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How many times have you been fired?

How many times have you been fired?

  • 0

    Votes: 45 55.6%
  • 1

    Votes: 15 18.5%
  • 2

    Votes: 13 16.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 2 2.5%
  • 4

    Votes: 3 3.7%
  • 5+

    Votes: 3 3.7%

  • Total voters
    81
Never laid off. I consider myself very lucky.
Never fired. Every job I've ever quit I was told that if I ever needed a job they'd hire me back in a heart-beat.

Just hit 20 years with my current employer.
 
I never lost a job in high school, however when I entered media things changed. As an unpaid intern at the Kitchener Waterloo Record Newspaper, I was let go for having drinks with a reporter at one of the radio stations, which hires me as a non paid intern.

In Radio I changed jobs after a year plus, was fired from that one, the 'reason' being I made a lot of mistakes, but it was a matter of personality, the DJ and I hated each other. I got a new job right away and left that after four months to move again at a new job, where they made me News Director after 6 weeks as they had fired my boss. I lasted another four months and was canned; I was 22 years old I and was no where near mature enough. From there I moved to Montreal and stayed five years.

That turn over in early media is not unusual however I kind of got a reputation...each time I had to move I did so in a 1972 Ford Pinto with a growing record collection which took up all the space in the floor of the backseat. [By the time I left Montreal I had 4,700 albums

Nice. :rock
 
What part of "company wide hiring freeze" aren't you getting here, genius? :roll:
Again, the reasons why it was put in place aren't exactly hard to see if one pulls their head out of their ass long enough to actually look around and see what was happening at the time.
Take your ignorant trolling somewhere else.
Wal-Mart did not put in a company-wide hiring freeze because Obama got reelected, nor did the DJIA drop on the election news.

A sitting President's expected re-election in a historical bullish market doesn't do that. Markets trade on outlook and newly, but unexpected acquired information; whereas in 2012 we walked into the re-election with a strong net positive in the polls for the sitting President. The market can't negatively react to something it already knew was going to happen.

Now if you remember the DJIA's slide those 3 weeks, that was ended after Greece's passage of the 7th austerity package and its 2013 budget.
 
Having to lay someone off sucks but I've never felt bad about the ones I fired. If you don't show up for work, don't do the work that's assigned to you or piss off my clients because you somehow or other got it into your head that they work for you I won't miss you a bit.


Laying off is the hardest thing I have ever had to do outside of a marriage. You hire someone, they respond to training etc., do a good job, help you make money. You socialize enough to know girlfriends and wives. Then one day some politician or group of them makes a stupid decision and boom, the sales fall off and you have to let people go.

I agree, firing is different. When in television you have hundreds of pretty faces for each job you have. Too many think they can rely on the looks, so you are firing people more often than regular jobs. But television magnifies everything, especially mistakes.
 
Never laid off. I consider myself very lucky.
Never fired. Every job I've ever quit I was told that if I ever needed a job they'd hire me back in a heart-beat.

Just hit 20 years with my current employer.

I got laid off once when my company was bought by another company, with the express understanding that all of the employees would continue to have jobs. Immediately after the transition, every single employee was laid off because we were "duplicated labor".

And my brother in law just retired from the only job he ever had in his life. He worked for them for 48 years.
 
Wal-Mart did not put in a company-wide hiring freeze because Obama got reelected, nor did the DJIA drop on the election news.

A sitting President's expected re-election in a historical bullish market doesn't do that. Markets trade on outlook and newly, but unexpected acquired information; whereas in 2012 we walked into the re-election with a strong net positive in the polls for the sitting President. The market can't negatively react to something it already knew was going to happen.

Now if you remember the DJIA's slide those 3 weeks, that was ended after Greece's passage of the 7th austerity package and its 2013 budget.

Yes, they did put a hiring freeze in place. Whether company wide or simply on a regional basis, I don't know. However, I do know from a first hand source that it did happen. Yes, the markets, and some employers, did (initially at least) react negatively to Obama's re-election (largely out of fear regarding things like Obamacare).

Hell! My brother's actually working at Walmart now. Their idea of "full time" is now only 32 hours a week, instead of 40. Who's policies do you think are responsible for that change?

