Can my manager lay me off just because he's doesn't like me? He cannot make a case of bad performance because I literally get praises And thank yous everywhere from all the other stakeholders. I am IC. Can he fire my me or somehow influence the HR or management to include me in the next RIF? Are there any guardrails to protect teammbers from toxic insecure managers?
22 replies (most recent on top)
It happened to me. The manager I had when I was laid off was useless and I am sure, worried that myself and the others that were let go were identified as we could make them look bad. Jokes on them as now they have to answer the quesitons we would normally answer, and their true lack of knowledge is showing, and it has been causing chaos. A sign of what is to come.
If the manager has to give a name for the RIF, they can certainly name you. They don't get to RIF people if there are no RIF slots available. Let's say your seond line manager needs to RIF 10 people. If their reports don't have enough names to fill the slots then your manager could add more names. So maybe your manager RIFs you and it saves a person on a peer team.
Sure. They just tuck you into a RIF. But that means they can't back fill you for a year. So not always in their best interest if just for something petty.
@mv Yes, UHG has been terrible but never once had a breach! Not to mention impact to 4000 customers. Change Healthcare has so many mean losers in leadership, all they do is bully and layoff people. They also had a claims system that discriminated on race, brought yet another out of many lawsuits they created! This group alone has doubled the number of evil creatures this company had!
Been around the block and every company including this one its all the same. It is a beauty pageant nothing to do with performance. If you have visibility two levels up and they like you it really helps. It is like picking kickball teams on the playground you dont want to be on the fence too long or sorry for you we have our teams bye now.
@k9 UHC started to rot even before Change was acquired. Change sealed the deal. Now it's hopeless.
@ga Dirty Sr Mgrs and Dir.s report to VPs who are also dirty and moldy 😆. So when one of them puts you on the layoff list, they will be backed by their filthy, morally-corrupt bosses. Change Healthcare is full of this type of leadership, the worst of all acquisitions!
@k1 I believe you! So many like these over here. This company is so gross. Lots of skill-less, toxic trash in leadership roles, su-king the peace out of others daily. Fret not, justice is underway. This company must reflect on their past choices, trim the rot out and then sell. I don’t see any other way out for them, with all the bad press, investigations, etc.
My manager is a SC-M Bag co-k su-king HO. She's the most toxic, lazy a-s person...ZERO technical yet a technology manager...all she does is gatekeep meetings and info and present or downstream as though it's her knowledge. Total LOW LIFE
@jb it's a fair question. A manager cannot randomly RIF you unless there is a larger RIF abd then they can put you in the list if they are asked.
@jb Not about cost savings when bully managers make 2x or more an employee’s salary yet keep their jobs. Not about cost savings when this disgusting company donated millions to the 250 event while laying off people on a monthly basis for over a year now!
@OP RIF is not about performance it is about cost savings. Of course your manager and lay you off. What kind of question is that? Anyone can be laid off and a reason is not needed or given.
@ga Yes there is less control over the process than you would think. It is always about saving money, but there is a larger strategy at play and the final list gets changed at the VP level.
@dr the rewarding part of your comment is a reminder that the terrible managers placing people on lists, not to say you were one, will suffer the same fate in the near future!
@OP They can include you in the layoff for any reason. And as both a former people manager and as a former RIFed employee, you don't need a reason to place someone on the RIF list. Your team or your team under your second line manager is given a target of roles to RIF. Sometimes you RIF the newest employees, sometimes the best empoloyees but the highest pay, sometimes the worst performers. Sometimes it doesn't matter who you put on the list because you may have to swap them out for age balancing of the RIF list. The lesson is everyone can be RIFed, it doesn't matter if you are good at your job at not, it is just a target % to cut.
@c3 immediate manager does too. These bullies run deep. Direct managers who are toxic are protected by their bosses who are then protected by HR and Legal. They are mostly psychopaths and sociopaths who thrive on causing harm to anyone who defends themselves or speak up.
@a2 disagree. Esp if you work with a lot of directors and upper management. They know more than you think and the decisions definitely are theirs. It’s definitely not immediate manager but it’s only 1-2 from there and they know. I watched it happen on my team. If they start thinking you are a problem they will magically eliminate the role and somehow be able to justify it and get away with it.
Happens all the time.. the nicer you are to the manager the worse. I was not very friendly to my manager and made my stance clear and she was afraid to touch me as she knew I can be a bad a-s. Try that
@a2 🥴 bully managers are putting employees on lists constantly by ranking them at the bottom. Soon there’ll be no employees left. Just these vultures in “leadership”,
Yes! It happened to me and many others, this company, their horrible HR and Legal team protect every bully and step on every victim. Document everything for now.
Laid off in May. Had my last manager for a year. She was rude, disrespectful, and unprofessional constantly. We did not get on with me at all. I’m sure she put my name first on the list. She was supposed to forward on my severance agreement but never did. Thankfully I have the paper trail of her telling me she’d forward it on and I was able to get it processed but I think she did not send it out of spite.
I’ve been laid off from 2 other jobs as an adult. This is the first time I’ve been thankful for it. I received the news on my last day of FMLA. How lousy is that?
The way it works is this....
When its lay off time, they ask managers to stack rank their team. Its the bottom that get sliced off. So, the answer to your question is yes. All they have to do is place you on the bottom of the stack rankings.
Of course they can. Seen it done plenty of times, they start making up lies, harassing you etc. and before u know it your on a cap and/ or been harassed enough so u quit.
Sure they could. But if it's any consolation, most of the calls aren't getting made by the immediate supervisors. I'd say ~85% of the time even your biz manager isn't consulted. The call usually gets made by someone in finance who's name you've never seen.