In the 15+ years of the supermarket biz, I’ve only seen a handful of people fired for:
[ul][li] blatant theft (the story about the two kids hauling steaks out the receiving door during an evening shift is a good example)[/li]
[li] unacceptable customer service (i.e., swearing, negligence, being an asshat)[/li]
[li] use of drugs and/or alcohol on company property (at one store half the front end was fired after closing for partying in the parking lot)[/li]
[li] sexual harassment (I reported an older man for such a few years ago – he was canned and the girl he’d harassed was transferred to another store)[/li]
[li] not busting your ass enough. This is a tricky one. We just let go of a maintenance guy in my store who would spend 3/4ths of his shift flirting with every female he saw. He probably would’ve never been found out had he at least made some semblance that he was emptying trash, etc. OTOH, there are plenty of people I’ve worked with who can’t bear to lift a finger – I call it the “Queen” or “King” syndrome. *If you’re that type, THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU IN FOOD SERVICE??? My theory is that, in upper management’'s eyes, it’s better to have a body there than no body at all. Honestly, the mind boggles.[/li]
My experience is that if you haven’t done any of the above, you’ll have a job unless you deliberately injury and/or kill someone. It’s expensive to train new people.
That’s what got me thinking about the subject. I know someone (a complete moron) who told me his supervisor had walked in on him while he had some cheesecake modeling site on his computer, but he wasn’t reprimanded or anything. So I punched him for being an idiot. Honestly, how difficult is it to figure out that that might be a bad idea?
I’m currently working in Japan and I’ve been privvy to two instances of shrieking Japanese men having extreme and loud hissy fits right in the middle of everything, berating that whoever it was they were yelling at was an incompetent, worthless, slime. Personally, I would have thrown them out the door on the spot, but so far no change.
Not Grinnell, but a pal of mine at the University of Michigan was positively obsessed with gaining access to every pipe tunnel and building roof he could. I went “roofing” with him a time or two myself. No disciplinary action was ever taken against either of us.
Now as to freight trains…how do people that stupid get admitted to any college? (And Grinnell’s a helluva college. My grandpa went there in 1921, before his money ran out.) You “mess with” the train, the train “messes with” you.
That takes me back; I have personally scaled to the roof of the Music School on U of M’s North Campus…what fun! I was in a skirt, even.
Swearing on the phone will get you frog-marched out where I work. Saw it happen to a great employee who just slipped once and said something to a co-worker after leaving a voicemail but before disconnecting the line. He left the message first thing in the morning and he didn’t even realize he’d done it, until he came back from lunch and his stuff was in a box. I liked him, too, sweet guy who needed the job. I know of a woman who was overheard ordering drugs to be brought to her on the company phone surrounded by listening co-workers and she didn’t even miss a day.
Two instances I can think of off the top of my head: a guy gave one of the security guards access to his company’s computers by giving him his password. I think that was discovered over the weekend and he was summarily sacked first thing Monday morning, but same idea.
In another instance a contractor insisted on arguing about a controversial subject (abortion) with one of the employees. She complained, the contractor’s company was called and he was escorted out of the building shortly afterwards. I assume he probably kept his job with the contracting company but his time with us was over.
I once worked at a gardening center with a guy who grew large amounts of pot. He kept a box of weed in the backseat of his car to dry out in the sun as he worked (why he did this at work is beyond me, but that’s what he did.) He would usually retire to his car to smoke during our lunch brake, and then take a short nap. Anyway, one day he failed to set his alarm, or whatever, and slept all the way through the day. The boss went out back and caught him napping, and boom, he was gone.
I’m kinda surprised that with all the jobs I worked over 20 years, I can’t remember a single instance where someone was fired on the spot.
One of my co-workers at KFC was working the cash register and threatened to slap a customer - it still took a day or two to get rid of her. She was a big 'un, too, her slap woulda hurt.
I knew IT people who were caught ahemming in the computer room over the weekend - nothing happened.
Closest thing in my experience – I temped at both Coke and Pepsi (not at the same time) (Lord forbid) and both places absolutely foamed at the mouth at the thought of their employees drinking their competitor’s product. They didn’t even like you bringing in McDonald’s for your lunch over at Pepsi, since they “pour Coke” (industry lingo). One receptionist at Coke barely slipped by - she was caught drinking Tropicana orange juice at the front desk. She was pregnant & couldn’t drink any of the soda pop in the office (which was free). Bosses brought in Minute Maid and all was well.
There are literally hundreds of offenses that will get you immediately terminated at my new job. I work for a company that also employees hundreds of “clients” (non-competitive employees) with physical and developmental disabilities, so lots of offenses (especially toward clients) will get you summarily sacked. Any kind of harrassment or romantic advances, especially.
Considering that my school district refused my attempt to quit (I care only because I plan on continuing in education), it would take my peeing on the principal’s desk or something. I’ve worn shorts every day except the first, partly because, “What are you going to do, fire me? I’m begging you.”
I work in a clean room, doing grunt work. I’m not sure what would cause my termination, but it would probably involve screwing with one of the several million dollar machines, taking stuff, breaking things on purpose, or anything of that nature.
Unordered list: [ list ] [ * ]List item 1 [ /list ]
List with numbers: [ list=1 ] [ * ]List item 1 [ /list ]
List with letters: [ list=a ] [ * ]List item 1 [ /list ]
Obviously, drop all those spaces, and you don’t need a closing tag on each list item – only at the end of the entire list.
As far as the thread goes, theft or injury to another associate. Drugs lead to company-sponsored counseling and rehab; most customer service offenses get at most a warning for the first offense. You have to try hard to get the door at my company.
Well, at the tutoring place I used to work in, there was an employee who sold a pokemon trading card to a student for $300. When the mom found out, she went batshit crazy and chewed out the director, threatening to get a lawyer involved :eek:
The directors, wary of any threat to income quotas/threats of litigation, made the employee return the money and he was fired the same day the mom complained. It is the only employee I know of who actually was fired- most quit either on good terms (found something better/going to grad school) or became so disgruntled they quit themselves before becoming fired.
Probably shouldn’t be posting this but … Thursday a co-worker was taken away in handcuffs, escorted off the premises; they later came back and took away another co-worker in handcuffs. Apparently the two had been stealing equipment/furniture. They will likely be prosecuted and restitution sought. Very bad stuff, sad too, as they both have young children.
I know of a woman who was overheard ordering drugs to be brought to her on the company phone surrounded by listening co-workers and she didn’t even miss a day.