I was working as a contractor for a Fortune 100 company. The pay was decent, but the management was toxic. Eventually, I received an offer from a much smaller company for a full-time remote position with a significantly better salary and benefits, including PTO and a 401(k).
At first, I was unsure whether I should leave my contract role and join the smaller company. To evaluate the new opportunity, I did not immediately resign from my contract position. Instead, for about two weeks, I obtained approval to leave work early each day. Since I was working in the Eastern Time Zone, I told my manager that I needed to leave at noon each day for personal reasons.
The new full-time job was remote and operated on Pacific Time. After leaving my contract job early, I would go home and work for the new company. After about a week and a half, I realized that the new job was a much better fit. The team was supportive, the work was enjoyable, and I wanted to commit to it fully.
On Wednesday of the second week, I met with my manager and informed him that I was resigning. He asked when my last day would be, and I told him I was prepared to make that day my final day. However, he said that because I had several outstanding responsibilities, he needed me to stay longer. He asked me to continue working through the following Friday, and I agreed.
The next day, Thursday, I conducted a knowledge-transfer session with my team members as requested. Later that same day, my manager called me and informed me that the company had decided not to continue my employment and asked me to return all company equipment. I went to the office that evening and returned everything.
The following day, several former coworkers contacted me and told me that my manager had posted a message in Microsoft Teams stating that he had fired me. According to them, he also shared a Trump “You’re Fired” meme and stated that I had been terminated because I was working two jobs simultaneously.
I am trying to understand what, if anything, I should do in response to this situation.

After 6 dumpster loads, and a couple before pictures...

I have never really understood why some people take jobs that they do not own so personal. I mean why do you have it in you to want to fire people who have mouths to feed just as you do. Some people have lost all empathy and don’t look at the bigger picture when it is critical to do so.
You work at a place with someone and for whatever reason you want them fired when you can just stay in your lane and they stay in theirs and you all end up taking money home and feeding your family. I can’t imagine myself being the cause of someone being fired from work unless under a critical situation. No matter what I do someone will work harder than I will do and I will work harder than others. Such is life. I wouldn’t to throw others under the bus just because I think I slightly work more than they do

I was recently fired from a position that I held for 6 years. It had a client facing component to it. Got a new manager who was there for 6 months and fired me because of a mistake that I did that I was rectifying even. After the incident he gave me a written warning with totally flimsy points ( like me asking him a question about something I wasn’t sure about) amongst others. I tried my best to implement all the things in the write up for us to meet 2 weeks after and for him to tell me I wasn’t doing implementing the measures laid out in the write up (I found out from the insurance company that the company had already put in a health insurance termination for the end of the month )way before we met for the write up (PIP) review.

It’s exactly 2 months today and I just can’t get over it. Notwithstanding the fact that I look at his social media pages and he is very religious and all about his family yet denied me income that my family will use.

I asked him during my last meeting if there was complaint from any of the clients that I have been working with for years and he said there was none. Much as I wanna let this go I keep having sleepless nights and asking myself why

I traveled forty miles to a job interview and forty miles back. The person who was supposed to interview did not show. She was in Barbados. She did not email, call or text she wouldn't show which would have spared me the trip. Surely, if the interview is at 1 pm and she is in Barbados at 10 am she knows she won't make it. An employee told me to come back tomorrow at 1 pm. I said ok. I will not go though nor will I call. I wonder how they pick which people to do this to. I got an email for a zoom interview with someone else tomorrow. I might call the first unreliable interviewer at the appointed time and tell her I'm there when I'm not. I have a feeling she won't be there tomorrow either. Some other supervisor at another airline at the same airport did the same thing to me one year ago. $#!tting on employees seems to be common in the airline industry.

I started working as an Administrative Assistant/Personal Assistant at the end of June and was told the PA portion would only be about 20% of my job. It’s for a wealthy commercial real estate developer who is quickly approaching retirement.

I only had two days to train with my predecessor, so I’ve been doing my best, and in my opinion faring pretty well. The PA tasks ended up being about 50% of my job already.

The boss got frustrated at me on Wednesday and started cursing/scolding me. I have anxiety, and inadvertently began shaking. This frustrated him further and he ordered me to stop shaking. Next came the tears, and then he was completely irritated. Called me weak and said our relationship will only work out if I’m strong enough to handle “his personality”.

My predecessor came to visit the next day and gave me some great advice on how to handle him, so I felt better to stay in the role. We had a team lunch with everyone on Friday and things seemed fine. Boss mentioned he would be out of town on Monday.

