fired after 2 days on the job

[Markola]

Life is precious, and just be thankful you didn't waste your life at that place. I wouldn't work under a camera for some fat cat in Florida exploiting my labors.

And I hate to say it, but not allowing time for lunch and two 15 minute breaks in an 8 hour shift is illegal. People cannot work efficiently if they're pushed to 110%.

+1.

 

[Maenad]

DH was almost fired for wearing a baseball cap into the office (he took it off when he reached his desk). Apparently the CEO had a truly amazing hatred of them, and he was warned that if he'd been seen by the CEO, he would have been walked out.

I've also known people who were fired with good reason.

OP, I agree that this is a good learning experience. Try to assess your behavior objectively, and if you made a mistake, don't do it again. If the boss was psycho, consider this a lucky break.

We all like to think our behavior is just fine and everyone else is a jerk, but if your behaviors don't match up well with your boss's expectations or a company's culture, there will be negative effects. All we can do is find a better fit, or if nothing fits, admit it's us and change. We can all act pretty much any way we want as long as we're willing to accept the consequences, positive and negative.

 

[littleb]

Could the owner have based his decision on your age?

 

[Bestwifeever]

I should say the office camera was not hidden.

But I didn't think too much of it until the office manager told me that factored into the decision to fire me.

The other person in the office was the shipping manager. I was suppose to learn from him.

I think the office manager is blaming the owner and just didn't find you a good fit with them. It would be hard for anyone to mesh in a small office with two people who have been there a long time.

 

[Big_Hitter]

The more I think about it the more the idea of a video camera is rather creepy.

well I'd say you didn't have that much autonomy

more than creepy, micro managing creepy

 

[calmloki]

At some point in the early 80's I worked for a car dealership as a mechanic. There were several big cameras pointing into the repair bays, and I didn't appreciate the one that stared down on me. In the corner of the shop was a long stick for measuring levels in the underground tanks and I decided to adjust the camera view. Got the stick, pushed the camera lens up so it could look across the ceiling, got fired that afternoon. Worked out well, as it was the last time I ever worked for anyone other than myself. Had pretty good rapport with my boss thereafter.

 

[Diver]

Look

 

[aaronc879]

To my knowledge I've never been on camera except at entrances and perhaps some hallways. But I've never worked in retail, and only before college grad on a quasi-manufacturing floor.

The places I have worked for the last 15+ years where I have been on camera constantly are manufacturing floors and clinical research clinics. At this point I can't imagine working somewhere where I wasn't on camera.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I knew a guy once who quit after four hours because he got a better offer. Not sure if he had the gall to demand to be paid for that gig or not.

State laws vary, but back when I got laid off many years ago, unemployment was only available for being laid off but not for getting fired. Also, this sounds like a non-exempt (hourly) position so while employers are not required by Federal law to provide lunch breaks they are required to pay for all hours worked, including working through lunch.

But after two days, it's probably not worth pursuing either of these issues. Just be glad you found out what a **** that employer was after such a short time.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Look

You got me, I looked!

 

[MRG]

I knew a guy once who quit after four hours because he got a better offer. Not sure if he had the gall to demand to be paid for that gig or not.
.

We hired 6 newbies for general labor. By noon they'd all run off. Quite literally, one guy who didn't have a car ran away down the road.

 

[Music Lover]

The more I think about it the more the idea of a video camera is rather creepy.

They won't be going away anytime soon. Too many people abuse company time and/or company equipment.

One of my friends is a heavy duty mechanic and drives a company van. Last summer, GPS systems were installed in all of the company vehicles, and every employee knew this. In spite of that, within a week 2 employees were caught driving the company vehicle miles away from where they were supposed to be, and one of them put 50 miles of personal use on it one evening after work hours.

 

[Sunset]

They won't be going away anytime soon. Too many people abuse company time and/or company equipment.

One of my friends is a heavy duty mechanic and drives a company van. Last summer, GPS systems were installed in all of the company vehicles, and every employee knew this. In spite of that, within a week 2 employees were caught driving the company vehicle miles away from where they were supposed to be, and one of them put 50 miles of personal use on it one evening after work hours.

Even when retired.
I go out to get groceries, and then maybe stop at the homedepot to look at parts, or harbor freight to check out tools.
When I get home DW says "What took you so long?"

 

[Texas Proud]

They won't be going away anytime soon. Too many people abuse company time and/or company equipment.

One of my friends is a heavy duty mechanic and drives a company van. Last summer, GPS systems were installed in all of the company vehicles, and every employee knew this. In spite of that, within a week 2 employees were caught driving the company vehicle miles away from where they were supposed to be, and one of them put 50 miles of personal use on it one evening after work hours.

