clavus

Boy, I just make somebody's holiday season unforgettable.

A couple of days ago he discovered that his mom has cancer. Today I fired him (well, technically, I asked him to resign). The thing with his mom had nothing to do with his dismissal, but I couldn't help but think how bad his holidays must be sucking.

I feel bad. I really do. Talk about messed-up timing.

The last time I let someone go, I did it from a beachfront condo. I delivered the bad news by phone with the sound of the Hawaiian surf in the background. I felt like an ass then too.

So, you ever fire anybody is a spectacular fashion? Get fired in a particularly brutal way? Let's hear it.

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Psycho Dad

I had to do the same thing yesterday. Here just a few weeks before Christmas, I turned in an unsatisfactory performance evaluation on a probationary employee with the recommendation of discharge. My problem with it has not so much been her dismissal at Christmas time, but the fact that I was able to do it without regard as to what season it was. I suppose though that that shows that while I didn’t let the holiday season bias my decision, perhaps I wasn’t biased in her evaluation.

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SaltPork

I had the unfortunate circumstance to fire someone after they came back from a vacation. She was an incredibly nice woman, just woefully incompetent in her position. After the HR guy and I let her go I had to escort her to her desk. She said that she had been looking for me earlier in the day because she had brought me something back from her vacation...ugh! She gave me the gift she brought, gathered her things and left. I felt like shit for about a month after that.

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It was like that when I got here....I swear.

AquaFox

i've had some fun with a company going out of business...

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Brooke

I never felt bad for this one. Got fired from a secondary job over my answering machine while I was on break from college. My boss has simply said that I was not dependable and could not work it out. There was more going on there than what was visable on the surface, I was notified at the beginning of the job that I might be asked to do some things out of hours. I had discretion to refuse, since they were after hours - but I think she objected to the fact that I am a Christian, don't swear in excessive amounts, and don't drink to get drunk (just the once!). So when I got back I called her up - and the new girl answered. There was no hope - and I have never enjoyed saying "screw it" more. Not something that will be on my resume - one month of worthlessness.

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MSD

My district manager didn't like the fact that I went to school instead of work for the first week of the semester, even though I specifically told my boss that I couldn't work. Fuck him. Getting out of that job was the biggest relief of my life. I imagine it would be a similar feeling to being released from prison.

flstf

clavus and Psycho Dad. This late in the year, I don't understand why companies will not wait until after the holidays to drop the bad news on people. It's only 2 weeks away. Is it so important to clear the books before the end of the year? Why no flexibility? I don't mean to single out you two. In 30+ years of working I've seen these late year firings several times and am surprised at the insensitivity of the companies involved.

To answer your question, I was once fired (laid off) while on vacation. I called in for my messages and was given the bad news. I was in a large group of people who were being let go do to new management's downsizing.

Charlatan

It was my first ever "career" job. I had been hired by a small film distribution company to be their office assistant. I was really excited as it was a job in the industry and what looked like a step in the right direction.

The pay was about 24K per year which was a lot more than I was making at my two part time jobs... One job I happily quit, was working at the Gap and the other I was asked to quit working a couple nights a week at an arthouse cinema (it was perceived as a conflict of interest because the owers also had a small distribution company).

I was hired shortly before Christmas and asked to start on the first day after the holiday -- December 27. I was excited. I was getting access to the world of film...

I worked there for one week. On January 2, right after New Year's Day, I was let go. It was a small company, the two owners and me. They asked to speak with me when they rolled in around 10 am and said that things weren't working out. They wouldn't give me a reason, just that it wasn't working out.

Needless to say, I was devastated.

I had spent my one week there, with little to no supervision as they would roll in around 11 everyday and leave around 3 or so... I, of course, worked 9 to 5.

I found out later from a friend that they felt I was "too organized" for them. I was a Felix to their Oscar (Odd Couple reference). I had spent much of my week trying to figure out what to do around the office as they were rarely there. After I completed the handful of tasks they had given me (tasks a monkey could do) I look for things that looked like they needed doing, such as: cleaning the dozens of coffee mugs that were in various stages of evaporation on the window sill... tidying up the reception area which was cluttered and unappealling, etc. Anything to make what I thought was a good impression on my new employers... turns out I should have made a bigger mess and sat on my hands for the week.

