So am i fired or what?

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all right, here's what happened. i went to work(i work at a small coffee house) to look at the new working schedule only to find that my name wasn't on the list. i texted the person who makes the list and she said something along the lines of "immmm sorrrry, the boss", (i'm not putting his name)",told me he was getting too many complaints about you and told me to take you off the schedule. i'm reallly sorry."
i text her back "so i'm not working there anymore?" she texted "no."
i went to work and confronted the boss and asked him why my name was not on the schedule. he said "Well, we have too many people right now and i'm just doing various shifts to see what happens. you see my manager called me up and told me that money input is going down and we need to get more customers in(he repeats that four more times in various ways). so, yeah."
i worked out of there with a look of shock and annoyance on my face. i couldn't make myself put on a smile and say "Oh, ok thanks!" no i was just annoyed with this idiot of a boss. then came the annoying bits of tears.

soooo?????????

You're fired.

uh, thanks but could get some insight into this?

This is a common method of firing a person without providing them with a reason. After being on the receiving end of this sort of thing for many years and finally learning how to play the game effectively, I learned that it it technically illegal to fire an employee without a logical reason. I think they "take you off the schedule" so that legally, they are not technically firing you and therefore do not technically have to offer you any explanation or unemployment benefits.

Just be glad they didn't use what I call the The Torture Method - intentionally making the employee miserable enough that they will voluntarily quit. This is also common. I've seen it happen to a lot of people. It can range from subtler forms of bullying to direct insults and even "mistakenly" neglecting to pay you for some or all of the hours you have worked. If you call them out on it, they'll blame their book-keeper, and if you contact the book-keeper, they'll blame the employer. You have to keep standing up for yourself more firmly until they pay you what they owe you. This is illegal, but employers commonly get away with it.

In your case, it sounds like you were fired for an illegal or socially unacceptable reason. It is possible that they just did not like you, or they had to cut staff to save money and felt a closer affinity to your co-workers, or their own paranoia caused them to suspect you of misconduct (theft, drug use, etc), or a co-worker started a horrible rumor about you and people believed it . . . Almost anything is possible.

The up-side of being fired effectively but not officially is that on future job applications, you can say you were laid-off or that you quit.

why do i still have the key to the store? my boss is cheap and paranoid enough to not let me keep the key. he'd rather ask for the key back than have to pay 82 bucks for new locks.

Consider yourself free to job-hunt for something mroe inspiring and rewarding.

I so remember these sorts of experiences... it's happened to me in several retail/service type minimum wage jobs. Totally sucks. They should have given you a couple weeks' notice, but instead this type of employer says they don't have any shifts for you, and they write you out of the schedule.

Bummer, but you don't want to be working for them. This is not how a good employer behaves. There are way better people/ places to work for.

no one wants to deal with a crying former co-worker, so they make up all sorts of stories so you can save face and not set fire to their little coffee shop.

when you were not on the schedule, that is their (chickens***) way of avoiding the issue. They weren't counting on you going to the boss! It's the person who makes up the schedule that was supposed to take the heat. The repetition of 'I'm sorry' is what is supposed to clue you in that you are now 'dismissed'. Personally, I think you work for weasles that use weasle words when they need to use plain English.

Just reading your story, Tinky, sent me back in my memory of how many times somewhat the same thing has happened to me. the more upset they are that you don't take the 'hint' and just go away, the more 'I'm sorries' they say.

you must have freaked out the boss, too! I'll bet he hasn't had to be confronted about that too often! No wonder they think we are 'confrontative' and domineering! We just want to know distinctly what, and why and if important, how.

you go! Tinky girl! you rocked HIS world! Oh, and still having the key? I got 'let go' once where I still had the keys, they had FORGOTTEN to ask for them back BEFORE they let me go. I said I would get back to them. . .and never did. Later I found they had the locksmith out to redo all the locks of the computer rooms, servers, etc, etc, etc.

idiots


Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 16 Oct 2008, 6:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i wasn't crying in the store at all. i walked out and cried a little in the car. also, my brother(former employee there) is going to talk to the boss.

the worst part was that he didn't even take me to the back to talk about it. he squandered up a story right there in front of some customers.

Last edited by tinky on 16 Oct 2008, 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

So that when you call in and ask when they want it returned, they can respond with "Oh, are you quitting?"

Y'see, if they fire you, then they have to pay unemployment benefits. But if you quit, then they don't.

Been there. Done that. Kept the key.

high five Fnord! I got to watch them (from a removed position) get the lock changed to the whole main doors of the hospital (and all the server rooms, etc, etc.)

Merle

what exactly have you done that could result in a firing anyway?

most states have an 'at will' employment arrangement, where any reason or no reason is alright.

Merle

I wish people would be more honest but they are afraid of confrontations so they do it in a coward way. The first sign is not being on the schedule for every week, the first week I wouldn't know if it was happening every week, then I would assume I got fired and would call and ask the boss why. It would drive me crazy if he or she wouldn't give me a logical reason.



My first boyfriend worked at McDonald's but then his boss stopped putting him on schedule so I figured he was fired. I don't know if the boss told him to his face he was done there or he just stopped putting him on schedule and didn't say anything to him.

yeah, i didn't do anything at all. came to work, smiled at customers, attempted to be as amiable as i could be with grumpy and unhappy customers. i was just starting to get really comfortable with interacting with other customers and understanding the flow of the store. a woman was observing the cute halloween stuffed animals we have on the counter in a basket and i came over to her and said "Wait, wait!..." i grabbed a stuffed black cat out of the basket and pulled a cord on the cat and it start moving around the table. she and the other customer laughed. it felt so great when they laughed. now... what made the store great were the customers who came in, especially the regulars. iced coffee lady always made me smile.

That's it!

You made all the other employees look indifferent and jaded in comparison to your naturally enthusiastic actions.

Tough break.

Tinky, don't feel too bad, you could have discovered this in a worse way. Allow me to demonstrate:

I had a waitressing job once, and, around Christmas, the waitresses' stockings were hung up on the wall. I came in unexpectedly one day and mine was...gone.

Sad, but funny, but true. All true. You'll find something better. That's true too.

Last edited by patternist on 16 Oct 2008, 7:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.