‘Lie or get fired’: Worker says she was fired after telling boss she planned to eventually go back to school
A TikToker is warning viewers against talking to their employers about the future after a conversation at her own job left her unemployed.
Elisa (@themillenialrecruiter) told viewers she recently had a one-on-one with an account manager at her job as a recruiter that led to him asking whether she was looking to become a senior recruiter or an account manager herself down the line.
“I tried to avoid the question, but he just kept asking me about how I saw myself in the company in the future and I was like, ‘Umm, well, I’m trying to potentially get into healthcare,’” she recalled, mentioning that working on commission was difficult lately. “So I told him I was thinking about going back to school, getting into healthcare.”
Elisa said the account manager informed a director at her company when they were all in Florida on a work trip, and Elisa was fired within two days of returning home.
She also shared a message she says she received from Human Resources, which specifically lists the reason for her termination as “based on your comments regarding the future of the recruiter position and you stating that you would like to pursue other positions in the healthcare field.”
@themillenialrecruiter Replying to @perhapsitsmiya remember that if you live in an at will state which all states are besides Montana employers can fire you for whatever reason they want to as long as it’s not illegal . ##themillenialrecruiter##atwillemployment ♬ original sound - The MilleNial Recruiter
The Daily Dot reached out to Elisa via email.
Staying at the same job, or even in the same career, for years and years at a time is increasingly unheard of for modern Americans. The average worker changes jobs roughly every four years, with job-hopping most common among 18-24 year olds.
Some employers understand this and realize that a worker’s desire to do something different somewhere in the vague future is not indicative of their dedication to their work in the moment, but others demand an unreasonable commitment from their workers that isn’t necessarily reciprocated in any meaningful or financial way.
Elisa’s advice in situations like this? “Lie or get fired,” she wrote. And viewers have clearly had enough experience in the workforce to back her up.
“And people wonder why I tell them to just lie in these situations. So many people are out to hurt you,” wrote @samsramblings.
@vyrosehill agreed, admitting, “I was fired for something similar back in 2018. These jobs don’t give a damn and they were paying literal scraps.”
“Never tell those people your next moves. You are happy right up until you are gone,” @blkpearl78 insisted, while @agambel2 took it to the next logical, albeit depressing, conclusion, writing, “Never tell anyone your hopes and dreams.”
“Mind you, I shouldn’t have told my account manager what my future plans were until I was ready to go,” Elisa ultimately admitted. “But my account manager’s only a year older than me. We’re both still young. I thought, for some reason, that he would get where I was coming from.”
“Silly mistake,” she added.
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