“And Then I Got Fired”: 30 People Share How They Got Fired Interview
Getting fired is hardly an enjoyable moment. And unemployment is no joke. But some of the reasons that people got fired are completely dumb and unfair!
When Hashtag Roundup asked people to share the weirdest ‘and then I got fired moments,’ they delivered. We invite you to scroll down, upvote the #andthenIwasfired stories that left you speechless, and share if you’ve been through something similar in the comments, dear Pandas. If you do find yourself getting fired for throwing out your boss’ coat like some of these people, it’s essential to realize that even though losing your job is stressful, you will be able to find work again. But there are steps that you need to take in the meantime.
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Eddy Ng, the James and Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management at Bucknell University, and spoke with him about what to do if you finally find yourself without a job. Scroll down for our interview with him, as well as for our chat with Jeff Dwoskin who runs the Hashtag Roundup community together with his wife, Robyn.
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Totally. Always stand up. If you know you are 100% right and they are wrong, you can get them shaking with fear.
My God, America at it's finest... lacking understanding for basic human emotions but always heading towards unlimited gains....
Dr. Ng said that more and more people are tweeting about being let go involuntarily because of the hardships created by the pandemic. "If you are fired, ask for the reason why you are let go. If it's wrongful dismissal, you may have recourse based on employment law. Tweeting about this in public may win you some public sympathy but it may not be helpful," he gave some advice on what (not) to do if you do lose your job.
"If you were involuntarily let go through no fault of your own, ask your employer about other possible opportunities. Build a community to help you find work—professional and social networks, family, former colleagues and headhunters or placement services," the professor said.
He added that word about people losing their jobs gets out, so you might want to think about controlling the narrative on why you got fired. That way, you can steer clear of any inaccuracies or rumors. "Depending on where you are, your former employer may disclose this fact, and the reasons why you have been let go. You may wish to discuss this with your former employer. Hence, maintaining a cordial relationship may be advantageous to you," he said.
Meanwhile, Jeff, who has been running the Hashtag Roundup community for 5 years, told us that Hashtag Roundup constantly run tags throughout the day, hoping to bring a bit of joy to people's lives. "We strive to make Twitter a fun place to be. That entails coming up with ideas for hashtags that resonate with people either currently or at some point in their lives."
Jeff added that it's not uncommon for their hashtags to have thousands or even tens of thousands of responses and reach millions of people. You can check out the Hashtag Roundup app right here.
I wish it was: I told my employer a coworker abused me #AndThenTheyWereFired 😏
The Balance Careers expert blog that focuses on career advice explains how you should do your best to not beat yourself up after losing your job. You should also avoid making the situation worse by getting into heated arguments with your superiors. Feeling angry is natural; spreading that anger to everyone around you is not. Instead—try to focus on the future.
That includes finding out from your (former) employer about severance pay, benefits, unemployment, and references. Even if it’s unpleasant dealing with someone who just dropped a bomb on your life, it’s vital that you get that information so that you can move forward. You need to know when you’ll receive your final paycheck. And you want to make sure whether the references you might get will be neutral. Knowledge is power, after all.
Meanwhile, the Ladders website has some further career advice. It’s best to make something good of a bad situation, so look at losing your job as an opportunity to move on to bigger and better things. Since you’ll have some downtime, try out a bunch of different activities while you’re sending out resumes: give volunteering and freelancing a try and consider signing up for some classes to improve yourself.
While losing your job can seem like the end of the world, it doesn’t have to be when you face the challenge head-on and have a plan of action.
I was fired for taking a holiday I was legally entitled to because I asked for it three months in advance and they never gave me the OK even though I constantly chased them about it. According to Dutch law if your employer does not give you an answer to your holiday request within two weeks you're entitled to take it and your employer has to cover any costs if they tell you after this deadline that you can't go. I couldn't complain about it either, since I had a 0 hour contract and they just didn't schedule me in until my contract ended.
If the coworker was being annoying and you asked him nicely, I don't see a problem with telling them to shut up.
