UPDATE: Confronted HR about the “Architect” and his hiring spree. It went exactly as expected.
So, following my last post, I decided to take some of your advice. I didn’t want to go in guns blazing, but the gaslighting was getting so bad that I couldn’t just sit there. I booked a “coffee chat” with our HR Manager (let’s call her Sarah) to talk about my recent “performance issues” and the overall team direction.
I went in prepared. I had a folder of my KPIs from the last two years—consistently hitting 110%—and compared them to the “errors” The Architect has been flagging lately. I pointed out that suddenly being told my formatting is “unprofessional” after three years of praise feels… targeted.
Then I brought up the elephant in the room. I asked, “Sarah, I’ve noticed the last five hires for the Senior Lead roles all come from the same previous company as The Architect. Is there a specific skill set we’re looking for that the local market isn’t providing?”
The silence was deafening.
Sarah didn’t even look me in the eye. She gave me the standard corporate script: “We hire based on merit and cultural fit. The Architect has a strong network, and we value candidates who can hit the ground running with his specific management style.”
Translation: He’s building his own kingdom and we’re letting him.
When I pushed back and mentioned that the latest hire doesn’t even have the mandatory certifications listed in the job description—certs that I and the other locals worked years to get—she just said, “Equivalency is handled on a case-by-case basis.”
I realized right then that HR isn’t there to protect the “culture” or even the local workforce. They are there to protect the HOD’s “vision” as long as the numbers look okay on paper. The Architect has successfully framed us as the “legacy team with quality issues” and his new guys as the “efficient solution.”
I left that room knowing my time is up. I’m not waiting for the PIP. I’ve already spent the afternoon reaching out to my old contacts and polishing my CV. If he wants his “origin” team so badly, he can have it—along with the massive brain drain that’s about to happen when the rest of us quit.
To anyone else in this position: Don’t bother “fixing” the relationship. If the boss is hatching a plan to replace you, the plan is already halfway finished. Get out before they push you out.