Have you ever been fired?

[joesxm3]

My first job out of college was a "career" at the Southland Corporation (aka 7-11) - clerk minimum wage. We had a nice little group - manager, my roomate at the time, Italian girl with large breasts (but I digress), manager and other guy.

I took a job in the parts dept of a VW dealership (career move). However I could not move myself to tell them I was quitting at the 7-11 so I worked daytime at VW and nightime at 7-11. I was gwtting really tired after three weeks of this.

Just about this time I finally saved up enough to buy a water bed - no more sleeping on the floor for me.

On the day the bed was installed I went to work and the guy from corporate showed up. He took us in the back one by one and explained that we were being fired because they suspected that someone was stealing from the store.

I was so tired by that point that I just looked the guy in the eye, shook his and and told him "thank you". The look on his face was priceless.

The ironic thing was that the one guy they kept was the only one we thought might have been stealing.

I cut back to the one job and eventually became a computer programmer once I realized that my brain was athrophying at the parts dept.

The girl's father was a surgeon so she caved in and took the job he was pushing as an aide in the cardiology unit.

My roommate went to work at the local head shop. I guess two out of three ain't bad.

 

[FIREd]

I was laid off in 2002 from my first job as a scientist for a start up biotech company. The company ran out of money (we were unable to find new capital to continue operation and at the time the stock market was not suitable for an IPO). As employees, we knew we were having problems raising new funds, but we did not know how dire the situation was. Plus we had a good, innovative product and we were sure somebody would step in and bail us out (maybe big pharma). One day at 10:00 am the CEO called for an immediate staff meeting over the intercom and by 10:30 we were all laid off except one of us who was left to clean up the place. One good thing came out of this: My wife and I got 2 brand new computers for $100 each when the company's assets were sold at auction a few months later...

 

[CyclingInvestor]

In 1997 I saw the writing on the wall and lined up a new job to start in 3 weeks.
The next day when I was brought in to get the bad news about my layoff, my
counter-proposal of 3 weeks of halftime work (cleaning up one of my old
projects in another department) / vacation was accepted - my
boss saved 2 weeks of salary overhead, I qualified for the annual $6K 401k
match (which did not come out of my boss's budget).

 

[FinanceDude]

This is a true story:

I was fired once in my life........almost exactly TWO months to the day that I was named EMPLOYEE of the MONTH, because a higher up guy's brother needed a job.........

Oh well, it's kinda funny now........

 

[kaudrey]

I got fired from my first ever real job. I was 16 and working in a bakery. The owner of the bakery had a falling out with the manager, so he fired the manager. The next day, he decided to fire her whole staff because he thought we would have loyalty to her and be mad.

I showed up for my shift at 5am and he told me my services wouldn't be required anymore.

 

[calmloki]

I got fired from my first ever real job. .....

Hey - me too! Pumping gas/restocking shelves at a convienience store gas station on the way to the coast. Worked Sundays and it was BUSY - which made it awkward that I had to hand the gas payments to the store owner so they could run the till. Someone came in and wanted 1/2 regular and 1/2 premium. Went in and told the owner something like $8 out of $10, went back out to give the change to the driver and the owner came rushing out, sure that I had only pumped $4 worth of gas and was somehow skimming some of the change. The driver jumped right in and told the owner I'd done just what he'd asked and that he had the right change, but I didn't work there after that.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Many many times! And always re-hired by the same company, different department a few days later. Projects come and go, contacts remain. A couple of times I was devastated and then found out the full reason: the entire depart. was eliminated, or hey, it was him or me and they were afraid of him.

 

[Fireup2020]

I worked part time in a sub shop in VA while on active duty in the Navy. Shame on me, but I had my Navy buddies come in, buy sandwiches, and dress them the way they asked. I was fired after 5 or 6 weeks for putting too much meat on the subs! (per the increased customer's requests!)

 

[clifp]

Fired from my two early jobs in High School. Mowing lawns I really wasn't very good and didn't care.My second job was at a Pet Store. I was fine at the retail end cash register, helping customers select fish, pet supplies, but more than 1/2 the job was grooming dogs, which neither I nor the dogs owners were happy with.

Got laid off once in Silicon Valley, when a competing software firm, promised OEMs that their new operating system would be much better than my companies and cost 1/5 as much. The vaporware plus bad execution on our part killed the compnay. The other company was a Microsoft and the product Windows. Bill G was right it just took about 5 years instead 6 months like he promised... oh well.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I've been sacked more than once. I learned that there are some jobs I am not suited for. I also discovered that I do not cotton to being a wage slave. Happy today as a contractor in the brave new world of labour shortages.

Cheers,

Gypsy

 

[Robert the Red]

Never been fired or laid off.

Once had to 'fire' a graduate student in our program who just wasn't progressing and didn't want to do anything about it. I was kind of nervous (the job fell to me as head of the graduate program), and the other professors said I came across as "icy". However, he got a "real" job pretty quickly as a computer consultant, and was soon making what I was as an Associate Professor.

Jerry Garcia's "what a long strange trip it's been" pretty much describes most people's lives, I think.

 

[tryan]

Not sure what the difference be fired and laid-off is. Either way you're recognized and rewarded. My letter said my position was "eliminated" ... is that fired or laid off?? Not sure ... don't care.

Took a 20 year severence package on my fateful day.

 

[wildcat]

Not yet. I had the a pretty nasty experience at work this week. We missed our Q numbers pretty badly so in response to that I got a call from a VP asking me to give him 2-3 names of people that will be let go next Friday (oh and "keep it quiet" he added). Have to cut costs. A bad feeling indeed, really makes you think .

