Current Events > Have You Ever Been Fired?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Getting fired can be one of the most humbling, frustrating, or even freeing experiences depending on the situation. Whether it was totally unfair or 100% deserved, it happens to a lot more people than youd think.

So Im curious
Have you ever been fired from a job?

Only once, I gave my two weeks notice and my boss was clearly upset and told me not to bother coming in on Monday lol

I was happy to enjoy my 2 week vacation between jobs

No but I did quit one time 30 seconds after receiving the job offer when a much better one came in.

Technically I wasnt hired so I wasnt fired but apparently you can be blackballed for life if you reject a job offer.

Never. I don't have much of a varied work history though. Multiple jobs as a kid where I had an actual W-2. From the time I was 17 and signed up for the Navy though I have had 2 jobs. The military and my current job. I'm 49 and don't plan on any other job after I retire from my current job.

I've only had 1 job and I only worked that job for 1 year and I quit on my own terms. I worked at a grocery store. I went from bag boy to cashier to front end manager-like but never got a single raise and my parents made me quit because they wanted me to go to college instead. I would have stayed otherwise. I didn't go to college.

I was made redundant once as the area I was in was being wound down following a corporate restructure [I was in the computer department for a division that no longer existed] (I heard one person was kept on)
I'm not counting that as being fired

Over summer break in HS, I worked at McDonald's. On my next to last day there, I took sick while at work. I told the shift manager I want feeling well and needed to go home. She said, "ok see you tomorrow".
When I came in the next day, my last day, she met me at the door and told me I don't work there anymore. I told her today is my last day, and she told me, "no, yesterday was your last day. I fired you for unauthorized absence". She literally stood there and told me she didn't give me permission to leave the day before! I don't remember what I said after that, just that I went home pissed that I was going to miss a day of pay when I was looking forward to buying a new bike.

The 2nd and only other time I was fired was my fault. I oversold myself on my resume, aced the interview, and over the course of a couple months it was painfully obvious I didn't know what I was doing. When they called me in the office to let me go, I actually thanked them for saving me making a bigger fool of myself than I already had.

Yeah, I won't get into specific details but it was a bullshit group firing that I brought to court and got overturned into a mutual leaving, just so it wouldn't affect my work record.

bloodyarts posted...

Over summer break in HS, I worked at McDonald's. On my next to last day there, I took sick while at work. I told the shift manager I want feeling well and needed to go home. She said, "ok see you tomorrow".
When I came in the next day, my last day, she met me at the door and told me I don't work there anymore. I told her today is my last day, and she told me, "no, yesterday was your last day. I fired you for unauthorized absence". She literally stood there and told me she didn't give me permission to leave the day before! I don't remember what I said after that, just that I went home pissed that I was going to miss a day of pay when I was looking forward to buying a new bike.

I would have probably been too pissed to think clearly.

But if I could I would have pointed out to her that since it was your last day there was no reason. But if you were fired after she told you to go home not only would you be able to collect unemployment but you would also be able to sue for wrongful termination.

Does she want to lose her job too or can we just get through the day?

I was laid off in February, but that seems to be different based on your poll options. Nothing about unfair or deserving, as it was just a reorg.

Laid off only. They moved my job to the Netherlands.

Yes, unjustly. And I was offered the job back, but refused it.

Nope, but I would take a severance package in a heartbeat at this point in my career

NightRender posted...

Laid off only. They moved my job to the Netherlands.

Boss. Please, send me to the Netherlands.

I've had 8 jobs, been fired from 4. I know that sounds bad, but it's over a span of almost 30 years.

First job, I got fired for writing poetry on the clock. And the sad part is, it wasn't even good poetry. ^_^

Second job I quit to go to the third job.

Third job, I got fired for being late too many times.

Fourth job, I got fired for literally no reason (or if there was one, they wouldn't tell me).

Fifth job, I got fired because one day I just decided not to go in, and when I did go in the next day, they told me to hit the road. :D

Sixth job was a temp factory gig that I noped out of after a week.

Seventh job I quit because the business was closing.

