Anyone ever get fired or quit

[KD in CA]

I've been involved a few management restructurings.

[PromoTheRobot]

I was "fired" once, 15 years ago. I say "fired" in quotes, because the company didn't want to call it that. It was for no reason other than the CEO having a strong dislike for me (for reasons no one ever figured out). They were trying to get me to quit ("constructive dismissal" - rather illegal), then tried to argue non-performance (a month after a stellar performance review), then tried to fire me because of bipolar disorder (highly illegal). That's when I threatened them with legal action...and that's when they finally came to their senses and said "Hey, we're in an at-will state, we don't need to invent a reason to fire him." They did, however, have to pay me a year's severance to keep me from suing them.

 

Then, two weeks later, they laid off half the company, with no severance. I left with a stupid amount of money, because they couldn't wait two weeks.

I'm shocked. You're so lovable.

[rockpile]

Laid off in January of 2014. Sucked. Making about 20% less now, but WAY happier. All's well the ends well.

 

I was laid of in 2007 after 27 years.

I spent 20 months at Corning Tropel, "contract-to-hire" as quality engineer, took about a $12K pay cut, and was laid off again.

 

Worked at a small manufacturer as a quality manager. That lasted for 12 months until they fired me for not completing engineering tasks I specifically told them I was not trained for and had never done, before I signed the offer. Dropped another $8K too. That was difficult, because I was treated like dirt for too long but had to get fired to insure I would get unemployment.

 

After a year on unemployment, I took an internet help desk job, that did not pay well, unless you were starting your career, but it was full time with good benefits. I needed that because two pills I take daily for MS would be $84K annually out of pocket. Four years later, I am still there but looking to make another change. I will keep this gig until another is found.

 

As far as salary? I make now what I made almost 30 years ago.

 

So much for Baby Boomers living the "high life". LOL

Edited April 29, 2015 by rockpile

[Gordio]

Got fired once from the Burger King I worked at when I was a junior in high school. This District Manager who use to come in once a week to check on things for some reason didn't like me. Alright I was kind of a wise ass back then. So one day he told me I wasn't making the burgers right so I told him do it himself. He then said "for a quarter I would take you outside & kick your ass" I flipped him a quarter & said "lets go." He then told me to get out & don't come back. I got him back though. I slashed his tires a week later. Yeah I was kind of an idiot back then.

[The Real Buffalo Joe]

Looking for new work. They're trying to change my schedule. Three options, none with Sundays off. I've worked s***ty schedules for five years to work my way up the ladder to a regular 7-4 M-F shift, and they're gonna screw me like that? Good thing is this happened now so I have four months before football starts.

Edited April 29, 2015 by The Real Buffalo Joe

[Gugny]

 

I was laid of in 2007 after 27 years.

I spent 20 months at Corning Tropel on a contract as quality engineer, took about 1 $12K pay cut, and was laid off again.

 

Worked at a small manufacturer as a quality manager. That lasted for 12 months until they fired me for not completing engineering tasks I specifically told them was not trained for and had never done, before I signed their offer. Dropped another $8K too. That was difficult, because I was treated like dirt for too long but had to get fired to insure I would get unemployment.

 

After a year on unemployment, I took an internet help desk job, that did not pay well, but was full time with good benefits. I needed that because two pills I take daily for MS would be $84K annually out of pocket. Four years later, I am still there but looking to make another change. I will keep this gig until another is found.

 

As far as salary? I make now what I made almost 30 years ago.

 

So much for Baby Boomers living the "high life". LOL

It will work out eventually. Good things happen to good people.

 

I was let go after 18 years. I knew I was overpaid and I knew it would come to an end someday via layoff.

 

Was unemployed for 3 months, but could not collect because I got a 19-week severance package; took a sales job to get some money flow, which was good flow, but I knew I'd be up against my own numbers in a year, so I began looking for something more my style as soon as I got there. It lasted about 9 months and I made decent money, as well as some very good friends.

 

Landed my current gig in early February agreeing to take less than what I was asking for. I figured I could prove my worth and things would work out. It worked out well and I couldn't be happier.

 

Good luck, man. I'm sure things will go equally as well.

Looking for new work. They're trying to change my schedule. Three options, none with Sundays off. I've worked s***ty schedules for five years to work my way up the ladder to a regular 7-4 M-F shift, and they're gonna screw me like that? Good thing is this happened now so I have four months before football starts.

Screwing you would be telling you to leave.

[Acantha]

My only experience like this was McDonalds in high school. I had a couple managers who thought they were god instead of, you know, fast food managers and I wouldn't take their crap. After mouthing off a few times they took away my trainer pay and refused my raise I was due (probably a total of about a whopping 50 cents/hr. or something like that). I decided I was going to walk out a few days later. Waited until a manager I was friends with got off shift right around mid-lunch rush and walked out.

