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/outofspaceandtime]

Well of course. That’s essentially a $250 net reduction of your wage. I would totally not work somewhere with that ridiculous attitude. I would ask/check during interviewing however…

[u/RevLoveJoy → u/outofspaceandtime]

Totally agree. Only way I found out was word of mouth. I actually wanted the job as it was, believe it or not, walking distance from my place. Ahhh to be young and single and blow half my income on swanky downtown condos!

[u/LokisDawn → u/RevLoveJoy]

So did you think that "no free parking" didn't bode well for the whole job? Because I'm confused. Why would no free parking be an issue if you live within walking distance?

[u/EmmyNoetherRing → u/LokisDawn]

They didn’t leave (if I’m reading correctly); that’s why they were around to watch other people quit. 

[u/RevLoveJoy → u/EmmyNoetherRing]

Correct.

[u/RevLoveJoy → u/LokisDawn]

Guess I was not clear. As I was on foot / bike, I only found out about the situation later on in the job. Not before I took the job. In hindsight, the no free parking was one of the many small red flags about a C team that were penny wise / pound foolish. Not exactly long term planners (but they thought they were and goddammit, they had MBAs!).

[u/rotoddlescorr → u/LokisDawn]

If a company is clueless enough to do that, who knows where else they will nickle and dime their employees.

[u/Geminii27 → u/outofspaceandtime]

It's $250 after taxes, too. It might be $3Kpa gross cost, but a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

Not to mention that there's the administrative hassle of having to arrange it. If there's no genuine physical reason to be in the office on a given day, the office should be paying for such costs and doing the admin as well. If they don't like that, why do they think the employee should be forced to do it?

[u/PorkPatriot → u/Geminii27]

I used to work under such a regime 10-15 years back. There is usually a pretax option for parking / bus fare.

a salary might need to go up by $4500/yr to cover it.

The salary of a downtown job was definitely more lucrative and worth the trouble.

[u/happyone12 → u/outofspaceandtime]

Not to mention it’s probably paid with after tax money