How Lame!!!

[Slytovhand]

Hi gang.

Just a thought... in the same vein as 'Shortest resignation' and 'How to get yourself fired 101', I thought I'd start this thread...

What's the lamest way and/or excuse you've had for being fired (terminated, retrenched etc..)?

Mine was when I was hired to do the bookkeeping for a company. I had just finished a business course which included Attache - so I had some experience in the programs. But the program they had was ancient (which is really saying something, given this was over 15 years ago. I knew how to do it much better than the person 'training' me.

But - when I made a mistake, I would let out a soft 'bugger' - and got told 'not to swear'. (of course - this isn't really swearing to me... you want to hear swearing......).

The following week, it was Melbourne Cup (which tends to see a lot of businesses do a go slow - if not take the afternoon or day off), and I asked what I was supposed to be doing for that day (no set hours, you see). When I rang in, I was told 'Don't worry about it, we'll sort something out". ok... what about later in the week? "As I said, don't worry about it, we'll sort something out". umm...? Next week? "As I said,..."

didn't have the guts to say, "we don't want you working here anymore". LAME!!!


Slyt

[gunsage]

When I worked security at the church, I had a tendency to turn on the lights on my first patrol, then turn them off on my final patrol. This was because despite the fact that they left a small little pissy flashlight on site, it was often PITCH BLACK in most rooms that I was required to patrol. One night one of the fire alarms went off. No, there wasn't a fire, but rather, the box had some sort of faulty wiring or something and caused it to go off.

The point is that the "client contact," who lived just down the street, came over in a panic until she learned what was going on. I documented everything and did an extra patrol to confirm everything was fine. She had made the comment about why the lights were on and I explained the situation. Yeah...two days later I get called up to the office and told I wasn't needed there anymore because, according to the client, "I'm afraid of the dark" and also supposedly there was a light that went out that they wanted them to pay for because I was personally responsible for making it go out.

RIGHT.

[Kyree]

I have nothing personally, but I have a couple stories from co-workers.

Co-worker 1 used to work at a Best Buy warehouse (has been closed down for years now because of them doing stuff like this.) fired her for punching in for her shift 2 minutes late. Once. (She's a very hard worker, so it's not like she was late all the time and screwed around.)

Co-worker 2 was fired because there were some old shelves in the bakery that they were going to toss. She asked if she could have them, bakery manager said yes. She took them home. Next day, got pulled into the office and fired for theft. Bakery manager told Store Manager that she said no.

[IT Grunt]

I worked at a Kroger's for two summers back in college, and the first year I worked there it was great. Not too many problems, and for a broke college kid, the money I made was like I struck it rich. The next summer, however...

The first year I'd worked the front end, bagging groceries, cleaning up, changing trash cans, gathering carts, etc. The second year, though, they stuck me in the deli. Now I had my reasons why I didn't want the deli the first time (mainly because I'm squeamish when it comes to certain types of foods like potato salad.. yuck!), but that's all they had so I had little choice. So, I managed to put my squeamishness aside and get to it. The first week was great. My co-workers were helpful and friendly, taught me all the things I needed to know, exposed me to several of the jobs and were patient with my questions. The next week.... the boss came back. 'Bitch' doesn't describe this lady... I think she came from the 9th level of hell.

The first day I worked with her there, I was tasked to make some garlic bread. Basically a loaf of italian bread sliced lengthwise, buttered with garlic butter and put into an aluminized bag that you could bake it in. Now these things were freakin' greasy, and my hands were covered in it. I tried to grab more than one at a time in each hand, but couldn't. So I figured, ok, the rack is like ten feet away, and I've only got six to put out. I'm going to waste time trying to carry them all at once, so two at a time and I'll be done quickly. So I grab two and head out to the rack. I nearly crap my pants when I hear bellowed at the top of her lungs, "YOU CARRY MORE THAN THAT OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE HERE ALL DAY!!!!!" So, I grab the whole armful, dropping at least three on the way. Yeah... good call, bitch.

Now this naturally unbalanced me. I had not expected her to go into Atilla the Hun mode, and from that point forward I was walking on eggshells. My fear of screwing up again was evident, as she walked past me and commented "You have no idea what you're doing, do you?". Uh huh. If you'd been here last week and were a nicer person than some demon from hell, you'd have seen I was doing a great job and getting things done.

So what does she do? Put me on the register for the little restaurant connected to the deli. With no register training. You want to talk about sink or swim, this was it. Naturally I was scared, and going slow because I'm trying to figure the damn thing out. This too met with her disapproval.

So, later that week, I go back to the break room and look at the schedule for the next week. Each department had their own schedule and it was kept in a stack for people to look at on breaks. I noticed my name wasn't on the deli schedule. In fact, it wasn't on /any/ schedule.



