Being terminated from your job is an awful experience, but what if you found out a week later that you were tricked into believing you were fired? An employee at a company in Oregon met this bizarre fate when their manager informed them that they had been fired after getting into a fight with a coworker. A week later, the employee’s direct supervisor contacted them, asking why they were absent from work. After explaining the situation, the supervisor said that the other manager doesn’t have the power to fire them.
The bad news doesn’t end there. The employee’s direct supervisor informed them that they were in breach of contract for not showing up for work for a week. Now, according to the legal team, this worker owes the company $300. Before concluding, the direct supervisor told the now former employee, “As this is a legal issue now, all our contacts must go through our legal department. Please don’t come in, as that would be trespassing.” What a wild and unreasonable way to be terminated. First, you’re manipulated into thinking you’ve lost your job, only to be told later that you weren’t supposed to be fired, followed by a legal fine.
Confused about how they should proceed, the former employee posted their situation on Reddit for advice. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like they’re in much luck, according to the top-upvoted comment. “It is not your duty to determine if they acted out of line,” the Redditor states. Still, they suggest that they should “present that to the legal team,” covering everything that happened to explain why they won’t be paying the $300 reimbursement. Others express their confusion as to why OP didn’t bother contacting their direct manager after being told they lost their job.
Technically, they could get a lawyer involved to sue and take legal action against the company that falsely fired them before proceeding to actually fire them. However, several Reddit users believe $300 isn’t worth fighting over. Hopefully, this story is a good lesson to OP and anyone to always double-check with the highest of higher-ups to make sure you’re not getting tricked when told you’re fired.
