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Anonymous
12/27/19 at 11:38AM UTC
in
Career

Our team's duties were dumbed down considerably by a new manager - anyone ever had this happen and did you successfully negotiate a layoff/payout based on this being a sneaky layoff without having to do a layouff?

What I and others on our team, all with computer science degrees, were hired to do 5-12 years ago: write API documentation and detailed configuration documentation for an application built on top of SAP. This work leveraged my developer, PM, and "back end"/API technical writing skills and experience. What a new non-technical manager is requiring us to do: Create end user help screens and associated manuals consisting of a data entry or report screen capture and the help screen contents for clerical and power users skilled in the application focus area (corporate credit rating) but with light to intermediate computer skills. These duties leverage my keyboarding skills, (somewhat insufficient) ability to repetitively perform the same sequence of steps, and (somewhat insufficient) ability to follow an ungrammatical style guide because "those are the rules the users want". We're writing absurdly surface level documentation I'd consider placeholder level only, for each of thousands of screens in the application. The tool in which we write is a closed-architecture multi-tier custom application that makes even partial automation of the work impossible. Would you agree that my principal technical writer role that, under a previous manager, involved daily tasks like scanning through source code, writing client code samples, and writing detailed configuration documentation has been dumbed down considerably? I believe I could have done this work as a college student, and I've gained a lot of expertise since those days. The new work does not leverage any of my technical skills, and I don't possess the application specific (corporate credit rating analysis) skills that would be useful, and which a new non-technical hire on the team does possess. Could management partially make up for that by providing access to the credit rating SMEs who design the product? Yes, but "we'd be a disruption" to their work, so we only have sporadic access to them. The work also does not involve use of my information architecture know-how either, because the end users dictated to our manager what they wanted the documentation to look like, and she has run with it. She is completely disinterested in input from the experienced writers on the team regarding the format. My frustration with this state of affairs is considerable. Our team of writers with undergraduate or graduate degrees in CS are significantly underutilised - as clerks rather than as an experienced tech workers and content creators. Our original positions still exist in name (job title and compensation level) only, and we've been silently slotted into these lower level roles without the opportunity to opt for a redundancy payout due to the loss of our original roles. Lest you read this and think, "Wait, an easier job for the same pay? Shut up and take the money!", consider that lower level work isn't necessarily easier for high level technical people to perform. The work is monotonous and creativity has no place in it. Additionally, the requirement to avoid detail is counter to the requirements of most technical writing I've done, and my own standards as an engineer. I'm aware every hour I spend at this that I'm losing technical skills I'm not using. Due to long days and a long commute combined with family responsibilities, playing with code at night after work to keep my skills up isn't feasible. I suppose the kicker was that it recently affected my ability to regain employment that is a match for my skills and technical aptitude. A recruiter from one of the FANG companies reached out to me based on my (now outdated) online CV that focused on my highly technical writing. She immediately lost interest when she heard that I've spent the past year writing end user database application help screens. Unfortunately, there's a reason that I'm hesitating to change employers. I am just a couple years away from a high-5-figures amount vesting. The employment contract states that if laid off, any pending amounts vest on a pro-rata basis, so I'd be entitled to 2/3 of it. If I walk, I get none of it. So I'm strategizing on how to ask for a payout based on my role being eliminated and this new role, despite carrying a similar title, involving very different skills and experience than what I bring to the table. Have any fellow FGBers successfully negotiated a package when in a similar situation? And before you ask: Yes, it is possible they're trying to get us to resign so that they don't have to pay out a few hundred thousand dollars total, to us. There's no way to know for sure. Secondarily: Any ideas on how to keep potential employers from "switching off" when they hear I've been writing end user documentation for over a year, given that this isn't a role I ever would have accepted if those had been the duties originally?

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Susan Smoter
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1.46k
Burning desire to make the working world better
12/27/19 at 7:18PM UTC (Edited)
Yes, I've seen this and I think you're correct about this being the start of the end. Been in similar situation and took this as my clue to start looking for a new job. Never good to wait for the ax to fall. Good news is you're doing work that's needed by many other companies!
Anonymous
12/29/19 at 3:43AM UTC
Indeed, but what I am looking for is a strategy to get a payout of the funds that would have been due to me had I been allowed to stay or been made (as my country calls it "genuinely redundant"). Whether or not the intent is to deprive me of the fully vested funds, the outcome is the same: leaving before they vest for whatever reason other than genuine redundancy will deprive me of them. And unfortunately the good news isn't really good. The clerical work I'm doing today wouldn't pay the bills, nor does it use my education and skills. The highly skilled work I formerly did, which DOES pay the bills and which I'm still capable of doing and enjoy doing, isn't work I've done over the past couple of years, and apparently that's a lifetime to high end tech companies.
