Re: "Sorry you're not the right fit" - After "all is fine" for 4 weeks

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Yes, somewhat similar. In the late 80s, I got a job through a recruiting agency with one of the largest companies in town. I was supposed to be a graphics designer in the "Corporate Communications" department.  Basically that department did in-house white papers and newsletters, and they also did slide shows and flip charts and things like that when our company had meetings with investors and other companies and things like that. My new supervisor showed me to an empty office and then gave me a briefing on the company and what Corporate Communications (CC) did. She took me around the building and introduced me to several people I would have to interface with, and we spent some time doing the usual first-day things. My supervisor made sure to have me spend some time with the woman who was in charge of the department that produced the camera-ready proofs, whom I will call Glenda for the sake of this war story.  Glenda was the person whose standards my work
would have to meet. 

Once all that was done, my supervisor and I returned to my desk, and then she spent about 15 minutes outlining what she wanted from me. I was to design a trifold brochure about a new teleconferencing product the company was making. Once that was done, she told me to go get some lunch, then spend the rest of the day getting set up to work - getting what I needed in the way of equipment and supplies, get with the IT department to make sure I got a login and got an email account set up, etc. I did that. And before I went home for the day I checked my email just in case. There was an email from my new supervisor telling me to stay in touch with Glenda about my project, and letting me know that she, my new boss, was leaving the next morning for a business trip to France and she would be gone for the next two weeks.

I spent two weeks basically doing nothing. I didn't realize until it was too late that I had not been introduced to any of the technical-side people who could give me any information about the product I was supposed to cover in the brochure. I spent a lot of time just trying to find out who to talk to. Every time I tried to spend any time with Glenda or any of her people, they were always all too busy. I had never before been the only person working on an assignment, and I certainly had never expected to be just dropped into something like this. I could not get one minute of help on actually getting started trying to work on designs. All the production artists and copywriters and everyone in the production shops always pleaded overwork. I had not trie dto work closely with my new boss about what kind of draft material she wanted to see because I had never imagined she would just disappear on me like that. I could not find one person in CC who was
actually a designer or writer or any kind of production worker - the only other people I could find in CC were business types who spent all their time doing research on sales figures and things like that. All the scribbling and writing I did trying to knock together some semblance of a draft design, I could not find anyone else who was willing or able to give me any time on checking it out. All my emails to my new boss went unanswered.

About the middle of the second week I was outside on a smoke break, and I started talking with a man who was in the finance branch. I asked him what it was like to work for this company and the topic gradually came around to what I was doing (or, more accurately, wasn't doing). He asked me what I was supposed to be doing and who I worked for and I told him. When he heard her name, he laughed and said someting on the lines of "Oh, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised at some kind of empire building from her." He didn't explain the remark and he left before I could ask him anything more.

When new my boss got back, I could not get in contact with her - as far as I could tell she spent the entire time in meetings. For three days I sent her emails and got responses saying she was too busy right now and would have to contact me later. I spent three days hovering around her office door and the only times I caught sight of her was moving quickly from one room to the other with a group of other people. At the end of the third day after she got back, I got a phone call from the agency telling me the job was over because the client company had called them and said I was quote, "not doing well engough" end quote. I spent weeks calling and sending mail to that agency and I never got the slightest clue what the ! -at- $# happened.

Sometimes it really does have absolutely nothing to do with you. Such cases are usually characterized by your being unable to get any indication of the real reason they decided against you. In your case, most likey there was a fight going on behind the scenes that you never saw. Somebody wanted to keep you, and somebody else wanted to kick you out to make way for his candidate. You were the victim of corporate politics and your release had absolutely nothing to do with your competence or lack thereof.

The instant I read you referring to it as a "Stepford" company I was sure. the behavior you described is characteristic of a company run by capricious jerks. Ever see that Twilight Zone episode titled "Everything is Fine," where everyone in town always talks about how everything is wonderful and it's so nice to have ice cream and hot dogs for dinner every night, because they're afraid the kid with the telekinetic powers will zap them if they show even a little bit of discontent? The behavior you described told me everyone was terrified of losing their jobs at any second for the tiniest, incomprehensible reason. You are better off not being there. You'd wind up quitting under bad circumistances that would foul your future job search, or become a fear-driven android yourself. You're actually lucky in a way that you got the axe when you did. 

Good luck avoiding such places in the future.



