Fired after 3 months

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

So... title. It happened the week before last. I'm an accountant, so there are only so many reasons it could have happened, but I'm a good accountant. Also, my boss offered to be a reference, which is really, REALLY strange. If I was a bad enough employee to be fired so quickly, that's not someone you want to be a reference for. Also, they gave me severance pay, but no reason beyond "it's not a good fit". I was never disciplined or written up, and given no feedback on my performance.

My fiance wonders if there were just too many things going wrong at once, and they needed a scapegoat. There were things going wrong. Checks to vendors weren't arriving, or were arriving after 2 weeks, the payroll clerk kept double-paying freelancers and handling the overpayment wrong [which I caught], and I was having trouble with many of the detailed work, since I was trained by the AR person, not my predecessor, so it was going off a quickie list without a LOT of the information I'd need to be successful.

But I'm starting a temp job on Tuesday. Hoping I can keep the temp work consistent or land a permanent job soon. My accrued vacation time covered nearly a week, and I still have the severance pay to fall back on if there's a gap.

Still, I wish I knew what had gone wrong so I could correct it. I don't have great interpersonal skills, which I've been working on for years, so maybe too many people just got rubbed the wrong way.

[Teskeria]

I admit to being cynical. It sounds to me what went wrong is you were finding and correcting the 'errors'. Makes me wonder if someone was attempting a pitiful embezzlement.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I admit to being cynical. It sounds to me what went wrong is you were finding and correcting the 'errors'. Makes me wonder if someone was attempting a pitiful embezzlement.

To easy to track. Everything for payroll was done through a third party payroll company [like ADP, only not ADP], most of the payroll is direct deposit, the duplicated invoices were easy to notice, it was different vendors each time, and all the overpayments were found by the vendors in question in their bank accounts. Also the payroll clerk in question was from a temp company [she may be gone as well because of this] since the usual person was out on maternity leave. So if someone was trying to embezzle, they were doing a piss poor job of it.

[greek_jester]

It could simply be that they wanted someone in cheaply to tide them over; temp rates tend to be much higher than wages (they've got to cover the temp's wages plus the commission for the agency); even with severance it could be that it cost them less to employ you short term than get a temp.

I fell afoul of this once of twice; I noticed one particular firm had adverts out regular as clockwork every 3 months. In the UK most jobs have a 3 month trial period where the employer can get rid of you without having to jump through multiple hoops. 3 months and 1 day? You're a permanent employee and they have to find a very good reason to bump you or they could end up in front of a tribunal.

[rose_metal_nz]

Yeah that sounds a lot like what I just went through... Same thing, no warnings, no complaints, offered to be a reference... But just under 3 months & out the door. Sucks

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

It's a thought, except there's no established pattern. The person I replaced was there for over a year. And they were paying the payroll clerk in question twice what I made through a temp agency, and the HR guy who helped fire me 3 times THAT through a temp agency.

[rose_metal_nz]

In my case it was a head-count thing. There wasn't a budget for the new staff member they wanted to hire (actually re-hiring an ex-staff member back ) so as I was last in, I was first out. Might be something like that for you.