Susan Smoter
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1.46k
Burning desire to make the working world better
12/29/19 at 4:31PM UTC
I wish I did know of a strategy for recouping your lost funds - this happened to my son and it was obviously planned as it was timed just before the payout and he was let go on bogus reasons after giving his all for three years. There is nothing illegal about this, its just immoral, which apparently means nothing to stockholders. As for your next employment, I think you need to build and use a network among people who can help you get into a job. Personal referrals is what you need - hopefully you retained some good contacts with your former colleagues.
Anonymous
12/29/19 at 5:48PM UTC
Unfortunately, my colleagues who left weren't quite as technical as me (one was a casual developer in a previous life, and the other was an ex-librarian at a scientific research company). Neither can really speak to the kind of hardcore developer oriented work that I do and neither are currently working in software industry technical writing at all (one has gone into straight editorial and one has fully retired), so can't make referrals. I've put out a feeler to the former manager of the team who originally hired me to see if he's willing to be a reference, though. He's in London, and well over retirement age, so his reference might not help, but it's the best I've got in terms of my work here. I've got a fantastic network of VP and under level people back in America at Fortune 100s with whom I worked when in roles in which I could shine. Alas, they don't count for much in Australia; Australian companies like to hear from Aussies. And none of them have suggestions as to Australian companies I might look into (already tried that last year). Not even the one Aussie expat, because he's been out of the tech scene here for a couple decades and no longer has good contacts still working in the industry here. For multiple reasons, I must stay in Australia for at least the next 4 years so going back to the US to work isn't feasible. I've looked into job shares as a way to supplement my earnings and expand my network. Unfortunately the ones I've found have required work during the business day, not after-hours. I can't afford (at all -- I am my own sole source of support in a city with New York level rents + other high costs) to go part time, although if I was paid out I could probably afford it for a couple months. Do you have ideas on some that I might be able to do during my evening hours? And just as a public service announcement, in certain circumstances it *is* illegal to dismiss someone for bogus reasons and deprive them of unvested bonus compensation or even of future salary. Research the term "constructive dismissal". It works differently in different states, and also works differently from country to country, but it's fallacious to assert there's no recourse against an employer doing wrong against an employee. Particularly younger folks who might not have done their time in the trenches yet need to know this - they likely have more rights at work than they might think they do. For example, in America there are plenty of EEO related reasons that employers can't just do anything they like regarding employment. And in Australia, there are significant laws around unfair dismissals. Eliminating someone's job but letting them keep their title and pay whilst giving them lower-responsibility duties may trigger clauses in legislation related to how genuine redundancies are handled. Generally companies must pay staff out when their jobs are eliminated; if shifted to another role within the company, it must be suitable and acceptable, and there is precedent that a significantly lower level role does not fit that description. The payout must meet a minimum for years of service and salary, and can be increased but not decreased by an individual employment contract (my employer has a clause about paying out unvested incentive comp pro-rata as an addition to the federal minimum standard). This doesn't mean that employers don't get away with it in the real world. In a previous life, I saw another entire team of UX specialists (whom an overly optimistic software company had decided they did not require!) eliminated one at a time over the course of 18 months. Each one ostensibly "for cause", but it was highly coincidental at best that when each one left, his/her role was not refilled, and also that nobody else in that department was dismissed during that time frame. Unfortunately, I didn't know any of them well enough to ask them if (and how) they got a golden handshake.
Susan Smoter
star-svg
1.46k
Burning desire to make the working world better
12/29/19 at 4:33PM UTC
Another thought - I've noticed some FGB members do job-sharing... have you looked into doing this to get into a company where you'd like to work? Even PT work to get into their system?
Anonymous
12/27/19 at 2:01PM UTC
I would speak with an employment lawyer to get advice on how to proceed. Also - if you are looking for a new role, I would focus on your strengths and skip the whole "I've been doing basically nothing for the last year" part. If asked what you've been doing...get creative with your wording. As long as you can backup your actual skills - nobody needs to know any differently.
