My company recently has a layoff.

There was a guy, called A, he did solid jobs, got top performance review in past years, but surprisingly be among the few in the team that were shown the door.

Furious and confused, A questioned the senior manager and was told that it’s because he caused a bug in a recent event. Funny things is the bug was actually caused by his teammate. A was active in the team group chat trying to help fix the bug. The manager, who is new to the team, not knowing any context, thought that it was A that caused the bug due to his activeness, and aced him.

The decision is made and cannot be revoked. So our team is down a top performer, while a mediocre guy and a clumsy manager stay.

I cannot name the company, but I can name the department. It’s Search.

Here is what netizens think:

“A” players will always get other “A” and “A+” players. “C” players will always get “C-“ and “D” (even “F”) players. Your colleagues sounds like a leader (team work and helping team to grow, and doing the right things), while that boss is a manager (doing things right). In such environments, there will be an inflection point. Strong early and leading indicators are where the “A” and other top performers leave (via resignation, layoff or terminated)

The new manager has inferiority complex. He worried the new guy will take his job one day. He is finding excuses to kick him out. It is common to find such manager in an organisation.

You should congratulate A. He will probably get a better job with higher pay very soon.

You wanna know why? Because top performer are usually paid higher, therefore more expensive for the company to retain. It’s all about business these days.