Thanks for Getting Me Fired, SC!

[dougiezerts]

Have any of you ever actually lost your job as a result of an altercation with an SC? I haven't, thank God, but I sometimes fear I will!

[KellyHabersham]

One of my co-workers at Macy's almost had that happen after she had a nasty encounter with what turned out to be a mystery shopper.

[Mnemjian]

YES

It took me a long time to stop getting mad whenever I thought about this. But of course, right after I got fired, I was offered a much much better job and have been working here 3 years now so really it all worked out.

I used to work as an HR assistant for a non-profit. I thought it would be a good idea to post job openings on craigslist, which did help us get a lot of applications. Of course, being a non-profit, we paid less for the jobs (because you're supposed to think of it as a partial donation of your time to a good cause or some such nonsense ). Anyway, I would often get emails from people who were SHOCKED AND HORRIFIED that we were paying so little for these jobs. I would usually just ignore them. But then, I was getting so many so I thought I should explain why the salaries are lower. So I had a copy-and-paste email for them that said something like, "Thanks for your interest, blah blah, we pay less because we are a non-profit, etc."

SO!
This one lady emailed me one day with the same old complaint, except for she seemed really offended by it! She said it was disgraceful that we paid so little and that her business that she ran paid a living wage etc etc etc. So I sent the email reply to her, but just to mess around, I addressed the lady, who called herself "Mrs. Elsa" to "Mr. Selsa" just to be a smartazz. Well she FLIPPED THE F**K OUT and emailed me back how disrespectful I was and this and that and I had offended her. Then she sent emails to my CFO, my boss, and the frickin president of the non-profit detailing how insanely rude I was! I could not believe it. I wasn't really worried because she CC'd the email and it was really not rude at all. She had also said she called (LIE) and that I had been rude to her on the phone.

Nevertheless, I ended up being fired because apparently she knew one of the board members (read: spoiled rich old people who have nothing better to do than to be "philanthropists" by insisting on new stupid rules for the minimum-wage workers to follow) and the board member told the CFO this and that about how upset her friend was and that I must have said some really rude stuff to "Mrs. Elsa". Well, you can imagine how pissed I was. To my boss' credit, he seemed really embarrassed and sad that he had to fire me, but the CFO was his boss and the board members were the CFO's boss, so I guess I don't really blame him.

But! That job kind of sucked anyway. And the funny thing is is that I totally agreed with "Mrs. Elsa" that they did not pay enough

[cinema guy]

This one lady emailed me one day with the same old complaint, except for she seemed really offended by it! She said it was disgraceful that we paid so little and that her business that she ran paid a living wage etc etc etc.

...

Nevertheless, I ended up being fired because apparently she knew one of the board members (read: spoiled rich old people who have nothing better to do than to be "philanthropists" by insisting on new stupid rules for the minimum-wage workers to follow) and the board member told the CFO this and that about how upset her friend was

So she made a bix fuss to her friends on the board because she thought you were rude. But she didn't make a big fuss to them because she thought they were underpaying you.

Nice.

[depechemodefan]

Nevertheless, I ended up being fired because apparently she knew one of the board members (read: spoiled rich old people who have nothing better to do than to be "philanthropists" by insisting on new stupid rules for the minimum-wage workers to follow) and the board member told the CFO this and that about how upset her friend was and that I must have said some really rude stuff to "Mrs. Elsa".

And people wonder why the aristocrats were executed in the French Revolution.

The bitch is worrying about a living wage but she wants to make sure you arn't working because her little ol' ego got bruised. Ugh.

Luckily I never gotten fired because of a customer. Though when I worked for Walgreens, in the pharmacy, I got written up 2x because I didn't clean my shelf area. Like there was time to do that, with all the prescriptions that needed to be filled, and my hours being cut. And honestly, when I first started to work there I did clean my shelves, but latter on we got so busy, it was impossible.

Then this bitch comes to the pharmacy to drop off a prescription for "Jon Doe". She doesn't leave any ins. info. we look in the system and don't see him so we fill it for Jon Doe and it's $90. She comes back, and she says he (her husband) has ins. And his name is Jonathan. So I explained that we will take care of it, but we didn't have the right name in the first place so that is why it was so expensive. So I don't know what she said to the store manager but a few min. latter he comes and takes me to the back and tells me I am working the front now, not the pharmacy, and to come in tommorrow for my new schedule. Except to get my last check, I never went back.

[taxguykarl]

An earlier incarnation of this board had a section called "I got fired for this"

[Mnemjian]

So I don't know what she said to the store manager but a few min. latter he comes and takes me to the back and tells me I am working the front now, not the pharmacy, and to come in tommorrow for my new schedule.

It's so unfortunate when managers just blindly believe whatever a SC says and don't take the employee's view into account at all before making decisions. Why trust someone you've never met over one of your coworkers that you actually know??

[Rapscallion]

An earlier incarnation of this board had a section called "I got fired for this"

Was under consideration, but we don't get that many firing stories (fortunately).

Rapscallion

[Kiwi]

The only time I thought I might be fired, I actually had three customers stand up for me to my DM and SM and tell the that they were sick and tired of watching the employees in the store being screamed at by customers with management doing thing about it.We had a group counter, with 4 counter spaces and we didnt always have 4 people checking people out. Logic would say if you have ONE worker standing by ONE till then you would line up in that line. I was working by myself one day and despite the fact I was the ONLY cashier people still started lining up at the other counters where NO ONE WAS SERVING!!!!Management refused to let us use "this counter is closed" sign because they said it gave a bad look as it made us look understaffed (which we were) so I would ask those people to please join my que to check out and everyone was fine with it until this one absolute COW comes up.