 

[GatorBuzz]

Was fired quite few times before I was an "adult." Got fired from an orange grove job, Hardee's, busing tables at an Inn, and was laid off from the field house while in college. Thankfully, I've never been fired in my adult life.

 

[Martha]

Not sure what the difference be fired and laid-off is. Either way you're recognized and rewarded. My letter said my position was "eliminated" ... is that fired or laid off?? Not sure ... don't care.

Took a 20 year severence package on my fateful day.

I figure "fired" means you ****ed up.

 

[Donzo]

Yes...my first job. I was a restocker at a mid sized grocery store. The manager was a chain smoking overly motived A-H. He would stand and watch me restock -- in the beginning is a task to find where all the various products go and having this 50 something micro manager watching me from the end of the isle....kinda slowed me down even more ---I was'nt restocking to his speed satisfaction. When he laid me off, It really changed my mindset, while I had always planned on going to college - this, at the time painful experience motivated me to go for education as a means to an end.....

But, gotta say my summer job in college was working for a beer distributor--that was one of the best times I ever had -- hard work - but lots of interesting situations. Good thing I had that first AH micromanager boss........who knows?

 

[Fred333]

I got fired from a job when I was in college. It was over something stupid, but I learned a valuable lesson to always be looking for the next job and to never settle.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

fired while working for a small weekly newspaper coincidentally just at the same time the managing editor's niece got to town looking for my, um, i mean, a job.

 

[tightasadrum]

Never for cause, but almost.

I was responsible for quality at a major megacorp plant. Sister plant designed a new product in X months that should have taken twice as long to get it right. Upper management knew how long it should take, not the design engineers. Anyway, sister plant was closed due to business cycle, so we took over the product which started failing all over the place. GM was fired. New GM called me in for annual review and castigated me for doing such a sorry job, and if I didn't do better.... There was not much more I could have done, so I didn't change a thing and stayed with my plan. Twelve months later the same GM couldn't say enough about what a great job I was doing. Still had not changed a thing, just statistical fluctuation
Several years later we were purchased and plant was closed. Picked up by a plant run by new owner. Two years later they closed that one too. I got severence money, twice. Bought two rental houses with the first pile of cash, and I can't recall what happened to the second pile.

 

[armor99]

I was fired once in my very early career. The job was decent (full time engineering) at the time, and I really needed the money because I had just moved to a new location. I wound up working there around 8 months. And the day they came to find me to tell me I was gone... I was actually on the assembly line putting together product because we were short for the month, and all the line workers had already gone home.
I was out of work for almost 8 months, and my finances got dangerously low before I found another job. Apparently it was a really bad time for engineers that year. The funny thing is... I look back at it now and realize that it was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. It made me realize that any job could go away tomorrow, and that I needed to save enough so that I did not depend upon other companies to support myself. To this day, I still view all of the assets I have in terms of, "how long can I be out of work before I become homeless". And now as I sit here typing this, I consider all that has happened between now and then. Wow... must have been 9 years ago for me now. And now my salary has more that doubled what that first job was, and the only debt I currently have is my house. Somehow for me... knowing that I can be out of work for over a year if it got desperate enough, helps to keep me relaxed...

 

[Caroline]

I was actually on the assembly line putting together product because we were short for the month, and all the line workers had already gone home.

Boy does that ring a bell, Armor99. I was laid off after three years of kicking BUTT at my first job out of college. Huge raises, letters from clients on how good my work was (and I was in Marketing, fer heavensake!), great new programs that are still in place 15 years later...

I was there early morning, late at night, and on the weekends. But they went public and laid off 1/4 of the company so they could maximize management's net worth at the expense of their loyal employees.

But, as you say, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I've come a long way since but never again have I worked more than an average of 40 hrs a week. If I have to go over due to travel, deadline, etc. it comes off somewhere else.

AND... this was the event that got me interested in FIRE in the first place.

I should probably go back there and thank them... ;-)

Nah...

 

[Spanky]

But, as you say, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I've come a long way since but never again have I worked more than an average of 40 hrs a week. If I have to go over due to travel, deadline, etc. it comes off somewhere else.

AND... this was the event that got me interested in FIRE in the first place.

I should probably go back there and thank them... ;-)

Nah...

Yup! Life is too short to spend hours and hours at the office or meetings in pursuit for advancement. My boss has been asking me to get more into a managerial or leadership role. I keep telling him that I am interested and would prefer to be an individual contributor.

 

[heyyou]

About 1978, I was suspended for six weeks not long after buying my first house. I had about $2000 saved and spent $1200, mostly on 2 monthly payments. I vowed that never again would I be unprepared for job loss, or to think that Mega-Corp was on my side. I'm now grateful for the motivation that led to FIRE.
Notice that most posters learned valuable lessons from their bad experiences and eventually profitted from that knowledge.

 

[Webzter]

Haven't been fired; have so far been unsuccessful in my hunt to be laid off.

My attempts at the last company were comical, I guess. The company was in the middle of a large layoff prior to outsourcing IT. I went to my manager, my VP, and the CTO and asked them all if I could be laid off. They all laughed at me and told me there was no way they could let me go. The CTO laid himself off two days after that. I was able to get the package for one of the guys on my team that really wanted out, but I couldn't do anything for myself.

My current employer is going through IT outsourcing now as well. My boss understands very clearly that, if our group is going to lose any people, I want out. However, they're in the middle of moving our entire group to a safe haven where we'll be untouchable.