Got Fired?

Hey has anyone got fired?
It's nothing to be ashamed of as we all know our friend at Apple Steve Jobs got fired.

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I did years ago. After my divorce, I turned into an alcoholic. Over the course of a year, it started affecting my job and I got the boot (understandly so).

By the grace of God I was able to bounce back and now make a 40% higher salary than I did at tbe job that fired me.

Looking back, it was one of the best things that happened to me professionally speaking but more importantly as a person. (I know it sounds crazy)

Of course at the time I felt that my world was shattered.

DatabaseHead

*Yep

I was working at a Budget Rental car in college. My boss is a huge NFL fan and the city where the team was located was 200 miles away.... Hey was super fan, well...... He evidently didn't go that day and he pulled up while I was burning the tires (peeling out) in one of those dodge prowlers.... He had a side business where he would buy cars for X and sell for Y, from what I over heard it was ~10% of his revenues. This included him owning a Budget rental car at a regional airport.

Anyway I was fired after that.

scaredoftests

Yes, I was working as a sub sub contractor (which I will never do again). A government employee didn't like me, so she made sure I was fired. Fun times.

tedjames

DatabaseHead wrote: »

*Yep

I was working at a Budget Rental car in college. My boss is a huge NFL fan and the city where the team was located was 200 miles away.... Hey was super fan, well...... He evidently didn't go that day and he pulled up while I was burning the tires (peeling out) in one of those dodge prowlers.... He had a side business where he would buy cars for X and sell for Y, from what I over heard it was ~10% of his revenues. This included him owning a Budget rental car at a regional airport.

Anyway I was fired after that.

Yeah, but I'd say it was worth it.

In 2006, I was working a six-month technical editing contract at Hell, I mean Dell, and after five months, I was told not to come in anymore. They hired me to be a technical editor, but the SMEs (former help desk turned trainers) kept getting mad at me for correcting their work. It wasn't my fault that they sucked at writing (tons of flowery passive voice, run-ons, incomplete thoughts, poorly edited graphics). They acted like I was marking up their masterpieces. I didn't tell them that they sucked, but I did do the best job I could. They said that since the documentation was for internal training only, high quality didn't matter. On my way out, my supervisor told me that they really just wanted me to check for spelling and punctuation. What they really wanted was a proofreader or at least someone who made an A in high school English.

TechGromit

DoubleD wrote: »

Hey has anyone got fired?

I have. From Verizon. I got laid off from a job as a Government contractor in 2013, but I managed to land a job within a month at a FIOS call center. my government employer was nice enough to give me a month's notices, so I only had a week gap between jobs, not even enough time to collect unemployment. The Verizon job gave us 6 weeks of paid training, I even got a Union contract raise the first two weeks I worked there. Things were looking sweet, but there was a test after every 2 weeks of training, I passed the first two exams without trouble, but failed the third exam, they gave me a 2nd chance, I tried to study best I could, but failed that one as well, and was fired that day. It was a sobering, embarrassing experience. The exams were quite tricky, I'd say 50% of the people who started out in training failed one test or another and were fired. They had me sign some paperwork before I left, I felt so defeated, I didn't even read it, or ask for a copy and I'm the type of person that reads all the paperwork at a closing and asks for copies of everything I sign. To this day I haven't a clue what I signed that day. The funny thing is the original people they hired when FIOS was new, never had to take any tests.

In the end things worked out, I sure I would have hated taking clueless user calls all day, but with mandatory OT, I could have easily make 150k a year, I hear of one guy there that took all the OT he could and was pulling down 200k a year. It's kind of a career trap, a lot of people I talked to hated there job, but once they got used to the money, found it impossible to quit. No job pays that kind of money, not at there skill/education level at least.

Since it was such a short position, I leave it off resumes, but I'm careful to include it on any background check paperwork. It really doesn't hurt me, the background check people don't compare notes with the interviewing/hiring people, but if I omit it, it's lying on my background paperwork, instant disqualification.

LordQarlyn

I've gotten laid off, back in 2008, from Sprint, my last job in telecommunications. I was out of work for 8 months. I made use of that time to work on IT certifications, took and passed five IT exams earning three certifications (A+, Net+, and MCP).
I landed my first IT job as system admin, deployed to Iraq. I manage to leverage my past telecom experience to bypass the help desk. It was kind of funny and ironic, went from no income to over $200K.

So, as with jwdk19, getting laid off was the best thing that happened to me, it set me on the path I am now, whereas had I stayed with Sprint, I probably wouldn't have been motivated to push myself into IT, I probably wouldn't of had the experiences I've had over the past few years, world travel, etc.

I've only been asked about my gap a couple times, I simply told them I was laid off, during that time, while looking for employment, I passed five IT exams and worked on improving my skills. That was usually received well. And the last time I was asked was over two years ago.

