Getting fired/quitting

Phaedrus · 03-11-2008, 11:35 AM

As a spin-off the the several "jobs" thread, and as a prolific job-holder from Hades, I have been "fired" several times during my life, and have several interesting, and funny stories about "getting the pink slip."

Most of them are pretty sad, when you think about them. I already shared the story about having my boss turn me in for Russian mafia arms trader, to the FBI, but that's not the most egregious precipitating event for my leaving a business.

The worst one happened just a few years ago.

I had returned from Iraq not too long before, and was working in central Iowa. On Veteran's Day, which was on a Friday, my boss called me into his office, and everyone in the office thanked me for my service and threw a little celebration. During the "party" one of the receptionists asked me if there was a chance I would be going back, in everyone's presence. At the time, my unit had just been notified that they'd leave in a year, so I told her that.

Monday morning, my boss called me into his office and fired me. No explanation other than, "things aren't working out for you here. There's been too many 'mistakes'" I asked about which mistakes, and they were unable to bring up any.

On one of my contract jobs, which was in the D.C. area, I was fired because I refused to go to work for them as a regular employee at just over $14 an hour.

$15 an hour is what the Burger King employees started at in the same facility, and this was supposed to be an "important" job.

Does anyone else have some interesting "getting fired/quitting" stories?

rhillary · 03-11-2008, 11:38 AM

Ouch, some of those stories sound painful.

Being freshly out of college, I have yet to experience a firing, and I have yet to leave a job without them knowing about it when I started (like going back to college from an internship/summer job).

BryceC · 03-11-2008, 11:46 AM

I got fired from CyRide for not responding to email when they knew I was in Australia. That was pretty sweet.

dosry5 · 03-11-2008, 11:50 AM

I once got fired from a grocery store for refusing to clean up after a customer who had vomited.

Drizzle · 03-11-2008, 11:59 AM

I got fired from Lowe's while I was in college because I refused to clean the womens restroom

One of my friends just got fired from his job. He went in on Monday, had a great day... His boss took him out for cocktails after work and paid for everything. On his way home, he was pulled over and received a DUI. His boss came and bailed him out and told him he was fired.

True story

Knownothing · 03-11-2008, 12:01 PM

Basically when I was in high school I would get fired about every 5 months for not showing up. Usually it was because something was going on I did not want to miss. The best was my first job at Micky D's. The manager acted like I was never going to get hired again. Like people care when you are grown up if you got fired when you were 14 years old from Micky D's for going to the high school football game on friday night.

CyinCo · 03-11-2008, 12:09 PM

I haven't ever been fired professionally, but back in junior high, I had a job bussing tables at a dive restaurant. I was under 16 and working until 1 and 2 AM which was illegal. The restaurant paid me in cash. Something like 20 bucks a night plus the nasty waitresses would give me some of the tip money. So there was a night where the place was unusually busy. I couldn't keep up with the tables. I was sweating right through my shirt and working as fast as anyone could have. Yet the owner came in and called me out and said I needed to work faster. I went off on that dude. I called him every name in the book and walked out and went home. I also told all my buddies who worked there not to work there anymore. The sucky part was I didn't get paid for working that shift and at that age $20 bucks is a huge deal to walk out on.

1100011CS · 03-11-2008, 01:32 PM

Never been fired or quit in my "professional" career. But, in high school and college I quit several jobs. When I was working at Dominoes in high school they scheduled me to work on the day of the Iowa Jam. Needless to say, I went to the Iowa Jam. The next day the manager, who was pretty cool actually, asked why I didn't show up. When I told him why he says, "oh I would have done that too, but you're fired"

Bobber · 03-11-2008, 01:36 PM

I got fired from my first job out of ISU. Lousy, Lousy experience. It all worked out for the best, but at the time I took those kind of things a little too personal.

Knownothing · 03-11-2008, 01:46 PM

yeah you can't take it personal. Even though sometimes it is. Always make sure you file for the unemployment. You pay for it. You might as well take it.

Some people think Unemployment is like welfare. It's really not. Unemployment is like insurance. You are paying for it every paycheck. So when you get the hook. Go ahead and take the money you have been setting aside if it ever happens. Don't feel like your above it. Just words of advice.

keepngoal · 03-11-2008, 02:00 PM

Unemployment checks .... funny. I have only lost one unemployment hearing in my entire management career (~60 or so). The one I lost I was on vacation when the notice arrived and came back from vacation the day of the potential hearing... so the former employee won. All still get the insurance, but we don't have to pay or have our rates go up.

