Boss fires employee and demands she train 3 replacements without providing severance pay: ‘He said I can't leave them hanging and that I needed to be a team player’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Feb 21, 2025 1:00 PM EST

The modern workplace operates on a simple principle: loyalty is a one-way street paved with broken fax machines and expired bagels. Companies love to convince you they're doing you a favor by employing you, right up until you request something minor, like adjusting your schedule to, say, get some education—and suddenly you're branded a traitor. 

It's a classic really - employers dangle flexibility like a carrot in front of us working donkeys, then hook it away the moment we blink. Policies become as flexible as a software license agreement, bending to whatever excuse management needs to mask their hypocrisy. Full-time gets redefined like a bad Wikipedia edit, benefits vanish into the Bermuda Triangle of HR, and your only remaining job is to mansplain your role to three replacements via PowerPoint.

Take one nursing student who dared ask to work 30 hours instead of 32—a change her company's handbook called full-time. Instead of a gold star, she got a participation trophy in the form of termination papers and a side hustle scripting manuals for her cheaper clones. 

Severance? Who's she? Why offer money when guilt is free?

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  • "Job letting me go because I wanted less hours, they want me to train 3 people and create training manuals with no severance pay (just a rant)"

    "[He] had me leave his office and tell my 3 replacements that I was getting let go❞
    via Konstantin Postumitenko

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

  • The woman’s manager, being the motivational speaker every manager on the face of the earth is, spouting nonsense about fairness and teamwork while demanding she become a human corporate training program.

    Payless? Say less! I’m out.

     

  • I work or at this point, have worked for a company for almost two years. This job is very anti remote work (but the higher up's that make these decisions work from home) but not very generous with a work to life balance.
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • I'm in nursing school and asked if I can go from 32 hours to 30 hours which is still considered full time at my company as I can still get benefits.
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • Manager said I'm a valuable worker and he's going to get my request to work remotely for 30 hours approved. Last Wednesday he asked me if I can come in the office as I had access to a file room and to discuss the next steps. I asked him what the next steps were but he ignored my message.
    via h@ndjobcilantro

  • Payless? Say less! I’m out.

    Cheezburger Image 10469698304
    via fizkes

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

  • Next day after class I walked into work and greeted my manager. My manager told me that the higher up managers won't let me work part time and that I have till the end of the month to train 3
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • people and create SOPs and trainings. I admit I got a bit emotional and teared up a bit asking if 30 hours is considered part time even though it's full time according to employee
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • handbook and my manager said our department is 40 hours and technically he's in trouble for letting me work 32 hours. My manager then had me leave his office and go into a conference room and tell my 3 replacements that I was getting let go without any time to process to the news.
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • My replacements were more shocked and confused that we have to do all of this over a 2 hour decrease.
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • Then today my manager asked me if I completed all the training manuals and videos and if I'm ready to train everyone to do my job. I asked if I was going to receive severance and he told me
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • no but it wouldn't be fair for the team if I left them hanging with no training manuals or SOPs. I told him I don't think it's right that I have to do all this training and writing all these processes.
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • Cheezburger Image 10469697280
    via fizkes

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

  • He once again said I can't leave them hanging and that I needed to be a team player
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • Technically I'm not sure what my status is with my job. I feel like doing the job duties that I was hired and fired to do. Honestly what can they do? Fire me again and push up my last day?
    via h@ndjobcilantro
  • VanillaMowgli Funny how the people kvetching at you to be a team player aren't on the team.
    via VanillaMowgli
  • 2olley Husband, "I'm leaving you for a younger woman but could you spend the next 3 weeks telling her how I like. my eggs cooked, my shirts folded, and my b lls cupped?"
    via 2olley
  • Icmamom But you kicked me off the team.
    via Icmamom
  • Krytan It actually is literally completely fair to leave the team hanging in this case. The team left you hanging, over nothing.
    via Krytan
  • PlatypusDream Takes 3 people to replace you, but they are dumb enough to fire you? ☐
    via PlatypusDream
  • Plus they give you 2 weeks to: Teach them how to do your job. Create training manuals for your job.
    via PlatypusDream
  • I'm betting that neither of those things are in your job description, nor have you ever been asked to do those tasks before now at this job.
    via PlatypusDream
  • If you want to appear to cooperate, be as disorganized & slow as possible. Give explanations & directions which are technically correct but of no practical value.
    via PlatypusDream
  • Remember to remove all your personal information & things you've created from your computer. Meanwhile, get another job. Once that's solid, walk away from this one.
    via PlatypusDream
  • sirZofSwagger I'll have that on your desk ASAP, then you just never do it.
    via sirZofSwagger
  • badpebble All your ties to this company have been severed - chill out now. You aren't nursing them back to health, you have no duty of care or responsibility, and it might be really good practice telling ride people 'no' to silly requests.
    via badpebble
  • If you struggle to respond in chats this way, ask for them to email you these requests, so you can properly delivered a considered response.
    via badpebble
  • Guy I used to work with was training colleagues on some jobs, and the files in use were colossal and took 10- 15 minutes to open. His manager on the call said 'You should really use a different file type for these - 'Binary' can cut the file size in half and will make the next person's time easier'.
    via badpebble
  • To which he replies 'maybe that will be useful in my next job, thanks, but I won't be doing that here'. They aren't a charity and you have been unceremoniously fired for daring to ask for the tiniest accommodation.
    via badpebble

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management boss workplace-stories hr toxic-workplace manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace Horrible Bosses work-life balance
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