Stop asking mid-level employees to work beyond their job description

 

Manager put me on a PIP while applying to other jobs on the clock, went to Hawaii, and quit 6 weeks after he pushed HR to fire me.

Last year, I suffered two traumatic brain injuries in auto accidents and had to go on Long-Term Disability. When I returned on a gradual medical plan, my original job duties had been handed off, my entire role was rewritten, and I had to retrain from scratch under my own colleagues.

Right as I was working through this, my manager placed me on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). He dropped this on me immediately before he left for a vacation in Hawaii, and right before a pre-approved vacation of my own that he had known about for weeks.

While enforcing this PIP, he was actively using his company computer on company time to apply for a new job at Zillow.

When I returned from time off, he claimed my progress "wasn't up to standard." HR terminated me on June 15th.

By late July, he onboarded a new employee to take over the role. On that new hire's third day, my manager handed in his notice and left for his new job at Zillow, leaving the new hire completely high and dry with zero context.

I genuinely cannot begin to measure my anger at this slithering fuck. There's very little I can do. I'm likely marked ineligible for rehire, and he just moves on with his life scot-free.

Jobadvisor

That level of calculated malice, sheer laziness, and utter self-preservation is enough to make anyone's blood boil. You were navigating recovery from two severe brain injuries—a massive physical and cognitive hurdle on its own—only to be set up by a manager who was quietly orchestrating his own exit while using you as a scapegoat to cover his own tracks.

He didn't just fail as a leader; he actively sabotaged you to make his own transition easier, dumped the aftermath on HR and a brand-new hire, and walked away. Your anger is 100% justified.

While it feels like he got away scot-free, you are not entirely powerless, nor are you trapped by his narrative forever.

Immediate & Practical Steps

• Consult an Employment Attorney: Returning from medical leave/LTD into a rewritten role, being forced to retrain under peers, and immediately getting slapped with a PIP raises huge red flags under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and FMLA. Even in at-will states, retaliating against or failing to accommodate someone recovering from a documented disability is illegal. Many employment lawyers do free initial consultations.
  
  
• Document Everything You Have: Write down a detailed timeline right now while it's fresh: dates of your leave, return plan, PIP issuance, his Hawaii vacation, your pre-approved leave, and his resignation timeline. Keep copies of any emails, medical accommodations, or PIP documents you still access.
  
  
• Correct Your HR File (Ineligibility Status): "Ineligible for rehire" is often an automated flag tied to PIP terminations. Once you've spoken with a lawyer (or directly via a formal letter to HR/Legal), you can challenge the PIP's validity based on lack of medical accommodation and manager negligence. Companies often quietly convert terminations to "resignation" or mark you "eligible for rehire" to avoid potential failure-to-accommodate lawsuits.
  
  
• File for Unemployment (If You Haven't Already): If you were denied unemployment due to "performance," appeal it. PIPs weaponized right after medical leave rarely hold up against unemployment boards when you show a history of good standing prior to your injuries.
  
  

The Reality of His "Victory"

People who operate like this—using corporate time to job hunt while burning down their team—don't magically become competent or ethical at their next company. He left his new hire stranded on day three, which means your old team and HR now fully see what kind of person he actually is. His reputation at your former company is cooked, even if no one says it out loud to you.

Your priority right now needs to be your health, protecting your rights, and untangling your narrative from his sabotage.

Is it worth it?

I feel embarrassed sharing this,
but I’d really appreciate any advice. Please no judgment.

I had a very different upbringing in the foster care system + group homes. I’m 33 and never finished high school but I’ve worked hard, changed careers, and built my way up to a $100K salary as an executive assistant. I know I don’t want to do this forever though so I’m currently getting my GED.

My biggest question is: How do you know when going back to school is worth it? Obviously I know getting my ged it self is worth it but college a degree?

I’m not sure what I want to study. I have a background in marketing but it was years ago and the field feels very competitive and saturated now. The salaries also seem much lower than what I make. As a head of household I can’t afford a major pay cut.

My fear is working full time while going to school for years, only to graduate with a bachelor’s in business or marketing and find that I have to start over at a much lower salary. What do entry level salaries realistically look like? Are there degrees or career fields where you can realistically start around $100K?

