What's It Like To Be Fired?

In the startup, tech community, if you get fired, you become a persona non grata. That means all the social circles I had booted me out.

The article says this happened "many years ago." I can't imagine the part above applying any longer with the different ways in which people socialize in the tech industry even in just the last few years.

Even folks who've done pretty shady things, are potty mouthed psychopaths, or who have caused significant scandal aren't getting totally ejected from "the community" (partly because there isn't just one tech community, but still).

> "My boss the previous week had told me what a great coder I was" > "You cannot use the employer who fired you as a reference."

Why couldn't he use his boss as a reference?

> "if you get fired, you become a persona non grata."

I find this hard to believe. How would people even find out about it? And is there no one in "the tech community?" (as if there's only one) who knows that people are human and make mistakes? Surely he would have friends in the community who would see the whole picture.

> "I know there’s no techie blacklist but the only 2 jobs I could find were as a spam engineer or in a totally different industry."

Again, I find this difficult to believe. If he was really a great coder, and came clean with his mistakes, possibly presenting a plan for why he wouldn't make them again, I don't see any reason an employer wouldn't take a risk on him, provided he's got chops.

It seems like most of what this article says would only be true if you were fired very prominently from a high-profile role, or if you had an egregious lapse in judgment that lead to serious problems at your company.

It was my word against his and company's revenues were down significantly. They put me on non-paid leave and a week later when they "investigated" the matter, they fired me, but by then I had new a job with a much better company.

It was a blessing. I learned more at this new place and earned more too. It was later acquired by Adobe (mental stagnation).

Getting fired NEVER lead to me being outcasted from the local tech community. It instead improved my life.

I suspect the same can be true for some startup failures... maybe in my next adventure I will find out.

I mean, look, the first time I had to throw out my sketches in the dumpster because I thought they sucked it was a painful experience. But after a while I grew detached to the sketch, which allowed me to concentrate on my vision more than the actual piece of paper.

In the latter case, it is often very hard, time consuming, painful and costly to fire someone. However comfortable this may seem to from an employee perspective, if an employer decides to fire you they must really, really badly want to get rid of you. And that can seriously damage your reputation.

The result is that instead of firing people, both parties usually make a deal: the employee leaves "voluntarily" and gets a big fat final paycheck. Technically no firing has taken place and the whole process is way less confrontational. Employers will gladly give you a reference and keep quiet about why you were let go in exchange for a smooth exit.

You'll be hard pressed to find someone in the tech industry in Europe who has ever been fired.

Sounds like an unhealthy work environment. Management was pointing fingers at other management? Lame. Getting fired should never be a surprise.

She was fired from a startup and received a severance? Does that ever happen these days?

Remember that a severance offer is a starting point. If the only thing you want to add in negotiation is something that doesn't cost the company money-- good reference and a revision of the record to say you left voluntarily-- they'll usually give it, unless you did something illegal and they're afraid to give you a good referral for liability reasons.

Getting fired is something that happens to a lot of good people... for all kinds of bizarre and stupid reasons. I wouldn't mention it, as a general policy, but I really doubt that he couldn't find a job because he was fired. He probably became insecure and that did him in. He probably was also too loose-lipped about his feelings toward the previous employer, which is even more damaging because even if a past employer is terrible, one shouldn't let it on in an interview.

"Persona non grata" in the tech community after a job goes bad... that's just bizarre. In my experience, people familiar with startups are the most forgiving of jobs that went bad or ended suddenly, for the obvious reason that a lot of startups fail.

Is this story just exaggerated or is it really this bad? I've never personally been fired but having job opportunities being so severely limited due to being fired once seems like an impossibility in Australia.

I'd say that if you got fired over here you'd even quite likely be able to use the employer as a reference (unless you did something totally horrible)

To say it is a messed up situation is an understatement.

As for the reference I assume you would ask a person first if you are able to use them as a reference prior to listing them as a reference. So if your manager fires you for reason xyz, I doubt you'd want to use them as a reference