Head of SEO Denis Levchuk told the story of his dismissal from one of the projects, which, according to him, happened because the manager did not want to hear a truthful assessment of the situation from him.
Head of SEO Denis Levchuk told the story of his dismissal from one of the projects, which, according to him, happened because the manager did not want to hear a truthful assessment of the situation from him.
«I was fired. Not laid off, but fired. For the first time. I never would have thought that I would like it. About a year ago, I was involved in one project part-time. I was an ordinary performer, I didn’t get into management, and it wasn’t interesting. After a while, the project broke away, many people were laid off, I was offered to switch to full-time and head it. The conditions are interesting, the necessary team has been assembled, I agreed», — Denys Levchuk explained the situation to his LinkedIn subscribers.
However, as Levchuk notes, he was fired a month later because, in a conversation with his manager, he allowed himself to make less optimistic assessments of the situation and have a different vision.
«It turns out that no matter what results you show as a performer, no matter how good a manager you are, you can’t tell your boss the truth. Some managers don’t want to hear the real reasons for certain problems. Everything should be perfect or standard for them — there are no conflicts, the project is growing, there is enough of everything and there is no need to „improve“ anything. That’s how everything should be, or even better», — commented the Head of SEO.
In particular, as Levchuk says, he dared to tell the manager the truth that the budget needed to be increased, and that there were not enough people to implement a number of functions, or some of them needed to be replaced.
At the same time, according to the specialist, the dismissal took place very emotionally: with scandal, screams, and hysteria.
«But it’s not clear, couldn’t you just calmly explain why you can’t/don’t want to resolve the issue?» he asks rhetorically.
At the same time, the IT community gave mixed reviews to this case in the comments. Most of the contributors supported the author of the post, but there were also those who admitted that he might be wrong.
Lead Flutter Developer Yevgen Beshkarov believes that such an assessment of the state of affairs on the project may indicate an attempt to improve the situation, and management, on the contrary, should appreciate it, but this does not always happen.
«The reality is that trying to improve something can be perceived as a personal insult, arrogance, and so on. Alas. If you are lucky enough not to encounter this, then you have mature management and a team. This should be appreciated,» he notes.
Agile Delivery Manager Oleksiy Drozd adds that he has had to be on both sides of the barricade, so he also decided to share his experience.
«Usually, it is important for management to „save face“ in front of the team. Almost always, the problems that are voiced are known in advance, but there are no quick and obvious solutions. Is it necessary to fire such an employee? Of course not! Because everyone else knows the truth anyway, but he has the courage to say it openly, because he cares about the development of the company. The question arises: what to do with these problems and this employee next:) Practice shows that there is only one positive solution — to provide more freedom and responsibility,» the IT worker is convinced.
Python/Rust Engineer Pavlo Savchuk suggests that the contributor’s suggestions were correct, but that doesn’t mean that the business could «digest» them.
«The truth is not always perceived directly. Imagine you are a doctor. Coming to a patient and saying, ‘You need surgery, otherwise everything will fall apart’ is one strategy. Another is to explain how the treatment will help you survive, show several solutions, justify why a budget is needed, and suggest how to find it. You may have done so, but the LinkedIn format does not allow you to see all the details. My opinion is based on what I have read, so take this as an assumption. It seems to me that your boss heard a threat instead of a solution. And this is not because of his limitations, but because of the way the information is presented. I will leave it as an option,» he expressed his thoughts.
We recently wrote about how marketing expert Ksenia Larina expressed her opinion: if an employee is burned out and wants to take a break, the best thing management can do for this person is to talk to them about the prospect of dismissal. After all, often in such cases, the employee will not be able to recover and return to work motivated in a short period of time.
