I was hired to do engineering "leading into" project management. I was told I would wear many hats. As I have much experience in both IT and AV in the field as well as being a project engineer, from director level (IT) to the P.E. job in commercial AV, and having worked at startups for high-profile clients, I was more than prepared for this. I started during the pandemic. "This is fine," I thought. They started me 100 in project management, even though that wasn't initially what I was told I was being hired for. Not a big deal, except they had ZERO projects for me the first month. The quarantine wasn't helping, but you can only work on something when it.. well, exists to be worked on. After continuously trying to be useful, I finally got a chance to shine when a very high-profile client's EXTREMELY unique (think one of a kind) project was being built in the old Tonight Show studio in Burbank, CA. I was asked if I would be willing to travel to Burbank (during the absolute peak of the quarantine) for a week to PM on-site and do step in on some engineering tasks, as well. Even though my health insurance wasn't active, yet, I jumped at the chance. So, with one day's notice, I hopped on a plane and started living in a hotel in Burbank. The project had been very sloppily handled before me and considering the manufacturing was from a Chinese company that had initially planned on sending two individuals over to help with the build process, but couldn't due to Coronavirus bans on flight. Nevertheless, we persevered. I ended up living in that hotel an entire month, arriving on April 23rd and leaving on May 23rd. The project was an overwhelming success and the client loved it. I should note I worked EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Sometimes as late as 11:00PM, making sure the crew had everything they needed and just to show them I had their backs as the PM. I took 0 days off in the month. I knew things were bad with the pandemic and I wanted to prove my loyalty. I came back and was praised. The client liked the project so much they wanted to try doing another smaller version in another location. I was asked by my manager to be the PM of the new project. I don't believe there is a better indicator of performance than the fact that I was being asked to head this new multi-million dollar project due to my success. After all, if I had done a poor job, they could always get rid of me... not praise me and hand the next gig to me. I knew the company wasn't doing well, because my project hadn't started yet and I had nothing to do again until it did. I was worried and asking for tasks on a daily basis only to be told there wasn't much available to do. So I started coming up with ideas I could pitch for products LMG could market; something they had begun doing to make ends meet during the quarantine. However, my emails asking how I could make these pitches and show some value to the company went unanswered. Finally, I scheduled a meeting with my manager so I could ask the question face to face and find out how to pitch these products. At the meeting I REQUESTED.... he shows up with HR and they say, "Your 90 days are coming up and we've decided it's not a good fit, so we have to terminate you." Really? Was it a good fit two weeks earlier when you were willing to hand a 5-10 million (possibly more) dollar project over to me? Was it a good fit when I did network engineering and saved you from some major headaches on your poorly planned project because I happened to have a decade of IT experience and you had not even purchased the software licenses for the computers you were installing? I would have been absolutely fine with them saying, "we are in a bad spot and can't afford to keep you." After all, they had literally told us in meetings that if we lost a certain client right now the entire company would go under. That's understandable. It sucks, but is understandable. But this was different... this was a termination... and for NO reason. I couldn't get anything else out of them... ... then I realized what had happened and how these thieves operate: They had to say I "wasn't a good fit" because then they could get part of their recruitment fee refunded from my poor recruiter, who did a fantastic job. I spoke with two former employees who confirmed that they had a history of doing this. One of them had been there almost two decades and said, "I thought they were over that.. years ago we used to joke about making it past the 89 day mark because they pulled that stunt so often, but they had stopped." Welcome back to the good old days, where shady people throw good employees under the bus to save a dime. I WORKED 30 STRAIGHT DAYS FOR YOU DURING A PANDEMIC AND HELPED SAVE YOUR COMPLETE MESS OF A PROJECT AND AFTER PRAISING ME YOU PUT A TERMINATION ON MY RECORD TO SAVE A LITTLE CASH? LMG has zero integrity. Next time, be honest. Don't insult an employee's work that you had previously been praising just because you can't afford to keep them. In all honesty, I'm not sure the company will be around in 6 months, but if they are my feelings won't change. I would have had no hard feelings had they simply been upfront and honest... but trying to change the past and gaslight me? That's just pathetic. Bonus points: When I pointed out that I had been successful when not even doing what I was initially hired to do my manager asked, What were you hired for?" Fair question, as I had only told him at least 5-10 times. "If you don't even know what I was hired for, after being repeatedly told, is it a reflection on YOUR work or MINE? Rant over. Don't work here. Oh, and one-offs run into problems... that's why you don't make as much on them - you can do them, but support them with "boring" jobs... that's how you make money and can afford to keep employees, geniuses.