I will tell you about stupid...

My mega was transitioning people that worked on their real estate to an outside firm... they were told months in advance that they were going to be drug tested since the new firm drug tested all employees.... well, we had one higher level guy fail!!! He was a good employee, had been with the firm for years and the EVP liked the guy.... but, he could not get the new company to hire him... BTW, it was a drug that is should be out in days....

 

[NW-Bound]

At all places that I worked, engineers had fast computers with Internet access. This proved highly valuable, because one could look online for IC specs to use in the design, and researched highly technical published papers in the company internal archive as well as the outside database of professional societies' papers (the corp paid a lot of money for this).

Of course there's abuse. One engineer, this one holding a PhD from a prestigious school back east, was caught surfing the Web for porn and storing it on his PC. Not too smart, eh, particularly as he should know that they monitored and logged the Web sites that employees frequented. He was promptly escorted out when they discovered this.

The above proved what I always thought. That is having an advanced degree, even from a prestigious school, is not sufficient proof that one is not an idiot. I wonder how he went home to explain to his wife that he got fired.

PS. The corp did not announce how this guy got fired, but it leaked and the word got around.

PPS. I believed the story, because one time I was walking by his cubicle, and saw that he had a photo up on his screen. He closed it, but not fast enough for me to not catch it. I did not mention it to anybody, and learned of his firing after I had left the company.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

We hired 6 newbies for general labor. By noon they'd all run off. Quite literally, one guy who didn't have a car ran away down the road.

 

[Music Lover]

Of course there's abuse. One engineer, this one holding a PhD from a prestigious school back east, was caught surfing the Web for porn and storing it on his PC. Not too smart, eh, particularly as he should know that they monitored and logged the Web sites that employees frequented. He was promptly escorted out when they discovered this.

Reminds me of another story...5-7 years ago our fair city announced a crackdown on "john" arrests, which went as far as impounding vehicles in order to stem the prostitution trade. The nightly news had regular stories about arrests. A good friend of mine was a civic employee and his immediate supervisor had access to a city vehicle...yup, the idiot was arrested during work hours with a hooker in a city car. The city car was impounded, and the incident resulted in him losing his job...and, of course, he was left with the uncomfortable task of explaining why he was fired to his wife and kids.

 

[NW-Bound]

Many guys have their brain not in their head but elsewhere in their private parts. We see this all the time, and in high public jobs too.

 

[exnavynuke]

I was famous for falling asleep in meetings...but I rose to the C suite anyway! Luckily I usually could wake up on cue and sound like I knew what was going on....

We had a guy show up for his 1st day at 8am, had a 9 am meeting with his boss, the department head, and 3 representatives from a client. By 10 am he was gone courtesy of sleeping through most of the meeting by that point.

 

[Yarnstormer]

I can see how you could fight this - but considering the florida creeper situation I would not want to. Can't help but wonder if it was your "looks" unless you were napping on the desk or something!

 

[Texas Proud]

I was famous for falling asleep in meetings...but I rose to the C suite anyway! Luckily I usually could wake up on cue and sound like I knew what was going on....

Missed this, so glad someone quoted you on it....

I would fall asleep at times... usually when nothing needed to be done and I was tired... but at my desk... when I had an active job I never fell asleep...

My bosses always said I did more work than anybody else they had so it was not an issue... however, so others at lower levels would get pissed and bring it up to their boss...


When I was young we did have a guy who was good at his job that would fall asleep in meetings... but, if someone called on him it was amazing that he could answer the question that was asked!!! Not making some kinda talk, but actually answer the asked question.... some people tried to trip him up, but nobody ever did...

 

[Teacher Terry]

The whole thing sounds bizarre and i think you were better off to not be there. My DIL works in a casino so of course everyone is on camera but other then a job that requires it I find it bizarre.

 

[brucethebroker]

Taught high school for a couple of years after college, back in the 70's.

Our principal had a habit of turning on the loud speaker in the classroom and "monitoring" the teachers. But each time he did it, there was an audible click in the system. A good friend, who was tenured, would stop his class whenever he heard the click with "shhhh! Be quiet now. Mr. Principal must have an important message for us. Go ahead, Mr. Principal." After a couple of times, the principal left that teacher alone.

 

[pb4uski]

In my first job we had a guy (before I was hired) who was called the "one-day wonder"... never showed up for the second day of work... no notice, no nothing... he just stopped coming in.

 

[NW-Bound]

In college I worked a 10-hr shift on Friday and Saturday nights on an assembly line in an electronic factory. This 20-hr/week part-time job ran from 4pm to 2am. We had 1 dinner break, then another short break.

One night, there was a new guy who walked out at the short break and did not come back. The work was tedious, and he could not hack it.