#LaidOff #CareerChange #SalesStruggles #TechIndustry
Hey everyone,
I know the title of this post sounds dramatic, but bear with me for a moment!
I recently worked as an account executive at a SaaS healthcare company for over a year. I’ve been deeply invested in a potential $35 million deal with a health system. After nurturing a fantastic relationship with their CEO for the last six months, we were ready to finalize the contract—well, at least we were until my world turned upside down. 😔
Just last week, after a successful meeting where we mapped out all the details, I was excited to see the deal come to fruition. My company stood to make around $2 million from it. But here’s where things went haywire. The company, which I’ve enjoyed working for despite its chaotic nature, hit a major speed bump. With ongoing issues like:
- 🔄 **Disorganization:** It took three weeks to receive a written offer, just a day before my start date.
- 💻 **Poor CRM Management:** They terminated the contract with Salesforce, forcing the sales team to manually switch thousands of leads to Excel!
- 🤔 **Lack of Support:** Sales reps only had two directors to look for guidance—no wonder we felt a bit abandoned!
During my monthly one-on-one just before the storm, I received high praise for exceeding my quota. 🌟 But less than 24 hours later, I was blindsided by a layoff notification from HR. Even my director was in the dark. The entire sales department was let go without warning!
Now, I’m left with a couple of tough questions. Knowing how disorganized my former company is, and with my solid relationship with the hospital CEO, I can’t help but feel uneasy. Here are my concerns:
- 🛑 **Service Degradation:** If my former company is indeed gutting itself post-funding, will they be able to provide quality service to clients?
- 📞 **Advising the CEO:** Should I reach out to the hospital CEO to share what I know about these alarming changes? After all, I want the best for their organization!
So, what do you think? Would it be wise for me to express my concerns to the CEO? I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences with similar dilemmas! 🤔🙌
Thanks for reading my rant!
No. You keep your mouth shut and move on. Anything you say, especially with the intent to torpedo a deal of that size could very well land you in court.
Join a rival competitor and land the deal at the new company.
No. Never do something like this.
Go for it. You don’t owe your old employer anything
You probably do not want to take on the liability of tanking the deal in case your former employer wants to go after you personally. You could as a courtesy let the CEO know that the company will contact him with a new point of contract since you are no longer an employee or representative of the company. Just share facts no feelings or hunches the truth being a defense.
The fuck do you mean the whole sales department was let go???
No. Don’t do it. As satisfying as it would be, that could lead to legal issues.
Nope.
If they contact you asking for help, tell them that you would love to help but it would be as a contractor with billable hours.
$100-$500/hr for $30m deal.
If you’re really concerned for the interest of the client, just say you’ve been laid off and can’t vouch for the financial health of the company.
No. Stay the hell out of it. You could be sued. Like an angry IT person that wipes servers on your way out the door. You could be held liable.
I would simply let my CEO contract know I was let go — or just say you are no longer with that company. Maybe asking for help finding a new job or ask if he was hiring.
If he wanted more info, I would let him buy me lunch. I would keep my answers about my old employer VERY brief and simple. I would tell him to nothing, other than who was let go. He will look down on you if you gossip. He may be able to help your career in your next step. But if you bad mouth your old employer, he won’t want to deal with you.
Use every connection to land a job and stay positive. Avoid self sabotage
How to get sued 101
No severance?
Go for it. I mean this won’t end positively for you but go for it. Your contact will also probably lose respect for you as well, but that’s just my opinion
Digital footprint….
I wouldn’t want that karma coming back at me. If you are able to reach out to the CEO I would just leverage him for a job as long as it’s not breaking any rules you might have with your current company. Don’t mention anything about the deal.
> Thousands of leads in Excel as our CRM
> contract worth $2m the first year
Sounds like you have the perfect start for your company….
Bombs away
Do it, then stand back and watch the world burn
I’m petty, I would definitely give him a heads up, but do NOT mention any speculation about the financial health of the company.
Just say that you, along with all your colleagues, were laid off without notice, and it’s been a pleasure working with him. You can also mention that the only reason you’re letting him know is so that he doesn’t think you’ve ghosted him if he contacts you at the company email.
There’s nothing shady about that, and he can draw his own conclusions about the health of the company.
BECAREFUL.
that could get you a lawsuit.
You no longer have any obligations whatsoever to the company that laid you off, provided there’s no NDA or anything in your contract.
If I saw that a company was planning to just gut another one and I was in charge of nurturing the relationship to accommodate that, with a good relationship with the other company, I would *absolutely* give them a heads up!
Thanks for all the responses ladies and gents. I seem to be spiraling between different stages of grief every 30 minutes still and I typed this out during one of my 12 anger stages.
Obviously I am aware I would be liable for a lawsuit if I were to publicly nuke a deal. A little bit of daydreaming and venting frustrations on here.
I’m gonna go back into the depression stage and wallow in self pity for a couple hours, then back to sending out 100s of applications tomorrow.
Just remember when you work for someone else no matter how much you give of yourself don’t expect anything in return. Do it for yourself to say you did a great job and got the most out of the experience but never expect loyalty out of it from any company. Maybe the reputation you built can help you with something else. But I think best bet is not to sabotage. Just wash your hands of it, package yourself back up with all your experience, and leverage that to find something else worthwhile.