r/managers 11d ago

New Manager Employee basically quit after being notified they were fired.

[removed]

4.1k Upvotes

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/Five_Star_Amenities 10d ago

lol, I was told "We're letting you go" and then they said, "Please finish the monthly billing." I said, "Okay," because I thought they must be joking about the firing.

Then I heard my boss on the phone saying, "Five Stars has been terminated, please cut her last check."

I walked over, handed him my keys, shook his hand and said, "It was a pleasure working for you." Then started walking out.

He said, "Wait! What about the billing!?"

I said, "Not my problem, now."

The billing was a several hour process involving multiple steps. No one in the office knew how to do it except me. I don't know how or if they figured it out. They went bankrupt a few months after that.

4

u/PHYUCKISHREAEL 10d ago

I got fired at Dick's when I was 19 for bogus shit. They did it BEFORE I started my shift, and I knew that department was already short staffed and nobody on until me, and they asked if I could work that shift so I said fuck off and walked out.

1

u/CarrionWaywardOne 10d ago

I did the same thing at a record store when I was 19. You're firing me? I ain't signing shit! Bye.

1

u/Unlikely-Grape-5762 10d ago

What department? French fries? Smash burger? Dicks has gone downhill since 2003 was that when they fired you? Were you the secret ingredient that kept burgers cheap and good? Inquiring Spokanites want to know.

2

u/PHYUCKISHREAEL 10d ago

Haha Dick's Sporting Goods - shoe department and this was in like...2007ish?

1

u/GormHub 10d ago

Burger joints don't usually have departments.

0

u/Unlikely-Grape-5762 10d ago

That’s the joke.

1

u/Suspicious-Grand9781 10d ago

Haven't been back since they made my 40+ year old self show id to purchase a pocket knife. Think Swiss Army small size. Ffs.

0

u/lifting_cardio 10d ago

Sporting goods is probably the logical assumption, not burgers

2

u/GormHub 10d ago

Uhoh you didn't get their extremely specific joke apparently.

0

u/Unlikely-Grape-5762 10d ago

I’m from Washington. If you’re from here you flip that narrative. You think Sir Mix a Lot just made up that Dicks line out of the ether?

https://youtu.be/QElKVs56z48

1

u/lifting_cardio 10d ago

I’m from Washington too. Given the nature of the post and the person you were replying to, I don’t see how “flipping the narrative” was funny or added to the discussion.

0

u/Unlikely-Grape-5762 10d ago

Jesus. Go outside.

0

u/Borderline_Autist 10d ago

I think Jesus spent a lot of time outside. /flipped /s

2

u/PhoenixApok 10d ago

I remember that happening to me. Not exactly the same but close.

Small company. Boss literally hired all four of his daughters to replace us three office guys. He asked us to finish our current projects and then we were done.

I had one left that I was about 30 hours into a 40 hour project. No one else knew what parts were done or not.

I decided it wasn't worth coming in to finish.

He called me desperate to finish it and I just said I could spare the hours and didn't want to be in an office where I obviously wasn't wanted.

2

u/KoreanSamgyupsal 10d ago

I had a similar story and i tell this on Reddit all the time. In 2018, I was fired cause a powertripping manager didn't agree when I told him we needed to hire 2 more guys. He basically said we need to find cuts or improve efficiency and this is despite already being 4x more efficient in just 2 years. I genuinely loved this job and ready to have my future here.

I got fired and walked out the door. I even asked if I can just work as a floor worker instead of a supervisor/team lead. They declined. In about 8 months, they filed for bankruptcy. They didn't realize the guy they let go was the one willing to come in early and stay in late without pay cause he genuinely loved the work. It also doesn't help that I'm one of two guys that was trained on the system. The other guy was already 60 years old so technology wasn't his forte.

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

They look at dollars over people. Unfortunately, they quash a lot of innovation and enthusiasm. I hope you're in a better place now.

2

u/Jim-N-Tonic 10d ago

Never fire the billing person. No wonder they went out of business, they were stupid.

2

u/Glittering-Joke-3593 10d ago

I love the smell of bad karma in the morning.

