Ever been fired? Laid off or let go?

[Dave Hess]

I have been extremely blessed or lucky that in almost 50 years of working I never experienced any of the three. My sister in law and ex brother in law just got let go. One to downsizing and one to moving his job to Mexico

How about you?

ZZman,

People on TV say everything is sunshine and roses.
1% rich folks do NOT understand the ‘worker ants’ struggling to keep their heads above water.

Lots of job losses in the past year from some very big, well paying companies…… and constant talk of no recession / soft landing / everything just fine / tons of unfilled jobs everywhere, etc….

Daily Job Cuts website.

Daily Job Cuts - Your Source for Job / Business / Economy News

www.dailyjobcuts.com

 

[Pablo]

Yep. Best thing that ever happened to me.

This right here!

Always a buy out and "new management" - and seems like I found something better, even in tough times.

 

[Leo99]

Other than being fired from a few jobs when I was young and impertinent, I was laid off once. We knew it was coming to lay off 2/3 of the employees. It was in the newspaper. I knew that my boss didn't like me. The sent everyone home at 1pm. They told us to come to a nearby hotel the next day. They called the people that they were keeping at night and told them not to go to the hotel. They had people at the hotel to explain the severance package and whatnot.

 

[jhellwig]

Laid off, fired and laid off.

First one was I was young dumb and had a crappy attitude given to me by the college I went to. The company was exploitative of new electricians from college then the downturn in 2004 had them laying off a majority of their workers. Not an easy time to be unemployed in any skilled trade but had another job in 3 months.

Fired because of the crappy attitude and crappy boss by another crappy company before the 90 days was up. No big loss. Disappointment at the time but led to good after more struggling and realizing that I am part of the issue.

Last layoff was from a union job in 2016. They had to lay me off because of my seniority before they could layoff more assembly line workers. Messed up system from a messed up local/union and a company that plays games along with swings in the ag economy. The biggest problem with the place was my coworkers stirring poo all the time and the company just fanning the flames.

The first layoff and firing put me on a path to better things like a betterish attitude (and ability to back it up with my skills), wife, kids and household. The last layoff got me out of a situation that was fast becoming an issue but led to the job I have now that I like and haven't been searching for a different job 3 months into.

 

[y_p_w]

Stayed with them until April of 2000 when I went to work for Sun Microsystems directly. Been with them/Oracle ever since.

I remember over 20 years ago attending this UC Berkeley engineering event at the then (pre-Oracle) Sun Microsystems campus in Santa Clara on the site of a former psychiatric hospital. The key speaker was a Sun veteran who went on to bigger and better things - Eric Schmidt, who got his Ph.d from Berkeley. He was telling jokes about the old days and how they came up with the name, although I believe he came in after they already had a name.

 

[SevenBizzos]

I was let go from one job. I worked as hard as I could to prevent it from happening. But when it happened, I think everyone in the room knew it was the best thing for me. I took the winter off and went skiing and my career has been nothing but positive since (and I am earning 4X what I did at the old place [20 years later]) with much less effort.
My wife has been let go twice. Both times she ended up at a better place. And both times she was back working within six weeks.
It happens to everyone.

 

[Pablo]

I was let go from one job. I worked as hard as I could to prevent it from happening. But when it happened, I think everyone in the room knew it was the best thing for me. I took the winter off and went skiing and my career has been nothing but positive since (and I am earning 4X what I did at the old place [20 years later]) with much less effort.
My wife has been let go twice. Both times she ended up at a better place. And both times she was back working within six weeks.
It happens to everyone.

Yep.

I love the best part of takeovers is when "hatchet men" just get rid of say, the top 5 or 10 or 15 salaries in the facility, just by $ alone. Maybe some were not good, but many got there by being good.

Then the hatchet guy says I just cut $2 million (or whatever), see I'm GOOD, I saved serious money, then he leaves!

New company struggles for leadership, can't figure things out like they used to and declines.........slowly or quickly - and sometimes a bigger better company buys them again and puts new team in place...........

It's not healthy, but is what it is..........be smart and flexible.

 

[overtimeman]

I had 32 years in with my company and in April 2020 when covid affected our business I figured something was going to happen.So April 3 2020 they took all the 30 year people took into a room one at a time gave us a buy out package and in a way told us it's nothing personal just business. LOL! What was funny they called me in January 2021 to help them get caught up and I was there until the end of October.Everyone told me I would have cursed them out and then hung up.They called me back in January 2022 and I went back for two months and everyone said you a better person than I am.I didn't tell anyone what they were paying me.I turned 65 in 2022 and went on my SS and Medicare mostly because my left knee was completely gone.Eventually The 25 year and 20 year people was showed the door.The saddest part was the fact the HR man committed suicide in October 2020.Through it all I was never bitter,angry.or upset these last four years.

