I am a Senior Engineer with over 6 years of experience. I have led a team in a highly scalable startup before and was the first employee in a startup recently. I had some health issues this past year due to which I didn't want to work at very high-paced companies anymore.

Due to this, I interviewed at 2-3 places and I had an offer to join a Series B-funded Fintech startup OkCredit in Bangalore as a Principal Engineer. I confirmed from my friends that they good work culture and work-life balance. I was upfront with them from day one that I had health issues and I am giving the highest priority to my work-life balance. I gave notice at my current org and concentrated on finishing my duties at my current company. They gave me a good offer and I didn't think to get another offer as it was top of the market and moreover I had no patience whatsoever due to my health.

10 days before joining them, they set up a call with me and told me that the role they offered me was no longer there as they had "internal restructuring" and that they don't have any role that would suit me and my skill set at their company and they would like to "support" me for 2 months where I could join them and then find another job. I was very cordial and told them I understood.

I had a problem previously where I left a company in 3-4 months as they didn't pay me on time. Each and every company I go to can see this in my history on my PF contributions, etc. Due to this, I asked them to at least pay me as a consultant with bare minimum tax considerations, etc. so that I don't have a black mark once again on my resume and I don't have to lie about my work history.

I'm now on my last day at my current job and the company came back with an offer where they will only pay me the monthly salary amount for 2 months. I asked them if they can also add the joining bonus as it is not my fault that they can no longer support me. They came up with some stupid excel sheet calculations and told me that they won't. I find it quite unnerving that I did nothing wrong and now have to find a job once again and these people who are trying to get out of contractual obligations are acting as if they are doing me a favor.

Can someone point me to good employment contract-related lawyers? Am I in the wrong here to expect to be compensated fairly for the mental stress and the huge inconvenience they've caused me? This has been bothering me for a while.

Update1 (18 Feb): After being burnt by startups consistently over the past few years, I have decided to put my energy into cracking FAANG. I had done screening at Google and FB but was taking it slow as they have a very relaxed process. I am focusing my time and energy to manifest this for myself. Hope all goes well.

Update2 (21 Feb): Updated company name - OkCredit