So there's a couple of recent threads on here talking about employers who have had trouble with employees, or employees who have had trouble with their employers.
It got me wondering… anyone here happy to admit that, at one point in their life, they were a sucky employee and felt the consequences of it? If so, how did you recover from being let go and/or receiving a bad reference?
Your story reminds me of a place I worked at where if you were in the club you could do whatever the f**k you wanted.
You could turn up an hour late, take 2 - 3hr lunch breaks and even leave well before you've even done 5hrs of work. In fact, there was a guy who brought in his own laptop and spent several hours a day working on his personal business while he was "at work".
Sadly, for those who weren't in the club, you get the sh*ts for coming in 15 minutes late, everyone gives you the stares as you leave at 5pm after doing your full hours, and if you were away from your desk for too long (over 5 minutes), you'll get asked where you went! A ridiculous place that was.
Talking of references, this happened to a colleague. The recruiter contacted his current manager for reference when they hadn't even asked for references at that point. Apparently they contacted someone that had worked at both organisations and obtained the manager's contact through them.
That sounds a little shifty to me, but I don't know enough about professional recruitment to say. Just off the top of my head, what if your colleague was searching for a job but hadn't yet put in their notice with their existing place? That would lead to all sorts of awkwardness and a valid reason to blacklist that recruiter for most people.
I been fired before and got a few managers fired before.
I used to work for a major Australian company and had a personality clash with my supervisor at the time. She managed me out despite my working my arse off to prove myself.
She then left and worked at another major company to which I had applied for a role a few years later. She overheard my name in someone else's conversation and took it upon herself to tell the person reviewing my CV that I was hopeless, etc. and I didn't even get an interview (despite my experience skyrocketing since she'd last seen me, thanks to a great mentor).
A little over a decade after that, lo and behold, I receive a CV with her name on it from an agency for a role that I was recruiting for in my own company.
I said I'd be happy to interview her, she turned up and the look on her face was priceless.
I had pretended to forget who she was, but kept saying things like "Your name rings a bell. You aren't related to <made up name> are you?".
I made sure that she even got to a second interview AND the final round!!! Good on her.
Was it petty? Absolutely. Was it satisfying? You bet.
So you could say, you were her god?
Love love love this story, wish I could have done that to one of my bosses (who has since updated her LinkedIn with 'rainmaker' as an occupation 🙄). Thanks for sharing this, it made my day.
"rainmaker"? That's bad enough!
My industry is pretty incestuous so people often end up crossing paths. This person though, never seemed to pop up for whatever reason. Until this particular time.
We recently had a girl leave us because she wanted to be a senior manager but had nowhere near enough experience. We gave her low level accounts to look after and she super unreliable. She used to go on about her crystals and previous lives and so on, which we found hilarious but hey, whatever floats your boat.
We recently saw her name turn up as a life coach. I feel sorry for her clients. She was a mess!
Calling bs mate.
She would have known your name as you were interviewing them.
I sit in on the interviews but my business partner handles HR among other things so name is on that stuff.
Nope. Wrong again. They 99.9% of the time tell you the names of all the people your meeting.
I’m not buying it. U wasted not only her time but urs and ur staff twice you said.
Now I hope it’s bs because the truth is much worse from a “business” owner.
@T1OOO: I'm fairly certain that it's you that's wrong.
First, you clearly have no idea how this stuff works. 99.9% of the time they tell you what we tell them. How would they know who the candidate is meeting? Psychic abilities? No, we tell them who, what, when and how.
We often have others sit in the interviews. Let me tell you, they can be told they're meeting someone and actually meet someone else. It's not uncommon. To simplify/clarify for you; let's say I like a candidate and I want them to meet with a senior person from their team. What precludes me from calling that person in? This is the first time you're wrong.
You don't have to "buy" anything. This is a fact. Since we own the company, we decide what we do with our time so don't know where you're going with this. We "waste" a lot more of our time drinking and lunching so 45 minutes x 2 for this laugh was well worth it. Second time you're wrong.
It's far from BS and we own our business - No need for the "".
The fact that it's the truth and from a the owner makes it awesome because 1) It's a petty form of justice and 2) Simply because I can. - Third time you're wrong.
I appreciate the fact that you're trying to understand this and give me some business advice, but trust me when I tell you that we're doing more than OK.
If you can't identify with the recounting of this situation or don't find it at least amusing, that's fine, I give you full permission to read someone else's post and ignore mine completely.
Afterthought:
I'm intrigued by you the same way I find lemmings interesting. Out of sheer curiosity, why would it bother you so much even if this was made up?
You see, I re-read what I wrote to see if there was anything I might've misrepresented that might've led you to the assumption that this couldn't possibly be true. I couldn't find anything. It's exactly how it happened.
That made me wonder why you responded the way you did.
Are you just boring? Are you the person who bullies people at work like she did and are worried that it'll come back like it did here? Are you that person who loves to point out to your boss that staff are wasting time getting coffee or on personal phone calls in the hopes that they'll see you in a better light?
