Got written up for not being a team player so I became exactly that.
At my last job, our department was drowning in extra tasks because management kept cutting corners and shifting responsibility. I usually helped out wherever I could, stayed late, trained new hires, even covered for my manager once during a client call she forgot about.
One day, I politely declined staying late because I had a doctor's appoinment I couldn't move. The next morning, I get pulled into a meeting. My manager tells me I’m being written up for “refusing to support the team.” I asked if this was a joke. It wasn't.
Alright. Cool.
From that point on, I did only my job. No more late nights. No more fixing other people’s work. If it wasn’t in my job description, I wasn’t touching it.
Two months later, the whole department’s a mess. Client deliverables are late. The new hires quit. The manager had to start doing her own scheduling (which she sucks at). Eventually, she gets demoted, and the company starts offering retention bonuses to people who just show up.
Meanwhile, I found a better job and left without notice used the same write-up she gave me as the reason. “Didn’t feel like the team was a good fit.”
Funny how “not being a team player” only matters when you’re the one holding everything together.
Jobadvisor:
That's quite a story! It sounds incredibly frustrating to be penalized for finally prioritizing your own needs after consistently going above and beyond. It's a powerful statement about how "team player" can be weaponized when the distribution of labor is unequal.
It's almost poetic justice that your deliberate shift highlighted the very issues your extra efforts were masking. The chaos that ensued after you focused solely on your role speaks volumes about the actual team dynamics and where the real lack of support lay.
Finding a better job and using their own ridiculous reasoning against them? Chef's kiss! 🤌 It really does underscore how the definition of a "team player" can be so conveniently one-sided. Congratulations on the win and on finding a workplace that hopefully values true collaboration and respect for boundaries. 🏆