Current Events > When your employee fires himself

(+) Yeah! (+)

LincolnDuncan posted...

I'm shocked, shocked! Well not that shocked, at the (M) attached to the creator of a topic like this. Also, Mods shouldn't be allowed to use alts.

He gave enough context that I feel comfortable not blaming him for the outcome, despite knowing the mods here have massive bias.

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Compsognathus posted...

It's online retail for the most part, which I will never work in ever again, because the always on mindset of retail, particularly online retail, bleeds into all aspects of the business and rots out concepts of work-life-balance. Right now I do everything I can to keep my team from working weekends even if it means I have to. Unfortunately this is my first controller roll since leaving public accounting so I can't bow out early and blame a toxic workplace.

Controlling is a pretty sweet gig. Hang in there a couple of years and bolt to another company with a higher salary. You have a bright future if you can swing it for a while.

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Compsognathus posted...

Radio-fucking-active. I am genuinely miserable most days but I won't quit yet because I don't want a short stay on my resume.

When my CEO called me yesterday, my roommate was like "maybe he is firing you" and said "if I should only be so lucky".

this points to a bigger issue in modern corporate culture, like I was saying, they treat their own employees as the enemy. They do shit like emailing or calling people on saturday night, they demand a pound of flesh for zero loyalty or consideration.


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How do people fuck up being an accountant? Literally the easiest office job in the world.

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this is why I don't respond to work-related stuff except during work hours.

sorry but I work 8 to 4. want to talk to me? talk to me between 8 and 4. besides that? see ya wouldn't want to be ya.

Veggeta X posted...

How do people fuck up being an accountant? Literally the easiest office job in the world.

I've said this since I started working always saying you have to try to get fired if you really wanted to. Then I met a few people...people just suck dude.

And when I saw the screenshot I was thinking of that person they fired at my job that got 100 chances.

Lastly, the way you should have handled is just ask him when he logs in if he has a chance to chat. Why even text him

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this topic still going. lmao nice one TC got CE really riled up here.

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ConfessPlease posted...

I've said this since I started working always saying you have to try to get fired if you really wanted to. Then I met a few people...people just suck dude.

baw gawd, this reminds me of a coworker that we had for a while. idk how, but she managed to pass the BAR exam in both NJ and MI, and was also working towards her CPA. So we all thought she would be smart. She was the worst employee I have ever worked with. Simple accounting issues were impossible to solve for her. Explaining to her how to fix issues were impossible. You had to show her EVERYTHING, and then she would still fuck it up! I had clients books perfected over years and she takes over and it all falls apart in one year where none of the balances are reconciling and transactions posted all over the general ledger all willy nilly

it made no sense how she got this far even in life.

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Compsognathus posted...

I mean it literally wasn't my decision to make. They rejected my plan to fire him on Friday.

Honestly I'm not surprised. Believe me I don't like that I have to fire him and I don't like the logistics behind it. If I was given complete control of the situation he would have been let go in a face to face meeting on a Friday. Not first thing Monday morning. Unfortunately that timeline wasn't up to me.

Then what exactly was your goal/intention with this? Shame a stranger on a dying website? Flex on everyone what horrible communication skills you have as a boss? Trap users into insulting you so you can mod them?

The fuck is wrong with you? That employee is better off 100%. Who TF messages an employee on a Sunday to let them know they're being fired Monday? Former HR director here, *I* would have fired *you* for that shit. You trying to have someone come in and make a scene/shoot up the place? Because if you are, that's a stellar way to put someone down that road

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PoundGarden posted...

Then what exactly was your goal/intention with this? Shame a stranger on a dying website? Flex on everyone what horrible communication skills you have as a boss? Trap users into insulting you so you can mod them?

The fuck is wrong with you? That employee is better off 100%. Who TF messages an employee on a Sunday to let them know they're being fired Monday? Former HR director here, *I* would have fired *you* for that shit. You trying to have someone come in and make a scene/shoot up the place? Because if you are, that's a stellar way to put someone down that road

lmaooo best 2020 acct by a mile

tag for later
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If I may ask, what was the rationale behind the decision to fire the employee, performance-wise?