Here it is, the one non-bootlicking comment you were looking for
How is that office supplies? I don’t think it should be a sackable offence, more a don’t do that again kind of thing, but they’re defo not office supplies!
There are a lot of companies and enterprises that won't allow romantic relationships between co-workers because of the drama when they have a quarrel or break up.
Note: this post originally had 30 images. It’s been shortened to the top 29 images based on user votes.
I have only been fired once when I refused to lie for the company about an accident in which a staff member was injured. All staff were ussued written instructions of what to say to investigators, even in their native language if their English was poor.
Well done, Rose!
This is hardly a series about layoffs but rather about the lack of labour laws in the US, and about unhealthy labour ethics. In most of these cases, in a European country you would go to labour could and be reinstated or get 2-3 months of salary as indemnity.
Hans down, this is a great comment, as the US has not only anti-worker laws in most states, the obscene anti-worker ethics of most employers and managers (private and public sectors). I have seen it first-hand, and the commenting jaguar is clearly biased in favour of the cruel mastery of capital and law which slanders and slays the most free of people in our so-called democratic republic... -Rev Dr M, retired educator & labour organiser
Its insane that American anti worker laws are so bad, many people have been driven to suicide over abuse from bosses and died from the stress.This is the RULE, NOT the exception. They are legally allowed to scream in ur face over anything and everything, call you names, undermine you, slander, smear you and lie to the big bosses about you, who believe all the lies and then they build a case against you for termination. As If that weren't enough,then the employer further destroys you by denying you unemployment benefits by claiming you were at fault for "misconduct", even though it's fake, all lies strung together to build "a case" and co signed by HR! So now, you were abused, maligned, terminated, lost your medical benefits AND denied unemployment benefits! Finally, to add even MORE insult to injury, they blacklist you and make SURE you will NEVER work again not only in that company, but in that particular field, ANYWHERE in the country and its the career of your DREAMS. This is Ameri
Hans... each of these "cases" presented a one or two sentence overview (140 characters or less, since it was Twitter), with very little real facts about the situation. How can you form an EDUCATED opinion with no facts? This is the problem with the internet these days. People assume things based on one sentence, with no knowledge of the facts, and no knowledge of the situation leading up to the supposed event. And then you go on to bash the US, based on hearsay that does not even contain any facts or details about the situation. Getting tired of this uninformed mob mentality.
You might not have noticed that I made comments on severeral entries, rather supporting the employer. You are right about oversimplification. You are not right about US bashing. There is a difference between unconstructive bashing and justified criticism.
I'm American an will vouch that in America employees have no rights, even so called union employees have little say. I speak from experience. Practically ALL states are At Will employees and basically that means your boss can abuse and fire you for absolutely NO reason at all. The only people who have some say are those from a protected group and even then it is hard to prove the abuse. HR are jokes and are not there to help employees but to protect the corporations interests and warn them on just exactly what and how to get away with employee abuse and termination LEGALLY. Politicians of both parties will not touch employee rights or try to help workers because big corporation turn over is WANTED and encouraged to keep that job market flowing. Just image having job security for 30 years! All the jobs would be taken, nobody would retire and nobody would get fired if they actually kept good workers so that means nobody would get hired either.
depends on wich european country...in germany in supermarkets like aldi they fire you if you ''steal'' bread or food wich else would be thrown away and cant be sold anymore...happened several times women got fired 20 yrs working in a supermarket for ''stealing''bread they was gonna throw away
Oh that happens in America in every single place where food is sold. I've seen it happen to long term employees and then they are banned from collecting unemployment benefits for stealing, which is misconduct. They literally were throwing the food away and rather the rats ate it then the single mom of 4 take it home to help feed her kids. These bosses are cold as ice and I do hope there really is a hell.
Ojberretta Berretta love
Just because it is illegal here in Europe, doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. Recording reasons that are bull is far from abnormal.
The US bashing *is* unwarranted because you have no idea where most of these happened. e.g. one of the posts on here looks extremely likely to have happened in either France or Canada (Quebec)**, and yet 80% of the comments are "depending on the state, this might not be illegal". Try "depending on the country". The US has many problems, but you're making some rather large assumptions to defend their relevance here. [**Edit: I looked into it. It was from Spain.]