Eighth job is where I'm still at.

DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC posted...

I've had 8 jobs, been fired from 4. I know that sounds bad, but it's over a span of almost 30 years.

First job, I got fired for writing poetry on the clock. And the sad part is, it wasn't even good poetry. ^_^

Lol. Were you 16 or 17 at the time?

And was it about a girl?

divot1338 posted...

Boss. Please, send me to the Netherlands.

In the reorg that did me in, some headcount was moved to Florida and people were given the option to relocate, knowing that no one would it. They would never offer for international transfers though.

Yeah, I was an idiot and gave a friend the employee discount and was let go a couple weeks later.

I was let go from my first job due to the Recession in 2008/09

Started in September of 08 and was let go in February 09

My 2nd job was with the same company but the circumstances I can't discuss as I'm NDA'd

Started in 2011, coming up on the 14th Anniversary of when I returned. Anyway after a shaky first few years I was getting better then things took a down in 2017, mum gets diagnosed with Stage IV womb cancer and I tried to keep it to the back of my mind, but after coming back after the new Year my mind went downhill and my performance was slipping, my boss kept asking if I was Ok and I kept saying Yes. Eventually I was put on sick leave, last physical day in the office was August 8th 2008 and I remember that as I had tweeted out something about a football score before I left. Anyway, I was then placed on sick leave, HR got involved and it got to the stage where they gave me 3 choices, one was 1-5 year break then come back, can't remember the next option but the last one was parting ways. I chose the final option. It was all over on the 22nd March 2019.

Closest I've ever come to being fired was a partner at the firm I was working at asking me if everything was alright or if I still wanted to work there anymore. Which was an good read on his part because I absolutely did not want to work there anymore and had started looking at new jobs.

We agreed that I work the upcoming busy season and that he would keep his ear to the ground for good opportunities for me to leave for.

DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC posted...

I've had 8 jobs, been fired from 4. I know that sounds bad, but it's over a span of almost 30 years.

You do you for real and I'm not trying to dogpile on you but being fired 4 times in 30 years still sounds pretty bad. Now if the context was a restructuring or something it would make more sense but you go on to point out that at least 3 of the 4 were legitimate firings. The writing/goofing off might be a little extreme to go straight to a firing but repeatedly being late and then just a straight up no show are totally legit firings.

You can't get fired if you've never had a job.

Got fired on a Monday morning an hour into my shift and was offered to stay and work the rest of the day. I think the manager was expecting me to agree to her request because she was surprised I walked out. Found out later that day that the next day would have been my third month working there so the Monday was the last day they could have fired me with no consequences.

Still makes me mad thinking about the way they handled that but a couple years ago I found that manager's obituary online so at least I'm doing better than she is right now.

My first job was working at a restaurant, and I quit when I left for college, at which point the GM tried to pull the "you can't quit because you're fired!" move because she claimed I hadn't given them any notice, even though I told them my last day when they hired me, brought it up regularly while I worked there, and also specifically mentioned it to her and the assistant manager again two weeks before the date, because apparently none of those were "formal" notice.

Yes, I don't think it was fair, and my life is far better off now that it happened.

I was working at Home Depot in 2009, I found a store credit on the ground in the parking lot for just under 2 dollars. I used it to buy a lemonade in the store. They found that as a fireable offense and canned me. I later got a job in transportation for 6 years serving people like a flight attendant but on a bus instead of a plane. Then I went back to school, got a BA in International Relations, and now work in administration for clinical trials software. This job is great. I even went to Japan and had lunch with Japanese co-workers in 2023. An experience I would never have working as a cart collector.

Fuck Home Depot, lmao.

Sayoria posted...

Yes, I don't think it was fair, and my life is far better off now that it happened.

I was working at Home Depot in 2009, I found a store credit on the ground in the parking lot for just under 2 dollars. I used it to buy a lemonade in the store. They found that as a fireable offense and canned me. I later got a job in transportation for 6 years serving people like a flight attendant but on a bus instead of a plane. Then I went back to school, got a BA in International Relations, and now work in administration for clinical trials software.

