Employee gets laid off for being 'expendable,' watches entire department fall apart in their absence

Imagine you're an employee who is in charge of multiple projects. You sacrifice your personal life to meet deadlines at work, but instead of appreciating you, your manager fires you because you're apparently "easily replaceable." That's exactly what happened to a person (u/whendonow) who lost their job due to labor-force downsizing. However, the termination did more harm to the company than the employee, as the organization realized it was quite impossible to keep functioning without them. The person posted the incident on Reddit on November 6. 

The employee was managing almost everything in their department. From vendor relationships to project coordination, they were in charge of everything, and most importantly, they delivered all of it without complaining. However, during a layoff, the company fired them along with two of their colleagues. "During my exit, management said I was 'good but not critical to operations,'" the employee shared. However, a month after their termination, the company realized its blunder. They saw everything falling apart; vendors were confused about contracts, and nobody could meet the deadlines. A contract was also delayed because nobody could keep up with the systems. And that's when the boss began calling the ex-employee for help. "I was already consulting for one of our biggest vendors. They saw the chaos and asked if I'd work with them full-time, managing multiple client accounts," they explained. The person accepted the offer because it offered better compensation for the same work as in their previous company. "[The] current company lost three contracts because of the fumbling. The vendor I'm now consulting with? They're their second biggest revenue stream," they added. The person was obviously mad at their old company, and so they refused to help them anyway. "[IT] feels good knowing they made a mistake undervaluing me," they said. 

It's unfortunate that people, despite giving their 100% feel undervalued at work. Look at the US, for example. There, 67% of working Americans feel they aren't appreciated for their contribution at work, according to the Wakefield Research. They also found that appreciation at work is surprisingly related to job security. The study revealed that those who feel appreciated are more than seven times more likely to feel completely secure in their jobs than employees who are not appreciated enough.

Meanwhile, the Reddit post received an overwhelming response, with some netizens slamming the company's higher-ups and others sharing their own corporate experiences. For instance, u/majorad3363 commented, "Leadership is f****** clueless.  It's happening at my company right now. The dumba** decisions are mind-boggling. To the point that I wonder, out loud, if someone is making decisions based on AI. This sh*t doesn't make any kind of real-world sense." u/andre_sama29 wrote, "The people at the top always seem to live in a different reality, as if nobody else is important. I'm glad that came back to bite them in the ass big time. I'm sure that felt good."

Similarly, u/battleofflowers wrote, "This is half the issue with my job; so much of my work is 'invisible' to the people at the top because I simply keep things running. They don't understand that nothing is actually as automated as they think. They also don't understand that despite there being a contract, plenty of human interaction happens outside that, and it's crucial to conducting business." u/zildux shared, "That's honestly a surprise that they were even willing to offer your job back. So many times I've heard this happen, and upper management never admits they were wrong; they just blame more employees."

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