These are all facts, not speculation.
 
First time I was still a young adult and managing a chain of convenient stores. The company would have me go in, get the stores in shape, get revenue flowing, and then sell the store and move me to another store to do the same.
At one point they told me to wait at home and they would call me when another store came along. So, after a week or so with no calls and no returning my calls, I went to the unemployment office still a bit naïve of how the whole system worked.
After explaining the situation to the kind lady who was helping me fill out paperwork she chuckled and said "Oh Honey, they laid you off and just didn't wanna tell you."
I wasn't very long before I was at another job, with books this time, much more enjoyable.

The last time I was fired was a strange situation all around. I was working at a Port Authority and it was an excellent job. I was the Safety Manager. I had been there through about four or five bosses that had come and gone and had never had an issue. Then the last boss I had started to act strange after a month or so. She started bringing in pamphlets about how women should be treated at work (circa the 20s I think during WWI) and though the information was interesting I felt a bit uncomfortable in the general situation. I don't mind learning about women's suffrage at all and I take it as a very serious and important subject but to have it suddenly shoved down your throat from nowhere and for apparently no reason...
Before long it was very apparent that my new boss did not like me at all. She gave me weird chores from inventorying the entire Port's electronic equipment (not sure how this fits into Safety but I did it without question) to picking up lunch for her and her ring of friends.
Before long this lead to how my shirts weren't ironed enough or how I neglected to fill "N/A" in an incident report. She canceled our Safety meetings as "unimportant wastes of time" and all of this went into write ups.
When she called me in to inform me I was being let go I asked her if we could discuss the reason as I had "corrected" everything she had brought up and she said no, we couldn't.
It was not a good time. It was a bad job season locally and I had a baby on the way. I ended up doing landscaping for the first time for a friend's family's collection of properties (I will be happy to never do that again in Florida heat) and eventually landed my current job just before my daughter came into the world.
I admit that I was very bitter over it and when I heard from friends that the lady had been walked out a month after I was, I was a bit more vindicated than I probably should have been.

In the end, I don't take this woman as the shining example of feminists, instead see her as someone who must have had a hard time of it with one or more men who had a chip on her shoulder and a relatively easy target (myself).
 
I voted once. But I was actually laid off once. I gave 2 weeks notice on Wednesday and the company laid off a bunch on Friday without warning, I won that complaint, and never again gave notice when I left.
 
Yes, they did put a hiring freeze in place. Whether company wide or simply on a regional basis, I don't know. However, I do know from a first hand source that it did happen. Yes, the markets, and some employers, did (initially at least) react negatively to Obama's re-election (largely out of fear regarding things like Obamacare).

Hell! My brother's actually working at Walmart now. Their idea of "full time" is now only 32 hours a week, instead of 40. Who's policies do you think are responsible for that change?

These are all facts, not speculation.

It was always 32 hours a week for walmart. Even during the bush years. Can't blame obama for that one. .
 
Every time.

With a golden handshake to boot.

Far more beneficial than butting out on my own and on the cheap at that.
 
How many times have you mean fired, "let go", laid off for any reason?

I'm happy to say that over 35 years of employment, I was never once fired, let go, laid off or dismissed for any reason. Now that I've been retired for 6 years, I'm dismissed on a regular basis, and I don't give a damn.
 
Having to lay someone off sucks but I've never felt bad about the ones I fired. If you don't show up for work, don't do the work that's assigned to you or piss off my clients because you somehow or other got it into your head that they work for you I won't miss you a bit.

I agree though in the single case where I fired someone I still felt crappy cause the guy had a family. Not my fault that they had a loser for a dad but still.........
 
I agree though in the single case where I fired someone I still felt crappy cause the guy had a family. Not my fault that they had a loser for a dad but still.........

There have been a couple I fired just because they couldn't handle the job. I can't say I was happy about doing it but after so many hours training, explaining, assisting , reviewing, critiquing, re-reviewing.....it was really better for both of us that they went.I mean, seriously, if after a year on the job you still can't figure out how to not "accidentally" give client A's stuff to client B I really don't think it's my lack of training skill that's jamming you up.
 
