Nothing reveals favoritism faster than a cost-cutting decision that spares the insiders.

So, what would you think if you were laid off to “save money,” even though you handled daily tasks, but they decided to keep other, less important people on the payroll?

Would you leave quietly? Or would you take some satisfaction in knowing the manager who actually controlled the finances had other plans?

In the following story, one charity employee finds themselves in this exact predicament. Here’s how it played out.

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

Who stayed? Well, it was: The minister’s wife (also chair of the board of trustees), someone who’d been part of the church for decades, and someone they “couldn’t let go because he had kids.”

The manager was a good guy.

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.

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.

The trustees were angry, but she was happy.

So while the board thought they were cutting costs, Alan quietly ensured we received proper severance. I left with £6,000. The other employee received £4,000, based on role complexity.

The trustees were furious. They stopped speaking to us entirely during our notice period. Alan even offered to let me 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.

No shouting. No scenes. Just pure joy from me.

Wow! Those trustees sound terrible.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this.

That baffles most people.

Good for this person.

So true.

This person must know a thing or two.

She’s better off somewhere else, because this place sounds so toxic.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.