I've had my entire department let go (twice), worked for a company that's gone out of business, and had my contract not renewed, and quit several jobs
The only time I was actually sacked I was working for this shitty low-grade gold mine in the middle of nowhere. The owners seemed to have only hired relatives, so I was the odd one out. It started with me putting this fieldie on night-shift. She was the engineer's daughter, and fucked up by sending a pile of ore to the waste heaps. They told me I shouldn't have put her on nights as she wasn't up to it, and my response was "why have we hired her if she's incompetent?", which didn't go down well. My boss, the chief geo, was an aggressive little shit prone to screaming abuse, and had some sort of personal issue I never got to the bottom of. I only had two competent fieldies, both ex-geos (it was a tough time in the industry).
I desperately needed another, and hired one. However when he was due to fly out to the mine, he complained he had an ear infection. My boss told him he better get on the plane if he wanted the fucking job. He did and his eardrum burst. My boss lost the plot with one of my remaining competent fieldies when he arrived 10 minutes late one morning, calling him a motherfucker and a cunt, all very professional. My fieldie quit on the spot, saying he didn't have to take this abuse.
Anyway, I asked for a meeting with my boss and said that I cant do days and nights with only one competent fieldie. He said he didn't have to explain himself to me. The next day I get called in to a meeting and told my services were no longer required. A bit stunned at being fired, I said as far as I was concerned I'd done everything required and expected to be paid out to the end of my contract, about 6 more months. They immediately agreed. I was planning to leave at end anyway so this was the best outcome I could have hoped for, and my gobsmackedness slowly turned to joy, though it still rubs a bit, the fuckers. That night before I flew out I got massively stoned with the metallurgist, there turned to be quite a group who regularly smoked that I only discovered on my last night, who proceeded to tell me some sad tale that he was going out with prostitute and it was tearing him up inside, and I gave him what advice I could to try and make him feel better about his patently horrible judgement. This much I remember.
( cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Thu 29 May 2014, 22:45, Reply)