Within 10 months I had another job in the industry and haven't looked back... Within a 18 months they were out of business and are no longer anywhere to be seen in this very small industry (in Canada anyway).

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clavus

One year ago, I laid out a sales target for him. A year was up, he was 50% under it. Add that to the fact that he seemed to be on a major roll for screwing up. His time was up. I had no patience left.

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yellowchef

It just depends, if its their first offense or bad eval.. I think its fair to let them finish things out till January. If they have had warnings, interventions, and matriculation plans set up for them then no. I have no pity for those that clearly reject or ignore help.

Psycho Dad

HR brought me the paperwork back today. I had however since decided to extend her probation another 30 days. HR agreed but my decision was based on not wanting to make the company appear to be a place that would fire someone two weeks before Christmas. And that is not to say that I had no regard for this person's feelings, but she has been undergoing a 6 month probationary period as a new hire as it is. It is her responsibility not mine to do what is expected of her. Were I to allow her to complete probation with the performance she has had, I would not be doing my job. In addition to her poor performance, she has had two verbal and two written warnings in her 6 month period. Further, if I terminate her under probation, that is the end of it. but If I wait until after Christmas I expose the company to many possible legal problems. I have been more than fair to this person and my extending her probation another 30 days has more to do with the fact that I don't want someone like her using termination as a vehicle to say "Company XYZ" just fired me and now I can't afford Christmas than doing her any favors.

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AngelicVampire

Couple of years ago I had to fire my manager... Working at a supermarket and she constantly annoyed me (picking on me and the other workers), however she also threatened us with being fired if we didn't take overtime (not mandatory in the contract, apparently it was "joke"). She also broke the European work regulations (shifts way too long and close together for 17 year old workers (once you turn 18 you can work any times and such you want, before that you need breaks!). Offered to fire us if we didn't come in for these shifts (fair enough, they were scheduled even if they broke the law).

So I reported her after she gave me a hard time one day... one fired manager + one better working environment.

Lockjaw

I've only had to fire two people and both were lazy idiots that didn't seem to want to do any work. But even then I didn't like the experience at all and don't ever want to do it again.

But one of the worst firings I've ever seen was a girl who was 9 months pregnant and about to have her child anyday...she got called into the managers office and next thing we know people were cleaning out her cubicle. Now THAT had to suck. Needless to say those folks got quite a few 2 week notices shortly after that.

absorbentishe

Well, my current situation. They hired the woman who had my job 2 years before I started. I started asking questions because the story I was told, and what they told others didn't match up. Becuase I asked questions, they decided to let me know I was no longer welcome, and my last day would be Dec. 17, except, I have to train this woman. Now for 3 weeks, she hasn't asked me but 5 questions, and she doesn't have a clue, so next week, she had better get in all the questons she can, cause I'm not answering the phone when they call (Thanks to caller ID!). Had they not told me, they would have strung it along until the first of the year, then dropped the bomb.

ronnietx59

I have had to terminate too many people. But I never let anyone go that did not deserve it. My theory is that they fired themselves. I give everyone a chance to improve. No one I have axed should have not seen it coming. It’s not fun (most of the time) it’s just part of the job.

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canuckguy

i've quit in style before, never been fired (yet!). I was working for a company doing quality control, they were dicking me around for months and i hated my job and manager. i was only staying with this company until i found other work, well when i did find a new job i decided it was pay back time. we had our client in for a monthly meeting, my managers would always get in a dither when our client was in town for inspections, everyone looking there best, all the fakeness of ass kissing olympics. I had to give presentations to the client each month on current levels and other crap. anyway, i did nothing. when they asked me to big my presentation, i said no, fuck you, you do it. and just sat there. everyone was just stoned faced. my boss asked to see me outside and that was it. i made sure to shout loudly and generally be a huge ass as i cleared out my things. god i hated that company. they treated all the employees like dirt. bastards.
on a side note, they are not closed. not related to my outburst!

reiii

I know this is capitalism and what have you, but it still sounds pretty cool (not as in rad, but not quite cold).

