Fired? sort of.
As I quickly approach the anniversary of my first ever firing; I thought it would be prudent to write a post about it.
First let me start out by saying I enjoyed and respected (still do) the people I worked with while at DallaVilla Design Group. Melissa Baumann is an extremely professional copywriter and project manager. Joe Werner is an incredible and inspired visual designer, illustrator and creative director. Joe Taylor is an excellent web, print, and graphic designer.
When I was brought into DallaVilla Design I was promised the following by Mr. Chris DallaVilla in an email dated 4/11/2008.
The performance compensation component works like this… It’s a Partner Associate plan and pays out bonuses 3 times a year on top of your base. Typically I would put a 2 year runway in place to be considered for participation. Considering, however, that the base is a little bit under your current scenario we can put you on the fast track and make it 90 days from start. If you’ve ever wanted to own your own design firm this is an opportunity to essentially do exactly that with a really great team already in place. And, the upside in the first year will likely surpass your current scenario. And, moving forward I wouldn’t be surprised if it well surpassed that.
After some haggling we settled on a higher base salary and a 120 day hold on bonuses. I roughly calculated based off of the change in base pay and bonus hold days what the bonuses should be. Considering the last two sentences from the email above I accepted the offer thinking that bonuses would be a significant part of my compensation.
I started work on April 28, 2008. I expected a bonus September 1, 2008. This was not so. I expected a bonus December 1, 2008. This never arrived. I asked Mr. DallaVilla on several occasions about the bonus program to which he promised they would be forthcoming.
On January 12, 2009 the “associate partners,” Joe Werner and I, had a meeting with Mr. DallaVilla. Basically in the meeting he informed me that the ‘bonuses’ were a fraction of what was originally promised and they wouldn’t be paid until an indefinite time in the future.
Immediately after this rather shocking presentation I sent an email to Mr. DallaVilla expressing my concerns. I then packed up all my personal belongings from my desk area and left the building around 4:45 pm.
At this point I doubted the honesty of Mr. DallaVilla and told him I was greatly concerned.
From January 12th to late April 2009 I had a series of meetings with Mr. DallaVilla concerning the difference in promised and actual compensation. Talking about money was extremely hard for me, but I had to do it. I had a family to support. Mr. DallaVilla made several misleading statements in an effort to gain my trust and to keep me working. None of these promises made in these meetings were kept.
In one meeting he alluded that the letting go of Joe Taylor for financial reasons was in order to fulfill the promises made to me. I felt really, really bad about this.
Eventually we settled on a higher base pay and no bonuses in late April of 2009. At this point in time my trust in his ability to provide steady employment was completely shattered. I applied for other jobs and started interviewing.
I had a surplus of vacation time and was threatened with losing it so I took vacation from June 1st to the 5th of 2009. During this time period I accepted a position on the Web Team for the City of Virginia Beach, where I was to start work July 1st.
I hadn’t yet decided how to notify Mr. DallaVilla about my resignation as I was afraid he would fire me upon receiving a two week notice. I didn’t have to decide my next course of action as on that Monday upon returning to work, June 8th, I was called into Mr. DallaVilla’s office. I was told I was not meeting expectations and I was let go. Fired.
I went home, changed into my board shorts gathered up the family and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day the waves were high and I got a little sunburn, but I didn’t mind.
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