Tell me your worst firing story

Have you ever either been fired or seen / heard a crazy firing?


I remember someone getting let go at my org a few years ago who then screamed to the entire office about how he was fired while all of us were on sales calls...Not a great look.

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13
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
9
War Room Enthusiast
One of the secretaries used to be very flirty with most of the people in high positions regardless of their gender. She kept professional though, nothing more than touching someone's arm, but many where uncomfortable with this, yet I don't believe many of us spoke about it. 

New manager came to town, we all gathered in a huddle to meet the new member of the team. She was playing with her hair at the end of the room flirting with one of our regional managers. The door opened, came this big bald guy who kind of looked like a less stronger version of the rock, glanced at the whole room introduced himself and started giving a hell of  speech, while those two remained at the back. 

Two minutes into his speech he suddenly stops... yells "Naaaancy" (not real name) she looked at him and ran through the back. Everyone was sooo confused specially because of how he lost his cool. 

Turns out she cheated on this guy years ago and took half his stuff, no one ever knew she was even divorced. She "quit" 3 days later and this new guy; who was great at his job got laid off like 2 months later, for no reason. 

Till this day I wonder how the HR guy got all the info out and why we told the story to everyone. I never trusted him after that.
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
7
SaaS Eater
Ill try and keep this short but I had an AE on my team a few years ago that was on a behavioral final warning (for a variety of reasons (I tried to fire him but my director wouldnt do it). 

He was working in person sales and was a dumpster fire but a decent sales person and had an account close to our office so he sets up a meeting, and takes someone from another department to help him close the deal (Not normal practice but we put a plan in place that would make sense) 

Meeting was 15 mins from the office and 5 hours later they are both MIA. I don't hear from him until the next morning when he comes into the office wreaking of booze and cigarettes with zero explanation for why he went MIA all day yesterday. He then proceeds to submit an expense report for like $350 worth of booze from a bar right next to the place he was trying to sell. He had taken this person from another department on a date basically, got wasted, then tried to expense it. I applaud the audacity but we fired him immediately. 
jwils
Politicker
1
Sales Manager
wowwwww, but love the ballsy expensify move. Gotta shoot your shot. 
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
1
SaaS Eater
They definitely weren't afraid to push the boundaries, expenses included. They would travel down to Southern California to meet with clients and some of the stuff they tried to expense was wild.
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
How did he walk around with balls so big? 
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
1
SaaS Eater
Thats what wheelbarrows are for
butwhy
Politicker
5
Solutions Engineer
My company did an extensive RIF after taking a down round, and did maybe the worst and least professional communication around it I have ever seen. I was at a Mexican restaurant with my sales rep after a meeting, checking slack accounts frantically to see who had been deactived to get a sense of whether I was on the block or not (our managers were supposed to call us after to tell us we were safe and mine "forgot" for a couple breathless, tequila-filled hours), and one sales rep publicly threatened suicide to negotiate a better severance. 

So many crazy stories at that startup, it was a true shit show. 
SaaSguy
Tycoon
1
Account Executive
wow
jwils
Politicker
1
Sales Manager
Omg. That is totally insane. 

Wonder, how many people actually stayed who were "Safe"
butwhy
Politicker
0
Solutions Engineer
Oh there was a huge amount of turnover of "safe" people the following month. I made it another five months or so, but part of the RIF was getting rid of ALL OF MARKETING and 3 of 5 SDRs. And then they wondered why pipeline was completely dead.
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
yikes... sorry to hear you dealt with that. Hopefully you weren't stuck there too long
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
5
☕️
I was a field sales rep for a CPG company, so I was completely remote in my territory. My manager, who was a funny dude in general, called me for our weekly 1:1. We typically started the call jabbing at each other and talking shit...and he just opens up with "PBC, you're fired."

I laughed and said something like "good one...about this account" and he is just silent and then lets out a big sigh and repeats "No, PBC, you're really fired. We are letting go of 50% of the sales team. We grew too fast, and your territory is being split up to the adjacent geo teams."

My wife was home at the time and just saw my face go from laughing to "HOLY HELL WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!". What a way to start a Monday.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
I just feel like there was a better way for him to approach this 👀
InQ5WeTrust
Arsonist
4
No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL
There's ripping off the bandaid and then there's holy shit you have no chill. 

