It was at a restaurant.
I have 8 years experience — never been fired from a single restaurant job before while seeing people who genuinely sucked ass at their job come and go constantly. Always have been praised by management and such for going the extra mile, doing consistent quality work, coming in clutch, and so on.
Just got hired at a taco place last week, and I'm 100% sure I got let go just because one of the owners was very cold and not-personable toward me and decided that it was a problem that I caused.
Every time I came into work, I'd say, “hello, how are you?” and all the regular normal stuff, and she would clearly be disinterested in talking to me and end the convo with just, “fine” every time. When someone just pulls a conversation-ender like that, it gives the impression they're not an approachable person, so I concluded, “okay, she just needs time to warm up to new people.”
I worked a stage, the other owner (who actually was a really nice dude), constantly told me about how well I was doing during the stage, as well as every single day of my first work week.
He offered me the job, told me he was already thinking he'd give me a raise, a management position, and the option to take on more hours and make more cash in the future after being there for a few months. For the first week of work, every single day he told me I was killing it.
Working in a restaurant sucks ass, but I always make sure that I occupy myself with something because being occupied beats just fucking standing there waiting for work to end, so I'd always be down to wash dishes (not even in my job description), and would always be like, “what else can I do?” every time I became unoccupied. Never got a single negative comment on my work from the guy.
He texted me this morning saying I was let go and also said, “no need to respond to this text.”
So I immediately called him.
I asked him why, and the first thing he said was that when I came in yesterday, I seemed like I “didn't want to work,” which I guess meant that it seemed like I was in a bad mood. Whether or not I “didn't seem like I wanted to work,” I worked. I worked just as hard as every day prior. All of the prep and dishes were done within my first two hours of my shift.
Now, I didn't show up fucking skipping and whistling, but I crushed the job just like the week before.
I said, “so… you're firing me because of one time my attitude was imperfect?”
And then he said, “no, you didn't do a good job. We want someone who wants to work.”
I asked for examples of bad performance. I asked if there was something wrong with my prep, if there was something wrong with my performance while cooking on the line. I asked him, “you said I was killing it. What changed?”
And he had nothing. He couldn't cite a single example of bad performance.
Every time I asked him what was wrong with my work, he would say my attitude was the problem.
Every time I asked him what was wrong with my attitude, all he would say was my attitude wasn't great when I came in yesterday.
Every time he said that, I'd ask him if he was seriously firing me for a single time my attitude was suboptimal, and then he would go back to “your work wasn't good.”
Constantly switching between two positions for like a 5-minute phone conversation without ever giving any real explanation for either.
He eventually said, “in the handbook, it says employees start out in a probationary period, and we're not obligated to give warning or explanation for termination” and then he just hung up.
So, what else am I to conclude but that he's full of shit and was too chicken to tell me the real reason?
Didn't mention this previously in the post, but they're a couple. They live together, have a baby on the way, and are co-owners of the restaurant. I mention that because clearly one of them feeling negatively toward an employee would undoubtedly influence the feelings of the other.
So yeah, tl;dr: Killed it at a new restaurant job like I always have, completely sure I got fired because one of my bosses isn't personable and was judgmental toward me without putting in any effort to getting to know me. Other boss caved let her make the decision for the both of them and was unable to defend any reasoning he gave for letting me go.
Dude was friendly but a total fucking coward.