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TheMikh posted...

If I may ask, what was the rationale behind the decision to fire the employee, performance-wise?

His work had so many mistakes and required so much review that it actually created more work for other employees than it did save time. Our AR manager, would literally have to review all of his payment applications every single day because he would regularly misapply payments against invoices. He would also not deposit checks on a regular basis and not tell others causing our AR team to provide inaccurate statements to customers. He would reguarly cut checks to customers that were not approved by management. When he made electronic payments, he would forget to clear them in the ERP system so the invoices weren't shown as paid. Which would lead to them potentially getting paid again the next week. This came to ahead in particular when he did he made a large ACH the week before, did not mark the invoices as paid, selected them all for payment again the next week and despite I pointed out on my review of the AP aging that it wasn't correct and he needed to update it for what was paid the prior week. He didn't do this and submitted it to the CEO for approval, and the CEO pointed out the same thing I did. And he still ended up paying $28k of already paid invoices.

It was just like that with everything he did. Minimal attention to detail and failures to correct follow direction.

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Gheb posted...

His work had so many mistakes and required so much review that it actually created more work for other employees than it did save time. Our AR manager, would literally have to review all of his payment applications every single day because he would regularly misapply payments against invoices. He would also not deposit checks on a regular basis and not tell others causing our AR team to provide inaccurate statements to customers. He would reguarly cut checks to customers that were not approved by management. When he made electronic payments, he would forget to clear them in the ERP system so the invoices weren't shown as paid. Which would lead to them potentially getting paid again the next week. This came to ahead in particular when he did he made a large ACH the week before, did not mark the invoices as paid, selected them all for payment again the next week and despite I pointed out on my review of the AP aging that it wasn't correct and he needed to update it for what was paid the prior week. He didn't do this and submitted it to the CEO for approval, and the CEO pointed out the same thing I did. And he still ended up paying $28k of already paid invoices.

It was just like that with everything he did. Minimal attention to detail and failures to correct follow direction.

Yikes, that is pretty solid grounds for dismissal.

Were there any automated safeguards, in business logic or otherwise, against these kinds of developments?

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TheMikh posted...

Yikes, that is pretty solid grounds for dismissal.

Were there any automated safeguards, in business logic or otherwise, against these kinds of developments?

many safeguards are the results of people, but there is no way he should have been able to fire off payments without approval. either he has the check stamp, which he shouldn't, or has unilateral ability to make payments from the bank account, which he shouldn't.

TC should reevaluate their internal controls so that these transactions that need 2 or 3 people are being done with just 1 person.

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Gheb posted...

His work had so many mistakes and required so much review that it actually created more work for other employees than it did save time. Our AR manager, would literally have to review all of his payment applications every single day because he would regularly misapply payments against invoices. He would also not deposit checks on a regular basis and not tell others causing our AR team to provide inaccurate statements to customers. He would reguarly cut checks to customers that were not approved by management. When he made electronic payments, he would forget to clear them in the ERP system so the invoices weren't shown as paid. Which would lead to them potentially getting paid again the next week. This came to ahead in particular when he did he made a large ACH the week before, did not mark the invoices as paid, selected them all for payment again the next week and despite I pointed out on my review of the AP aging that it wasn't correct and he needed to update it for what was paid the prior week. He didn't do this and submitted it to the CEO for approval, and the CEO pointed out the same thing I did. And he still ended up paying $28k of already paid invoices.

It was just like that with everything he did. Minimal attention to detail and failures to correct follow direction.

Man, he must've been amazing in his interview. He could make a career out of teaching others how to excel in duping companies to hire useless people. He just has to figure out for himself that's his calling in life.


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Gheb posted...

Okay, I'm going to provide a bit more detail to his.