There have been a couple I fired just because they couldn't handle the job. I can't say I was happy about doing it but after so many hours training, explaining, assisting , reviewing, critiquing, re-reviewing.....it was really better for both of us that they went.I mean, seriously, if after a year on the job you still can't figure out how to not "accidentally" give client A's stuff to client B I really don't think it's my lack of training skill that's jamming you up.

Besides, as a manager, it isn't your job to do what's best for the employee, it's your job to do what's best for the company. People either work out or they don't. If they cannot do the job after being trained and retrained and reviewed and re-reviewed, then they'd better go find a job they're better suited for. I don't feel bad in those situations, I'm just doing my job.
 
Being in management for 30+ years, i have had to fire a good number of people. Most of those were relatively easy....bad worker, bad attitude, etc

The tough stuff comes when you have to lay someone off that has been a great worker. Those are the ones that cause your stomach to rumble, and the head to pound. I have always looked at it thusly though....i would rather layoff a couple of workers, than threaten the overall health of the company.

It is a tough call to make....and i am happy those calls have been far and few between.
 
None. my first two jobs I had to quit to go back to school. Same with my first two law related jobs after my first year and second years at Law school (summer associate positions). The jobs I had in law and then grad school during the school years ended with my graduations My first job as a lawyer ended when the firm split up. I chose not to continue with one of the two firms that were formed after the firm fell apart because I was appointed to the DOJ which I retired from. I have had part time positions as a staff pro at outdoor and shooting sports shops that ended when one shop closed due to the owner retiring from the business and another that changed from being a stocking pro shop to a different entity (which I am still with). I am still a staff pro at the shop that took over the dealerships from the second entity.

I also run a NFP sports training organization. The founders asked me to run it after they become too old too.
 
Once. Got fired from 7-11 when I was in college because I refused to work a 10p-6a shift the night before finals (I wasn't scheduled...they called me to cover another shift).
 
In was fired once unjustly, laid off of a union job because of lack of work the layoff being done by hire date, and I had one messy ending to a job that was almost a firing but we both knew that the situation was not working and I would be the one to leave.

What I dont understand about youth these days is that so many act like they want to get fired, that they are happy about being fired, because then they can go cry to mom and dad and get supported for a lot of months. I hated getting fired even though it was not my fault and even though I did not need to worry about being destitute. There is a lack of pride that is hard for a guy of my generation to understand.
 
3 times ? Maybe more

I didnt play well with others when I was a young man

If someone said something I didn't like even if it was the boss I would confront them and so, I did
 
I intentionally 'got fired' from a ****ty movie theater summer job in high school because i hated the manager and wanted the 'experience' of being fired once. I even joked about it ahead of time with some customers, which was apparently overheard upstairs by the assistant manager. She asked me to do it quietly and since i liked her, i just handed out too many extra dollar bills in change. I think i was like $70 under that day
 
What I dont understand about youth these days is that so many act like they want to get fired, that they are happy about being fired, because then they can go cry to mom and dad and get supported for a lot of months. I hated getting fired even though it was not my fault and even though I did not need to worry about being destitute. There is a lack of pride that is hard for a guy of my generation to understand.

I've seen a lot of that, the kids don't want to work and they figure if they get fired, they can go home and lounge around a while because they tried.
 
In was fired once unjustly, laid off of a union job because of lack of work the layoff being done by hire date, and I had one messy ending to a job that was almost a firing but we both knew that the situation was not working and I would be the one to leave.

What I dont understand about youth these days is that so many act like they want to get fired, that they are happy about being fired, because then they can go cry to mom and dad and get supported for a lot of months. I hated getting fired even though it was not my fault and even though I did not need to worry about being destitute. There is a lack of pride that is hard for a guy of my generation to understand.

because **** corporations, that's why

you pay someone 1/20000th what the boss makes and they aren't gonna be reliable, period
 
I intentionally 'got fired' from a ****ty movie theater summer job in high school because i hated the manager and wanted the 'experience' of being fired once. I even joked about it ahead of time with some customers, which was apparently overheard upstairs by the assistant manager. She asked me to do it quietly and since i liked her, i just handed out too many extra dollar bills in change. I think i was like $70 under that day
Technically, that's theft.
 
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