Announcement

**Knightmare** · 12-16-2006, 04:04 PM

I've been fired from one job, laid off from another. But the one I was fired from..well, I still don't know exactly what happened. Some of you may remember this.

This was about a year ago. I was enjoying a very unsuccessful career in automobile sales. I worked at a local Ford dealership down the street. The money was really good, the people were awesome. I loved working with the customers. I have a sales background, but nothing compared to auto sales. That's how I was enjoying being unsuccessful; I loved the job, but can't sell cars. I can sell just about everything else.

So one day, a guy pulls up in a gorgeous F-250 Harley Davidson package (for those of you that don't know, this is a pickup truck). This truck was easily worth $40,000 for the dealership as a used truck, and would sell very quickly. I talk to him for a while. He is looking to trade it in on a used F-350 (heavy duty pickup) DRW work truck. Those are VERY hard to come by. After I qualify him, I tell him that we don't have anything here on the lot, but I can get my sales manager and we can look at the inventory of our sister dealerships (The owner has 3 in central Florida). He says he will wait while I do that.

I walk back to see the sales manager, who happens to be very busy with 3 other deals. So I go to my used car manager, who is also busy. As a last resort, I try finding the General Manager, but he is no where to be found. Now, I could have searched the inventory myself, but that was a no-no. Management likes to know what we are doing, and salespeople aren't supposed to know how to do that. But I figured out there system in the first week (I was also unofficial tech support) and was looking for an open computer. Hmm.. all were taken. So as I'm wandering about, looking for help on this potentially huge sale, I notice the guy getting up to leave. Just as he is about to get to the door, the GM walks by and swoops him up and starts talking to him. I make my way over to where they are talking.

The customer basically says the same thing to the GM. GM says what I did. GM says he will go look at inventory for customer. Customer agrees, but doesn't sit down. GM goes to his office. Customer looks at his watch and get the

look.
"I have to go pick up my kids! I didn't know I was here this long."

Customer gives me his information and says he is very serious about the F-350. He wants me to call him later in the evening to see what we found. "No problem, Mr. Customer. I will call you as soon as we find what you want." Customer then leaves.

Minutes later, GM walks up to me. "Where is the customer?" he asks.
"Mr. Customer had to go pick up his kids. But I have his information. Did you find anything?" I ask.
"Give me his info. I need to look at something." he tells me.
I hand it over, and head off outside to find more customers.

An hour later, my sales manager calls me into his office. As I'm walking in, I see the GM leaving the SM's office. Paul the SM (a very cool guy that I really miss working with) tells me to have a seat. He slides over a piece of paper.
"Knightmare, I'm sorry, but it's just not working out. We're letting you go. This paper explains why." On the paper it listed "Not suitable for car sales."

I know the GM was upset with me for letting the guy leave the lot. But I can't force anyone to stay if they don't want to. They told us daily not to let a customer leave without a deal. Ok, that's fine to say, but it doesn't work in real life. Besides, as you may know, most deals aren't made on the first visit. I think it's around 89% of deals are made as a "Be Back" (As in customer saying "I'll be back"). Paul told me I could finish out my shift, and not to let anyone know I was fired. Paul then told me that he personally liked me, gave me his business card, his home phone number and address and told me to come party with him again (We had a hell of a Christmas party that year). The used car manager did the same thing.

I went outside, pondering my feelings. I was relieved but also disappointed and hurt. I knew I wasn't very good at auto sales, but I LOVED working there. I made many friends, learned a great many things about car sales. I was even going to apply to be a Mason (my SM and GM are both Masons and urged and guided me. They also were going to sponsor me.)

I stayed for about an hour. SM Paul called me back into his office and told me the GM didn't want me hanging around. I got my stuff from the cubicle and gave my goodbyes. I knocked on the GM's door and poked my head in. "Thanks for letting me work here." I said. "It's been very enlightening." He replied "Knightmare, I'm sorry it didn't work out. Call me if you need anything." And I left.

