u/Next-Cardiologist618

I'm still trying to process what just happened. A company I was interviewing with called my manager at work, and now I've been fired. Anyway, the story started when I got a message on LinkedIn about a job similar to mine at a company with a much easier commute. My current job wasn't the best - toxic culture, empty promises, and that sort of thing - so I decided to give it a shot and sent my CV.

The new company got back to me almost immediately to schedule an interview. The first one went really well, and they asked me to do a second one. After the second interview, they told me I was a great fit for the team and that they would get back to me with a decision in a day or two.

The next day in the afternoon, my CEO called me into his office. He told me he got a call from the company I was interviewing with and wanted to understand what was going on. Of course, the cat was out of the bag, so I was honest with him and told him why I was looking for a new job. After I explained everything, he told me that due to the sensitive nature of the information I have access to, they had to let me go immediately.

I went home, barely able to catch my breath, and called the hiring manager at the new company to understand what had happened and why they would contact my employer without my permission. They played dumb, saying the decision was still being made and that their CEO would call me to follow up.

A few hours later, their CEO called me. He told me I didn't get the job and that they had chosen someone else. When I pressed him and asked why they called my manager, he made up some weird, nonsensical story, claiming he didn't know how my manager found out. Then, with complete audacity, he told me that he wasn't even sure about the person they hired, that he had a bad reputation and wasn't reliable, and that they would call me if things didn't work out with him.

I genuinely can't understand how a company can operate like this. They reached out to me, conducted multiple interviews, then called my manager and got me fired, and in the end, they have the nerve to not even offer me the job.

This time, I really took it seriously and practiced many mock interviews with my friends. I entered the first round of an interview with a company, and it didn't pass well, so I decided to use interviewman in the second round and it made a huge difference in organizing my answers and feeling more confident. It went better than I expected, and they invited me back for a follow-up.

After that follow-up, they said I seemed like a very good fit for the team and told me they would get back to me with the final decision at the end of this week.

Has anyone ever experienced something this absurd before?

also stolen health care, delayed (or denied) retirement, not being able to buy a house, not being able to pay off your student loan... the list goes on and on...

I'll try to keep this brief. My husband and I have been planning our honeymoon for about 14 months.

My husband had been talking with his manager about the trip throughout that entire time, and his manager never mentioned any concerns or problems at all. He told my husband more than once that the time off shouldn't be an issue, especially since he himself had taken a honeymoon of about 5 weeks the summer before last. A few months ago, my husband submitted the official PTO request, but he was still waiting for final approval because there had been a change in upper management. His direct manager remained with the company the whole time.

Then, about 6 weeks before our travel date, the new upper management rejected the PTO. His manager told him they wouldn't be able to approve any days off, and said it would probably be best for us to cancel the trip. We really did not want to do that. By then, we had already booked international flights, hotels, a rental car, and planned to visit his family, whom he hasn't seen in about 12 years.

Of course, looking back now at what happened, he should have gotten the approval in writing early, or pushed harder for upper management to approve it earlier. But based on his close relationship with his manager, the fact that he had been clear and upfront with them for over a year, and that he had been proactive in making sure his work would be covered, he had no reason to expect they would reject it. A very painful lesson learned.

My husband tried to find any kind of compromise with them. He asked if they could approve part of the PTO, or if he could take unpaid leave instead, or if they expected him to work during the honeymoon, whether he could at least change his hours so he wouldn't be opening his laptop at 4:30 in the morning. They said no to all of that, and told him they expected him to work full time while we were traveling.

Anyway, we're now about a week into the honeymoon, and they discovered that he hadn't been working. They told him either he submits his resignation and they'll give him 3 weeks of severance, or if he doesn't answer, they'll treat it as a voluntary resignation.

At this point, we're probably just going to enjoy the honeymoon and treat this as a forced career reset. He's already updating his resume, reaching out to contacts, and preparing for interviews again. Honestly, new tools like InterviewMan AI will probably help a lot in interviews since it's been years since he last had to interview seriously.

What would you do if you were in our position?

Maybe they just forgot that had a position to fill