You're fired!

For the first time in my life, I was fired. After interning at a pharmaceutical for a year I was let go after an impromptu 'exit interview' earlier this evening. I had invested a lot of energy into this job and developed a fair amount of sentiment for the remedial tasks I accomplished. This instance was wrought with suspicious, shady actions and I blame my power-hungry coach for overreacting to petty situations, but I adhere to the fact that I am at fault as well.

Have any of you ever been fired from a job, and if so, how did you react?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Plenty of times.

I handled the situation accordingly. If they could threaten legal action regarding the reason I was fired then I respectfully (and quietly) bow out from the spotlight and begin my job search.

Other times I take half the store with me (such was the case when I worked for a video-game store).

Most of the time though it's hard to get someone to look you in the eye. They're all ashamed of themselves as though THEY did something wrong even though you might have done something that provided no alternative but to fire you immediately. I find this the funniest one. I can't believe how insecure people can be sometimes. I mean, not just about things like looks n' stuff, but I'm talking about looking you in the eye when they're letting you go. What've they got to lose?

Most amazing jew boots

Never been laid off. I've left jobs, but I never left one on a negative note or opinion. I was careful in picking my jobs and employers. I never let them down, so they never bugged me =D

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

Originally Posted by Vestin

Most of the time though it's hard to get someone to look you in the eye. They're all ashamed of themselves as though THEY did something wrong even though you might have done something that provided no alternative but to fire you immediately.

It's interesting you mention that because I was definitely grillin' the person firing me. Coincidentally enough, it was the same individual who hired me. He definitely was more nervous than I. The entire time, another random woman was seated next to me totally silent which made things even more tense. She introduced herself to me then said nothing the entire time! I didn't bother look at her and focused on the guy firing me, but he was too busy fidgeting and trying to remember his rehearsed lines.

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

I've been fired only once, but that was in 2000 from A&W. I was 16 at the time, and that was when I was still shy and nervous to everything in the world. -_- Anyways, I had been there 3 months, working in the kitchen and was told that I didn't improve at all. It's probably true, but I don't really care and I didn't then. I did feel like crap for the rest of the day, but I got over it.

On the other hand, I have walked off the job more times than I'd like to remember. Funny how in all but one instance, it was due to poor management. The thing that sucks most about it is that I have only one good reference for my resume from the last 7 years.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I was given the opportunity to immediately resign from a job once, which is just a method corporations use to save face.

I worked at a video arcade for six months and had become assistant manager. My manager and I worked under a man named - and I swear this is true - Rodney J. Hogg. He was an unfriendly, obese man and we didn't get along well. He expected that I should know things that were well beyond my means, such as how to properly resolder pinball machine wiring.

One day, I got to work and my manager was having a fit. A pinball machine had gone missing. I closed the previous night and it was suspected that I had something to do with it. I told him that there was no way I could carry one of those, and even if I could, I walked to work; how would I get it home?

The mall checked the cameras and saw that I closed the gate as per the norm, then left through the side exit. Nobody else was seen coming or going until my manager showed up in the morning. I was mostly off the hook, but since I still couldn't explain the loss, I was looked upon suspiciously.

One week later, some bigwigs from the regional office came by to audit our expense books. There were some questions about how many prizes were being ordered and how many were actually making it to the display case. Indeed, there were discrepancies and somehow, over $5,000 worth of prizes had disappeared over time.

The next day, when I came in for my shift, the bigwigs were back. They approached me, with my boss in tow. It turned out that Rodney J. Hogg had been embezzling prizes and money from the store for a couple years and they had enough to prove this. When confronted, however, Rodney named me and my boss as accomplices. I can't say my boss was innocent, but I was, and I got pretty pissed.

But the bigwigs said that they didn't really believe Rodney. Unfortunately, there were too many losses at our store, including the entire pinball machine, so they were going to have to let me go. They were letting my boss go too. Their intent was to clean house and hire an all-new staff that they felt they could trust.

I was stunned, and had little recourse, since the job wasn't unionized. So they gave me the opportunity to turn in a resignation instead of officially getting fired. But they recommended that I not use them for references, as they'd have nothing of benefit to say.

So yeah, basically I was fired for shit I didn't do.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I'm not sure if I was fired or laid off but I was working at a Subway when they changed owners. After a month of working there, the new owner told me she was "going to take [me] off the schedule temporarily" and some other BS of that nature. I got a job a week later at a different Subway and a month later, I noticed she had new employees. I almost started in with her about "when I was going to be let back on the schedule."

