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Google Fired Me

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Re: Google Fired Me

#11
post #3

It's hard to form an opinion without knowing what is "this thing" the author has done, unless I missed the part where he describes it. If he acknowledged to a colleague of having killed someone, the context is pretty different from a minor violation of an internal policy.

From some of my experiences with corporate HR departments, it can be impossible to tell exactly what happened even when you are the one who is supposed to be in the wrong. This is another reminder that Human Resources is there to protect your company from you, not protect you from your company.

>This is another reminder that Human Resources is there to protect your company from you, not protect you from your company.

This. Unions might be helpful here depending on how they work in your country, but this story is so vague that I got the feeling that HR actually did their part. Sure sucks to loose your job, but if you are given restraints and disregard them, well what do you expect to happen?

Re: Google Fired Me

#12
post #4

Okay, yes, unrequited love hurts. A lot. But still... you acted stupidly. You were told that you weren't supposed to contact her. Doesn't matter if that's fair or legal or whatever. It's simply a bad idea to "bring up the HR issue" when walking home alone. And your conversation was probably very short mostly because it was extremely uncomfortable for her. Shortly after that you're wondering what's happening now. Inst…

Yeah, this post reminded me of the semi-regular /r/legaladvice posts along the lines of "my ex-GF got a restraining order against me so I drove to her house to ask her why and then the police arrested me" where the poster just can't seem to grasp that they violated the restraining order. Even his own description of the events have him clearly violating his agreement with HR several times and possibly violating it many more, so of course he's going to end up getting fired.

Re: Google Fired Me

#13
post #4

Okay, yes, unrequited love hurts. A lot. But still... you acted stupidly. You were told that you weren't supposed to contact her. Doesn't matter if that's fair or legal or whatever. It's simply a bad idea to "bring up the HR issue" when walking home alone. And your conversation was probably very short mostly because it was extremely uncomfortable for her. Shortly after that you're wondering what's happening now. Inst…

And they thought it was a good idea to go to the holiday party after being fired and escorted out...

Re: Google Fired Me

#16

15 years ago, freshly employed, less than 25 years old, introverted and socially awkward, I had a work colleague as well to which I wrote a romantic poem (for her, more or less out of the blue). It wasn't received well. Not well at all. I had trouble understanding her dismissal and insisted on that she gave me signs of affection. HR was involved briefly, my story sounded so similar to what OP writes. But in my case,…

Brave of you to share that experience. Thank you

Re: Google Fired Me

#17
post #4

Okay, yes, unrequited love hurts. A lot. But still... you acted stupidly. You were told that you weren't supposed to contact her. Doesn't matter if that's fair or legal or whatever. It's simply a bad idea to "bring up the HR issue" when walking home alone. And your conversation was probably very short mostly because it was extremely uncomfortable for her. Shortly after that you're wondering what's happening now. Inst…

I don't know how you pull unrequited love out of such a vauge post. If we are to make that leap of assumption, it's a tiny additional inference to say the root cause was at least one of them was unable to mange the interaction line an adult (pursuer wouldn't take no for an answer and/or perused didn't bother to shut it down properly).

HR conversations basically take the American inability to be direct and multiply it by 100. Are we going to assume that HR of such a large company gave him the 30 seconds of real talk he needed to hear and possibly fix the situation, or run-arounds that assume their inability to communicate can be fixed by using their position of power to wield parent-knows-best control over the people? A state of affairs that feels insulting to people who know they need parental guidance, let alone adults. No wonder it ended like this.

HR's mind was made up in July. They should have fired him in July.

Re: Google Fired Me

#18
33 points in 43 minutes and not on the frontpage.. would be nice to get a word from the mods why this post is taken off.

Re: Google Fired Me

#19

This is intentionally vague to the point of being dishonest. Take this quote: > They asked about my whereabouts that involved this co-worker, all of which happened outside the workplace. I asked why these events mattered, and they told me that an issue has been brought to their attention in such a way that is has entered the workplace, and thus is now a workplace matter. So something happened outside of the workplace…

You missed the part where he clearly explains what "the event" was:

> The event that prompted this co-worker to go to HR was because of hearsay about me regarding actions claiming I’ve done something, to which I refuted.

Edit: /s :)

Re: Google Fired Me

#20
post #19

This is intentionally vague to the point of being dishonest. Take this quote: > They asked about my whereabouts that involved this co-worker, all of which happened outside the workplace. I asked why these events mattered, and they told me that an issue has been brought to their attention in such a way that is has entered the workplace, and thus is now a workplace matter. So something happened outside of the workplace…

You missed the part where he clearly explains what "the event" was: > The event that prompted this co-worker to go to HR was because of hearsay about me regarding actions claiming I’ve done something, to which I refuted. Edit: /s :)

"I've done something" isn't very clear
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