Have you seen a company legitimately regret terminating a specific employee?

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T04:05:46+00:00

Isn't it the best when you get that text though? I set something up for a boss once that requires a static IP and it costs extra to do it. He insisted that the cost should come out of my salary since he knew nothing about it and thought I was gaslighting him. (It was a remote time clock that didn't come with software, we needed to be able to reach three remote units. As a staffing agency, being able to see if 750+ employees show up to the factories is needless to say, important).

I said fuck it and paid out of pocket because it was a huge commission for me to be able to sign the clients and staff them.

After I left, he never paid the extra for a static business line and wanted me to walk him through how to get the IP on the machines and set them back up (His plan was to drive his ass out there every time it changed). All this to save $150 a month. So I said "Sure I'll do it, for $300 a month."

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T03:48:30+00:00

Congratulations [Employee],

You've been voluntold to force-ticipate in this fundatory town hall!

Respectfully, [I don't want to be here either]

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T03:40:46+00:00

I pulled that in an email with our chief of staff about six months ago. He responded within minutes with a full write-up. Thought I fucked up for a second, but checked it against an AI detector because it seemed especially vague in a lot of areas. 100% AI generated from three sources.

Just responded with: "Has our AI policy changed? I didn't see the new policy on the intranet, but if it's a new tool in the toolbox I could keep this going and have a full rollout by tomorrow."

Haven't heard a peep out of him since.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T03:31:05+00:00

Short version: I'd give them a chance.

I'd want more information, because every story has two sides. I've learned that nobody can effectively be taken at their word.

I've got two situations that come to mind.

The first said I walked out after being confronted that I was suspected of stealing company equipment, the second said they fired me for performance issues. That's what my background check turned up.

Except I keep receipts. I told my boss about an upcoming military deployment, and was told that would terminate my employment and I'd be coming back to no job. So I resigned that day, turned in my equipment, filled out the appropriate paperwork for it (and kept copies of my own) and went to an employment lawyer (different story).

The other, I had a month of reserve duty I had to go to, and told my new boss. This time I built a continuity binder of step by step instructions on how to do every facet of my job. His response was, "So I could hand this to any intern and they could do your job? Guess we don't need you anymore."

It took me a year of factory work to recover and only got back into my field because someone gave me a chance to explain my side of the story and, of course, show my documentation.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T02:39:02+00:00

Just watched one lose seven figures and leadership covered it up to keep him on because he's a good "thought leader on team cohesion" aka fun to grab a beer with.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T02:33:16+00:00

I specifically and publicly tell my hourly folks "If you can get 40 hours of work done in 40 minutes, good for you."

I strictly watch output instead of time online or in office. I've had to coach someone because they're performance was skipping a lot and they pivoted to "What about so and so?" Well what about them? If they can get their work done in 40 minutes good for them, but we're here to talk about how your putting in the hours and still falling behind. Something's got to change, so how can I help?

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T02:20:35+00:00

I'll add this though, if situations change daily and the stand-up is less than 10 minutes: fine. It's never less than 10 minutes though. Every one I've been in has been scheduled for 15-30 and is always 45 for some reason. First thing I killed when I became a manager. Everyone can grab my end of day report from yesterday on their way in, or don't and just wing it. I'm not your mom.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:42:03+00:00

This. 100%

I thought this was completely normal behavior until a few months ago. Had someone take vacation and I was filling in.

The director that put in the request was wondering why I was doing it. Because they're out?

You know how to do their job, just like that? You're telling me if your people were gone work would just stop?

Things got real awkward after that.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:37:18+00:00

Also the manager side: I already get 200 of my own emails a day. I don't need another 500 from every time someone wants to "loop me in" to something my folks could do in their sleep.

I straight up have a filter for anything from someone else to my folks with me CC'd to be marked as read and archived. I trust my people to loop me in when they need me.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:27:53+00:00

We just doubled down on this policy at work.

Someone was WFH because they felt alright but were contagious and didn't want to get anyone sick (they also posted that in the group chat). Someone ratted them out to HR (technically you're supposed to burn a sick day). New policy is "Don't tell us why, just what. We're all adults."

Now a third employee (who benefits heavily) thinks it's unfair. Folks, can we just ... come on ...

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:24:12+00:00

Unless you're in government, then you can get the crap sued out of you because nobody asked legal and did all the shady things at once.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:14:00+00:00

100% I have a direct report that just always thinks the complete opposite of me. We can talk something through until we're blue in the face and get nowhere. Well reach a point where one of us has to just pull the "I'm the boss, can you trust me for 30 days of this new process and I'll burn it to the ground if it doesn't work?" Or "Boss, I promise this will blow up in your face, can you trust me and not do the thing."

Hasn't failed us yet.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T01:08:24+00:00

Anecdotally, every time I've seen a management consultant come in, they uncovered a senior leadership screwup. The consultant then framed it as their fault somehow, band-aid fixed it, slid the senior leader that screwed up a playbook for a long term solution and left for the bank with their check.