He messaged me last night, Saturday around 7pm asking me to call him. I said I was busy and could call later, asked him to text me what was going on. He said no, that he needed to talk to me. Would call me at 10:30am the next day (today).

Well, 10:30 comes around and I’m waiting to hear from him. He finally calls at 11:26am and this is the one sided convo to the best of my memory:

“Hey, (my name). Can you hear me? Okay, okay good. Yeah I’m just calling because I’ve thought about it and you are really just not a good fit for me. Yeah. It won’t work out, I’m sure. Really, really not a good fit. (Predecessor’s name) will reach out with details on how to get your things back and return your supplies. But you do not need to come in anymore. Okay? Okay. Bye.”

The phone call was 51 seconds and he didn’t give any time to interrupt or say a word.

I really thought I was doing a good job. I just hadn’t been treated like that by an employer before, so I wasn’t used to it. Plus I was already having a bad day before getting chewed, but he would never care about that.

I’ve never been fired before and I’m kind of freaking out. Getting ready to apply for unemployment and restart the job hunt. Definitely scared. Needed to share with someone.

Have you ever been at a company so long that every single person you started with has left? Now you're just there watching the new hires like... "who are these people" New manager, new team, new inside jokes, new culture.

And you're the only one who remembers when the printer used to be in the other room and why we don't talk about The Incident of 2024..I feel like I'm in season 4 of a show with a completely new cast and I'm the only OG left.

Please tell me I'm not alone.

After 23 years of professional experience, I for the first time have been fired. And the reasoning is extremely stupid behind why I was fired. I've had 2 jobs in the last 15 years, and I took the most recent job as a promotion just with a different company.

They fired me because I lied about why I called out sick. Not that it's any of their business, but someone's ego was so butt hurt that I wouldn't give him a reason other than I'm not feeling well, he decided it was worth investigating. They found out I was going to a competitor for more money after an investigation was done and fired me 2 weeks later. (Today) they said how can we ever trust you again, you've severed the ties of any value or trust.

While it's a whole new thing for me, I still don't know how to feel. Am I just in shock or do I feel like it's a blessing in disguise? Who knows. Maybe I'll feel it in a week or 2.

Way back when, I volunteered to a crisis hotline.  They accepted me and started me on a training program.  There were a lot of rules, which I followed (or thought I did).  After the first week, the people that ran the center met in a closed-door session (with only myself and a trainer to answer calls) for the purpose of deciding who would continue at the center.

While the trainer was working a call, a package was delivered, so I signed for it.  No problem, right?  Wrong.

Somehow, I had broken a rule that I had known nothing about.  As soon as she could, the trainer informed someone inside the meeting, and the head guy came out and dismissed me.  Permanently.  For being helpful.

Years later, there was an embezzlement scandal.  About a half-dozen years after that, there was a scandal involving people convicted of sexual assault manning the hot-lines and handling rape cases.

The center lost its state funding almost immediately, as well as its credibility with the community and with other crisis centers in the state.

One year ago (2025-07-15) they closed their doors and disconnected their phones.  Permanently.  For hiring people "as they are, not as they were".

Ironic, isn't it?  They dismissed me for being helpful, yet hired people who had legal histories that should have preempted their hiring, and eventually got closed down for it.

Schadenfreude?  No.

Sadness?  Not really.

This is just one of those "Shake my head, tell the story, and move on" situations.  I would not know whom to taunt, even if I wanted to.  So there's the story.

Moving on . . .

Not asking for specifics about individuals or companies, more the archetype. The manager who never says what he actually means. The diner who threatens a bad review the second they don’t get their way.

-What type of person was it?

-What did you actually do or say that worked (or didn’t)?

Been noticing how much these seem to fall into repeatable “types”. Am collecting them out of curiosity into the psychology of the folks who make our lives needlessly difficult & what works to reduce their negative impact. I want to see how many different ‘categories’ there are. Will share back what I find.

Filled a dumpster in about 2 hours.... The smell was.... something.

I have been a manager and an individual contributor in almost 20 years of post college work. I never “wrote up" my people unless it was major thing and I had plenty of conversations informally prior. In fact I even had a few times where I asked employees “Please work on A, B or C. I don't want it to become an issue, but I've got people above me looking at it too. Let me know what you need, I'll help you.”.

. In this situation, you sound like your write up was a power trip and that employee I hope left you in a bind.