Fuck Home Depot, lmao.

Not sure if they should have fired you, but that is an ethics violation

bsp77 posted...

Not sure if they should have fired you, but that is an ethics violation

Oh, I know. But not a slap on the wrist or explanation. Just straight out firing. I don't care though. Far better off.

Oh this wasn't me but I have to talk about the shittiest firing I have ever seen first hand. I work for a major state university. I honestly have an AWESOME employer. I'm getting ready to start year 27 and simply put they have been amazing for 99.99% of everything to me and others as well. But the one time I felt they fucked someone over was at my job.

Now the guy legitimately deserved firing. He lied about a medical issue to get hired and then was gone for months and trying to get long term disability and blah blah. The guy deserved to get canned. HOWEVER. His days off were Sunday and Monday and he rotated with another guy who had Friday and Saturday off. I work at a power plant and he was an equipment operator who would run coal on the weekend.

They knew for like a couple months they were getting the paperwork line up to fire him. A bunch of meetings, here in the early morning at like 0500. Like you could feel it coming. But once it became "official" instead of doing it at the end of week like a Friday and then just paying overtime to another equipment operator to work on Saturday they let him work his normal day on Saturday when no management is here, let him go on his weekend and then when he came back on Tuesday morning they let him sit in the lunchroom and read the paper right up until 0730 when it was time for him to start work and then they fired him that day.

I always felt that was really dirty. Firing the guy on his Monday morning like that, not even having the balls to do it as soon as you saw him in the building none the less, and after you let him work on a Saturday because you didn't want to pay OT. Getting fired would be fucked but do it on a Friday so the guy has the weekend to clear his head and process it and start thinking about getting a job the next week.

Again my university is legitimately awesome in so many ways, but that was such a shitty move.

Out of the nine jobs I've had I've been fired twice.

Got fired from my first job at 15, for flipping another coworker the finger

Got fired from Lowes because I was on a final write up for my attendance, and lost a piece of equipment on the road

Nope. Still at my first job, 15 years later

Been fired twice, in two back-to-back jobs fresh out of college.

Without going into detail, the first time was due to being trained the wrong way to do something; now if I'd had a lick of sense I would've realized it was wrong in the first place, but it is what it is. A customer noticed me doing it this way and complained to the manager, who told me it would be fine as long as I didn't do it again and the customers didn't complain to corporate; sure enough, the busybodies complained right up the chain and I was fired the next day.

Still not exactly sure why I was fired from the job after that; it was without warning and no clear reason was given. It was a shit job tbh, but that was what compelled me to move back home and trigger my years-long spiral into depression.

Yep, while in training. My trainer told me to grab something out of a machine but the machine is supposed to be locked out before you do it and it wasn't and the trainer said as long as its close to the edge its fine. Another operator saw me and reported me, the company had a zero tolerance policy for breaking LOTO rules so I was escorted out.

Only from my first job in 07. I worked at a gas station and had one of the busiest shifts. It was common for people to pump gas and then drive off w/o paying. Somehow I got blamed for it. Not like I coordinated it and wtf did they want me to do? Go out to the pumps when I had a line of people at the register and confirm if they were going to pay before letting them pump gas?

No, I have not been. I've only ever had an internship and my current job, though.

Does getting the boot because COVID shut down the workplace count.

Yes, and while I don't think it was fair, I was fine with it happening because I had a job interview planned after my shift that day anyway.

Was an assistant general manager for a fast food place when it happened. One of our shift managers was getting daily complaints from the rest of the team sent to me about her. I did try talking to her about stepping her performance up with no luck. She even complained about my private talk with her on Twitter and said things that were dangerously close to slander territory out of anger, so after a while I decided to talk with our GM about it. Unfortunately, the GM was a well-known sexist there, so she excused the problems going on saying, "Oh, leave < lazy manager> alone. She has a lot going on outside of work." The out of work problem being her dog dying, but these issues have been going on even before then. Once nothing improved, I contacted our regional supervisor (unfortunately the aunt of the GM) to have a meeting to discuss everything.

