Can anyone explain to me this part: "do not mention that we fired you for 7 years"? Why would anyone have you sign something like this? What's the importance of this?
What's It Like To Be Fired?
21–30 of 39 posts
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#22Can anyone explain to me this part: "do not mention that we fired you for 7 years"? Why would anyone have you sign something like this? What's the importance of this?
It means that you didn't do anything wrong but you're fired because someone doesn't like you, or some manager is mad about something and needs to fire someone to make a point. So don't say anything about it because we don't want to deal with bad publicity or potential legal problems.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#23to clarify on the reference - i'm assuming she only mean employment history, and I thought employers were only allowed to say the dates of your employment and validate you did work at a company. Also I think you would have to explain to the new company your interviewing the gaps in your employment history, if you didin't list it at all. As for the reference I assume you would ask a person first if you are able to use…
barce doesn't look like a girl on twitter http://www.codebelay.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/cu... looks like a rotation image
I was disappointed, for a moment, I though this was the author: http://www.codebelay.com/blog/wp-content/themes/thesis_18/cu...
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#24One was the grounds under which I would receive severance... She was fired from a startup and received a severance ? Does that ever happen these days?
Yes, you get a severance when the company fires you for no really good reason and they just want you to not sue them.
It actually happens MOST of the time in professional contexts.
"Severance" is usually no big deal, it's like 1-3 months worth of paychecks.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#25Interesting, but: In the startup, tech community, if you get fired, you become a persona non grata. That means all the social circles I had booted me out. The article says this happened "many years ago." I can't imagine the part above applying any longer with the different ways in which people socialize in the tech industry even in just the last few years. Even folks who've done pretty shady things, are potty mouthed…
Maybe this person hadn't had much chance to network beyond their coworkers or people otherwise connected to the company? Depending on how they got fired, I could see how that might create a sense of being excluded from the bit of the community they could see.
In other words, maybe they hadn't yet come to appreciate that there are multiple tech communities with all kinds of diverse characters.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#26I can't believe how much more serious everything seems to be in the States. Is this story just exaggerated or is it really this bad? I've never personally been fired but having job opportunities being so severely limited due to being fired once seems like an impossibility in Australia. I'd say that if you got fired over here you'd even quite likely be able to use the employer as a reference (unless you did something…
I don't know about firing, but certainly getting laid-off is really looked down on, regardless of circumstances. I've heard that employers do significant background checks now. Low credit scores are a red flag. Arrests are also a red flag. Not convictions, but arrests . The social thing sounded a bit weird to me. But then, most of the people I've worked with either base their social scene around their work, or around…
Jesus that sounds horrible. So now if you default on a loan you not only lose your house but can't get a decent job, and thus cannot afford healthcare.
I don't know how you guys get anything done over there I'd just spend my life ina state of perpetual paranoia.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#27He should have negotiated a positive-to-neutral fact-based reference (good reviews, verification of salary, departure by his volition-- a revision-of-fact but one that companies will usually support) in the severance process. Chances are, he would have gotten it. This would have mitigated the career damage and gotten him a good job much sooner. Remember that a severance offer is a starting point. If the only thing yo…
Could you go into more detail about how to ask for these sorts of things and what extras you might throw in so you have something you can cut when negotiating? This strikes me as the sort of thing I should have prepared in advance, just in case. Should I ever be fired for cause I expect I'll be too upset to think about what to ask for and how to say it so I better work out the basics now.
It's as simple as this: never sign the document they hand you on the spot. Give it a day or two, say you might need to talk to a lawyer. They're firing you. They really want you to sign this document. They won't actually really take away your severance if you fail to sign in the first ten seconds, because if they wanted to do that, they wouldn't have offered it in the first place.
Believe it or not, you have the power in that situation. That's why they want you to sign it right away - right now you're emotionally distressed and thus gullible.
So that's how you prepare yourself: remember that if this ever happens, DON'T SIGN ANYTHING until you calm down. It's okay if that takes several days.
(This is from experience at past employers, I don't speak for my current employer, I haven't actually been fired but I've been on the other side, I am not a lawyer, This does not constitute legal advice, blah blah.)
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#28A lot of this really doesn't add up to me:
> "My boss the previous week had told me what a great coder I was" > "You cannot use the employer who fired you as a reference."
Why couldn't he use his boss as a reference?
> "if you get fired, you become a persona non grata."
I find this hard to believe. How would people even find out about it? And is there no one in "the tech community?" (as if there's only one) who knows that people are human and make mistakes? Surely he would have friends in the community who would see the whole picture.
> "I know there’s no techie blacklist but the only 2 jobs I could find were as a spam engineer or in a totally different industry."
Again, I find this difficult to believe. If he was really a great coder, and came clean with his mistakes, possibly presenting a plan for why he wouldn't make them again, I don't see any reason an employer wouldn't take a risk on him, provided he's got chops.
It seems like most of what this article says would only be true if you were fired very prominently from a high-profile role, or if you had an egregious lapse in judgment that lead to serious problems at your company.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#29I can't believe how much more serious everything seems to be in the States. Is this story just exaggerated or is it really this bad? I've never personally been fired but having job opportunities being so severely limited due to being fired once seems like an impossibility in Australia. I'd say that if you got fired over here you'd even quite likely be able to use the employer as a reference (unless you did something…
I don't know about firing, but certainly getting laid-off is really looked down on, regardless of circumstances. I've heard that employers do significant background checks now. Low credit scores are a red flag. Arrests are also a red flag. Not convictions, but arrests . The social thing sounded a bit weird to me. But then, most of the people I've worked with either base their social scene around their work, or around…
I've never heard of being laid off as being looked down upon. Firing, sure, but not laid off. That's beyond your control and is a business decision. If your company wipes out an entire product because of some acquisition or poor executive "vision" and decides they need to wipe out two thirds of your division, that's hardly your fault. And if they have a habit of favoring seniority, then it's even less a comment on you.
Re: What's It Like To Be Fired?
#30I can't believe how much more serious everything seems to be in the States. Is this story just exaggerated or is it really this bad? I've never personally been fired but having job opportunities being so severely limited due to being fired once seems like an impossibility in Australia. I'd say that if you got fired over here you'd even quite likely be able to use the employer as a reference (unless you did something…
I don't know about firing, but certainly getting laid-off is really looked down on, regardless of circumstances. I've heard that employers do significant background checks now. Low credit scores are a red flag. Arrests are also a red flag. Not convictions, but arrests . The social thing sounded a bit weird to me. But then, most of the people I've worked with either base their social scene around their work, or around…
I wouldn't agree about layoff being a red-flag as long as you can explain it, at least in the silicon valley, speaking from personal experience.
Layoff and bad credit history are not the same. Here companies die left and right and layoffs happen and people understand that.