Employee gets fired without warning for "poor performance" after doing the jobs of 3 other people: 'Fired because I put in too much effort during the busiest time of year and was fired when it got quieter again'

If you're working in a place that's understaffed, there's a good chance that management will make excuses about how they're hiring for the position, but though those positions stay indefinitely open and people apply to them, you can't help but notice: no one ever gets hired to the role.

Meanwhile, more staff are experiencing burnout from the increased workload or just leaving for greener pastures, turnover is escalating, and now what was once a five-person team is down to two—and that's just in your department.

Now you're doing the work of three or four other people and struggling to keep up despite working overtime (likely unpaid) and breaking your back to please your employer. Ask for a raise for the extra and exceptional work you've been doing, you're going to get denied. They're not going to recognize your additional efforts, contributions, or abilities. The point here, after all, is to save money by reducing staffing. 

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  • The positions remain open, it's becoming pretty clear now that your employer has no intention of filling them at all—at least not any time soon. That extra work you've been doing? Well, now that they know you can do it, it's become their baseline expectation.

    That's a bit of what this worker described in a post they shared with this online community. They vented how they were fired for poor performance after their output decreased when one of the roles on their team was finally filled. When their employer finally hired another worker, they were able to return to a bit of normalcy. 

    The reality is that their employer knew they had used them up, so used any excuse to discard them the first chance they had to return the team to what they now regarded as a manageable and functional size of one. Thereby removing all knowledge of how things had been “before” when working conditions were better on the team. 

  • 01

    "The company was already understaffed so I was taking on 2-3 times my regular workload once he left."

    Cheezburger Image 10468244736
    via Toa Heftiba For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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  • 02

    "Got fired without warning for 'poor performance' after half of my department were fired or left"

    Needed to vent about this. Title isn't quite accurate but tried to keep it short. So I just got fired without warning, manager cited "poor performance" despite the fact that I had no complaints during my monthly reviews. The reasoning was that my productivity peaked in October last year and hadn't reached that level since. Now here's the kicker. The only reason my performance was that high is because my closest coworker left
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
  • 03
    the company in September. The company was already understaffed so I was taking on 2-3 times my regular workload once he left. Shortly before this two other guys were made redundant in another department (this is a small company under 15 staff members already) which also put more pressure on my team. Of course the director stated there was a "cash flow issue" so they were unable to hire anyone else until late November. I asked for a raise during this period and they acknowledged that my performan
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
  • 04
    Needed to vent about this. Title isn't quite accurate but tried to keep it short. So I just got fired without warning, manager cited "poor performance" despite the fact that I had no complaints during my monthly reviews. The reasoning was that my productivity peaked in October last year and hadn't reached that level since. Now here's the kicker.
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
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  • 05
    The only reason my performance was that high is because my closest coworker left the company in September. The company was already understaffed so I was taking on 2-3 times my regular workload once he left. Shortly before this two other guys were made redundant in another department (this is a small company under 15 staff members already) which also put more pressure on my team. Of course the director stated there was a "cash flow issue" so they were unable to hire anyone else until late Novembe
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
  • 06
    asked for a raise during this period and they acknowledged that my performance was great and praised me for holding everything together so well. Payrise request was declined (obviously) so I told them that my salary was no longer competitive for the amount of work I was expected to do. I totally lost all interest at this point went back to a doing comfortable amount of work despite the pressure on my team which was just me and my
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
  • 07
    manager at this point. They finally brought in a new staff member at the end of November and things became more manageable. Two months pass with no complaints, until I'm pulled into a meeting and fired on the spot, citing that I my performance had decreased since October, despite there not physically being enough work entering my department to even come close to those numbers again since the new guy was balancing the workload with me.
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
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  • 08
    TL;DR: Fired because I put in too much effort during the busiest time of year and was fired when it got quieter again. Anyway, rant over. Never give a job everything you've got. High productivity only lands you with unachievable targets and stupid management decisions.
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
  • 09

    "I asked for a raise during this period and they acknowledged that my performance was great and praised me for holding everything together so well."

    Cheezburger Image 10468248320
    via Mohamed hamdi

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 10
    swordstool • 3h ago . Sorry, man! Apply for unemployment today.
    via InflatedBatteryPoker
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workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employee employment-discussion job work employees overworked-employees workplace Horrible Bosses employment in the workplace
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