Worst time to get fired

[FlightlessDuck]

There were some people let go at my company. One of the questions was "why right before Christmas"?

Would it be worse for you to get fired before you did your Christmas shopping or afterward? What about before a summer vacation? What would be the most heartless? What would be the worst financially?

I know the obvious answer is "any time", but this is a rhetorical question. Assuming you were going to get fired sometime in the next twelve months. When's the worst time for it to happen, both financially and emotionally?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Honestly, I can see both before and after Christmas being bad. If it's right before Christmas, it's still a blow, and you don't end up getting gifts, but I guess then at least you have the gift money to live on? After Christmas, you got to give presents, but if you bought them on credit, now you have to worry about how you are paying them back. Or you feel like "if I knew before Christmas, I wouldn't have bought that new tv!"

But at an emotional level, I think either is a blow. It makes you think the company doesn't really care. As opposed to say, being let go in like April or something. At least then it's not around a big holiday or right before a summer vacation.

 

[soccerdad72]

Right before Christmas is the first time of the year that comes to mind for me as well.

Unfortunately, it's a pretty common time for companies to do layoffs, since many of them are trying to cut budget for a new year's fiscal year.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I chose "other" because I got laid off 2 weeks after I closed on my house.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I chose "other" because I got laid off 2 days after I closed on my house.

Yeah, that's bad too.

 

[fla4fun]

I think it would be worst if you had just come down with a serious illness, whether cancer, Covid, whatever. The combination of stress from being ill, losing medical coverage and losing income would be incredible.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Yeah, that's bad too.

I had to edit my post, because I meant to type "weeks." Still bad, though.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I got RIF'd once on the 1st Monday after New Year's, so that my answer.

 

[spiders]

Ultimately it depends on the person's situation but I do think right before Christmas is a pretty cruddy thing to do.

We had a guy that was a terrible employee. He wasn't a bad guy and I have no doubt he was giving it 100% but he was terrible. Needless to say, they decided to fire him the week before Christmas which I thought was a pretty cruddy thing to do to him. But everyone there was pretty rotten to the core. I was supposed to be off the week of Christmas that year. Well, shockingly they decided to fire the other guy and then cancelled my leave to cover him. Leave was 100% use or lose. I asked about being able to carry over as an exception and I got a generic form letter sometime in mid January saying how they encourage everyone to relax & recharge and basically go screw myself.

I was in my mid 20's at the time. I actually had a dream where the alarm went off and I went into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror as I was getting dressed and saw I was somewhere in my mid 40's. In this dream, I just stared at myself and I was so disappointed that I let that job become my career. I quit about 2 weeks later. This was during the housing recession. I didn't have another job lined up. I just had enough. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the smartest decision I ever made in terms of risk but it did end up being the best career decision I ever made.

 

[whatever789]

It's bad to get fired in general. I think for everyone it's different. Everybody goes through different situations, everybody lives differently and everybody has different opinions on topics. Seeing a question like this you get lots of different answers as I've said everyone is different. The worst for me would be during the Christmas season. I usually get stressed out enough, and losing a job would just add more stress.

 

[lifesavacation]

Right before Christmas is the first time of the year that comes to mind for me as well.

Unfortunately, it's a pretty common time for companies to do layoffs, since many of them are trying to cut budget for a new year's fiscal year.

Very common for companies to do their layoffs in Q4. Dh was fired after 25 years with his company last October. It was a bloodbath in his department until the end of the year. He was hired back in another department on 12/31.

ETA: I think anytime in Q4 is tough for losing your job because a lot of companies (I’m talking corporate, not like a mall type job) aren’t hiring around the holidays due to one or more of the people that are on hiring panels being off for vacation/holidays. They tend to push interviews off until the new year.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I said after Christmas only because it's right after spending a substantial sum of money. You would do things different if you knew a month earlier.

Right before a vacation could be worse only if it was locked in and non-refundable. Being forced to go on a trip where you don't want to spend money and knowing you needed to find a job would be miserable.

 

[bcla]

I have a doozy. We were in a company division that was preparing to be sold to another company. We were eager to join the new company to continue what we were all working on. Everyone received an offer of a retention bonus to be paid by the selling company in order to stay. We had regular conference calls with the CEO of the company acquiring our division.

So we go in all eager to the latest conference call. The CEO sounds like he's crying. He apologizes for what's going to happen next and ends the call. In comes HR with a stack of envelopes including termination documents. About 80% of our division got axed, although the terms were pretty good. Everyone got 60 days notice (with a possibility of getting recalled), and additional 3 weeks severance pay once the notice period was up, and access to job search classes and computers at the company. I didn't actually have my own computer and that was actually useful. We were told we didn't have to come back unless asked. I ended up going with a couple of coworkers for beers and then we came back to grab our stuff in boxes. There was no security watching over us either.

In the end I got a new job lined up in less than the 60 notice period. I asked what happened if there was an overlap, and they said that they didn't care unless someone was recalled (I never heard of anyone who was). I was asked to come in once by my manager to archive some work, and that actually felt pretty good seeing the limited people still there. I had to turn in my badge even though I was technically still an employee, but that day I wore a visitor's badge. We ended up getting the retention bonus, which was nice. I found a job that I stayed in for years. There were a few interviews I had for jobs I thought would be great, but over a decade later I got curious and found articles stating that the group I wanted to join had dissolved in less than a year.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I chose right after Christmas because most people are going to have bills coming due other than the usual monthly bills. As a PP said, I'd rather have some notice that I'm going to be out of a job if I'm going to be spending extra money. I'd budget differently.

 

[kymom99]

My husband got fired the day before we were going to put an offer in on a house. That was probably the best time. After closing would have been the worst at that time.

 

[neverlandsky]

Fiscal year 4th quarter. Nov. 30 - Jan. 31 making you ineligible for bonus in the spring time. You basically give up your life during this time frame for nonstop daily work. It’s a double whammy and a punch in the gut.

 

[WDWEPCOT]

I was going to say house as I know several people who had that happen to them - that is a lot bigger purchase than Christmas in most cases !! Any way you slice it - it is bad - never a good time

 

[LuvOrlando]

Anywhere around the holidays is awful but if it's absolutely necessary then float some rumors in early December so people can prepare by tightening belts then do it after the holidays so they can brace themselves.

Not in the list but my 2 others are:
*Anytime right after a company has a big meeting saying how great they are doing is probably the most heinous thing a business can do to people, it jazzes people to do things like get new cars & then makes them feel like they are at fault and it's not true. Awful

*The higher ups giving themselves bonuses after layoffs because they mismanage & destroy other people's lives is, by far, the most disgusting behavior there is (still pretty must hate the whole banking industry & everyone that helped them)

 

[starvenger]

Voted "other".

I've been laid off twice a couple of weeks after vacation and once right before. With the former, there were extenuating circumstances with one (9/11) but it certainly didn't make the layoff any better.

getting let go before vacation, I at least got my vacation paid out (since I obviously didn't take the vacation days).

 

[elgerber]

I don't really have an opinion, but two years ago this Friday I was laid off. It did fee horrible the week before Christmas, but 5 years before that I was laid off right after Christmas and that was horrible too.