A North Carolina woman gets pulled into a meeting with H.R. and later punished for refusing to train her replacement. The meeting is to discuss her attitude. Jennifer Schroeder spills the tea on her TikTok channel, The Unobsolete, where she fumes about being passed over for someone younger with zero experience.
She begins by saying that, first, she “watched a twenty-five-year-old get [her] promotion,” and that her bosses asked her to train her replacement. The North Carolina woman shocked everyone by saying,“No, not sorry, not maybe later, not let me check my schedule, just no.” She explains, “My manager looked furious, and H.R. sent me an e-mail about being a ‘team player’.”
She’s not bothered, as previously, “they passed [her] over for a promotion.” The North Carolina woman fumes, saying she “had earned” the promotion. Instead, they “gave it to someone fresh out of grad school with zero experience.” She continues, “[they] expected me to teach her how to do the job they said I wasn’t good enough for.” To her, the solution is simple. If they want her twenty-five years of experience, they should “pay [her].”
She calls out their audacity, “You want me to smile while you’re humiliating me? Wrong person. I am not your free training program.” They view her actions as “unprofessional.” She states, “I told them I was being appropriately compensated for my expertise, or I wasn’t sharing it.” The North Carolina woman concludes, “The second you stop being useful, they stop pretending to care.”
North Carolina Woman Brought Into H.R.
Schroeder provides an update, describing it as “exactly what [she] expected.” Two days after the incident, the North Carolina woman’s manager “pulled [her] into a meeting,” which included H.R. She states, “they wanted to discuss my attitude.” The conversation did not include passing her over for a promotion. They also didn’t bring up “that they expected free labor.” Her “attitude for being exploited” is considered the main issue.
The North Carolina woman is first informed, “We’re concerned you’re not being collaborative, and this reflects poorly on your leadership potential.” They continue by stating that they “need team players” and people who “support organisational growth.” Schroeder calls them out for “punishing [her] for having boundaries.”
She continues, “That’s not about collaboration. That’s about control.” They state, “If you’re not willing to help develop junior staff, maybe you’re not a culture fit.” She agrees with them, “A culture that exploits experience isn’t a fit for me.” They can’t fire the North Carolina woman “for refusing unpaid work.” However, they retaliated by “not including [her] in meetings” and “giving [her] projects to absolutely everyone else.” They even “documented every tiny thing as performance issues.” She didn’t let them best her and “documented everything right back.”
