Quote:
Originally Posted by King Fish
I officially do not understand corporate America.
They do not want to fire me. Quite the opposite.
Basically was posed this question: If we get rid of "Joe", will you committ to staying?
Now I have a real decision to make. I do not want to stay here. I do not want to give my word (even tho not legally binding) and then leave them in a lurch. Despite my feeling for what this company has become, I do not want to screw them over by making a promise I cannot keep.
I have a feeling Joe is out the door regardless, and they are just trying to get a commitment from me.
Sorta floored ATM and need to think about things.
Will update when I can HR is at my door lol. This may be interesting.
Hi King Fish! Lurker here but rooting for you! Love the story so far.
Their reaction here is totally standard. They now understand that Joe needs to go, but they need someone to stay and manage the stuff, if not in the future, at least for now. They don't want both of you gone at the same time, which will leave them with a whole lot of work (training, hiring, micromanaging, etc, etc). You giving them commitment essentially solves this problem for them for the time being, while giving them an option to replace you when necessary.
Furthermore, they feel that you don't think in those bargaining terms, so they're hoping that you may give your commitment, for reasons of loyalty to others, etc, for nothing in return (edit: or they quite wisely understand that you may perceive removal of Joe as compensation, even though they need to fire him much more than you do). Once you understand this, your next decision is very clear - you don't commit to them, you make them commit to you. Negotiate a significant package (beyond what you should be due for severance obviously) that is payable as long as you don't quit and payable immediately if they were to fire you, lay you off, or otherwise remove you from your duties.
The process of negotiation here will give you a lot of information regarding how desperately they need you, how long they need you for and/or how soon they were planning on replacing you. If you're gonna play the game, play it hard.