'A glitch in the system that accidentally FIRES an employee feels outlandish': Man discovers he was fired, but never actually told

Author image for Stephanie Harper
Stephanie Harper
Jul 21, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

Investing your time and energy into a job means you deserve to be told if things aren't working out. Discovering that you've been terminated without a formal explanation or exit interview is beyond unacceptable. Getting fired is terrible, but it's even worse when your boss doesn't have the decency to tell you to your face. 

One man on Reddit shared his story about getting fired from work without warning after seeing that status on his work profile. He assumed it was simply a glitch in the system since no one had given him an update about what was happening. He also revealed that his company has been known to fire people in shady ways in the past. 

On some occasions, they waited until employees showed up to work to fire them as soon as they walked through the door to start a shift. Now, he's part of that cliche. Redditors who responded in the thread are highly annoyed by the way OP's company runs things.

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  • 01
    Product - I got fired and they forgot to tell me 1-bott
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  • 02
    Font - Posted by u/TBMeister 20 hours ago I think I got fired and they forgot to tell me
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  • 03
    Font - So, I work for a "community center" (The membership is $150+ a month so not real open to the community) and as I finished my shift and go to clock out my punch code doesn't work. I assume its a problem with the machine, so I use the app that we're required to have to punch out remotely; same thing, and I notice that I'm locked out of all my
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  • 04
    Font - features like viewing previous pay stubs and time clock. Finally, I check my profile and the status is TERMINATED. My boss has a history of firing their employees in very skity ways (Having them come in for their first shift of a fully scheduled week, just to fire them when the walk in the door.)
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  • 05
    Font - I reach out the my shift manager, who is pretty chill and also doesn't like our boss. She says that its a glitch and to come in when I'm scheduled. Now, having a glitch in the system that accidentally FIRES an employee feels outlandish to me. I think that I'm gonna get fired first thing tomorrow, which sucks because I love the job. They are also EXTREMELY understaffed and I've never been reprimanded for anything other than using my phone.
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  • 06
    Font - I did rock the boat when I asked to be paid for a week I was forced to take off because of corporate mismanagement, and have turned down several promotions from corporate because they weren't actually promotions and just work load increases with a title attached.
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  • 07
    Font - Am I being paranoid? There isn't a reason I would be fired, but a glitch that fires employees seems like a cover up for simply forgetting to fire me during my shift.
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  • 08
    Font - Update: So, I was fired. They're having me work two hours to cover lunch breaks, (If you need people to cover breaks why not just keep me on?) and they're paying me for the full day, which is nicer than what most people get. From my understanding they intended to let me go this coming Friday, but HR got the date wrong and did it a week early. I'm gonna go home, file for unemployment, and start applying for work.
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  • 09
    Font - I don't know if its kosher in this sub, but I put a ko-fi link in my bio if anyone want to help me, because we all know how hard it is to find a job. Please only do if you have the means. 199 people here 323 Comments
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  • 10
    Font - DeckNinja 6 hr. ago I could write a letter to your board of tourism and I could have this place condemned. I could put... I could put... strychnine in the guacamole. Reply Share 24
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  • 11
    Font - DudeNamed Collin 7 hr. ago This has actually happened to me before when I was working for a major oil company. I got scared AF and was about to have a panic attack. Happened when we were going through a re-org too, so it made a lot of sense due to the price of the commodity at the time. They told me it was probably just a glitch, but I didn't believe them...turned out it was just a glitch.
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  • 12
    Font - But I'm a manager somewhere else now, and chances are, if it says terminated in their system, it's already been approved. I've had to approve them in Workday before and the dude was still there because we always wait until Friday to give the bad news. Reply Share 14 ●●●
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  • 13
    Font - TheRealCabbageJack 17 hr. ago Tell me you haven't seen Office Space without telling me you haven't seen Office Space 49 Reply Share
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  • 14
    Font - ExpressionKeeper 17 hr. ago ● Yes to this, something similar happened to me when I went on medical leave, I sent in the paperwork, but they processed everything immediately instead of the start date I asked for because I was getting a surgery. I was locked out of the time clock and it was a
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  • 15
    Font - whole hassle to fix because I wanted to get my full time hours until the very last day unlike the half pay I would get on medical leave. OP, it definitely sounds like they are firing you, you should start job searching in a worst case scenario. 431 Reply Share
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  • 16
    Font - beefinbed 13 hr. ago Could also be an issue with someone poking around in places they didn't need to be and clicking the wrong thing. It's incredibly easy to term someone on ADP software. I'm unfamiliar with other workplace systems though. 50 Reply Share ●●●
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  • 17
    Font - mysticmedley - 16 hr. ago I worked for an airline in the late 80's and early 90's. I went on vacation and when I came back my parking card didn't work. They said I was terminated. Turns out that my cheap boss decided to save money for the two weeks I was gone. He told the parking company that I was fired so that he wouldn't have to pay for my parking while I was gone.
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  • 18
    Font - 00 Book-bomber 14 hr. ago ● Damn dude. There are people like that in the world? 134 Reply Share
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  • 19
    Font - ibahef 15 hr. ago I worked for a company around 2010 where they had a glitch that laid off about 3000 people. Our managers (once they got un-laid off) had to call all the direct reports and let them know. It took about a day and a half to get our access back. If the HR is outsourced, there is even a higher likelihood of this being a glitch.
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  • 20
    Font - Dead LettersSociety 19 hr. ago Nope. Definitely not being paranoid. If that were me, I would be freaked out. If they are telling the truth, it's pretty suspicious that there's a "glitch" that randomly fires people, especially if they can't use the punch clock as needed, or log their times as needed. Secondly, if they did fire you, that's a
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  • 21
    Font - pretty messed up way to do it. A business needs to be up front with employees about that kind of thing. They need to inform people about days and dates where the employee needs to work. Especially so employees, even now former ones, can look fir work and be prepared to make financial decisions based on this. You are not being paranoid.
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getting fired workplace-stories fired toxic-workplace Professional At Work work askreddit workplace Reddit
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