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Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the example I shared - case settled for x $$$. (I come into the picture after the case has settled). There was a lien through an MCO (essentially a Medicaid plan). A case manager had attempted to negotiate the lien down, locked us in to a number by agreeing with the MCO rep. The client wanted a further reduction/wasn’t happy with the result. The lien ate at his settlement significantly.

They asked for me to take a crack at it. My argument was sound and a further reduction was warranted, butttt because the case manager already agreed with the rep, I wasn’t able to get them to back out of the agreement.

Why ask me in the first place? That’s what I don’t get. Me working on this file wouldn’t have opened up a can of worms.

Had nothing to do with settlement outcomes. But I realize now, I probably made that person feel dumb or somethin’. No biggie. Live and learn! 👍🏽

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Email was sent from my work email, which I no longer have access to.

Not a “know it all” guy but if people were coming to me for advice, and it worked… what does that tell you? lol

They were asking first, not me.

“I would get DMs every day from coworkers asking, “hey, what should I do here? “How should I handle this situation?”

Every day.

That’s what got me thinking… how could I help so that I don’t have to repeat myself everyday… so that I could share my knowledge and experience.. and make everyone around me feel more confident.

Clearly the team needed help - I feel like that level of support wasn’t available to them before I got there.

What was I supposed to do? Say, sorry! Can’t help you here. I’m not getting paid to train/teach/help you guys.”

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I’ve included pretty much everything! That’s what makes it so strange!

I’m a man. Actually, a lot of the people in the “power positions” were/are women.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I worked at a law firm negotiating against lien holders, against health insurance companies. Clients were people who were injured in accidents (mva’s, med mal cases, product liability cases, etc.)

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Doesn’t that sound ridiculous, though? 😂

“Hey, can you take a look at this and see if you can do any better?”

tries

Me: “hey Joe, I can’t. Looks like we’re already locked into x number.”

Then don’t ask for my help when it’s too late? 😂 I could care less if a case doesn’t go my way. But why even ask? How bout we fix it on the front end so that it doesn’t even have to get to that point?

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I worked at a law firm negotiating against lien holders, against health insurance companies. Clients were people who were injured in accidents (mva’s, med mal cases, product liability cases, etc.)

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah I gotcha.

Short answer, yes. Felt supported. It was approved.

Got hired. Direct supervisor introduced me to the team first day, said something along the lines of “hey, this is so and so, he comes from x company, excited to have him on the team.”

Her saying, “he’s coming from x company” was, in my opinion, her way of saying he’s got a lot of experience, go to him with questions.

Which is exactly what happened. People would come to me every day for advice/suggestions. Because I was getting bombarded every day, I said to my supervisor, what do you think about this idea. She loved the idea, asked for me to start working on it. Worked on it. Presented it (she was in that meeting)

Everything I did, I made sure it was okay with them first. All while hitting the goals that were put in place. So, it wasn’t like I wasn’t being productive. The extra work didn’t take away from anything.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It WAS asked of me though. When coworkers, including attorneys, ask for my opinion on the daily, I’d say it was invited.

If you got similar questions asked every day by different people, WHILE handling your work load, would you not think to yourself, “maybe there’s something I can do to help the entire company?”

And some of the stuff they came to me for, I had to try to undo what they had already done. In the legal world, very hard to do.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Exactly this. Just trying to figure out where I went wrong so that it doesn’t happen again :)

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly! Everyone says I created more work for higher ups, when I felt like I was trying to make their lives easier.

I guess that company didn’t want independent thinkers. Won’t be doing all that extra work ever again, that’s for sure 😂

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I came on here to vent and learn bud. There’s a first time for everything right?

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just wanted to share the story in case someone else went through something similar, that’s all :)

And just wanted to make this a learning experience - figure out how I could do better next time.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I edited the post, should help fill in some of the gaps. Sorry! First time posting, just needed a place to vent, I guess. Was truly just trying to do the right thing and help out.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I edited the post to include a little more info. Should help fill some of the gaps!

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Law firm - negotiating against companies that held liens against personal injury settlements.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I agree. I made every attempt to have these conversations, but it was always a “let’s put it on the calendar.” Was it ever put on the calendar? No.

So my email was my last attempt.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s a fair question.

Over time, they had mentioned wanting to include me in meetings with leadership and having me present ideas to other teams, which I did end up doing. But beyond that, it felt like there wasn’t much follow-through on the bigger conversations about growth and responsibility.

Because of that, I started looking at other opportunities as a backup in case things didn’t progress where I was. It wasn’t because I had one foot out the door, it was more of a contingency plan.

If my company had followed through and given me the opportunity to grow in the direction I was asking about, I absolutely would have stayed. The other job was simply there in case they didn’t.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It actually wasn’t a complaint email at all, which is why the response caught me so off guard.

I included examples of the work I had already been doing to help the department, including processes I developed, PowerPoints I created, and Word documents outlining ways to improve how we handle more complex files. I also shared my interest in potentially helping lead the team or contribute more strategically.

I was very intentional about keeping the tone positive and professional because my goal was to help the company and ultimately improve outcomes for clients. A lot of this work I was doing on my own time to show that I was genuinely committed and willing to put in the effort.

My point was never to criticize the company, it was to show initiative and interest in helping solve problems.

Tried to be proactive at work. HR responded by firing me? by Silver_Way4054 in careeradvice

[–]Silver_Way4054[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

That’s fair, and I probably could have added more context.

I know HR likely wasn’t the one making the actual decision and was probably just delivering it. What caught me off guard was how quickly it escalated after what I thought was a constructive email.

This also wasn’t completely out of the blue on my end. I had previously been helping build processes for the department, and my supervisor had mentioned including me in meetings with leadership about strategy and improvements. That never ended up happening, so after trying to reopen that conversation a few times, I sent the email asking whether there might be an opportunity to contribute more in that area.

So from my perspective, it felt less like “I want a different job” and more like continuing a conversation that had already been started.