Ever Ask for Severance to Leave an Extremely Toxic Company????
Anonymous
Ever Ask for Severance to Leave an Extremely Toxic Company????
EDIT: Please note that I am responding to others as it has actually been an empowering learning experience. Before talking to legal council, I didn't know I had options and how or that I could defend myself. Ladies, you have options, do not suffer in silence. You can have a plan and it can protect you should things come to an end in a number of ways.
This is my recap of what I am currently going through and why I am asking...
I didn't get the training I was promised, despite professionally asking for help, going to HR, and writing up clear needs, I was told I would get 3 months of ramp up time - I didn't even get a full month. I have that in writing, not only from me, but from coworkers who were upset that I was taken out of their teams that I was training in.
The person I am taking over for admitted to me more than once that they were leaving the role because it was too chaotic, the role was making them have anxiety, so they were moving to a new role on a team that had structure. They also didn't tell me this person was leaving, and they completely changed my entire onboarding plan to be essentially me watching a few videos and then nothing at all.
I have written emails as follow-ups to my managers and they take it as a personal attack when it's just a recap that any normal company would have their employees write after a standard meeting. Factually - date, time, topic, agenda items, plan of action, timeline, action items. That's it. I always use ChatGPT or Gemini to review to make sure that it's clean and clear cut. So I can't even blame the tone for being off as it's just a generic recap from ChatGPT or Gemini. And I was told to do this for efficiency.
Management and my team members have told me multiple times that they need to change and that they're difficult people who refuse to change, they're also doing a course on how to take feedback, but ironically can't take the feedback they ask for.
There's no process anywhere, at all, and it's been that way for years, but they claim it's 'just because of how complex things are' when it's not that complex at all.
Multiple people have brought up to HR (and HR told me themselves) that management on my team is lacking, not doing their job, and many others have filed concerns and complaints. But they asked me to be 'patient' in getting what I was promised with no clear action forward.
They presented in a company meeting that women reported getting minimal to no support in career development or management opportunities, but said nothing to address it - just stated it as fact and then moved onto how much money we made... which was well past our goal.
They refused to pay me what I asked for in negotiations... and then the head of HR actually told me I should ask for more... after my boss told me in negotiations that I was at the cap... when the cap is at 20k more than what I asked for.
I sat down with another coworker today for a project and they vented to me for 40 minutes about how broken things have been for years claiming that management knows there are gaps.... but it's been that way for years, the same managers are in place, and it hasn't changed at all - 'it's just how it is'.
I've started to write everything down to keep as a log- reading it is empowering, but it's very clear that things are not OK.
In a 1:1 meeting, the team leader subtly threatened me, asking if I was even capable of fulfilling my role. I wrote a very basic and general recap email as we had a few items we discussed (omitting his threats and any hint of his mistreatment) - but he took the email extremely personally when there was factually no reason to do so. Their response and reaction was so alarming that I put my recap into ChatGPT to review again to see where I might have even gone wrong, and nothing about it is unprofessional, impolite, or out of line. I read it to a friend who is an attorney, and they also found nothing wrong with it, at all. It was just a factual recap.
I nearly walked out today because of how much I've been mistreated. I've been taking anxiety meds to sleep at night because I'm so anxious with the ambiguity, toxicity, and clear lack of direction.
I don't know what my options are. But I've handled everything as professionally as I can.
Has anyone else here asked for a severance after collecting a ton of data to show that things are toxic and just not what they were promised? If I land some kind of severance, I'd rather try to start my own business. Another coworker wanted to start a consulting gig helping companies that bought the product to be able to actually use it as we know how awful the support is, and know when to call BS.
Share your insight
Join an authentic community that helps women support each other at work. Share your professional experience or ask for advice — you can even post anonymously.
31 Comments
Join the conversation