I found out about a week later from one of my friends there that almost everyone was fired by the owner. GM on down. The only ones that stayed were 4 sales people (two that were there forever, and 2 from when I was hired), Paul the SM (who quit and went to Atlanta), the used car manager (eventually quit and now works in Orlando) and some of the support staff. The GM was under very heavy stress because the dealership wasn't producing. Well, neither was everyone else. The Big 3 were having a very big slump (and still are to this day). The other dealerships around us were having less and less customer traffic. Just a bad year for car sales in general.

So that is my story of my first and only firing. I wish it was more exciting.

But FYI: If you think retail has high turnover... try selling cars at a dealership.
Also, if you work selling cars, no offense, but I now know why the auto industry gets their reputation as being shifty. Like I said, I have learned MANY things about the car selling business.

For one, I don't think I will every buy a brand new car. I'll buy it used (aka "certified pre-owned")

**hecubus** · 12-17-2006, 12:45 AM

Back when I was an Assistant Manager for a certain video chain (think blue), I had been feeling sick for about a week, and had called in sick a couple of times that week. My last day at the store, I still felt kinda crappy, but, I didn't want to inconvenience anyone anymore by calling in sick again, so, I sucked it up and went into work. I was working with two other employees who were very good and needed little supervision. Around noon, I started feeling really rotten again, so, I asked the two employees if they'd be alright manning the store so I could go into the office for a bit and just put my head down. I told them that, if anything came up, to buzz me in the back and I'd come out.

So, there I was, sitting with my head down in the office, and, unfortunately, I fell asleep. Not a good thing to do, granted, but, since the store was in good hands, I didn't think it was the end of the world. The rest of the shift went off without a hitch, as I had woken up after about half an hour, and apologized profusely to my CSRs, who said that it was no big deal.

Well, the next day, my manager called me into the store. He had found out from an innocent comment that one of the CSRs made, that I had fallen asleep for a brief time. He said he didn't think it was a huge deal, but he would have to notify the District Manager as a matter of policy. And, unfortunately, he would have to suspend me until the DM let him know how I should be handled.

The next day, I received word from my manager that a decision had been reached. The DM decided, in her infinite wisdom, to fire me. Now, first of all, company policy stated that the disciplinary action for sleeping on the job could be anything up to and including termination, but it was at the discretion of management. So, even though, up to that point, I had an absolutely clean disciplinary record, the DM decided to fire me immediately. No appeal or anything.

My manager said that he felt bad, and tried to save my job, but to no avail.

The punchline to the whole thing was that, about a month later, I ended up in the hospital, almost dead, due to a complete immune system and kidney shutdown. I ended up in a hospital and a nursing home for two moths recovering. So, it seems that the illness I had felt earlier was the leadup to my near-death experience.

I ha always had the feeling that the DM had been looking for a way to get rid of me for quite awhile, as she never seemed to like me much, particularly because I had been an employee of a smaller video chain that the big blue monster had absorbed about a year earlier, and she had seemingly made it her mission to get rid of all of the employees of the smaller chain that she had been forced to hire at our previous pay scale and job level. I was the last one left, so I think she was looking for any excuse. And, to top it off, when I applied for unemployment, she fought me all the was and ended up getting my unemployment application denied.

**Gurndigarn** · 12-17-2006, 03:25 AM

Quoth CrazedClerk View Post

Now this particular shop I found out later had a high turnover, but the thing that really irked me about it was that she waited until AFTER I got to work but BEFORE my shift to tell me I'm let go. I'd have much rather found out AFTER my shift was done so I didn't show up for nothing.

Um, having been on the other end of the table, I can tell you that except in rare circumstances, in person and before the shift (or at the moment you actually catch them doing the real bad no-no) is the best time. Yes, you made the trip for nothing. But how much more would you feel that they had used you if they had you work a full shift... then fired you?

**RecoveringKinkoid** · 12-17-2006, 04:45 AM

I got fired from a job because my male boss had a huge crush on a young guy coworker of mine who had a huge crush on me. So the boss just made my life hard untill he finally had the "It's not working out" speech.

He never got the guy, btw.

Shakespear would have probably liked to have scripted this one out.

But then, boss man might have got the guy if that happened.

