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My story just happens last week (November 2017). This was my first official firing being on H1b VisaI tried to keep it small, but it became a long post. Please take your time to read the post. There are many things which I learned how corporate world worksI had two job offers with this organization in two different business units /locations and I had selected the one of them.I worked for this company for 13 months in Architect/Delivery Manger role . I joined as Individual Contributor and eventually managed three teams with more than 10 people. I was moving ahead with success using good management skills (being more assertive and empathetic) and best technical designs for projects, until I got fired.Management Issues:During my first 8 months, I had three managers, Manager A (Product) , Manager B (Technical) ,Manager C (semi Product+ semi Technical). I was hired by manager A who was non technical with a plan to move to Next Level. But due to some reasons, I moved under Manger B and Manager A became my peer A reporting to Manager C.In Summer, current senior management left current organization and moved to new business unit internally. This was a major change and the entire group of current senior management was dismantled and the development groups were moved under another senior Management. New senior management had issues with peer A and their team in the past.My team member who used to be under peer A had conveyed to me that they are political and racial etc and he doesn’t like them and he gave a bold statement “ from my manager to C-level are people from one origin”. I told him don’t worry about all these, I will make sure that we are not affected by politicsManager A,B,C and myself were supposed to work together to mange a large group and technical projects. But we always had friction between each other as Manager C and B are peers at senior level and Manager A and myself are peers at my level.Manager B lost interest in our group and moved to new role in organization and I moved under manager C who was new to the company and joined at the same time when I joined the company.As I was making good progress in managing teams and projects, feedback from my team was very positive and other groups in the organization started recognizing my potential and I was doing good except my peer/Manager A started dragging me down by bringing more bureaucratic hurdles and my new manager C could not resolve them.Manager C is a good person but he has zero management skills as he came from consulting background was always controlling and insecure of his job as he has imposter syndrome and relied more on appeasing senior management than delivering projects and not caring people below him.Strategy:Even thought I had the designs completed for new and innovative projects, It has been more than 3 months that we haven't made any progress in evaluation these projects . I had generated lot of excitement to senior management on cool new projects and this also helps me to of provide good and challenging work to my team members.So, I started handling bureaucratic and operational issues myself by working with my manager , having skip level meetings ( Aggressively asking them to remove impediments and more ownership) with senior management and informal discussions with HR and following industry best practices on Management using HBR review, YouTube videos. I told my manager that, we all will lose jobs if, we don’t deliver on innovative projects by EOY (this company is heavily focused on innovation and they always upgrade their software to latest in the market like micro services, cloud, machine learning ). Overall I was able to get my Manager C aligned with me on how to work on innovative projects and secure his job and my job and how to work with Peer A.HR Complaint:As we inch closer to annual performance review discussions, One of my team member (who was my peer initially who used to report manager/peer A) was not doing good and Myself and my manager C requested him to be competitive otherwise, you may may lose your job. I wanted to help him to be safe.But he took that message negatively and complained to HR for racial bias, being secretive and asking to work for extra hours. ( this guy moved to new group within a week after complaining to HR). I trusted this guy, but he misused my trust.This guy and Peer A never liked senior management and his complaint even annoyed senior management. I felt that this is a retaliation by peer A as this complaint happens within three days of my meeting with senior management where I asked them to remove bureaucracy and create a new team for innovative projects and My manager C shared the details of my meeting with senior management with Peer A. Peer A and Senior Management are is very political and my manager C and myself are the the only new guys in town with zero politics. (This raised many questions in my mind and how employees in this organization use HR as a tool to serve their self interests) . They even complained to HR about my manager saying he is not inclusive leader. Many of my friends adviced me to quit the organiation)In my meeting with HR, I convinced them that the complaint should not have any merit by showing positive management survey feedback results from my team members and feedback in HR system and I never asked anyone to work more than 6 hours a day and the associate who complained has already moved to new job and all I was showing is cool new projects and asked them to optionally volunteer some time for the these projectsSuccess:Finally, senior management agreed to create a new team and I had successfully evaluated(built a fully functional MVP product in dev) a cool new product which saves 50% of company cost by moving to cloud.Sudden Storm:But last month, this company exited one entire business unit and laid off 900+ people and the company was in downsize mode and my manager C lost his job.They planned to retain/transfer some IT employees and management from the closed unit to our line of businessOrganization Challenges:Unfortunately, this company has a