You're fired!

I see that walking out of a job constitutes an entry here too. I've got one of those stories.

In 2002, I was hired as a cook at a newly opened Perkins restaurant. I received crash course training and was sent on the line, which was fine by me. And as the restaurant was well-known, the grand opening drew a lot of people during all shifts.

Initially, it was fine. Hard work, but the pay was decent and I got a worthwhile discount on all the menu items. The trouble was that there eventually came a case of having too many chiefs and not enough indians. I shall explain:

The cook's line was seperated into four sections: egg grill, meat grill, bread grill, and fryer/broiler. I was particularly good with the meat grill and the fryer/broiler. And when left to my own devices, I managed both easily. Unfortunately, a lot of the other cooks thought their own methods were better, so they'd always meddle in my section. I'd return from the freezer to find the sausages turned perpendicular, or the bacon and hash browns would be moved all the way across - always something different. Then the offending party would tell me that this was the way I should be running my grill, not how I'd set things up. As soon as I'd turn around, someone else would touch my food and rearrange it to their own preferences.

The same thing always happened on the fryers. I'd get harangued about the order in which I dropped rings, fries, cheesesticks, etc. I always got the stuff plated in time, so it didn't matter, but no. Everyone else knew better than me.

Don't think I was a wimp. I yelled and shouted and told the others to back off plenty of times. But that had little effect. I was merely told that if I'd do things they way they showed me, they wouldn't need to meddle and yell at me. And when I'd acquiesce by following someone else's system, a third party would come along and jump down my throat because their set-up was the one I should've been using. I couldn't catch a break in either direction, and god forbid I should try to take charge of the section to which I was assigned.

So after a few months, I began to get very pissed. I went to the managers but they didn't seem to care. They chalked it up to being a new store and everyone needing to work out a rhythm still.

Then a couple of the cooks, who were brainless stoners, decided it'd be fun to randomly call my name out real loud, in that mocking sing-song way. They never needed anything, they just sang my name real loud and musically. All night long. Day in, day out. As far as I was concerned, it was harassment, and I filed a complaint, but it was dismissed as "friendly co-worker banter". Fuck that.

Things were beginning to boil over, but luckily I had a vacation coming up. When I was hired, I told the managers - right up front - that I'd been planning a 10-day vacation to California and wouldn't be available during the last part of May. They said that it'd be fine, they had enough people to cover my absence and since I'd already purchased the tickets before being hired, it was an acceptable reason to take unpaid time off.
I reminded them every two weeks, for three months. "Hey, do you still have it written down that I'll be gone from May 23rd until June 3rd?", I'd ask. "Yup, yup. It's right here. You're good.", they'd reply.

Two days before I was to leave, the new schedule came out. I didn't bother looking, as I knew I'd be gone for the duration. However, a friend told me that they'd gone ahead and scheduled me for 44 hours during my planned vacation. Incensed, I stormed into the manager's office and asked what was going on. "We need you to work." was what they told me. I said that my tickets were non-refundable and that I'd asked them repeatedly if I was okay to leave, to which they'd consistently replied "Yes". My manager looked me dead in the eyes and said "Ooooooh, what do you expect me to do?"

I told her I expected her to do her job and correct the oversight while I was gone.

Ten days later, I returned to collect my back paychecks. I was greeted with angry faces by the other cooks who couldn't believe that I had the nerve to just jet off to California - with no warning whatsoever - and have a ball while everyone else had to work double shifts to pick up my slack. I explained my side of the story, but one of the cooks wouldn't have it. He called me a lazy, arrogant cocksucker and told me that I was an absolute fool to expect that it'd be okay to take a vacation three months into a new job. Not when management repeatedly told me it was fine, it's not foolish. He threw some pots at me and told me that everyone enjoyed not being around me.

Fine. I can take a hint. I calmly collected my schedule for the new week, notified the managers that I'd returned, and left.

I never went back. I didn't serve them a notice of my departure. I didn't tell a soul other than my two friends who worked there also. I didn't have to take that sort of abuse. Three months later, when it was obvious that I had no intent of working there anymore, I returned. The managers saw me and asked what in the hell happened.

I told them all about the asshole cook who called me arrogant, lazy and who threw pots at me. I told them about the stoners who mocked me by singing my name incessantly. I told them about the idiots who constantly tampered with my grill set-up. I told them about having received permission to go away and then being expected to abandon those plans at the last minute.

Then I told them about the nice conversation I had with someone at the Corporate HQ in Minnesota about the poorly run franchise in Western New York and all the instances of harassment I had encountered, and also some of the more heinous health code violations. I told them how I gave the representatives in HQ the names of all the managers who ignored my complaints and forced me to call Minnesota with my grievances.

Then I left as they stood there, jaws agape, speechless.

Within four months, all of the managers who worked there when I quit were no longer with the company.

Fuck Perkins.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

My goodness Crash! Two very terrible stories, but I'm glad you got your revenge on Perkins. Reading all these different stories scares me about the harshness of the workforce and what assholes people can be.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I've been fired many times. It's not exactly something I'm proud of though; sometimes I deserved it, sometimes I didn't.