Please tell me, I'm so curious. I might even be able to help you out so you see it from the other perspective.
@T1OOO: Agree with you.
I will put $100 on this guy not owning a company and $100 means a lot for an Ozbargainer.
😉@imgurod good way to earn$100 quick cash.
@Hunter80: Oh well, don't know how to take your $100 except to say that I definitely do.
Please tell me all about your "good way to earn $100"…. that's assuming you can afford $100.
I still don't understand why you and your BFF are so salty about this.
You don't need to be a sad troll forever, you can change! You have to want to though. It'd be funny if it weren't so tragic!
I'll leave you with this thought (might sober you up); by the time you've woken up and checked to see if Centrelink has put my tax dollars into your account this fortnight, it's likely that I've made enough to pay 2 years' rent for you. That's gotta hurt!! Ouch!
@HighAndDry: But then he'd have to do work instead of troll on the internet!
I'd happily pay the $100 to start things up for him so he can move out of his parents house.
This story is like an actual dream come true. How did things end for her?
She ended up at a competitor in a niche area. It's quite petty but hey, I must be a petty guy!
I have another pretty cool story about a co-worker who back stabbed me (and others) and had to come and ask us for business for her company.
No I meant applying for your business - obviously she didn't get the job, but was there some big revelation at the end for her?
@AlanHB: Ah, unfortunately not. I couldn't do anything more than advise the agency that she was unsuccessful. I wish I could've confronted her but I have to bear in mind that it could cause trouble for us.
I'm surprised she didn't decline the second interview invite (assuming she can't accept you being her superior).
She'd been out of the game for a bit and the money was probably 40% more than she would get elsewhere.
Keep going with it.
Living the dream aye..
Question is did you offer her the job and she just gladly declined or not. Else if she accepted it to let you play more with her
Please say you did offer and she accepted but you tell others she is hopeless and got fired?
Too much coincidence she went to work competitor….
Perhaps she was really like a control freak haha.
If she was hot maybe you would hire lol rofl
No definitely not hot. I don't really understand your question, but we did not offer her the role. We let the agency know that she was unsuccessful in her application.
Everyone is our competitor though, so anywhere she got a job would be a competitor.
I've been in a similar situation a couple of times before, except both times, they were good bosses that were really good and taught me a lot. Made my decisions so easy.
One of the things they taught me was to never burn your bridges.
Common sense, right?
There are many people who don't realise that burning bridges is a bad idea - until it's too late!
I was fired once from a job that I had in university. No need to go into details, but I deserved it. I didn't ask them or list them to be a referee, because a truthful response from them would likely not be positive.
Another time I came very close to being fired on a contract. Again, I deserved it (poor work output due to personal issues at the time, combined with a personality mismatch with the manager). Was performance managed to an extent, tucked my head in and followed their instructions to the letter. Ended the contract on good terms. Didn't use them as a reference because, as before, it wouldn't have been positive.
In a great, well paying job now.
Moral is, don't give the crap references to your next job.
Don't put that job on your resume..
If asked about the gap, use your imagination
I always try to give decent references even though that person may not deserve it.
Everyone deserves a 2nd chance.
I've never been fired or received a bad reference.
I've had to be on the other end though unfortunately. I always kept it professional, but a number of times I've very specifically told the fired now ex-staffers that i wouldn't be providing a reference for them (had to fire one woman for stealing & another for lodging a false sexual harassment claim - video evidence of both incidents were on record thanks to cameras in our facility). They still listed my name for some reason as a referee anyway, so I advised the recruiters of their actions and why they were let go.
I think somebody wiser once said 'if you judge a fish by the way it climbs trees it will always be a failure'.
The point is some people are in jobs that are not right for them for a number of reasons.
In the end, there are only three options:
1. Change Yourself
2. Change the Organisation
3. Change Organisation
I like this
I didn't get fired or was a "sucky" employee per se. However, I left a job after a few months to focus on my studies (less than X number of months I said I'll do the job for when I was hired) and my boss wasn't too happy about it.
After I graduated and was looking for my first job, I reached out to her and asked if she would be a reference. She gladly and cheerfully said yes, she'll do it. Alas, she got her revenge by giving me a bad reference. And I didn't get the job.
Lesson from this experience: only ask people who you can trust will give an honest and most importantly - positive reference! :)
Not yet
I have never been fired from a job but bad reference yes.
I worked as a manager where my employer was under paying me quite a lot. When I questioned him about it he told me to go cash in hand and go on centrelink to make up for it. I quit, contacted fair work and received quite a large sum in back pay.
I didnt add him to my references on my resume but the next job I applied for wanted to speak to him. I mentioned to them what had happened but I gave them his number anyway. He didnt have nice things to say about me but I got the job regardless.
@NaRaSaRang: HAHAHA, so true, I can vouch for this, it seems like this is more socially acceptable behaviour than leaving at 5 sharp.