So I track down the assistant manager. He gets this look on his face like 'OMG.. he found out.' No shit sherlock... the schedule's in the break room you know. So he stammers out that the deli manager doesn't want me there anymore. He said he'd 'try to find a position up front' where I was last year. Surprise surprise, there were none. So ended that summer's employment. Instead of having a spine, queen bitch from hell left it to the manager to fire me, and let me discover it myself instead of having someone come tell me.

And that's my story.

[smileyeagle1021]

Lamest I've experienced was when a new manager came in to the carls jr I worked at and he made it known that he did not want anyone he didn't hire working at the store, so he hired an entire new staff and just gave everyone else 0 hours per week... but wouldn't fire anyone because then they might have had to pay unemployment they just waited for everyone to quit... he did this during a seasonal rush and about 3 of us were able to get temp transfers to another store, his store lost a lot of customers who didn't like his new crew or the long waits because he was short staffed, within 3 weeks everyone who didn't quit was back in their old positions, and everyone but me that staid on got a promotion (I was still in High School and didn't work enough hours per week to be elible for promotion). But honestly, if you are going to fire people just fire them, and for the love of God have a better reason than "because someone else interviewed and hired you".

[lush]

But - when I made a mistake, I would let out a soft 'bugger' - and got told 'not to swear'. (of course - this isn't really swearing to me... you want to hear swearing......).

I got in trouble at a job for saying "Wow that sucks" to a customer after he was telling me about all his troubles with something...I was a bartender..

I got fired, then unfired, then fired again from a very large company for clocking in 1 minute late..no warning or anything

[Primer]

When I was a bank teller--I was sick one day, called in, and the (ex)husband took me to the doctor. On the way home, we stopped by a restaurant that his brother owned, and that he was helping run. I was seen in the parking lot by one of the vault workers while he was out on a run. I was fired for calling in when I obviously wasn't sick after all. It probably didn't help that I offered to vomit on the manager's desk...

[powerboy]

Well, once I was working at this one job for 1 day. I was busting my ass off. After I came back from lunch, I was told that I could go home. I asked why and they mentioned because it was slow. Okay I clocked out and went home. I came in the next day only to find out that I was fired for leaving early. Oh well, I made my gas money back on that job.

[fma_fanatic]

I have two of them -

At one job, I was laid off after 8 months because I refused to give into the advances of the pig owner who kept trying to get into my pants. He told me he had to let me go because I just "didn't have the heart". Why my ex found out about what the owner was doing, he turned around and hired a lawyer to sue for sexual harassment. I had witnesses who told him to leave me alone. I got a nice little settlement in addition to the vacation time that they were refusing to pay me, along with my sick time and final paycheck.


At a temp job, I was let go after two days because apparently I didn't play well with others. Basically, rather than just sit with all the other temps and chat, I chose to get my food, sit at a table and read for the duration of the lunch hour. Doing that didn't make me a team player. And I apparently was showing everyone up by asking for something to do.

Well, gee, seeing as the software program that we were supposed to use didn't work worth crap, what else was I supposed to do? Sit there and twiddle my thumbs?

When my recruiter told me I was being let go because I didn't get along with the others, I told her that everyone treated me like I was some sort of plague. I didn't get why they treated me like that. I was in the same boat as they were - wondering where my next paycheck was going to come from.

[PCGameGuy]

My worst was fast food, at a franchise place. I went to work for them after I got out of the military, standard line cook stuff. After a month, the manager was impressed and passed it on to the owners, so I was given a raise to shift supervisor and transferred to another store. (Since it was only a month, it was felt that I needed a different crew to avoid 'problems') At the time I was given a raise, and told that in a month I'd get the next raise to full SS pay.

So, six months later and I'm still waiting on the raise. I'm been closing shift sup the whole time, in a store that is closing due to lack of traffic so I am always wildly understaffed. They close the place, and transfer me to a third location, and all seems well. Except that they already have 3 SS. And they are a little group. And I don't fit in.

So, one day I come into work and the DM is there. We sit down and he explains that they do not have an SS position open. I ask about my raise, and am told that I was an 'SS Trainee' and that I already had the pay for that level. I said, okay, what next? "We'll put you back on the line' 'So, no raise?" "Actually, on line you'd make 25 cents less an hour, oh, and there is a rumor that you've been sexually harrassing an employee"

So, 6 months as night sup, and now no raise, a demotion, a pay cut, and if I squeak a sexual harrasment suit. I took it, and said okay.

Of course, they had me scheduled to SS for the rest of the month, as it was December and everyone wanted the holidays off, so keep doing SS stuff, now 25 cents an hour less, until they demote me after the holidays.

They were not happy when I NC/NS on Christmas eve. Especially when the drunk manager called me and asked where the F I was, with all three of her pet SS drunk behind her. I told her I quit.

Heh, guess I am still a little bitter even after al these years. Oh, the 'sexually harrassed employee'? She had no clue that her name had been used at all. When I mentoned it, she said 'But, I have a boyfriend?' Not the brightest bulb, but probably more than willing to sign whatever they asked!