How usual/unusual is it that 1. the company where you work is doing well, 2. you're doing your job well and you're still fired ?

I never considered the scenario where the company is doing well, you are doing your job well, and you are still fired.

Eight years ago I started a new job in a small software company close to my home. At the time, I had 19 years of seniority at another company, which I gave up. I knew I was taking a risk, but there were only two scenarios in which I thought I might lose my job:

• If the company got into financial trouble
• If I didn’t perform well

During those eight years, I became “indispensable” to the company. At one point I even asked the HR manager whether there might be another role for me in the future. He literally told me: “That’s not possible — we can’t miss you in your current position.”

Last year our company was acquired by a much larger one.

Then in January I received the news: “We’re going to have to let you go. We’re sorry. We’ve looked at this from every angle, but we simply don’t have a position for you.”

In the company that acquired us, someone already has my role — and they only need one person to do that job.

My position changed from “impossible to leave” to “impossible to stay.”