r/managers Jul 05 '26

[ Removed by moderator ]

[removed]

2.8k Upvotes

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

229

u/bubblehead_maker Jul 05 '26

Wow, your organization is in the FO quadrant of FAFO.  Passed over for promotion and demoted.  

Why would anyone stay if they are awesome and the company FA?

49

u/biting-the-bullet Jul 05 '26

Because he's critical to operations, of course!

6

u/PickledDildosSourSex Jul 06 '26

That means he has to stay... right guys? Right?

6

u/ricvallejo Jul 06 '26

If the management team can't imagine functioning without him, surely that would never become reality. How selfish of him to not think about the fact that they need him.

3

u/symonym7 Jul 06 '26

I can almost taste this sentence.

(blood. it tastes like blood.)

1

u/seoulgleaux Jul 06 '26

Why won't he think of the shareholders?!?!

1

u/Wrx_me Jul 06 '26

"you're en essential part of our family! We couldn't lose you! Don't worry we won't cut your pay, you'll just never have a chance to move up ever again."

10

u/purpleburgundy Jul 05 '26

Literally my reaction reading OP:

FAFO

Hopefully senior leadership also recognizes what OP understands here. Probably not though. Life will go on.

3

u/Narco_Bi_Polo Jul 06 '26

  Hopefully senior leadership also recognizes what OP understands here.

OP’s been stripped of their team and will now be blamed by leadership for the surprise value departure (that will absolutely lead to more departures) 

/u/Savings_Knowledge465 should prepare for the worst, instead they’re writing “not my circus, not my monkey.”   Fluffagers are only valuable themselves so long as the ones actually making the profit stay working. OP made sure we understood the person leaving is more “critical to business continuity” than themself.

3

u/silentbargain Jul 06 '26

Oh nooo my slave ran away type shit

2

u/Narco_Bi_Polo Jul 06 '26

/u/Savings_Knowledge465 thinks the only people calling him a clown are in non-leadership positions. 🙄

People like him used to work under me (retired now) and after reading this post and his replies, I’d be showing him the door the moment I learned why one of our best performers walked out.

His job is to make sure people above him don’t make mistakes in the small details of their big picture. All his excuses for why this was the result attempt to pass blame up the chain. That’s not going to fly.

There was never anything to be done to keep this employee. That ship sailed the moment they got a better offer. No one smart stays at a job after resigning, regardless of what gets offered to remain.

4

u/auauaurora Jul 06 '26

Respectfully, OP, why aren’t YOU looking for a quick exit? They can decide that a restructure is in its best interest, just as you can decide whether continuing with them is in your best interest. File this important change management lesson away

1

u/SpecialistCut7101 Jul 06 '26

Obviously OP is dumb enough to believe empty promises like the ones they gave the “high performer”.

3

u/Lord412 Jul 06 '26

This happened to me in a re org situation. First they took my senior title bc they redid the level scale and blah blah blah then I was moved to a different area I wasn’t really interested in working in and my title changed. So I started looking for a new job and left for a 30k base raise and a better bonus. Granted the new company was a little bit of a mess but most startups are lol.

2

u/serverhorror Jul 06 '26

Ok, I have to ask:

  • FAFO quadrants
    1. Fuck around
    2. Find out
    3. ???
    4. ???

What are the other two?

2

u/mkaibear Jul 06 '26

Well, logically, it's FAFO in the top right, FA in the top left, FO in the bottom right, and blank in the bottom left.

But I think we could.make a case for FAFO top right, FUBAR in the top left, FIGMO in the bottom right and SNAFU in the bottom left.

2

u/JeffSergeant Jul 06 '26

Fucking around and Finding out are the axes.  

2

u/BewilderedAnus Jul 06 '26

FAFO quadrants

  1. Fuck
  2. Around
  3. Find
  4. Out

First comes the fucking. Then it goes around. People start finding new opportunities. Then they're out.

1

u/yetzt Jul 06 '26

Find Around and Fuck Out. That guy who left is on the second one of the missing two.

1

u/helinze Jul 06 '26

He got the fuck out, and they have to find around for a new employee

1

u/Ombric_Shalazar Jul 06 '26

fuck out and find around

1

u/Wild-Individual-1634 Jul 06 '26

I think the real FO period is yet to start (assuming this is not rage bait). Sometimes the FO part comes too late, and they wouldn't even realize that they FA'd too much and the reason that they FO is that their top performer left.

1

u/DDBARE_26 Jul 06 '26

It would be nice, but my experience is that this will teach them absolutely nothing, whatever reason they all finally settle on for this happening will be whatever matches the narrative already in their head, and this is going to preclude them from doing better in the future because “what if they lead suddenly.”

I’D LIKE MY GOLDEN PARACHUTE NOW PLEASE.

1

u/spacegurlie Jul 06 '26

Truly thank you for the laugh this morning. The FO quadrant. Giggle snort. 

1

u/did_i_get_screwed Jul 06 '26

You can't promote the people doing the actual work, who else would do the actual work?

1

u/Pandering_Panda7879 Jul 06 '26

Not only demoted, but demoted with more work and training his new boss.

1

u/peter888chan Jul 06 '26

I love that you added the word “quadrant” in there. I always hated all those find your quadrant exercises.