do people not get fired in corporate environments?

[BKLounger]

I have been working for a very large corporation for over 2 years now and the strangest thing I have seen is people never get fired. I have yet to see a single firing. I see people transfer within the company. I have seen people get jobs at other companies. I have seen manager's make people's lives hell until they leave, but have yet to see someone fired. And yes there are plenty of incompetent people where i work. I have to assume there has been some but you'd think in a company of 30,000 (if not more), I would have seen or heard of at least 1 firing. Do large companies avoid firing to avoid possible lawsuits?

 

[nakedfrog]

It depends on the company. I worked at a smaller company, and sometimes it took over a year for grossly incompetent people to get fired. I can see how in a larger environment it would be easier to just shuffle them around.

And by grossly incompetent, I mean that every single thing on every project they worked on was screwed up and had to be fixed afterwards by other people. They were given things that worked, with the task of extending them, and they broke the working portion.

 

[SpunkyJones]

You need to document a trail of incompetence and constructive feedback, as well as show that you've provided training and support to help the employee improve their performance. Its easier to just ignore them.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Large companies prefer to have people "resign." Furthermore, I suspect that some of the people who have gone elsewhere were "fired" and just didnt talk about it.

It also could just be a fluke, because yes, large companies do fire people. Sometimes, do do wait for "lay offs" where they fire a large group all at once.

 

[vi edit]

Most situations I've seen usually involve the company making it as miserable as possible for a particular employee in hopes that they leave.

I believe the paper work for firing is much worse, the risk of lawsuits, and the fact that if somebody is fired, they can file for unemployment are all reasons they try to get people to quit first.

 

[NatePo717]

They only fire people on Fridays.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The entire purpose of a corporation is to deny responsibility. Is it any wonder that the same outlook is used by employees?

 

[Danman]

It all depends on how big the cojones of HR are. If they are a bunch of wusses, like at my old employer, they will avoid at all costs firing anyone, no matter what the reason is. The only thing that you could get fired for is sexual harassment. It was such bullshit.

 

[Linflas]

I found working for a large corp not much different than working for government. Same bureaucracy and shuffling of problem employees off into another department.

 

[Saga]

Reality is that often it costs more to fire someone in a corporate environment than it does to find a replacement for them, even if they are sub par.

However, I work in the opposite. Our hiring and screening processes are extremely extensive, and we put a large focus on the right attitude and fitting in with our corporate environment. The end result is we have (so far) only hired quality people for a very long time.

 

[Aharami]

work for a large corp. seen my team go from ~30 to ~130. Seen only 1 person get fired in the 4+ yrs I've been here

 

[Gothgar]

It was similar at the last large corp I worked at...

 

[theknight571]

In the 14 years I spent at the last large corp I only saw 3 people outright fired... 2 for selling computer parts on ebay and one for sexual harassment.

I saw 100's laid off... usually in large bunches... and eventually I was in one of those bunches. lol

 

[imported_Section8]

People get fired around here for unsat performance and misconduct. We have a good process so if you don't do your job you get owned.

 

[bigrash]

I work in HR and also have worked for many companies who got taken over by others, so I've seen plenty of people getting fired.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: bigrash
I work in HR and also have worked for many companies who got taken over by others, so I've seen plenty of people getting fired.

RIF is not the same as getting fired.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

I know one person that got fired here in the 7 or so years iwth this company. Actually he was asked to leave. He was apparently running another business 6 of 8 hours a day and was caught numerous times.

 

[antyler]

Have you not seen the apprentice??

 

[jonks]

3 (non-lawyers) were fired at my roughly 200 attorney firm in the past few months. One for malfeasance, 1 for lack of work, 1 because no one liked him.

 

[bigrash]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: bigrash
I work in HR and also have worked for many companies who got taken over by others, so I've seen plenty of people getting fired.

RIF is not the same as getting fired.

Well, of cource it's not, but I thought that the OP meant layoffs also

 

[rh71]

I've seen 1 person ever fired at this company due to poor performance (others have been because of borderline illegal stuff). They just weren't getting their work done and constantly relied on other people (2 people doing 1 person's job is ftl). It took a lot of peer review and "interviews" though. Still, we weren't asking for that person to get fired... I just think it finally caught up to them.

 

[queenrobot]

I got fired from a very large credit card company a couple of years ago. The new manager decided to "make an example out of me". It kind of backfired on him though, a couple of people quit because I got fired.

 

[blackdogdeek]

my understanding is that it takes a lot to fire someone at a big corporation. i was told that at one particular large insurance company that you have to first give a below average yearly review in which you have to outline exactly what objective(s) the employee needs to complete or improve upon by the next yearly review. only after the employee is clearly and extensively documented to have failed those objective can he be fired.

i don't know if that is standard or just a big company worried about being sued.

 

[Throckmorton]

LOL, apparently corporate offices never fire people, yet people on this forum are always saying that about government jobs. Does that mean NO employer really fires people?

 

[AmigaMan]

My last company fired a bunch of people all at once. Apparently they had been caught at one time or another surfing porn while logged on the VPN. Stupidity at it's finest!