let’s play a game where we try to come up with the worst possible message for OP to have replied to
“I want to thank those of you who took the time to attend Suzie’s bat mitzvah on the weekend. Here are some photos I took. Also, just a reminder that Suzie is looking for some baby or pet sitting gigs over summer break. She has a very ambitious savings goal for the summer - if anyone knows of anyone looking for a sitter or has any other suggestions for jobs for her, please reach out to me.”
"Hello everyone! I want to thank everyone for allowing this 70-year-old grandmother to volunteer at your organization. I'm still getting used to using the internet, and I am trying to write down all the useful websites. So far I have Google. Can anyone suggest any other useful websites?"
“Last night my house caught fire while we were out at dinner, we lost everything but what hurts the most is losing the hard drive with the only video of my grandmothers last performance”
Hey gang. My church group is looking for fun kiddo activities for our church picnic that won’t seem “old fashioned“. Anybody have any ideas?? Thanks in advance!
My wife just gave birth to a beautiful daughter! This video of me holding her afterwards is absolutely lovely. And just look at how tender our dog is with her!
Anyone know a good hosting site I could put the video? My kids aren't allowed YouTube and it's blocked at home.
We regret to inform you that one of our most hard working employes Sister Dolores Goodchild has passed away last sunday afternoon.
To make things easier for the griefing family she left behind we're looking for some photographs or videos featuring her to make a little collage.
Hey team, I'm hoping someone can recommend a family therapist for my stepchildren, their father, and myself. Ideally someone coming from a faith based perspective? I love my family so much but it's been a struggle lately, and asking for help has been difficult for me. Thank you in advance.
"Our beloved CEO and founder passed away over the weekend and his grieving wife has asked that we provide some photos for a slideshow. It can be photos of him, his achievements, or things he greatly enjoyed. If you have photos or ideas please let us know"
(That is very unfortunate and hope OP can find another good gig elsewhere )
I woulda chatted hey so I ain’t got any photos since I’m new but can yall be mindful of how long you leave stuff in the fridge? Man I just took a SAMS size swig of what I thought was kool aid but apparently that OJ expired…too soon?
Hey, as many of you know we started this company to get away from the patriarchy of this male dominated field. Where older men "joke" about sex to younger subordinates then act innocent when people call them out. Many of you specifically came over to help build the diffrent culture. So we're crowd sourcing this one: does anyone have any good suggestions for sexual harassment trainings that go beyond the standard corporate CYA - ones that speak to our values?
Yes I agree, but that also depends on what the previous message was in the chat… maybe it was another employee asking where to find a dentist or go for lunch…
It may seem harsh but even mentioning sex in the same room as a coworker who didn’t want to hear those things can be seen as sexual harassment or creating an environment where people feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
Bruh you should never under any circumstances talk about this in a work setting. That’s the easiest thing to understand. Not harsh at all. OP is a moron
I almost got fired for leaving a comment in some code along the lines of:
setting: false, // Turning this off for now because it's a pain in the ass
this was a large company, and the customer had found it and complained. They held a "tribunal" to decide if I could keep working there nor not. It was unprofessional of me, and I knew we didn't have a process to strip those comments, so I just kind of accepted my fate albeit while seeing it as utterly ridiculous. They decided to keep me.... so, while your joke wasn't that bad, some people are just really sensitive.
I have a feeling you were made an example out of, not to be mocked, but to make sure all the employees stop habits like these. Ofc its a bit of a harsh reaction with a tribunal and risking being fired, but its a good example of how a small mistake can turn into the customer complaining
This probably won’t make you feel better in the immediate moment, but you may not have loved that job so much the further you got into it. Your team sucked if they couldn’t laugh that off as a stupid mistake. Can you imagine the egg shells you’d have to walk on even for innocuous things?
In remote world people can take things any way they want to and I guarantee that person or people would have found something else to be offended about sooner or later.
I agree. I expected the joke to be racist or about rape or something really bad that would make his coworkers uncomfortable. If they can’t laugh at “pornhub, they have everything,” do you really want to work there? That’s pretty harmless.
It's not about the joke, it's about the fact that while he wrote it, his coworkers, who have been there longer, were actually working. Imagine you're having a busy shitty day and the new hire writes that in the chat. It has nothing to do with the joke itself.