But we only get rid of those that deserve it ... No call no shows, patterned behavior that has a track record of effort trying to fix.... stuff like that.

-keep.

tidbit · 03-11-2008, 02:05 PM

While working at a grocery store in high school, way back before many of you were born,I was fired three times from the same job. Reason, I refused to work as a sacker on Sun. morning. I was very involved with a church, singing in choir, filling the pulpit on special occasions, and doing youth things. The owner who only paid me $.60, yes 60 cents an hour NEEDED me as no one else would do it either.
Each time I was fired, the members of the church made a point to stop and tell him they were going to be shopping at the other store in town unless I was hired back.
He would call after a week and ask me back, but always refused to give me a raise, saying he could get others for the same rate. Since I needed the money as I was putting the groceries on the table for my mom and I, I never called his bluff.
I"ve never forgotten him, or the people of that church who supported me.

djcubby · 03-11-2008, 02:06 PM

The first job that I had out of college was for a company in Des Moines that is no longer around. They kept talking about how there were going to do an expansion in Des Moines so they brought in someone from another location to "get everyone ready." The very next day the site manager was out of a job. That sounded really weird to me so I started looking. As time went on, more and more upper management started to find other jobs so I took that as a sign to get the heck out of there. Not 6 months later, the Des Moines location was closed.

Flag Guy · 03-11-2008, 02:14 PM

Never been fired, but came damn close to walking out of a job a few times... I have never been so aware of how low I was on the ladder as I was at my first job in Ames... I was the dirt under the owner's feet

(it's also the only job I've worked directly for a private owner... I guess in retrospect the YMCA in Marion is privately owned, but I had a good number of layers between me and the owner)

I never did walk out on the job... I was about to one day when the owner went and bought us all Dairy Queen for break. Yes, I sold my soul and my dignity for Dairy Queen... (actually I sold it for the money I was saving up for Spring Break in Florida, as well as the additional discount I was recieving on Cyclone Merchindise, but thats just splitting hairs here...)

A number of other people did quit/were fired from that job though (In fact, not only was I the only employee hired at the beganning of the semester that didn't quit/wasn't fired, I think I was the only one that survived the 2nd round of hiring too... there is a high turnover rate there)
-One girl was working pretty much full time, after the first 2 weeks when the business was cutting back it's extra staff to the number they wanted for the semester, she noticed she wasn't on the schedule but they told her don't worry, you're working pretty much full time just come in. A week or two later one of the managers met her at the back door, told her she didn't work there any more, and wouldn't let her in

Not sure if that was planned or if it was for a reason, but yeah... pretty out of the blue
-Another girl gave them a 2 weeks notice, they said don't bother coming in those 2 weeks
-One day the place was going to be inspected by the fire marshell. Now I'm pretty sure the owner knew this was coming up, but he didn't do much until the marshel called and said he'd be there in a half hour. I wasn't personally there at the time, I didn't work until later that day, but 2 people quit that afternoon (I guess the owner was trying to take care of his known violations and yelling at people to move faster)

The list goes on, those are my favorites. I worked the full semester but certainly didn't come back in the fall (I was tired of being the cleaning boy... at one point in the semester I happened to have shaved my head, so I started wearing white T-shirts to work and made a name tag that said "Mr. Clean" because I could pretty much be assured that I'd be cleaning atleast most of my shift. Again... needed the money for spring break in Florida

cycloneace55 · 03-11-2008, 02:36 PM

I quit/resigned my first job out of ISU. I had been there 6 years and had been getting minimal raises pretty regularly. The company was falling on hard times (aerospace indusrty after 9/11) and I was promised a raise. Well a few weeks go by and then they told me the 5K raise was not going to happen. That happened on a Friday at around noon. I told them I was going to take the rest of the day off and come back Monday morning. When I got home there was a message on my voice mail from a contracting agency offering me a job that started at 30K more then i was currently making. Let see here, more money and less responsibility? Needless to say I went in Monday and typed up my 2 sentence letter of resignation and let them know that Friday would be my last day. I coasted the rest of the week, took a week off, and have been happily employeed ever since.