To feel mortified I was settled out of my job?

It's happened to me. Twice. It's really hard. But it's ended up as a positive thing for me both times.

I would spend some of your settlement on a therapist/ life coach who can help you process what happened and make plans for what you want to do next. It's worth the money, honestly. Otherwise you'll really struggle to process what happened on your own. I speak from experience.

This is great advice! I can also recommend career coaching, I had that last year and it helped with my confidence. The fact that you thought you'd get a roasting on this forum shows that you have really been brought down, and that is not acceptable! How dare she treat you like this? You are fabulous.
I hope you find the strength to move on and grow from this.
Also, LinkedIn is your friend for networking, try their free courses too.

Try putting some words into ChatGPT or similar - or ask it to give you a positive statement to answer a question at interview. It really is a powerful tool and will help you find the right words. Very best of luck! Don't forget to put you Positive Pants on for interviews!!

OP did they pay for some outplacement support for you? They should have done at your level. But if they didn't, it would be a good idea to invest in it yourself - as someone said, invest in an executive coach rather than counselling. I have been in your position a couple of times and received outplacement support and they are excellent at boosting confidence - you also meet other people in the same boat and don't feel so alone.

Example: Penna | Home

On the interview issue - you need to find a trusted friend to practice interviews with. They ask you "why did you leave your last job" and you practice your answer. Personally I think "there was a change at the top of the company and my role no longer fitted and I am excited to move on" is adequate and not really a lie!

Hi @SackedandDisgraced - I haven’t RTFT but just wanted to say I’m nearly 3 years on from where you are now and my life is so much better. I found another role within 6 months, it was a 10% salary cut annually but also a massive cut in hours and expectations. I’m less stressed, more emotionally available for my family and a nicer person to live with. Get some support and coaching from recruiters re interviews, I promise better days are coming.

OP this happens ALL THE TIME. New CEO, out with old, in with the new. That is so the way of things, no one will care. Clash of cultures, wanting their own people around them, the genuine reasons are aplenty.

Get back out there, climb back onboard the gravy train and don't think about it again a man in your situation wouldn't give it a second thought

I think you did the right thing too, and what's done is done - your true friends would reach out so I would advise you to draw a line and start afresh. Good luck, and maybe work on a line for your interviews that means you can avoid too much detail without it being against your NDA.....recruiters should be able to advise you on what to say in that scenario. Bigger things are coming

Been in your shoes and still bit bitter I could have held out for more money but Ultimately your boss would have gotten rid of you under the excuse of poor performance ( Anyone can make you look crap if they want to )
and you would have been sack with nothing

your next job will be different and life will pick up - hard , but the issues is there’s not you

You could get legal advice about whether the agreement you signed is legally sound particularly as you were pressured to sign it

Would you consider some coaching tp help build your confidence back up again? You have done nothing wrong but some support to help you find yourself again would help and may even open up new exciting opportunities.

I know you don't want to / can't take it further, but suggest maybe taking a look at & reaching out to HanLaw - I follow them on LinkedIn and their background is very inspirational and I feel would resonate with you. Even a chat with them might help you to realise it's not you & move forward - plus you never know where that contact and networking might take you 💐

This happens all the time in my industry, communications. It’s not a reflection on you. Say that to yourself every day.

You did not get sacked. Your new boss just didn’t like you. That’s on her. Not you. It’s not a reflection on your performance.

The best thing to do is get on LinkedIn with a cheerful ‘I’m looking for my next role’ and crack on with using contacts to help you.

People might gossip for a week or so, but really….no-one cares that much. People always put too much weight on other people thinking about them when they really don’t!

You’ve had a horrid experience. Be glad you’re out of it now. And look to the future. You know you have one as you’re a high performer.

good luck and go get a new job!

What website do you use to get CV rewritten?

@SackedandDisgraced I've been through similar, and so have several of my friends. It's really tough, so please be gentle with yourself. You managed the best exit and settlement that you could manage at the time - that's no mean feat.

In terms of interviews - yes - you will be asked about why you left. A true-enough answer (that works in quite a lot of fields) is: a new CEO came in, naturally enough s/he wanted to revise the org and bring in people s/he'd worked with before/ take it in a different direction / try a new style of [whatever] ; these things happen [shrug], there's no hard feelings, I accomplished a lot at XX. Now, I have the opportunity to: try a new field, learn new things, encouraged me to explore a new direction with my existing skills etc

Jamie Dimon (now CEO at JP Morgan) is not someone I'd usually cite, but, he was fired suddenly mid-career. His take on it (now) is "I lost some of my net-worth, not my self-worth".

And George Eliot in Middlemarch ( a bit more me) : "Pride helps; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our hurts— not to hurt others"

So, chin up love. There's a nest of vipers cheering you on.

You can't tell anyone what happened but you can say that you had to sign something and as a result can't give any details. You can even say your mental health had taken a battering after months of issues with new management and that you regret signing now. That should stop the you have been sacked rumours without giving any details.

it's much better to just say there was a restructuring with new management.

All other things being equal, then perhaps yes. Obviously we should all strive to "stay neutral and professional", but it seems to me that OP is here precisely because she can't. She wrote "I’m just falling to pieces in the interview process when I’m being asked why I left my old company". One explanation for this is that because, if she respects the NDA, she is essentially required to lie. On that basis, my suggestion is that she tells the truth, with whatever risks are associated with that. Of course there is no perfect solution here; it's another reason why bullying ruins lives.

