Getting fired is never fun, no matter what the reason for it might be.

What would you do if you were let go due to budget cuts, but your manager was able to provide you with a generous severance to help make the transition easier?

That is what happened to the young lady in this story, but her getting a severance made the board very upset, so she stuck around until her last day just to make them uncomfortable.

Personally, I think she acted unprofessionally, and she should have behaved better, especially after getting that severance. Read through the full story below and see if you agree.

Board tried to cut costs. Manager cut the cord.

During COVID I worked for a small Christian charity that ran a day centre for adults with learning disabilities.

It is always unfortunate when budget cuts mean people get fired.

When in-person attendance stopped, the charity started bleeding money. Council funding barely covered the gap.

There were six staff total, including the manager. When the board decided to “save money,” they made two people redundant: me and another young employee.

Everyone thinks that they are the most important person in the company.

Both of us had been there around two years and handled most of the actual day-to-day work.

Who stayed?

None of this is surprising.

The minister’s wife (also chair of the board of trustees)

Someone who’d been part of the church for decades

Someone they “couldn’t let go because he had kids”

It is weird that they would do this at someone’s home.

We were taken to a trustee’s house to be told we were losing our jobs. No HR. No neutrality. Just church politics.

Here’s where it backfired.

What a wonderful manager.

Our manager (I’ll call him Alan) was genuinely one of the best people I’ve ever worked for. Crucially, while the trustees governed, Alan controlled the finances and had personally invested a large amount of his own money to keep the charity afloat.

So, while the board thought they were cutting costs, Alan quietly ensured we received proper severance.

I bet this money really helped these two transition into new jobs.

I left with £6,000.

The other employee received £4,000, based on role complexity.

Honestly, this seems a bit immature.

The trustees were furious. They stopped speaking to us entirely during our notice period. Alan even offered that I could work from home, but I chose to come into the office anyway.

Smiling, doing my job, and being very visibly non-religious in a space where that clearly bothered them.

Does she think they enjoyed being in a difficult financial position?

No shouting. No scenes.

Just pure joy from me.

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It is hard to say whether the charity did the right thing or not, but they were undoubtedly upset at the bad position they were in. This person is acting like they fired the two employees just for the fun of it.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about the story.

This is what I was thinking too.

Or maybe this girl has an inflated sense of importance.

I hope they both have jobs they love.

This is definitely true with some companies.

Getting fired is never fun, but burning bridges like this is a mistake. She should have accepted it professionally and worked to find another job as soon as she could.

She should also be grateful that she got that severance. If the board was truly that upset, they could have reversed it, I bet.