My project was cancelled out of nowhere, and I no longer had a job. Does this sound like I was fired for poor performance? [closed]

Question

I was hired by an IT company to build a web based application for client management and billing.

The project was going well and I was getting good feedback when out of no where I received an email form my boss saying

"We have decided to go a different direction, and no longer need you to code the application"

I was about 2 weeks from being finished and the beta testing was going well, the app was being used for 5 months before it was completely ready for production.

I emailed my boss back asking if I did anything wrong, and he assured me

"You have done great work here, so nothing is wrong with that, we have just decided to go in a different direction"

I was extremely puzzled when I received these emails because I thought everything was going fine.

There are only a few reasons why I believe I could have been fired.

1. My boss wanted to hire me full time but I decided to work somewhere else and continue this project as a part time employee

2. My boss decided my app was not good enough and hated it.

3. My boss found better software he could just purchase, instead of paying me.

I found my boss to be very mysterious about this.

He gave me little to no detail about the entire ordeal.

Answer 1

First, you need to understand that many bosses are going to be cagey about reason for termination. There are real liability concerns that a company has when they let someone go. I can't speak for Denmark (which it appears to be where you're from) but in the US, they can almost always fire you for any reason or no reason but discussing that reason can raise questions of discrimination, mistreatment, etc.

1. The simplest solution to verify one way or the other is to email your boss and ask him about using him as a recommendation and what would he say about you to potential employers when they contact him.
2. You could ask him what direction the company went that made you no longer suitable.
3. You can thank him for the opportunity you've had but then ask him for suggestions on how to improve and in what areas you need work. Also, ask if there are any technologies he could suggest picking up in the future. The latter might also give you an indication of what "direction" they're going.

These things should be enough to give you a hint of what happened, especially #3. Also, some people are just "too nice" and want to move on and don't want to get into a discussion about negative things. Doesn't make for great managers, but they exist. Bear that in mind as well.

Answer 2

First thing to do is find out if you still work for the company or whether you were a contractor. Best way to do this is email the boss and ask if there is another project for you or if they want you to do something else. The response will let you know whether they view you as an employee or a contractor.

If you are an employee, then you need to look into your contract and see what your options are.

If you are a contractor then you just found out why contractors usually charge much more than employees, you can usually be terminated at a whim.

But in either case don't wait around, ask and find out asap so that you can review your options and move forwards.

Answer 3

I would immediately contact your boss and clarify the issue:

Hey boss,

I was sorry to hear about the project being cancelled. I thought maybe I could drop by the office some time soon and discuss what new projects you may have in mind for me.

How does that sound? Which day might work for you?

Regards, ...

See what he says and go from there. In the future I would clarify the status of your employment (contractor/part-time/full-time) before you do months of work for them.

Answer 4

Projects on IT being cancelled everytime. Some years ago I was very happy on a inovative project using Adobe Flex and other cool stuff. Customer were excited about our demos and every week I was delivering new functionalities and screens. Unfortunately, the customer didn't realized his budget and we failed into closing the scope. We had some big failure on the approach, I'm a tech guy not a salesperson and couldn't anticipate that. I was upset due the cancel, my boss even blame the technology I picked by no reasons. Don't worry it happens all the time.