And I got laid off from one of the photo labs basically because the place was going bankrupt. The long story is that the boss, who was a really crummy business man hired a consultant to help him bail out the biz who ended up not being a consultant but a con artist. That's the short version of the long version. But the short version of the short version is that the place went bankrupt.

Cant' beat my husband, though. He actually got canned from a company that ended up on *MOD REMOVED LINK*

**Mr. Rude** · 12-17-2006, 04:54 AM

Well this one is a goodie....

My previous "gig" at a local comp shop.

Was hired one week to the day after my assistant manager.

Owner of comp shop expanded to adjoining store for a laptop section.

78 days go by ( Canada has 3 month probation period generally ) all is well, sales are good...assistant manger is "let go" because he's "just not working out".

Mr. Rude smells something afoot...And ahand too...*Checks sales numbers & sees he's on par with sales guys that have been there for 2-3 years*....

*Updates resume & starts sniffing for jobs*...

Day 85...One week after assistant manager is turfed.:

I show up...And am "let go" because... I'm just not working out....No guidance.No warnings. Nothing at all before hand. Even though my sales are on par with the "old" guys.

Hmmmm...Can we say "expendable labour" to help get the new section running?

BTW...I started my new job a week after that. My resumes had been out for AT LEAST 2 weeks previous, I had smelled a rat long ahead of time.

And I had a week paid vacation for my troubles too

So in the end...Loser owner...Who by the way was on "Vacation" & had his father can us (the pussy) likes to waste peoples time...As a side note, his service & sales are nosediving too

/endrant

**Maevis** · 12-17-2006, 11:27 AM

Like crazedclerk I was fired from my first job.

I worked for a Pizza place and in 4 months time went through 3 managers.
The last manager had been in the store for about a week, and hadn't posted the next weeks schedule. I called the store and asked what days I was scheduled for, but was told the schedule hadn't been posted. Since I normally had the same schedule every week, I showed up, in uniform, for my normal shift.

At which point the AM sort of blinked at me and said, "what are you doing here?"
and I said, "Well, the schedule wasn't posted, so I figured I should show up for my regular shift". And he said, "Oh...um...well, didn't the SM talk to you?" . . .
And then he told me I wasn't on the schedule because the SM had fired me.
*blink* "What?"

Apparently I was fired because I worked too slow. Hrm...gee, woulda been nice if I could have recieved at least a write up, or some sort of previous indication that I needed to work faster...At the time though I said something like, "oh" and started crying, while the AM shuffled me out the door as fast as he could.

Looking back on it, it was most likely a case of the new SM cleaning house, and wanting to start with a new crew. Also at 16, I was pretty high on the expendable list.

**Irving Patrick Freleigh** · 12-17-2006, 12:12 PM

Cant' beat my husband, though. He actually got canned from a company that ended up on *MOD REMOVED LINK*.

So he got fired from a porno website?

Seriously, your link goes to a porno site.

**cheese** · 12-17-2006, 03:10 PM

With the full stop on the end it goes to a porn site, without it, it doesnt!

I've never been fired technically..but they made it so I pretty much had to leave. 2 years ago took a job over Christmas - I took it specifically over all the other hundreds of Xmas jobs because this one was advertised as being permanent - although the hours would be reviewed after Xmas. So there were me and 2 other new starts all working 30 hours a week. After the New year, our hours get reviewed and the other 2 are offered a 20 hour week, which they are both happy with. I get offered a TWO hour week. I have pretty much the same availability as the other 2 - (all at college/uni so just weekends and evenings) and I've worked as well as them if not better (well, my sales were better.) All I can think of is that because I was 19 and they were only 17, they'd have had to pay me more, so kept the others instead. Very unfair, and what exactly was I supposed to do with a 2 hour week? Couldn't do much about it though really except for leave - they didn't actually dismiss me, and they did everything exactly how they said they would, so couldn't file anything was unfair.

**Argabarga** · 12-17-2006, 04:02 PM

Never been fired, the jobs I loved, I stayed with till money or moving forced me to quit, the ones I hated, I quit before it got to the point where my performance deteriorated to even close to a firable level.

**NightAngel** · 12-17-2006, 05:28 PM

I was fired once for not smiling enough. The restaurant in question expected their servers to smile constantly- like the Stepford Wives or something. I tried but it made my face hurt- plus it was downright insincere.

