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Dear MT community,

This is my first post here and I could use your guidance. After working for 3 years, I got fired from a day before Thanksgiving. This was my first professional job right after college. I was an internal transfer to a new manufacturing group from R&D.  I had a great relationship with my team and my managers but my job seemed very stagnant.  Six months ago, I asked to be transferred to a newly formed manufacturing group thinking that it would provide me with leadership opportunity and a chance for me to grow.  

My new supervisor gave me a harsh quarterly review saying that I was lacking focus and was not exceeding his expectations. I told him that this review was very shocking and asked for specific examples and he said that he wanted that discussed in front of HR. I was on put on PIP based on the quarterly review but was not given specific examples. HR told me that I dont have to agree with my supervisor assesment and they are not required to give specific examples. 

The reason for my firing was that I took a nap during work hours.  I normally work normal shift and  a week ago, I was told to move to graveyard shift to train some new hires.  I asked my trainee if I dozed off and he said he did not recall, but my supervisor had called him in the morning asking him if I was sleeping on the job and he told him no. HR did not ask or let me state side of the story. My supervisor said that he had a witness that saw me sleeping. 

I really feel like I did everything I could to cooperate with my supervisor. I do see that I missed an opportunity to build a relationship with him because of our difference in personalities. I have been getting calls throughout the weekend from my coworkers who are recommending me to take legal action. I know I was fired to not being my supervisor favourite but I dont think that I have a case because of at-will employment. Moreover, Its probably best to move on and focus my energy on getting a new job.

 Reading some of the comments on MT fourms and listening to the podcast has helped me somewhat. I wanted to ask you what can I do to prepare for my interview. How do I handle the question why was I fired? I dont like playing a victim card and really feel like it will give the interviewer impression that I am a hard person to get along with. 

 

 

 

smorison's picture

Sorry to hear about your situation.

to answer your question, there are Career Tools podcasts on this, i suggest you start with them.

and don't worry ;) everyone gets fired at least once in their career.

Cheers

 

DISC: 7511

flexiblefine's picture

Getting Fired - Part 1

Getting Fired - Part 2

And I think you're right to focus on the future rather than dwelling on the past. Co-workers may think you have a case, but they are (probably) not labor lawyers. If you want to find a lawyer and ask if they think you have a case, you can... but keep moving forward.

flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
DiSC: 1476

aka24's picture

 

Thank you very much for your replies.

I don’t want to dance around the issue that I was terminated for not following company policy but at the same time the real reason that I was let go was because of the differences in our personalities. I was wondering if I get asked about my past job and reason for leaving during my interview, how can I bring this up without saying anything negative about my supervisor. 

Also, Is there a difference between “I was let go” vs.  “I was terminated.” I don’t want to give a false impression to the intervierwers but when I told some of my co-workers that I was let go from the company they  assumed that I was laid off. I had to correct them :(