Anonymous
12/29/19 at 1:46PM UTC
Thanks. A friend gave me a referral to an employment lawyer last week and I'll be pursuing that after everyone returns from holiday break. I think in favour of a negotiated departure are several things: 1. The job description under which I was hired sounds much more like my original duties which involved writing for peers working as developers and network administrators, than it sounds like the duties I've had over these past two years writing for end users. 2. The manager has mentioned to another team member that she wants to take "technical" out of our position titles and make it "content writer". The other four of us haven't asked about this because our colleague mentioned it in confidence so that we aren't blind-sided if she just goes and does it with no further discussion. When I mentioned this idea to a senior peer in another office of the multinational, his immediate response was, "That's like a demotion, isn't it?". (Concern that we as a group were about to get demoted without warning was why my teammate mentioned it to the other 4 of us. She'd broached the idea of a title change to "senior" level for herself, and got the equivalent of "no, because I want to dumb down everyone's titles" as a response.) 3. Based on a quick survey of available positions in software companies around the web, there don't appear to be technical writer roles outside of the marketing or bid-response departments that are as non-technical as our duties make ours. Even roles for primarily user interface evangelism want sophisticated experience with complex version control systems, XML editing and video creation tools, etc. We just scribble unformatted plain text with a few key words inserted here and there into text boxes in the web app that stores our content. It was a process specifically designed so that end users could use the same tool to customise the help screens without training. 4. Per the employee who left in late 2018 and the one who left in 2017, they both highlighted changes in the position's type and level of responsibilities, and their perception that the team manager is disinterested in utilising more than just the team's clerical abilities, in their exit interviews with HR. This means that the company is aware of it and did nothing to course-correct the manager after either departure. This appears to imply they don't mind writers dropping off the team, not to be replaced by writers at all, but for the manager to use the freed-up budget to hire people who are friends of the hiring manager, into other roles on the team. So in fact, the rote-manual-effort writing roles she's put us into ARE being eliminated as soon as people leave. It's difficult to be too creative whilst being truthful, if asked directly, "Could you give me an example of what you're working on now?". Because I have been with this company 5+ years, my recent references are all former teammates who've left for similar reasons as the ones I've described here. All are very straighforward, honest folks not in to politics, I'm not sure all would be comfortable being creative about obscuring what the team's been doing lately given that it's why they each left as well; and coordinating their creativity with my own could be an impossible task that would lead to my being disqualified for lying to the company. One way to do it could be to stick to the generalised statements that the original job description makes about my role -- it describes the job I was originally hired to do -- and ask them to do likewise and claim ignorance of the current culture/duties of the team; they could cite historical examples of work I've done (but no longer do) since they're no longer there. That way, the only way I could get caught would be if there's a mandatory check with my current employer (which some potential employers do) before the final offer is made.
Anonymous
12/30/19 at 2:58PM UTC
Regarding the reference check...I've given a LOT of reference checks over the years (20+) and I've only ever had one person from the actual company reach out to me personally. Most reference checks, in my experience, involve a third party company. The questions are basic and vague and generally are making sure you're not totally wacky. I've never, ever had someone cross reference a reference check: "During her interview, Suzie said she did technical writing. But when we checked her reference, Johnny stated they used to do technical writing but there was a change in direction and for the last year they focused on other things. O.M.G." No...it doesn't work like that. If you said you're a technical writer - your references can easily back this up. I don't see a problem. Don't worry about it too much...focus on getting a new job. And while your company changed your responsibilities and possibly your title, they are likely allowed to do that. You should check the terms of your employment. If you're in the US - they often write something in that says "We can change your job and your title without your permission."...isn't that great. And if you're in an "at-will" state - that means you have very little to stand on. But a lawyer can better help you. Make sure you've got your terms of employment in front of you when talking to a lawyer.
Anonymous
12/30/19 at 11:15PM UTC
I appreciate that you want to share your expertise. I've got 35 years of it myself, so already know ALL of the common sense. I've been applying for jobs for 35 years, and twice (for the most high-stakes, best-paid technical jobs) they've had a requirement of calling and verifying my exact duties with my manager at the final-offer-contingent-on-this-call stage. So I have valid concerns, quite certainly. I appreciate your experience has been different, but I didn't manufacture this constraint out of the blue. It's lived experience. For highly technical roles, they want to know that you have the precise technical experience and not just the vocabulary of someone who's done the work. I think you're not giving enough credit to technical management on being terrified they'll hire someone not technical enough for the role, as many technical writers are clerks who are very skilled at word processing (read: the work I'm currently required to do) rather than being software engineers who can write, like me. Being a technical writer is sort of like being a doctor; being qualified to do one part of it means nothing about qualifications to do other parts of it. You can be a specialist in many things. For example, you might be an ENT specialist. The practice hiring you might want a ENT specialist, and they may indeed specifically ask your current employer, "have they been employed as an ENT specialist for your practice?" to make sure they're not getting an internist who wants a career change. "And while your company changed your responsibilities and possibly your title, they are likely allowed to do that." But unfortunately for the employer in Australia, they're not allowed to do it. The contract includes verbiage like "other occasional duties as assigned", but the JD is the JD. Changing your duties without a change in title or necessarily a change in immediate pay, in a downgraded way, is basically dismissal in the Australian employment law landscape. So that IS why I asked about package negotiation. I already know that much. What I don't know yet are the practical details of the fight.
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