And approximate timeframe of its attaining currency. (I suspect this is probably mainly an Americanism, but I’d invite comments on that as well.)
If it’s come up before, I’m not getting any hits on it.
I suspect that it is just a more extreme version of “to have your hat handed to you” - ie get fired.
And yes - the use of ‘ass’ does suggest that it is an Americanism. There seem to be many ‘ass’ references in idiomatic speech there. “Get your ass over here.” “Shift your ass.” I am sure you guys will know many more. Of course ‘butt’ is often substituted as if that makes it less rude:)
Huh. I’d never heard that phrase before. I’ll have to do my part to popularize it. I like it. A quick Googling turned up: Have your hat handed to you - phrase meaning and origin
That does seem like a likely origin. If it is, I wonder when it evolved into “ass”? The meaning seems to have shifted a little, too. At least to me, being handed your ass doesn’t necessarily mean fired. I use it more to mean something like being beaten, defeated, humiliated. If I go into a meeting with my boss where my proposal is shot down completely and vocally, I might say, “I had my ass handed to me” even if I wasn’t fired.
The earliest hits in Google Books for “ass handed to” appear to be from the mid 60’s.
The long form seems to be “have your ass sawed/sawn off and handed to you.”
I don’t think there’s any connection to “hat.” To be handed one’s hat means told to leave. To have one’s ass handed to you means you took a beating, one way or the other.