When people are speechless, they really do laugh - my direct supervisor has resigned again and again and again. Why so many “agains”? Let me draw a timeline to see how many bosses I’ve “jinxed”.
Some time points may not be entirely accurate, possibly off by a month or two, but the jinxing is absolutely real…
- Company: A bioinformatics service company in Tianjin
- Story: My first job. Two months after probation, I was assigned to a major project team focused on personalized analysis. Then my team leader resigned and went to Beijing after receiving the year-end bonus. After that, I reported directly to the general manager. I also left in August 2018.
- Company: A gene technology company in Hangzhou
- Story: My second job, moving to Hangzhou. I came all the way from Tianjin for the interview. The team leader and department head were very nice, so I decided to join. But before I even passed probation, my entire department was dissolved…
- Company: Same gene technology company in Hangzhou
- Story: After department dissolution, I was transferred to an algorithm development team in another department. The team leader was a math PhD returnee, very nice. I thought this was a good outcome. Later I learned the department head wasn’t satisfied with the team leader (though the leader never complained). The leader resigned in April to pursue deep learning (in hindsight… such a wise decision). After the leader left, our team wasn’t merged. A colleague and I happily did nothing serious… while getting paid for months. Eventually feeling this wasn’t sustainable, I resigned again…
- Company: A biotech company in Hangzhou
- Story: Then came the company where I stayed the longest. When hired, they said they planned to recruit two people, but after I joined, they never found the second. The team leader said candidates kept getting rejected by management (I wasn’t interviewed by leadership due to special circumstances). At first it was fine - Monster Hunter World had just released on PC and I built a new computer, playing for 100+ hours. Then suddenly the team leader resigned… and I was appointed by the boss to replace him.
- Company: Same biotech company in Hangzhou
- Story: The exact timeline is fuzzy but the events are clear. There were two bioinformatics teams - mine was R&D, the neighboring one was production. After becoming R&D lead with no new hires, as R&D tasks were limited, I ended up covering production too when that team collapsed. First a backup member resigned to get married, then the boss was dissatisfied with progress, leading to resignations and eventually the production lead being fired… The boss even discussed this with me… Of course I suggested finding replacements first, but no… So work for 5 people fell to me, and I got pulled into clinical trial applications…
- Company: Still the same biotech company
- Story: The longer I stayed, the more I jinxed. With clinical applications, workload became unbearable (9:30 AM to midnight). In 2022 I was allowed to hire - at peak we had 5 people. But as applications struggled and funding tightened, layoffs came… down to 3… The boss consulted me on who to keep - I suggested keeping the more stable members, but the boss prioritized ability… Predictably by January 2023 only 2 remained… Thankfully applications eventually succeeded, securing investment so the company survived (or I’d have jinxed the whole company). I resigned after the success.
- Company: A medical technology company in Hangzhou
- Story: Current company, same old story… Peaceful first half year, then the department imploded - first forced resignations, then my department head quit… Slightly different this time - we had both administrative and technical leadership, and it was the administrative head who left.
- Company: Same medical technology company
- Story: After another half year, this week the technical leader told me he’s resigning too… I could only laugh speechlessly…
Looking back at my career, I’ve jinxed bosses, colleagues, and nearly the whole company… What kind of curse is this…