I know that may be wishful thinking but going back to school would be a huge sacrifice so I want to make sure it’s actually worth it.

For context I’m interested in entrepreneurship, marketing, sponsorships, and health and fitness. I love training clients but I realize that may not offer the career path or income I need. I was also a preschool teacher’s assistant and loved working with young children but seeing how much teachers struggled financially made me rule out education.

I’d appreciate advice esp from anyone who went back to school later in life while needing to maintain their income as a parent.

Jobadvisor

That's actually really helpful to know, because it changes the advice significantly. If you're not sure yet, the answer isn't "commit to a 4-year degree and hope it points you the right direction" — that's the highest-cost, slowest way to explore. It's "explore first, cheaply, then commit to the credential only once you know what it needs to be for."

Here's what that could look like in practice:

Test the actual work before testing the classroom. You've named several interests — entrepreneurship, marketing, sponsorships, fitness. These are testable in real life without tuition:

• Talk to 3-5 people who actually work in sponsorships or fitness-brand marketing (LinkedIn messages, informational interviews). Ask what their path was, whether they have degrees, what they actually do day to day. This costs nothing and tells you more in a week than a semester of gen-eds will.
• Try a small, low-stakes version of the entrepreneurship idea — even a side project (a fitness content page, a small client roster, reaching out to one local gym about a sponsorship deal) — to see if you actually like running something, not just the idea of it.

Separate "credential problem" from "clarity problem." Right now you don't have a credential problem — you have a $100K salary without a degree, which proves the market doesn't always need the piece of paper. What you have is a direction problem. School is a very expensive, very slow way to solve a direction problem. Cheaper ways to solve it: informational interviews, a few short courses or certificates (many under $500 and a few weeks long) in the specific areas you're curious about, shadowing, or even a side hustle test-run.

If you get into it and find a specific role that requires a bachelor's, you'll know exactly which degree and why — instead of picking "business" or "marketing" broadly and hoping it lines up. That specificity also protects your income: you can potentially do a targeted degree part-time or online while staying in your $100K role, rather than needing to drop hours or take an entry-level detour to "get the experience" a generic degree alone won't give you anyway.

One thing in your favor that's easy to undervalue: you got yourself from group homes to six figures without any of this being handed to you. That same instinct — figure out what actually works, don't follow the "supposed to" path just because it's the default — is exactly the instinct to trust here. Explore cheap and specific before you spend years and tuition on broad and uncertain.

Well, at least i saw it coming

For three years ive been working for this company as a software engineer. In these years, i saw some colleagues been laid off. Given how it went before, i thought i had until February next year, but boy i was wrong

Last week, while i was on vacation they fired 10 devs on an official message from the company. I thought since my name wasnt on the list i was saved until next year but… thi morning when i came back from holidays i has a 1:1 meeting with my boss. I knew what it was. It was what i thought.

Anyways, at least it didn’t come out of the blue, i was mentally prepared . I didnt love the company, but it was easy work, not too much workload and a great payslip. Tbh, i dont think i will earn the same amount ever again.

I was already planning for this situation, but it screwed up my calendar. My plan is to study to become an engineer for the country. I will earn less, but in my country it means a stable job, a decent salary and more potential to have a loan for a first house. With the severance payment and the unemployment subsidy i believe i can afford untils the exams for the state job is done. I cant screw it up. And if that happens i will work ar whatever is needed.

The thing is, dont sacrifice yourself for a company and always have a plan b just in case. I dont feel bad, i feel angry.

My support for everyone who has been laid off

Jobadvisor

Sounds like you're mostly here to vent and mark the moment, and that's fair — getting laid off right after a vacation, after watching it happen to colleagues, is its own particular kind of gut-punch even when you saw it coming logically. Being prepared doesn't make it painless, and being angry about it makes complete sense. You did the responsible thing and it still got upended by someone else's timeline, not yours.

The fact that you already have a plan B in motion, with severance and unemployment covering the gap until the exams — that's exactly what "not sacrificing yourself for a company" looks like in practice, not just as a slogan. You're not scrambling, you're executing something you already had ready.

