“On the spot” firing just doesn’t happen. If I punched the guy sitting beside me I’d be sent home immediately, or security would hold me while the cops where called. At some later stage I would be brought back into the office to attend a meeting with HR that I could take a person with me as a witness, this could be a lawyer, friend or a work colleague. I’d be fired at that meeting.
I was involved in a sacking of that nature in IBM. I was supervisor during a night shift without any management there. Security came up to me and informed me that some of the staff where in a car in the car park smoking drugs. It turned out that one of the morons was actually smoking heroin and the rest grass.
I went out with security and got them all into a meeting room. I called a manager and was told not to call the police. I called a taxi for all of them on the company account as they had all driven to work but we wouldn’t let them drive as they had got stoned on business property so I didn’t want to take any risks with possible legal issues if they crashed on their way home.
They were all fired within a week after the HR meeting I described above.
We had a guy here who got involved with internet sex stuff of some sort, and was walked out. And to prison.
When I worked for Pennzoil there was a guy who worked on our floor who got together with some people in the mail room to do credit card fraud. Not only did he get walked out (and get sent to prison), but there was even tape around his work area. Way cool.
In a gig I had with the City of Houston, a guy got fired in the afternoon for saying something politically incorrect in the morning. This wasn’t a public thing, BTW.
Bits relevant to this thread are in bold, but when I started with the post office, an old timer said, “Son, don’t volunteer for anything. Don’t answer telephones. Don’t steal anything. Don’t hit anyone. Other than that, do what you like.”
Not a job, but at my college (Grinnell), there are supposedly only three things that can get you expelled. They are:
-messing with the train (an active reailway line goes right through the middle of the campus, and the train goes through 2 or 3 times a day. It’s a freight train that mostly carries corn syrup).
–getting into the steam tunnels under campus (when it’s snowed, and the snow’s been around for a couple days, you can tell where the steam tunnels are because the snow melt away above them).
–going on the roofs of the academic buildings.
Wikipedia says that this a myth, but I don’t really know, because I’ve never known anyone who did any of those things.
At the last two firms I’ve consulted for, connecting my laptop to their network would get one immediately escorted out the door. At my current client, even using an USB key is a ‘firable’ offense. Note, these don’t get one immediately fired from my firm, nor do they get the firm fired from the client. However, TPTB will not look upon you kindly.
A friend of mine who works in the civil service here in Ireland once said that he reckoned if he went in a took a dump on his superior’s desk the most that would happen to him would be that he’d be moved to the fishery or defence dept*. I don’t think he was being to innacurate with that either.
The black holes of the Irish civil service.
I am the only real employee here, and I know too much about the place and I’m the only person who knows how to do some important things, so I’d have to start shooting people before they would fire me. I work with idiots on that score.
The sales agents are “independant contractors” and can be dismissed for violating any statue of the State Real Estate Commission, Multiple Listing Service or Board of REALTORS. The only people I know who were let go stole from the company.
I’m pretty sure there’s not a lot that would get you fired here. I’ve seen lots of unsavoury things done to/with/at food. However, the second you tried to serve that food, you’d be turfed.
That’s it. Flip off my boss, if you want, but I don’t think he’ll notice.
When I worked for the state, I never saw or knew of anyone who was fired “on the spot.” There was a long procedure for discipline, with verbal warnings, written warnings, written reprimands, etc., before they decided you’d screwed up long or often enough to merit firing. Even the mailroom guy who used to slip out to his truck for several hours a day to get drunk got chance after chance before being dismissed.
That’s just my personal observations, though. Like I posted in the “is surfing porn at work really a problem” thread, one of my mom’s coworkers was fired recently because his porn surfing resulted in him downloading a trojan which exposed taxpayers to identity theft. Now, I had a coworker who had to surf a lot of porn before he eventually got fired, but this other guy’s dismissal was probably swift and final because a.) of the identity theft risk, and b.) the media was all over this case. If the media hadn’t caught wind of it, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was merely disciplined and allowed to keep his job.
Given that the agency I work for had indisputable proof, they would escort you out if you sold or intentionally revealed confidential data, or accepted a bribe. There are other things you can get fired for, but these are probably the only two that would get you immediately booted from the premesis.
I work in a call center. They don’t mind if we surf between calls (excepting porn, of course), but if we are on a call we must remain attentive to the caller and not be doing stuff on the side. I recently heard about someone who was fired for running his eBay store while talking to callers. Another one was busted for going to Myspace or Livejournal while on a call. Another one was making nasty remarks about the company or other workers to a fellow worker in email. The email was intercepted by someone in IT who saw it. I’ve never personally seen anyone handed his walking papers, but I do know that security drops in from time to time and probably has to eject a newly axed employee.
Other fireable offenses- being rude or delinerately unhelpful to a caller, deliberately hanging up on a caller without just cause (e.g. an extraordinarily rude, belligerent or otherwise unmanageable caller can be disconnected after he/she is given ample warning), refusing to take calls or giving out company confidential information to callers. Other common sense stuff, such as sexual harrassment, theft, abuse of company property, etc. of course will get you shown the door.
Several years ago, we had four laptops stolen. The period of possible time over which the theft could have occurred included the weekend, so the cops interviewed every employee who had used his keycard to enter the buiilding over the weekend.
The one guy we fired on the spot had indignantly insisted he didn’t steal the laptops – he couldn’t have, he explained, because he was too busy using the plotter and high-speed printer to print out material for his real-estate business, and in his defense he showed the little mini-network he had set up in our offices running his own web site for his real-estate career.
Brandishing a firearm (after that, I made it a policy that mere possession of a weapon on the job site would be grounds for termination) The police said that I could’ve charged him with assault (I’m not so sure about that) and that if they had seen him themselves, there were all sorts of charges they could’ve used against him. Turned out he was an ex con. Homeowner called police as we calmed him down and disarmed him. He had more guns in his car, and a large knife in his boot, so the police had plenty of cause to bring him in.
Stealing
Lying (a pattern had built up over some time, lying to my face was the last straw)
I’m in construction. Safety, honesty, and a willingness to work hard are basics. But, I recognise people sometimes have a hard day or week. I try to be fair. But, if any of those above listed things happen, you’re leaving right away. At times, they’ve left in a squad car of the local police. And when I sub myself out to other people, I follow their rules. Simple, really.
Yup. I’m an assistant professor and the tenured profs can and do get away with everything short of burning down the building (and possibly burning down the building as well).