"Oh, I'm sure there will be all manner of clauses, possibly including the "super-injunction" clause that says OP can't even mention that there is an NDA. But (a) these agreements are often unenforceable as they go against natural justice and you can't sign away your rights, and (b) nobody is going to find out what was said in an interview.

"I was bullied, and they made me sign an NDA. In fact I'm not even supposed to tell you that there was an NDA, but the alternative would be for me to sit here and make up some lies to tell you, and I'm not prepared to do that, not least because I wouldn't be able to get my story straight. I hope that makes sense, and I hope this will remain confidential.""

@samarrange - settlement agreements are completely enforceable (especially where legal advice has been taken as op says it has) and that's not what a "super injunction" means. You are advising op to make the situation worse.

Practically ops previous job might not take steps to enforce the settlement agreement but they could if they wanted. Further your suggested explanation sounds petty and demonstrates to a new employer that op wouldn't even keep to a legally binding agreement which is a bad look.

As others have said it's much better to just say there was a restructuring with new management. Stay neutral and professional. As I say this has happened to me three times and I have been able to get good new jobs each time

Glad this has been helpful for you,OP, and that you will get some counselling. I was bullied out of a job years ago - new big boss came in, brought in his useless and nasty right hand man who was my immediate boss. Boss hated me, mainly because I was competent and showed up his incompetence just by existing. After 6 moths of relentless bullying, I left. Big boss took the opportunity to put the boot in too and I realized there was no way of saving the situation so I had nothing else to lose - so asked him some pointed questions which made him very uncomfortable. I was really upset for a while, cut myself off from people I knew there and felt I was to blame. But I did get to the point where I could see it was a blip in my life, that life went on and that work was a means to an end rather than the reason for living.

About 5 years later it worked out that my lovely first boss had become the director of the division and I was in a position where I could do some work for the company again and I ended up doing a 6 month contract for them while between other projects. During that time, I learned a lot of stuff. There had been uproar from my clients about me leaving, and they and my co-workers were much more aware of the bullying than I had realized. And did not see it as me who was the problem. Big bosses secretary had heard my pointed questions to him, and the reason she would not look at me when I left the office is that she was trying not to laugh. She told everyone what I had said to him. Big boss and nasty boss were fired within a year of my leaving, and I like to think I played a small part in it (although there were many, many reasons for them being fired). New staff I had never met before told me that I was famous as the one who had told the gruesome twosome to fuck off (in proper business talk, without swearing but pretty clearly).

I bet people see and know much more about what is going on than you think. They may not know what to say or how to reach out to you or whether you want them to contact you. Dont take it too personally OP. This is a time to move on into a better position for you. It may take a while, but you will get there. Looking back, it is the best thing that ever happened to me. Wishing you all the best.

Hello OP,

Well done on a successful role for 8 years in senior position. Well done on choosing to step out of a situation that wasn’t best for your emotional and physical wellbeing.

C-suite HR & legal experience here - what you have experienced really has nothing to do with you. New CEOs exit previous SLT over time and bring in their own people. It’s not a reflection on your ability to do your job.

You can say pretty much what you like in interview. The company won’t pursue you even with evidence. They only had you sign a settlement agreement so you won’t sue them.

The CEO hasn’t given it a second thought. You will benefit from counselling to help you reframe & externalise this.

You will see it for the positive change it is eventually.

Best wishes!

Something similar happened to my husband after 10 years and he left a shell of his former self all because of one bullying nasty manager. Luckily he was offered another job (literally the day after he sign the settlement agreement!) but the whole experience just knocked his confidence so much.

one thing that stood out in your replies was you said about being sacked. But you weren’t sacked, your were bullied and pushed out of your job. That’s completely different! You were given the opportunity to take a settlement and walk away rather than stay and BE sacked. So remember when you are interviewing that you were NOT sacked, you CHOSE to leave the company due to a toxic environment that made it untenable to continue working there. Tell interviewers that you felt it best to step away to clear your head ready for the next opportunity. Say it with confidence and if they ask for more information tell them that you were offered a settlement and legally can not discuss it further.
please do not feel shame, your old company should be ashamed of how they treated you!

As part of the agreement, OP will have given up the right to take her employer to tribunal. That is a standard part of any settlement agreement. From the employer's point of view, it is the whole point of the agreement. It allows them to get rid of an employee they no longer want without having to worry about being sued for unfair dismissal, discrimination or whatever.

I've been through similar.

It is devastating.

Get legal advice from a union. Your NDA may not be legally enforceable if you were coerced into signing it. Personally, I think they are wicked things which should only ever apply to IP, not workplace culture,

I think you need to look much further afield to find your new job. Go on a huge adventure; take a five year appointment overseas.

Oh, I'm sure there will be all manner of clauses, possibly including the "super-injunction" clause that says OP can't even mention that there is an NDA. But (a) these agreements are often unenforceable as they go against natural justice and you can't sign away your rights, and (b) nobody is going to find out what was said in an interview.

"I was bullied, and they made me sign an NDA. In fact I'm not even supposed to tell you that there was an NDA, but the alternative would be for me to sit here and make up some lies to tell you, and I'm not prepared to do that, not least because I wouldn't be able to get my story straight. I hope that makes sense, and I hope this will remain confidential."