I am going to try and convey this entire situation as straight forward as possible. I feel pretty dead inside right now, so bare with me.
A few months ago I had quit my previous job doing landscaping. As I was searching for a new job, I was reached out by a recruiter offering a position at Amazon. It was a new site that was going to be launched and the position was for maintenance. Now I had no real maintenance experience outside of working at a steel tube mill where I had to fix a few things and problem solve in a fast paced environment. Luckily, I was told that I would be trained on everything and that this career is an opportunity for anyone. So I took a test, passed it, did your standard drug test and background check, and within a few weeks I was working at Amazon.
Now the site was not launched yet as some construction was going on, so we spent this time to go through training and learn about our job. I got to meet some fantastic people that came from different backgrounds. Some people had similar or no experience like me, while others had been in this type of field for many years. Everyone had a great attitude and I enjoyed being around most of my coworkers and vice versa.
Now the site has soft launched, roughly half of the building has launched and we can now start to learn what the actual job is like. We were working new schedules and I got an idea of who I will be working with for the foreseeable future. Again, we all got along and everyone was a team player, helping each other out through whatever obstacle. During this past week, it all came crashing down.
I came home from work, my last day for my work week. I went to bed from working hard and being tired after a 11.5 hour shift. I woke up the next morning to being signed out of our communication app and receiving texts from a coworker asking if I was okay. All of this seemed very confusing to me. I figured it was a bug in the system so I tried to sign back in. No luck. I got on my work laptop and tried to use my security key given to us. It was saying the security key was invalid. Thats not good! My coworker texted me saying that I had been removed from all of our group chats as well.
This is where my heart started to sink. Whenever someone was removed from the group chats, it meant that person was fired. I was shocked because to my understanding I had done nothing wrong. I had never been talked to by any supervisor and as far as I was aware, I was doing fine. My only idea was that I violated some sort of safety rule that I had not been aware of or forgot about, as Amazon is very strict about safety. I made many phone calls and sent text messages the entire day and could not get any response as to what was going on. Then once about 8pm came around, my boss had finally called me. Throughout the phone call he had told me I was let go and it was something out of his control. A manager that was above him and a regional manager throughout the day before had only seen me walking around with my backpack and in their eyes they never saw me working. They did not confront me and ask me if I was being productive, or if I was trying to find something to do. So I was simply let go. I told my boss that for what it was worth, I was working that day and being productive. I explained what I was doing during that day and as to why I wasnt hauling around my tool cart. My boss believes it was a big misunderstanding, however, whats done is done. Nothing can be reversed at this point. My boss said he had no issues with me and considered me to be a stand up guy. I thanked him for his time and calling me to explain the situation, and now here I am.
I feel cheated. Had management done their job and asked me a few simple questions, this would all have been resolved, and they would have known I was working. I dont know what to do. I know I am young (24) and still have plenty of time for a career, but Im trying to overcome a lot of loss in my early adult years as I was not dealt the best hand in life. I suffer from ADD and I believe I have some form of autism as well, so finding a career path has been very difficult for me. I really thought this was the chance for my life to turn around. I would no longer work in shitty environments where management was terrible and nobody worked together. But I guessed wrong. I forgot I was working for one of the biggest companies in the world and that I am just a spec of sand in the scheme of things. I forgot my place.
Im struggling to move forward from this. I know there is much more out there and that this is not the end all be all. But I cant calm my emotions right now. Im angry, sad, and disappointed. I want to give up and drown in negativity. Please do not go and harass Amazon and/or find out where I worked and harass anyone there. That is not what I want. For anyone who has gone through something similar with their career, how did you overcome this? Where did you go next in life? What helped you accept the situation? I dont want to be bitter.
Thank you all for taking time to read if you have come this far. Part of this is to vent while also asking for tips.
TLDR: Regional manager and manager above my boss thought I wasnt working, didnt bother asking me and fired my anyways.