My switch from holiday mode came with a lot of blows, I'll share a part of it.
Image is mine
So we resumed this year at the office with a message from HR that one of our colleagues has resigned. The news came as a shock because this guy is in the engine room and plays a critical role doubling as both a field worker and an office staff. His resignation came as a surprise because before we vacated for the holiday, he was handling a major project in one of the southern states after which he ought to relocate to Warri to join me. So imagine us taken by surprise when we received the information of his resignation on our WhatsApp platform. We immediately started texting and calling ourselves trying to find out what went wrong.
We asked his bestie who ought to know but she insisted that she's just as shocked as we were. Usually, to the best of my knowledge, a resignation most times signifies a managerial problem whereby an employee feels inadequately compensated or treated. Thus, I searched and questioned within myself, “has there been any action from management that has raised any red flags so far?” I needed to know, I needed to get to the root of why my colleague resigned.
Some people might feel, ohh! As long as management is treating me well, it's not my concern what happens to the next person. But not me, I don't think that way because today it might not be me but how about tomorrow? In order to not be caught off guard, I thought back searching and scanning from management actions to employees reactions. When I got done with the exercise, everything from the past seemed ok. I got nothing from the past that would warrant my colleague to resign so I just left the whole thing being that none of us could even call the colleague in question. We were not even sure he would pick up as everything that had happened was quite awkward.
I went about my job and moved on from all that had happened. A week later, I got a call from my MD. It was morning and I was preparing for work. I had missed the call from my MD and I immediately called back because such calls are not ones that just come by.
"Hello, I want to talk about your career. Are you free to talk?" My MD inquired. Before I could respond, he sought to know my location if I was at the office and was alone. I was home at the time with a shower cap on my head prepared for a shower; no, I wasn't going to tell my boss that. I had to be diplomatic so I told him that I was at the office but stepped out for food.
He sought to know if I had privacy and could talk, I responded yes so he got talking. First of all, he briefed me on the management decision to do more for less. What he meant by that was, the company is cutting down on staff and marrying job roles so a job for two or more employees will be compressed in one portfolio to be done by one employee. He informed me that people will lose their jobs and started mentioning names. He said already we saw that one of our colleague resigned but it wasn't resignation rather it was a sack.T
According to my boss, my former colleague became too toxic for the work environment and the company lost money. The position he occupied in the project was such that he was the head overseeing different representatives from different companies involved in the project. My MD mentioned that he became hostile to the people that he worked with on the field and spoke to them in the most condescending of ways. His attitude was against everything that our company stands for because we are never rude to people no matter what.
While he was initially overlooked due to the years that he has put in the company, money got lost due to his actions in the field and he had to go. Although he would have been outrightly sacked, HR didn't want to ruin his career so they told him to resign instead. I was speechless to say the least because I never expected him to end up that way with the company but I learned and I hope that when power gets rotated to me, I don't become a terrorist.
Lot's of information was passed on the call with my MD but all that will be a story for another day.
