A Sort of Hammerfall: Update II

My continuing job transition saga:

A Sort of Hammerfall

A Sort of Hammerfall: Update I

1)  Letter was formally presented for my approval.  Title is changing (after transition) to Senior Project Manager.  Date of transition remains undefined.

As of my now, my salary is not changed.  However, there was a clause that I am not eligible for a bonus.  I asked my HR contact if it was for this year only.  The response was that it had said "for 2020" but that was lined out by my boss.  That is fine, of course - my salary is what really matters.  We just have to save all the more.  The only risk, of course, is that this makes me very much overpaid for the role and a target for any future layoffs.

2)  I made the announcement to my team.  Thanks to the current plague, we had to do it via a conference call so the only people in the room with me were my two direct reports.  I  made all the points I needed to make: different skill set, good for the company, result of our success, etc.  There were no questions.  Afterwards I talked to my reports.  They both specifically made the point that they had other job offers at the time they accepted this position but took the job because they wanted to work for me.  That was both the kindest thing and the most devastating thing I have heard through this process, even more than being told I was being transitioned.

3)  Spoke with my Manufacturing counterpart and talked about the change - he had heard but was surprised.  Turns out that I am not the only one being transitioned.  He is as well, as is the VP who was formally in charge of all manufacturing as development work.  My friend is being transitioned to an undefined roll within development; the former VP - who has been at the company twice as long as I have and is employee number 5 now - is being transitioned to a sliver of his former role.

The language, from my friend, sounds the same:  they are looking for a place where he "can better use his talents".  He has a team as large or larger that he has built from the ground up over two years; he has to transfer the whole thing to someone else.

His comment - and I have come to agree with him - is that anyone associated in a mid-level senior leadership role is being removed from that area of the company.  There are probably more that we do not know about yet.  The "errors" of the past are being smoothed away, slowly disappearing beneath the surface.

My response to him (he did ask) was that I was really okay with this.  They did not (yet) change my pay.  They did not fire me.  I will - in a very short time - not have deal with trying to get product tested and released and constantly operating at a high level of stress to do it.  My mornings, evenings, and weekends can go back to being my own and not constantly feeling like I should be checking on on work updates.

4)  Item three above really does sadden me.  A year from now I will somewhat not recognize the company; two years from now even more so, three years and it will be completely unrecognizable.

Here is hoping and working on a better option.