I worked for a (shitty) company, first of all. I knew it was shitty going in, but it was just a paycheck. Accordingly, I shoulder some of the blame for taking the job in the first place. My field is an extremely competitive one—aka, it’s a role that a lot of companies try to cut corners with by hiring people with only tangential (or no) experience, training, or education. After all, it would be more expensive to hire differently.
Nonetheless, the title says it all. Before I even began working for them, I let them know I would be getting married several months down the line (6+) and would not be available to work for the two weeks after the wedding. This was supposedly fine.
Fast forward to those two weeks.
To their credit, they did leave me alone for the first week. However, after the first week, I received an email invite to a conference call. I was told it was mandatory for all of those in my role (roughly four of us on my team). I made a quick reply indicating that I was still on my approved PTO for my honeymoon and would not be attending. I would be happy to view a summary of the notes or even to view the entire recorded call as soon as I was back from PTO. Then I went on with my day.
The next day, I received another call invite. This time it was scheduled with a person I did not recognize. And only for 15 minutes. I’m not an idiot, so I suspected what that call might be. I reached out to my Project Manager to confirm that the call was intended for me. It was. I responded to the original invite by reminding them that I was on PTO for my honeymoon and would be unable to attend. They quickly replied by telling me that I would be subject to termination if I did not attend. I then informed them that I had a feeling I was subject to termination either way. I went on with my day.
That night when we returned to the hotel, I found that my email access was locked. I had an email in my personal email notifying me of the termination for “insubordination and failure to complete mandatory training.””
In short, fuck them. It was a huge wake up call to get out of that industry.