Navigating Corporate Games - My Experience with Silent Firing and Lessons Learned

If you want to build your career in the corporate world you have to have a know-how of navigating the world. Ultimately building a career is a two step process.

• Be best at what you do.
• Be on good terms with the people you work with.

In the earlier stages of career one usually focusses on the former aspect leaving the people aspect unaccounted. Fact is that:

As long as you are working with people not AI powered bots you have to play the games people play.

And people who focus much of their energy into playing such games may outrun you if you leave it like that. Corporates are larger systems much much different from the parts it is composed of. The work gets done despite the games people play not because of it. But the individual progression is very much influenced by them.

So this blog should interest you if you are new into the field starting out to make an impact.

There is a new phenomenon happening where companies who don’t want to get bad press and want to do away with the worker compensation take a more ruthless approach. Silent Firing is the name of newest move- wildcard if you must exaggerate. The term is self explanatory but the process is more dirty. Unlike a simple firing where you submit the company items and walk away with a compensation cheque and a box full of memories and resentment, here you have to face the humiliation all through the notice period.

I thought I should jot it down as it is happening to me so that you may get the larger picture-what steps are involved, how your attitude is influenced and all the details that I can pull out from my memory. I will try to be objective and honest. I can do that as I have nothing to loose now. Here is the outline of the process as it happened to me:

The Preparation

I heard rumours about the possibility of layoffs and that there are three resources(That’s another jargon for employees) in the team that can be done away with. My L1 manager conducted the year end review and intimated about the areas of improvement. Cut to 2 months and there was a meeting with my managers about how I am lagging and that I should pick up the pace. I took it as I could and started working more diligently. I finished my tasks on time so he has nothing more to complain about. But the list like the Greek mythical creature Hydra kept growing one bullet point at a time.

The Intimation

The second stage was where there was lot of micromanagement and pressure from management. It culminated into zero appraisal and I wasn’t communicated about my position and future prospects. Not of lot was said and communicated which wasn’t exactly a morale booster. I talked to my L1 manager about it and he said that I wasn’t performing upto the expectations(Director’s expectations) so I will be put on PIP and that he said as an explanation for zero-appraisal. At this point I made up my mind to switch the job but go through the PIP anyway.

The Separation

I didn’t intend to budge. As PIP meeting happened I walked away with the feeling that I was set to fail. Before me the employee who was fired was forced to resign after such discussion had happened. I was prepared for that possibility and my plan was to secure my position while looking elsewhere for opportunities. I did what was laid out in my PIP for 2 weeks. I worked extra hours to meet the project deadline and delivered on the action items. The review meeting happened and there was a whining again. From HR who is supposed to side with the employees. The director basically threatened me to put in my life into work or walk away. It was clear what he wanted and when my extra efforts were not appreciated I was done work-wise. I took a leave, went home, and decided with fresh mind to resign.

The Notice-Period

After resignation was accepted (without any communication for 2 weeks) I was contacted by HR about the further steps and a formal(translated bullshit routine) exit interview where I laid out reasons of my resignation. Then a meeting happened where my notice period was decided. Since I will be applying elsewhere the work will be affected and I had to assure I will work anyway and deliver for the specified notice period. The discussion touched the point that my notice period might be cut short. I said I expected to be compensated for that duration to which director refused. So it was decided I will serve the notice period and I committed to work diligently throughout.

Afterthoughts

If I were to sum up the process it was a lot of expectations, communication which was akin to intimidation and an effort to convince me of my shortcomings instead of constructive feedback and appreciation of the efforts I was putting.

So this is how it happened to me. There is a lot of talk about prioritising yourself before work and I couldn’t agree more. In the age of productivity led work culture little thought is put into how algorithmic optimisations cut through the employee wellness. Therefore it is important to look out for yourself, cultivate relations which help you career-wise, engage in team work and track your progression. This is the people aspect that I started the blog with and I feel lot of people skip over it but its importance can’t be overstated. You should know your place in the team and let your work speak but when work is not being tracked you should know how to compensate for it. That requires knowing the moves of the game.

Play the game and play it well.