 

[Pew]

Nope, nope, and nope. I was able to get out of the VA before the contracting company lost the bid thankfully.

 

[RitcheyRch]

Being I have a career in aerospace, been laid off more times than I can count.

 

[Pablo]

Being I have a career in aerospace, been laid off more times than I can count.

Shake your hand!

 

[Pablo]

The weird feeling are the contacts years later:

"Letting you go was the hardest/worst thing......................" and so on. Dude I'm not even worried about it and yes it's interesting and we can talk about old work, but man that was 20 years ago.

 

[Bud]

Nope.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

After high school I had a job in a warehouse for over six years that I actually liked quite a bit. OK group of guys (except for the cokehead boss), great exercise, etc. But every winter there was the threat of getting laid off. Fine, it's seasonal work, understandable. Sometimes I made the cut, sometimes I got canned for a few months. It sucked but I was young and dealt with it.

One time when business was particularly bad, they did similar to what Leo99 said above. Everyone in the building, an odd mix of warehouse staff and office workers, was invited to a very nice local hotel for brunch. They started the meeting where an org chart was put up on a projector, and we were all told, 'If you don't see your name here, then we thank you for your service, but please enjoy your meal' or something along those lines. You could hear the forks drop. Not sure whose idea that was but it could have (and should have) been handled differently.

 

[Just a civilian pilot]

I have never been fired, but I have been laid off many, many times before ( bankruptcies ).

No surprise not enough people wanted to be a commercial pilot unless obsessed.

 

[wavinwayne]

I've been laid off several times over the years, but thankfully it's been 15 years since my last layoff. The only reason I've been successful in my chosen line of work is because I'm too stubborn to give up. I am a mechanical engineer by trade, not by education, so I've had a more difficult path than someone who graduated with an engineering degree.

 

[3Audi1Ford]

Not fired but forced to quit a car dealership after years with them and 27 yrs seniority. A service manager had a target on my back and others so he could bring on his people. I and over a dozen left. He did fire my parts manager. I left, two yrs later the bad service manager was gone and the damage had been done. The place isn't the same. Seems hiring all younger people for less money just brings down payroll. You need some experienced crew around when repairing cars, if not the comebacks kill your business for a while. I know of 15 guys left there out of the 60+ that were there 4 yrs ago. The location has had a massive turnover. Its a shame since it was an efficient crew.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

My previous job, we had a mutual parting of ways when it was realized that my new manager was out to make me look bad to our boss and succeeded. At a disciplinary meeting to decide my future, HR was given proof and the tides turned 180 degrees. I got an apology and severance when I declined to continue employment there. It ended in a mess but I met some great people there.

 

[Cujet]

Back in 1991, I was fired by JP Bolduc (COO of WR Grace and Co) at FL450, flying from Europe to Maine. That was an interesting experience in many ways. Not the least of which, were the First Class airline tickets home to FL (and associated contrasting nice treatment).

He and I did not get along well, mostly on moral issues. He had been bragging about laying off 20,000 employees right before Christmas to drive the stock price higher. That and his lackey, Dr. Constantine Hampers was involved in Chinese organ harvesting from political prisoners after the Tienanmen Square revolt. (I was on that trip and jailed in China, bribed my way out, $7,500)

I chewed him out, knowing what the result would be. They treated me terribly, and I'd had enough of it.

It was aboard this plane:
(used to be owned by Joan Kroc of McDonalds fame)

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

Yep.

I love the best part of takeovers is when "hatchet men" just get rid of say, the top 5 or 10 or 15 salaries in the facility, just by $ alone. Maybe some were not good, but many got there by being good.

Then the hatchet guy says I just cut $2 million (or whatever), see I'm GOOD, I saved serious money, then he leaves!

New company struggles for leadership, can't figure things out like they used to and declines.........slowly or quickly - and sometimes a bigger better company buys them again and puts new team in place...........

It's not healthy, but is what it is..........be smart and flexible.

Yes indeed. Your story is exactly what I have seen since the 1980s when all the fresh out of business school CEOs took over companies they had absolutely zero knowledge about and first laid off years of experienced managers n workers to cut cost. Then most would sell off the companies long time performing products or divisions. They did that stuff to cover the fact they knew so little about what they were supposed to do. Once they had painted themselves into a corner and could not really do what they were hired to do (make the companies more efficient and save money) they were either fired too or made themselves a pretty golden parachute into early retirement. What used to kill me is after all the damage / lay offs / disrupted lives / towns destroyed, they cared nothing about, these same devils with zero consciences would be announced the latest new CEO of brand X after their knowledge had already destroyed several other companies.
Folks should look into the death and destruction of the Sears / Kmart brands of stores along with Bed / Bath & Beyond. Truly telling stories.