Employee who was fired over flimsy reason turns tables on the manager
Mass layoffs have triggered anxiety among employees especially since social media is filled with accounts of people fired in the most bizarre manner for trivial reasons. But while employees are mostly just stuck between a toxic work culture and a lack of new jobs, there are some who are fighting back against the management. A Reddit user shared one such incident on r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit, when employees pulled the rug from underneath the company that fired them.
"Gather round as I tell you the story of the time I got fired at the worst place I have ever worked," the employee wrote on a Reddit post. The post mentioned how the user had been hired as an in-charge of speaker coordination for a company that plans large conferences. The person didn't get any guidance for settling into the position and it was an absolute nightmare from day one. "There was 0 onboarding or training. I was simply given the log-in info for a couple of different websites and told to get to work," the post read. "I was the only person in this role. The information solely resided with me."
Describing communication problems, the user wrote, "My manager's first language wasn't English. I'm all for learning new languages. I think it's a great skill to have and it takes a lot of work. The problem was that her English was so poor that it was often tough to understand what she was trying to say." The post further read, "I did my best in the position. Small mistakes happened here and there but overall all the speakers were very happy and felt well-supported. I struggled with communication with my manager but I thought the company was happy with my work."
However, the employee was fired all of a sudden without any write-ups or verbal warnings, and the reason given by the manager was that the employee took 10 minutes to respond to an email, which was considered slow. "We do the exit interview with HR and then she asks me to send over any documents I had and describe where I was at in regards to our next event and our speakers. NDAs are common in this field, I've signed one at every job I've ever worked. But this employer's NDA had a clause in it that worked to my advantage," the Reddit post added.
As per the clause, an employee was not allowed to share details or documents related to their job position with any employer from the past or in the future. "Since this firing was effective immediately, you are now a former employer and I am bound by my NDA," the employee mentioned. "The HR was in a fix and told me that I could speak to them about it, this was about their event. I pulled out my copy of the NDA and pointed out the exact clause and said that it clearly stated that if I violated this NDA I would be sued, so no, I couldn't talk to them about the position."
When the HR consulted the legal team they pointed out that the fired employee was technically correct. "They were a former employer and I was bound by my NDA. They fired me 17 days before the event. They didn't have time to start over from scratch. I still keep in contact with some of my co-workers and apparently, the event was a mess and the manager nearly lost her job because of it. Over half the speakers pulled out once communication broke down. All because 'I take too long to respond to emails," the post concluded. Though the original post by the person who got fired was deleted from Reddit, the rest of the community came together to cheer for them in the comment section.
u/hankbaumbachjr mentioned, "Even without the NDA if I were fired 'effective immediately' that means my job no longer is paying me to answer such questions so I have zero obligation to answer them." u/That1LuckyStump added, "I actually said something close to this when I was fired. They asked me where I left off with clients and prospects. I started to answer then said wait I am not helping you. Figure it out." u/Djmthrowaway joked, "Beautiful. I’m gonna have to use that one for my current contract."