You guys don't really know me from Adam but I feel the need to talk about this so bombs away. I quit my job of over thirteen years on Monday and couldn't feel more liberated. The President of the company decided to hire a CIO and have myself (VP of IT) and the Chief of Product (my former boss and CIO) report to this guy. The whole thing smelled more of a good old boys hire as he was effectively pulled from retirement for the job, having served them rather whimsically as an industry consultant for the better part of two years primarily to try and help close some big business deals (which never materialized).
The way the whole thing went down was very deceitful which is ultimately why I chose to walk. I had a conversation with the President two weeks prior and he made no mention of the consideration, which I now feel was intentional given it was right before he took a ten day vacation. Last Friday he returned and called a meeting out of the blue to tell me that he'd decided to make this move two weeks ago. He then met with the Chief of Product and with each of us, left it at the fact that we'd now be reporting to the new hire and that they didn't want anyone to leave. Little did we know that was just the tip of the iceberg, as it turned out that they were also moving the three employees from the Product team out from under my colleague leaving him Chief in title with no department below. That tidbit came courtesy of one of those employees, and in the same conversation we learned that she was also told about these changes before either of us were.
The order of operations for my department wasn't as egregious as at least I was told first and had an opportunity to speak with the new hire early on. He let on that conversations about this became more serious about thirty days prior, but that they'd been on and off for quite some time before that. While that was disheartening I pressed on, wanting to hear his preliminary thoughts/plans, and was dismayed to learn he had none beyond wanting to talk further this week. I thought that strange given how long he'd been consulting for them and how long the change had seemingly been discussed, but all the more indicative of the good old boy nature of the move.
Unfortunately things continued to head south for me as they chose to inform each of my employees without my presence. That seemed an attempt at damage control at its finest, which told me for as much as the President said they didn't want anyone to leave they didn't expect either of us to handle the news well. Adding to that, in the wake of my departure they've spun things internally to suggest their intention was to have the Chief of Product and I form a new team to build the next generation platform for the company which I find a complete and utter pile of garbage. If that were really the plan there would have been no reason not to discuss it with us long ago and ensure a unified front in moving forward. Not to mention I didn't exactly light the place on fire in my departure so it would have been very easy to reach out to me to correct the situation, but as it happens they have said nothing to me at all. As I understand it, outside of that "new team" narrative they've used with a few key individuals from my old team, they have also not formally acknowledged my departure with the rest of the company. Kind of crazy for someone who had been there for so long if you ask me.
As for my resignation on Monday, I went in early to collect my things and sit with the President to let him know my decision in person. We were two of maybe five people in, with most of the office still dark. As soon as he noticed my presence he basically ran out and when I texted him asking if he'd be back soon, never replied. I waited until it was clear he was summoning other executives including the new CIO over to an off-site location and ended up emailing him my intention and indicating that I'd left a signed copy under his door. He couldn't even look me in the eyes.
