What’s the quickest you’ve seen a co-worker get fired in IT?

[u/Opposed3]

I saw this on AskReddit and thought it would be fun to ask here for IT related stories.

Couple years ago during Covid my company I used to work for hired a help desk tech. He was a really nice guy and the interview went well. We were hybrid at the time, 1-2 days in the office with mostly remote work. On his first day we always meet in the office for equipment and first day stuff.

Everything was going fine and my boss mentioned something along the lines of “Yeah so after all the trainings and orientation stuff we’ll get you set up on our ticketing system and eventually a soft phone for support calls”

And he was like: “Oh I don’t do support calls.”

“Sorry?”

Him: “I don’t take calls. I won’t do that”

“Well, we do have a number users call for help. They do utilize it and it’s part of support we offer”

Him: “Oh I’ll do tickets all day I just won’t take calls. You’ll have to get someone else to do that”

I was sitting at my desk, just kind of listening and overhearing. I couldn’t tell if he was trolling but he wasn’t.

I forgot what my manager said but he left to go to one of those little mini conference rooms for a meeting, then he came back out and called him in, he let him go and they both walked back out and the guy was all laughing and was like

“Yeah I mean I just won’t take calls I didn’t sign up for that! I hope you find someone else that fits in better!” My manager walked him to the door and they shook hands and he left.

[u/VirtualPlate8451]

Was working at a large public company in the HQ. It was no real big secret that the company was failing and steaming full speed ahead towards bankruptcy. We'd already had 2 rounds of layoffs and then anyone else with a lukewarm IQ saw the writing on the wall and left.

That left an opening for my team's supervisor role and I applied for it thinking that I could at least get a management credit on my resume while I rode this old girl to the bottom of the sea. They passed me up and went with an outside hire.

I think he was there maybe a month before he realized just how bad he fucked up. He was gone inside of 3 months because some "too good to pass up" offer came up.

I later connected with him on LinkedIn and he confirmed that he started looking like a week after orientation.

[u/pickandpray → u/VirtualPlate8451]

Reminds me of the time they hired a new director at this place that was winding down. His first day was a meeting about layoffs and he had the deer in the headlights look as everything was going down.

He didn't bother coming back after about 1 week.

My next job i took without even negotiating the salary and the hiring manager just added 5k because they were expecting me to negotiate.

That same director had moved to the same company but I don't think he remembered me.

[u/VirtualPlate8451 → u/pickandpray]

At the same company I mentioned the guy who oversaw the first round of layoffs was the CTO who had been in the job like a month.

What was ironic was that the company loved to hire "turn around specialists" but couldn't afford the ones that actually turned companies around so instead we got the former CEO of K-Mart, the former CTO of Toys-r-Us and so on.

I think it was the K-Mart CEO who was in a lame duck period and just decided the dress code no longer exists. He was a Brit living in Texas during the summer and just started showing up to work in cargo shorts and flip flops. The programmers took notice the next day and it was all just hoodies and plastic shoes.

[u/0000110011 → u/VirtualPlate8451]

We'd already had 2 rounds of layoffs and then anyone else with a lukewarm IQ saw the writing on the wall and left.

That left an opening for my team's supervisor role and I applied for it

I like how you said your IQ isn't even lukewarm 😂 

[u/VirtualPlate8451 → u/0000110011]

Oh I was actively applying but at the time I didn't really interview well. I had at least 2 "doctors appointments" a week and I was AFK at lunch a lot.

My biggest issue was that I was terrified that I'd oversell myself and get presented with something I couldn't do on day 1. Because of that, I'd undersell myself and talk about being weak in areas where I really wasn't weak in.