On being fired and such...

Oh, heyyyy! Did you catch that nonchalant tone in my post title?

Uhhhmmmyyyyyyyeah................ I got fired on Monday. Woopsies. 

I've never been fired before, nor did I ever imagine in a million years I would be, but it most definitely happened. I guess there really is a first time for everything!

I contemplated even writing this post, but trust me, it's not going to be a full blast of hatorade on the company I worked for (not entirely anyway). It's more of a reflection on the experience. Besides, I don't know how long I could have gone without mentioning it, seeing as I can't keep a secret to save my job life, but more on that later...

So, yeah... hmmm... where do I start?

Oh yes... the point where my friend and I shared intimate details over IM conversations at work every day during the last year and realized that all of the executives had read them.

Let me just say- we were under the understanding that these IM's could not be read since they weren't saved anywhere on the company's network. To read them would require the same effort as hacking a personal email, as confirmed by our friend in the IT department.

So, naturally, we didn't hold back :)

Everyone vents about work. Correct? If you said no, you're lying. I don't know one person on the face of this earth that doesn't complain about their boss from time to time.

Now, my friend's situation was bad. Think of your worst boss x1000 and that's what she had to deal with. So, of course some things were said, and unfortunately they were taken out context.

Then to my surprise, I find out two of my friends from work were fired last Friday. She called me right away and let me know they had read our IM's. I felt terrible for her and prepared for the worst, even though everyone kept telling me I had nothing to worry about. I half believed them, and after sweating out the weekend I shamefully went into work on Monday as my brain slowly shriveled in paranoia.

No one was looking me in the eye. Everyone was being weird. And I was shaking.

A few minutes before the end of my shift I got the, "Hey, do you have a few minutes to chat?" line from my HR manager, and tried not to shit my pants as I followed her to the CEO's office.

They asked me a series of questions, basically backing me into a corner to admit why I was so frustrated with the company.

I got to express my disappointment with them siding with an executive just because of a title instead of standing up for what was right. I also explained how I couldn't understand why they even bothered taking the time to read personal IM's and why they feel the need to micromanage so much.

They said they have to keep tabs to make sure there isn't any confidential information being leaked from internal positions, and hinted that once that happens it's "GAME OVER" (said with an impressive dramatic tone).

Then they asked me the do-or-die question of all questions...

I hesitated. I could lie to keep my job, or I could be honest and deal with the consequences.

Well, obviously I lost my job, so you can piece together my reaction. Before I continue, let me just say that I'm totally OK with the consequence, I'm not sad, and I feel a huge sense of relief not having to be in that environment anymore, however, I'm curious to hear how you would answer if this was your situation.

The question was...

"What would you do if I accidentally left a file labeled 'Executive Salaries' on your desk? Would you read it? If so, would you tell someone?"

(It's a toughie, huh? Not sure if there even was a "right answer" for this. And for the record, I didn't know any salary information, but I probably shared other information I wasn't supposed to and they were using this question as a test of my trustworthiness. Fail much?)

But hey... live and learn, right? No more IMing at work for me!

P.S. Read this the moment you start feeling sorry for me:

10 FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO FLOURISHED AFTER BEING LAID OFF

And just because I want to... :)