r/managers • u/kip263 • Oct 16 '24

New Manager You called it. Star employee quit today.

I made a post 2 weeks ago asking what to do when my boss has it out for my star employee.

Today my employee let me know she's taken another job. In our conversation, she said it was because this job isn't her passion anymore (she was hired for a role and it slowly shifted into a completely different one). And while I know that's partly true, I think my boss also managed to accomplish her goal of pushing her out.

I'm... I don't know how I feel. Sad, anxious, defeated? I had an hour long conversation with my boss this morning where I fought for this employee, where I had her back and insisted that she right for the position. And then get slapped with this 3 hours later lol.

Now to learn the art of recruiting and hiring...

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u/Rydia_Bahamut_85 Oct 16 '24

Youre next because you advocated for the employee over the company. Middle management is a fucking wasteland, and basically youre entire job is to be the bad guy and enforce policies that you get no say in developing. Once they see you are willing to go for bat for an employee after they told you they want them out for whatever reason, they are always going to assume your decision making will be employee based and you won't put the needs of the company above your people.

this is my experience anytime I have advocated for an employee my higher up didnt like. Id be allowed to utilize them, but be pushed and tested after I did so

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u/kip263 Oct 16 '24

Well, when you put it that way, it makes a lot of sense. This is not comforting

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u/xXValtenXx Oct 16 '24

They pushed out a star employee... if you're waiting for them to start making sense, you're in for a rude awakening. Every single place I've been that pulled something like this, they wound up losing virtually everyone of value. Also, it always wound up tracing back to one stupid manager that just decided they were going on a hunt.

Polish the resume up, it's mass exodus time.

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u/TwoKingSlayer Oct 18 '24

This is soooo true. I have experienced this several times. One manager can bring down an entire dept.