When ‘You’re fired’ isn’t good enough
June 26, 2008 by Maureen CatalanoPosted in: "Seemed like a good idea at the time", Special report
Every organization has layoffs from time to time. That doesn’t mean you can’t save a little face along the way.
Companies have been known to fire by FedEx, voicemail, conference call and even text message. But these harsh methods hardly compare to the cringe-worthy stories readers sent to us below:
- Changing the locks. An employee went out to lunch only to come back and realize his security pass was denied. When he confronted his boss about the mix up, he was informed that he no longer worked for the company. Another company changed the locks to an employee’s office overnight and placed his belongings outside of his door.
- Via newspaper. An employee working late intercepted a fax from headquarters listing a job ad placed in a local paper. Guess whose job they were looking to fill? Hers. Another employee discovered he was fired when he read a profile about his replacement in the daily paper.
- Phoning it in. Employees at one company were forced to sit at their desks in silence with no computer access. If their phone rang, they were fired.
- “Promoting” them. An employee was told by his boss that he was being promoted and would begin work the following week at the company’s main office. When he showed up on Monday morning at the new office, he was informed that he was actually fired.
- A theatrical performance. Employees were handed videotapes on a Friday to watch at home. They were told the film had to do with their benefits. The video was actually a mock news-cast created by professional actors with a “breaking” announcement. The news: “The job you have has been eliminated.”
- Color-coded. All employees were called to an auditorium and given color-coded packets. Those with red packets were led through one door back to the office. Blue packet holders left through the one-way door to the street — the company’s way of saying “sayonara.”
- Musical chairs. A company “left” a new seating chart on the photocopier. Those left off the roster were fired. At least they were nice enough to have cabs lined up and waiting outside of the building for the newly unemployed.
Have any horror stories of how a co-worker or friend was let go? Share below.
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Tags: Layoffs, Promotions, Saving face, terminations
June 27th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I was working for a clothing store at our local mall. When I showed up for work one day, the gate on the store front was down and the store was completely empty, except for a couple of metal clothes racks with some scattered hangers dangling from them. Everyone was out of a job!
Another story involves my husband. During a time I was seaching through the want ads for employment, I noticed a position at my husbands company. After reading it, I realized the description was describing my husbands position. He had been working for this company for over 20 years and after I called and informed him of this ad, he immediately went to owner of the company and confronted him. After realizing this was true, my husband promptly put his two weeks notice in. I don’t know if I would have given them any notice myself, but I know it was the ethical thing to do. My husband had no trouble finding another job, as he had been approched by another company on many occasions before this, to come to work for them. This story actually had a happy ending.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
This is beyond belief. To try and make light of the enormous financial and psychological trauma of being fired is is so insensative that it defies description. Then we all sit in shock when someone returns with a gun and starts killing people. Absolutely repulsive.
June 27th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
To Patty G.-
Your husband did the right thing by giving notice. What matters most is how your husband acted, not whether the company deserved his professional conduct. It’s debatable whether the company deserved the courtesy – whether your husband demonstrated professional courtesy is NOT. Good on him.
June 27th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Welcome to Corporate America. . . I couldn’t possibly agree more with John R. While I’ve yet to experience this kind of lay-off, I could certainly see it happening. With even LESS tact if that’s at all possible
June 27th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I worked in a company, where a team of “Storm troopers” from HR and your Dept Head showed up at your office to “do you” as the owners had coined it. They would bring a large paper bag for your personal items and walk you to your car immediately after informing you – no goodbyes to colleagues or phone calls to spouses. I was a Dept Head and therefore on the firing side. This process took all day. The experience was traumatic for all involved and offered no dignity to the severed employees. Any good employee remaning after that debacle quickly got a new job and scrammed out of there as fast as they could, as did I.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
here in Boise this week Round table pulled the change the locks routine. They closed all of their stores without telling any of the employees. They left them a note telling them how to pick up their final paycheck on the front window.
June 27th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
At a previous job, we just got voicemail and I was never taught how to set mine up. Two weeks later, one of which was when I was on vacation, when one project I was working on finished, I was let go.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I worked for JCPenney as a supervisor. While working I had caused injury to my arm. This limited what i could do so one day they called me in for a “review” and told me I was unproductive. HELLO! Did I mention they never bothered to train me in my new job? they gave me a badge and fed me to the sharks. Real nice for a store who prides themselves on being uber friendly.
I also worked for Express Scripts- They did something similar to the person with the “magnolia” room— basically said “come with me” like they did for everything they told you (raises, promotions, call monitors, comments, reviews, interviews) and promptly presented me with a 70 page stack of things i didn’t do. My pregnant boss started to lay into me about something. I payed them back. A big “F*** YOU!” came out and i went home for the day. I was going to be fired anyhow. I came in the next day to ppl staring at me. So i grabbed a box, packed all my stuff, when they came to get me again I shouted BYE to everyone and asked flat out for my paperwork to sign. I then skipped outta the building with the geriatric security man on my arm whistling and singing all the way out. Now THAT is and exit ladies and gents. It was fantastic. I highly reccomend you do this if you know you’re getting fired.
