Employee ends lease and sells furniture after accepting a promotion taking him 2,000 miles away, severals week before the move company cancels everything: ‘[I'm] about to be homeless…'

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Dec 19, 2025 5:00 PM EST

Times are tough, so when this man was offered a promotion with better pay and more work, he was excited to accept. The only problem was that it required him to move 2,000 miles away. They wanted him to start his job just a few weeks from offering it to him, but with a huge move and life change like that, he convinced them to give him a couple of months. They agreed and he started making the arrangements. He cancelled his apartment lease, he sold most of his furniture, he even got a storage space near his new home so he could take his time moving in. He also found a temporary place for the first month he is in the new city so he could take his time finding the apartment for him to fully move into. 

 

Low and behold, the company he trusted to help him with this big transition in his life, dropped him like a sack of potatoes. They cancelled the job and already eliminated his old one. So what now? He is out thousands of dollars, he doesn't have furniture, he's basically about to be homeless, and now he might not even have a job. And they say they treat their employees "like family." Ha! 

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  • Man standing in front of a packed moving van looking shocked and confused with his arms crossed
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
    Upset man via Unsplash+ (and Ludovic Migneault)

  • "My company offered me a promotion 2,000 miles away. After I gave up my apartment and sold my stuff, they simply canceled the job."

    I literally don't know what to do right now. I'm shocked and extremely angry. In late January, my company approached me about an internal transfer for a new project across the country.
    via romianimda
  • It was a significant promotion with a good salary increase, but they wanted me to start on February 15th.
    via romianimda
  • That's barely two weeks to get my entire life in order. I was able to negotiate with them and push the start date to March 15th, explaining the difficulty of such a big move on short notice, like needing to find housing and so on.
    via romianimda
  • They agreed and said they would start the relocation process. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
    via romianimda
  • So I jumped right into it. I gave notice on my apartment, booked a large moving truck for the trip, found temporary housing for the first month and paid a deposit.
    via romianimda
  • I even rented a storage unit in the new city. I got rid of most of my furniture and belongings to make the move easier.
    via romianimda
  • Then this morning, I got a very blunt email. They said that due to 'unforeseen budgetary constraints, the position I was moving for would no longer be filled.
    via romianimda
  • Just like that. Canceled. My lease is ending and my apartment has already been promised to a new tenant.
    via romianimda
  • And my old job? They had already 'eliminated' my previous role in preparation for the transfer.
    via romianimda
  • So now I'm not even sure if I have a job to go back to here.
    via romianimda
  • So now I'm basically jobless and about to be homeless, all because I trusted them. I'm now scrambling to figure out what to do.
    via romianimda
  • Edit: I'm copying all of that, sending it to a private email of mine, and backing everything up.
    via romianimda
  • I likely have a pretty solid promissory estoppel case, even if they don't fire me. I took clear, demonstrable losses based on their demands, and I probably have a strong right to be made whole.
    via romianimda
  • I'm talking to an employment lawyer ASAP with all of this saved.
    via romianimda
  • I don't know how to solve this problem, but until hire a lawyer, I will take this period to prepare and update my resume and search for a job.
    via romianimda
  • Man at work typing on his computer while also using his smartphone
    via Unsplash+ (and Anastasiia Nelen)

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 36-gigabit-harpies Talk to an attorney about promissory estoppel. Save those emails asap
    via 36-gigabit-harpies
  • dilsiam There is Promissory Estoppel you can sue with that.
    via 36-gigabit-harpies
  • Ninja_Destroyer_ Companies should be on the hook for this kind of shit
    via 36-gigabit-harpies
  • mandoo-dumpling I started a new job this past summer. I moved to a different state, found an apartment and signed a two year lease, spent a lot of money on furniture. Less than four months later, I was laid off along with 15,000 other employees. These companies just don't care about screwing their people over.
    via 36-gigabit-harpies
  • MaLoblaw Lawsuit. Get the biggest shark employment attorney. You just earned yourself a big payday.
    via 36-gigabit-harpies
  • Ambitious_Dev I'm sorry. It's so cut-throat out there. I had a glowing annual performance review and told I was the engine that kept all operations going and was so very essential for my role. Then two months later I got laid off due to project budget cuts. I found SO many software engineers that went through the same verbatim process and review before our positions were eliminated. It's reckless and I have been searching for almost two years and my son and I lost everything in the process but t
    via 36-gigabit-harpies

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