You’re Promoted! Thanks, But I’m Quitting…

Man was Friday an exciting, stressful, adrenaline fueled sort of day. It definitely added another notch in the career belt for “crazy things that happen at work.” If you didn’t catch what happened on Twitter this past week, here’s the short version of what happened.

If you’ve been following the blog for a little while, you’ll know that my GM “Bill” put me on a development track to get recommended for “the next available” team lead spot. While some positions came and went without me being promoted to them, true to his word, Bill did recommend me for a new team lead position. On Friday he announced to me and my current boss that I would be leaving his team because I was being promoted to the Subsurface Characterization Team Lead for Texas Delaware Basin. Essentially, I got promoted to my boss’s position just a different part of the basin. What neither of them knew was that I wouldn’t be an employee here after August 2nd. Whoops… That led to some soul searching as to what would I do, and the “not as awkward as you would think” conversations I had when I ultimately declined the promotion.

You’re Promoted!

As I mentioned before, I knew that I was in line to get promoted to a Team Lead position this year, most likely in the summertime. Sure enough, Bill got promoted to VP, and a whole host of musical chair style promotions followed his move. I wasn’t worried during that round of promotions because some of them could have made sense for me to move into, but mostly, they didn’t fit me very well. However, my actual promotion came out of left field.

I was standing in my office working, and I got a WhatsApp call from my boss, which was odd, who does that? I tried to answer it but failed and then saw a message from him that said get to “Bill’s” office, now. Oh great, not worrisome at all getting called into your new VP’s office by your boss. The adrenaline immediately hit me and I had a mini panic attack followed by this conversation in my head as I made my way there. “Oh shit, am I getting let go? Wait, why would I be getting let go, I didn’t do anything. Wait, it’s the oil business, you don’t need to do anything to get laid off. Wait a minute, if I get let go, I’ll get severance! Ooohhhh… That could be nice! Maybe it’ll be at least 3 months worth…” These were the thoughts running through my head as I approached the office but when I got closer, behind the closed door I heard laughing and excited sounds and thought, “Oh shit, this is going to complicate things…”

Sure enough, I came in and Bill told me that we didn’t need to have a development meeting the next week, because, Congratulations, you’re being promoted to the Subsurface Characterization Team Lead position for the Texas Delaware Team! The rest of the meeting was kind of a blur because we were talking about strategy, handover of my current position, and getting me up to speed in my new role over the next week or so. I was sitting there thinking, “This is awesome, I DID get the promotion! YES!! Shit… How do I tell them that I can’t accept it? Do I really want to give them 3 months notice?! They could let me go before then if they have that much lead time, and they are talking about how they are already replacing me. Oh wait, I think they just said something important…” (Looks up, smiles nods and adds, “I agree, that’s definitely the way to approach the handover” – drifts back into own brain conversation).

Decisions, Decisions

At this point, I’m excited because I just got promoted to a really good team lead spot. Plus, the people I’ve been working with over the past few years have been put in place above me and around me. As far as career moves go, this is a great one! Except that I had decided months ago, that my career was effectively over at this company. What a pisser… It would’ve been easy to tell my boss and GM about the move and how I can’t accept the promotion, back when we were all in the office together, but now I really was unsure how to approach it.

On the one hand, I wanted to soak up the excitement of being promoted for at least a couple of hours before killing it and my career here. Plus, I wasn’t sure that I wanted them to know that I was leaving with that much lead time. My last company wouldn’t let anyone stick around for 2 weeks after giving notice, much less for 3 months, even if they weren’t going to a competitor. If I was let go early, this could cost me almost $25k in income and about $18k in cash and stock that is due to pay out in July.

That’s a lot to risk just to “do the right thing” professionally. So, I did what anyone would do and called Mrs. SSC to talk about “what the hell do I do now?” After her conversation I was 95% sure I had to tell them I couldn’t take it. To be really sure, I took my work friend out for lunch and we discussed the pro’s and cons of telling them versus staying in the position.

Time To Quit

Between my conversations with myself, Mrs. SSC, and my work friend, we came to the conclusion that professionally and even morally (for me anyway) I couldn’t take the job. I knew it all along, but here’s why I was dragging my feet. As soon as I had this conversation with my superiors, I knew my career was done here. Sure, I’ve been planning it to be over for a couple of years now, but saying it out loud and telling the VP that you’re leaving the company makes it real. I was prepping myself to tell them that in 2 months, not now… However, they forced my hand into telling them sooner. Before the train got too far down that track, I knew I had to stop it.

These were my top 3 reasons for telling them now and passing on the promotion.