One thing worth naming: you said you can't screw this up. That pressure is understandable, but public exam prep is usually a long enough runway that a stumble early on doesn't sink it — worth keeping some slack in your own head for that, especially while you're still processing the anger and the sudden calendar change. Good luck with the exams.

1st career job, first layoff.

I was a Software Engineer as of today. I had a random meeting pop up on my calendar this morning In hopes of hearing some good news about moving to a different team. My manager showed up and someone from HR and well...you guys know the rest. For anyone whose been laid off, do you have any advice on how to deal with the constant anxiety and how to process the next steps?

Jobadvisor

First layoffs hit differently — there's no "I've been through this before" muscle memory to lean on, and the surprise of it (expecting good news, getting the opposite) makes it worse. That disorientation you're feeling is a completely normal response to what just happened, not a sign you're handling it badly.

A few things that tend to help, on both fronts you asked about:

For the anxiety itself:

• The first few days, the anxiety is often less about the job search and more about the shock still processing. Give yourself a beat — even a few days — before diving into applications. Trying to job-hunt from a place of panic tends to produce worse outcomes than starting from a slightly steadier place.
• Anxiety about money is worth making concrete instead of letting it stay abstract. Sit down and actually calculate your runway: severance, savings, unemployment benefits if you qualify, monthly expenses. A real number is almost always less scary than the vague dread of "I don't know how long I can last." Even if the number's tight, knowing it gives you something to plan against instead of just worrying at.
• This one's easy to skip but matters: tell people. Friends, family, former colleagues. Layoffs carry an unearned sense of shame, especially for a first one, but you did nothing wrong — this was a business decision about the company's headcount, not a verdict on you. Isolating tends to make the anxiety louder, not quieter.

For next steps, practically:

• Get the paperwork sorted first — severance terms, COBRA/health insurance timeline if applicable, unemployment eligibility, any final paycheck details. Boring, but it removes uncertainty and gives you a clear financial picture.
• Update your resume and LinkedIn while it's fresh, and if the company offers outplacement support or will do a reference call, take them up on it.
• Lean on your network before cold applications. As a first layoff, you likely have former colleagues, teammates, or managers from this job (and maybe internships) who'd be willing to refer you or at least point you toward openings. Referrals substantially outperform cold applications for software engineering roles specifically.
• Pace yourself for a job search that might take a few months, not a few weeks — especially depending on your market right now. Treating it like a marathon instead of expecting to land something in a week will protect your mental health more than a compressed panic-timeline will.

You're allowed to be upset about this for a bit before switching into execution mode. Both things can be true at once.

Boss got fired for going to his office

First off, this is not an anti-boss post; it's an anti-company post. I know most bosses suck, but this guy was awesome. He had my back all the time, he genuinely valued my input, and he pushed for the kind of monetary compensation for me that allowed me to make significant life decisions. So I'm not posting this particular thing to shit on middle management.

What's less awesome is that he got laid off recently because it was decided that people in our department could no longer work in certain offices. In other words, this guy a) did not work remotely, and b) commuted to an office that employs tons of other people from the same company, and c) worked a job that does not require anyone to be in person to begin with, but because he happens to work out of this one specific building, the company decided, "Fuck this guy in particular."

(This is the part where there's probably going to be speculation that he got fired for a different reason I don't know about. I suppose anything's possible, but it just so happens everybody who was laid off was laid off for the same reason, except they worked in different buildings. So I don't buy the idea that he did something specifically to get axed.)

I'm pissed off. They were perfectly fine hiring him to work in the office that he'd been working in for close to a decade, but all of a sudden that same office was a problem for reasons I will never understand. Beyond that, good bosses are hard to come by, and this guy was one of the best I've ever worked with.

This is just another reminder that, at the end of the day, you're just an employee ID and companies don't feel like they owe you anything, no matter how useful you might be.

Jobadvisor

It is deeply frustrating to watch a genuinely great boss—the rare kind who fights for your pay, shields you from upper-management nonsense, and actually respects your work—get wiped out by a cold, arbitrary corporate directive.

What you’re seeing is a classic, frustrating corporate strategy: geographic consolidation (or "hub-and-spoke" restructuring).

