How Were You Fired?

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Posted by Cliff on Wednesday October 1, 2003 @07:23AM from the informing-you-in-a-not-so-gently-manner dept.

IanBevan asks: "A couple of years ago, the company I was working for was taken over by a larger competitor. I was told, right up until the last minute, that my development job was safe. Shortly thereafter, our illustrious team leader issued a new project plan, and I discovered that all my tasks were suddenly due to finish in about one week's time. Not being a great believer in coincidence, I asked my boss if there was 'anything he would like to tell me'. Of course, there was. Looking back this seems quite amusing now, but it could certainly have been better handled by the PHBs. I was just wondering, how have other Slashdot readers discovered that they have become 'surplus to requirements'?"

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via P45 in the post by DrSkwid · 2003-10-01 07:28 · Score: 3, Informative

Not even a letter.

I was off sick at the time and instead of the payslip I was expecting I opened the envelope and it was my P45. It was a Saturday morning too so I had to wait until Monday before I could even speak to anyone about it.

(a P45 is the document you present to your next employer regarding the tax etc. you have paid)

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There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Re:Locked Doors by secolactico · 2003-10-01 07:53 · Score: 2, Informative

In order to avoid this kind of confrontation, I made a habit of never leaving personal belongings in my office. Even tho it's semi-private (shared with a coworker), I take almost everything that's not company property with me at the end of the day. The only thing that remains is a pair of headphones, and I can let them go if they let me go.

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No sig
Re:What a sad, brutal story! by RevAaron · 2003-10-01 08:07 · Score: 2, Informative

No, the story isn't true. Follow the link to his homepage- HE USES PERL NOT PHP!

The evidence is there for leet haxorz like myself willing to follow the "Trail of Tears." ARE YOU ONE OF US?

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Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Just a FYI for those still looking by SiliconJesus · 2003-10-01 08:19 · Score: 2, Informative

One of my /. friends / fans has started Slashdot JobCenter where job listings and applicants can be found in one location. Give it a look. I've added my company's listings and there are a few others around. Granted, its not as good as some of the bigger engines, but at least you'll know that other /. heads are potentially going to be your screeners.

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Clinton made me a Republican. Bush made me a Libertarian. Trump is making me question reality.
Re:what is WARN? please define by Breakerofthings · 2003-10-01 09:53 · Score: 3, Informative

WARN
Sorry. Should have made that a link in the original.
Re:Here's a quiz... by geoswan · 2003-10-01 13:33 · Score: 2, Informative

About the 2nd or 3rd question was: "How many files can you have open at one time [on a DOS system]?"

The answer is "3". The environment variable was NFILES.
Frankly, I think it is a pretty reasonable question.
Re:I was fired by Santa by gcaseye6677 · 2003-10-01 16:34 · Score: 2, Informative

I sure hope you called the BSA. As much as I hate organizations like that, they can be useful for some things.
Re:which time? by Enfors · 2003-10-01 18:26 · Score: 2, Informative

What's this talk about security people at layoffs / firings? And getting escorted out of the building right away?

Here in Sweden where I live, it's not like that at all. First of all, people always get atleast one month's notice. That's required by law. In many cases, you don't even have to show up for work during that month if you don't want to, but you still get full pay. I guess Swedish companies treat their employees so much better they don't feel the need to have security present at layoffs / firing, because they don't feel threatened by us. Last time there were layoffs where I work, the company took the entire department (including those who where laid off) out to lunch to sort of say "thank you for working for us". The company picked up the tab, of course.

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-Enfors-
Re:Protecting Sensitive Information by Enfors · 2003-10-02 01:14 · Score: 2, Informative

I Have no idea if you're being serious, or if you're just some kind of pro-Sweden troll, but most North American jurisdictions have notice requirements too (2 weeks where I live), but companies often just give fired employees their salary for the notice period in lieu of notice, again, usually in situations where the presence of the fired employee would be disruptive or present a business risk.

For the record, I'm totally serious, and I didn't mean this as a troll. I was just horrified from reading some of the stories, and happy that we seem to have better employee protection laws over here (employers would never get away with using security guards like that here, if nothing else, the union would have them for breakfast).

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-Enfors-
Fired or Laid Off? by Rick+the+Red · 2003-10-02 02:54 · Score: 2, Informative

There's a difference. A big difference.

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If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
Re:Here's a quiz... by tomhudson · 2003-10-02 06:22 · Score: 4, Informative
Oh, come on. The answer depended on the version of dos and dbase you ran.
DOS limitations (in config.sys)
1. 5.0: files=99
2. 6.0 and up: files=255
dbase limitations
1. dBaseIV had a hard-coded limit of 99.
2. dBase5 had an (again) hardcoded limit of 255 (which you would never hit because you also lost 5 to dos, for a net of 250).
3. The default number of files open at one time with the compilers available in those days was 20 - 5 (again, stdin, stdout, stderr, aux, prn open at program start by dos by default)
So if you had answered them something along these lines, they would have been suffering from TMI.