The Last 24 hours... WOW

[Shawn7656]

So I woke up early today at 1pm (I'm on a nightshift schedule, going to bed usually around 8am) for a total of 4 hours of sleep to go shoot my first paying photography job. I let the guy choose what he wanted to pay me as I was honest and told him it was my first time shooting for pay. After shooting for around 30-40 minutes he decided he'd pay me $40. I think it's a pretty good price seeing as he only wants like 5-10 pictures out of what I shot.

But here's where the fun begins, and I guess never stops... First things first, I get home and edit the pictures because he said he'd love to be able to get his hands on them tonight. I sent them to him via email attachments and he didn't get the email! Not only that but Sprint was having problems last night and when he was calling me to let me know, I didn't get the calls! Only about 20 minutes later did my phone show I had two voicemails, but it wouldn't make calls. When I finally got him on the phone I told him the situation and that I'd resend the pics. When I went to log in to my email again it had locked me out, and I couldn't reset the password. The "reset password link" I had sent to my secondary email just linked me to the Gmail login page, that asked me for my password. Anyways, I emailed it to him through my Yahoo account, then again as a .zip file and told him if he still doesn't get it I'll burn the photos to disc for him for free and he said it was all good. To continue things I have work. So I get to work, have 3 isles assigned to me (three isles that had a LOT of stuff to do) so I bust my ass stocking the shelves until 2 hours before the end of the day. It's our last break and I had finished my isles about 40 minutes ago. My boss calls me in for my 3 month evaluation and decides he's firing me! I've had no verbal warnings, no one had told me I needed to improve anywhere, and I always went out of my way to help anyone with everything I could. Apparently they've decided to keep people who always call in and show up late, and to keep those that they HAVE given warnings to, but not me. So now I'm out my email account (which is how I log on to Flickr, Youtube, G+, and of course my email), I'm out my job, and my plans for Christmas and my new camera are on a (hopefully short) hiatus.

What a crazy day... At least I got some good pics though. Attached are three samples

[NathanFranke]

Sorry about getting fired. It happened to me too, exactly 11 months ago, in exactly the same way. And everything else too--that really sucks. You'll bounce back, it just might take some time.

[JFSanders]

Man that really stinks! The upshot is that you will probably get a better job and you have more time to make pictures.

Jim

[Biomech]

Crazy stuff. Can they do that over there? Just fire you on the spot? Over here you have to have verbal warnings, written warnings then a firing, (unless it's gross misconduct).

I reckon you'll end up with something better though

[JFSanders]

Biomech, most companies hire on a 90 day trial basis. What this means is that you sign on with the understanding that you will have a make or break review at 90 days. Within the 90 day period you can be let go for basically any reason. So the company hires and then makes notes (most times these are mental notes so that there is no paper trail) on you and your work. Usually the direct supervisor tells the mid level manager who is liked and disliked. I suspect that his direct supervisor is friends with the slackers and him being out of the group is what caused his dismissal. Not cool but the mid level manager is most likely a friend of said direct supervisor as this is how retail usually works. Slackers will protect their own based on the reciprocity agreement that goes unsaid and is definitely not company policy. But higher management rarely gets to the floor in most retail outlets and only reacts when there is a fire to put out. This will continue at this location until the bottom line is effected and the bean counters set the dogs upon said mid level manager or supervisor is caught doing something out of line.

Jim

[metallion58]

Man, when it rains...
But i believe everything happens for a reason. Sure happened that way to me anyway. Something better is coming your way for sure.

[veritasimagery]

Originally Posted by Biomech

Crazy stuff. Can they do that over there? Just fire you on the spot? Over here you have to have verbal warnings, written warnings then a firing, (unless it's gross misconduct).

Yes, especially when it comes to blue-collar work, as it appears to be the case here. When you work retail, like it seems the OP did (with the stocking shelves part), there is no contract signed so they can fire as they desire. There really is no recourse.

[NathanFranke]

Everything does happen for a reason, so +1 on that.

For non-Americans, we in the States have what's called "right-to-work" states. It's unintuitively named, but what it means is that either party, employee or employer can terminate the employment, for any or no reason, with no notice. Non right to work states are all Union-run, so if you're in the union you can basically sleep late, have your friend punch the time clock for you, and work or not work with no consequences.

It seems screwed up, but in right to work states, the system is self correcting. Crappy, quick to fire employers soon go out of business because no one will work there, and good employers retain good employees.

[mosgood]

Man, that is a sucky day. Sorry Shawn. I do hope things turn around for you. Something better is sure to come along. Lost my job earlier this year too...still no luck finding anything. My boss decided he'd rather keep his young drinking buddy who looked at pics of naked girls, & would rather play with his phone than do any actual work. Go figure! Must be nice to be paid to play.

[MindyRaeL]

Originally Posted by NathanFranke

Everything does happen for a reason, so +1 on that.

For non-Americans, we in the States have what's called "right-to-work" states. It's unintuitively named, but what it means is that either party, employee or employer can terminate the employment, for any or no reason, with no notice. Non right to work states are all Union-run, so if you're in the union you can basically sleep late, have your friend punch the time clock for you, and work or not work with no consequences.

It seems screwed up, but in right to work states, the system is self correcting. Crappy, quick to fire employers soon go out of business because no one will work there, and good employers retain good employees.

In my understanding, the Right-to-Work law simply prohibits union's from using their strength to close down the business. It's a law based on agreement between the business itself and the union as a whole, not the individuals that comprise the union. And this law has only been adopted by 22 states. Union's still exist in right-to-work states, but they have severely limited power.

On an individual level, there is the Employment-at-Will statute. All states have some form of this statute, with the exception of Montana where an employer is required to give good cause for dismissal. Basically, this statute says the any employee may be hired or fired for any reason without any required notice. The only 2 exceptions are that the employee cannot be fired on grounds that would be discriminatory, i.e.- sex, race, religion, etc. or if there is a written and signed contract between both the employer and the employee. The statute is enforced to widely varying degrees among states, but basically, if you work in the US you can be fired at any time for any reason. But, you can also quit at any time for any reason. It goes both ways.