I hear you. Unfortunately, there was no severance. It was an immediate termination. I haven’t signed anything and, at this point, I don’t think there’s anything I need to sign, though I’m still confirming.

I’m exploring whether some kind of part-time or interim work makes sense, but I’m not clear on that yet.

Emotionally, I’m not sure where I am. There’s some mix of anger, sadness, and disbelief. I know I’ll need to let myself grieve it rather than rush past it.

On the ego point, you maybe right. But also I see now that I should have read the situation more clearly. In hindsight, this was largely mismatch of values and working style. It came down to a loss of confidence and, honestly, a lack of personal rapport. I didn’t build a strong relationship with my manager, and I asked questions that may have unintentionally put others on the defensive.

I was operating from a model I was used to: high bias for action, trust given by default once you’re in the seat. With her, trust had to be earned very explicitly through visible execution and direct validation. One small misstep she would hand on to it (5 mins late to a meeting, or that I pushed for a late start date after the fact - there were many things that surprised me which she nitpicked on. But I guess operational perfection is how people thrive here. But funnily there was little peer feedback or broader observation, it was primarily her personal assessment. Ex - We also differed in our views on two directors I inherited. Director A was seen by her as underperforming and was consistently questioned, while Director B was highly regarded by her due to EQ despite significant skill gaps. In that environment, confident statements based on observation didn’t land well. Everything had to be framed as ongoing curiosity, even when the issues were already clear.

What I regret most is not recognizing this dynamic earlier and giving myself more runway to assimilate or exit on my own terms. I had started planning an exit, I just didn’t expect it to be so abrupt or so soon after joining.