Laid Off: The Sales Champion's Revenge

I couldn't help but look at the faces of my HR Department Leader and the CEO before me with mixed feelings.

As soon as I graduated, I landed a job as a saleswoman here and worked extremely hard for about 10 years. I had sacrificed my entire youth to work with Neoform. The truth was I accompanied them from when it used to be an unknown small company to a huge company that became well-known as a dark horse in the IT industry.

Yet, what did I get from them after all those 10 years with them? They paid me with nothing but a severance letter that stated that I only got a severance pay worth my one month's salary. Seeing this couldn’t help but make me laugh in frustration.

“Sir, Ma’am, I’ve been working extremely hard for this company for the last 10 years. How could you lay off the Best Saleswoman in the company when I haven’t made any fatal mistakes? And … how dare you only give a severance pay for my one-month salary?” I asked the HR Department Leader and the CEO angrily.

Personally, it seemed that Leticia, the HR Department Leader, got used to laying off too many employees at the end of the year.

In fact, the woman surely had gotten used to it to the point that she became so cocky as he talked to me in a very arrogant tone, “Well, Miss Hawking, this is the company’s rules. May I remind you that your job is a saleswoman, which is a very sales-oriented job that is mainly based on commissions? Since you’re leaving the company, you’re not contributing to any of the company’s sales. So, why would the company need to give you more money?”

Whoa! Was that something that an HR Department Leader could say easily?

Realizing that I would only waste my time talking to such an arrogant and stupid HR Department Leader who seemed to not understand any labor law, I stared at Neoform’s CEO, Jonathan Warren, in anger and asked him, “Sir, why me?”

Jonathan Warren, the current CEO of Neoform, used to be an employee just like me. Surely, that man could see how I managed to rise to my current position with his own eyes. Not to mention what happened this year because we all managed to go through the pandemic which caused such strong market competition that had never happened before.

Since we were dealt with such a strong competition, I often had to work overtime for the company until very late. In fact, I was still even responding to customers’ inquiries until 3 or 4 a.m. the next morning. Not only that, I even lived inside the company for a period of time while I continued to work overtime to think of better solutions as well as built connections for the company.

I was very confident that Jonathan could see how hard I worked for Neoform.

Yet, what he said really slapped me on my face, “Helena, you should’ve realized what the company’s interests lay by now. You can see that our company’s performance isn’t very good. Unfortunately, it means that we must cut costs to increase our efficiency in performance. We’ve made calculations, showing that you staying here will be extremely expensive … unfortunately, you have to be laid off.”

“Besides, you need to understand that our company is in a crisis. You’re still young, so other companies will hire you in no time. Don’t you think you shouldn’t think about the severance pay a bit too much?” he asked me again.

Jonathan kept talking, “Helena, you’re a saleswoman. Obviously, your job is to make people buy the products. But if our company’s products aren’t good, can we sell them? Since you’re able to bring projects worth billions of dollars, our products have shown how good they are. That’s why you become the Best Saleswoman!”

“Instead, you should’ve thanked Neoform for giving you a platform to show yourself,” he concluded arrogantly.

His bullshit did nothing but convinced me. Yet, the man seemed to be deluded into believing his own lies. Besides, he said every one of his words with a strong conviction as he stared me right into my eyes.

In the past, Jonathan was also a salesman just like I was. But he then married the former CEO’s daughter. From then on, his career progression was smooth sailing. As soon as he became the current CEO, he seemed to forget that he used to be an employee as he began putting guilt into his employees like any other CEO.

Then, realization suddenly dawned on me as I looked at the CEO’s face. Out of nowhere, I remembered what he said during last year’s company dinner party. Although I managed to sign projects worthy of billions of dollars, I recalled that the other companies who cooperated with us specifically asked me to handle negotiations with them in the future.

It reminded me of what Jonathan said about hoping that I would continue to set a new standard for other employees at last year’s dinner party. It turned out that he meant it to boost other employees’ morale to get projects as good as mine.

More realization came. I remembered that I just finished negotiating with the other companies’ representative early in the morning before I was told that I would be laid off this afternoon. As soon as they got what they wanted, they kicked me off just like that.

When I thought of the new year’s plan for sales that I just wrote wholeheartedly, my heart sank. In a company like this, such sincere efforts would never ever be rewarded justly.