Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Anybody ever get fired and just start to laugh?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Anybody ever get fired and just start to laugh?

    Because that's what happened to me yesterday at 5pm. My boss said that he was unhappy with my performance as of late and said that he was notifying me of my termination, effective immediately.

    I started to chuckle and was like "Huh... alright". He didn't seem to understand why I was so "stoic" (his word). He said he had done this hundreds of times before and most people wanted to puke by the time they got to the stairs that went up to the parking lot. He walked me out to my 2004 325xi and said "wow... nice car". I said "Thanks, its paid for." Gave him my ID badge, my parking badge and my corporate Am Ex card.

    Then I drove off, got to the edge of the property got out of my car, took a piss, shaked twice, zipped up and then drove home.

    The reason why I was laughing was because I was going to quit in two weeks any way to start my own business. Now I can collect unemployment for something like 13 weeks and use that as collarteral for my new business (about $450/wk). The other awesome part is that I still get my full pay and benefits till the end of the month, so its basically a 15 day paid vacation where I get to finish up my licensing, really focus on setting up this business and be up and running by the end of December, and start pulling in the big money by Febuary/March. I have budgeted my money just off of this months pay and unemployment and I can easily make it till then(car projects put to the side of course). Even the wife chuckled at the situation.

    Only thing that pisses me off is that this is the first time I have been fired from a job since I was like 13 yrs old. Kinda wanted to end it on my own terms, but oh well. I had pissed off upper management when I filed a Corrective Actions Item earlier this year about drunk drivers at a corporate event. We were down in Columbia, SC and had only two minivans with one registered driver a piece. They were both tanked by the end of the night (so was everyone else except for myself) at a corporate shin-dig. The drive to our hotel had me sweating. I had a teacher in high-school killed by a drunk driver and it is something I take very seriously. I considered it a situation adverse to safety which is what the "CAI"s are for. My boss at the time called me the next morning said I had pretty much killed my career and told me to delete the item if I wanted to have a chance at survival. I did but I guess it didn't do me any good. A couple months later they put me on this monitoring program to "improve my performance" along with a couple other people. All of my reports were fine until I wrote this one procedure, which although it was completed a day ahead of time, it went through 6-iterations before I got it to the point where the senior engineer would accept it. Still... finished ahead of time and under budget but guess that wasn't good enough. Once I had that "black mark" on there they called me into the meeting last night and canned me. It was the only black mark aside from a spelling mistake I had on an informal internal memo, which I corrected minutes after the fact.

    Oh well... goodbye $55k/year job, hello $120k+/year job and temporary paid vacation :D

    Life sure is funny sometimes.

    #2
    What? didn't you just ask for help typing up a letter of resignation?

    Comment


      #3
      whats the business youre setting up?
      and that sounds pretty uncool that they asked you to revoke that claim deal when you could have been in a car accident due to drunk drivers.
      Your signature picture has been removed since it contained the Photobucket "upgrade your account" image.

      Originally posted by TimKninja
      Im more afraid of this thread turning into one of those classic R3v moments, where Pizza gets delivered.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by uflnuceng
        Then I drove off, got to the edge of the property got out of my car, took a piss, shaked twice, zipped up and then drove home.

        Life sure is funny sometimes.
        :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

        Yes, yes it it.
        91 m3

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by SchnellerVert
          What? didn't you just ask for help typing up a letter of resignation?
          Yep... guess they beat me to the punch. Was going to resign at the end of the month cos I wanted to get paid for thanksgiving and finish a couple projects. This way I still get paid for the entire month and can focus on my studying.

          Originally posted by NC325iC
          whats the business youre setting up?
          A closing company to support my father-in-law's very successful construction business. Guaranteed about 60 closings a year minimum on new construction, plus a bunch of other tie ins that will keep me really busy. The wife already makes a nice 6 figure salary so the two of us together should be pulling in $250k/year in 6 or 7 months.

          Originally posted by NC325iC
          and that sounds pretty uncool that they asked you to revoke that claim deal when you could have been in a car accident due to drunk drivers.
          I know... the one friend I had there who is actually pretty high up said that would have been unbelievable if half of their new hire force died in a car accident on company business. My one mentor even agreed with me submitting it. Driving 80+mph on city streets in a Kia minivan with a drunk driver made for an interesting commute. Upper management was pissed at the submission of it because they organized the event, and although I deleted it from an active investigation state, it is a permanent part of the corrective actions database so I have proof that it exists.

          Similar things had been done before. When they were cleaning the 5th floor A/C ducts in the building, aspestos was blowing through the parking lot. That was put in the system and was taken care of. The same boss who fired me yesterday put in a corrective action a couple years ago because a chair he was given by the company was faulty and actually broke on him causing him to hit his head. That time the company again "requested" him to delete the Corrective Action Item as they would have to inspect every chair in the building (10s of thousands of them) for the same fault which they deemed too expensive for the likelihood of failure.

          Corporate america can be really funny sometimes.
          Last edited by uflnuceng; 11-16-2005, 11:27 AM.