How does this represent a lack of labor laws? The US has very stringent labor laws, the issue is a lot of employers do not care about them and react in the moment and end up having to deal with the consequences of those reactions, which are usually very costly. This post isn’t about the aftermath of the person’s termination with their labor complaint. It’s unfair to assume there is a lack of labor laws based on this thread.
If the US has so much stringent labor laws how come that "at-will" employment is standard in the United States? It is even allowed to put it in the contract. In Europe you can't put anything in a contract that is disadvantageous to employees, so you can't make them sign to agree that they can be fired at any given time without at much as a reason.
Not true. The laws all benefit the company. They don't have to treat you like a human being unless you are in a protected group and can PROVE you were mistreated. If they don't like you, for whatever reason, or no reason they have the legal protection to do anything short of physical assault to you in order to get you to quit....and I've actually seen managers even do THAT and flip and twist it around and lie about it! When all else fails they try to "build a case" against you, utilizing co workers and subordinates to spy and report anything and everything to upper management, and of course, HR will side with management and you're fired.
Be sure you understand what “at-will” employment is in the US before going on a tirade. An employer can terminate an employment relationship for any reason without warning as long as that reason IS NOT ILLEGAL. Employers are still required to follow labor laws. Which is why there are state labor boards and the federal labor commission that allow employees to submit labor complaints that are investigated by these agencies. Every single complaint is investigated.
Ok... ILLEGAL reasons to fire someone would be whistle blowing. Sexual harassment. Racism. Religious discrimination, Homophobic, discrimination against gays and trans. ADA protected people, like mental illness or physical disability....BUT It's only as illegal as you being able to PROVE it, have witnesses speak out about it when interrogated and we all know NO EMPLOYEES going to risk their jobs to stick up for you! The very sad fact is that for EVERYBODY ELSE that isn't in that legally protected group, it's literally open season and you are at the corporations total mercy. That's ALOT of people open to LEGAL abuse and mistreatment by their managers.
Pretty much every single one of these is totally illegal where I live, and if an employer even attempted it they would be in deep shit.
Problem is , many people either don't know their legal rights or are unwilling to prosecute
I have only been fired once when I refused to lie for the company about an accident in which a staff member was injured. All staff were ussued written instructions of what to say to investigators, even in their native language if their English was poor.
Well done, Rose!
This is hardly a series about layoffs but rather about the lack of labour laws in the US, and about unhealthy labour ethics. In most of these cases, in a European country you would go to labour could and be reinstated or get 2-3 months of salary as indemnity.
Hans down, this is a great comment, as the US has not only anti-worker laws in most states, the obscene anti-worker ethics of most employers and managers (private and public sectors). I have seen it first-hand, and the commenting jaguar is clearly biased in favour of the cruel mastery of capital and law which slanders and slays the most free of people in our so-called democratic republic... -Rev Dr M, retired educator & labour organiser
Its insane that American anti worker laws are so bad, many people have been driven to suicide over abuse from bosses and died from the stress.This is the RULE, NOT the exception. They are legally allowed to scream in ur face over anything and everything, call you names, undermine you, slander, smear you and lie to the big bosses about you, who believe all the lies and then they build a case against you for termination. As If that weren't enough,then the employer further destroys you by denying you unemployment benefits by claiming you were at fault for "misconduct", even though it's fake, all lies strung together to build "a case" and co signed by HR! So now, you were abused, maligned, terminated, lost your medical benefits AND denied unemployment benefits! Finally, to add even MORE insult to injury, they blacklist you and make SURE you will NEVER work again not only in that company, but in that particular field, ANYWHERE in the country and its the career of your DREAMS. This is Ameri
Hans... each of these "cases" presented a one or two sentence overview (140 characters or less, since it was Twitter), with very little real facts about the situation. How can you form an EDUCATED opinion with no facts? This is the problem with the internet these days. People assume things based on one sentence, with no knowledge of the facts, and no knowledge of the situation leading up to the supposed event. And then you go on to bash the US, based on hearsay that does not even contain any facts or details about the situation. Getting tired of this uninformed mob mentality.
