u/sowhateves

A few weeks ago I told my manager I was burnt out from the amount of work I was doing. Mandatory (unpaid) overtime, multiple tasks given with little guidance, etc. I expected a lighter case load of tasks or maybe even conversations about resources or being able to offload a few tasks to a coworker. But instead I got:

• All my meetings cancelled
• Removed from all Teams channels that pertained to my job
• A new employee hired to take my job (who I had to help train)
• Kicked out of my old office
• Multiple people reaching out to me telling me they’re “sorry to see me go”
• No longer have access to any employee reports or records that I was previously in charge of

All signs of being fired…. right?

HOWEVER… my manager keeps telling me she needs to talk to me but has not yet talked to me. She keeps insisting that I’m just being moved to a different team, however the team I’m being moved to had no idea I was joining them and has no idea what my role is supposed to be. I keep being told by my old manager that my skills would be really useful to them but I genuinely have no daily tasks or assignments despite me asking MULTIPLE times on what my role is and what I’m expected to do. The only task I’ve been given is something that takes 1-2 hours to do AT MOST….

The only reason I keep showing up every day is because my activity is typically monitored and part of me is convinced they’re looking for a decrease in my activity to have actual grounds to fire me.

My question to you is: What would you do in this situation? Do I keep showing up to a job where I literally have nothing to do? Do I tell someone I literally have nothing to do?

Edit: Holy shit did not expect this to get attention.. maybe like 10 comments at most, sorry it’s taking me a second to reply! A few answers to common questions though:

1. Yes I am getting paid. I’m not interested in doing charity work for an employer lol. I am salaried and live in an at-will state. I also am not able to get severance or any PTO payout (which sucks because I’ve been with the company for years and have 300 hours of PTO saved).
2. I work/ worked with the training and development team at a medical device sale company. Yes they do have a history of pushing people out instead of firing them so they don’t have to do the paperwork and less risk for lawsuit. I’ve literally seen HR do it so many times idk why it didn’t register it could happen to me? I’ve spent the last 5 years being close with the executive team, had dinners with the CEO and his family multiple times, and so many other exclusive outings so I assumed I was just above that happening to me? I know what they say about assuming.
3. I’ve been job searching for the past 2(ish) months so I’ve already been applying but didn’t expect to be in the position I’m in now!

Edit 2 for frequent questions/ comments

1. I DO take time off work. My company made a mistake when they hired me and I accrued double to PTO I should’ve and instead of dropping off each year like it’s supposed to it’s been rolling over for me. I pointed it out to a manger when I first got hired but they were fired a month later and no one followed up on it. Obviously was not going to follow up to HR and ask that they give me less PTO. My manager for the past 3 years tries to be a “cool manager” so she constantly tells me “just go, don’t worry about PTO”.
2. I by now have determined I’m being dismissed and have already started searching for a new job while riding this wave. I’m using PTO, scheduling all the Dr’s appointments and saying yes to every test under the sun while I have insurance and a maxed out HSA.
3. My new question: What stuff should I see if I can get away with while I have no oversight? I am monitored heavily so I can’t do anything crazy…. but what bucket list items have you always wanted to do at work?

I’m currently working as a Training Facilitator and like many people in the learning and development field I kind of “fell into it” so I have little experience as to what is expected in the role and what is unique only to the company I work for vs what is typical for the industry. However, the company is a newer company (less than 6 years old), and like many startups in the first few years I’m wearing many hats. My official title is Training Facilitator but I’m also in charge of project management, quality assurance, employee growth, etc. I’ve very grateful for the opportunity to “grow into” a role but I feel stuck and don’t know what my options are?

Wearing multiple hats honestly isn’t something that bothers me, but there are things that make me question if it’s normal for my role/industry and I should just get used to it or if I should leave my job:

- I work 50-60 hour work weeks AT MINIMUM just for facilitating training courses. I’m then expected to have frequent meetings with staff which the only way to accomplish this is to never take break or just work longer hours. I’m salaried and only compensated for 40 of those hours. And I have suspicions that I’m compensated lower than my coworkers.
- I have very little support/touch points/ direction from my managers. I work remotely from the rest of my team who all work in the same office together. There are MANY meetings and discussions that are had without looping me in and I have to find out updates through failing at a task because no one told me. A lot of these meetings are had “on the spot” when calendars just happen to align so I can’t even ask to be added to the call, because it’s very “we discovered we all had 30 minutes free and decided to have a discussion”. I haven’t had an actual meeting with ANY management in about 5 months and any messages sent to them likely won’t get a response and when they do respond it takes 3-7 business days and the issue/ question has resolved on its on.
- I’m constantly put on projects with ZERO guidance about timelines, objectives, my role in the project, people to reach out to, or opportunity for discussion. In the most recent project we sent out updates that affects EVERY employee’s workflow. I’m getting bombarded with angry messages and blamed for frustrations (I also did not agree with the decision being made but I cannot influence the decision). I’m willing to accept areas of growth and opportunities but feels like my failures are being used as justifications as to why I’m a bad fit for the role but I genuinely have no way to reach out to anyone for questions or concerns. I’m told “drop everything else and execute XYZ” and if it’s not done, I get in trouble but if it is done not in the way that was envisioned, I also get looked down on.

I’ve already updated my LinkedIn & resume and started casually applying to other jobs. I know for sure this is not something I want to do but I’m stuck between taking a pay cut and going back to school for something I actually want to do or continuing on this career path because this job is an anomaly in the industry. I guess my question(s) is/are: Is this a normal part of the industry that can be expected at every company? Or should I try to stay with the company and try to amend the things that aren’t working? The only reason I ask the later is because it it s newer startup is IS possible to create new roles to amend the issues that are happening…. it just will take a lot of time and effort.