So this is kinda long but whatever…
Was working at this Fortune 500 company, things were going great with actual customers and stakeholders. Like genuinely great - feedback going all the way up to the country head. Rave reviews, the whole thing. But something felt off with my new manager right from the start. So I started interviewing a couple of weeks after they started based on how they operated. I was able to get two offers but decided to stick for some more time as things were not that bad. They were hired through a referral (classic), never worked at a product company before, and honestly could not hold a conversation for more than 5 minutes without losing the thread. Classic micromanager, got visibly pissed if you pushed back even slightly. The whole team basically had to operate in yes-ma’am mode or you’d feel it. This manager had already pushed out 3 people within their first year. At some point the pattern speaks for itself.
With year end, I kind of had a feeling that they’ll let me go as I was paid the highest, higher than this manager. Sure enough, instead of being let go cleanly they put me on a PIP. Which honestly was a gift.
Luckily I got an offer within like 2 weeks of being on the PIP. Then just started slow-walking the joining date, a bit of back and forth here and there, meanwhile kept interviewing at other places to see what else was out there. Had quite a few processes running in parallel at that point.
Was literally about to put in my resignation as I accepted the first offer when they let me go… Missed it by a week or so.
End result - collected 4+ months of severance pay, took a couple weeks off to decompress, joined another firm that paid more than what I was getting paid, fully remote, and so far things are actually good.
I wish you all good luck