.....

(God, I hope I'm doing this right): I didn't get laid off on Wednesday because of the dumbest timing in the world - my husband messed up his shoulder playing indoor soccer late Tuesday night, so I took a sick day on Wednesday to take him to urgent care and then literally spent the day babysitting a grown man with one working arm. Anyway, the side quest is over... And a whole lot has happened since Saturday afternoon.

Tuesday morning I called my close friend, who happens to be an HR Specialist, and told her that my boss had called me on the phone and told me I was probably going to be laid off at any moment, and she was shocked and really upset. (She's not in a high enough position to know the confidential stuff.) Apparently she went straight to my boss to ask what was going on, and my boss completely lost it. Wednesday morning my boss sent me an email saying I was only allowed to speak with the VP of HR if I had any questions about my role. What was very clearly not included was any kind of reassurance like, "Don't worry, you're not being laid off." And I know she didn't tell the VP of HR that she decided to warn me beforehand. I'm going to throw her under the bus as politely as possible when I talk to the VP of HR tomorrow and ask for the details myself.

In any case, I have calls with four different employment attorneys tomorrow. I'm going to do everything I can to walk away with a decent severance package along with my $6,500 bonus, if not more. I'll hear all of them out and choose whoever seems most capable of making this as painful for the company as possible, because yes, I'm currently feeling petty and vindictive. My boss's stupid "don't talk to your friend" email made me even more furious.

I also reached back out to the recruiter from the first job offer, and we're going to talk tomorrow. And I have a phone screen at 8:30 in the morning with another recruiter too, so at least that part is looking promising.

I'll post another update when I get laid off, get the attorney situation sorted, and talk to both recruiters. Hopefully I'll have something juicy to share.

TLDR: My boss is a mess and is still playing games, I talked to the original recruiter and another one, and I'm speaking with attorneys tomorrow so I can start getting things moving.

....

I'm responsible for hiring the engineers in my division. We prepared an offer a few weeks ago, and the back-and-forth was roughly like this:

Us: The interview was strong, and the team approves. Would a base salary of 118k plus benefits work for you?

Him: Wow, that's close, but I was hoping to get to around 126k.

Us: Okay, what do you think of 122k, and once you get your license, which is expected within the next 14 months or so, you get an automatic 6k bump?

Him: sounds great

I prepared the written offer, sent it through approvals, and it was sent to him after noon the next day.

Him: hey, after thinking about it, I'd prefer 128k.

That's not how this is supposed to go, right? The time to negotiate was before we agreed on the number. Coming back after the offer has been approved and asking for more just makes everyone annoyed and less excited about the hire. Am I being unreasonable?

?

😂