FELIPE NO

I've never been fired, but I can think of several memorable people around me that have. The first was the manager at the CVS where I worked in college. The first manager, while a drunk, ran a tight ship, and when he decided to move out of state, his long-time assistant manager took over the store. The new manager was an incredibly nice guy, and that was his problem - he was too nice. He let his employees walk all over him, and the store suffered for it. In the end, the company fired him, and the guy didn't take it well. For months afterward, we'd see him drive by the store or sitting out in the parking lot. I wouldn't have thought him capable of violence, but he was obviously very depressed.

At my last gov't job, we fired a crazy nut that had worked there for three months. He was a quiet loner who wore a wife-beater on casual Friday (this was a professional environment), and he got in an argument with his co-workers and said they "were on his list". We let him resign in exchange for dropping any claims he might file against the gov't, but we were all kind of afraid he might come back and shoot us.

Most amazing jew boots

The only time I was fired was at my High School cafeteria. I apparently offended a girl (coworker) during lunch break and she started throwing chairs at me for a few minutes. She was taken to a counselor and I was given a PTC or whatever. Fuck that shit.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I've never been fired/ laid off I've only ever left on my own terms. I do my best to keep on the good side of my boss/es and try not to draw attention to myself.

I suppose I'd calmly and rationaly but then again I may not and be very offended.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've never been fired but then again I have only ever had 4 jobs in my work history. I've been at my current job for more than 2 years.

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

I used to work at Old Navy back in the beginning of 2005, which lasted about a month or two. When they hired me they asked if I could work nights, I said no. Though a few weeks pass, I check my schedule and there I am working two night shifts in a row. I can't work that because I was attending school. I told the manager about it and she said that the sheet for that has been there for a few weeks. I've barely started, I didn't know that and no one told me.

When the day came I just called it, and the manager I spoke too said it was ok. The next day, I did the same thing, however a different manager picked up the phone and said that I wasn't allowed to call out of that job. Ok whatever, I didn't show up.

I came in to pick up my check that same week and noticed that I wasn't scheduled for work for next week. I didn't think anything of it. A few days later I was called in, I worked as a stocker which we usually have to be there early, around 5am or so. I agreed yet when I got there I was fired. They couldn't have just done it over the phone or something at a more appropiate time? I was mostly pissed because I have to drive about 15 miles each day to that work as well as school, otherwise I hated that job and I have no idea why I was convinced to work there by my girlfriend.

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

I've never been fired from any job I had, but I've been forced (phased) out of a job before. They couldn't really fire me since I was doing a better job than even the manager at the store. No one else would come in "off the clock" to process movies that needed to be put on the shelf (like 400+ PVP, previously played movies) to sell in a week. I was more or less the "last hope" of the store. Because I couldn't drive, I was automatically the one called when they needed someone to come in for someone else. I even had to go to work on a day I requested off cause I went out to a live band and drank some the night before, because the girl who worked that day wanted to get laid instead of working. Fun times.

It sucked I was basically "forced" to quit since I really loved working at a video store. But I got tired of my hours being screwed with and just too much shit was placed on me (also I was being fingered as the guy who reported the manager having an affair with a co-worker when infact she's caught the person who pointed the finger at me making calls to corporate)

I was speaking idiomatically.

I have never gotten fired before, all the jobs I had I left without a word to them (2 weks notice my ass, I hated the guilt-trip by managers when I attempted to do so a while back).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

How are you able to give any references if you walk out on all your jobs?

I've never been fired from a job, but I did walk out of my very first job as a waitress when I was 16. The manager tried to force me to clean another girl's section who had walked off the job that night, and she had the audacity to tell me this was my job after I had already finished my work and had clocked out for the night. When I told her that I had plans and had already finished and clocked out, she freaked out and started yelling at me. I basically turned my back on her and walked away, while simultaneously giving her the bird over my shoulder. Good times, good times.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Alice

How are you able to give any references if you walk out on all your jobs?

wel...it was just one job, and it was something that could of been forgiven (ie. I wasnt able to find a plce in town and reverted back to living with my folks some 75 miles north of the town I was in).

How ya doing, buddy?

O, I've been fired alright. In a GLORIOUS, REVOLUTIONARY-ESQUE REBELLION (that involved only me heh).

So I worked for this Jew, George, right? He's the father of one of my high school friends (who I later ended up rooming with - BIG MISTAKE - JEWISH PRINCESS). He gave me my first job when I was 14 or so at his other shop.