          Comment


            #6
            Couldn't you sue them becuase they basically fired you for calling them on getting their emplyees drunk and not providing safe transportation back to the hotel? Get yourself a little more paid vacation or mod money. I know my girlfriends company pays for taxis after their company parties to take home anyone that has had too much to drink. They also pay for a taxi to pick them up the next day to go back to where the party was at and pick up their car. What your old company basically did is said they were too cheap so if you don't want to walk back to the hotel you are going to have to ride with a drunk driver.
            sigpic

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by DarkWing6
              Couldn't you sue them becuase they basically fired you for calling them on getting their emplyees drunk and not providing safe transportation back to the hotel?
              Not worth the effort in my book. They have their "evidence" that says I wasn't performing up to snuff, I have my side of the argument saying I pissed off upper management with that CAI. It would be a draw at best. I'm not that kinda guy who goes around suing people anyway. I'll just concentrate on getting my business up and have a chuckle from time to time over the humor of the situation.

              Originally posted by DarkWing6
              I know my girlfriends company pays for taxis after their company parties to take home anyone that has had too much to drink. They also pay for a taxi to pick them up the next day to go back to where the party was at and pick up their car. What your old company basically did is said they were too cheap so if you don't want to walk back to the hotel you are going to have to ride with a drunk driver.
              They are cheap... that's for sure. Except for when it comes to having a chartered jet take execs back and forth between Monroeville, PA, Windsor, CT, and Columbia, SC on a daily basis. But when it comes to taking a group of new employees on a site tour, they cram 15 of them into two minivans, but the exec gets a car all to himself.
              Last edited by uflnuceng; 11-16-2005, 12:39 PM.

              Comment


                #8
                All I'm saying is that they told you that your job was basically shot since you put in that form calling them on doing something illegal. After that you went under review. While under review you finished the project under budget and before it was due. It sounds like you have a decent case. I'm not the kind of person to go around and sue either, but this is just plain unethical. What if you had not planned to quit? I would think about calling a few lawyers and see what they think.
                sigpic

                Comment


                  #9
                  I have a lawyer on retainer... I'll talk with him and see what is up. But yeah, that is a decent synopsis of what happened with me. I'm not saying I wasn't the best person in the place, but I contributed a hell of a lot to the department. I just pissed off the wrong people.

                  Yeah... if I hadn't already had it in my mind to quit I would be pissed and screwed. But then maybe I would have worked a little bit harder to keep my job. I would have been there till the wee hours of the night reading procedure manuals and setting up meetings with people to get my procedures right the first time before I showed them to the senior engineer. I'm not saying I wanted to loose my job before the end of the month. I needed my salary till the end of this month to get my biz going. I didn't know they would pay me to the end of the month anyway. I think he had it in his heart last week to let me go, but kept bumping the apt due to conflicts. Now I kinda wish I had been let go earlier.

                  Regardless... I doubt it is going to be worth the effort to sue. The lawyer will let me know next time I'm out to lunch with him.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    good luck with the new direction. I'd personally use a unemp. check to buy a pistol and the next one to buy ammo :p
                    BEERTECH

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Rob
                      good luck with the new direction. I'd personally use a unemp. check to buy a pistol and the next one to buy ammo :p
                      That's the plan... :D

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Sounds like whistle blowing and there is an act against it. Check it out on the web. Its a very serious deal.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by KangamangusDriver
                          Sounds like whistle blowing and there is an act against it. Check it out on the web. Its a very serious deal.
                          That's what a couple people have been saying to me... its still a matter of worth vs. risk. The risk being I'll loose and look like I couldn't do my job, when I know that's not the case.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            In Canada you can sue for Discrimination through Reprisal.

                            Basically we have a right to enforce our rights without reprisal, and any retaliation from the employer is looked on harshly by the courts, so the fact that ur performance wasn't upto par as their defence wouldnt cut it in court.

                            Edit:

                            I donno about the States, but many lawyers here in canada would take a case like this based on commission, you wouldn't have to pay them unless u win the case. So basically they'd take care of it for you and you wouldn't have anything to worry about. I think these sort of things shouldn't be let go so easily, some emplorers push around their employees too much, this would send a clear signal too them, and since they have a history of firing ppl like this, and sure others would be thankful.

                            In your case I know its not about the money, and it shouldnt be. Its the principals.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I have a lawyer on retainer so I don't even have to worry about commission... he's paid regardless.

                              I'll look into it. This shin-dig they had was really screwed up. They were trying to do it on a budget, because it was coming right off the top... not being charged to a customer. The night we got there we got our two minivans (and manager got car) and the two drivers were appointed. We went to this restaurant where they supplied us with mozzeralla sticks, mushroom caps, peel-and-eat shrimp and all the alcohol you could drink. I drank water (not that I don't drink, I just wasn't in the mood) and I watched most other people, including the drivers, induldge in alcoholic drinks (liquor as well as beer). We were there from 5 to about 9:00 and I never saw any of them drink anything not alcoholic. I didn't keep a record though but there was only like 15-20 people in the small room. Its just the fact that I know impairment starts at the first drink (sorry to sound high school counselor like) especially with only the food listed above in our stomachs. Then these people were allowed to drive company rentals? To me that is irresponsible. I have been to many business functions outside of my recent previous employer where alcohol was served and taxis were provided.

                              The fact that they asked me to pull the Corrective Action from its active state, without just dismissing it through an investigation, meant that they didn't want to own up to their fault. I will also add that I have been to business fuctions with this employer before where they provided buses to ensure their employees safety. This one they were trying to do on a budget though. A peer laughed when he saw what I had submitted and said "you don't have a right to say what people can or can't do after work" and I just said something to the effect of "but it was a business function and I couldn't charge a taxi to my business account nor did I have the money at the time to pay for a taxi. It was a business function which we were all required to be at (we went there directly from the airport) which to me negates it as being a 'personal time' function".

                              Anyway... that's about all the details there are without getting mega-boring.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X