‘I feel embarrassed’: Vice president fired from company after getting 25% bonus

A vice president at a US company said that he was fired from the job just months after getting a raise and even receiving an additional 25% bonus.
Taking to Reddit, the user posted on r/jobs that he was laid off and felt embarrassed and angry with the decision.
“I was let go last Wednesday. I had been working at this company for 1.5 years as a VP and not once did I receive negative feedback. During my review in March, I got a very good raise and got an additional 25% bonus,” he wrote in a lengthy post.
He further said that he was approached by the company’s CEO and COO a week before he was fired and told that the decision was not personal but his position was being eliminated. “They gave me 10 weeks severance,” he added.
Disappointed by the decision, he said he was impacted but thought that since his position was being removed for cost cutting, there was nothing to be done.
However, he was shocked when he saw a new post on the company’s LinkedIn .
“Today I went on LinkedIn and saw that they hired someone else with my exact title and my heart dropped. I never missed a single deadline, I was reliable, I did whatever was asked of me. Didn’t take all my PTO, would work weekends and was always available at any time,” he said.
The former vice president also said that he never received negative feedback even though he took on the work of 3 people. (Also read: This Indian-origin founder turned 400 of his employees into millionaires, but regrets it)
“I feel angry, embarrassed and just frustrated with the whole situation. They couldn’t even tell me the truth to my face and said they were expecting for to me pick up calls because they’re paying me severance. What a joke,” he said.
The post was flooded with comments helping the user speculate why he was fired for no apparent reason.
While some suggested that it could be to replace him with someone they preferred over him, others said they probably found someone with a lower salary and just wanted to save money. (Also read: Google employee lives paycheck to paycheck while spending ₹25 lakh per month)
“Maybe it wasn’t about you, and they just wanted to hire someone to do your job for lower wages. At a company I worked at, they laid off an accountant and rehired some new college grad for like half the salary,” said one user.
“Wow, i thought that the higher-ups got treated with more respect considering you were a VP and all,” said another user.