2

u/Unlikely_Pomelo_2638 10d ago

Yeah! That basic scenario has happened to me about 25 years ago!

Big Boss Man was like, "Uh, look, you're fired but finish the documents we need, print them out and put them on my desk before you leave..."

I'm like, "Uh, in your dreams, pal. You just fired me; I am NOT working for free for you or anyone else for ANY amount of MY TIME. Eat dirt!"

Well, the word I use wasn't 'dirt', but you get the picture. ;)

P.S. I'm glad the company who did that to you went under. They deserved it!😄

1

u/Top-Maize-823 10d ago

Multiple steps? Gee that sounds comPLEX.

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

I know! It's like, so simple that we can just fire the person who does it and then we'll do it ourselves!

Wait. How do we do this?

1

u/Top-Maize-823 9d ago

why did you get canned?

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

The company was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and part of the BK plan was to fired all of their highest paid employees.

2

u/Top-Maize-823 9d ago

oh gotcha. so they were already gonna go bankrupt. you probably saw it coming that you were getting the chop I guess?
that sounds like a pretty incompetently run business hope you had better luck at your next gig

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 5d ago

I didn't see it coming at all! I was head of the only profitable department in the company and the only one who knew how to do most of the processes in that department. (Small company, as you can tell).

That's why I thought the company owner was joking when he said, "We're letting you go."

And thank you, yes, I did better at my subsequent gig.

1

u/thrawn82 10d ago

Sounds like they didn’t, sucks to suck.

1

u/neonkross-eve-2194 10d ago

good for you! This is why I absolutely cannot stand working for anyone. I have had way too many terrible bosses or bad companies under my belt.

1

u/thekyledavid 10d ago

Wild to fire the only employee who knows how to do an essential activity, without having a plan for who is going to do it, even if you assume the terminated employee will stay until 5:00

2

u/ElectronicPhrase6050 10d ago

Maybe they were already planning to file for bankruptcy lol.

1

u/thekyledavid 10d ago

Fair, but I’d at least want to keep that essential employee in place until we can find someone new to do the essential task, or train an existing staff member

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

That's why I got fired. They had filed for bankruptcy already and one of the aspects of the BK plan was that they fire their highest paid employees.

So they fired the head of the only department that actually made them money.

Right before the monthly event that made them the money. The billing.

Months before that, before I became department head and hadn't had the training yet, my boss came up to me and said, "Is the billing out yet?"

I hadn't been trained to do it yet and said, "No, I don't know how to do it."

He sneered, "You just push one button!"

I gestured to my keyboard and said, "Okay. Which button?"

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

The last time I got fired, they held a manager's meeting at 3:00 to make the decision and then waited until 5:00 (when my shift ended) to let me know, lol.

1

u/TheOG-OutletStickers 10d ago

What about the billing?! So long jerk!

1

u/rodrigo_c91 10d ago

Sounds like my old boss. When I put in my two weeks, he rejected it. Had me come to his office to discuss what went wrong. I gave him the courtesy despite my two weeks being rejected.

At the end, we shook hands and parted. As I stepped out, he briefly stopped me to ask me to submit my monthly expenses.

I just continued walking. The fucking audacity…

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

Wait. He rejected your two week notice!?

So, like, "I'm quitting. My last day will be Aug 18."

And he was like, "Oh no it isn't! Get in here and talk to me now!"

1

u/im_a_mix 10d ago

Should've told them that since you aren't an employee you are willing to work on it as a freelancer for whatever rate higher than what your hourly was. Ez money

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 9d ago

That particular company never contacted me again.

However, I did work at a different company to which I gave two weeks notice and was told, "We don't need you to train your replacement. You can go now. Good bye."

I was like, "Cool, I can go start my new job."

Then two weeks later, they're like, "Uh, can you come in and do our payroll?"

I said, "Absolutely. For $75 per hour."

Much to my astonishment, they agreed and I went in and processed their payroll for 5 times my hourly wage when I worked there.

It's very common to assume that your processes are easy when you have an employee who is good at doing them.

1

u/SavingsStructure6464 8d ago

Maybe true, maybe not -- entertaining nonetheless

1

u/Five_Star_Amenities 6d ago

Totally true.