Employee finds his job posting online, goes to HR and gets boss fired: 'Maybe you aren't a good fit here'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 7, 2025 8:00 AM EST

It's been said many times, but documenting your employer's unprofessional behavior is the best way to protect yourself down the road. Even if you think you are safe and have job security, you never really know when you have an erratic boss.

However, one thing that almost always works in the employee's favor in these situations is that these horrible bosses are not necessarily as good as crossing their T's and dotting their I's. For instance, if you're starting to worry that you might get unjustly fired in the near future, you might not be as doomed as you think if you've been collecting evidence of your boss's total lack of professionalism. At least, that's what happened here.

Although this was a rare occurrence, it is worth acknowledging that the only reason this employee was able to advocate for himself when his job was on the line was that he had been protecting himself for months, long before he caught wind that his boss was looking to replace him.

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    Cheezburger Image 10451220736
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • It all started after the unfair dismissal of two of the employee's coworkers and the subsequent discovery of an internal job posting for the employee's own position. Here is the employee's original post before he went off to Human Resources!

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    They posted my job Welp, I was checking the internal job board and saw that my job was posted. I've been compiling information since November to bring to hr and just submitted an inquiry about the hostile work environment that I've been living
    via ChewBeccca
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    in. I've been looking for a new job since August trying to get out. My boss fired two people before me and I watched her do the same thing she did to them to me. I'll at least be glad to get out of this miserable world she's created if and when they do fire me.
    via ChewBeccca
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    Cheezburger Image 10451220992
    via Cytonn Photography

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The employee then followed up after his jam-packed meeting with HR, in which he provided mountains of evidence that his boss was acting unprofessionally. Luckily enough, he managed to not only keep his own job but there was also some much-deserved comeuppance for his boss.

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    Update: my boss was fired! TLDR: My job was posted but I had been documenting like crazy, brought the hostile work environment claim to HR, and they fired my boss.
    via ChewBeccca
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    A very exciting update! I met with HR earlier this week. I had so much information that I didn't get to talk about half of what I wanted to in the 30 minute meeting so we scheduled a follow
    via ChewBeccca
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    up next week. I was very thorough in what I said and organized what I wanted to say the night before, so I felt confident when I talked to them.
    via ChewBeccca
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    There were a few times when I stopped and asked if they had any questions/needed clarification and they said no and that I was very detailed. I talked about how I really wanted to work for the company (because I did!),
    via ChewBeccca
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    discussed the physical, mental, and financial impacts I've experienced since working under my boss, and why I finally came forward with the info. I explained
    via ChewBeccca
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    that even though the catalyst to submit the HR inquiry was my job being posted, I had been documenting the favoritism, micromanaging, lack of communication, double standards, and culture of silence for a while and would've brought it forward regardless.
    via ChewBeccca
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    Then I talked about the meeting I had with my boss where she changed her demeanor entirely after I questioned a policy that about half of our department had an issue with. It was in that meeting when she told me,
    via ChewBeccca
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    "maybe you aren't a good fit here," and, "there is history before you and there will be history after you." In order to talk about that meeting I had to give a lot of context. I also told them
    via ChewBeccca
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    about how I saw the behavior patterns that happened in two people who were recently happening to me and how I was made to participate in their demise unknowingly (I was told
    via ChewBeccca
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    directly not to help someone who was struggling to get their work done and when I brought it up after they were fired, my boss told me that in the future I could help in situations like that). By
    via ChewBeccca
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    that point I didn't have a lot of time left, so I skipped ahead and told them how in my last review, my boss dumped me onto someone else telling me I wouldn't be having status meetings with her anymore, but
    via ChewBeccca
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    with someone who wasn't my direct supervisor (the HR person also asked several questions about this part), how I needed to ask for help but I really shouldn't be because I'm the only one who leaves on time and me asking for help would burden others, and
    via ChewBeccca
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    how her lack of communication/timely feedback wasn't an excuse for me not being able to finish my work and I should stop blaming others. I
    via ChewBeccca
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    didn't even get to talk about the context of that meeting and the truly terrible week I had after it! I sent all of the documentation I had written down, which included more than just what I talked about and had many screenshots for proof.
    via ChewBeccca
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    Today, my boss got back from being off for the holidays and had meetings most of the morning, so I was grateful not to have to deal with her. She had her regularly scheduled monthly status with her boss after lunch. About 20
    via ChewBeccca
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    minutes into that meeting, she rushed out and told another employee that she was going to another office location (which wouldn't be that out of the ordinary but it raised up my ears because it's also the building that her boss and HR work out of).
    via ChewBeccca
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    Maybe an hour later, her boss and another higher up come in and ask us all to go to the meeting room. Then they told us that she was fired!
    via ChewBeccca
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    I think my job being posted while I was still there might have been the final nail? The HR person was confused by that and asked me if there were plans for another person to do the same job as me
    via ChewBeccca
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    so there would be two in my position (there wasn't) and talked a little about the job posting process and how it didn't seem like it was being followed. A little after the meeting with the higher ups, a senior team member came up to me and told me he was glad
    via ChewBeccca
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    I didn't leave because he saw how tense things had become between me and our boss. Then at the end of the day, he and another senior person on our team told the interns about our boss. I had a strong suspicion
    via ChewBeccca
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    that the intern who reported directly to my boss was the person she was trying to replace me with and this pretty much confirmed it. After the interns left the meeting room, I went in because I needed to talk to the senior people. They were still
    via ChewBeccca
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    talking to each other as I walked in and one said that they were sure there would be more questions from the interns, but especially from the one who reported to my boss.
    via ChewBeccca
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    I know it doesn't work out like this for everyone and I don't know what's to come, but I'm really proud of myself for speaking up. You never know
    via ChewBeccca
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    what else is in someone else's file and if others have spoke up about them before. I've dealt with narcissists and their ab e for so much of my life. This past year of working under her has been truly one of the worse experiences of my life and I'm just so happy to take the win of not having to work with her for now.
    via ChewBeccca

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getting fired workplace-stories fired work stories toxic-workplace job work Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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