 

It all seemed more dramatic at the time.

[Nervous Guy]

Just happened to me in January..spent the last 24 years working as a neuroscientist at a very well known pharmaceutical company...they "restructured" the department and a lot of us with the most experience were let go. It was out of the blue, never saw it coming. I got over a years severance, health care and unemployment for 6 months. Not bad...plus I turned 55 last year so I can do early retirement, pension, health care...but I'm not ready to be retired. I do realize now, after no replies from numerous job applications that I am totally qualified for, that the market for 55+ year old neuroscientists is dismal. However, it does look like I will have an upcoming interview with another company in the Midwest (I contacted an old colleague of mine who is now a senior director), they invited me to apply for an open position, they said they'll contact me in a few weeks when they start scheduling interviews. I'm hoping this will pan out, I don't want to be washed up at 55.

 

Struggling with "reinventing" (aka less pay) or continuing down the same path. It's the first time in over 40 years I don't have a job...I always "quit" to move on to better things...now I was kicked to the curb. Those bastards!! I gotta get a job, these honey do lists are killing me.

[PTS]

I was 18 years old and working my first real job at Tops. White trash customer comes in with his son and berates my manager for something she didn't have any control over. I believe we didn't carry some brand he wanted. She started crying. I went up to him and told him to take his business elsewhere. He threatens me and says they'll be waiting outside for me. Long story short, customer owned a construction company and I guess spent a lot of money at our store. The store manager told me I HAD to apology or else. I knew I did nothing wrong but after getting pressed hard to apologize, I told the manager that I would meet the customer before the start of my next shift. I never showed up again.

[LeviF]

Tended bar for about a month at this bistro around these parts in between jobs last year. The owner/executive chef was an absolute prick. This normally wouldn't bother me, since all chefs are pricks, but this guy took the cake. The guy once came out of the kitchen in the middle of dinner service to dress down a waitress for something that was actually his fault. He micromanaged the hell out of everything, but did a really awful job at it. He would advertise a certain special drink for dinner on some nights without even checking to see if we had the stuff for it, and then I'd show up for dinner service and have to explain to him that he needed to either change it or run to the store to get what we needed. Oh, and I usually didn't find out about these "special drinks" until I got there, even if I called and asked earlier.

 

On top of that, he made me wear a bow tie to work. A !@#$ing bow tie. And it couldn't be any bow tie, oh no. It had to be the faded clip-on one that they provided. !@#$ing !@#$.

 

Anyway, I was in for a lunch service one day and a waitress called out. No big deal, I can help the other waitress run food, since the bar isn't too busy during lunch anyway. But then the place fills up all of a sudden. And none of our other waitresses are answering the phone since we're looking for someone to come in really quick and cover. Ok, whatever, I'll be a waiter too, I'm just gonna be running around a lot. Then the waitress that's there starts feeling weird, runs out the back and pukes all over the dumpster. So now I'm the only person working besides the kitchen staff. After about a half hour of this, owner/chef finally blows up on me. And I start laughing at him. He goes, "Why the !@#$ are you laughing, you piece of ****?!" and I say, "You forgot that today's my last day, didn't you?" So I pulled off that ****ty bow tie, tossed it at him, and walked out the back door. Probably left about $300 in tips sitting at the tables in there but it was worth it to see his face as him and two kitchen guys are left with about 40 people out front with no waitstaff.

 

Started my new job the next week.

[Marv's Neighbor]

When i was in college, in the mid 60's, my uncle got me a summer job at Bethlehem Steel. I lasted 3 days, and quit.

 

Everybody wore a hard hat, and depending on where you worked, that determined what color hat you wore. If you were new, you wore a white hat, and I swear that the overhead crane operators would look for a white hat, to drop a roll of galvanized steel, about 2" from your as*! Between that and the S Buffalo RR switch engines, I was convinced that I was going to become an industrial fatality. The money was good BUT...!

[Helpmenow]

Quit a job, sold my car and sold everything and moved to San Diego. Worked at a large engineering firm

[Wooderson]

Took a 9-5 summer job at a small company, while also working nights at a pizzeria about 8 years ago. Turns out they were changing locations just at about the time I started working there. Instead of working a line/production job like I thought, I started moving all their furniture, supplies, inventory, loading trucks etc. I didn't mind because the work made the day go by fast and I was getting a good workout. Next, they started doing demolition to the new building. So now I was tearing down dry wall, ceiling tiles, insulation, etc. So I was getting paid a little more than minimum wage to do a demolition job. I went camping and took a long weekend off. Never went back the next week, didn't care either because the manager was a d-bag.

