How Common is It for People At Your Workplace to Get Fired?

[ccm123]

I work in the tech industry, so it's common. People are "gone" with no warning or explanation. Management is not "transparent" and won't give us a reason, other than "they left the company".

[maniac77]

It's not common at all. It takes A LOT to get fired at my job. Most people quit, so there's no need to terminate people. My co-workers have gotten into fist fights on the job, have done drugs in company-provided transportation, have shown up to work nearly fall down drunk, have gotten into verbal altercations with management in front of customers, and just in general, have terrible attitudes everyday. They're still employed because they show up enough and are productive enough. The only people who get fired at my job are the ones who aren't productive and who don't show up for like a week without telling management about it. They've essentially quit anyway, so it's not really a firing per se. If it's a productive employee, he or she pretty much can come and go as he or she pleases. I have had my job threatened several times for bad attitude/insubordination, but I've never taken it seriously because I understand that it's just power trip talk. As long as I show up and I'm somewhat productive, my job is secure because the turnover rate is so high. They're so desperate for people that they'll put up with anything.

[pvande55]

In my line of work (Engineering) layoffs are constant. Firings for cause relatively rare. Of course the field attracts more conscientious employees.

[greywar]

Software engineering group. Firings occur on occasion, some are happy occasions for us, some arent. Lets see...

A got let go, he was an older gentleman and while in the past knew his stuff, was just unable to keep up with the workload and rapidly changing technology. This one sucked for everyone because he was a great guy, and trying really hard. Even worse is....someday all of us will be him. We all knew this when he was let go.

B Got let go for blatant sexism towards our bosses bosses boss, inability to perform the work, and falsifying his reports. He will not be missed. We tried VERY hard to train him up, but that wasnt working. The falsification of hours was the tipping point.

C got let go...well no idea why.

D got let go for being crazy. No really. Passed his drug tests, but he was totally crazy and paranoid. I think he just scared people.

This is all within the last 2 years in a small 12 man team. most of us are stable employees, we're just trying to find a stable replacement. The work is extremely challenging and fast paced however, so its hard finding people that can handle the stress and rapid change.

[statisticsnerd]

I'm an accountant and our work is very tedious and detailed. It is very easy to make mistakes and if you continually make mistakes, you'll be shown the door.

It isn't a common occurrence, but I would say around once a year someone is fired. It is usually for performance issues rather than misconduct.

It's kind of eery because there isn't an announcement when someone is canned. The fired person simply leaves, his e-mail is deleted from the system, and nobody talks about it. It is as if he never worked here.

[melissapla12]

Yes, recently my boss hired a temp to help me with all my work. Well she didn’t help and spent her days chit chatting ALL DAY LONG with another coworker. I had to tell my boss she wasn’t helping me at all and she ended up getting laid off. My boss just sent everyone an email telling us she would no longer be employed here.