Have you ever been fired ?

[toddzilla]

After recent (this morning) events, i was curious as to how many people have been fired from a job. I take responsibility for part of my firing, as it was for supposed poor workmanship. The company I worked for does nothing to monitor quality control, and apparently the warning that you may be rushing things, is to be fired.. lol


I was let go once before at a hotel for being a general pain in the ass and making enemies in the wrong places, followed by an outburst about working ten hours straight with no time for meals..

[PVnRT]

1. Yes, from a $50,000 a year job

Chiefly because one of the project managers didn't like the fact that I didn't babysit his employees for the information they were required to give to me to comply with FDA requirements. Welcome to business politics.

[Skittles]

29. gawd I HATE PROJECT MANAGERS

PAINS IN THE ASS

[demnan]

2. Yep -

Was usually the best thing that ever happened to me although I didn't realize it at the time.

[bif]

3. I've been "let go" three times now

The first time was because of a personality conflict--the guy I worked for was a real asshole. The other two times the companies I worked for "smart-sized." Hopefully, it'll never happen again. I better play the lotto just in case.

[Racenut20]

4. It is not the same

During the 60's, 70's, 80's it would be career davistating to be fired, and leave a stigma in your head you probably wouldn't overcome. But Poppy took us back to management of the 50's style and it became easier and easier to fire someone. Employees have about zero rights in the State of Florida now.

Besides, over 80% of new businesses are started by someone who got fired from his job. So there is always hope even with this bunch we have now.

[corarose]

5. I thanked the Woman and she took a fit on me

This Bitch told me that I was fired one time in front of the whole office so I thanked her for firing me from the shitty job. She was ballistic because she was riding high on firing me and I freaked her out.
I started whistling that song Whistle While You Work as I got my coat and shit and I left.
I said by "Use Guys" on the way out.

[toddzilla]

8. heh

i laughed out loud when i got fired from my hotel job. I wasn't very upset this morning either, i really hated the job. It paid well, but at least once a day it woud bother me enough to say out loud "i hate this fucking job!" so in the end i guess it's for the better.

[corarose]

12. They hate it when you do that

I have been fired around 5 times or more and every time I leave I fuck with their head.

[toddzilla]

9. heh

i laughed out loud when i got fired from my hotel job. I wasn't very upset this morning either, i really hated the job. It paid well, but at least once a day it woud bother me enough to say out loud "i hate this fucking job!" so in the end i guess it's for the better.

[politicat]

6. yup. Technically laid off, twice, but we know why....

I don't play the political biz game. I see through it, being a shrink. It's usually about insecurities, and no one likes having their neuroses visible in the work world.

But they want to have a reason, so I have been "downsized" twice.

Best things that ever happened to me, honestly.

I'm a much better academian than I am an employee.

Politicat (who is going to miss her self imposed deadline to finish this article by noon, but not by much)

[corarose]

13. Layoff and Firing is the same thing

They are never going to call you back. They would prefer to hire a new person with lower wages and less benefits.

[slackmaster]

7. Fired once, laid off several times

The firing was for a job I should never have been hired for in the first place. It was a well-deserved firing because I was incompetent, but the guy who hired me really should have known better. (I was fresh out of college and obviously clueless.)

[Mr. McD]

10. Yes, I took time off to attend a friend’s funeral.

My boss said I could not have the time off, I went anyway.

[KG]

11. yeah. had it coming

should've resigned 6 months before, before the economy started to tank.

oh well.

[smirkymonkey]

14. Yes, because I had absolutely nothing to do..

and really started enjoying it. In fact, I might be joining you in the ranks as early as today!

You have a good attitude - you are one of the few people, besides myself, who are actually happy that they no longer have to whore themselves for abusive power trippers just for a paycheck. You'll survive and be better off for it!

Enjoy the holidays! :)

[SmileyBoy]

15. I quit my shittiest job, but I wasn't fired.

I was suspended by my shithead of a supervisor (who was the devil himself), but amazingly, he was disciplined and transferred to another store the next day. It appeared I was supposed to work the day after, because the suspension was nullified. I came back a couple days later with my resignation.

[MercutioATC]

16. I voted "yes" but it was seasonal employment. I was let go at the end

of the season...(boat supply store)

[Booberdawg]

17. Resigning or getting laid off is not the same thing as getting fired

[toddzilla]

18. no, but you can be "laid off" while really getting fired..

resigning is resigning.. but sometimes people get laid off when they are really getting fired. it's just semantics really, you're still out of a job.


looks like i'll sleep in tomorrow..

maybe i'll go back to teaching guitar..

