Employee gets unnecessary criticism from boss for slacking off after getting their notice

Most employees work in the hopes of getting a promotion, an increase in salary or making leaps in their careers. When they come to know that they are working at a dead-end job, it becomes easy for them to lose motivation and do the bare minimum to get by at work. In such a scenario, they can face criticism from higher-ups or coworkers for not performing sufficiently. However, companies have to understand that most individuals cannot perform in such job environments.

Reddit user u/Various_Oven_7141 faced a similar incident at their company and took to Reddit to share their story. The post titled, "Boss gave notice and couldn't figure out why I'm slacking," has gained 3.5K upvotes on the platform with 345 comments. The individual begins the post by saying that they work at a startup. They got to know that the product that they were working on was "going under," and the entire team would be let go as a result of that.

However, the individual could not immediately leave as they had a longer notice period compared to their other coworkers. The company attempted to change their contract to an "at will" one that would allow them to let the individual go immediately. They then threatened to fire the individual within that week if they refused to sign the new contract, mostly because they had to prepare for the product going under. The individual was informed that they were doing so because it was the "nature of things."

They write, "I told them to go ahead then, but I wasn't signing a new, worse contract." The individual thought that that would be the end of it all and returned to work with less effort. They explain that they continued to work, but at a much more relaxed pace, because they knew they were going to be let off anyway. This caught the attention of the boss and he called them into his office to inquire why they were slacking.

The boss reasoned that everybody else was putting in their best despite knowing that they would most likely be fired. The individual told him that they would gladly put in effort if they knew for sure that they could keep their job. Hearing this, the boss said he could not provide any guarantees but still expected a higher level of output from the individual. At the end of the discussion, it became clear to the individual that they could put in half the effort or put in everything, but they would end up losing their job in both cases.

They conclude the post by saying that they felt very tired from all the work. The only reason they put in the work was because it was actually a decent place to work. They say, "I'm so burnt out after working so hard so long, I'm not really sure how to dig deep for a job that won't even be there in a couple of months, and I'm not sure that's even a wise thing to do." In an update to the post, the individual mentioned that they would take a stand for themselves and be more assertive.

Individuals on the platform provided their own insights in the comments section. u/Thisbymaster said, "Bosses hate it when their empty threats are seen through." u/BisquickNinja commented, "Honestly, if your job is that toxic, I would tell them, 'Sure, give me six months' worth of salary right now and I will walk away." u/ExcitingEvidence8815 said, "Continue to focus on you and what you want. They don't give a damn and already showed that to you."