I'm just not the kind of person who can walk around with a robot smile for 8 hours at a time. I smile when I'm greeting people, when I'm actually happy or think something is funny. That doesn't mean I seem angry, brooding or anything bad the rest of the time.

**Severen13** · 12-17-2006, 05:31 PM

Many moons ago I was working at DQ, no benefits, lousy pay, dead end job if there ever was one. I was bored, angry and frustrated (I've had depression all my life but at the time I didn't know it. I always thought my mood swings were normal) because I was getting close to 30 and had absolutely nothing to show for it. So I took my anger out on everyone else.

Needless to say, it was only a matter of time before nobody wanted to work with me anymore and I was given the boot.

In the long term, it turned out to be a good thing. That incident was my wake-up call. I was able to get a better job with benefits and health insurance, got on Prozac and my moods stablized, went back to school, and got the job I'm working at now.

**CherryB** · 12-17-2006, 07:03 PM

I was 24 and had just left a retail jewelry job because we had been robbed at gunpoint twice in the past 2 months and store owners would do nothing to increase security.

So I go to work at a retail appliance/TV store in sales. The male store manager (who hired me) was about 35, married with a stepchild. Well it started about a month into my new job: the little looks,the comments (you look like a girl who likes to have fun. By the 3rd or 4th month, he was outright propositioning me. I learned to never be alone with him in the back room the hard way. Nothing in my life before this had ever prepared me for dealing with out and out sexual harrassment. I thought if I kept back pedaling, changing the subject when he would say something overtly sexual, and just trying to ignore what he was doing that eventually he would get tired and just leave me alone.

The last straw came when he and another male salesperson began bringing XXX flicks into the store to watch when there were no customers. I said something to him. Told him it made me uncomfortable and there would be trouble if he kept it up. I came to work the next day to find my things boxed up and on my desk. I asked him to tell me why he was firing me. His response" I don't have to tell you shit. Just get out." I went to his boss, told him what hd been happening at that store and about the porno movies. But the "good ole boy" network was alive and well in those days and nothing happened to him.

I reserve "hate" but for a very few miserable nasty people in this world. This guy I can say without reservation I hated. Still do. after all these years. I hope he died a long lingering death due to syphillis and his dick fell off.

**CrazedClerk** · 12-18-2006, 02:36 AM

Quoth Gurndigarn View Post

Um, having been on the other end of the table, I can tell you that except in rare circumstances, in person and before the shift (or at the moment you actually catch them doing the real bad no-no) is the best time. Yes, you made the trip for nothing. But how much more would you feel that they had used you if they had you work a full shift... then fired you?

Actually I was laid off from a job like that once in that manner and I didn't really mind it. At least I got a last full day in.

**Rocko** · 12-18-2006, 05:13 AM

I've been fired from two jobs, both in 2004

The first time was at the movie theater. The one I worked at had the main concessions stand, and two satellite stands that were smaller and were in the halls. I was working at one of the satellites one night when this woman comes up and gets her order. Now, because these stands were only used on fridays and saturdays, the registers weren't used much and they had a tendency to mess up a lot. Tonight was no exception. She paid with a card, and it wouldn't swipe. I tried typing the number in, and the touch screen register wouldn't accept it. I pressed one number, and it just wouldn't go through no matter how many times I pushed it. Frustrated, I ended up hitting the register on the sides of it. Then I went to hit the side of the monitor with the side of my fist.

I missed, and ended up hitting it dead center, and I destroyed the monitor. I was fired the next day. To this day, everytime I've run into people I used to work with, they always bring it up and they still think it's funny

The second time was later that year at a Target. All was well at first, but then after a month of working departments by myself, watching my hours go from 20 hours a week to 12 on what ended up being my last week, I progressively stopped caring. Well, one day as I worked I was called into the back office, where I was promptly told by the hiring manager " Rocko, I'm sorry, but you're not working fast enough to suit our needs, so we have to terminate you."

They cut my hours down to nothing and expect me to work fast? Screw that. Today I probably would have worked a little harder, but as a 19-year-old I always thought that I could get something better right away

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