Worker gets laid off, told that they're "expendable," gets hired by their former employer's biggest client and watches as the former employer loses clients and even contacts them for "advice": 'Feels good knowing they made a mistake undervaluing me'

The layoff of an employee who was deemed to be "not critical" quickly turned into their former employer asking them for advice.

That's the funny thing about not being valued and being viewed as expendable. They won't realize their mistake until sometimes long afterwards. The proof is, as they say, in the pudding—or in this case, the backlog of missed deadlines, confused vendors, and unanswered emails. Meanwhile, you're stuck without a job despite the fact that you were exceeding expectations in your previous role, and some middle manager somewhere just decided that you weren't worth what you cost on paper. 

But, you don't know what you have until it's gone, and this employer quickly learned the hard way that the "expendable" employer they just laid off wasn't quite as expendable as they thought. "Leaner" isn't necessarily "meaner" when the weight you've shed was essential to the company's functioning.

That's the problem, too, with not only excelling at your work but also quietly going about it, excelling in productivity but not in communication: you'll often find yourself passed over for promotions or are more likely to end up on short lists you'd rather not end up on. Even as a manager is going about their day, making subconscious evaluations of the workplace, they're more likely not to think of or value you. Even if management is well-meaning, they just might not spot you if they don't know the intricacies of the work themselves.

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  • When this employee found themself laid off during a company restructuring, they were told they were "good but not critical." Their now former employer quickly found that this indeed wasn't the case. Vendor relationships and project coordination that they had managed quickly fell into disarray, delaying contracts and stalling operations. Their former boss even called them, practically begging them for advice. Meanwhile, they had found a parachute in the form of an offer from their previous client and were now comfortably in a new and better role, watching all the chaos unfold from afar. Their now former employer even reached out asking them for advice on how to handle their previous tasks. It would have been the perfect chance for them to extend an olive branch and oblige—for a hefty consulting fee, of course.

  • An nervous employee has a tense conversation with her boss seated at a desk
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+
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  • "Got laid off and told I was "expendable." My entire department fell apart without me."

    My company did "restructuring" and let me go along with two others. During my exit, management said I was "good but not critical to operations." Apparently I was easily replaceable. I managed all the vendor relationships and project coordination for our department. Didn't think it mattered to them.
    via whendonow
  • Within a month, things fell apart. Vendors were confused about contracts, deadlines got missed, nobody knew who to call. A major contract got delayed because nobody knew how the systems worked. My former boss started calling me asking for "advice."
    via whendonow
  • I was already consulting for one of our biggest vendors. They saw the chaos, asked if I'd work with them full time managing multiple client accounts. I'd be essentially doing the same work but for better pay and actually appreciated.
    via whendonow
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  • Current company lost three contracts. because of the fumbling. The vendor I'm now consulting with? They're their second biggest revenue stream. Told my old boss no thanks. Feels good knowing they made a mistake undervaluing me.
    via whendonow
  • MajorAd3363 Leadership is fucking clueless. It's happening at my company right now. The dumbass decisions are mind boggling. To the point that I wonder, out loud, if someone is making decisions based on Al. This shit doesn't make any kind of real world sense.
    via whendonow
  • tundrabarone Common theme: managers don't know the extent of institutional history and knowledge that gets lost/destroyed with these restructuring.
    via whendonow
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  • Effective_Flower_214 Tell your old boss that you're a freelancer now and you charge 300 and hour. They will accept.
    via whendonow
  • OP whendonow Honestly thought about it. They've already asked me for favors. Next time might just give them a rate card.
    via whendonow
  • MajorAd3363 Leadership is fucking clueless. It's happening at my company right now. The dumbass decisions are mind boggling. To the point that I wonder, out loud, if someone is making decisions based on Al. This shit doesn't make any kind of real world sense.
    via whendonow
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  • OP whendonow Right? They saw consultants talk about "efficiency" and thought they could just cut people and it would work out. Spoiler: it didn't.
    via whendonow
  • 3tntx Many years ago after I left one job the manager (who was the reason I left) called me because the knowledge management system I built went down and my replacement had no clue and I told her no and her response was that since it was something I built on company time I was obligated to continue to support it. I just laugh and told her my "consulting rates" and she hung up. She kept calling and texting demanding I fix it so I just reached out to HR there and told them my next step was filing
    via whendonow
  • OP whendonow This is exactly what happened to me. And you know what? I'm not obligated to fix their mistakes just because I built the system.
    via whendonow
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  • battleofflowers The leadership where I work now literally cannot fashion together a sentence explaining an issue and suggesting a solution. I have to work backwards constantly to try and figure out what the problem is and what the solution should be, and I am not management.
    via whendonow
  • OP whendonow Exactly. They can't articulate WHY things need to happen, just that they should. So when I left nobody knew the actual reasoning behind any of it.
    via whendonow
  • tundrabarone Common theme: managers don't know the extent of institutional history and knowledge that gets lost/destroyed with these restructuring.
    via whendonow
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  • OP whendonow This. Nobody documented anything. It was all institutional knowledge in my head. They thought I was replaceable until suddenly I wasn't.
    via whendonow
  • Professional-Belt708 100%. I was the last person at my last job with all the institutional knowledge and the manager and her chief minion both thought they were so much smarter than me, apparently and that I wasn't needed and my job wasn't so hard, even though I was the only one who knew how 85% of everything was done and it all crashed when I left because they just dumped it on my clueless colleagues who had other roles. Just one exam of the minion's idiocy- I maintained all the historic files
    via whendonow
  • OP whendonow This hit different. I was the only one who knew how everything connected. They thought that didn't matter.
    via whendonow
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  • Janitor_Alonne If it was built on company time and belongs to the company, why would someone out of the company be obliged to fix it :-)
    via whendonow
  • Effective_Flower_214 That feels good. When they are that desperate
    via whendonow
  • Action_Man_X Also, you'll need 10 hours up front in your bank account before starting.
    via whendonow
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  • International-Owl345 Now to use your knowledge of your previous company to extract the most value for your current company. If you had knowledge of the financial break even points, negotiate them down to the nub and claim a chunk of the saved $$ as a bonus
    via whendonow

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