Makes me think



Have to pity the guy

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rat

two weeks ago, one of the shift leaders from work pulled me aside outside of work (we were outside our dorm), and he told me they probably were going to be letting me go at the end of the semester. I'd had some conflicts with him and one of the managers over the course of the last semester, and the job was stressing the shit out of me. added to that the fact that iI wasn't making the amount of money they'd said i would and I couldn't pay my bills, and I'd had about enough of the place. however, I decided I'd do the "right thing" and put in my two weeks notice, as I try to avoid negative job references if there's no reason for them.

the night I turned in my two weeks, they fired me--after I'd just resigned. pissed me off, as many of the things the managers did at that store did. the whole operation was shady, and I definitely won't list the place as a job reference, ever.

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Zeraph

This is so opposite of spectacular firing I thought I'd post it. I had this job I didn't like, but I was a good employee still. So one day they just stopped calling, and I never called them since I didn't really want the job anymore anyways. So technically I guess I still work there, I just never go in for anymore shifts. But is this common practice? When an employee is fired I've always heard of someone telling them.

neddy65

I have a kid working for me who has to go and my G.M. and I had decided to let him go in the new year but........ Yesterday I noticed there was a problem with the schedule, his Saturday shift had been changed earlier this month to adjust for a conflict so the Sat shift was scratched out and written in again beside the proper slot.
The spot where his new shift was listed on it was torn from the schedule. When I called him to make sure he was coming in for his shift I was told he was out of town for the weekend and wouldn't be home until Monday. I was suspicious of the torn corner so I asked the department head if he new anything about his wayward employee and he assured me that he had discussed the change with him and that the schedule posted at his desk reflected the change. I told the Dept. head to get ahold of the kid and let him know that I was not amused by the torn schedule and he should find his way home and into work or else. He did not show up today and on Monday I have the pleasure of firing his ass. Seriously, how can you just tear a piece of the schedule off to give yourself a day off ?

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canuckguy

crappy thing to do, but gotta hand it to him for trying. enjoy the firing!

irseg

Oh I got a good one. I was a system administrator for an Internet business. One time I went on vacation to visit my family. While I was there I tried to check on the servers, but the passwords were changed. Tried calling my boss, he wouldn't answer. A few hours later my company cell phone quit working. Finally got a hold of him after calling with caller ID blocking; he said I was suspended because all our servers were hacked, and that we'd talk when I got back. By the way we're talking 5 Linux boxes each with different passwords and no direct root login, behind two firewalls and fully updated with all the latest security patches. And all the websites and other services were still fully functional. So I knew it was BS. As soon as I got back, he said I was fired for incompetence since I supposedly left all the machines wide open to being hacked.

Another employee there took over my former position, only to also get fired a month later. Well he wasn't really fired, the boss just asked him to work from home, then stopped sending paychecks or returning his calls. I talked to him afterward, and was able to confirm that not a damn thing ever got hacked, and he was put in charge of changing all the passwords and making sure I was completely locked out of everything.

The guy ended up getting rid of all the employees and selling the company. I have no idea why he didn't just say that other than that he's a power-tripping lunatic. I hope he goes on to become a post office manager.

flat5

The reason to fire someone before the holidays is to avoid giving them a Xmas bonus
and holiday pay.

thespian86

I worked at a department store once. It was always busy so I didn't have time for anything but customer service. One day, a customer asked me to help her but our department was understaffed that day and I had a line of at least ten people. I said "I'm sorry ma'am but I am unable to help you at the moment but I can call someone for help" and she said it was fine. I smiled, she smiled and left. I kept working without thinking of the woman until my lunch break when my boss told me to smarten up or I was gone. I told my boss that she was obviously mistaken. She said "watch it mister". I walked out.

Later that day the woman walked up to my counter again with her husband and began to argue with me. Her husband began to threaten me and my boss walked over to ask what the problem was. The husband said that I had been rude and made derogatory comments towards his innocent wife.

At that point I began to laugh because I couldn't even remember talking to this woman (there had been a large number of employee pranks that week so I figured it was my turn). I was taken out back and told that I would have to be let go. My co-workers explained to my boss that it had never happened. Too bad for me I suppose. I hated that job anyways... the pay was fucking horrible and the pants the made me wear were tight on the nuts.

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Psycho Dad

That is false. The reason to terminate someone is because they deserve it. It is not fair to someone who was terminated in March to keep someone on that did the same poor job performance just because it is Christmas.

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basmoq

Never been fired, don't want a position that would make me hire or fire...