I got "let go" from my first job as a bowling alley attendant because I was only 14 and you have to be 18 to work league because you need to be 18 in order to fix the broken machines (even though I already fixed them multiple times anyways).

Here's an interesting firing story on how I DIDN'T deserve it:

I worked at the local movie theater. Every week our schedules were posted up in the office. When I was hired, I had explained to my boss that I couldn't work until around 4-4:30PM because I had an extracurricular class after school that ran until such time. I had been working there for around 6 months when I got a call on my cell phone from my boss:

"Miles, you were supposed to come in at 3:15"

"I can't, I'm in class. I told you I couldn't work until 4-4:30"

"Oh ok...just come in when you are out of class"

"Ok"

So I go into work, blah blah blah we worked it out, whatever. I check the schedule and it said I didn't work the next day. Great. Next day in class, another call:

"Why haven't you shown up for work today?"

"The schedule says I'm off"

"I put an updated schedule up after you left last night. (Name) needed today off so I put you on."

"Well how could I have seen the schedule if you put it up after I left?"

"You should have called and checked, you know the schedules are constantly getting switched around."

So we talked and I ended up not going to work that day. Then the next day, I went in to work and my boss was there before I got there. I worked for like, half an hour, and then she all of a sudden pretended to 'just then' see me, and go "Oh, what? Why are you here? Um, oh yeah, I need to talk to you."

She then proceeded to fire me. She told me when I was filling out applications that I could say I quit. Whatever. Bitch was extremely childish, too. I think she just didn't like me and decided to fire me just because she could.

Then once I got fired from Chevron for getting way too drunk one night, having to work then next day, and calling in sick 2 hours after I was supposed to be there. Oops.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Crash

I never went back. I didn't serve them a notice of my departure. I didn't tell a soul other than my two friends who worked there also. I didn't have to take that sort of abuse. Three months later, when it was obvious that I had no intent of working there anymore, I returned. The managers saw me and asked what in the hell happened.

I told them all about the asshole cook who called me arrogant, lazy and who threw pots at me. I told them about the stoners who mocked me by singing my name incessantly. I told them about the idiots who constantly tampered with my grill set-up. I told them about having received permission to go away and then being expected to abandon those plans at the last minute.

Then I told them about the nice conversation I had with someone at the Corporate HQ in Minnesota about the poorly run franchise in Western New York and all the instances of harassment I had encountered, and also some of the more heinous health code violations. I told them how I gave the representatives in HQ the names of all the managers who ignored my complaints and forced me to call Minnesota with my grievances.

Then I left as they stood there, jaws agape, speechless.

Within four months, all of the managers who worked there when I quit were no longer with the company.

Fuck Perkins.

Fuckin' A dude! You sure showed them what's up.

(BTW not all stoners are brainless O_O)

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

Pretty Much Everything Crash Posted

My god, that sounds so much like the McDonalds I use to work for before I had a mental breakdown mid-shift and walked out crying. I recall the 5 or so managers each had their own notion of what was right and wrong. I'd get yelled at for pulling fries in the wrong order or doing something a certain way. I never reported them to any authorities (although my mom did call on my behalf to snitch on them for not having hot water for a WEEK).

The day I quit was fairly normal, I'd get scolded for something stupid and I'd cry a bit (I cry easily, sue me). I was trying to calm myself but I couldnt take it. In the lobby, in front of 10+ people, I accused the managers and my coworkers of treating me less than the customers ("If I wasnt wearing this uniform, you'd be asking me what's wrong and comforting me!" "[Koneko], Stop talking." "WHY?! WHY SHOULD I?! Just give me my meal and I'll go in back and stop embarrassing you!") As I ate my meal on my break, a good 10 minutes passed and I realized... I wasnt being yelled at or consoled... They were going to ignore me in hopes I would just buck up and go back to work like I always did the past. I called my then-fiance and told him I wanted to quit. We agreed we could manage.

I went back to work as normal, waiting for my husband and when he called to say he was in the lobby, I went up to a manager and told her I quit and I "couldnt do this any more". She looked perplexed and asked "Do you need a break?" (NO I dont want a break, I want to go home, I quit. I dont want to do this any more!). After that, I grabbed my belongings, walked up to a third manager and gave her my head said and apologized as I walked out.

The next day, I returned with my uniform cleaned, folded and in a bag with a letter of resignation. Only months later did I learn that, until I gave them that letter and my uniform, they thought I was just having "another fit".

Course, I haven't had much luck with jobs since that one... The bakery I worked for a month later nearly fired me after 6 months of service. I saw my hours dwindle and I had recalled a girl being let go by a similar tactic... Plus, the new girl told me she overheard the manager speak of my imiment termination. I quit probably a week before I was to be fired (I had been scheduled for 1 day). The job after that was the one mentioned in my first post).

I was speaking idiomatically.