How did you know you were fired? (work, company, $10k)
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In my area there were cubicles. There was one cubicle that we all called the 'cube of doom'. We hired a lot of consultants. Everyone who was assigned that cube, about six people, had left for one reason or another. Our boss would claim to the company that he needed more room for his people, but he would leave that one cubicle empty. It was so strange.
In our (and others) company a person put on 'Special Projects' was headed out the door. The Special Project office person spent all day networking and reading the want ads in the paper. More polite than firing someone. Also, I guess they could not collect unemployment. I don't know, I'd never had to collect, luckily.
Your supervisor will start treating and talking to you different. Not rude, but not friendly and like they are distancing themselves from you. Normally they might talk to you friendly and smile etc. You just know when your messing up enough to get fired. Once you have a pattern of screw ups, I would start being worried
Never saw it coming. Only time it ever happened. My boss (a doctor) was putting his wife through school to get her MSW. He told me he couldn't wait until she was finished because he was going to put her a$$ out to get an f'n job. What he neglected to tell me was that it was MY job!
The day after I was let go, his friend (aldo a doctor) called me and asked me if I would come to work for him.
Never saw it coming. Only time it ever happened. My boss (a doctor) was putting his wife through school to get her MSW. He told me he couldn't wait until she was finished because he was going to put her a$$ out to get an f'n job. What he neglected to tell me was that it was MY job!
The day after I was let go, his friend (aldo a doctor) called me and asked me if I would come to work for him.
I should have seen the writing on the wall six months before I was terminated. They cut me to part time, from salary to hourly, and took away my paid holidays and most of my vacation. They told me if "I didn't like it" I could just resign. Then they gave me cleaning duties, like doing the bathrooms and emptying the trash (I was a legal assistant and cleaning anything is NOT my forte) after cutting the cleaning lady to two days a month. Then it was a crap shoot if I was getting my pay check timely on pay day, and if enough funds had been transferred into the payroll account to cover it. They used the excuse of DH's phone calls (we had bills to pay on pay day and a check delay caused us a lot of anxiety) to terminate me. 4:00 p.m., the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (I was set to use the remainder of my five-days-a-year vacation the next day), the partners called me into the conference room, handed me a box, my last check, and a memo that DH and I were no longer allowed on the premises. I'd worked there exactly ten years. They had someone changing the locks as I left. They didn't say goodbye to me.
On an interesting note, the senior partner's secretary (who didn't like me and had caused me difficulties since she was hired) was off that day. I know it had to have been planned. They had the recently hired associate (who also didn't like me and was really chummy with the other secretary) watch me clean out my desk. It was a hatchet job, after the personnel change I just wasn't wanted there any more. I was a fifth wheel, and they made sure I knew it. Also interesting, my replacement lasted only ten months.
Last edited by Mrs. Skeffington; 12-02-2012 at 04:08 AM..
I should have seen the writing on the wall six months before I was terminated. They cut me to part time, from salary to hourly, and took away my paid holidays and most of my vacation. They told me if "I didn't like it" I could just resign. Then they gave me cleaning duties, like doing the bathrooms and emptying the trash (I was a legal assistant and cleaning anything is NOT my forte) after cutting the cleaning lady to two days a month. Then it was a crap shoot if I was getting my pay check timely on pay day, and if enough funds had been transferred into the payroll account to cover it. They used the excuse of DH's phone calls (we had bills to pay on pay day and a check delay caused us a lot of anxiety) to terminate me. 4:00 p.m., the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (I was set to use the remainder of my five-days-a-year vacation the next day), the partners called me into the conference room, handed me a box, my last check, and a memo that DH and I were no longer allowed on the premises. I'd worked there exactly ten years. They had someone changing the locks as I left. They didn't say goodbye to me.
On an interesting note, the senior partner's secretary (who didn't like me and had caused me difficulties since she was hired) was off that day. I know it had to have been planned. They had the recently hired associate (who also didn't like me and was really chummy with the other secretary) watch me clean out my desk. It was a hatchet job, after the personnel change I just wasn't wanted there any more. I was a fifth wheel, and they made sure I knew it. Also interesting, my replacement lasted only ten months.
I've seen that kind of thing play out. It's like they took an immediate dislike - which is totally unprofessional - and made it their business to get you outta there. Actually, they did you a favor. These were evil and cruel minded people all along to fire you just before Thanksgiving. I now work in the legal field (but after this current job, never again!) and I've seen it all. People can be so cruel.
A very good friend of mine lost his father on the operating table. It was a rather routine angioplasty that's almost considered an outpatient procedure nowadays.
So, my buddy remained at his job 2000 miles away during the procedure.
When his Dad died, my friend's boss told him to take as much time off that he needed.
He went to the funeral and was out of town for 2 weeks.
There was a lot of stuff to take care of......
When he returned to work, his personal belongings had been thrown into a box on top of his desk.
When the CEO`s "Pet" employee (who doesn`t like me) published and emailed the company bulletin with MY job title added to HIS name and current job title (yes, he is that petty). This happened a few hours before I was called by my boss to come in for a "meeting" the following week, which turned out to be a "quit or be fired" meeting. The kicker: up until that point, I was the one who published the company bulletin for 2 years!
I've heard and witnessed so many awful firing stories. Sometimes it's really due to poor performance, and sometimes it's simply a clash of personalities. The only time I was "let go" (two weeks before Christmas), I joked with a friendly coworker before going into the meeting that I was either going to be fired or promoted. Sadly, the place was so dysfunctional that I honestly wasn't sure what was going to happen. I had been called to the office for meetings before, most of which were nonsensical show trials where I was expected to confess my failures ---which were never spelled out --- before the managers. Because the people who ran the place promoted themselves as egalitarian progressives, I had a hard time figuring out (naif that I was) that sometimes bosses that try hardest to seems "cool" and "open-minded" can be the worst sort of sociopaths.
Although it was painful at the time (and the unjust nature of my treatment still irks me when I think about it), my advice to the OP would be to prepare him/herself for the worst, try not to panic, and know that in the long run you it might be better to be in another position. It's a tough learning experience: even at the not-so-tender age of 40, I was surprised to discover how callous management can be, but it taught me a lot, and I'm glad I'm not there anymore.
I got fired once. I found out whilst reading the want ads on a plane to my grandfathers funeral. I was working at a oil changing place as a cashier/receptionist. Everyone there loved me besides the owner. Whenever he came in, it felt like he brought snow with him.
I called the manager from the plane (early 90's) and he said he was sorry and he forgot to tell me. *****! Turns out that's also when I found out I was pregnant. I learned early on that you can't count on anyone but yourself and to always be prepared for the unknown.
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