I'm sure they're offering so you don't seek legal action.
That said, not knowing any of the details of the situation, your industry, your other job prospects in the next three months, sadly I don't think I have enough information to tell you whether legal action or walking is the right option.
All I can say is that I wish you luck.
I’m in pharmaceutical sales. Same company since 2008 when I got into the industry. Started with a different division within the company in late 2017. This guy is my 5th manager with the company. The previous 4 had all been very happy with my performance and I had enjoyed a successful career prior to making the jump to this division.
The territory had been struggling to meet quota prior to me coming over and continued to struggle once I was in my role, but I have a territory partner who has been there for 9 years now. So successes and failures as far as sales results are shared. I don’t get all the credit or all the blame for sales numbers. I’m not judged solely on sales results. There is a subjective component to it as well.
After getting off to a terrific start in the first quarter of 2019 our numbers fell off a cliff. It was as dramatic a change in direction as I’ve ever seen. My manager zeroed in on me as the reason and began a systematic process to remove me from the company. Every field travel report starting in July painted me as someone who had no impact with my customers and failing to meet the expectations of my role.
In order to be fair and make sure he wasn’t seeing something no one else was he sent someone from training to ride with me in September of last year. But prior to the guy riding with me my manager briefed him on what he thought my weaknesses were. After two days with me the guy seemed generally happy with my messaging in front of customers. He had basic coaching points for areas of improvement but nothing out of the ordinary. However, he never provided any documentation of our time together. When I asked my manager why that was he stated that given his role he wasn’t allowed to write a Field Travel Report. When I asked him what the guy communicated to him he said, “He recognized the same gaps in performance that I did.”
He then sent my RM (his boss) to ride with me in October. For a number of logistical reasons that are too long to get into the day got off to a bad start and never recovered because I told him I would pick him up at 10:30. He got in the car in a bad mood and it showed. If I had that day to do over again I would have picked him up at 7:00 and driven a couple of hours to an office and then driven back to where our lunch appointment was that day. But anyway, he was unhappy with the day and it was reflected in his FTR.
However, he came back to ride with me in November and we had a very good day together and his FTR reflected that. As I was taking him to the airport he commented, “I saw things out of you that make me think you can do this job.” Despite that I was put on a Performance Improvement Plan on December 10 of last year.
I knew it was a formality though. My manager stated he had to see subjective improvement and I knew we were too far gone for that to take place. Through a chain of events I found out in February that my manager had turned in the unfavorable FTR from my RM in October to HR but not the more favorable one from November. In fact, he still has a copy of the one from October but claims he didn’t keep a copy of the one from November. My RM said he didn’t have a copy either. But I still had my copy and I had assumed it had been turned over to HR to go in my file.
When I found that out I immediately filed a written grievance and hostile work environment claim. Employee Relations immediately downplayed my concerns saying that while the FTR hadn’t been turned in they were verbally made aware of the day in November and while some improvement had been shown it wasn’t enough. When I asked what my manager’s reasoning was for turning in one document and not the other I was told they weren’t at liberty to discuss that but it had been addressed with him.
So then yesterday happened and unless they extend the severance package I have a decision to make. I have a buddy who is an attorney and he absolutely thinks I have a case but also warned me of what can be a long, frustrating process in pursuing that.