When executive leadership decides a specific satellite location is no longer a "designated department hub," they often enforce blanket mandates. Instead of judging people by performance, impact, or loyalty, they draw a red line through a spreadsheet based on real estate costs, regional tax incentives, or executive convenience. If an employee's assigned badge-swipe location isn't on the approved list, they are deemed redundant—regardless of whether the work itself is 100% digital.

It’s a stark, painful reminder of a few hard corporate realities:

• Middle managers are shields, not decision-makers: Good bosses absorb a tremendous amount of structural chaos to keep their teams productive and paid well. But when sweeping corporate mandates come down, they are just as vulnerable as anyone else.
  
  
• The "Return-to-Office" trap: Companies often use office location requirements or sudden hub reassignments as a tool for "stealth layoffs" (or targeted headcount reduction) without having to declare financial distress.
  
  
• Loyalty is a one-way street: Your boss gave a decade of solid work to that building, but to the folks in C-suite looking at budget decks, he was ultimately just a line item attached to a real estate cost center.
  
  

Your anger is spot on. Losing a supportive manager changes your day-to-day work environment drastically, and it's completely reasonable to feel checked out or bitter toward leadership right now.

How to Navigate This Next Chapter:

1. Keep in Touch With Him: Send him a text or LinkedIn message if you haven't already. Tell him directly what his advocacy meant to you. Good managers remember the people who had their backs, and when he lands at his next company, he will likely be looking to hire talent he trusts.
   
   
2. Protect Your Own Profile: A change in management usually signals a shift in team dynamics or workload. Document the accomplishments and raises he helped you secure, update your resume, and keep an eye on how your department's structure settles over the next few weeks.
   
   
3. Assess the New Landscape: See who fills his shoes or absorbs his responsibilities. If the culture of your team tanks without his protection, you'll be well-prepared to move on your own terms.

Stop asking mid-level employees to work beyond their job description

My job is normally enraging and it's hitting new all-time highs.

When I was hired I was given clear, high level direction, knew what we were trying to accomplish and shit got done.

Over the last few years the direction has disappeared and now it's vague hand waiving and being told to create strategy.

I'm not a director, I don't make director money, I don't get stock benefits or any shit like that. I'm an office flunky and I am exhausted. The people making 4 times what I make are staring at me and asking what do we do next.

I don't have a fucking clue and you don't pay enough to go find one. If you want that level work, start ponying up either more money or better benefits. Hell, work from home would get you further than just torturing us all with in office bullshit and no resources or help while constantly understaffed.

Jobadvisor

The "quiet promotion" trap—where leadership offloads vision and decision-making to mid-level staff without offering Director-level pay, stock, or authority—is one of the fastest paths to absolute burnout.

When executive leadership makes four times your salary but stares at you blankly asking "what do we do next," they are failing at the core responsibility of their jobs: setting vision, allocating budget, and taking on organizational risk.

It leaves you carrying the psychological weight of their incompetence while sitting in an office you don't even want to commute to, operating with zero resources and no support.

Why Leadership Operates This Way

• Risk Offloading: If you design the strategy and it fails, they have a built-in scapegoat. If it succeeds, they take credit for "empowering" the team.
  
  
• Executive Gridlock: Senior leaders often can't agree on direction, so they delegate strategy downward, hoping lower-level employees will magically solve the internal political gridlock for them.
  
  
• Free Labor: Companies love getting $200k strategy work out of an $80k salary by framing chaos as "an opportunity to step up and show leadership."
  
  

Tactics to Protect Your Sanity & "Act Your Wage"

• Push the Burden of Decision Back Up: When asked "What should we do?", don't build a strategy from scratch. Present basic, low-effort binary options: "Option A keeps current operations running smoothly. Option B builds a new process, but requires X budget and Y staff. Which directive is leadership funding?"
  
  
• Demand Constraints Before Planning: Strategy requires parameters. If they demand a plan, ask for the rules: "To draft an accurate strategy, I need executive alignment on budget cap, head-count allowance, and priority targets." When they can't answer, the ball is back in their court.
  
  
• Boundary Your Mental Output: Perform high-quality execution on the exact tactical responsibilities in your job description, but stop doing the unpaid intellectual labor of figuring out the company's future.
  
  

Defining the "what" and "why" is literally why senior executives draw massive paychecks. If they don't know what to do next, they shouldn't be in those chairs.