Thursday, September 08, 2016

"You're Fired." But not by Donald Trump

It was kind of strange last Thursday afternoon.

I work from home most Thursdays, so I was pounding the keys on the laptop and taking calls and solving problems hard all day.

By the end of the day-ish I needed a break. I peeked into the Facebook and Twitter accounts, and my daughter had posted "Guess who got Fiiiiiired."

Finding you your daughter got fired via Twitter is ... kind of strange. I commented on her tweet and asked her to call me. She promptly did. From the bar at North Station. With her box of things from her desk up in front of her. And she unfolded the tale for me.

A little back story about the company she was working for. Seems they fire people a lot. The running joke with us was that I'd ask her "so, are you fired yet?"

I worked as a contractor there for a while before my current job. When I got sick in 2014 they didn't allow me to keep my contract and work form home - they just let me go.

Then they begged me to come back when I was happily at the next job. So my old boss hired Jessica as a contractor because she needed someone  in as soon as possible.

When Jess needed back surgery in February, they did the same thing to her they did to me - don't let her have a week or so off. Just let her go.

So my old boss became her old boss.

But, that old boss became renewed boss, as she eventually managed to get a full time job created and got Jess back in the job. Not a contractor position, but a full time benefitted job with vacation time.

True Adulting. Baby done made it.

In the period of time since she was hired as a full time employee to now, everyone that I used to work with except 2 people had been fired. For lots of different reasons. She had made some friends, who also got fired. And then we started joking around about her getting fired. She actually had worked her way into a spot where she was incredibly valuable. She took a week off in the Spring and they lost their minds having to do her job. She was learning back-end SEO and Analytics stuff.

A couple weeks ago, she put a sentence on a live page on the production, public-facing website that included the word "shit." Something like "test this shit" or "configure this shit" and then forgot to remove it.

Key phrase there is "a couple weeks ago." Someone finally figured it out, and on Wednesday she got word that it had been discovered. Thursday she went into work knowing that she was in trouble, and most likely fired. She removed the content from the site, and started cleaning out her desk.

They waited until the end of the day to fire her. And she figured it was coming. And she packed up and left. Her boss is on vacation, and won't be back for 10 days.

The thing that she says she's most bummed out about is that she couldn't take her plants, and other people pillaged them, and she'll never get them back. She put a lot of time and effort into rescuing them, repotting them, and taking care of them.

She is happy she got fired. She wouldn't have quit the job. She hated it for the most part but I think she liked certain parts of it, and she learned a lot.

So now the weirdness is over. We got through the holiday weekend and now she's polishing up the resume and applying for jobs.

Cross your fingers for her. Baby's first job may be over, but hopefully Baby's second job will be more awesome.