Believe its the latter here. 
jwils
Politicker
4
Sales Manager
Are you serious? So much of being a manager is having the proper EQ for these situations smh. 
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
3
☕️
Eh, it was a mercy kill. I got back into SaaS and am much happier now!
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
2
SaaS Eater
LOL this is so wild. Not the approach i take but I can appreciate the direct nature of said manager. 
DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
1
Rolling 20's all day
If someone jokingly fired me and then ACTUALLY fired me I would lose my shit
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
3
sales
i got a call at home from the ops manager. he said i was going around telling all the 1099 people in the office they weren't gonna get hired (not true) and then he asked me if i wanted my check mailed or picked up. he then tried to be my friend on linkedin like 3-4 times over the past couple years and i keep declining him.

context: you got hired as a 1099 and then at the end of 3 months they'd hire like 1 sales rep as an employee. that job fucking sucked.
jwils
Politicker
0
Sales Manager
What? Ew 
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
1
sales
you asked
jwils
Politicker
0
Sales Manager
Whoops, not ew to you, but def to that ops manager blech. 
hh456
Celebrated Contributor
1
sales
yeah, i take everything personal
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
It was a short story. Went to work and manager announced that today is the last day we are meeting each other (sweet way of saying f*** off everyone).

Happened many years back when started working for a startup.
jwils
Politicker
0
Sales Manager
That's insane. Sounds like something from silicon valley[the show]. 
butwhy
Politicker
0
Solutions Engineer
That sounds like such a Southern "bless your heart" way of firing a team. 
SaaSguy
Tycoon
2
Account Executive
Beginning of second week as an SDR/smile and dial role - dude who sits across from me hasn't set a meeting yet during his first full week (we are expected to set two a day in 100 calls). I hear him get rejected for the umpteenth time that day and he starts hyperventilating and having a panic attack. Im asking him if hes okay, he sprints out the office without saying anything. Dude comes back 5 minutes later says he puked in the hall. Walks up to our manager and says "i cant do this anymore" and is promptly fired.
jwils
Politicker
1
Sales Manager
dang. Sounds like the boss did him a favor? Maybe he got severance for being fired when he would have quit...
SaaSguy
Tycoon
0
Account Executive
No severance lol. This startup chewed up sales talent, paid them nothing, and spit them back out. 
Mobi85
Politicker
1
Regional Sales Manager
I have been on both ends of this: Me firing someone - found out they were falsifying company docs and getting paid out for it. They were getting fast tracked to management positions because of how great they did…I brought up the falsified docs to my upper management and got the “ok” to fire them. Here is when it got me in hot water with HR. I made them a “promoted to customer” certificate that I gave them on Wednesday after a team meeting and made sure everyone knew of the falsified docs and made them walk out with everyone looking. HR didn’t like my certificate and caused me to get written up but it was worth it. Me getting fired - Knew the company was struggling but I was performing. I got shit canned 700 miles from home on a Tuesday at a job site because they couldn’t afford my position anymore and they neglected to let me know on Monday before I drove/flew to the job site. That was a long trip home.
dwightyouignorantsale
Politicker
1
Account Executive
lmaoooo this guy I know got fired for jerking off in a conference room. He was 24 or 25. To make it even better, it just so happened that someone from HR had booked the room for that time. Of anyone in the company to walk on on him, it had to be HR.
jwils
Politicker
1
Sales Manager
Lollll omg. Why not just the bathroom. SMH. 
dwightyouignorantsale
Politicker
0
Account Executive
The cherry on top was that his twin brother worked at the same company. The twin ended up quitting a few weeks after out of shame because everyone thought it was him that was caught.
SellerBeware
Opinionated
0
VP Inside Sales
Seasoned guy I worked with was piss drunk at his desk at 8am, he must’ve slept there after a huge night out. Guy started leaving his clients voicemails telling them he loved them then punched a wall and legitimately broke his own wrist in front of half the office. We just sat in disbelief and waited for the director to nail him to the cross ten mins later - when he was shown the door he threw his business cards round like confetti. Was so epic
Avon
Politicker
0
Senior Account Executive
First out of college job, one of my cohorts fell asleep at his desk in his first week. That was his last day. Personally I thought that was a little too soon...
pinkiesup
Catalyst
0
AE
Not a profesh firing story but… I Worked at TCBY (frozen yogurt place) when I was 16 and had a hookup for alcohol from my old coworker. It was the day before NYE (my 2nd day on the job) and a coworker was asking me if I knew where to get any. I called my friend and he showed up trashed with the alcohol in hand in the store after closing time. I got a call from the owner asking what’s going on as they were standing in front of me. Needless to say I got fired that night and they’d caught me on the cameras eating the cheesecake out of the freezer. Lmao it’s such a hilarious teenage memory.
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