bad practice of performance reviews where managers had to fight for their team ratings and they are forced to lay off 5 to 12% employees every year.This year there was lot of pressure to release more people as they had to accommodate employees from closed unit and Old guard who are close to senior management wanted to save their own peopleOld guard wanted to own the cool new product/project which I was planning to build in 2018. Some people in Old Guard never liked me as I used to challenge them by bringing latest technologies for debate and asked them for approval.In annual performance reviews, I defended my team and focused on getting good ratings for them. unfortunately, the status quo / Old guard(Shark Managers) in the room took it personally as they are also defending their team members. My manager who lost his job did not support me nor my team in performance reviews. In the review process, the guy who complained to me was moved to inconsistent bucket and I could not put any one from my team in high bucket nor I allowed Old guard to put my other team members in lower bucket. HR was also present in this performance review panel.I shared the result of performance review to my team member who complained on me to HR, stating that, it was not my decision, it was a combined decision of the performance review panel to move you to lower bucket and I requested him not to go to HR again, but he again complained to HR and it created more issues to Senior Management as they are from different raceDownfall:Within a2 days after performance review, I lost my Manager role to new manager D, Architect role to Architect E who were transferred from closed business unit and I was asked not to submit final performance ratings of my team members in HR system and new manager D will take care of their ratings . (This request raised alram as they wanted to control final ratings of employees and if needed eliminate some positions and I came between them) .I realized that my days and numbered and I updated my resume and was looking to find a new job internally in two to three weeks. I was offered job by other managers who does not report to current Senior Management and they are part of other business unit. I used to maintain good relationships outside current business unit and shared knowledge with them as they are also planning similar project in their business unit.Firing :This week, HR called me for a meeting and fired me based on HR complaint by the employee. I had to leave the office on same day. I tried to convince them them that this is all politically motivated and I have no issues with associate or senior management and I even shared the text messages between us which shows we both worked together even after his complaint on me to HR. The associate never liked Senior management and he is using me a a pawn in the complaint and if you give me 30 days, I will get a new job in other business unitNothing worked and they said, you have to leave and please submit your passport details. I took a deep breath and said, all right, below are the details of my passportlessons :Lessons learned and how to work and survive in this crazy company1. In corporate there are no true friends. (only my team members texted me after I lost my job as they were surprised and shocked by my removal)2. Don’t try to help employees who are not competitive. Let them fail3. Don’t try to support your team in performance reviews. Just let senior leadership make decisions. You are just nominal and focus more on saving your job.4. Don’t try to change the status quo by bringing new ideas and questioning old practices5. Let projects fail or get delayed. Do your 8–4 job, always appease senior management by being a puppet to them and just do what they ask without questioning them6. No matter how good you are, don’t think you are indispensable. In corporate, only alignment with management works and not the results you produce or your competence7. Never join a company which has constant reorgs8. HR rules are enforced purely based on Senior Management recommendations.I am an Immigrant on H1B and getting fired without prior notice and severance package results in cancellation of H1B and only 60 days to get a new job or leave the country with family.I came home, hugged my wife and said I lost my job. She was literally in tears and I told her not to worry, we can get another job but it will take some months to recover financially and mentally.I have learned very costly lesson for trying to do the right thing in a wrong company.Bottom line:It's a blessing in disguise. I was in a very bad group and team which had little room to grow, [this team was managed by one manager in the past and we had 2 directors + 2 managers ] and senior management with larger than life ego and not ready to accommodate new talent and highly constrained budgetThere are lots of companies that are better than this company [which mirrors Amazon's culture as well as stack ranking system] in EVERY respect and waiting to take you in. You once had the discipline to prepare and get to this level. There's nothing stopping you from doing it again.picked formWhat did you do after getting fired from Amazon?update:Thank you God and everyone for the help. I have got theee job offers in one week.

? Doesn’t the company has guidelines? If not - they should. Performance reviews should compare how any employee is performing against the expectations and criteria in their job descriptions (if there are any?). Most company’s have some specific volume related components for every job e.g. how many forms were processed, etc. Performance reviews should be written evaluations of the employees performance by their manager that should be discussed with the employee and associated with some adjustment in their salary based upon different levels of achievement against expectations. The employee should sign the performance review. Performance reviews are wonderful opportunities for employees and their managers to discuss not only how they have performed in the last year against expectation parameters, but also what their future is with the company.

