Fired or Quit? Why not choose both?

[hinakiba777]

Alright so the fastest resignation thread and the "Didn't quit" thread. Has anyone ever been in the grey zone about being fired or quitting?

I was working at a pizza place for about two weeks before I left. The first week I was doing a two person job with another girl, and all was well. The second week I had to do the job alone, six days a week. Not only that, new trainers came in who gave me a hard time. They once told my boss I threw a temper tantrum in the middle of the kitchen when I was leaving to go home. But that's a story for another time.

Anyway on my day off I e-mail my boss asking if I could maybe cook for a few days, and have other people make the dough. I wasn't very fast at the dough making. Probably because I was trained to do it as a team, not alone.

Anyway he e-mailed me back and said that perhaps it would be best if we just parted ways at this point.

I was so shocked I had gotten fired so quickly. However, according to my co-workers my boss said I quit. Everyone I know is split 50/50 on this issue. So Officially I don't know what happened. Safe to say, the pizza place isn't on my resume.

I can't believe I'm the only person this has ever happened to.

[Evil Queen]

Hey, the (kinda) same thing happened to me.

I worked at Domino's for one day. Discovered that evening when I got off shift I felt sick, next morning I realized why; I'm allergic to bell pepper's and the nasty veggie was mixed in with a lot of toppings I had been handling.

So I go in for my shift the next day and ask the guy in charge (I was opening with him) if there was some way I could just avoid making the pizza's with bell peppers. He said that it was crucial to the job I make pizza's with peppers and suggested that this line of work may not be for me. I told him I know it's not and walked out.

The digusting thing is in that one day, no one wore the latex gloves that are "supposed" to be required and most the employees used that Germ-X stuff (alcohol based hand sanitizer) rather then washing their hands. No wonder their pizza's always tasted funny!

[Arm]

Got hired for a programming job once. This could be a morons in management post, really. Guy didn't know what the hell he wanted me to do. Said, "We'll find something, you bet!"
I was hired, then, as a PHP programmer.

Hands me a blank box running ubuntu and says, "I want you to do stuff."

I say, "Will you be providing me with the tools to do stuff?"

He looks at me as if I'd just asked him why he wasn't wearing pants. Man did NOT understand that if you want me to do things, then I need the tools with which to do them. Okay, I have a computer, how about some software? No? Connection information to the server where I'll be writing code? Maybe? Can I get permission to log in? It'll make things work better. Can I change the code? No? Why not? If I'm not allowed to commit code changes, what am I doing here?

Seriously, the first week and a half, myself and two other new hires spent just trying to get access to the code base, get set up to do development work, and the like. He had a setup script he'd written- in Bash (a simple scripting language for linux/unix boxes)- that he was absurdly proud of, despite ALL evidence that it didn't work. At all. He wanted me to correct that festering, 1800-line monstrosity.

I did. I wrote a maybe 30-line PHP script that would do the same thing. He pissed and whined and bitched about why wasn't it in Bash? Seriously. The jackass couldn't provide us with working hardware, correctly set up software, a connection to the codebase or anything else, and once he'd told ME to do it, and I DID, he didn't like the way I'd done it...

He hired and fired two contractors while I was there. He kept one for three days, and one for a week. Since he gave them exactly the same starting materials- and nobody was to use my setup script, because god forbid it wasn't in Bash- well, we know that it takes about 70 man-hours to get one system running from the hack-job that we had to work in... so let's see, you hire a contractor for 3 days and give him nothing, and then complain he didn't do anything? (His body count for the four weeks we'd been there at that point? 5 of us- full-time and contractors- hired, 2 fired)

Guy was S-M-R-T smart.

He wanted us to work on weekends. He wanted us to stay late. Like, 12-hour-day late. I was being paid 40K/year. There's a lot you DON'T get from a programmer for that. Especially when I know damn well you're paying my co-workers 20 and 30K more than me. Who got hired the same week I did. Who are, if not good friends of mine, at least far more friendly than that boss.

To top it off, when after SEVERAL weeks I was finally actually allowed to do some work on a project that was written in PHP... he kept coming up with new things to whine about. I went to a friend of mine, who had helped me get the job. Took him aside. Said, man, I don't know if I can stand this. I don't know if I can put up with this. There's no reason for this crap. He wants me to come in on the weekends. There's nothing for me to do. He won't let me work but he wants me to sit in the damn office. I really appreciate your help, but I don't know if I'm gonna be here much longer.

