'It took them almost TWO months': Incompetent company accidentally fire employee, don't realize until mandatory training

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Mar 30, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Let's face it, many of the jobs that exist in the market today are kind of useless. If every nurse or cleaner quit their job tomorrow, we would be in trouble, but if the same thing happened to every business consultant? It's not like most of us would notice. 

That said, the one place you would expect to pick up on employee absence is the company that they are employed by. Surely, businesses keep tabs on the people that they hire.

Apparently, this isn't always the case, as proved by a recent tale on Reddit. In it, a former employee of an unnamed company reveals how they believed that they had been laid off for almost two months, and they had even started a new job in the meantime. However, they eventually got a message from the HR department of their old role asking why they hadn't completed their annual training. Needless to say, numerous people were embarrassed when they understood what had happened.

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  • 01
    r/tifu u/ScottzTotz94 • 1d TIFU for thinking I've been laid off for two months M
    via ScottzTotz94

    Header image: Headway

  • 02
    ** Will add updates at the bottom! Okay, I'm honestly still trying to figure out what the is going on at the moment but here it goes: For some context, I work(ed?) remote for a kind of large 3PL/Consulting company that merged with another company not too long ago, so things have been a show over the last year to say the least. My role is kind of niche, I work almost directly with my clients, don't technically have a boss, thus have little oversight.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 03
    Back at the end of January, I received an ominous teams link on a Friday afternoon urging me to jump on. I already knew it was a layoff. Luckily I've seen it coming for a few months as the account I worked with was struggling financially as were many of my other clients. I had done a final interview for a new job and had an offer on the table already so no sweat off my back.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 04
    After going through the whole song and dance on the call with about 50 other people, they announce that they would pay out 3 months severance paid out bi-weekly and allow us to finish the last few days of the month.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 05
    Kind of a good deal for me since I was already lined up for a new job so I'm basically copping an extra few paychecks on top of getting a better job. So, I said goodbye to my colleagues and clients over the next few days, sent my laptop back, went on a little impromptu vacation for a big golf tournament, and started my new job a few weeks later.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 06
    A few odd things happened during that time: -I never technically received a separation letter. Just all of the email instructions and acknowledgments. But, the checks were clearing so I didn't care. -I kept getting calls and texts asking about my "progress on XYZ project" and things like that. Just assumed it was a mix-up
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 07
    Fast forward to this morning. I get this kind of nasty gram call from an HR manager and she starts with "Hi, you're two weeks behind on XYZ required annual training. This is a mandatory item that must be completed on a yearly basis without exception and you haven't responded to my multiple requests to complete. Why?"
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 08
    I respond "oh, I'm no longer with the firm I was part of the layoffs, you must still have me on the the compliance list"
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 09
    To which she replies "No you weren't? What do you mean? Did you leave the company?" After going back and forth trying to explain to her, she stops and says "OH back. "And says she will call me
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 10
    Turns out / wasn't laid off. What (I guess) happened is that someone else with the same last name and their first name is the same as my middle name (which I go by a variation of) and they added me to the lists. Which, I don't understand how that didn't get caught especially since the other guy (in a completely different department) knew.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 11
    Even moreso, it blows my mind it took them almost TWO months to realize I wasn't even working there. My clients didn't know any better but it's almost laughable they managed to that bad haha. No idea what I'm supposed to do from here haha
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 12
    Update 1 (8/27 @8am CST): HR manager called me back saying we'd have a call at 11 to "properly sort this out the right way together” and went full professional mode this time. Very intrigued to see how this goes. I consulted a lawyer friend of mine, whose advice very much echoed many of the things you said on here and that I should say as little as possible and that my responses should be more of "I don't know, tell ME what happened" as opposed to giving any interpretation from my end.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 13
    My plan is this: If they ask, I'll tell them I'd "love" to have my position back and leave out the fact I'm already working another job. In the case they do bring me back, I'll just work both concurrently for a bit as I'm still in training and haven't been assigned to an account officially at my new company, and I'll just wait for things to cool off before I put in an actual notice. Others have mentioned working multiple jobs. Long term I can't do that. While the company I worked for didn't know
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 14
    UPDATE #2 (1PM CST): They owned up to the mistake and no harm. Thank Jesus. But, they want to bring me "back" to the firm like nothing ever happened. From what I could garner listening between the lines, they realized their biggest issue isn't what happened to me but the fact the client is still being billed for an "unmanaged aspect of the project", as they so eloquently put it. So I'm pretty sure their goal is to put me back on the account in a different place as if I was there the whole time a
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 15
    TiKels 1d I had a similar thing happen to me. I quit a job and they forgot to take me off of payroll for like 2-3 pay periods. They tried to ask for the money back, and I was willing to comply, but I mentioned the tax implications, how I'd be "paying back" 401k contributions, etc etc, and they eventually calculated that they'd only save about a thousand dollars and just said to consider it a gift.
    via TiKels
  • 16
    WanderingLemon25 1d I got paid an extra 6 weeks at my last job, they tried to claim it back, I told them they owed me holidays (which they did, just not 6 weeks worth), they've never contacted me since. I didn't say how much, let them work it out, but based on how incompetent they were I'm assuming they have no record of what holidays I had since there was no formal way of logging any of it.
    via WanderingLemon25
  • 17
    fisheee_cx 1d That's insane. I'm in HR, have handled multiple large layoffs, and have never encountered that big of a screw up from a company. Whatever you do, do NOT do or say anything that would agree you left the job voluntarily. You did not resign. Do not make it easy for them to go back on what was communicated to you about receiving severance and for how long.
    via fisheee_cx
  • 18
    Scottz Totz94 OP • 1d Thanks for the advice! It actually blew my mind how many consecutive mistakes and oversights actually had to happen for this to go unnoticed for so long. I mean, yes my role was very niche and obscure, but it astounds me that this could actually occur or nobody thought to ask "hey, why did you send your company laptop back?"
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 19
    Queen-of-Elves 1d I used to do Remote IT Support and handled a layoff once and I was given a list of names so l knew who all I should expect a computers from. Which I assume is pretty standard. So either HR screwed up and gave them your name or IT didn't notice they got an extra computer. Either way... It's crazy. Really hope you don't have to pay the severance back. The same company I mentioned earlier paid me extra for like year (HR mistake) and made me pay it back across a period of 3 months.
    via Queen-of-Elves
  • 20
    Ο lycantivis 1d Warning keep that money around. As you were not laid off, you didn't get a severance package. To HR/Payroll you were getting paid as though you still worked there. There is a potential chance they come back to you to make you pay that money back, all the way back to your last day of work.
    via lycantivis
  • 21
    Scottz Totz94 OP • 1d That's actually what I'm worried about that they may try to get me for "job abandonment" since I stopped "working" but under the pretense I thought I didn't work there. The only thing that really helps is the fact that I DO have records of the emails and acknowledgements that I can say it's a reasonable assumption I was laid off.
    via ScottzTotz94
  • 22
    ColossalPedals 1d I mean I'm struggling to see where you Reply up there. 911 Scottz Totz94 OP • 1d I mean I kind of up by not realizing something was off with getting "laid off" and now I'm going to have a ton of issues to deal with because of this. But I guess this is more of a "someone in HR REALLY up" kind of thing haha
    via ColossalPedals
  • 23
    User_225846 1d Should've just done the training. Reply 144 I_Know_Stuff 1d Right, he could've gotten another three months of "severance" before anyone noticed again. Hilarious that the only thing they noticed he wasn't doing was corporate training!
    via User_225846

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boss employee fired hr manager fire story tifu dumb reddit thread Reddit company
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