EANx

I had a period of employment where nothing was going right. Got laid off, was a contractor for a bit which ended when the company brought in a new IT director and then the next job. It was a small company that specialized in a certain industry, a subset of which had people with very specific ideas (think if your customer base included religions). I was onsite doing an install in a very noisy room when sales brought some of these people in to listen in to a technical conference call without telling me. I'm getting annoyed because I can't hear well but eventually finish the deployment and come back to being fired. Apparently my "attitude" cost the company that sale.

Three weeks later, I was weighing job offers from companies involved with technologies that have done very well over the years. I took one of the offers and my career took off. Getting fired from that job was one of the best things to happen because I probably would have kept trying to slog through otherwise.

scaredoftests

Been laid off alot as well, because of budget cuts and one time, because the president of the company fled the country and took all the money. I swear, I could write a book. Builds character.. LOL

yoba222

Battle scars. And you rise as a badass. Blade in each hand and so awesome. . .

scaredoftests

with a sardonic attitude and a cape.

yoba222

Maybe I should have wrote stapler in each hand.

scaredoftests

VVVVVV
Good one. Better yet..a RED stapler.

Sheiko37

It's important to note that a redundancy is different from being fired. Do not tell a prospective employer you were fired from your last job if in fact your position was made redundant.

Having said that, I believe some countries do actually use the terms interchangeably and they're effectively legally identical, so just make sure you're using the right language when it matters.

tedjames

Sheiko37 wrote: »

It's important to note that a redundancy is different from being fired. Do not tell a prospective employer you were fired from your last job if in fact your position was made redundant.

Having said that, I believe some countries do actually use the terms interchangeably and they're effectively legally identical, so just make sure you're using the right language when it matters.

In some cases, they use "terminated" as a catch-all phrase. I've been laid off and then I've been "consolidated" out of a job. In 2004, the State of Texas consolidated 14 health and human services-related agencies down to five. My boss told me the minute she found out my job was being closed. I had six weeks to find another one. She even told me to look for a job on work time and not to use my vacation time for interviews, since the State cashes out unused vacation time. She was a great boss.

NavyMooseCCNA

scaredoftests wrote: »

Yes, I was working as a sub sub contractor (which I will never do again). A government employee didn't like me, so she made sure I was fired. Fun times.

A certain AF Lt.Col took a dislike to me for reasons that were never made clear. I was working for a sub contractor and I was shown the door and given no severance by my company. I had just started my security clearance renewal when I was let go.

Needless to say, my renewal was not processed and expired...I liked my team a lot but I don't think I want to work on base again.

blargoe

scaredoftests wrote: »

VVVVVV
Good one. Better yet..a RED stapler.

I could set the building on fire...

malachi1612

Yep, about 10 years ago. It was my first IT job, I loved it too as I went straight to 2nd line support and by passed 1st line helpdesk nightmare. Me and my supervisor were fired for breaking company policy for using a computer to join an wireless network so we can browse the internet without restrictions(computer was even on the company network). But they really wanted to fire my supervisor for years and I was collateral damage. Heart breaking at the time, looking back at it now it was a blessing in disguise. As a few years later they made the whole IT department redundant and outsourced it.

BradleyHU

you have to clarify "fired" for some folks. Fired, as least IMHO, means your were terminated on the spot due to behavior/illegal activities, and were not given any severence. I think most ppl in here are confusing fired with laid off. Laid off is due to elimination of role(s), redundancy, cost, etc. And you usually get your severance.

I've never been fired, but I've been laid a few times.

november24

Yes, When I was in high school, I used to work at summer, back in my home country I worked for one of the government construction projects as a labor with a water pipes installation crew, I worked for around 2 months then I've got fired due to downsizing.

Mooseboost

Technically yes but it was after I turned in a notice. I tried to be the nice guy at my last job since I was in the middle of finishing a project and turned in a longer than normal notice. Couldn't start the new job because they had already worked around with plane tickets and such for my training so I ended up without a job for 30 days. Got caught up on a lot of shows though, so theres that. The same place fired a guy on his birthday.

I have seen some people fired for foolish reasons. When I was at Cisco we had a power ego director (was not in my department thankfully) who fired someone because they were listening to music he didn't like too loudly. Now here is the thing: The guy was an engineer who was off work and had swapped over to gym clothes (on-site facility) and was walking out to head to the fitness center. He had earbuds in and you could barely hear them. Director called up the contracting agency and told them he didn't want to see him again. Fired literally one of the best Splunk engineers I had ever met over something simple. There were a few more instances of crazyness like that.

Jasiono

Back when I was a teenager yeah.
I scanned a $10 off coupon more than once.

...

For myself.

Tekn0logy

Unless being walked out the front door by the guys in blue, it should always be considered a good thing. Time to retool and certify.

TechGromit

Mooseboost wrote: »

I have seen some people fired for foolish reasons.

Fired, Hell I've seen some people quit for stupid reasons.