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CinnamonGirl

I've never been in a position where I had the authority to fire someone...I've been fired once. The reason? I was too nice.

Well, it was debt collection. Worst. Job. Ever. And it was crackprogram's uncle that fired me. Hmph.

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nothingx

And that's exactly why you shouldn't feel bad about it. Only in certain rare circumstances do companies have the right to terminate an employee without some formal processes leading up to termination. The process with my company is pretty straightforward... First, there is a verbal warning by your supervisor. It's a very informal affair where the super tells you exactly what you've been doing that is unacceptable and you are told to fix the problem yourself. Next comes a written warning. The written warning is usually issued a month after the verbal warning and is more serious. It states what you have been doing wrong and gives you a suspense date for fixing the problem. It says very clearly, if the employee does not correct the misconduct by that date they will be up for termination. Finally, if at the end of this process the employee is still screwing up, they get fired and there is stack of paper to justify it.

Any fired employee couldn't possibly not see this coming, and the supervisor shouldn't feel any guilt about doing it. It's perfectly fair to everyone involved...

rfra3645

i havnet fired anyone.... persay.. but i have had the task of "runing several (30 or so) people off) its more fun..hehe..

really i feel bad for soome of the things i have done..
but in my industry you either can do it or you cant.... there realy isnt an inbetween..

so i verbalise this.. sometimes loudly.. a little humiliation and presto you have numer 33...

but really i do feel bad for some of the circumstances.. this 1 guy in particular just mooved from jersey to indianna was tryign to get sarted and whamo he got stuck with me... oh well ... it was my job to get rid of him.. does it make me a bad person for doing it?

i dont think the person in charge of firing or whatever.. should take circumstances into consideration...you just gotta do what ya gotta do...

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if you cant read my post i dont want to hear about it move on. thanks

flat5

Originally Posted by flat5
The reason to fire someone before the holidays is to avoid giving them a Xmas bonus
and holiday pay.

"That is false. The reason to terminate someone is because they deserve it. It is not fair to someone who was terminated in March to keep someone on that did the same poor job performance just because it is Christmas."

Sure, but someone asked why not wait till after Xmas.
(Thinking it is cruel to fire someone at that time)
I believe it's true because it happened to me.
Also, managers often make changes near the new year, right?

clavus

Well, look at it this way. If his job was to build a house, and he only built half a house, he'd need to be fired. If his job was to bus 6 tables, and he only bussed three, he'd need to be fired. His job was to make al least X dollars for the company, and he did about half that.

Oh, and for what it's worth, my company gives no bonuses, Christmas or otherwise. You make what you earn. Period.

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warrrreagl

I was on the faculty of a major SEC university a few years ago, and I served on a search committee for a highly visible faculty position. There was an in-house candidate for the position who was extremely well-connected, but she was seriously under-qualified and under-credentialled. When the search committee did not include her as a finalist, the Provost of the university crashed one of our meetings and "strongly recommended" that we backtrack and include her as a finalist. We caved in and agreed to add her to the list.

When the interviews and teaching demonstration started, the other finalists were magnificent and she (the in-house candidate) was awful. It was an easy decision to offer the position to one of the other finalists, and the in-house candidate was allowed to keep her old job with some bonuses added to placate her wounded ego.

That's when the shit hit the fan. Within two years, the candidate who got the job was run out of town, and 6 of the 7 faculty members on the committee (including myself) were either fired or forced out.

After I was forced out, the new "search" committee offered her the job without a search, and she's still in that position to this day.

I have to say that leaving a shit-hole such as that place was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, although nobody deserves to go through the petty bullshit that I faced on a daily basis. It was the same routine that I imagine a whistle-blower must face.

And no, it was NOT my beloved Auburn....

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Cynthetiq

I had a guy during reviews challenge why he got a 3.5% raise and everyone else got 4%.

He challenged me for 2 days on the .5% difference. He brought up cost of living and inflation etc. By the time I got done with him, he was being escorted out the door.

I knew when I started managing him that he was going to be tough, but I was tougher. I brought out all the times he was goofing off, watching soccer instead of working, fielding only virus and can't login calls while other techs were busting their butts in comparison.

His challenge to me over .5% which he didn't get, and ended up with zero. If he hadn't challenged it he would have still had a job, and I'd still have a crappy worker. thank goodness he did it for me.

