To think you don't fire your employee in a public place within earshot of dozens of strangers?

[BipBippadotta]

This has been haunting me all day.

So this morning I was sitting in a branch of Pret, when a woman a table over started talking incredible loudly on the phone about a team member of hers who was underperforming. She was clearly on to her HR department, announcing her intention to fire this person, asking how much notice she'd have to give them, what severance pay, etc.

A moment later, she made another phone call, asking someone to come and meet her in Pret 'for a brief chat'. I thought, surely she's not summoning her employee to an entirely public place to be sacked? Cos you'd have to be a sociopath to do that, right?

A woman came in & sat down, the first woman told her perfunctorily she was 'no longer suitable for the role', talked her through what she would be paid, offered her the opportunity to clear out today or work a notice period. Bizarrely, she also told the sacked employee the team were going out for drinks and asked if she would be coming along! Throughout this the employee looked mortified, and at one point seemed on the verge of tears, and left when the conversation was done.

Just to reiterate, this was the middle of a coffee shop, 10:30 AM, so quite a few people in there but still quiet enough for EVERYONE in there to hear the entire conversation. I heard what this woman was being paid for her notice period. I heard all the reasons she was considered to be underperforming.

Sacker then got on the phone to HR, said it was done, had a little chuckle about how the sackee had 'got a bit emotional'.

Am I being U to think that this is unbelievably unprofessional behaviour?

And was I U to have left a little note to this effect on her table, as I had to leave for an appt before she was done chortling down the phone about her former employee's public humiliation?

What a weird weird thing to do....very very unprofessional and sociopathic, she sounds as though she enjoyed doing it. Horrid. People like this amaze me as to how they get to management level...

I can't believe she had the temerity to sack someone for underperformance when she was having a coffee outside the office at 10.30am on a weekday.

Perhaps if she'd spent more time in the office supervising her employees instead of skiving off in coffee shops, she would have been able to address any issues before it got to the point that someone had to lose their job.

I'm glad you left the note and I hope it made her think.

YADNBU. I'm fucking fuming. The horrible fucking wallowing bitch. I hope she meets the same fate. What's the old saying. Be nice to those on your way up as there's a very good chance that youll meet them on your way back down. And I firmly believe that what goes around comes around. Getting off on other people's upset. She's sick. I hope HR give her a kick up the arse for chuckling. To her it's a fuckin laugh. To that poor women it could be the difference of whether she can pay her bills mortgage, fees her children. However she may not realise it now, but she's had a very lucky escape after all who'd want to work for such an arse hole.

Bip did you get a chance to find out the name of the business?

Please consider giving them a ring and telling them what you heard and how appalled you are.

The least it'll do is make them think twice about pulling such a shitty stunt again.

Tbh I want the cow to leave but these people never do, do they

Horrific. Well done on leaving the note, OP.

Last year we were sitting having lunch in the Wellcome Collection. At an adjacent table there were two men in business suits. One of them was talking very loudly and I was gobsmacked to realise that he was conducting an appraisal in such a public place. I thought of saying something but bottled out of it, and now see from this thread that this is not uncommon! What is the world coming to?

I witnessed exactly the same scenario on the train a few weeks ago. Bloke on the phone to HR , then phoned the sackee and sacked him very loudly. Then back on to HR to tell them how it went. Then phoned his mate to tell him what he'd done, how he'd finally managed to get rid of this idiot, much laughter and swearing.

I'd have spent the rest of that journey fantasising about spilling a cup of hot coffee over the sacker's crotch.

It's great you left a note OP.

I was sitting in a London Cafe last week and next to me were 3 very loud media types discussing who they were going to take on for a new role in their company. As they went through the List, they mentioned candidates' FULL names, chatted about their experience and their plus and minus points.

I didn't do anything but wished I'd left a note now too!

DH then told me about the time he was sat in a restaurant when the head of a national radio station sacked an employee, in a rather loud and obnoxious way. DH said as she got louder the restaurant got quieter and more embarrassed.

These people being sacked in public need to start complaining!

I'm not even sure she enjoyed doing it - she had the flat, deadened voice of a corporate jobsworth with no capacity for pleasure. Her little chuckles to HR were dry and joyless.

Would love to know who she worked for but alas I don't imagine I'll be able to find out without stalking Pret and waiting for more mid-morning sackings. Which isn't without a certain appeal. I could become a roaming HR vigilante.

at the phone sacking!

wow what a nasty person, i would call the company to complain tbh. That is disgusting behavior.