
Ask HN: So your manager fires one of your coworkers no word why, What do you do? - penguinlinux
Today, one of my coworkers got fired, great developer and the company just fired him today.  I hate when this happens and management doesn&#x27;t share why they let go the person, but I work for a startup and this makes me worried that they can pull the rug under my feet.    The developer that got fired was a key developer in many pieces of our stack and maybe he made a mistake recently but I can&#x27;t see why someone would get fired just like that.   We all make mistakes or life gets in the way a good manager talks to you before they just fire you.  Companies can be so cruel :(
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rprospero
Probably not what happened here, but it reminds me of a medium-sized business
owner I once encountered. A few years before I met him, he had fired one of
his IT staff. The firing quickly became a debacle, as the recently fired
employee had been performing herculean feats to keep the company's
infrastructure running. The business owner ultimately needed to hire four new
employees at more that the original fellow's rate to get everything back under
control again.

The owner vowed that he'd never let something like this happen again. Of
course, he decided that this wasn't his fault. After all, if the employee had
gotten sick or was hit by a bus, he'd be in the same situation. Instead, the
problem was that the business had a single point of failure. Too much business
knowledge was only available in a single place.

His solution was an early form of Netflix Chaos Monkey, but applied to HR. A
couple of times a year, he'd fire an employee at random. The plan was to
ensure that knowledge was in the company, not in people. You didn't get used
to asking Bill from Accounting how to file your expense forms, since Bill
could disappear at any time. Instead, you insisted that Bill (or whoever was
currently in accounting) create easily accessible documentation for the
expense forms. Then, when Bill disappeared, everything was documented and the
business continued smoothly.

From what I've heard, the owner may now be in minimum security prison for
shady financials at the company, so there could have been another reason to
encourage people not to stay too long.

Edit: Fixed stupid homophone

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MattBearman
I'm intrigued, can you just be fired like that in the US? In England it's
really hard to just fire someone without a valid reason (gross negligence,
etc).

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shiftpgdn
Yes. As an anecdotal at a startup I worked at years ago the founders best
friend who had become COO would bring women up to the office after hours and
fire call center employees at random to show off "his power in the company."
Another time the company was having a hard time paying the bills so they fired
quite literally half the staff seemingly at random and then delayed their
final paychecks.

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wikwocket
Ask a manager or higher-up in private if you can discuss the firing. Even if
they have a policy of not discussing why someone is let go, you can certainly
voice your concerns you have about your own job security, how your coworker's
departure will affect your workload and the company's bottom line, etc.

Points you may want to seek clarity on:

\- Was the fired coworker given advance notice?

\- Was he given a chance to change things to avoid the firing?

\- Was this decision due to technical reasons or a "culture clash"? (You may
not get an answer here)

\- Was he offered a severance package, or at least paid for his last 2 weeks
and unused vacation time?

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penguinlinux
Thanks for the advice. I will bring these question this friday and will ask my
boss to get together and just explain that I am worried that the same thing
can happen to anyone including me.

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digitalzombie
I got layoff and I left professionally. If you want to know why you can also
ask him. I also contact everybody saying that it was nice working with them
and I'd like to keep in contact professionally.

In all honesty, I knew the project was going to shit. It was dead from the get
go. So I started to learn as much as I can from my peers and waited until they
finally fire me. It was a great opportunity to learn and pad up my resume
anyway.

If you're that worry you can start apply for other places. You don't have to
accept the offer you can just practice your interview skills.

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CyberFonic
Track down your coworker and go out for a couple of drinks and a debrief.

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soboleiv
Move on. Interview people around. Keep in touch with the person if I'm
interested.

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AnimalMuppet
There can be reasons where the termination was "for cause". In those cases,
you may not be able to get the straight story from the manager for legal
reasons. You also may well not get the straight story from the former
coworker.

Or, the boss could just be a psychopath who likes firing people for no reason.
The boss and coworker may say the very same things they said in the "for
cause" scenario.

Bottom line: You may not be able to get a straight answer from anyone. If you
do, you may not be able to tell that it was a straight answer.

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fsk
At my current job, the boss fired a coworker I got along very well with. After
that, the environment deteriorated and it's obviously time to move on.

If they fired someone and you think it's unfair and they wouldn't explain it
to you, then it's time for you to move on.

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usablebytes
Most probably they had a very valid reason. Why don't you first try to talk to
your coworker who got fired? And there is no harm in talking to your manager
as well about it; just act neutral, though.

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penguinlinux
I did ask my manager but he couldn't give me a concrete reason as far as my
coworker I don't want to reach out to him right away because I know he is
probably feeling very hurt and know he probably needs a little time to process
what just happened.

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soboleiv
You can't know for sure about feelings of other people. I'd love to be fired -
there's so much fun stuff around:) So I'd count not talking as your excuse,
not his.

If he can't give you a reason, he can give you a reason why he can't give you
a reason ;)

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glimcat
If you ever get to the point where you'd legitimately love to be fired, quit.

It's scary, but often worth it.

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soboleiv
Yeah, I'm quitting just now, but never connected those two thoughts together -
thanks! :)