You might not have noticed that I made comments on severeral entries, rather supporting the employer. You are right about oversimplification. You are not right about US bashing. There is a difference between unconstructive bashing and justified criticism.
I'm American an will vouch that in America employees have no rights, even so called union employees have little say. I speak from experience. Practically ALL states are At Will employees and basically that means your boss can abuse and fire you for absolutely NO reason at all. The only people who have some say are those from a protected group and even then it is hard to prove the abuse. HR are jokes and are not there to help employees but to protect the corporations interests and warn them on just exactly what and how to get away with employee abuse and termination LEGALLY. Politicians of both parties will not touch employee rights or try to help workers because big corporation turn over is WANTED and encouraged to keep that job market flowing. Just image having job security for 30 years! All the jobs would be taken, nobody would retire and nobody would get fired if they actually kept good workers so that means nobody would get hired either.
depends on wich european country...in germany in supermarkets like aldi they fire you if you ''steal'' bread or food wich else would be thrown away and cant be sold anymore...happened several times women got fired 20 yrs working in a supermarket for ''stealing''bread they was gonna throw away
Oh that happens in America in every single place where food is sold. I've seen it happen to long term employees and then they are banned from collecting unemployment benefits for stealing, which is misconduct. They literally were throwing the food away and rather the rats ate it then the single mom of 4 take it home to help feed her kids. These bosses are cold as ice and I do hope there really is a hell.
Ojberretta Berretta love
Just because it is illegal here in Europe, doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. Recording reasons that are bull is far from abnormal.
The US bashing *is* unwarranted because you have no idea where most of these happened. e.g. one of the posts on here looks extremely likely to have happened in either France or Canada (Quebec)**, and yet 80% of the comments are "depending on the state, this might not be illegal". Try "depending on the country". The US has many problems, but you're making some rather large assumptions to defend their relevance here. [**Edit: I looked into it. It was from Spain.]
How does this represent a lack of labor laws? The US has very stringent labor laws, the issue is a lot of employers do not care about them and react in the moment and end up having to deal with the consequences of those reactions, which are usually very costly. This post isn’t about the aftermath of the person’s termination with their labor complaint. It’s unfair to assume there is a lack of labor laws based on this thread.
If the US has so much stringent labor laws how come that "at-will" employment is standard in the United States? It is even allowed to put it in the contract. In Europe you can't put anything in a contract that is disadvantageous to employees, so you can't make them sign to agree that they can be fired at any given time without at much as a reason.
Not true. The laws all benefit the company. They don't have to treat you like a human being unless you are in a protected group and can PROVE you were mistreated. If they don't like you, for whatever reason, or no reason they have the legal protection to do anything short of physical assault to you in order to get you to quit....and I've actually seen managers even do THAT and flip and twist it around and lie about it! When all else fails they try to "build a case" against you, utilizing co workers and subordinates to spy and report anything and everything to upper management, and of course, HR will side with management and you're fired.
Be sure you understand what “at-will” employment is in the US before going on a tirade. An employer can terminate an employment relationship for any reason without warning as long as that reason IS NOT ILLEGAL. Employers are still required to follow labor laws. Which is why there are state labor boards and the federal labor commission that allow employees to submit labor complaints that are investigated by these agencies. Every single complaint is investigated.
Ok... ILLEGAL reasons to fire someone would be whistle blowing. Sexual harassment. Racism. Religious discrimination, Homophobic, discrimination against gays and trans. ADA protected people, like mental illness or physical disability....BUT It's only as illegal as you being able to PROVE it, have witnesses speak out about it when interrogated and we all know NO EMPLOYEES going to risk their jobs to stick up for you! The very sad fact is that for EVERYBODY ELSE that isn't in that legally protected group, it's literally open season and you are at the corporations total mercy. That's ALOT of people open to LEGAL abuse and mistreatment by their managers.
Pretty much every single one of these is totally illegal where I live, and if an employer even attempted it they would be in deep shit.
Problem is , many people either don't know their legal rights or are unwilling to prosecute