But yea, so I worked for George the Jew for years and years at this bagel place. I would open shop, have a crew of about 10 kids (who I loved working with), and I pretty much got to run the entire shop - wholesale, retail, deliveries, everything. I was the bitch in charge. (I actually got away with having blue hair for a LONG TIME)

So one day, George decides that he doesn't want to own the bagel shop anymore. He comes to me and tells me he's selling the place to this goddamned Thai couple or something. (They were definitely Asian. I just forget what kind.)

I worked for these Asian people for a few months with a few building confrontations and things. The woman - Elena I think her name was; the wife - was completely batshit insane. She didn't know what the fuck she was doing with the place - which I guess is to be expected.

I'd get phone calls nearly EVERY NIGHT because she fired the bakers and she and her husband decided THEY were going to bake to save costs. "DANIELLE, PLEASE COME HELP."

I was used to getting phone calls are BIZARRE times. Some of the kids that worked with me often called my cell to tell me they weren't going to be able to make it in on such-and-such a day, and could I schedule them elsewhere, so on, so forth. I was CONSTANTLY in there when I wasn't scheduled. WHY? BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVED THIS PLACE. ;_;

So anyways, the event that got my ass fired.

Elena had hired one of her other Asian friends. This particular Asian friend was supposed to help me close. I was there well over 2 hours closing by myself and they figured to cut down on general costs, they could get me some help. Frankly, I needed it. Opening AND closing, all in one day's work was just terrible. I was incredibly happy they would be so accommodating. Since George had left, there was no one to ever help me with shifts if I needed it, and no one to do the book-keeping like he did. (I helped with that shit, let me tell you).

I forget her name, but this woman REFUSED to stay for closing day after day after day. "Too much work," she'd say. And she bailed every day just BEFORE closing.

So I confronted Elena. I told her that I was under the impression that this woman was supposed to be helping me close, and that she wasn't - how can we resolve this.

Elena looked at me like I head 12 eyes. She tried to tell me I was not GOING to get any help closing.

I lost it. This woman had been jerking me around for MONTHS now, fucking up systems, fucking up orders, scaring away customers with her screaming in the back room at her husband, the quality of the product because they were putzing off in the middle of the night, sometimes calling me, sometimes not.

I let loose on the woman - I DESERVED to be fired, I guess. I raged something horrible on how she should have never bought this place if she didn't know how to do it - that if she wanted me to become her tutor, she should have paid George more who would have in turn paid ME more.

I was only 19 and I hand been single-handedly running the joint. I loved it - to this DAY, I still want to go back to the way it was. But Elena fucked it up beyond recognition.

So Elena asked me to quit.
"I'm not quitting. You'll have to FIRE me."
So tried some more to get me to quit - at least 10 minutes of it. She didn't want to pay me unemployment.

Eventually she fired me, and I left crying. Not because I was fired, but because I couldn't help save the sinking ship. I felt like I had let my place down, and all that jazz.

As a hilarious update: within 1 year of Elena (and her yes-man husband), the business went under. It turned into a vacant lot up until maybe 9 months ago, at which point it turned into a Dunkin Donuts.

Breaks my heart to this day.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I haven't been fired, but in my second job ever, I wasn't re-hired. =p

It was a small webcast company in DC that I started working at my senior year of high school. I worked there my summer and winter breaks too for my first two years of college. Then I applied for an internship at a lab, which I got, which would start in the summer of 2004. That spring though, I asked the company I was with if they wanted me back for the summer, but I was told I wasn't in their budget anymore. ._.

Oh well. I moved on. I was just curious if they'd compete for me and pay me more or something, but I wasn't really doing anything related to my major there anyway. At the lab, I did.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've also never been fired per se, just not re-hired. But the way that they did it irks me to this day, and I still have a dager-shaped scar on my back.

Starting as a high school student in 2000, I worked summers and breaks at the local college bookstore. It was a wonderful job--long hours and hard work, yes, but generally great co-workers, a boss I respected and admired, and lots of attractive student customers and free books.

Eventually, the store hired a dedicated personnel person, a fat, lazy bitch who never liked me for reasons that have always eluded me and took secret joy in chewing me out for "insubordination" while other members of management were on vacation and making oblique references to how little I worked around friends and family. The ironic thing was that I had been at the store longer than she had, having been hired in their first summer of operation.

I worked there for summer 2005 before leaving to go to school as usual. I asked about my hours for the break, and said fat bitch informed me that I wouldn't be needed this particular break. That smarted, since it was a particularly long break and I needed the money, but I wrote it off. I asked if I'd be needed as classes ended the following semester, and was informed that I'd be re-hired for summer 2006. So I made my plans accordingly, and when I got home, asked for my schedule.

