Sacked after ONE day! :(

[PrankedByLife]

This happened a couple of weeks ago but I still can't get over it.

After TEN years of temporary and contract work I finally got a permanent job!
£40k, permanent, 3 month probation period, in my field of expertise, directly employed with the company, no crappy agencies involved - I thought finally, after 10 years of rubbish God had finally rewarded me.

They sacked me after ONE day!!!

First he said I was over qualified and then I was too slow.

The irony of this situation is, I've never worked so hard in my first day in any job. I was hands on, got a lot done.

I emailed the owner of the business who actually hired me to let him know that the MD had sacked me and nearly two weeks on he hasn't bothered to reply.

I can't believe they only gave me one day to prove myself!!

I have to admit the atmosphere was strange the minute I got there - no one was prepared to even say hello!

Has this happened to anyone else and did you ever find out why?

I feel like I'm meant to take the scraps of jobs forever, I'm not good enough for a proper job.

Maybe they thought someone internal was going to get your job and then they were told you had and you copped the flack for that, nothing you can do really, but it's usually very difficult to just sack someone with immediate effect that quickly, I'm assuming you were on a probationary period?

The person who recruited you wasn’t the same person as was managing you?

There you go then, your immediate boss wasn’t going to like anyone he’d not been involved in recruiting.

Hence people weren’t keen to be too friendly to you: manager wasn’t going to like you and therefore wasn’t going to look kindly on anyone too friendly with you.

Immediate boss had control-freak / office politics tendencies and no one was going to succeed if they’d not been recruited by them. It’s not about you. I’ve seen similar happen to someone in my previous workplace.

They possibly used you to clear a backlog or work on something in particular? Disgraceful treatment of you, whatever was the reason.

Third line of the OP says 3 month probation period.

OP, that sucks. It will be difficult for you to accept, I'm sure, but my sense is that you've dodged a bullet.

I have nothing to offer but sympathy op, that sounds crap. The only suggestion i have is that the MD wanted to hire someone else and was annoyed with the owner. You know the industry and can judge yourself what sort of a first day you put in so i don't think you should blame yourself.

Sounds like something happened between you getting the job and starting. I doubt it was anything you did on the day.

I think the one thing that you can be sure of, is it was nothing to do with you.
If there was an obvious (fair) reason to sack you immediately - say you’d turned up drunk - then they’d have told you that.
For it to be handled so oddly suggests some interval shit that you got caught up in.

I would advise you to carry on looking for permanent work, and do your best to drop notions of God rewarding you, or you not being good enough for a proper job. That’s not how it works.

Seems odd - as if something else is going on. How were you sacked - anything in writing? Assuming you are covered by UK employment legislation- anything that could be regarded as a protected characteristic?

This sounds really odd, a £40k job is unlikely to be about speed? Surely your first day was full of training and familiarisation with systems. I’d be interested to know what the job was, and about your ‘over-qualification’.

To be honest I suspect something else happened you’re either not saying or were oblivious too.

Sounds like something else going on totally unrelated to you.

It’s shit I know but you probably dodged a bullet.

I think they changed their mind before you got there. Hiring someone is a fairly costly process and unless you really did display gross incompetence or do something outrageous during the first day it's very unlikely that they would just fire you like that. There would usually be at least a verbal warning followed by a written warning and multiple chances to have feedback and improve performance.

I got sacked after about a month on a job. I had done nothing wrong, worked really hard. Turns out they basically regretted hiring for my position and had someone else in mind for it, but hadn't had those conversations. It felt really shitty, and of course everyone assumes that when you're fired you must be at fault. However it made me so resilient and I'm glad I got out of such a toxic place. I really hope you find something else soon, don't let it be a reflection on you xxx

*too = to

It's not you, it's them. There is no way on earth they would know if you're right for the job after 1 day. Unless you turned up 3 hours late wearing your pyjamas.

It sounds like you dodged a bullet though. Arseholes for treating you that way.

Sounds like a bullet dodged to me

No one judges an employees performance on the first day, it takes weeks or months. Unless you were pissed, this was some internal politics bullshit.

Very weird behaviour from the company

Yeah I agree with others sounds like it was decided before you even arrived .
Unless you turned up very late , drunk, swore or your outfit was completely inappropriate which I doubt then to sack you on the day is odd . Most people don't do much actual work on the first couple of days of a new job anyway after you've shown them round , introduced them to staff and shown the ropes the day is done .
After a week maybe but not a day so I doubt very much it's you .

That's awful for you OP, but I genuinely do not think it was anything you did or didn't do. To get fired on your first day can only be a few scenarios (1) you do something so bad that all hell breaks loose which you'd know about or (2) it was a recruitment cock up. Potentially someone had recruited someone else (maybe internally? maybe someone's mate?) and then you paid the price.

Please don't take it personally or let it dent your confidence - it's definitely them and not you.

@Sexnotgender

Sounds like something else going on totally unrelated to you.

It’s shit I know but you probably dodged a bullet.

Yes this is what I think. You're probably the victim of some kind of power play.

How was the recruitment process?

I suspect it’s money-related as in they don’t have it to pay you now.

There’s no way you could’ve fucked up that badly on day one, short of causing a serious industrial accident or sleeping with the bosses husband in front of her.

Let this one go - wrong job for you.

Something similar happened at a place I once worked.
In between hiring and starting the owner sold the business with most of the staff to be made redundant. As part of the deal the current owner had agreed to pay each member of staff 10 weeks pay (even if they'd only been there a short time). Some poor guy started and was let go on his first day. I'm not sure what reason was given as at the time we didn't know about the deal. Found out about 4 months later.

Sounds like they changed their mind about needing someone and sacked you because it was easier than explaining etc - maybe due to COVID etc they just couldn’t afford it after all. It’s very upsetting but I wouldn’t take it personally.

"I have to admit the atmosphere was strange the minute I got there - no one was prepared to even say hello!"

This strikes me as being that people knew.

Maybe funding was withdrawn for the role and someone was trying to cover up incmpetence.

Haven’t RTFT but I always say a company that is prepared to treat you that way isn’t a company you want to work for. So ultimately you can count yourself lucky!

I know that doesn’t reality help right now when you’re upset and your confidence has likely been dented.

I was sacked after 3 weeks, but irritatingly it was after going on a weeks training and the trainer decided I wasn't suitable for the type of work despite having worked in the area for years .

Later a friend told me the company was in financial difficulties, and has since folded.