As the title says I was fired from my job while I was on baby bonding leave. Punch in the gut. I was with the company for 6.5 years and started as an operations specialist. I moved into supervisor, then facility and safety manager, I had just taken a lateral promotion to safety manager 3 months before this happened when they split a full time safety manager from the facilities role it was a 130k a year job.
I am still processing what happened but I think it came down to asking for additional time off to be with my wife and kid. My company culture was super against dads taking more than 1 week off when people where having kids. We had one team member come back for his full FMLA and when I was in the senior staff meeting his operations manager heavily implied that this was going to affect his chances of getting supervisor.
I did not put in for FMLA because I was trying to be a company guy (stupid in hindsight).I was originally supposed to take two weeks off and then come back. Midway through the second week I asked for an extension to get an additional week.
My RVP called me in that week to ask me about my team and how they were doing. We had recently had two employees lateral transfer so there were some openings and team morale was down a little but my counterpart that helped me when I was gone (he had previously had this job and was good with my team) was interviewing on my behalf and that when I came back refreshed I was going to get with my team
And get ahead of any morale issues.
He told me don’t worry about it because your on admin leave. The following week I got a call that said we are separating our relationship due to a loss of confidence in managing the team. They had interviewed one of the most disgruntled workers that I had recently had to write up and this individual made multiple claims of favoritism against me. They basically found anyone that would document dirt to get me gone for not playing their game. I was never asked about these claims.
I was shocked. But I was also very vocal about some policies that we were not following and a portion of my job was compliance. I think it made them mad I was calling them out for these things. Like discrimination against new dads, implying to staff that they couldn’t take sick days, how they logged (or failed to log) OSHA injuries etc. I did it professionally but to them my position was just a checkmark and it was better if I shut up.
Overall I am actually very relieved. I was going to likely resign in the next 6 months anyway and because it’s a large corporation wether I was fired or resigned when the next employer calls they will just hear my dates of employment and positions held. Having just had my baby is a logical time to resign so I can spend more time with him without affecting my old company.
I plan to finish a few safety certifications, spend time with my family, get through the holidays and then start looking for safety manager positions in January. Should not be too difficult as safety professionals are super in demand with all the construction around here. There are 100s of jobs posted in my area right now and I had a couple recruiters hitting me up without looking while I was still employed.
I am very lucky to have an 8 month emergency fund and my wife will be going back to work now at least until I get a job she was supposed to be a SAHM but we will be postponing obviously. We have family that can watch my son which helps too. Even through it wouldn’t be ideal we would not have to worry about not making the mortgage unless I am unemployed for over 3 years between savings, part time work, my Roth and 401k which is highly unlikely.
Anyway that’s my rant. I feel for all of you going through this so close to the holidays and wish you the best.