I was let go because my supervisor had some concerns about my clock-in/clock-out records on tw consecutive days. I knew that I could not work overtime. My scheduled shift was 8am-5pm. However I clocked-in one hour early, and clocked-out one hour early from 7am-4pm, and worked one hour off the clock. That is considered overtime. My intention was to work my required hours, but I came to work early that day. I had not received permission to work the earlier shift. What I learned from this experience is the importance of communication. I did not speak to my supervisor ahead of time, as a result it left him to make his own assessment about my intentions. When he discussed it with me, he was not interested in hearing why I clocked-in/clocked out off my scheduled shift. I will not make that mistake again.

Here are some additional posts i have written that will help.

http://www.interviewchatter.com/how-important-is-individual-accountability/
http://www.interviewchatter.com/marketing-yourself-been-fired-tell-the-truth/

As for what payroll told me to do on Monday about not logging in on Monday. That was not an issue. The termination came about because of the combination of the Friday and Monday issues. Two issues back to back made him suspicious. During the termination process, he said to me that he had his own opinion of what I was trying to get away with. I asked to hear his opinion. In a stern voice he said, “No.” So I don’t really know what he was thinking.

My only other attendance issues were in the beginning of the job where I was doing overtime. I didn’t know it was not allowed since I had not yet been told. After they told me, I stopped doing overtime.

In the beginning I also had some personal issues with the call center manager (not my supervisor)and the payroll person but resolved that and did not have anymore problems again, although my supervisor added that to the fire with the time clock issues. I have nothing to do with payroll, we happen to share an office because of lack of seating in the company. My job is completely unrelated to payroll.

I will contact them and ask them what their policy is. I am in Florida and I don’t know what the law is here, as I am new in this state. I will get back to you once I find out their policy.

When you say, “Don’t give all the details…”, how much should I divulge and at what point should I stop?

Thank you for your quick reply.

Adam

As far as how to communicate this situation in an interview – it is very important that you get clarification from the previous employer what they will say when they receive a call to verify your employment. Ask them, find out their policy. Most employers only verify dates of hire, salary and whether you are rehirable. If they freely discuss performance and reasons for termination, you need to know that before going to an interview. Once you have the specifics of what their policy, you will have a better understanding of what you need to communicate in the interview.

Don’t give all the details. You need to keep it simple, take responsibility for your part, and communicate how you will avoid these types of issues in the future. Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

I had to drop my wife off early at her job on Friday morning. I decided to go arrive at work earlier than usual. I am not the type then can waste an hour before work. I arrived at work 1 hour early. I don’t like to just sit around until my regular time of 8AM, so I punched in the clock at 7AM. My regular hours are 8AM-5PM. The company I work for is very strict about overtime. At 4PM I punched out on the clock, but continued working off the clock until my regular departure time of 5PM. The reason for punching out at 4PM was so that I would not accrue overtime.

The following Monday, I arrived on time to work and as I was about to punch in the clock, the IT person was there to help me with my computer problem that I reported on Friday. I missed my 8AM punch-in time and payroll told me not to punch-in. They said it is easier for them to manually do my time instead of correcting my time. I don’t know because I am not a payroll person. So I did not punch-in.

My superiors were bothered by my clock times on Friday and Monday and they decided to terminate me. I am 42 years old. I have been salaried most of my life and have not had to use a time clock since high school. I have always worked 10-15 hour days and not been compensated for it. At every job I have always had perfect attendance and I am never late and I don’t leave early. It bothers me that someone at my last job would think that I would report 8 hours and work less than 8 hours. I am the type that will give 110% of myself to the company. I would never cheat the company. I am honest and feel wrongly accused. How do I present this to the next employer?

Being fired is not simply due to the empolyee not being good worker.

It can be the result of the employer hiring a person with the wrong skills, hoping to develop a person into the job (often without any training), not telling the employee the whole story about the job or company, or simply hiring the wrong person who tries to stick it out knowing it won’t work in the long run, forcing the employer to make the change.