Gather round, children, and hear the tale of a leopard who doesn’t change its spots.Once upon a time there was a beloved IT manager who took care of his employees, sent them to training, got them promotions they deserved, allowed generous flex time and comp time, because as he told them all, “You know what you’re doing, tell me what you need and I’ll get it for you. So long as the customers are happy, get creative.”And all through IT land, customers were happy, service was uninterrupted, and IT people rejoiced.Alas, there came a time when beloved IT manager retired.Now the new IT manager immediately decided that he was going to make changes. Customer satisfaction surveys didn’t matter. Performance reviews lied. He wasn’t interested in creative solutions from IT personnel who had been trained well, probably because he didn’t understand them, being something of an IT idiot. The process that had such great success wasn’t his process, therefore to prove his worth as the new IT manager, he made changes.He started with micromanaging time cards. He started flea-combing line items. He banned all creativity and singlemindedly enforced rules. And when the other IT persons were out on call, he called the only female IT person in the department into his office and told her there would be no more training for her, no more promotions, and no more excellent reviews because he knew, and she knew, that she was only there until she snared a good man and got pregnant. At which point she would either quit or no longer be cost effective, he didn’t know which, but a leopard doesn’t change its spots.The female IT person protested that she had never given him any indication that this was true of her. But her words were not heeded. The new IT manager may have been villainous, but he was not a complete idiot, and he made sure there were no witnesses to his foul accusations.Since this female IT person had started her career with the company in HR and she had been such a dedicated and creative employee that she had quickly moved up to IT, it is said that she beat feet right back to HR, found her former HR boss, and unloaded.Her former HR boss documented everything but told her, woman to woman, that although this was not the first complaint against him, because a leopard doesn’t change its spots, that even if she couldn’t reveal details, that the previous complainers all discovered that the new IT manager’s wife was a big wig in the company, that he had an outstanding reputation (with the men in the company), that he was a deacon in his church and coached his daughter’s softball team. That up against all this, most of his previous targets quietly left his department or the company altogether, and that without witnesses to his words, since he was idiot-proof enough to make sure there were never witnesses, it was he-said/she-said. Female IT person’s future in that department did not look rosy.Practically speaking, her former HR boss told female IT person, she could either suck it up, find a new place in the company, or leave. Or, and this was risky, she could bide her time as there might be voluntary layoffs rolling around (very) soon, in which female IT person would get paid handsomely to leave the company.Deciding that a leopard didn’t change its spots and that life was too short to suffer a toxic work environment or a company that allowed same, female IT person knew she was sunk.IT land became miserable. The penny-ante, bullshit details don’t matter as she bided her time and she prepared as only creative, well-trained IT personnel with access to servers and desktops could. She did her job to the best of her ability, she clocked into work. She put in her hours with no flex time and no comp time. Her customers were happy, and service was uninterrupted. But a pall had formed over IT land.It came to pass that indeed the company did roll out voluntary layoffs, with payouts for time served … uh, for years with the company, and money for insurance premiums for a year, and the severance package was good. Female IT person took the voluntary layoff, she took the big fat check, and she left the company and the toxic environment surrounding the new IT manager.As a last gasp, she composed a carefully worded company-wide email, and when she was done, she hit “send.”Her fellow (all male) IT personnel all flinched when the email hit their desktops, but it only (innocuously) said, that she had enjoyed her time with the company, but that greener pastures beckoned, and she wished everyone who had made her job so wonderful for the last several years (until recently) the very best possible futures.Her fellow IT personnel looked at each other, then looked at her across the land of cubicles, and they cautiously wished her well.Female IT person figured the better part of valor was to take her big fat check and beat feet outa there, never to be heard from again. After all, she reckoned, the best revenge is a life well lived. And that’s just what she did.But, children, not everybody lived happily ever after in IT land.As it turns out, one week later, long after female IT person’s passwords were revoked and her accounts deleted, and when she could not have possibly had anything to do with it, an email was sent from Travel requesting that new IT manager resubmit travel docs from a trip he had taken the year previous.His reply-to email was sent to Travel, and (somehow) also sent to his wife, to corporate, to the remaining (all-male) IT personnel, and to the entire SEND-ALL on site, everyone from the lowliest data-entry clerks (some of whom used to work for new IT manager once upon a time before they ran afoul of him and took demotions to get away from his toxic work environment) to HR and Legal, too. Also, it included every member of his church where he was a deacon, and the parents of all the girls he coached in softball.But not realizing all this, since he was something of an IT idiot, he dutifully resubmitted:His itinerary to Seattle.The airfare, car rental, and food receipts he had previously submitted to Travel.Also for some reason, he included an online newspaper crime-log report of his rental car found after a crash that evening with an unconscious and bleeding woman in the passenger seat.And the same helpful website revealed the woman’s 16 previous arrests for solicitation.All of this, children, was enthusiastically repeated throughout the company and to the former HR boss who only shrugged and said, “I guess a leopard doesn’t change her spots.”