A week after that, he fired one of my co-workers. Or rather, tried to. (Current body count for 5 weeks: 5 hired, 2 fired, 1 escape)
This was the co-worker making 20K more than me. A java guy. Good at what he did. He went to HR. Got put in a different position. I started talking to other development teams. Polishing up my resume. The business analyst pops by the office to announce that she's turned in her notice. (5 hired, 2 fired, 1 escape, 1 quit)

Week six rolls around. I'm joking with one of our QA guys about which of us will be the next to go. I think me, he thinks him. We know we're the next on the line. QA guy has been added to our team of 'developers' as has a sysadmin (we're down to 3 programmers now, so I suppose he thought he needed to bulk up his head count by stealing from other groups). Manager lets us know he's going to see about bringing in more contractors. I suppose I shall call the kidnapped QA guy KQA, because there were two QA guys, so there's another left still doing just QA work. (5 hired, 2 kidnapped, 2 fired, 1 escaped, 1 quit)

Middle of week 6, the contractors get in. Two of them. Plus, a new employee. Employee says manager was really interested when he mentioned he knew some PHP. I take the new guy aside, give him the rundown. And the body count. (8 hired, 2 kidnapped, 2 fired, 1 escape, 1 quit)

Meanwhile, my project is about 90% finished, but not in a good way. It's a cobbled-together patch-up of an older cobbled-together piece of crap. But I don't care. I'm sending out my resume, and spending every minute trading black humor with the KQA guy, talking to other dev teams, and telling myself, "my girlfriend wouldn't like it if I kill them all."

That Thursday, of week 6, manager brings me into his office. We have an exceedingly bizarre conversation. What could we do differently? What could we do better? I have a list. He's not interested. Do I like him?
No.
No, I do not. He has mannerisms and behavior patterns I find frustrating and annoying.
Conversation winds up lasting about an hour or so, while he tells me that it's not that bad, the project is doing fine, and all of the issues I keep pointing out aren't actually problems. (He's wrong, of course)
I spend much of the meeting focusing on some point above and slightly beyond manager's right ear.

Get released back to my desk at 3.
Tell the KQA guy, well, my productivity's shot. I don't think I care. But, he's finally letting me set up a vmware XP machine on this piece of shit. To explain: the project was web-based. Up until this point, I had to go walk down the hall to check out how it looked on other browsers. The QA guy who didn't get kidnapped and was thus doing twice the work to make up for the guy who was now sitting next to me, then had to drop everything and show me what I wanted to see. Then I would tramp down to my desk again. Repeat ad nauseum. (Vmware is a way of setting up a virtual machine on your computer. It doesn't cost money, but I couldn't get the permission and I couldn't get an XP disc from the systems guys. I'd been wanting this, or another computer, for weeks at this point.)
He spent an hour telling me everything was fine and how he was such a nice guy, and the only thing I got out of it was that I could FINALLY do work in a marginally- BARELY marginally- less asinine way.

I spent the rest of the day setting up a virtual computer on my workstation. I tell the KQA guy about the new PHP guy. I figure I'll make it to the end of the month, tops. Project isn't finished, won't be 'finished' (none of their products were ever finished. Buggiest piece of shit software I have ever had the disgrace to work upon) 'til the first week of next month, but there's no way I'd make it that long. The PHP work is already almost finished.

Friday, the manager asks me to come to another meeting with him and the HR guy.

HR guy I have nothing against. He knows how to fire a programmer. At this point I imagine he's had far too much practice. Manager didn't have the guts to sit there though. He brought me in, told me, 'we think that your skill-set just isn't really what we need right now' then fled the scene.
I asked the HR guy, 'well, that's nice, what's the real reason?' and he explained that as far as he knew, that was it. I laughed and told him, "well, the PHP part of that project is finished, so I suppose that's correct, for now."
HR guy walked me to the desk, where I shook hands with my one remaining colleague from when we were hired 6 weeks ago, told the KQA guy, "you're up!"

HR guy paid me through the end of the month as a severance. So not only was my guess correct, but I got paid for NOT working. As soon as I was told I was gettin' let go, I started grinning. I grinned so much my face hurt. I did not *stop* grinning 'til I was on the highway heading home for the day. Home early. The first time since I'd started working there.

