u/Financial-Ring-9118

A few days ago, I accidentally overheard my Chair, who has a very loud voice, saying from behind the conference room door: "We're going to let her go early next year." I had a bad feeling she was talking about me, and it turned out she was. (For context: I basically don't have any coworkers. It's a very small nonprofit with 4 people above me, and then I'm at the bottom of the ladder.)

This morning I was called in, and the president told me, verbatim: "There's no easy way to say this, but we're going to have to let you go." Then she explained the reason: that I'm not the right fit. I asked her directly whether I had done something major or if there was any misconduct, and she confirmed no, there was nothing like that. Then she gave me some vague feedback that wasn't very useful, and asked me when I wanted my last day to be.

I was very surprised, because in my head I was thinking... You just told me I'm being let go?? So I asked her, but in a calmer and more professional way, to clarify. So I asked her honestly but politely: "Are you asking me to voluntarily resign?" She got flustered and said: "No, no, we just want to know what your three weeks will look like. Think about whether you want to stay until October. You don't have to decide right now."

Am I understanding this correctly that they're trying to get me to leave the job on my own so they can avoid firing me/paying unemployment/or something else? I'm thinking I need to create an electronic paper trail immediately, because other than a lukewarm performance review from 4 months ago (which, looking at it now, may have been a half-assed PIP), the entire conversation was verbal. I feel like they're trying to gently trick me into resigning, right? She was strangely nice the whole time, which honestly made the whole thing even weirder.

Hi,

After my current company promoted someone new whom I had been helping get settled in and learn the job instead of promoting me, I started applying elsewhere and accepted an offer from a smaller place in the same field. I told the owner there that I had already given three weeks' notice at my current job, and about four days later I got an email saying they were withdrawing the offer.

When I told my current job that I intended to leave, I said the reason was that they weren't providing the supervision hours I need for a license I'm working toward, unless I entered their official "apprenticeship program," which was something I didn't want to do. Can I go back and say I thought about it and am now interested in the apprenticeship program? Or is it better to be honest in some way and say I'd like to stay in my current role if possible? Nothing was submitted in writing. It was just a fairly casual call with my supervisor.

I'm panicking a bit and don't know what the best thing to do is. I don't like my current company and I've been trying hard to get out, but I'm literally living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to be without a job right now.

I've become careful about asking for the salary range early when I'm talking to recruiters/HR, because no company hires without having a compensation band in mind.

A recruiter messaged me on LinkedIn asking if I was interested in a position. And I was very interested. The work is almost the same as what I do now, but at a bigger company with a much stronger reputation.

She asked me how much I currently make, and I kept pushing back until she told me the range first. I do this because she's not allowed to ask that question where I live, and also because I know my salary is much lower than what I should be getting. I basically accepted my current job to build the experience and skills I need for the next step.

So she told me the range, and it turned out to be much more than double my current salary.

After that, she asked me again how much I currently make. When I told her, she said something like: "Yeah, that's a tough deal." So we both agreed that my current salary is low.

When she asked me what I was looking for, I told her I was targeting the posted range, preferably around the midpoint. That's when she told me that wasn't realistic, and that the most I should expect is around a 25% increase over my current salary.

What would you do in a situation like this?

For clarification, this is an external recruiter, not someone working at the company itself.

Would it be a bad move if I reached out to the company myself?

I accepted a role with a company, and they asked me to go see the area with my wife and our 8-month-old daughter. We drove about 8 hours, scheduled viewings with a few apartment complexes, and submitted applications to some of them.

Before I accepted, I told HR that my wife's job requires her to give at least 45 days' notice, and that she would do that as soon as I accepted and signed the offer. I went onsite, toured the office, met the people I would be working with, and discussed a start date. I also asked whether working from 8 to 4 would be okay, and they said that should not be a problem.

I sent HR the signed offer letter, and afterward my wife submitted her resignation from her position.

HR also sent employment/offer confirmation paperwork to the apartments we had applied to. We were accepted and were basically at the stage of signing a lease.

Then, after we got back home, I got a call saying the company was withdrawing the offer because they didn't think they would be able to keep me happy there long-term. This came completely out of nowhere.

What options do I have here, especially since my wife resigned based on my having a signed offer?