A couple of years ago, I was leading a fast-paced integration project tying together Supply Chain, CRM, an online web app, and a few legacy systems.
It involved 4–5 teams, with my team acting as the integration hub.
We followed all the classic integration playbook rules:
- Single source of truth
- Clearly defined integration points
- Frequent cross-team syncs
- Lots of documentation
- And, of course, “Did you test that in lower environment?”
Halfway through the project, upper management changed. A new Senior VP came in and began making sweeping organizational changes.
In my 1:1 with him, I asked about the future of our team. He praised our integration work and said he had plans for us.
Good sign, I thought.
My team was heads down preparing for production deployment. The go-live date had been set and communicated.
A week after the original deployment date, I was called into the Senior VP’s office.
He didn’t ask for a status update.
He didn’t ask about risks.
He didn’t ask about readiness.
He just said:
“Let me come straight to the point — we have to let you go.”
No warm-up. No context. Just boom.
Then he added that my entire team was also being let go. A few well-polished business phrases followed.
After the initial shock wore off, logic kicked in.
So I asked, calmly:
“What’s the plan for the Integration Project?”
He said another team would handle maintenance.
I nodded and asked,
“Will they also handle deployment?”
He looked at me, genuinely puzzled.
“What do you mean deployment?”
That’s when it hit me.
The original deployment date had been the prior week. But at the request of other teams, we had formally pushed it out by two weeks. I had sent out the updated timeline via email.
Someone had missed the memo.
He had just let go multiple teams under the assumption that the project was already deployed.
The room got very quiet.
My frustration slowly turned into something else.
Let’s call it… professional amusement.
The Project Manager was urgently called into his office. A few minutes later she rushed out and asked if our team could stay back and lead the deployment.
I declined.
I gathered my team, shared the news, and explained what had happened with the deployment date confusion. I told them they had already planned to lay us off after we deployed the project. They just got the date wrong.
At first: silence.
Then: smiles.
Then: actual laughter.
Not because layoffs are funny.
But because the irony was Olympic-level.
As far as I know, none of the impacted teams stayed back to deploy.
A couple of months later, I heard the Senior VP was let go.
This ends the curious case of "Bad Timing"
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