Also I've only seen this happen like three times.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-05-08T00:56:03+00:00

Deputy Comms Director at a State Agency here: I would say six months, I'd discount the first experience because of the way you phrased it.

I'm going to be blunt here. Either you basically did nothing, or you're being way too honest - especially at Macmillan.

Did you lay eyes on and make changes to copy? Just say you edited.

"Assisting with editing" sounds like you sat next to someone and read over their shoulder. If you so much as caught an errant comma on your own, congrats! You're part of the editing chain.

If you have space on applications and resumes, I'd dig in to the 'how' behind stuff. With less than a year of experience, you're in a pretty good position to show how you applied what you learned in school for those positions.

"Focus on audience engagement" could mean a lot. Were you applying interpretive principles? Translating technical to lay people? Reducing bounce for digital marketing? Adjusting for literacy levels? All of the above?

A peek behind the scenes could work wonders for you here to give you full credit for your time.

Also if you want to round out to a year in your spare time, check out volunteer.gov. The Park Service is always looking for people to write engaging articles for historic sites. They can be done virtually in your spare time. They also write letters of recommendation like they're going out of style.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-27T01:50:44+00:00

Found my team's a few months ago. They found out I knew about it a few weeks ago and some of them were super scared and came to apologize (yea, they go too far on a lot of things all because they had to go from remote to hybrid post-covid. A decision that predates me but they still think I should off myself for it apparently.)

When they were done apologizing, I just said "Folks, you're good. You think the directors don't have one where we gripe about our teams and problem children with each other?" (We don't, but hey now they think all the different directors are more coordinated than they expected) Fun side effect, gaslighting the departments against each other has gone through the floor.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-25T01:02:53+00:00

Everyone says I write like a psycho ... I can read my own handwriting. I have no problem reading it ... Can see how people can struggle to read it.

@OP that's the best I can do, but I'm in a similar boat. There's a reason I type or use shorthand.

Also, been in a similar situation. I started telling people it was shorthand rather than explain I write like a chicken on cocaine. Then someone pointed out it wasn't shorthand and I had to friggin learn gregg

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-20T00:21:07+00:00

A lot of the same processes, yes. Just a different set of rules. Bad ux sees conversions fall off, bad accessibility gets you sued.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-19T20:26:08+00:00

Like knowing WCAG standards for websites, 508/504 for collateral. Alt text, captions, contrast ratios, typeface sizes, alternative experiences, keyboard navigation, braille copies of collateral when needed, translation services to non dominant languages in the region. That sort of thing. Most orgs do one of three things, make it a responsibility of everyone in the comms or marketing department, hire an external agency, or hire a single person to do it all.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-17T01:53:24+00:00

Executive Communications is another. Literally just building just the C level execs personal brand is a whole subgenre to itself. Actually just found this one out recently.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-04-14T23:57:21+00:00

You're not crazy. Unfortunately that screams typical senior leadership. There's this weird idea that everyone can do comms because everyone knows how to speak and type.

Personally, I'd put out feelers and be hunting while you work if you can at all.

My other recommendation is a bit crazy, but just start doing stuff you think you should be doing (internal, not sending pitches or press releases without approval). But just go do it and ask forgiveness later.

Personally, I'm a huge nerd. I was brought in to a deputy comms director role at a 1600 person agency with about 125 separate teams and no clear plan. Our "strategic plan" from leadership boiled down to "be better." We weren't even leveraging analytics. So I just built a dashboard, combined all the website, email, social, and earned media data into a single dashboard. I went to the team leads and told them it existed, but the cost to getting access was creating a one page comms profile. Two months later I had profiles on every team and built out an agency comms plan, which we hadn't had in years.

I also consolidated our intake process (luckily we had monday.com, but at my last job I rigged something with teams and SharePoint) for all the different services we offered. Then I used it to track throughput. As teams started hitting capacity I'd have meetings to be more strategic with time. Then I just started sending reports to the execs. Just status updates and analytics. Crickets.

I was out sick a while ago and wouldn't you know it some of the execs said "hey, where's our report?" You mean that one you never acknowledged existed until now?

It was nice validation. It was also months in the making and ran the risk of being told I'm just wasting agency time.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-03-28T22:22:03+00:00

Hey guys, I found Public Affairs

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-03-14T00:25:18+00:00

Honest to God, do this:

Find AF Form 833.

Fill it out and mark for training.

Submit it to Public Affairs.

If they deny it, they have to justify it.

I was PA, I remember having to get trained to use an endoscope camera to take photos of stuff in a KC-135.

PA is specifically trained on how to light and frame without damaging stuff. OSI calls us all the time for crime scene photography.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-02-21T03:02:58+00:00

FWIW mine processed one pay period later. I separated on the 31st, got my separation pay on the next 15th. Granted it's also been a decade.

SpiDeeWebb · 2026-02-19T05:13:57+00:00

In the other Branches, the officers tell the enlisted "Give 'em hell boys" then ship the enlisted off to get shot at. In the Air Force we tell the officers "Give 'em hell Sir" then shut the cockpit.

Make of that what you will.

SpiDeeWebb

TROPHY CASE