Unfair dismissal, and just the general mistreatment by employers of their workforce, is the scourge of this late-capitalist pit of chaos that we call the western world. And yet we have to admit that sometimes it is the employee who has made the goof and, unfortunately, they don’t have much of a leg to stand on when they reap the results of their poor performance at their job.
Take the construction worker who didn’t get paid for an (unauthorized) extra shift and then decided it was a good idea to destroy the building he was working on as revenge. Whereas this harebrained handyman had too much energy, however, the star of our next cautionary tale had far too little. Gloriously usernamed TikToker @wesickandtired, aka Totsionna, shared her story when she posted a recording of the phone call she received from her job’s HR officer, Shelly, during which she was informed that she had been terminated from her employment effective immediately.
Typically, such videos result in an outpouring of sympathy from those on the app, but in this case the HR woman’s explanation of why Totsionna had to be let go has everybody siding with the suits for once.
As HR Shelly explains, Totsionna is being terminated after repeated instances of absenteeism and tardiness. Shelly makes clear that her bosses have spoken to Totsionna about this several times before but she has shown no improvement. In fact, she’s only got progressively bolder. Over the past few weeks, she had turned up for work late numerous times, ranging from 12 minutes to 32 minutes after her start-time. “On 8/12, you just did a no-call no-show,” Shelly relates. Totsionna’s reply to this? “That was my birthday.”
After hearing all the damning evidence, the TikTok jury has firmly found Totsionna guilty on this one. “You recorded like we were supposed to be on your side,” said one gobsmacked commenter. “I’m shocked you’re shocked…” reads a second, while another can’t believe Totsionna’s brazen behavior: “a no call no show just bc it’s your bday is crazy.”
Most, it seems, are bigger fans of Shelly, who they think handled this call with expert control. “Shelly deserves a raise for not laughing,” said one Shelly fan club member, as another added: “Shelly had patience babayyyyy.” Someone else in the biz felt Totsionna deserved a tougher telling-off: “I work in HR and I’m sorry, but Shelly was too nice.”
One possible explanation for how Shelly was able to contain her exasperation at Totsionna’s liberal attitude towards when to start work might be because she has to make similar termination phone calls on the regular. A 2024 study found that a hefty 40% of American employers have had to fire someone because they were frequently late and, whether the person is miffed or not, they should know their employer is within their rights to fire them, as long as it’s done without discrimination or prejudice. Sadly, capitalism wins this round. But we still need four-day work weeks!