Have you ever been fired?

[Frank the Tank]

I was reading the Bell thread about the woman who was fired, and it occurred to me that I've never actually been fired from a job. I'm 46, have had many different jobs, ranging from full serve gas station attendant, retail clerk, doorman, warehouse worker and more recently, graphic designer, and for the last 6 or 7 years, HVAC Mechanic.

I have witnessed several EPIC firings. People being dragged out of a store kicking and screaming, to the police showing up to a job site to arrest the guy I was working with.

Anyone have some awesome firing stories? Either personal or witness to some like myself?

[rubecube]

Three times, back when I was around 18. The first one I told the boss I wasn't coming in one day and he responded by telling me if I didn't come in that I was fired. Second one, I just walked off a job site and never went back. The third one I got fired for being late because one of my classes ran late and I cared more about the class than the job.

[Dynamic]

No not yet! Same job since I was 19. But I'm only 30 now so I got lots of time.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Three times, back when I was around 18. The first one I told the boss I wasn't coming in one day and he responded by telling me if I didn't come in that I was fired. Second one, I just walked off a job site and never went back. The third one I got fired for being late because one of my classes ran late and I cared more about the class than the job.

Second job - You can't fire me I quit

[Frank the Tank]

Also had one guy at the warehouse grab the intercom and just start cussing everybody out over the loudspeaker. Pretty funny.

[malcolmk14]

When I was around 19 or 20, working the dinner rush in the kitchen at a restaurant. Owner's kid was the expeditor on the other side of the passthrough window and he just started going insane yelling and screaming. Told him to shut up and sprinkled in some colourful language and he told me to get out. Left my station with 25+ bills in the window at around 6:30 on a Saturday, went home and played Starcraft.

[GP_Matt]

Never been fired. On the other side, I have fired people and let people go. I have never lost sleep over firing someone as it was always deserved. Laying people off who have done nothing wrong is really hard to do even if it is required.

The first time I fired someone it was a guy who was over the moon when he got the job because it was his first job in a over a year and he would finally be able to afford to travel back to see his son. He turned out to be the laziest person I have ever worked with. We work outside in remote locations. By lunch every day he would start suggesting an early quit to go back to camp. The first time it rained he declared that he didn't work in the rain and would stay in his room that day. After a brief phone call his supervisor had to drive him back to town so that I could fire him.

It wasn't raining very hard and everyone else went out. The guys are pretty good about deciding on rain days and presenting a united front, in this case no one even considered calling it.

[GoinAllTheWay]

NSFW!

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Second job - You can't fire me I quit

It wasn't really that bad ass. I was just temping in a warehouse and walked out on my break.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I have a fascinating story about getting fired "with cause" but really it was without cause. They were just scum and didn't want to pay me severance and were looking for a reason to fire me.

I complained about the people who fired me to their bosses and their scumbag practices and got a big fat cheque and an NDA to sign in the mail about a month later.

[GP_Matt]

I had a buddy who quit from A & W over the lunch rush. He spent twenty minutes taking orders and telling the customer to wait the. Clearing their order and taking the next order. Once they got agitated he walked out and never looked back. He figured he had at l say twenty customers.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

When I was around 18 I got fired from the liquor store without cause but I didn't fight for severance or anything.

A new boss had taken over and she hated all of us young guys that work there so she fired every single one of us on August long weekend. And end up just being her and the assistant manager trying to run the store at the second busiest time of year behind Christmas.

We all got jobs almost instantly. And we had a great time laughing at the pub which was only a few doors down from the liquor store when they were so overwhelmed from working that they actually closed the liquor store on Sunday of the long weekend. And didn't even bother opening it on Monday.

[Dion]

I remember helping my dad put up drywall on the addition he built onto the family cabin. I wasn't experienced in this type of work and my dad was always an impatient type person. When we went to put a piece of gyprock in place to screw in he would always scream at me for not doing something right. Finally I had enough and said "Do it your ####ing self"! and left to drink beer with the neighbour. Never got asked to do anymore drywalling.

[FireGilbert]

Not fired but have been laid off twice in two different countries. Both times were handled somewhat professionally and I was given a couple hours to collect my things and say good byes.

Oh and back in university I was let go from a liquor store one day before my three months was up. The reason I was given was that they didn't have enough hours for me anymore but I'm pretty sure it was to avoid paying a bonus I was almost due.

[calf]

I got a customer service job that I didn't really like (and they didn't really like me) during university. Put in my 2 weeks notice after about 10 days on the job and they said "don't bother coming back".

[OutOfTheCube]

Only once - got fired from a dumb radio station street team job part time back in college. I cut out early one day to pick up my girlfriend from work. I asked everyone there if it was okay and they said it was. Apparently it was not as someone ratted to the boss.

[Hockeyboy2]

I got fired from painting the fence wrong when I was 9 years old. Does that count? BTW I had a great time playing PlayStation hockey after that happened.

[nfotiu]

I had graduated from Uvic with a business degree around 93 or 94. Wanted to stay in Victoria, but couldn't find anything in my field. I was living 3's company style in a basement with 2 platonic female friends. We had a great relationship with the landlord upstairs, and he got me a job with a startup on the island. It was a great gig, they were a 5 person shop. They had somehow acquired or leased the only fiber connection to the mainland and were selling dial up internet that was way faster than any of the big guys (I think we were the only ones you could actually max out your 56k modem on, lol). They also sold and supported the only 5 pin bowling computer scoring system in existence at the time. And were trying to see if web design was a feasible business (we were testing websites to make sure they worked on Netscape 0.9 beta and Mozilla) . I was the sole help desk for the dial-up and the bowling thing, figured my way around SunOS, and was the guinea pig tester for all their web stuff.

Then one day my landlord accused my girlfriend of moving in and our relationship went completely south. It completely pissed me off because we were spending half time at each place and I was helping her pay $500/month for a Victoria apt, which seemed like a substantial amount of money at the time.

A few days later, one of the owners came and told me he was letting me go and asked me to leave without any warning or reason. I went home crying and packed up and moved back to Calgary, went to SAIT for a couple years, and went on to a career in IT.

I always kinda wondered though what became of that company. I tried to look it up years later, but couldn't really figure if they split up, sold out, went under or made it big. I think some combination of all of the above.

[N-E-B]

Nope never been fired. Been laid off but that was for seasonal work.

Worst thing I ever did quitting a job was giving no notice. I got a new job out of nowhere that wanted me to start right away so at the beginning of my shift I walked in, told my boss today would be my last day, and that was it.

I've been threatened to be fired once but that was for driving carts too fast at a golf course I'd worked at for three years. I had a really good relationship with my boss there outside of that incident so I'm pretty sure it was an empty threat.

[Hockey_Ninja]

Yup. From Dairy Queen once after a week. It crushed my younger self's self-esteem for a bit but I eventually realized what a crappy job it was anyways.