I just resigned, and am going to put myself out here for my own closure and healing process, and as a way of finally shutting the door on this. While I overall loved my job, the past few months have not been so easy for me.
Here goes:
I was put on a performance warning a couple of months ago. When warning was delivered, I was working in-office, at my cubicle, on a hybrid working day, with colleagues nearby. I was not informed in advance that a formal disciplinary action would be taken – there were no intermediary steps such as a verbal warning. I was not advised to relocate to a private space or offered a separate meeting. As a result, I was caught off-guard, began to panic, and essentially had to run out of the room. Colleagues saw, and it led to conversations I would not have chosen to have. It was humiliating and upsetting. I will never forget how this made me feel. I had to go home and cancel a bunch of my screens (counterintuitive to the reasoning for the warning) because I literally could not function. My manager claims to be a strong supporter of mental health. I can't believe she didn't think through the impacts of this delivery.
Once I calmed down, I decided I should actually read the warning. The context of the warning entailed a piece that I respected and committed to improving (she didn't think I was conducting enough screens to deliver on hiring goals - which I can't deny). I don't believe in essentially prioritizing quantity over quality of screens just to deliver on a goal, but that's what she wanted me to do so I made efforts towards that by scheduling 14-16 screens per day (the norm is 8-12 and I was doing maybe around 5-6 before).
However, the overall theme of my warning was not something I agreed with or found fair. I was being told that I was not consistently meeting goals - but the hiring area I recruit for regularly changes goals and confusion on what the targets are is a normal thing for all involved. My manager knew this - yet there were specific percentages in my warning to depict how far behind goal I was. I still do not know where she got those percentages from - or what "version" of the goal she was looking at. The way I see it, the concern about screens completed would never have been a thing if the goals weren't the theme of the warning.
Employee Relations was not helpful in this situation. They did promptly setup a meeting which I appreciated, but then I never heard anything further on the matter. In situations like this, I would think it important to maintain communication, even if it's just to say there's still no update. I'd understand if it was a week or two of a wait, but it was two months, I resigned and to this day do not know if my ticket was looked at further.
Additional corrections and concerns were introduced during the warning that were not identified as initial coaching areas. I later learned that a separate log was being maintained by this manager, tracking additional mistakes that I ended up making, because I was overloaded on capacity while panicking about this warning. When I asked for help prioritizing these competing expectations, I was told this would be up to me to figure out. This warning was positioned as developmental and supportive, I don’t think this approach coupled with keeping an error log serves to aid in improvement, it quickly began to look like a paper trail for a termination. This was my defining moment where I realized that there would be no future for me here.
I recently departed from the company to take another opportunity, and I didn't give notice which is not something I feel great about. The Hartford has a policy (as stated to me) that allows manager discretion upon giving 2 weeks' notice, where they can choose to let you go immediately. In these circumstances, employees will not be paid for their notice period and benefits will conclude the end of the month containing the last day worked. I couldn't afford to have that happen and I think it's an awful way of treating employees who are giving a courtesy of a 2 week notice. I used to work for one of their competitors, and when they let me go on the spot upon giving a 2 week notice (which is normal in this industry when going to a competitor), I was paid out for the notice period I would have worked with them. On top of the rest of my experience, this made me feel trapped. I tried asking myself - I'm so angry, why do I care? But I still did.
So that's the situation. If you read this far, I commend you! All in all, it's a great company and the people are truly great. A few weeks ago, I was transitioned to a new manager and I love her - she's amazing, no issues with her at all. But I was already interviewing, and things just lined up so well with the new opportunity. My particular experience over the past few months with my former manager, was just not amazing and that is why I left. I tried to be fair and factual here, but I am angry and some of that may have come out. I will though truly miss most people I worked with, candidate, hiring team, and employee alike.
