Years of Empty Promises and Musical Chairs
I gave this company significant years as a software engineer. They pitched innovation and inclusion. I got shuffled between teams like unwanted baggage—never once asking if I wanted to move, always spinning it as an "opportunity to learn."
Promotion? Not a chance. Can't advance when you're perpetually the new person proving yourself all over again. Third team, same excuse: "Just get settled in first."
Then the masterpiece: months of "we'll never force return-to-office, remote work is our future!" Suddenly—pack your bags, move across the country. Nothing screams "we value people" like weaponizing relocation as a resignation tactic.
The finale? Mass firings dressed up as compliance enforcement. The excuse: "You didn't work exactly 8 hours every single day." Fascinating. Do the office workers chatting by the coffee machine and sitting in their sixth pointless meeting really clock pristine 8-hour workdays? Of course not. But they needed a reason that bypasses performance improvement plans and legal obligations, so "compliance violation" it is.
The managers? Professional gif collectors who've perfected the art of looking busy while doing nothing. And leadership has made it abundantly clear: this is a trucking company with an IT department, not a technology company that happens to move freight.
And for enduring all this chaos, broken promises, and favoritism? No competitive salary. No meaningful bonuses. No stock. Just the privilege of watching everything you were promised slowly collapse. Eight years. Zero promotions. Infinite team shuffles. One bait-and-switch. Mass firings disguised as policy. Management by meme. Compensation that assumes you have no other options.
This is what happens when a company forgets that people aren't just another load to be dispatched.