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Psycho Dad

I had one of those review challenges. The guy was mad because he wanted to know if he was going to get a raise this year because we had been under a wage freeze the year before. Rather than ask me personally, he tried to go around me to the plant manager. He still has a job, but he'll make the same rate this year.

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Halx

I have two really awesome stories.

1) I was working in the computer services dept at Kinko's for like 6 months. Recently, we had this new guy come on who made out like he was totally straight-laced, but he'd brag to me about all of his computer hacking adventures. He really didn't sit right with me at all. He was a bastard. Well, he managed to get his friend hired, too. His friend was cool, so that was alright. Well, one day this really fuckin hot girl came in with a CD full of pictures that she wanted printed out. An assistant manager jumped in to help her before I could, but I sat back. looking at the screen as he helped her.

Well, the pictures were topless shots of this girl, so evidently she was a model... and a really fucking hot one at that. I could see the AM copying the files to the hard drive of the computer as he was looking at them with the customer, too. After he was done with helping her, he walked past me with a grin on his face. Now it was my turn to mess with the files. I quickly e-mailed them to the cool people in the store (including the bastard's friend).

Well, the next day, I got an email from the bastard. It basicly said that he told the store manager about what I did. Ouch. So, instead of getting fired, I called up the store and quit over the phone right then and there.

2) I had been working at this company for about 20 months. It was a VOIP telecom company, but I had been hired back when it was an ISP. I had gone from tech support to network operations while it was still an ISP, so the switch to telecom left me at a disadvantage. IT and Telecom are two different monsters - you've can't be a technician for one, then just switch over to the other without a little learning period. Well, the company switched over and hired people to fill the new needs. My friend Shawn and I were there only two IT guys left in the dept.

Shawn was just an awesome employee and an awesome guy... if he worked for me, he would be invalueable. Now, I'm neither of those, but I do know how to program shit, so I designed, built and ran the entire work site that the deptartment used to manage their daily tasks. All the while, I had been promised for over a year that I'd get a transfer to the development department as soon as there was an opening. In fact, I was promoted to the network operations center on the grounds that I would be moved to devel at a later date.

Oh yeah, 20 months of work and only one raise. I had gotten the raise only a month beforehand too. I was bugging and bugging and bugging. A year and a half of loyal work under crappy conditions, a promotion, extra work to increase productivity, and I'm still working for tech support wages? Fucked up. When I finally DID get *a* raise, the HR lady looked at my face and asked, "Aren't you happy?" It wasn't even a poker face that I gave her.. I just stared.....

Well, one fine day, the entire dept was called in at 4pm to a meeting. I had already worked the entire day, so i just watched as the swing and graveyard shift slowly walked in. About 5 minutes before the meeting was to start, Jason, the manager, called one of the guys into an office. 5 minutes later, Jason and the HR lady were raiding his desk.

"Woah," we all said to eachother. A few of the guys and I whispered to eachother a few expressions of surprise for the departure of our coworker. He didn't seem like he was having trouble at all. Well, one of the things out of my mouth was, "Well, I've been busting my ass lately, and I'm the only one in here who knows how to program the worksite, so i think I'm safe today."

I shouldn't have said that.

The next minute, Jason walks in and asks to see me in the office. Gulp. I look back at my friends as I walk toward the door, give them a big grin and a shrug. "Nice knowin' ya!"

So, I was sacked. No explanation given. They actually had to walk me back into the NOC room so I could disconnect my computer because I used MY OWN computer to work - the ones they gave us were crap. Everyone stared as I made my lil' death march. Man, I was crushed.

I actually left my jacket there on accident, so later that night, one of my friends from the dept came to drop it off at my house. He told me Shawn got the boot too. Ahh well. That made me feel better... it made me realize how stupid this company was. They've since fired the CEO, changed locations, filed chapter 11 and cleared the roster. Meanwhile i have the best job in the entire world now. They used the work site I created until the bitter end. Heh.

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flstf

Great stories Halx. In my 30+ years of working everytime I have had to leave a job whether it was my idea or theirs it has always turned out for the best.

When I have had to switch jobs it always seems rather troubling at first but 6 months later when I look back I am so glad I am not still there. I suspect the same is true of most folks. Sometimes the the best thing a company can do for you is to let you go and visa versa.