Then I got an email from the fat personnel bitch informing me that my services wouldn't be needed after all. She wrote the message as if she'd never seen me before--as if I was some kid off the street applying for the first time rather than someone who had worked there for six years. There was no explanation. Incidentally, that summer was the one summer--out of all of them--that I really needed the money, and I was forced to work part-time at Wal-Mart instead.

It's not as dramatic as some of the other stories, but it still hurt me a lot--even though I disliked the fat bitch, I loved that store, knew all the managers, and had a history of good service. I even gave the management gifts from Asia after a study abroad, and they threw me aside in the most crass way possible in my moment of need.

How ya doing, buddy?

I haven't been fired, though it surprises me to say that. Just during this one job last summer, I HATED it. It was a full-time job I picked up in addition to my usual part-time, and it was probably the most miserable thing I've ever done. There were several times that I called out in a row, and quite a few times that I was the 'no call, no show'. I'm honestly really surprised I wasnt just fired... my boss was this really timid woman who was just like 'can you... call next time...?' Riiiight. The funny thing is is that she told me that I was very welcome to come back during breaks and next summer vacation.

I left at the end of the summer and have no intentions of going back.

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

Never gotten fired either. I worked at a ColdStone for three days before I decided to quit due to schedule conflicts. Yes, three days. I hated the managers though. Ironically, it's been about six months since I quit my job there, I still know more than any of the no0bs who just got hired there.

How ya doing, buddy?

Didn't get fired but I would have eventually. if not, very soon. A grand total of 10 days of telemarketing, I managed to make like 3 window and door appointments somehow, while I watched a coworker illogically get fired because all the people she talked to simply did not want windows, doors, or sunrooms. I made up an excuse which was a half truth involving a temp agency hiring me, although I couldn't even work at the temp agency and I was never called because the shifts ended at 2 am two towns over.

My friend got fired from a pharmacy because he was stealing drugs. I don't know why, but now he works at a tech shop and has worked there for a long time, although he's still the same kind of person.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I haven't been fired yet, but with any luck it'll happen soon! How long can you get away with msn and nes emulators on the work computer, not punching a clock, leaving early, taking multiple hour lunches and coming back to work completely toasted? Oh and sexually harassing both male and female co-workers. Underlings actually, if you accept that I'm the assistant manager. >.>;

FELIPE NO

I've been fired three times.
Once, a long time ago, I was young and stupid and was caught taking things from the store (I was 16 years old).

Slightly more recently, I was fired or "let go" simply because I was not meeting the requirements for the job. Both were at car dealerships. I wasn't necessarily doing anything wrong, I just think that since the business is so man-oriented, they probably didn't see me as up to par with the rest of them.

I took each one respectfully. I mean, when I was 16, I just didn't give a shit.
It never feels good to be fired, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. In a lot of ways I was thankful. In the case of the dealership jobs, I was working long hours and getting paid shit.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I tutored computer 5th and 6th graders at the local grammar school around the corner from my house for about a year back in 2000-2001 as part of a work studies program. Soon after I started working there I realized that the workload was too much for a college student with 19 units so I asked for less hours and they hired another guy to work there to teach during the hours which I was in class, which was cool since it relieved a lot of pressure from my schedule.

However, this guy that got hired was.... not reliable. He constantly showed up to an hour late all the time, mostly because he was getting stoned and falling asleep in his car IN THE PARKING LOT. I got tired of putting up with his bullshit on general principle and complained the principal and told her exactly what was happening. I mean, I wasn't out of line, motherfucker... I may be a drunk but even I manage to know when it is impeding my ability to, you know, FUNCTION ON A DAILY BASIS.

Well... Long story short, something about this didn't sit right with the principal and asked the school board to transfer me to another campus due to "conflict of academic opinion", but in typical fashion was never actually transferred anywhere and thus my employment with the Visalia Unified School District was terminated.

Naturally I was pissed off and did a little investigating which eventually led into me finding out that this guy was also the principal's son's best friend. But since I couldn't prove any personal malice on the principal's behalf, the matter was dropped along with my job. On the plus side, since I was not actually transferred like I was promised the district gave me a $600 unemployment settlement which I still haven't collected on. It has been accumulating interest in something the district calls the APPLE program so I figure I'll leave that sitting there for a few years and see how much I can get it to rack up over the years.

Jam it back in, in the dark.