When I started, I figured I'd go six months and then quit. That time-scale gradually started dropping. And in the end, that manager's body count was, 8 hired, 2 kidnapped, 3 fired, 1 escaped, and 1 quit.
I would've quit as soon as I had another job. I wasn't going to give notice. I would've just gone. It didn't go out with a fizzle, but it was definitely a mutual understanding that this was a good time for me to quit working there. Much like when a northbound train meets a southbound train, they both decide to quit moving.

[Akasa]

Back to OP, you got fired, you have the proof in the emails where your BOSS said its bst if you part ways. You didn't say I don't want to work here anymore, they said we don't want you anymore.
Go file for unemployment and have your emails as proof.

[burnedout]

<MR SNIPPY WAS HERE>

Maybe I missed something when I read this post (I read the whole thing) but was is the difference between an escape and a quit? Is escape just going to a different department?

[Arm]

Maybe I missed something when I read this post (I read the whole thing) but was is the difference between an escape and a quit? Is escape just going to a different department?

Yeah, the manager honest to god seriously tried to fire him. Came back in saying "(coworker) won't be with us any more..." and genuinely thought he had fired my coworker. Then, (coworker) came back in and said, "Thanks to my second degree, I'm moving to the business analyst spot."

That was the same week the other business analyst had quit her job. So the co-worker was no longer directly under our manager, though he was still working on the same projects. He wasn't writing code any more though, which was unfortunate, since he was better than the worthless crap-flinging monkey that was the manager's favorite. Actually, (coworker) was probably better than me, to be honest. But the manager had other Java programmers on the team.

So he escaped from the manager, and kept working at the company, just in a different office. I had to walk past him a few hundred times a day ... well, okay, about fifty... when I tromped off to the QA guy and back again.

[hinakiba777]

Back to OP, you got fired, you have the proof in the emails where your BOSS said its bst if you part ways. You didn't say I don't want to work here anymore, they said we don't want you anymore.
Go file for unemployment and have your emails as proof.

I'm assuming this is for me. I actually got hired at a grocery store two days after being let go from the pizza place. Also, it was last summer.

[eltf177]

Wow Arm, that was _some_ story! Any followup to the poor SOB's who came after you or your "manager"?

[Arm]

Nope, I didn't keep in contact with them. The friend of mine who got me the job is a nice guy, but more of an acquaintance. He was my manager at a previous job where we were both contractors. So I could write and ask him what's going on these days, but I don't want to seem spiteful. And I really would be spiteful to ask, because there's nothing good that will come of that group until they fire the manager and his favorite programmer.

[draftermatt]

I've told this story in brief on this board, but it fits here.

When I started working here there was another drafter, his name is Steve. Steve was an interesting fellow, raised Catholic, converted to Judaism (relevant I promise). Could only work 9-3:30 (6 1/2 hours) everyday because he had to "go home and take care of his grandmother" who he lived with, but would constantly complain about having no money, no insurance, POS car, no girl in his life, etc.

November of 2001 things are really cooking. After 9/11 everyone and their uncle is trying to get their buildings up (they were shut down for a few weeks after and winter's coming fast). We are at max capacity in the plant and needing more. We're actually talking about subbing work out to a competitor (and later did) just to keep up.

The decision is made that we have to start working Saturdays to keep up. Someone in their brilliance decided that the office staff had to come in too since my boss "had sold all this work to get us into this" (seriously, the owners complained about that), and so we could get work done without the phone ringing all day.

I was still in Highshool at this point and coming in at 10 AM after I finished my 1 class in the morning. Steve shows up at 9 AM and our boss tells him the news about Saturdays, which led to this.

Steve: "I'm not working Saturday, it's against my religion"
Boss: "Steve, I understand that, but all of us are giving up a day of our weekend, you can come in on Sunday in that case"
Steve: "No, I'm not working any weekends, you're not taking my weekends away, you'll have to fire me"
Boss: "Fine, you're fired"

When I got there I was told this story. Boss asked me to call Steve and tell him he could come back to work, boss was trying to make a point, that you shouldn't talk like that. Steve says he'll have to think about it.

So a few days go by and unemployment comes calling. Wants our version of events. Boss tells them that Steve fired himself. After the stunned lady asked "how exactly does someone do that" Boss tells them the story, including the offering the job back.

Unemployment hems and haws for over a week, in the meantime Steve has told me he fully intends on suing the company for antisemitism if he doesn't get unemployment benefits.

Unemployment finally gives him the benefits on the basis that "the company wasn't willing to work around his being Jewish". Yup, offering an alternative and the guys job back is considered antisemitism in the state of Maryland.