That Time The Secret Developer Got Fired

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

I hope that you’ve never felt this. That you’ve never been fired from a position.

I know many of my readers are current programmers (software developers, coders, and software engineers are welcome here too!) and I hope you can learn from this story if you are ever in a position where you might need to fire an underperforming employee.

I think it happens more times than you might think.

What happened

Look, I’ll come clean. This is a story about the beginning of my career and at the time I worked in IT Support.

I didn’t like the role. TBH I wasn’t suited to opening laptops as even to this day I keep accidentally stripping screws (don’t ask me how, I don’t know).

They didn’t like me. You’d describe me as arrogant, judgmental, an intellectual bully, and stubborn.

You’re wrong if you think I still display these qualities. You’re probably an idiot too.

This led to the inevitable. The rest of the team I worked with didn’t appreciate my “efforts”. Things didn’t get better during my time working there.

The Firing

Look, I’m not saying I didn’t deserve it.

It’s important but I don’t remember now the reasons that the company got rid of me. I think that they were never made clear. I know that they didn’t tell me in any sort of official capacity because they hadn’t given me any warnings or conversations about improvement.

Nothing.

Anyway, what happened is the manager took the whole team out of the room (I’m not sure how now as we worked in an open plan office, but they did) and asked to have a word with me.

He sat me down and said the following (and this is all I can remember):

“We’re a close team here” 

So I guess said something about me not fitting in.

They must have told me I needed to go and get my things. I remember they wrapped up the conversation by telling me:

“Now I need to do some work to bring the team together.”

As a young kid, this really surprised me. To this day it surprises me. As a young worker in the big city to be fired, and then the team during the conversation to get me out of the door came up and was much more important than the task at hand.

The Learnings

People need to be moved on from jobs all of the time. They need to be let go.

I remember being miserable in that job. Kept losing screws from IBM thinkpads.

I do feel that everybody deserves respect. That means I think that everybody who works a job deserves to be let know what they are doing well and what they need to improve and be helped to do so. 

Imagine a world where you could be helped to work, helped to improve, and perhaps even helped to decide that your future lies elsewhere.

Wouldn’t that be better for everyone?

I certainly wouldn’t feel the same animosity toward that particular company all these years later. Horrible people that they are.

Conclusion

What happened to me?

Don’t worry. I used the money they laid me off with to buy a car.