[LewPort71]

In my 28th year of working for the company and a week before Christmas 2003, the H R Manager calls to me his office and tells me I am to be laid off January 1. I was the Chief Chemist.

The other 4 lab techs were to continue work as 'contract workers" Salary only, no benefits. My first question was , "Who is going to be the Chief Chemist

and do all the analysis I do? " When he told me the name of the incompetent buffoon, I LOLed. My 'replacement' had a chemistry background but had ZERO

work ethic. I offered to train him and re-fresh his analytical knowledge. As we were training, the first question was not, "How are the balances calibrated? or Where are the chemicals

stored?" The first question was , "Who else can do this testing?" The lazy butts idea was to delegate the testing to the lab techs. Yeah right, have the guys

who just got 'de-benefitted' get more work dumped on them. And this work was beyond their skill set. So I continued the training until 12.31.

The training was not strong as the trainee was dis-interested.

I went to a varety of job search companies and offered my services as a contract worker.

On Jan 6, I received a phone call from the H R Manager. The essence of the call was "Please come back. We made a mistake."

So I came back and have been here since.

 

Side note. The weekend before the layoff we bought my youngest daughter a very nice comforter for Christmas. She picked it out and was concerned

that it was somewhat pricey. When I announced the layoff issue at dinner, she offered to take the new one back and she would use the olde one.

That was a sweet gesture by her.

 

Side note two. The incompetent buffoon was let go later in January. HA

[DC Tom]

Just happened to me in January..spent the last 24 years working as a neuroscientist at a very well known pharmaceutical company...they "restructured" the department and a lot of us with the most experience were let go. It was out of the blue, never saw it coming. I got over a years severance, health care and unemployment for 6 months. Not bad...plus I turned 55 last year so I can do early retirement, pension, health care...but I'm not ready to be retired. I do realize now, after no replies from numerous job applications that I am totally qualified for, that the market for 55+ year old neuroscientists is dismal. However, it does look like I will have an upcoming interview with another company in the Midwest (I contacted an old colleague of mine who is now a senior director), they invited me to apply for an open position, they said they'll contact me in a few weeks when they start scheduling interviews. I'm hoping this will pan out, I don't want to be washed up at 55.

 

Struggling with "reinventing" (aka less pay) or continuing down the same path. It's the first time in over 40 years I don't have a job...I always "quit" to move on to better things...now I was kicked to the curb. Those bastards!! I gotta get a job, these honey do lists are killing me.

 

Maybe the grocery store is hiring...?

[LeviF]

 

Maybe the grocery store is hiring...?

 

I heard Wal-Mart still employs the elderly as greeters. NG, you up for that rigorous task?

[Nervous Guy]

Yeah...funny **** right there...I should have expected as much...there I go and pour my heart out in a rare post then I get ridiculed and mocked...it's almost as if it's a plan to keep me from posting.......sayyyyy....

 

YOU BASTARDS!!!!

[ExiledInIllinois]

Fixed the age for you. Knew it was a miss print.

LMAO! Good catch mead!

 

Damn typos plenz! :-)

[plenzmd1]

In my 28th year of working for the company and a week before Christmas 2003, the H R Manager calls to me his office and tells me I am to be laid off January 1. I was the Chief Chemist.

The other 4 lab techs were to continue work as 'contract workers" Salary only, no benefits. My first question was , "Who is going to be the Chief Chemist

and do all the analysis I do? " When he told me the name of the incompetent buffoon, I LOLed. My 'replacement' had a chemistry background but had ZERO

work ethic. I offered to train him and re-fresh his analytical knowledge. As we were training, the first question was not, "How are the balances calibrated? or Where are the chemicals

stored?" The first question was , "Who else can do this testing?" The lazy butts idea was to delegate the testing to the lab techs. Yeah right, have the guys

who just got 'de-benefitted' get more work dumped on them. And this work was beyond their skill set. So I continued the training until 12.31.

The training was not strong as the trainee was dis-interested.

I went to a varety of job search companies and offered my services as a contract worker.

On Jan 6, I received a phone call from the H R Manager. The essence of the call was "Please come back. We made a mistake."

So I came back and have been here since.

 

Side note. The weekend before the layoff we bought my youngest daughter a very nice comforter for Christmas. She picked it out and was concerned

that it was somewhat pricey. When I announced the layoff issue at dinner, she offered to take the new one back and she would use the olde one.

That was a sweet gesture by her.

 

Side note two. The incompetent buffoon was let go later in January. HA

Please tell me you got a massive raise, a hot assistant and beer fridge for the office!

[Azalin]

Please tell me you got a massive raise, a hot assistant and beer fridge for the office!

 

Please keep me in mind if you ever need an employee.