This happened to me (25, Female) 2 years ago and I am in a much better place now, but I would still love public thought on it because my friends and family all agree it's wild.
I was working for this small (about 130 employees) health PR agency as an HR Coordinator. It was my first “adult job” (aka corporate job) right out of college. My only former experience had only really been project management internships with nonprofits, but I still had the major and skillsets for the job. During my interviews, I made it very clear this would be my first time in an official HR role. I even asked my interviewers if they had any concerns or setbacks about hiring me and they said no. I got the job and met the team of 5 people (all women) and they seemed extremely friendly and warm. I had my suspicions about the VP of HR though – she seemed kinda catty and I took mental notes to just be cautious of her. Everyone else legitimately seemed so nice though, particularly the HR Generalist, who was close to my age and who was my first interviewer. She seemed like a potential friend – we would have lunches via Zoom together and she would text me outside of work as well.
Fast forward to about 30 days later. Things seem to be going well in my new role, but there's a lot of responsibilities and tasks and I did not get any training. Just 1-2 days of the Generalist showing me how certain things work. Nobody told me I was doing a bad job or messing anything up; in fact, I got told the OPPOSITE. I got praised by my coworkers. I asked plenty of questions as well because this was my first job and I didn't want to mess anything up. I had one question about a certain system we used and asked the HR Generalist for help. She asked me to put time on her calendar and she would meet with me via Zoom to help me out. Well, when the time came, I entered the Zoom call and it was both her and the VP of HR. I got nervous immediately. The HR Generalist welcomed me to the call with a very serious tone and then the VP of HR chimed in.
“I know you were expecting to meet with [HR Generalist name] about [system], but I am joining the call today to let you know that we're letting you go — (proceeds to list off things like final checks, benefit end dates, etc).
I was shocked. I couldn't believe my ears. I hadn't had any type of warning nor did I have any reason to suspect I was doing something that would merit me getting fired. I asked for a reason and the only one I got was “this environment is too fast paced for you”. Very vague. Throughout the whole call, neither of them would tell me why I was being let go and kept it very stoic and brief. The minute we got off the call, my work laptop immediately shut down. I didn't know what to do or what to think and I had a complete mental breakdown. I tried reaching out to the HR Generalist via text because I thought she was my “friend” but she didn't respond. No one on that team told me anything.
Currently, I have been working in the same position for about two years at an even bigger and better agency that is considered “fast paced” and haven't had any problems. I've mentioned this story to friends, family, coworkers, and everyone raises both eyebrows in shock but no one really has an explanation.
What do you all think was going on? Was the company sketchy?
(For the record, I live in Chicago and you can be let go from a job without an explanation legally if it's been 90 days and under).