# Unemployed AGAIN **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408 "2010-01-25T19:43:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/21 "2010-01-25T22:01:18Z")
> [@AmericanMaid](#): > > I really hope I’m not fired for cause! That is a gray area since I didn’t know it was a required duty until shit hit the fan. To clarify the whole costing millions thing, this duty held up claims being processed in a timely manner so money meet drain. Well, at least I have a new question to ask in job interviews now! “Do you provide any training or onboarding for new hires?” Today is my numb, feeling bewildered day. Tomorrow I will come back with a lot more profanity. Ahhh shit, **Maid** , I’ve been there. In fact, _I_ got fired from my last job, and like yours, that job didn’t have a lot of OJT either. They just kind of threw you in and blamed you for everything. Meh, it was teaching English at an idiot hakwon somewhere in Korea, and I missed my wife anyway, so no big loss. In any case, I agree with asking about training in the job interview. In addition, I’ve learned to show up for your first day of work with a pen and notebook and take down _everything_ they tell you to do. Then start asking questions about what is expected of you–documenting the answers as you do so–and don’t _stop_ asking questions until you are 100% certain–and I _do_ mean _one-hundred percent_ certain–about what is expected of you and exactly how you are accomplish it, or barring that, when and how you will get trained to perform that task. Then do it, just like they tell you to do it. It’s all about documentation. For what it’s worth, quite a few jobs absolutely suck at training employees, which has always mystified me, by the way. Why the hell would you hire someone off the street and then not bother to teach the fucking _job he was hired to do?!_. In fact, I can safely say that in just about all my part-time, temp/internship/hack jobs I was pretty well trained, but at all my professional jobs, they just kind of shook my hand, pointed to the work and sort of gave it up to fate. In about half the instances, things turned out fine, and the other half? While that hakwon was the first job I was actually fired from, there was little love lost between us. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/22 "2010-01-25T22:07:14Z")
> [@AmericanMaid](#): > > I really hope I’m not fired for cause! That is a gray area since I didn’t know it was a required duty until shit hit the fan. To clarify the whole costing millions thing, this duty held up claims being processed in a timely manner so money meet drain. Well, at least I have a new question to ask in job interviews now! “Do you provide any training or onboarding for new hires?” Today is my numb, feeling bewildered day. Tomorrow I will come back with a lot more profanity. First, sorry about the job. It sucks to lose a job, whether it’s being fired or reduction in force. Been through 6 jobs in the past 10 years because of mergers or bankruptcies. Second, get together the position posting you answered and were hired for, the employee handbook they gave you when you started and any documentation you received about your job and responsibilities. If you do not find the task included as part of your regular duties you might have a way to fight them if they deny unemployment. However, if there is a single reference to the task or if the position includes a phrase like “additional duties” then you are up a creek. It won’t matter whether they only told you about it once in passing and then said, “Don’t worry about it. You hardly ever need to do it.” You had been told about a part of your job and it is your responsibilities to do everything, no matter how trivial. Go to the unemployment office ASAP. Then get to a temp agency. If they deny the unemployment you can at least work a temp job to bring in some money while you look for something permanent. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/23 "2010-01-25T22:08:31Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > \ > It’s all about documentation. For what it’s worth, quite a few jobs absolutely suck at training employees, which has always mystified me, by the way. **Why the hell would you hire someone off the street and then not bother to teach the fucking _job he was hired to do?!_**. In fact, I can safely say that in just about all my part-time, temp/internship/hack jobs I was pretty well trained, but at all my professional jobs, they just kind of shook my hand, pointed to the work and sort of gave it up to fate. In about half the instances, things turned out fine, and the other half? While that hakwon was the first job I was actually fired from, there was little love lost between us. Bolding mine. Depending on the level of experience and education the person claimed on the resume or during the interview, training may be more superfluous than at other jobs. My training has been minimal since my MBA (7 yrs ago) and its because I am expected to come to the job as a professional, and if I had questions, I had to ask. If I didn’t know how to use a software program, I had to ask. If I wasn’t sure where to get the data for a report, I had to ask. Sorry **AmericanMaid** it does suck that you are in this situation, but having an MBA means much higher expectations, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![tacoloco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tacoloco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tacoloco)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/24 "2010-01-25T22:10:17Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > How could your supervisor or boss have not noticed whatever it was for seven months? Some other heads need to roll in this situation. IMO, everyone from the supervisor up his management chain. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/25 "2010-01-25T22:38:05Z")
But wait! You are an MBA! Aren’t we supposed to just know everything on day one of work? What I’ve been finding as one of the challenges of being a managment-level MBA in a new job is that I’m treated both as a genius and imbecile, according to the convenience of my superiors. > [@Vinyl Turnip](#): > > You cost the company a million dollars after working there for a few months? “Put”, “call”, what the heck’s the difference? ---
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/26 "2010-01-26T08:06:52Z")
I’d like to get some perspective; was it a million dollar error on a task involving ten billion dollars? That’s not all that bad. If it was on a task involving one thousand dollars, that’s really bad. IAC, where were the checks and balances? Where I work, we don’t let people get into the position of blowing a million dollars without any oversight. We have, you know, TPS reports to file every week… ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/27 "2010-01-26T09:09:07Z")