I worked part time at a horse race track betting firm, Autotote I believe it was called. Anyway the manager was kind of laid back and allowed this computer operator guy to watch baseball on the clock, so long as he got his work done. Anyway after too many mistakes were make, the manager took away the TV and the guy quit because he couldn't watch baseball on the clock anymore (guess he was a hard core fan), on top of that he gives the manager a written resignation letter why he was quitting. Which the company use against him when he tried to collect unemployment. Plain Stupid.

powerfool

Twice.

Once early in my career, I reported to the president of the company and I was expected to able to do anything at the company from electrical to repairing sewing machines, in addition to my IT work. Well, it was still early in my career and I was spread really thin (only IT guy). We got hit by SQL Slammer and I lobbied for a perimeter firewall (we only had router NAT), and it made us an open relay for about 6 hours.

Second time was about a little over 8 years ago and still seems fresh. I had 3 bosses in the course of nearly 4 years at the job and I filled in on an interim basis, twice. I applied for the job but never received the position. When the final boss was hired, he cleared our department out within 3 months. Wasn't a good feeling. He had a vendetta for employed people, as he had been fired from his past three jobs and was without work for about a year. He was pretty pompous about his position and acted as if he had been granted "god mode". Jokes on him, because I had already had 3 jobs lined up, so I took the substantial severance that they provided (he actually was trying to get me to spend down my PTO, too, prior to this... so I was pretty sure what he was up to... just a really #$&* move trying to personally impact me post termination... what did he have to gain?). So, I chilled for a few weeks and have had a rather nice career trajectory ever since. From what I gathered, my next job already paid me more than him. I ran into him last year as he worked for a vendor of one of my customers and he seemed utterly shocked and demoralized by my current position. The wins in life

.

That being said, even though it has been a while, I still find myself thinking back to it and feeling jaded by it, even though it was probably the best thing to happen to my career, to date.

--chris--

A former coworker just got canned last friday.

long story, but he was the scape goat for many things in the dept. Instead of speaking the truth, he would just take it...so pretty much everything that went wrong in the department appeared to come from him. Why he did it, I dont know...so weird.

Anyways a few months back they had a major outage after moving the data center, like 4 days until all services were restored. The storm's been a brewing since...and they canned him last week.

He might have actually been trying to get fired. He hated the manager and the CEO.

scasc

Are all these experiences from the US? Have heard its quite easy to get rid of someone/fire them down there.....

Here in EU - due to legislation the labor laws are such that its extremely difficult to fire someone unless its really bad....

Sorry - back to the original post, only person I know who was fired was someone sending some indecent photos of himself to the lady in HR - crude yes! Especially as she was dating another senior bloke.

paul78

scasc wrote: »

Are all these experiences from the US? Have heard its quite easy to get rid of someone/fire them down there.....

Here in EU - due to legislation the labor laws are such that its extremely difficult to fire someone unless its really bad....

Unlike the EU which legally mandate written employment contracts, the majority of states in the US uses the doctrine of employment-at-will. So the barrier to terminate employment in the US by either party is lot lower (practically non-existent).

The same is true for employment terms. Generally speaking - labor law in the US is considered very weak when compared to many parts of the world.

Mike7

We once have to terminate someone for bad behavior. At work, he was often surfing the web doing non-work related stuff, taking long smoking breaks and sleeping in his cubicle. He was later found bad mouthing the company on social media using vulgarities. HR told him to take down his posts and he refused; and only do so when threatened with termination. He was terminated once his replacement was hired

Sometimes people leave due to their managers. We had a new IT director that lacks basic IT knowledge; he was unable to differentiate between a BIOS error screen and Windows startup error screen. He was not exactly conversant in English and often reverted to using his native language during meetings with his directs; this is a problem as his team consists of diverse group of employees from different countries and races where the common medium of communication is English. His people management skills are not that great; he told the strong performers that they report to him because "my IQ and EQ is higher than you". He is good with upper management though often spending time with them. He is also very good with email; he would gathered technical reponses from the team, consolidated them into an email and configured Outlook to send out mail after 1 am. Needless to say, the better performers in the team left the company not long after.

DZA_

There was a recent termination from my previous employer that was discussed by my ex-peers. The guy who got canned was great guy from a personally standpoint but wasn't so great at the level that he should have been performing technically. He was with the company for about 3 years, had a divorce during at the beginning at the 3rd year and took stress leave for 8 months (even through news went down the grape vine that he wasn't stressed at all). The optics would look pretty bad if an organization just canned someone after coming back from stress leave so the company devised a plan.

To management, they saw it as fraud. Upon his return, management had put him on a PIP Plan to achieve X number of unattainable goals and of course you know you're up against failure. In the end, the guy got fired after 3 months coming off stress leave for committing fraud and wasn't up to the position technically.

Tekn0logy

DZA_ wrote: »

There was a recent termination from my previous employer that was discussed by my ex-peers... In the end, the guy got fired after 3 months coming off stress leave for committing fraud and wasn't up to the position technically.

I would hope that the guy was fired and able to collect benefits. That would really be terrible to be fired and not collect benefits and have to explain to potential employers. At least some shops that shall remain nameless just use the boilerplate that your position has been made obsolete.