During the meeting, they let me have my say, then disregarded it to moved on to say they didn't like how I was "friendly" with the other team members, an example being when I went to breakfast with a few of them a couple weeks prior (nevermind the fact the shift managers smoked together with non-management they met at the job regularly, along with concerts, hockey games, drinking, etc.). Something our GM even approved. Someone else also went through another team member's phone after they saw them talking with me on Snapchat one night, so they took a picture of our conversation and sent it to the GM because we were both laughing at and praising one of our new employees who was great with people, but had hilarious quirks like barking while cleaning. Nothing negative was said; we loved that employee. But they let me go. My interview that day did leak at some point, so that could have also played a part on just ending everything there.

The only thing I didn't like was they didn't remove my contact information from our security company's list, so when a delivery driver failed to properly disable the alarm before entering at 2am, I got a call waking me up about it because I lived a three minute walk away.

Gave me time to finish both NieR:Automata and Persona 5. And I did ace the interview for a better job, along with getting a second job the following week just to be safe.

Laid off during an downsizing once. Term limited at one job once, though I was able to rejoin in a permanent position six months later.

Yes, but my answer would be somewhere between options 1 and 2. I mean I was doing some stuff that definitely should've gotten me fired (let's just say it helps when you have prices memorized) but when I was finally let go it was supposedly because of a bunch of money missing from the safe. They changed the combination so I couldn't even get in the safe, but the owner's son could, although the owner denied it saying an 18 year old had no need for extra cash.

I was fired from a small grocery store with no warning. Owner called up and said it was due to my schedule (I could only work 2 shifts a week since I was in school) and for "performance reasons" even though I had literally never had anyone talk to me about poor performance. The owners turned out to be pretty shitty and liars and let other people go for dumb reasons as well. If they had just said it was due to my schedule needs I would have understood but they made some bullshit up to go along with it.

edit: oh and I was laid off from another job twice for non-performance reasons, a company which I still do part time contract work for

I've been laid off but never fired

Got fired from Walmart back in 2009. I was in college and knew I wouldn't be there too long. I had a bad attitude and showed up high and/or hung over more than once. Got fired for receiving a bunch of customer complaints and being "fresh" with my supervisor.

Yeah, but I deserved it.

Considering I've held a handful of jobs. 2 grocery stores, 2 restaurants. Military, then working for my self. None I got fired. He'll the last restaurant was the reason I later worked for my self. I enjoyed my time, but felt like I was spinning wheels. I later learned that people were talking behind my back to the owners. The well was poisoned so I joined the military. So all of them I quit.

Just once and it was definitely bullshit. The boss was extremely dumb and could barely communicate. He never read emails long enough to know what they were about and couldn't respond in a full coherent sentence to save his life. If I asked him what the hell he was talking about, he would just tell me I should know, or why am I asking him what to do.

He would constantly tell me I wasn't doing things right (my job was basically just passing emails between clients and other departments) and actively refused to tell me what I was supposed to change. And it was apparently my job to respond to emails when someone was directly asking him a question I couldn't possibly know the answer to, but not too soon, but also not too late; wait for him or my direct superior to respond, unless they don't, then I should have already. It was absolutely infuriating.

Once and it was complete horseshit and fucked me up for awhile

Company I worked for came under new management who decided that I should be on a team with the IT guy. Had said IT guy start training me on a Friday after lunch.

Got in Monday morning to discover IT guy had been fired and I was the new IT guy, without the title or compensation.

Following that was two weeks of nothing really working because three hours of training before a weekend was oddly not enough to make me ready to take on the work of someone whod been doing it for like a decade.

Got fired and when I applied for unemployment I was denied because the company said I actively sabotaged them. Then my final paycheck came in and was bumped down to minimum wage for the hours I worked. Couldnt find a good job for awhile so I had to drop out of college because I was paying for it myself (community college and just a couple classes at a time)

Yeah

I was laid off from a job before. It was frustrating since the boss was on vacation at his beach house in Mexico when he sent an email saying I'm beeing let go due to the company having financial hardships

Fired? No. Laid off? Yes.