you get fired because the only other option is to fire your manager for being such a total moron. really its managements fault here but as usual its the workers who get the blame ---
**Author:** ![Wheeljack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@Wheeljack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheeljack)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/28 "2010-01-26T09:39:36Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > I’ve never been at a job where I got trained in and then no one ever spoke to be about my responsibilities again. I’ve been working with my current employer for almost a year now and I still understand very little of my responsibilities. The “training” is computer based, obsolete, and irrelevant. Management rarely has an answer for my questions and when they do it’s obviously made up on the fly. My coworkers have advised me to simply guess (because they don’t know either), so that’s what I’ve been doing. Essentially the training plan is “do whatever you think is best and if you did it wrong you’ll hear about it tomorrow, unless the next person up the chain isn’t working tomorrow in which case nobody will know it was you who screwed up because that would require communication and we don’t do that here.” This isn’t about subjective stuff either, but plain old procedural crap like where that report goes or how to get my next assignment when I finish this one. So far I haven’t guessed wrong, but who knows what the future may bring. The OP has my sympathies. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/29 "2010-01-26T11:35:48Z")
Sorry, that has to suck. I have no idea how UI works in your situation, but it could be a problem if they can prove just cause. I’m not a lawyer, but I’d talk to one about this issue. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/30 "2010-01-26T12:31:48Z")
> [@Beadalin](#): > > What was your relationship with your supervisor like? I can’t understand how in the 7 months you were there, no one ever checked in on your progress on whatever that task was. I’ve never been at a job where I got trained in and then no one ever spoke to be about my responsibilities again. My last job was like that. They hired me and then the next day my boss, a director, quit. His boss, the VP of the group showed zero interest in discussing my responsibilities until she wanted something. Then she would throw a temper tantrum if I didn’t know what she wanted. The entire year I was there, the company was going through massive layoffs. There was a good 3 month period after they “retired” my VP where I had no boss and no bosses boss. Then they hired a new director to replace the old one. Then they laid off all the other directors. Then the managers (including me). Apparently the staff have now been outsourced to India. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/31 "2010-01-26T14:37:38Z")
Question 1: Does your job involve MONEY? Or put money at risk? Suggestion: Then be extremely meticulous about your job functions, even when other people tell you that they aren’t important or fail to check up on you. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/32 "2010-01-26T14:48:32Z")
Unless you work for the government. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/33 "2010-01-26T15:13:02Z")
> [@groo](#): > > I’d like to get some perspective; was it a million dollar error on a task involving ten billion dollars? That’s not all that bad. If it was on a task involving one thousand dollars, that’s really bad. > > IAC, where were the checks and balances? Where I work, we don’t let people get into the position of blowing a million dollars without any oversight. We have, you know, TPS reports to file every week… Depends on who you are in the company too. If you were a mailroom clerk asked to overnight materials to a sales rep in the feild so he could demo a million dollar product install 2 days later (say a large enterprise software install) and you sent it regular ground, the sales rep is going to blame the loss of a million dollar sale on you, you are toast. If you are upper management and routinely make judgement calls that can swing a couple million in labor/materials, its more of an oops. Either way, a million is serious money for any employee to fuck up on and you have to have a pretty serious pay grade for it not to be a firing offense. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/34 "2010-01-26T15:19:04Z")
Unless you’re in the Army, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/35 "2010-01-26T15:55:06Z")
Well, Jesus, you guys, that sucks. I had no idea I’d been somewhat lucky to avoid that. If anything, I’ve been in jobs where micro-management was the watchword. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/36 "2010-01-26T17:27:36Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > You cost the company a million dollars after working there for a few months? > > What the hell were you doing, putting deposit bags into the shredder? An intern a friend of mine was looking after cost his company several million pounds in his first week on the job, and all he did was type a few too many 0s. It happens. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/37 "2010-01-26T18:37:22Z")
How do I say this delicately, and without coming across as a jerk? As an MBA with an advanced degree in business administration, do you not have some responsibility to understand your duties (or ask until you do understand them), why you’re doing them, and the consequences of them not being done? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/38 "2010-01-26T18:41:10Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > How do I say this delicately, and without coming across as a jerk? To be fair, they \*did \*post it in the Pit. If they wanted or expected only sympathetic answers, the board guidelines clearly show that that thread should have gone in MPSIMS (even if it’s neither mundane nor pointless). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/39 "2010-01-26T18:51:11Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > As an MBA with an advanced degree in business administration… Are there MBAs _without_ advanced degrees in business administration? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408/40 "2010-01-26T18:51:20Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > As an MBA with an advanced degree in business administration, do you not have some responsibility to understand your duties (or ask until you do understand them), why you’re doing them, and the consequences of them not being done? Actually, as a grownup professional person, you have that responsibility. I’m trying really hard to understand what happened here. Were you somehow unclear on the nature of your job? Whatever this task is that you were asked to do “every couple of months, no big deal”, did you not, upon learning how to do the particular task and bit of reflection, see how this task fit into the bigger picture? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unemployed-again/526408.md?page=3)