"Your supervisors feel that you have failed to complete your probationary period. We cannot discuss the reasons other than that."
. . .that's what my bosses, bosses boss told me at about 2 PM today.
I was hired almost a year ago by a State government agency to be an Officer of the law. The rules require a one year probationary period, and after that it basically takes an Act of God to fire an employee.
I just got my annual performance review for last year last month, and it was a good report, no complaints, acceptable everything. Nobody had said anything even slightly negative about my job performance since last August (when I got yelled at for taking time off for military duties, see an earlier thread here I posted).
My probationary period would have ended this Sunday. If I'd walked out the door on Friday afternoon, I would have been golden. Since on Friday afternoon I was scheduled to testify in court, and would be going home straight after that, basically I would have been good as soon as I left for lunch on Friday.
Instead, I get a call at about 2 PM on my office phone. It's my bosses boss (the supervisor over the office)'s number. The person on the other end though is someone I don't recognize. She asks me to come upstairs.
I walk in, a woman I don't recognize is sitting behind the office supervisor's desk, my immediate supervisor is sitting there and another supervisor is by the door.
The woman says that I was called in because my probationary period is almost over. . .and then she says what was said above, and asks for my badge and my gun.
. . .I'm stunned.
I just had my annual performance review a few weeks ago, and got a glowing review. I was apparently the only Officer that had a good working relationship with one of the Judges our office has to deal with. I hadn't received any complaints about the quality of my work, not even an informal verbal statement of anything being wrong.
Judging by the paperwork, the person who fired me was the Assistant Director (over the agency for about 1/3 of the state, who reports directly to the Director), the person who was above the head of the office. This was a person I had never met before, and only knew from seeing her name on some personnel paperwork.
I'm sitting here wondering if there's anything I could have done differently. At least I can get unemployment, and get about 2/3 of my pay for 6 months, and I can start applying around for something else.
I'm sitting here and talking, texting and messaging with former co-workers, who said they've NEVER seen an employee terminated right before the end of their probation like that. If anything, they are terminated early on when it's clear it's not working out, but they are so overworked they hate to lose anyone. Had a 20 year employee tell me by e-mail she'd never seen them wait until a few days before the end to terminate someone, and the times they do you could see it coming, and they'd never, ever seen an Assistant Director to come in and fire someone.
Still, just stunned and wondering WTF.
. . .that's what my bosses, bosses boss told me at about 2 PM today.
I was hired almost a year ago by a State government agency to be an Officer of the law. The rules require a one year probationary period, and after that it basically takes an Act of God to fire an employee.
I just got my annual performance review for last year last month, and it was a good report, no complaints, acceptable everything. Nobody had said anything even slightly negative about my job performance since last August (when I got yelled at for taking time off for military duties, see an earlier thread here I posted).
My probationary period would have ended this Sunday. If I'd walked out the door on Friday afternoon, I would have been golden. Since on Friday afternoon I was scheduled to testify in court, and would be going home straight after that, basically I would have been good as soon as I left for lunch on Friday.
Instead, I get a call at about 2 PM on my office phone. It's my bosses boss (the supervisor over the office)'s number. The person on the other end though is someone I don't recognize. She asks me to come upstairs.
I walk in, a woman I don't recognize is sitting behind the office supervisor's desk, my immediate supervisor is sitting there and another supervisor is by the door.
The woman says that I was called in because my probationary period is almost over. . .and then she says what was said above, and asks for my badge and my gun.
. . .I'm stunned.
I just had my annual performance review a few weeks ago, and got a glowing review. I was apparently the only Officer that had a good working relationship with one of the Judges our office has to deal with. I hadn't received any complaints about the quality of my work, not even an informal verbal statement of anything being wrong.
Judging by the paperwork, the person who fired me was the Assistant Director (over the agency for about 1/3 of the state, who reports directly to the Director), the person who was above the head of the office. This was a person I had never met before, and only knew from seeing her name on some personnel paperwork.
I'm sitting here wondering if there's anything I could have done differently. At least I can get unemployment, and get about 2/3 of my pay for 6 months, and I can start applying around for something else.
I'm sitting here and talking, texting and messaging with former co-workers, who said they've NEVER seen an employee terminated right before the end of their probation like that. If anything, they are terminated early on when it's clear it's not working out, but they are so overworked they hate to lose anyone. Had a 20 year employee tell me by e-mail she'd never seen them wait until a few days before the end to terminate someone, and the times they do you could see it coming, and they'd never, ever seen an Assistant Director to come in and fire someone.
Still, just stunned and wondering WTF.
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