Employee on vacation finds out they're getting fired after boss schedules the wrong meeting: ‘It doesn't take a detective or scientist to figure out’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 27, 2026 10:00 AM EST

You don't have to be a genius to figure out that if your boss schedules an unprompted 1:1 with you during layoffs, it does not bode well for you. 

When a company is not doing great financially, you become hyper-aware of every single meeting your boss schedules with the team. And if someone leaves the boss's office looking somber, you know it can only mean one thing. All you have left to do is hope you are not the next employee who gets called into that office.

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  • 01
    Man Working on Laptop at Tropical Beach
    via Truecreatives

    Man Working on Laptop at Tropical Beach.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • The thing about getting fired when the company is not doing well is that at least it doesn't catch you by surprise. Even if you're excellent at doing your job, you're always prepared for the day your boss calls you into your office to tell you that they simply cannot afford to keep you anymore.

    But how would you feel if you knew, without a doubt, that you're about to get fired in a few days? How would you react to being met with hard evidence that your boss plans to let you go?

    Let's see how the employee in the story below reacted to this exact scenario… 

  • 02

    For 3 days I knew I was being fired because my boss is an idiot on Teams

    I worked for a tech company that had an intense round of layoffs every three months from the time I started in 2022 until a new CEO took over last year.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 03
    Ever few months it was like the most intense game of capitalist squid games and I managed to keep my job everytime amid panic at cks and unceremonious "all hands" meetings explaining we simply had to do more with less.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 04
    My 4 year anniversary was coming up in a month, but the previous month our CEO sent around a video of him commenting on the current state of the company, and he looked like a kicked puppy and said hard decisions may come soon.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 05
    I figured layoffs were happening again. Last week I was on vacation, and on Friday my boss scheduled a one-on- one (1:1) and fumbled and started it through Teams, even though I wasn't in-office.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 06
    I have Teams on my phone (I was required to) so I hopped in the meeting and he immediately hung up.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 07
    He then moved it to Monday @ 1:30 pm. MY regular monthly 1:1 was still on the calendar and no one else had an extra 1:1 put on their calendar.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 08
    See the thing is, you're supposed to schedule this 1:1 where you get fired, the day of!
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 09
    I've lived through all the firings in 2022,23,24 and I've had friends tell me what happened, I knew an unsolicited, unprompted 1:1 was either an a-chewing or a firing and not to toot my own horn, I don't do anything ever to warrant a chewing.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 10
    So instead of enjoying the last bit of my vacation, I knew on Friday and the whole weekend, and all monday up until 1:30 that I was likely being let go.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 11
    It was panic inducing and dreadful, it ruined my who weekend and the end of my time with my wife, celebrating our wedding anniversary.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 12
    I have kids and family who depend upon me, it was h I just waiting around to be fired.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 13
    When the 1:1 happened with HR present, when they were done letting me go for budget cuts I took the time to explain that it doesn't take a detective or scientist to figure out an unsolicited, unprompted 1:1 when I'm having no performance issues that was scheduled during my vacation was something worth fretting over and that it
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 14
    completely upended any peace I gained from my vacation, that maybe next time he could put a sticky note on his laptop to create the teams invite the day off instead of subjecting an employee to torturous thoughts because you're a fumble-fingers and have no common decency toward someone you worked alongside for years.
    via HauntofhighAFtower

  • This situation makes us wonder if we would have preferred to prepare for that dreaded conversation or have it come out of the blue. When a boss is very clearly having a round of layoffs, should they schedule these obvious 1:1s in advance, or should they pull the rug out from under their poor employees' legs?

    Well, if you ask this employee, they would have gladly chosen the latter. They didn't appreciate the hint of what's to come, especially not while they were on vacation. As soon as they saw the scheduled meeting with their boss in the schedule, they knew what was up, and we can't blame them if this news ruined the rest of their vacation.

  • 15
    Office Worker Leaving His Job After Getting Fired
    via YinYang

    Office Worker Leaving His Job After Getting Fired.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 16
    The icing on the cake is I was dumped for budget cuts but 22 minutes before my 1:1 my boss posted a job posting looking for my exact job.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 17
    I don't even make a ton for my industry but I assume they canned me to get someone they can pay 20K less a year to do my exhausting job.
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 18
    I don't know if I have a point other than to say if you're going to fire someone, don't schedule the firing 3 days in advance, it's messed up to do and makes you an inhuman lizard instead of anything else
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 19
    misohungrylongtime Posting your position before you'd vacated it was pretty monstrous your employer as well. of may they money they save by firing you be ate up by the most nonsensical EEO or workers comp claim of all time, or some other horrible, fitting justice. I hope you find something that's better, you didn't deserve to be canned like this. Hugs from internet stranger.
    via misohungrylongtime
  • 20
    HauntofhighAFtower Original Poster's Reply Thank you for the kind words, seriously, these comments are more cathartic than I realized they be
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 21
    Muted-Touch-5676 Me being petty would apply for the job just to annoy them
    via Muted-Touch-5676
  • 22
    HauntofhighAFtower Original Poster's Reply if they weren't hanging a small severance package over my head I would, that's why I didn't name the company yet either. Even in being fired I gotta be a good lil' employee to earn that last crumb of green rag paper. I thought about it before my wife was like, hey, they sk, but we still need whatever they give us
    via HauntofhighAFtower
  • 23
    notreallylucy A very similar thing happened to me. I got the mystery 1:1 literally an hour before Thanksgiving break. I got d off the Monday right after Thanksgiving. I'm glad they waited because I got another month of health insurance. I'm also glad because they scheduled it to happen over Zoom. However, I was scheduled to be in-office on Monday as I had been for months. But the look on the HR person's face when I said, "I'm here, let's just meet in person!" was priceless.
    via notreallylucy
  • 24
    HauntofhighAFtower Original Poster's Reply waaay back in 2008 I was let go on my birthday which, that year was 3 days before thanksgiving. probably the absolute s est time to be searching for a new job, i feel you on this
    via HauntofhighAFtower

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boss workplace-stories employee fired hr manager job meeting tales-from-the-workplace overworked-employees workplace company vacation
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