--- On Sat, 11/22/08, Yannia Vodrovich <coralfire -at- rocketmail -dot- com> wrote:

> From: Yannia Vodrovich <coralfire -at- rocketmail -dot- com>
> Subject: "Sorry you're not the right fit" - After "all is fine" for 4 weeks
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 5:37 PM
> Well I just had the strangest experience I have ever had in
> the over 12 years I have been doing tech writing. I was
> hired about one month ago at a wireless software firm. I was
> told all along everything was great. I was only there 4
> weeks. The few things I turned in I was told "This is
> good - this is good" by everyone who saw my work. The
> only thing I was ever told was that, I was coming in at 8:30
> since everyone else was, and the established time was 8:00
> so I had to come in at 8:00, not 8:30. The time was not
> flex. Apparently you "pay your dues" and come at
> 8:00 till you've made it through the 60 day
> probationary period, and then you can come in at 8:30 to
> 9:00.. I was not clear on that. All else I was told was
> good. Not one word about anything being bad. Plus I am a
> seasoned tech writer, and, not to brag but I was on last job
> 6 years - promoted to lead after 1 year. The one before that
> promoted to Mgr after 1 year. I've been a Technical
> Editor for a
>  WebSite run by a major pPublishing house, as an expert in
> T.W., done textbook review, published articles, etc. I am 46
> years old - I know my work is good, and know when I am doing
> a good job and when I am not. I know I did things fine. I
> smiled all the time, made pleasant conversation - did all
> the political stuff - played the game. I know how to do all
> that. 
>  
> I noticed a strange tenor there though from day one.  I
> was telling my friend, it seemed like the Stepford company.
> All there seemed like robots - overly guarded - always
> saying how great the company was all the time - almost too
> much. Like they were trying to prove it to themselves. 
>  
> At any rate, after 4 weeks, my boss and his boss call me in
> and tell me "Based on some reports I got, we don't
> think this is a good fit. As I told you we'd be trying
> this out in a 60 day probationary period and so we are going
> to let you go. In my 24 years of working I have NEVER been
> fired. I've been in 3 careers - acctg/finance,
> education, and tech writing. 
>  
> I was never given reviews to have an opportunity to give my
> side of these 'reports,' no chance to improve
> whatever was wrong, nothing. The first I hear of this is in
> this "good-bye" interview. Point blank. And my
> boss is all smiles and matter-of-fact while he is telling me
> this, with the VP looking on, in that company's typical
> "Stepford" fashion.
>  
> I have gone over in my head dozens of times what the heck
> it could have been. For the life of me I cannot think of
> what I did. Not personality wise, not saying something to
> offend someone, and not work-wise. I can think of little
> things, but nothing rises to the level of letting someone go
> after 30 days. And I saying to myself, if it WAS one of the
> little things, then this co is NOT a good fit for me.  
>  
> The only thing I can guess is that, when I was hired, they
> indicated that they had really wanted someone with industry
> background - (wireless) but could not find it, and my boss
> said he had not managed tech writers much before, and did
> not realize that usually you don't get the
> "bonus" of having a person who can do the tech
> writing AND who knows the technology. If you do, great, but
> usually you are not so lucky. I was like training him on the
> phone during my interview process, letting him know that the
> tech writer generally has to learn the technology. A tech
> writer is someone who can and does pick up the technology. 
> He didn't know that - and he admitted it.  He then
> hired me telling me that he hired me becauseI was the most
> technical they got, and I have been 'doing this a long
> time," but that they had looked high and low to see if
> they could find someone who also knew wireless because that
> would have been even better. So my guess is that, perhaps
>  after I got hired, someone phoned who DID have wireless?
> And they decided to go with them? The other thing could be -
> it is a family business. Maybe the family found someone who
> did have wireless?
>  
> Well, anyway, if the problem were me, this would have
> happened at least once if not many times before, and it has
> never happened before. And beyond that, I can't imagine
> what a seasoned TW could do that was so egregious that it
> warranted being let go in 30 of the 60 days of a
> probationary period. 
>  
> I have been a manager and a director, and have fired
> others. No, you do not have to have a reason to fire
> someone, especially during the probationary period.. But I
> always worked with people I hired, counseling them to let
> them know the concerns, if any, to give them a fighting
> chance to improve the problem - even employees still in the
> probationary period.  That is called progressive
> discipline, and that is management 101. You try to solve
> the problem at the lowest level first, before 'major
> surgery.' And when I let people go, I always let them
> know specifically what the concerns were, and, since I HAD
> attempted to work with them I had covered my bases, so I
> could indicate to them "We attempted to work with you
> this way, giving you this and that and blah blah but
> unfortunately the problem has persisted " etc etc. so I
> could show that the company had made every effort to remedy
> the problem. I never handled anyone like this. The only
> exception is if
>  the person did something truly outlandish (one employee
> was caught with drugs - that was grounds for immediate
> dismissal, of course). 
>  
> Anyone ever have anything similar happen?
>  
> Y
> 
> 
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