FIRED! Now my friends from work won't talk to me! (member, retired)

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by Tonyafd

Is your direct supervisor willing to give you a good reference?
Don't say that you got into a fight with the boss. Just say it was office politics.

Never, ever, ever say that in an interview. Whenever someone attributes getting fired or getting passed over to 'office politics,' I consider it a euphemism for any number of the following attributes:

- Bad people skills
- Failure to properly represent the company
- Poor presenter in meetings
- Inability to grasp the company's strategy
- Failure to grow professionally
- Said the wrong thing to the wrong person
- Crappy attitude
- Actually playing politics on the job, which means gossip, turf battles, and getting in the way of getting things done

Weird, but I've never actually encountered anyone who has ever actually done their job well, always tried to improve or learn new things, always was reliable, always kept the company's bottom line in mind, and supported their boss who was ever canned for "office politics."

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

Never, ever, ever say that in an interview. Whenever someone attributes getting fired or getting passed over to 'office politics,' I consider it a euphemism for any number of the following attributes:

- Bad people skills
- Failure to properly represent the company
- Poor presenter in meetings
- Inability to grasp the company's strategy
- Failure to grow professionally
- Said the wrong thing to the wrong person
- Crappy attitude
- Actually playing politics on the job, which means gossip, turf battles, and getting in the way of getting things done

Weird, but I've never actually encountered anyone who has ever actually done their job well, always tried to improve or learn new things, always was reliable, always kept the company's bottom line in mind, and supported their boss who was ever canned for "office politics."

I wouldn't assume that. There are bad bosses/supervisors who play favorites, or who are intimidated or annoyed by employees who turn out to be more productive than the boss is (with some bosses, it doesn't take much), and so on. There are people in a position of authority who aren't qualified to be there. One can encounter all kinds of situations in the work world. Maybe the OP grasped the company's strategy and supported it all too well, felt his boss was undermining it (could have been anything: incompetence, corruption, ego-mania of some sort, laziness, whatever), and spoke up. We don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding his having a blow-up with his boss.

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I wouldn't assume that. There are bad bosses/supervisors who play favorites, or who are intimidated or annoyed by employees who turn out to be more productive than the boss is (with some bosses, it doesn't take much), and so on. There are people in a position of authority who aren't qualified to be there. One can encounter all kinds of situations in the work world. Maybe the OP grasped the company's strategy and supported it all too well, felt his boss was undermining it (could have been anything: incompetence, corruption, ego-mania of some sort, laziness, whatever), and spoke up. We don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding his having a blow-up with his boss.

All true. But there are lot better ways to express that. A simple, "There was a change in management and direction, and I was no longer a good fit with that company" would work wonders. But simply ascribing your termination to office politics means a) you played office politics yourself, b) you weren't very good at it, and c) you weren't good enough at your job to rise above it.

As far as the highlighted text is concerned, ANY blowup with the boss is a bad idea.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I wouldn't assume that. There are bad bosses/supervisors who play favorites, or who are intimidated or annoyed by employees who turn out to be more productive than the boss is (with some bosses, it doesn't take much), and so on. There are people in a position of authority who aren't qualified to be there. One can encounter all kinds of situations in the work world. Maybe the OP grasped the company's strategy and supported it all too well, felt his boss was undermining it (could have been anything: incompetence, corruption, ego-mania of some sort, laziness, whatever), and spoke up. We don't know anything about the circumstances surrounding his having a blow-up with his boss.

I was caught up in a "layoff of one person" about 10 years ago. My job title at that company was "Chief Architect". My name was on the patent of the flagship product. I'd spent 6+ years working long hours to make the company successful. We had 30% market share of the North American market in our space as a tech startup. The guy I'd been doing my startup companies with had a spat with the venture capitalists and got fired. They replaced him with a moron. The moron hired a Chief Technical Officer who was even more of a empty suit moron. These dolts took a company that should have made me millions and ran it into the ground. The CTO presented a totally stupid "plan" for future product development that was the plan at the huge company he used to work for. My response in a public meeting was "If we do that, we're out of business in 2 or 3 years". A couple of months later, I'm laid off. 3 years later, the company was sold for chump change. The venture capitalists lost big money and all the employee stockholders didn't get a dime.

I certainly keep in touch with the "A" players from the team. I'm off doing other things now since the Boston tech startup business for the kinds of things I do dried up and blew away. They all know the score and why I was booted out the door. A Manufacturing/Ops VP friend of mine was fired a few months later for speaking his mind. When you have weak leadership, that kind of thing happens. The morons who killed the company couldn't get hired to be dog catcher after that debacle. I look on LinkedIn occasionally and their title is "experienced executive". I'm crying crocodile tears.

[Mnseca]

Work friends are not real friends. Everyone should know that. And if you caused trouble and got yourself fired, they definitely aren't going to continue to keep in touch with you.

[Crashj007]

It's two things:
1. The smell of death surrounds you.
2. Work fiends are just work friends.
"Move on, nothing to see here."

[Vectoris]

It doesn't have to do with the circumstances of why you left. It's pretty simple. When one person leaves a group, there is far more impact on that one person, than there is on the entire remaining group. You're just not missed by them as much as you miss them.

[NewYorker11356]

Originally Posted by Mnseca

Work friends are not real friends. Everyone should know that. And if you caused trouble and got yourself fired, they definitely aren't going to continue to keep in touch with you.

Work friends CAN be real friends. In this case, however, they definitely weren't real friends to the OP. Just convenient work friends.

[lottamoxie]

The original poster and message was 3 yrs ago in 2014, so I think s/he's likely found new people to befriend since then and that job is in the rearview mirror.

[Xpat]

Its moments like these that we learn who our real friends are - and these are not your real friends.

Sadly, most people at work are only friendly with you so long as you are useful to them. Come to think of it, its not just work friends who are like that.