She goes the counter directly behind me so I didnt notice her straight away as I was busy WORKING, serving the people at my counter. Finally I heard her huffing and puffing and turned and said "excuse me, this is the only counter open, could you please come and line up over here" and she went off, raising her voice to a scream in the first sentance ranting about how she was NEXT and she has been waiting FIFTEEN MINUTES and HOW DARE I tell her what to do. I took a deep breath and repeated that I was the ONLY person serving and she would need to move to this line if she wanted to be served. She responded by stating their was no sign stating it was closed. I pointed out again that I was the only person serving, that I was logged into this till and couldn't start switching between them. I also mentioned that management wouldn't allow signs for closed counters and I could call a manager if she would like to discuss that point further as I had no authority about it. Well she went off her nut and started saying how she had a handicapped child with her (she didn't, it turned out she had left the child alone in the CAR!!!!) and who the hell did I think I was and I had better get over here RIGHT NOW and she was going to have me fired and how did I sleep at night... I can still picture here SCREAMING at me. She was making SO MUCH NOISE that my manager comes running from the office, followed by my SM and they turn the corner just as I say

"Ma'am you have absolutely no right to raise your voice at me, if you want to be served you will come to the counter I am serving at as I have asked you politely to do or not, now which is it?" Both my DM and the SM have horrified looks on their faces, the SM gives me the stink eye and starts to apologuise to this bitch for my behavior. The three customers who came to my rescue realise they are my managers and start reaming them out at once, my DM comes and helps me check out the lady who has still not moved (the woman wont look at me in the eye and doesn't say a word during the entire transaction) and I'm SHAKING with anger. I start to serve the next customer back in the original line and she tries to joke about how upset some people get but I look at my DM with an I'm two seconds away from walking out look and she tells me to take a break for as long as I need and takes over for me. As I walk to the office/staff room I hear the three woman still going at the SM and as I pass they stop me and tell me how well I did, not to raise my voice to that horrible woman and that the SM should be very proud of me. Apparently both my DM and the SM talk to this woman afterward but the three other ladies kept saying she was lying and that I was not rude I had been polite and she was the one who raised their voice.

At that moment I was sure the SM was going to fire me, she hated me anyway and tried to find any excuse to get rid of me, I was so lucky those customers stuck up for me. She kept trying to suggest I had done something wrong to upset this woman so much, had I yelled or I must have been rude first etc. It was because of her and one other very nasty customer that I finally quit the craft store a few months. I couldn't take it anymore the mice, the fleas, the cockroaches, the management constantly cheating us of hours and pay and breaks. When I tried to quit my DM even offered me a stock position, so I didn't have to deal with customers at all but the SM refused because she was giving all of those payroll hours to her sister.

The DM actually wanted me to stay and become the 2IC for the department after I finished university! Can you believe that!

[depechemodefan]

It's so unfortunate when managers just blindly believe whatever a SC says and don't take the employee's view into account at all before making decisions. Why trust someone you've never met over one of your coworkers that you actually know??

I guess they were trying to find a way to fire me. Maybe hours were cut more and the management had to do something. Or maybe I was doing something that they didnt' like, for example, staying past the time I was told I should leave (9pm) because there was so much to do and I just couldn't just walk out leaving a mess. So the two write-ups on the bullsh*t "the shelves aren't clean" (they might have been a little dusty, but they weren't a disaster) was probably leading toward a third write-up to get rid of me. Three write-ups and you get fired or something.

Or maybe the management was pissed that one time a woman caused a stink because the customer in front of her didn't get a receipt (long story) and Walgreens had a policy that you get $5 if you don't get a receipt. I called the manager and he shows up (this one was the useless store manager) and I tell him what happened, and he doesn't tell me "give her $5". I don't remember if he said he was coming back, but we were waiting on him and he never came back so I gave $5 from my till.

[dougiezerts]

It's so unfortunate when managers just blindly believe whatever a SC says and don't take the employee's view into account at all before making decisions. Why trust someone you've never met over one of your coworkers that you actually know??

Even more unfortunately, when employees sue to get their jobs back, the courts usually side with the customer and the company.

[draftermatt]

Even more unfortunately, when employees sue to get their jobs back, the courts usually side with the customer and the company.

Would you go through the trouble of suing to get your job back if they're willing to get rid of you that quickly? I can see if there was discrimination involved, but otherwise...

Thus far in life I've avoided getting fired (knock wood) though my boss has succeeded in getting people fired. Most of those people were clueless morons who deserved it though.

Like the guy who thought he could demand we show up 2 days after he allowed us to start fabrication, even though he hadn't paid us a dime for the work we had done to that point.

We ended up getting a call from the owner of his company apologizing for the way that guy was running things into the ground.

[BethB]

I've had manager "fire" me(all as a joke) but they'd be shocked when I respond with "yay! day off!!" But have not yet been fired.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

I almost got fired from my summer job at a local school because a student caught sight of me taking a break in the hall, listening to my PSP and asked what I was listening to.

Without thinking I said: "Duality" but left out the band name.

Nevertheless, next day my boss calls me into the office and tells me that some wako parent was ranting and raving about how one of the aides listens to 'satanic music'.

The principle wasn't happy.

But I was able to pull the 'the students need me, so YOU need me' card and coasted through to the end of those torturous four weeks....

phew

I wasn't as lucky as one of the other Aides, R, who was cut loose for criticizing Republicans in general, something like "They can be real A-holes, sometimes" and the kids parents were not at all happy.

[ditchdj]

Thus far in life I've avoided getting fired (knock wood) though my boss has succeeded in getting people fired. Most of those people were clueless morons who deserved it though.

Well in that case the boss didn't fire them. They, in effect, fired themselves by being a fuckup.