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This question is regarding a manager who has been "fired" by their team. They note that they cannot seem to turn to anyone else, because their supervisor and the succeeding supervisor are both away for months, and neither of them has a replacement.

The next person in the chain of command appears to be the CIO, who they don't want to bother.

I don't understand how this is possibly a real situation - assuming an average of 5 direct reports per manager, then

  • CIO manages:
  • Succeeding Supervisors - 5 at this level, managing:
  • Supervisors - 5*5 at this level, managing:
  • OP - 5*5*5 at this level, managing:
  • OP's Reports - 5*5*5*5 at this level, firing their managers???

This implies a company with 5^4 + 5^3 + 5^2 + 5 + 1 technical staff, for a total of ~ 750ish.

Implying a company with at least 1000 staff (HR, Finance, marketing, sales etc), and possibly much, much more, depending on their industry (eg mining vs IT consulting).

It doesn't make sense that a manager of 125 people would just up and leave for months without a replacement, or that a manger of 25 people would be allowed to leave for months when their supervisor was also leaving.

It's not like the CIO won't be aware of this - this is a direct report just leaving for months.

Factor in the absurdity of the question - that the OP "has been fired" - and it's a situation at peak nonsense.

I'm not asking to close this question - I have no idea on the value of "fake" questions on this site, but I am curious as to other opinions as to how this could be a plausible scenario.

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    I think that this may sound unlikely, but the point is to help users out. I know that some people like to gameify this thing, but if we start doubting the intentions of everyone we would become a paranoid VTC community. You also assumed an average of 5 people under a manager, don't you think there is a chance your assumption may not be 100% correct? I do agree on the title being dramatic, but it was edited out as well as some other sensitive content. Now that those things are gone so is the drama and we can proceed to help without judging.
    – DarkCygnus Mod
    May 21, 2018 at 21:15
  • @DarkCygnus typically you manage 5 people, maybe 4, rarely 3. I'm not aware of a rational for managing 2 people - the overhead of a manager is too heavy. It's actually more likely to manage more than 5 than less, simply because a company is more likely to overwork a manager than underwork them.
    – bharal
    May 21, 2018 at 21:17
  • We don't know the size of this company. For all we know it may be a startup, where it is more likely that a manager only manages few (1,2) people. To be honest, I also had my doubts about this, but now the question has been reworded to a better state and is more specific and less dramatic.
    – DarkCygnus Mod
    May 21, 2018 at 21:20
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    Is it a likely situation? No. But is it possible? Yes.
    – Martin Tournoij
    May 21, 2018 at 21:59
  • The question here encourages the person to solve the problem themselves, and not to go off running to their manager. And what's he going to tell his manager? "Why boss, I gave my team powers and they used them against me - Save me, you're my only hope..."
    – user44108
    May 22, 2018 at 5:36

2 Answers 2

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Well, here are some things I've seen in the workplace.

  • Two people fired for having relations in a conference room
  • A director beat a box fan with a 2x4 while it was running
  • A friend killed (twice)
  • Someone attempt suicide on the job
  • some VERY inappropriate work attire
  • A CIO causing his entire network to be contaminated by the "I love you virus" after being warned about it

and much much more that I have no way of posting and not getting banned.

There is nothing that I can see at this point that I can say "There is no way that happened"

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    ... how do people make money running these things. sigh
    – bharal
    May 22, 2018 at 16:42
  • Well, two of them went bankrupt... @bharal
    – Old_Lamplighter
    May 22, 2018 at 17:14
  • Yes, I've seen very strange things
    – Kilisi Mod
    Jun 3, 2018 at 10:46
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I have seen weirder companies, especially in start up or dramatic change phases.

So I think yes, this is possible. Not common, but certainly a valid scenario.

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