[Booberdawg]

19. I guess I don't know your situation

yes, you are still out of a job either way.

But I do consider there being a big difference between getting fired for cause and getting laid off, for downsizing, for example.

I've never been fired, or in trouble at a job, but I got laid off at my last job - the company went out of business so we all got laid off. Makes a difference in unemployment benefit eligibility too if you get fired rather than laid off.

[maxanne]

20. got fired from a restaurant

Three months after I got sober. I'd been there, drunk, for 7 years.
:eyes:

I'd pushed them too far, for too long, and I was a big pain in early sobriety. Ironically, the owner had a drinking problem, too. He used to take out his penis and wave it around after he'd had a few cocktails.

Two years later, he was begging me to come back.

The restaurant biz is nuts.

[corarose]

40. Did you work for Myron & Phil's (No longer in business)

The owners son in law ran the Restaurant in Northbrook and he use to take his schlong out when you were punching out and he would ask you to punch this. One night I got so mad that I told him I would if I had a magnifying glass so that I could find it to punch.

[Bertha Venation]

21. when I was still a child of 22

I was fired from what could've been a career job in civil service. I was a PITA, but was fired for cause: I was frequently late.

Now if I think I'm going to be five minutes late anywhere, I call ahead and tell whoever.

[toddzilla]

25. what's really bugging me about this..

Is that i do my job, i've been going around and around in my head trying to think of some example of negligence, and i just can't come up with one. I painted apartments, and always painted every surface that was supposed to be done, filled all the holes etc.. it could just be that i caught a run of bad units where you get bleed through after everything dries. My boss told me he had walked some of the units and they looked like they hadn't been painted, which just freaks me out because i know i did them and the damn paint had to have gone somewhere! he supposedly fired someone else today too, so i guess it's the annual house cleaning they do. funny that i painted for myself for nearly 5 years and never really remember having any quality issues. in 17 months i've probably painted 700 plus apartments, and i get fired for 4 of them not passing muster..

[Vitruvius]

22. Fired twice -- so mg't could promote their incompetent fair-haired boys

on my inventions. The second outfit also tried to coerce me into doing a spot of bid-rigging for them -- a felony. I refused, and was fired immediately thereafter. But the decision to fire me so they could promote their white-bread bozos on my work had already been made.

Both were Fortune 100 companies. One of them has lost 96% of their stock value since 1999, and is no longer a Fortune 100 company.

Serves them right.

The more significant invention is now made in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Europe. And not in the U.S. The white bread bozos fouled up & lost the market after I'd helped roll it out successfully.

[DrWeird]

23. Yeah, from McDonalds.

And for something that wasn't my fault. After pointing that little fact out the boss still said something to the effect of I had a pattern of behaviour indicating I was really stupid.

I guess I just couldn't cut it at a high tech job like that. I guess I'll stick to finishing my PhD thesis in organic chemistry and maintaining my 4.0 grade point average.

[Tracer]

24. No. But I've been in the unfortunate position ...

... of being the one to fire people.

Let me tell you, this is one of the hardest things to do Ñ even if the person you are firing is well deserving of it.

Although, come to think of it, there was one time I took great pleasure in firing a woman (and I"M a woman) who never did a lick of work. Talked on the phone all day, and when she wasn't on the phone gassed off to co-workers incessantly, took endless sick days, hours-long lunches, and left the office each day without having accomplished a thing. Buh, bye.

[TXlib]

26. How long did that slacker woman work there before you fired her?

[jiacinto]

30. Sometimes you have to fire people

I would hate to do it, but ultimately the well being of the company comes first. If you tried to help that woman, told her that she needed to improve, and she didn't--well, she left you no other choice.

Firing people is part of being in the business world. If you try your very best to tell that person and give that person a fair chance to improve then you should not feel bad for firing them.

What industry are you in?

[toddzilla]

31. this is why i' irritated..

i wasn't told that i needed to improve, i was just let go. after explicity asking during a meeting if we would be told if we had a poorly done apartment.. bullshit i say..

[Misinformed01]

27. not sure

I was working as a nanny for this horrible couple when I was a teenager; the husband came home bitching about something, and I started crying into the turkey tetrazini sauce I was cooking, and said, "Oh my God, I hate you people..."