Fearless_Hyena

I have a pretty funny NON-firing story:

My last job was a sweatshop that underpaid me and was full of incompetent jerks who were constantly trying to stab each other in the back to get ahead. Notice any animosity here? In any case, I was good at my job and I never dropped the ball on anything. But I was miserable, and after 3 years of running the show, without any decent raise, I decided it was time to move on. But there were no other decent Network Engineering/Telecom opportunities left in my area (I looked), and I couldn't just quit without finding another job.

So I TRIED to get fired from this job. Sounds stupid, right? Sure it was, but my state of mind at that point (like most of the workers there, then and now) was pretty non-linear. But I figured if I got fired and was forced to move on, that's somehow better than quitting if nothing else was available.

I continued to do my job, and did it well. There weren't many others around with the knowledge or skill required to do my particular job, and I found that I had to do a lot of tasks myself to make sure they got done right and on-time.

Yes, I tried to get fired. I was never straight up rude to anyone, but for example if I had any knowledge or strong opinions about something I would speak my mind in a matter of fact way. I was known for saying WTF constantly, not a day went by without its repeated use. It was more humorous than anything but I'm sure a lot of people thought I was an asshole when I told them directly (but in not so many words) that they were full of shit and their program, design, plans or whatever simply wouldn't work.

I would roll in at about 10:30 or 11am, go to my office and shut the door. Then I'd look at my watch and think hmm, it's almost time for lunch! I'd mosey down to the cafeteria for at least 90 minutes, come back to my office, do my remaining work for the day, and then at like 2:45 it was back to the cafeteria for some ice cream and TV watching. After I got bored with the TV, back to the office to finish up some emails, then hurry home so I could be at the bar for Happy Hour beating on the door if it didn't open at 4pm sharp. Arrive late, leave early, repeat 4x more a week, profit! But I never dropped the ball on anything and always got my work done right the first time (unlike most of my jackass coworkers).

After several months of this, (which was almost exactly a year ago, in fact), I got my first merit bonus ever! At this company, nobody ever EVER got bonuses except for extreme situations, and I was the only one in my group who got one. However the company had just been bought out at the time, so the fact that they had a bit of money to throw around meant that more people got bonuses around that time than ever before.

Now I don't know whether my manager ever knew about this, but frankly I don't think he cared since I always got the job done. We had a large campus of several buildings, and my manager sat as far away as you could get from me, say maybe a 5-10 minute walk at least. So I never got fired. And I got my first bonus ever. This could have been straight out of Office Space, I couldn't believe it!!


About 4 months later I found a much better opportunity and put in my 2 weeks notice one Friday. It was one of the happiest days of my life. I love my new job and no, I don't screw around like that any more. Damn were those some depressing times though, I feel bad for the poor guys still working at that awful place. In fact they just merged and formed an LLC and they're doing a lot of firings over there right now, I wonder how that's going.




By the way these firing stories are great, keep 'em coming!!

laconic1

So far I have never been fired from a job, and have only left one job on someone else's terms. One thing I don't understand is why some companies insist on firing people when the person is quitting anyways, in many cases after the person has given notice they are leaving. Case in point, at my work there is a girl who is moving to Hawaii to be with her husband who was transferred there by his work. Friday was to be her last day. She was a model employee, always did an excellent job, couldn't have asked for anybody to do her job better. The fact that she was a nice piece of eye candy was just a little bonus. They fired her today. Escorted her off the premises. WTF!!!! She was leaving in 3 days anyways, and she was a great employee. Don't companies realize all this does is lower morale amongst other employees? Why do some bosses have to go on such a power trip?

Psycho Dad

I've seen this happen before too. However there is often more to it than meets the eye. For obvious reasons, the company can't come out and tell what was behind the person being let go. We have even taken employees who have gave two weeks notice and let them go that day. We paid them for the two weeks, but it was likely they were going to be trouble than they were going to be worth for those two weeks. The two weeks they got paid for nothing was as pretty good investment as far as the company was concerned because there was no damage that they could o at that point.

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laconic1

I guess I could understand that in some circumstances but still.... Especially since she gave about a month's notice, why wait until now? All I know is I've lost a ton of respect for my employer, and if I leave them to go somewhere else I will not give them the courtesy of two weeks notice, especially since it specifically states in my employee handbook that I am not required to give any notice.