Stealth layoff right after salary raise
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 9:40 pm
Figure I'd share what has recently happened to me if others can learn from this, but no way I'm going to out the firm. After our firm matched the salary rise, I was suddenly told to meet with a HR person and head of my group in the same week. I was told that my performance has not been on par in very vague terms, and given 4 months to find something new. My last review was less than 3 months ago, and I had good reviews. I even remember asking the partner if there would be any interim evaluation and s/he said no, that my next annual evaluation would be next spring. I had came back to the firm less than a year ago from clerking. I had been slow the whole time since I've been back, and heard from others that the firm had been slow in 2017 as well. Now, I'm wondering if I should ask the firm to extend the 4 month to 6 months. I know the typically practice is to do a 6 months check-in, after which you are given 3 months time to find a position. I also know that this tends to happen in the spring of the sixth year (at least before the salary hike). The reason they are skipping that is likely because the firm is really slow (we only got 1 litigation case come in this past month), the recent salary hike, and letting me stay 6 months means I would get end of the year bonus. Although I wasn't that surprised (I thought it might be coming after the recent salary hike), offering 4 months so they get to skip the bonus seems really dishonorable, especially when there was not even any warning or a heads-up before hand.
Any thoughts on negotiating?
In the meantime, here are some of the lessons I've learned that I want to share with you. Hopefully it will help other naive souls out there.
1. If you are clerking and have a standing offer to return to your old firm, make sure that you grab lunch with at least several associates and partners and find out about how busy the firm truly is before you accept the offer. And definitely interview with as many boutiques as you can (clerking is the best time to jump to a litigation boutique afterwards). Know that the partners you worked with before who protected and loved you may not be able to take you back under their wings after the clerkship because a year has passed and people have short term memories, even if you had been working 200+ hour/month for them consistently. It's better to go to a litigation boutique that only takes laterals or post-clerkship associates, so you'll always been seen as home-grown talent. If you have no other option but to go back, consider offering to go back a class year below your graduating year, so you'll be cheaper. Not going to disclose my class year (disclosed enough identifying info already), but it definitely matters at a slow firm.
2. At the very first hint of the firm being slow, send out your resume to recruiters or other positions that interest you (even if you have been at the firm for less than a month). There was a perfect in-house position that popped up my first month back, that would have been a great gig, but I didn't apply because I was concerned it would look bad on my resume being back at the firm for just a month. Now it looks like it will be just as hard to explain away being back for only 6 months.
3. Even if you got good reviews, and there was no hint that you are being evaluated, you can get the boot at any time if your firm is slow, there has been a recent salary hike, and your hours have dipped 100h in the past month. Send out your resume at the first sign of the firm being slow. It's always good to have back up options before you get shot in the head like me.
4. When you do get the call that you suspect to be that shot, be prepared to go in and ask for more time to find a job. Always ask for 6 months. It would be even better if you cried and have reasons to justify that argument. It's easier to ask for 6 months when they just delivered the kiss of death and you seem much more sympathetic. When they arranged the meeting (an hour before), they refused to tell me what the meeting was about (though I had my suspicions). But I was still too unprepared at the meeting itself to try to negotiate on the spot. What I should have done was to cry and ask for 6 months with bonus - tell them I skipped a family member's funeral to get the work done, didn't tell the partners, and didn't take bereavement leave just to get the work done. And tell them that I had received good feedback from partners, that my last evaluation gave no hint of something like this happening, that I turned down other opportunities (clerkship receptions, etc.) to come back to the firm, and that because I had been back for less than a year, it would be much harder lateraling to find something else.
That's it for now. I'm sure I'll post more lessons I've learned (or not) once this whole process is over and I've secured positions elsewhere. That is, depending on whether I'll actually be able to secure good positions or become jobless. A part of me is depressed and ashamed, but a part of me is also much more motivated to be a kick-ass and politically savvy litigator one day. I keep imagining a future where I open up my own shop, establish a stellar reputation, become a rainmaker, and take away clients from this firm/become GC and fires or refuses to hire the firm/become a judge and bench slap the partners that did this to me. But hey, at this point, the best revenge is landing something awesome and living a good life.
Tips and encouragements would be greatly appreciated.
Any thoughts on negotiating?
In the meantime, here are some of the lessons I've learned that I want to share with you. Hopefully it will help other naive souls out there.
1. If you are clerking and have a standing offer to return to your old firm, make sure that you grab lunch with at least several associates and partners and find out about how busy the firm truly is before you accept the offer. And definitely interview with as many boutiques as you can (clerking is the best time to jump to a litigation boutique afterwards). Know that the partners you worked with before who protected and loved you may not be able to take you back under their wings after the clerkship because a year has passed and people have short term memories, even if you had been working 200+ hour/month for them consistently. It's better to go to a litigation boutique that only takes laterals or post-clerkship associates, so you'll always been seen as home-grown talent. If you have no other option but to go back, consider offering to go back a class year below your graduating year, so you'll be cheaper. Not going to disclose my class year (disclosed enough identifying info already), but it definitely matters at a slow firm.
2. At the very first hint of the firm being slow, send out your resume to recruiters or other positions that interest you (even if you have been at the firm for less than a month). There was a perfect in-house position that popped up my first month back, that would have been a great gig, but I didn't apply because I was concerned it would look bad on my resume being back at the firm for just a month. Now it looks like it will be just as hard to explain away being back for only 6 months.
3. Even if you got good reviews, and there was no hint that you are being evaluated, you can get the boot at any time if your firm is slow, there has been a recent salary hike, and your hours have dipped 100h in the past month. Send out your resume at the first sign of the firm being slow. It's always good to have back up options before you get shot in the head like me.
4. When you do get the call that you suspect to be that shot, be prepared to go in and ask for more time to find a job. Always ask for 6 months. It would be even better if you cried and have reasons to justify that argument. It's easier to ask for 6 months when they just delivered the kiss of death and you seem much more sympathetic. When they arranged the meeting (an hour before), they refused to tell me what the meeting was about (though I had my suspicions). But I was still too unprepared at the meeting itself to try to negotiate on the spot. What I should have done was to cry and ask for 6 months with bonus - tell them I skipped a family member's funeral to get the work done, didn't tell the partners, and didn't take bereavement leave just to get the work done. And tell them that I had received good feedback from partners, that my last evaluation gave no hint of something like this happening, that I turned down other opportunities (clerkship receptions, etc.) to come back to the firm, and that because I had been back for less than a year, it would be much harder lateraling to find something else.
That's it for now. I'm sure I'll post more lessons I've learned (or not) once this whole process is over and I've secured positions elsewhere. That is, depending on whether I'll actually be able to secure good positions or become jobless. A part of me is depressed and ashamed, but a part of me is also much more motivated to be a kick-ass and politically savvy litigator one day. I keep imagining a future where I open up my own shop, establish a stellar reputation, become a rainmaker, and take away clients from this firm/become GC and fires or refuses to hire the firm/become a judge and bench slap the partners that did this to me. But hey, at this point, the best revenge is landing something awesome and living a good life.
Tips and encouragements would be greatly appreciated.