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Have you ever been fired for not liking sports? ...I have. (pg. 4)
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| Banora |
Why is it so weird that I would rather enjoy my time doing other things than vegetating on the couch? And on that note, why is everyone so obsessed about being a 'team player'? I mean, I understand it is important to be able to work with people, but I don't need to like the same or even have to talk to my coworkers about myself beyond office duties to properly do my job. Honestly, I'd rather not have people coming over to desk and chatting about the latest episode of some show they saw while I am trying to do my work.
Not to mention years of going to poorly performing schools with the dregs of society taught me that working in a team and relying on others will always bring you down. :p |
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| Watts |
When I transitioned from retail to office work, I started reading all of the highlights on my news feed. Local and world news were sections I already read, but I threw in entertainment and sports just to have something to talk about.
From what I've experienced, you can't fully be yourself in low-turnover and tightly knit environment like an office. I play with a death metal band in my free time, and although I wasn't really surprised at their reaction, I wasn't aware how much it would alter other employees' perceptions of me as their coworker.
Talking about "normal" things and playing into politics is annoying at times, but for me, it beats being the office odd-ball. |
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| itsamemario |
| quote: | Originally posted by Banora
Can't. At-Will employment, so as long as they didn't tell me they were firing me for my gender, race, religion or sexuality they can terminate me for any reason (like not liking sports). |
Hmm sucks... Don't you have proper job contracts in the US?
Laws in Norway, at least, protects you from being fired for not liking sports (or whatever the craze is at the office).
So are most jobs like this in US and A or is it just low-level jobs with high turnover rate among employees that utilize the at-will rule? |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| She specifically said it's a Kentucky law, you dope. |
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| Woony |
| It's called at-will-employment and many states have it. As the land of the free, america has little worker-protection compared to communist europe. |
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| Lews |
I have a TV, but pretty much just use it to watch select shows I record, the occasional sports game, and streaming Netflix. Their reactions shock me, until I remember that tens of millions of people do watch those awful network television shows every night. I didn't even know American Idol was still being produced :wtf:
Definitely sucks, though, I'm sorry. |
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| Sykonee |
| How'd you ever get stuck in Kentucky in the first place? That's one of the last States I'd imagine a TA ending up in, other than Wyoming and Rhode Island. |
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| Banora |
| quote: | Originally posted by Watts
Talking about "normal" things and playing into politics is annoying at times, but for me, it beats being the office odd-ball. |
I didn't really go into the things I liked or disliked, I just politely would inform them that I didn't like sports or watch tv when asked. Whatever, though.
| quote: | Originally posted by Sykonee
How'd you ever get stuck in Kentucky in the first place? That's one of the last States I'd imagine a TA ending up in, other than Wyoming and Rhode Island. |
My dad is from here and I spent most of my life in Kentucky.
| quote: | Originally posted by Woony
It's called at-will-employment and many states have it. As the land of the free, america has little worker-protection compared to communist europe. |
If I am not mistaken all of the US is At-Will with the exception of Montana IF you pass the 90-day trial period. |
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| Sykonee |
| quote: | Originally posted by Banora
My dad is from here and I spent most of my life in Kentucky. |
Ah, it's one of those "keep gettin' pulled back in" type of States.:p |
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| zGoogleman |
| quote: | Originally posted by Joss Weatherby
Seriously though that sounds like how I got let go at my last job. Didn't matter that I did two extra job descriptions or that my team was the only one to get out a project on time and under budget the last quarter I worked. Stupid office politics got me fired. |
You've held a job before? |
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| Banora |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sykonee
Ah, it's one of those "keep gettin' pulled back in" type of States.:p |
Sadly :( |
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| Joss Weatherby |
| quote: | Originally posted by zGoogleman
You've held a job before? |
Yes. I did database/backend development (that was my job description when I started) for a web development/business identity firm for 3 years. By the end I was doing server administration, project management, client interaction (like I was the direct contact for clients), and I was also doing, on top of all of this, almost full time desktop app development for software that was being used by dozens of major companies for problem analysis/accident investigation.
That client ended up being the death of me. Out of the blue, after doing a ton of stuff off the book (at the bosses request) and even in my own free time, the client flipped the out on me (or more likely I was thrown under the bus by my boss, which is the most likely because he had done it before, with me in the room, on a conference call with the client covering for his up :wtf: ) and said they didn't want me working on the project anymore. Since they were like a $12,000 a month client and pretty much the only reliable income the company had at the moment my bosses put me on probation and then fired me the next week. Their given reason to me was fermenting revolt or something because I went out to lunch with coworkers that week and bitched, and the bosses asked the coworkers what we talked about at lunch and one of them ended up talking.
Funny part was when I filed for unemployment I said exactly what happened, and then they changed their story from the reason they gave me for why I was fired to "unsatisfactory work performance" which, apparently in WA, is not a valid reason to fire someone haha. They ended up having to foot my entire unemployment period for 2 years because it was invalid AND they opted out of paying into the unemployment fund with the state. I got 85% of my pay for 2 years on their dime.
The best part was their stated reason to unemployment was total BS. I was the only team leader that quarter who actually got a project out on time and in budget (for my half, the art departments half went 300 hours over budget and I am not even sure how that happened since there was basically no art needed). The manager of the programming department flipped the out when I was fired... We were already short staffed and they just sacked me with out consulting him (he actually ended up having a heart attack later that year, he was ok though, he quit within 6 months of it though).
Apparently the client that flipped on me later flipped on the other guy on the project and since he knew the MO he told the bosses that they could off or he'd quit right then and there and since he was the only one on the project that was actually capable of doing something (one of the partners who was also on it was a total idiot, didn't know how to program, chose horrible solutions, etc) they had to turn tail and tell the client to calm down.
Good times. |
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