  1. I really like working here, the people, culture, and especially the group that I would be working for that promoted me. I can’t in good conscience screw them over just to “get the promotion.” That’s a dick move in my opinion and I didn’t want to do it. Plus, it wouldn’t be fair for the people that promoted me or the team I’d be taking over. They’d get a new boss and in 2.5 months they’d be getting disrupted AGAIN with another new boss…
  2. Even though it seems pretty huge and O&G is a global industry, in reality it’s also a pretty tight knit industry. Even though I’m currently not planning on getting another job in this industry, if I took the position and then quit in 2.5 months, it wouldn’t be burning bridges as much as just salting the fields and scorching the earth. Word gets around and if I ever did want to consult, or do anything O&G related, I don’t want to risk my reputation leaving like that.
  3. We’re fine monetarily, so even if I did get let go soon after telling them, yes it would suck losing ~$40k but in reality, we’ll still be fine. The whole point of getting to where we are today is so we can make decisions not motivated by money but rather if it’s a good fit for our lives. Not telling them about leaving and taking the promotion just doesn’t sit well with me on any level, especially not for that relatively small short term financial gain.

 

Now that I have decided I needed to tell them comes the awkward part of actually having the conversation. Cue the nerves and adrenaline again, because this could get awkward.

It’s About a Lifestyle Change

I stopped by Bill’s office, but he wasn’t there so I sent an email that I wanted to have a quick chat about the new position. A few minutes later, he stopped by and I started the conversation. I let him know about Mrs. SSC’s background and all of that and then led into the fact she got a tenure track position at a really good University, which is great news for her, but not great news for the company because we don’t have an office there… Because of that and more stuff I mentioned, we will be moving there and I will be leaving the company August 2… Cue the cricket noises.

Have you ever talked to a dog and as you’re talking to him he cocks his head sideways like he’s trying to understand, but he doesn’t quite get it, so he keeps cocking his head back and forth sideways like that will help it understand? Yeah, that was what my GM was doing most of that conversation.

He responded with, “What if we gave you an LTI (i.e. stock)?” I told him, well, the thing is, this isn’t financially driven, this is purely a Lifestyle Change decision. (Sidenote – hooray for blogging about this for almost 4 yrs now so I have it burned in my brain and can espouse the virtues of our Lifestyle Change) I explained how we’re pivoting focus from a dual career couple to a family focus with the emphasis on Mrs. SSC’s career now. I’m going to be the “default parent” and stay at home with the kids and do that sort of thing and she’s going to pursue her dream job. Not money driven at all. If this was financially motivated, you guys would win and we wouldn’t be having this discussion, but it’s not about money.

Then he called my new GM and had him come to my office and I got to explain it all over again. Hooray…. However, the new GM totally got it after the first go around so that made it easy. After a little more talking about the Lifestyle Change and what it would mean for our family they finally realized the value of Mrs. SSC’s new job, the scarcity of those kinds of positions, and ultimately were happy for us.

About 15 minutes after the conversation started the new GM said, “Well, I’ve got to scramble to come up with Plan B, so again, congratulation, thanks again for the heads up earlier rather than a few months from now and I’ve got to go.”

Just like that, my career at this company was ending.

Goodbye career, goodbye company, time to move on.
More Conversations?

I couldn’t find my boss before the end of the day to tell him the news, so I let him enjoy the weekend. I figured I’d catch him Monday morning instead – what a way to start his week, lol. When I talked with him I was just as nervous as I had been on Friday, but he was happy about it for us and congratulated us on being such aggressive savers. His point was what we all talk about in the PF sphere is that it’s not about Early Retirement (ER) as much as it’s about giving yourself the freedom to make decisions not driven by financial motives.

He was excited for us and in the time since keeps making funny quips about “I’m getting out while the getting’s good” and things along those lines. I disagree with that, as I’d be really excited to be in my promoted role if we stayed here. Since we’re not, I’m even more excited to be in my stay at home dad role in a couple more months.

My other supervisor, yes I do have many, was also excited for our family, and his only question was, “What am I doing wrong with MY money??” I’ve sent him my Word document with multiple finance links, brokerage account links, advice on setting up couch potato and other “lazy” style portfolios, and more. You can only do so much right?

That was my crazy Friday and following Monday and it reminds me that you should always remain open minded when making plans. I didn’t plan on giving notice by way of declining a nice promotion but that’s how that turned out. I wasn’t planning on leaving Texas to live in another state for the next who knows how many years, but that’s not how that turned out either. I’m not sure what the next 5 years may hold, but I am guessing it won’t be how I imagine it now.