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Typically, the most appropriate day to fire someone is on their last day of work.
The student should reflect on how they behaved as a guest in someone else’s lab and how they might improve that in the future.
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are we being ironic...
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lol…I think that response was to this particular situation, where the job for this summer was ending (yesterday?), but there was a possibility of resuming in the fall or maybe next summer.
Obviously, in regular jobs, the day a person is fired is their last day.
But, then again, some people use the word “fire” for “laid-off” when they aren’t really the same.
That is the new term as my daughter told me. She didn’t invent them. Just like we are not allowed to call terrorist terrorist. Get used to new PC world.
Two of my employers (I do freelance work in addition to my regular job) refer to new-employee orientation as “onboarding.” And when one leaves one of these employers, he or she is “offboarded.”
I encourage you to think about your personality and work habits. This might just have been a bad fit between you and one person. On the other hand, maybe you do have a hard time getting along with people or you were slacking off. Better to figure this out now than a few years from now.
The job was supposed to continue for my entire undergraduate career, so I think I was actually fired unfortunately. I actually saw they posted another ad looking for another undergrad student.
I have been thinking about my performance, which I realize was up/down or even just poor (maybe being fired is making me lose sight of the stuff I did well) but unfortunately I have to learn the hard way by losing my first job :\
How long should I wait before looking for another job, lab position, etc?
This was recommended to me:
Should I send him an email saying something along the lines of thanking him for the opportunity, sorry that things had to end the way they did, and if he would be comfortable providing a strong or positive reference if needed
–to get some kind of “official” statement while there’s still a close relationship or should I just take his word and move on?
@bluebayou
Is there a good/proper way to ask the PI I worked for to grab coffee or something for the honest appraisal? What if they say no, would that be indicative of something? Would they be annoyed that I didn’t move on?
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Two of my employers (I do freelance work in addition to my regular job) refer to new-employee orientation as “onboarding.” And when one leaves one of these employers, he or she is “offboarded.”
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Why do I now have an image of someone walking the plank?
I have been thinking about my performance, which I realize was up/down or even just poor (maybe being fired is making me lose sight of the stuff I did well) but unfortunately I have to learn the hard way by losing my first job :\
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How long should I wait before looking for another job, lab position, etc?
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No waiting period. As long as you’re not in denial about your “poor” performance, and you’re truly prepared to be the best employee next time, get back in the game.
That said, it’s sometimes easier said than done. It’s easy to say that you’ll work harder next time, but…HOW were you a “poor” employee? And why were you in denial about those things while you had the job?
Did you disagree with your manager often? Did you not do the job adequately? Did you not take constructive criticism to improve your job performance?
You are saying you didn’t do the job well, and that you disagreed with your manager. I think you need to figure out what made you do this especially if this was brought to your attention more than once during the summer employment.
Re: waiting to apply for other jobs? Don’t wait. Get your resume together and get it out there.
You mentioned working in a lab. Are you a good experimental scientist? Are you meticulous, do you pay attention to details, etc.? We had an employee who was smart, very outgoing, nice, but… whatever he would touch, it would turn into a pile of dirt. His hands were just not made for lab work. He ended up going into theoretical research that did not require setting up lab experiments. I’m saying this because it is possible that your lab skills may be lacking, and the lab wants someone with “better hands.” If so, it is not necessarily your fault - it could be that the mentors did not provide you with adequate training. It happens all the time in academia. If that is the case, by firing you, they did you a favor. Of course, this is just speculation without knowing the details. Good luck with finding a new job!
I’m sorry, but the statement you posted “In large companies, you have to give 60 days notice per government or local law.” does not apply either to this case or in general. Notifications are only required in certain circumstances.
It’s ironic I have to tell DrGoogle that life is not a collection of factoids that you can go look up. It’s hard to imagine what kind of experience you have as either an employee or an employer when you have gone around thinking that your employer is required by law to give you 60 days notice of a termination.
Employment is still generally “at will” and you or the employer can terminate at any time.
JustOneDad, I don’t understand your post. Did you read the law in the post or you just want to argue. I used to work with one large company and I often checked a website or newspaper and saw the warnings from my company listed for certain location. In fact that company often gives more than 60 days notice. Both myself and my husband and my brother and his wife all were notice more than 60 days, I’m talking about personal notice. But for the company it has to notify California of the location where the laid offs of more than 100 if I recall was going to occur.
I don’t talk generality as always, or in fact I rarely bullshit if it comes down to the fact or truth. So what are you quibble about?
I’m not understanding something. Did the OP say she was from California? And what do mass layioffs and plant closings have to do with this thread?
This is a single individual that was fired for whatever reasons. OP, you need to learn from the experience and move on. I was fired many years ago, H has been fired and so has D2. All of us are currently working in jobs well above what we were fired from. We each learned from the experience and each learned different things.
D1 has part of her job because a man working for the company was not performing as expected. When D1 got the job, she was exited but felt bad for her colleague that got fired. She said it made good business sense as he was performing poorly, but he has a stay at home wife and young child.
The working wolrld is tough. And it is better for you to learn this now rather than latter. Maybe you were just in an environment with major personality clashes. Or maye it was your behavior. Either way, now is your chance to start to figure it out.
DH was fired 30 years ago for suggesting that the commission split be altered when a salesperson sold higher than a certain threshold.
It was the best thing that ever happened to him. From that day on, he has been running his own show and he doesn’t have to give up half his commission to the guy paying the office overhead or account to anyone else for his time and other decisions.
If the OP takes some wisdom away from this experience, it, too, may turn out to be a positive.
I second the comments and advice from BunsenBurner. If this is a research lab, then a high premium is placed on lab skills. Yes, softer skills are also necessary, but (for example) nothing beats expertise in purification and isolation of compounds in a chemistry lab. You can be the most personable, easy-going, most-loved lab rat, but if you have “hands of dirt”…
If you lack those skills, it’s okay - practice makes perfect. Find another PI (maybe one who is more in sync with your personality) and learn as much as you can from him and his students. The ability to pick yourself up after failure and to keep charging ahead is probably THE most valuable skill a scientist can have!