First, I don't mind that people are giving me shit for this. It is in no way how I wanted to go down. I am 100% of the opinion that people should be fired as face-to-face as possible (which in this case is Teams as we both work remotely). My original plan was to terminate the individual this Friday. On Sunday I received a call from the CEO telling me that he wanted him terminated on Monday before the company huddle, which is 9:00 am. I don't make my team work during the weekends and I don't expect them to check their e-mail during the weekends. He also normally starts his day at 9:00 am so my text was simply to give him a heads up to have an earlier meeting. Which is how the text conversation came about.

I did not post it here to mock him, so much as I was surprised that how this came about. Though I can see how it reads as mocking.

The employee in question was a very nice individual. Always polite and always respectful but he just did not "get it". His work lacked any sort of self-review and he frequently ignored directions. Which resulted in the people reviewing his work to spend as much time reviewing and correcting it as it would have taken to do it themselves, which just wasn't working. The CEO wanted to fire him earlier in December, but I said no because I didn't feel right firing someone before giving them notice that they were under-performing. I had conversations with him essentially saying that he was performing below expectations and here were the areas he needed to improve. We then spent the next week going through his weekly activities together to point out areas to improve or processes he was skipping/ignoring. Following that he proceeded to turn in the exact same quality of work as he did before double paid a vendor to the tune of $28k, despite me explicitly providing him instructions that the vendor was not to be paid at all that week.

Please, ream the hell out of me for how this went down as well as the perceived mocking. It isn't how I wanted it and I do feel bad about it. My company does have some severe cultural issues, particularly regarding weekend work (hence my CEO calling me on a Sunday and telling me to do all this). I genuinely do what I can to shield my team from the brunt of it, but sometimes I get forced into no-win situations like this. I hope he is able to find a new opportunity where he can better succeed than us. He needs to work for a bigger company with a more refined processes and control environment than our company currently provides.

I won't lock this topic.

Ah ok

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Why is he getting fired?

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Oops didn't realize you were posting on two accs

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krazychao5 posted...

many safeguards are the results of people, but there is no way he should have been able to fire off payments without approval. either he has the check stamp, which he shouldn't, or has unilateral ability to make payments from the bank account, which he shouldn't.

TC should reevaluate their internal controls so that these transactions that need 2 or 3 people are being done with just 1 person.

You have no idea. We are a small company that quadrupled in size this year. Our controls are trying to catch up.

But the Director of Finance approves all wires and ACHs. She checks them against the approved payment listing. She ended up looking at the wrong approval listing (the one before the CEO comments) which allowed this to happen.

BarbaricAvatar posted...

Man, he must've been amazing in his interview. He could make a career out of teaching others how to excel in duping companies to hire useless people. He just has to figure out for himself that's his calling in life.

Low-skill accounting positions are tricky. The base-line knowledge is hard to test for since it is so basic even incompetent folks can know it. Likewise judging communication skills and attention to detail is hard in an interview. His references checked out, he had the right experience, and he seemed personable.

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ClunkerSlim posted...

@Ruvan22 Absolutely nothing. I was making an Office Space joke and everyone in this thread took it seriously. Like there's actually some unwritten rule that you're not suppose to fire people Mon through Thurs. That's ridiculous. People get fired every day of the week, all year long. This just illustrates the level of work experience in this forum. I made a joke and everyone jumped in with, "yeah! You're supposed to wait till Friday!" Even Compsognathus was like, "oh yeah, guys. I was totally going to wait till Friday, but..."

The Friday thing is a joke that shouldn't be taken seriously by anyone.

Hmm.. guess it's just my experience, I remember three or four people fired on a Friday... but I appreciate the reference!

I have heard about firing people on Friday, because then everyone gets to gossip for half a workday, but then they've basically gotten over it by Monday. Or so the legends go.

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NightRender posted...

I have heard about firing people on Friday, because then everyone gets to gossip for half a workday, but then they've basically gotten over it by Monday. Or so the legends go.

Friday firings are typically easier because they often align with payroll periods and they are logistically easier to organize from a scheduling perspective.

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