Computers can make errors but humans get fired if they do?

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Well, I've finally found out the reason for the dismissal.
I unknowingly gave a customer the wrong information about a pension plan.

One mistake. That's all it takes to ruin your income. One misstep, one word said the wrong way, one source of information misinterpreted, even though your efforts to do a great job, dot every i and cross every t were genuine. But all your good intentions and all the right you did on the job don't matter one single bit.

And it didn't matter that I was a new hire and was given 2-3 weeks of training on a job that usually takes more than six weeks to train for. It didn't matter that many seasoned reps still don't know all the info and even the upper management admitted they don't know it all, either. And it didn't matter that everytime I gave out information, I documented everything that transpired in the conversation plus the sources of whatever info I gave and if I wasn't sure, I asked a manager, even if I had to turn it over to someone else. Oh no no no no!

What hurts me the most is I have never been written up, disiplined or been tardy, absent or broken company rules. I loved this job and tried my damnest to keep it hanging on by my fingernails if I had to. I asked for help when I needed it and made sure my customers were satisfied. But it didn't matter.

Then what gets me is the mistake was never brought to my attention by management nor was I told by them personally what was wrong. This made it impossible for me to tell my side of the story and clarify what happened because I couldn't face my accusers, something even criminals have a right to do. I was told by the temp service rep on Saturday, which was my day off and not Friday while I was on the premises, as if the firing wasn't enough to strip me of my dignity.

I've come to realize that my firing couldn't have been over just one mistake as any mistake of that nature can be fixed by telling me what I did wrong and how to fix it. There's no one on their payroll that still doesn't make them after years of being on the same job and in order to learn any job, mistakes will be made regardless. I take pride in my work and any transgression on my part, however unintentional, I take personally.

I've come to the scary conclusion that maybe my introverted and quiet personality makes me somehow undesirable by managers and any reason they can find to deem me incompetant, they'll use it just to get rid of me. Maybe the bullying I went through in school isn't over, after all and this is the corporate version but instead of a bruised eye...or ego, I lose my livelihood.

Which means.....I may never be gainfully employed, at least, not long enough to stay anywhere to have a modicum of financial security. To say this is discouraging wouldn't begin to describe what I'm feeling now. The rep from the temp agency worked onsite so she knew that I was very detailed and a hard worker and said as much. She's going to try finding me another assignment to work which is wonderful that she thinks so much of me. But what it the same thing happens there? Then I would've burned another bridge and really be up the proverbial creek.

I'd be suspicious, too... but it's good that there's someone in there who's going to help you out.

There's no saying it won't happen again, but there's also no saying that it will. Ride it out and continue to do your best - you never know!

Don't lose heart. There could be all kinds of reasons why they acted like they did over what sounds like a minor error.
Maybe you were doing such a great job that more established people felt threatend? It's not impossible and certainly wouldn't be your fault.

I'm quiet and apparently anti-social to others, but I've never been sacked for it yet. Not that work is always easy, but I get by.

Even if it was how you acted which caused the sacking, maybe you just need to try different types of employers? As with all things, there's good employers and bad ones and a lot of stuff in between. Try again and it might just work out better next time.

hmmm. any employer with a hiring/firing policy like that ain't worth working for anyway. You're best off out of it.

You got that right. If I had been there longer, it would've had a heavier impact on my resume. And to think I was actually considering applying for a position at this company's location in Houston. I would've relocated a thousand miles away for a job that I could've lost in an instant.

I haven't had that happen yet, knock on wood, but I know the terror. The world is not a kind place for us, and NT's haven't got a clue about what we go through. They don't experience it therefore it doesn't exist.

I got talked to by my boss today, no big deal he said, BUT you can be sure if they feel the need to talk to you about it it IS a big deal. Because you never never know what is going to be the last straw. Lately there have been some suspicious terminations where I work, they never tell you why the person was walked out but they always say, well you know when your job is in danger. I think they must learn that phrase in manager school or something. What makes it worse is that management claims to be all feely-feely with their employees, let's all be friends sort of thing. The company that they replaced had a horrible management-employee relationship, everybody knew it, they ruled by fear. They were an equal opportunity employer--everyone was treated equally rotten. Yes it was repressive. But at least they were up front about being SOB's. I can deal with that. Keep my head down, my mouth shut and go about my business.

But not so now, now they want to be chummy. And they want you to be honest. Well, apparently I said something I shouldn't have, and someone else got bent out of shape about it. It was in a meeting, he said. Which meeting, I had several, and I don't recall saying anything out of line, I did not think that I was being out of line. (But remember, I have a perceptual problem, what I think I experience isn't what really happens, or so I have been told often enough. Then people wonder why I don't have any self confidence). Well I was out of line, and make sure this doesn't happen again.

How can I make sure this doesn't happen again when I had no idea in the first place that I was in the wrong? I almost broke down and told him about the Asperger's but I don't know if he would understand or how he would use that information. I so wanted to tell him, do you know what it is like to have to micromanage every word, to constantly censor oneself? Be honest, he said. Well, apparently honesty is what got me in trouble in the first place. Whatever he is looking for, honesty isn't it.

God, I wish sometimes I was a machine, or a robot, that could be programmed to do just exactly what is wanted. I envy my computer, it doesn't feel, it doesn't care if it gets junked for making a mistake. (I think trying to create artificially intelligent machines is cruel to the machine, but that's another subject). Right now they "need" me so my job is safe. Except it is not "me" they need.

I feel better for writing this, I don't think my employers hang out on Wrong Planet or even know it is there (they do MySpace and FaceBook, someone got in trouble for saying something on FaceBook). But still, gotta be careful.

"I was told by the temp service rep on Saturday"

there's why they fired you. As a temp you are not really part of the company and therefore #1 in the list of expendable personnel.

My best guess is that they needed to cut back on some employees and used that tiny mistake as a technical excuse to get rid of you and maybe others as well.

Its a slimy way to treat people

"It's just business" I believe is the adage.

This is probably the most realistic explanation I've read so far. Depending on what state one lives in, firing a person can be a real hassle. There's all sorts of ways to get sued even when one is in the right.

The main alternative I can think of is that in many cases, after you've worked for a business for X amount of days, they have a policy in which you're supposed to be offered benefits or something similar and basically be treated as a true, full-time employee of the company. This can be due to things like union constraints.

If you just need something to keep you from going into some manner of a downward spiral, it's likely they've been trying to fire you for a while. You just never screwed up enough previously that they could get away with it legally.