June 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
My old law firm did the “change the key card” routine coupled with the “Angel of Death”. When the target came to work he/she couldnt get onto his/her floor. That required him/her to go to the 4th floor (the administrative offices). Upon arrival you were “escorted” to your (former) office by the horrible wench. Your stuff was in a box on your desk. You were given 30 minutes or so to get your affairs in order. When your time was up the mail room guy (former wrestler and college football player) would very gently and kindly escort you to the main lobby on the ground floor. Thus endeth your employment. I saw it happen to 4-5 attorneys. I got out when the getting was good.
June 27th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Part of the problem is that the same fear of confrontation that lets people not deal with problems as they first arrive continue on to the firing. Not everybody has the guts, or the tact, to do it properly.
June 27th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Several years ago, I worked for a hotel as the graveyard switchboard operator. They decided that there wasn’t enough business to keep me around.
They told my boss they were laying me off come Labor Day but told him NOT to tell me as they claimed they were going to come in that morning and give me the news then. I was to get no warning whatsoever.
He and I had been friends for a very long time (I got him the job at this particular hotel) so he told me about two weeks ahead of time – he also told me to bring in my fan fiction masters and make as many copies as I could before they let me go because they were not going to give me anything in the way of a severance package at all. I managed to make several copies and sold them at a fan fiction convention and got about $300 – so that was my severance pay.
The kicker was that around Christmas that year, the boss called me and offered me my old job back at the same $7 an hour. By then, I was working for a major computer company for $11 an hour. When I finished laughing, I told him where I was working and how much they were paying me and asked him whether he REALLY thought I’d be stupid enough to take a $4 PAY CUT to come back to be abused by drunken idiots! He was quite put out because even as the Accounting MANAGER at the hotel, he was only pulling in $9.50 an hour. It’s 10 years later – I’m pulling $18 an hour and he’s STILL making less than I am.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I know someone who got a a COBRA letter in the mail. When they called HR to report the “error”, they told the person “you need to speak to your boss”…
June 28th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
My girlfriend worked as an in-house labor lawyer and one of the managers fired a women with MS over the phone, revoked her security pass et cetera . . . she told me it was because the manager could not look the women in the eye. Worse yet was that she was being fired not for poor performance, but merely because they thought her performance would decline. That cowardly, unscrupulous act cost the company $80,000.00–two years of pay and she deserved every penny of it. Like another comment asked, how can people wonder why a (former) employee goes postal?
October 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
After nearly 5 years of superior hard work for a family owned business of a father and two sons, the father retired and one son’s didn’t care much for me, so he hired another person for the same job with ammeneties I was never given, such as a laptop, cell phone, corp credit card and a bigger title. then sat her cube right next to mine. I was so humiliated. He even brought her iced coffee… the other son gave me a project with such an unrealistic deadline and didn’t even give me the allotted (a week) time to finish it before letting me go..we don’t matter to companies.. we are only numbers and are replaceable.. I guess he thought I would be disgruntled because he was shaking and had the HR and another executive in the office with us, none of which could look me in the eye and I just smiled and left. I am looking at it as a blessing in disquise. such a hostile work environment should be illegal because I felt so hurt, but you can’t put out a huge fire with a cup of water. good riddance!
October 31st, 2008 at 6:47 pm
This is really a 2 way street. I worked for a small freight broker in AZ a few years back. The guys that owned the company were very decent people, maybe too decent. They hired a guy that had previous experience in the industry but had recently come from a rehab program. Their contention was that everyone needed a second chance. I admired this quality about them and it was one of the reasons that I liked working with them.
Mr. Rehab was on the job for a few weeks when it happened. He was on the rotation to have the “night” cell phone in case of driver emergencies. Everything seemed great until the following Monday morning.
No Mr. Rehab.
The owners called his house without luck. Then they drover over during lunch to see if he was okay but of course there was nobody home. I started getting panicky since the night phone wasn’t the only thing he had. We had all of our contact information in a briefcase that stayed with the phone… including our home addresses and phone numbers.
Later that afternoon, one of the owners went pick up another night phone for the rotation. I had the bright idea of calling the phone one more time in the hopes of at least getting the briefcase back. Someone answered when I called. Apparently the phone had been traded to a crack dealer and was still activated. I don’t remember what the final bill was for the day of the “crack phone” but I offered to help with reference checks after that.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
For all those wondering whether these horrible events are legal or have the potential for an undeserved windfall:
Stop the whining, move on and get a job where you will be appreciated and happy.
And it’s not corporate america’s fault, it’s individual jerks and sometimes entire companies are full of them.