Not sure if I got fired, or quit...either way, it was mutual.

[jiacinto]

28. Well

In grad school I was working part time for a law firm and I didn't fit into the office. The day I was going to give my two week notice the boss called me in and said that he was going to let me go. So it was a mutual thing--it just wasn't working out and I didn't fit in that office.

At one point in our lives most of us will either be "fired" or "asked to resign" from a job. It happens.

[Nikia]

32. I told them I was quitting and they told me I was fired

It was from a summer grocery store job. I had too many scheduling conflicts at the end of summer. I am not sure why they felt the need to fire me when I was leaving anyway.

[guitar man]

33. Had my ass run off more than once.......

Sometimes I deserved it,sometimes I didn't. Never let it bother me though.Just went and got another job.

What does bother me though is that my wife just lost her job recently for filing a worker's comp case against her company. She worked every day for 12 1/2 years for them,and as soon as she got hurt,they went all predatory on her.Complete bullshit!

[Vitruvius]

36. Moral: never waste loyalty on a corporation. Because they'll NEVER be

loyal to you.

Loyalty must always be a 2-way street. And corporations nowadays are INCAPABLE of loyalty. Tho' they always demand it from the troops. So give them the same phony lip-service-loyalty that they give you.

[kodi]

37. word.

.

[geniph]

34. Yes, once

It was partly my own fault, partly politics (they brought in a new co-manager who actively agitated to get rid of me, and I wouldn't play the game, so she succeeded), and partly they needed a scapegoat for a failed network installation in a new building - we hadn't been involved, and I wasn't even part of the team, but the head honcho was determined to penalize our department, and I made myself a legitimate target with shitty attendance and poor attitude.

It was actually one of the best things that ever happened to me. Woke me the hell up, got me out of a rut, and forced me to find a new job where I learned 10 times as much in the first month as I had in the previous year. It was psychologically devastating, but thankfully it happened before the IT jobs bottomed out around here. If it happened now, I'd be sleeping in my car until they repossessed it.

[Undemcided]

35. Not all defeats are defeats.

It was the kick up the arse I needed to go onto better things.

[solinvictus]

38. My last job

In my last job, I was an operations manager in charge of document and x-ray imaging for the #3 health insurer in the country. We had gotten a huge block of dental imaging and it could have turned our location around, but interference from senior management kept us from having focus. Also, the company kept nothing but Kelly Services temporary workers. I was either given poor workers or if I had really motivated and competent employees, they saw the lack of incentive and found better jobs.
Last spring, a senior executive came down from Connecticut to tell us that our entire location was being outsourced to ACS, the company that renewed Mohammad Atta's pilot's license after Sep. 11. Many long term employees, 20 years plus, were told they could not transfer to different departments and would lose seniority and vacation time. We had to re-apply for our positions and the entire time, the ACS managers refused to discuss compensation or benefits. Our "interview" consisted of a 3-5 minute session with them where they would not address any questions. I refused to sign several releases on my application, chief among them was a "hold harmless" waiver in which I surrendered any right to legal recourse if they gave my application data to a third party. The ACS HR director was shocked that I refused to sign it and was defensive when I asked about the various releases, binding arbitration, and hold harmless clauses in the application.
I was told to show up for an interview with ACS a few weeks later. I came into the office and one of my workers told me that they were showing us the door. It was truly a Dilbert moment. I was told that I would not be hired by ACS and that I was still being paid until June 6 by my current employer with full benefits; the condition being that I did not come back. It wound up being a great thing, but it was weird at the time.

[shanti]

39. yes, twice

i was around 19 or 20, something around there. they were both file clerk jobs. the first one was at an insurance office and the second one was at a lawyer's office. i'm still perplexed as to why i was fired. they were both out of the blue. after those two instances, i never was fired again.

[toddzilla]

41. It just occurred to me..

My boss told me to call him in 4 months and he could probably put me back on. we have a slow season that starts in late sep and ends around march or so. Kind of makes me wonder how much of it was just not having enough work for the whole company.

I'm confused.. if i do such a shitty job then why hire me back at the risk of the companies reputation?

:crazy:

Of course it may just be my incredibly likeable personality and the fact that i wear shorts year round gives everyone something to talk about...

:silly:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

42. Company I once worked at went belly-up

I guess that counts as "fired".