen items as harsh as this you still view this as harsh? Interesting, I guess it's a difference in ways of thinking. I tend to adjust my viewpoint based upon my exposure.

BradleyHU

why would you tell your manager that you're looking for another job, and have gotten interview requests???? thats just not smart...

but for your employer to blow up @ you like that when you give notice, i would have chucked up the deueces, and been like ok, today is my last day then.

damn @ the other stories...how the hell do ya'll manage to end up @ such places??? i've been lucky to not have that happen to me....

MentholMoose

BradleyHU wrote: »

damn @ the other stories...how the hell do ya'll manage to end up @ such places??? i've been lucky to not have that happen to me....

Seriously. During an interview you should be able to get a good idea about the working conditions. If there are any red flags and you are not desperate for a job, get out of there. Life is too short to waste even a few months working for scumbags. If you haven't figured it out by the time they ask, "do you have any questions for us?", ask some relevant questions.

Some examples from interviews I've had:

1. During one interview the hiring manager was very late. When he finally was available, he apologized but said that he had to fix someone's printer! Strike 1. Pretty much everyone had their own printer and there was no print server or network printers. Strike 2. At one point during the interview, I described a project I drove from start to finish and had a particularly good result. His response was something like, "well, projects are fun and all, but I need my guys to do real work". Strike 3. On the way out he handed me the application to fill out and I nearly said "I won't be needing this", but I managed to politely accept it and trash it later.
2. One time I asked, "is this opening for a new or existing position?" The mood of the two interviewers instantly changed and they looked nervously at each other, and gave some rambling answer about the existing person needing to relocate or something. Later, when I got an offer, it was below market rate and I tried to negotiate it, but they wouldn't budge at all. I declined it. Someone else got the job but six months later I saw the same position listed again! Clearly that wasn't a good place to work.
3. One hiring manager told me they pirate Microsoft software since "they'll never get caught". There's no way I would work for an unethical manager who saves money by stealing software, since there's no doubt they would cut corners elsewhere (it was fitting that this was a garbage collection company). Disregarding the ethics, if they can't afford to buy Windows then what could they afford?

Xyro

MentholMoose wrote: »

Seriously. During an interview you should be able to get a good idea about the working conditions. If there are any red flags and you are not desperate for a job, get out of there. Life is too short to waste even a few months working for scumbags. If you haven't figured it out by the time they ask, "do you have any questions for us?", ask some relevant questions.

This is really great advice. Where I currently am they lost my applications (2) & resume. Yes, lost them. It was a big red flag I shouldn't have ignored.

powerfool

Yikes.

I really cannot understand why folks act this way. I was let go of my last job (whole department was) and the new boss was extremely unprofessional. I had already been looking and I have to imagine that even though he intended to clean house he would have acted this way. Some people just are extremely unprofessional.

Iristheangel

I had a horrible boss on my second IT job. There was no warning signs when I went into the interview because he hadn't been hired yet (Complete restructuring of an IT department at the time and they hired him the day after my interview). He was one of those types that would bring his personal life to work. Things like if he was having a fight with his spouse, EVERYONE was going to have a bad day. He was definitely one of those people who lied about having previous management experience on his resume and got the job because of some other politics I won't go into.

For the year he was my manager, he did some of the following:
- When I or anyone else first tried to apply for tuition reimbursement, he tried to tell us that he thought that the tuition reimbursement funds were depleted and he didn't have the budget for it. He went on to tell us that he didn't get tuition reimbursement when he went to school and didn't understand the concept of it. Later, during our new hire orientation when we were being onboarded from contracting to FTE, we met with HR and they told us that the funds had NOTHING to do with his budget and it was handled by corporate which had a surplus in that fund. Guess who walked into his office the next day with a tuition reimbursement form?
- Tried denying me my tuition reimbursement at the end of my semester because I had thought about changing jobs and he felt I was a bad investment. The head of HR and my manager's boss (Who he stupidly CCed on the denial e-mail to me) smacked him down stating that tuition reimbursement is a benefit, like health insurance, and he cannot arbitrarily deny it to me because I thought about leaving at one time
- At one point he made it his mission to get everyone HDI Service Desk certified (I suspect it was tied into his bonus) so he told everyone that he was writing it into their job descriptions so if they didn't get it, they would be denied raises, promotions, and eventually fired and demanded everyone study for this mandatory certification on their own time. I guess someone went to HR about that and he got smacked down. After that, he had to write an apology saying everyone misunderstood him, he wouldn't FIRE them for not taking the exam and they were allowed overtime to study for it in or outside of work.
- He overheard two coworkers sharing their salary and threatened to fire them over that. Since it's California and that's against the law, you guys know the rest

- He called me into his office once to say that other people (himself) were uncomfortable with a picture of my spouse and I on my desk. Totally a non-PDA photo might I add.
- Told the contractors that he planned on hiring them on XX date. 8 months later, they were still getting weekly promises for when they would be onboarded and then flipping out on them when they would ask for a real date.
- Would fire contractors immediately when they would give two weeks notice because they were tired of false promises. He would rant about how "I fed you and paid you a paycheck for the last XXX months and this is how you repay me?"

Silly stuff like that. Anyways, he eventually was transferred to another "management" position that was management in name only. He had ZERO people reporting to him and was sat next to the corporate HR team so he had to behave. I was able to live the rest of my time at that job in peace and doing a great job.

I should note that this was all back in 2008-2009 so the economic crash JUST happened and everyone was clinging to their jobs with their life. He got away with a LOT of stuff and people took a lot of crap because they were so scared of being unemployed. I saw a lot of employers taking liberties with employees during those years and even though things have gotten better, some bosses want to act like their employees still don't have options. Heck, depending on where you are in the country, it might still be that bad.

OP- Keep your chin up. You're in a good industry and you're in WAY too good of an area to take that crap. You'll be doing great in no time!

GoodBishop

I have always found that living well is the best revenge.

*is still high on life... I make my own destiny*

down77

GoodBishop wrote: »

I have always found that living well is the best revenge.

*is still high on life... I make my own destiny*

Very well said!