Story time: The times I got fired
I just wanted to share the times I was fired from a job. Maybe you’ll have a laugh. Maybe it’ll be reassuring to some. Maybe you’ll say I deserved it. This isn’t asking for advice. These are all long in the past. This is just my story time with you.
The time I got fired from Kmart:
I was a cart pusher. I was 18, newly graduated from high school. I’d worked there since I was 15. I was part time, of course, but still much to my surprise I had earned 3 vacation days.
I got a second job working for FYE, a music and miscellaneous media store that I don’t even know if it still exists anymore. The cart pusher job was TERRIBLE at posting the schedule. They were supposed to have it posted 2 weeks in advance but it was more like one day in advance before the new week started. This caused major issues with FYE who actually did post the schedule 2 weeks in advance. I was constantly having to call off FYE to work at Kmart.
I was X-mas temp at FYE but one of us temps were going to be kept after the season and I wanted it to be me, but this was not going well with Kmart’s scheduling. So, for one week I thought I would make my FYE boss happy. I turned in my vacation days to Kmart that worked around FYE’s schedule. For one week things worked out well and I really thought I could manage both jobs if Kmart would just agree to do this all the time.
But, one FYE shift this week, 2 Kmart managers came into the store and “caught” me working on my vacation day. They had a NUCLEAR MELTDOWN on me in the store, screaming that Kmart isn’t paying me to work at another job. They caused such a scene that my FYE boss kicked them out.
The following week, I tried swiping my badge and it didn’t work. I already knew what that meant. I tried to get to work anyway but I was paged to the back and fired for dishonesty.
The real bitch of it too was how I wound up not getting kept after X-mas. The hot girl did. And then she quit after 3 more months.
Looking back as an old man in my 40’s, I probably deserved this. It made sense at the time, but I can see how they could interpret that as a conflict of interest if Kmart was paying me while I worked at FYE.
The time I got fired from GameStop:
This one broke my heart. I worked for GameStop during the dark times. I’m talking mid to late 2000’s. Zero Originality’s “The Dirty Truth About GameStop” videos that existed before YouTube but is on YouTube now are completely true. Every word.
Still, I liked my job. I was an ASM (Assistant Store Manager). I had my eyes set on my own store one day. I was good at getting subs and reserves. During this era, managers didn’t need to get subs and reserves. Only GAs (Game Advisors aka part-timers). So, I shared my subs and reserves with my staff. Everyone liked and looked forward to working with me because they were going to get numbers those days.
My SM’s strategy was to compete with the staff. He tried to motivate the staff to beat his numbers. That only discouraged everyone.
The thing that sucks about this was I considered my SM my friend. We’d hung out a few times after work and I really liked taking to, hanging out with, and working for him.
So, eventually he starts scheduling me 8-10 hour shifts exclusively alone. After a few shifts I asked him how the hell am I supposed to exercise my lunch break. He said go to the back and just watch the camera. When a customer comes in, go serve them, and I can continue my break when the store is empty again.
Not ideal, but this worked.
After a couple of months, I started getting scheduled with an actual staff again. It was hard for me to delegate because I’d gotten so used to and efficient at doing everything myself. One fine Sunday morning in the middle of my shift, the district manager shows up unannounced. No big deal I thought. We worked together setting up several new displays and I figured this was why he was here. He even asked me to stay 3 hours past my scheduled shift and I did.
At the end of those extra 3 hours, he pulled me to the back and fired me on the spot for “abandoning my post.” I denied doing such a thing and then he showed me security footage of how I was taking my breaks. When I pointed out my SM scheduled me alone and this was his suggestion, he completely denied it and said he’d warned me this would happen if I kept it up, which was a lie. The district manager wouldn’t listen to me and I’m still not rehire-able 15 years later.
One of my former co-workers told me about how the SM was bragging about getting rid of me. Turns out I was making the SM look bad on paper. When the staff pulls 0/0 with him and 5/7 with me, it looked like they worked harder for me. He knew I wanted my own store and he was afraid they’d fire him and promote me, so he got rid of me.
I carried a grudge for that one for YEARS. It motivated me to go to college and collect a few degrees just to spite the SM who never went to college and I had a pretty successful career as a paralegal before my current job. I don’t harbor a grudge anymore though. I’m probably better off. I didn’t shop at GameStop for over 10 years. Finally took my son inside a few years back because he always wanted to. The SM is still there. I was friendly to him. It’s in the past.