• NABDad@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Not mine, but a guy I know got hired to be fired.

    He got a job with a company that managed storage systems. They hired him and gave him some basic training for the systems. After a few months, they sent him to a client who was irate. The client was angry when he got there and there was nothing he could do to appease them. The client demanded that they fire him so they did.

    He found out after that this was all theater for the client. The company would regularly hire someone new specifically so they could fire them when they sent them to this client. It sounded like the client was borderline insane, and this was how they managed to keep sucking massive amounts of fees out of the client without losing employees they actually valued. Once they fired a sacrificial tech, the client would be happy, and they could send one of their “permanent” employees out to deal with the technical issue.

    It worked out well for the fired guy. They hired him at a salary much higher than he was getting previously. The training he got there allowed him to move on to better jobs doing the same thing for even more pay working for employers who weren’t insane.

    • Hadriscus@jlai.lu
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      2 days ago

      Sacrificial tech support. What an amazing story ! also a shitty experience for the lamb- I mean, the rookie employee.

    • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The stupid thing is that they could create a position just for that, and tell them their job is to be fired. A new hire every day, don’t waste time on the training. Or is there an employment watchdog who cracks down on these schemes?

      • NABDad@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I think the issue is the one client that needed the special treatment needed to see them fire someone new every time, and they couldn’t send someone who didn’t know enough about the storage system to be worth firing.

    • IWW4@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      You would think that would work once, maybe twice before the client would pull the plug and move on.

      • NABDad@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        My understanding was that there was nothing wrong with the service the client was getting. They were just assholes who liked the ego boost they got from being able to force their vendor to fire someone.

        They didn’t have any legitimate complaints. They just needed to believe they were important enough to get anyone fired they wanted to.