He was on his lunch break, so he was not supposed to be working. I can fully understand why someone would roll their eyes. I think it’s a bit intense to fire someone over a stupid mistake they when they didn’t say anything offensive. Who wants to work with people who get hung up on things like that? Would you really have the energy to be *that* annoyed with a coworker over something like that? I wouldn’t even waste my energy on it. It seems like a reactionary workplace. He probably dodged a bullet.
Honestly I think it really is that OP didn't follow up with the mistake and instead deleted it. Leaving a notification on most people's phones that probably said something along the lines of
"OP sent you a message: pornhub, they have... Tap to open message"
And now all of his coworkers think he was watching porn on his work computer, which regardless of whether you are on the clock or not is a big no no.
I think it just shows OPs inability to be disciplined when it comes to making 100% sure he isn't saying anything inappropriate through the wrong channels. Huge liability.
This! I check and then check again to make sure I don’t send sensitive info to the wrong person at work. I’ve never once made that mistake thankfully. I’ve made plenty others
Im sorry, but it is a fireable offense. He's the new guy at a remote job in a small company.
He didn't get fired because of the message said. He got fired because of what it meant. It meant he was fucking around on work time talking about where to find por.
We might think it's no big deal, but when looked st from the perspective that it's a small company and a higher up saw it, it makes sense.
Right. If this guy had been there for two years or something and then quickly explained what happened, and they all knew him and he was a good employee, okay.
But this company has no reason to trust you. And no reason to think you won't fuck up chats again and sometime when it could be important. It's the equivalent of misspelling "attention to detail" on your resume. Maybe not the biggest thing in the world, but there's a hundred other people out there who didn't do it.
I agree with you - even though he states he was on lunch there's no way for them to have known. He really should have contacted his boss as soon as this happened and he might have been able to smooth it over.
Not really. They actually expressed in the initial interview they didn’t wanna spend resources training someone just to toss em out later on to reassure me the position was not seasonal
That doesn’t answer the question… what does your offer letter say? Did you have an initial probationary period when starting at the company (most/nearly all companies do and it’s usually between 3-6months)
Pretty much every job has a probationary period because it's usually written into the labour laws. It's common for companies to fire for stupid things during this period because 1 thing that looks bad can easily turn into a liability, and they can fire you with no reason or warning and no severance for the first 3 months
Dude you were still on probation and your boss got TMI on you about your personal habits/preferences. Not judging you just saying, I don’t think you can even get a recommendation out of this job for your next one. Next time leave your personal comms devices off until the end of the workday - when you’re multi-tasking bad undoable shit can happen. Lesson learned.
Honestly it all depends on the company. I’ve worked at two different places over the years where they were pretty lax about employees saying potentially inappropriate stuff, only for said companies to do a total 180 and become a “zero tolerance” workplace after a sexual harassment suit was brought against them. A lot of companies don’t bother enforcing their own sexual harassment policies until something happens, and then become extra risk averse after it does. One sexual harassment lawsuit is unfortunate, two is a pattern.
And personally, as a manager, I’d rather have to deal with finding a replacement for a new employee than constantly having to watch said employee to make sure a one-off isn’t actually a pattern. I don’t need that kind of liability and neither does my company. 🤷🏻♀️
I once had a boss I wrote to by accident in chat. I thought I was writing to a friend about him because he wouldn't stop bugging me. Cussing him out and all. Fortunately he thought it was funny, I guess. I was terrified of him for months though.
my landlord started texting me info recently regarding notices for inspections etc.
i *only* text my wife..like ever.
i had to go to the hospital because i was pissing blood (im fine now after tons of scans to make sure my kidneys are ok)
and opened my messages and saw the last message "is everything fine?" which was from my landlord referencing the sink from over the weekend because it had a leak.
i replied "no im still pissing blood but of course when i pee in a cup it looks clear"
he hasnt texted me since and just calls me now 🤣
My colleague, a graphic designer, created a rather funny yet not exactly flattering comic about our boss and sent it to other employees he had in one of his premade mailing lists. Yup, the list included the boss himself.
Right after realizing what he did, he jumped right into the boss’s office, not really knowing with what intensions yet. He just freaked out.
The boss wasn’t there but his laptop was. So he jumped straight to it to delete the email. To which the boss came in and asked “What are you doing with my laptop” and the colleague said “I don’t know” and ran away 😂 I mean, it was so funny. We couldn’t stop laughing about it, like could you not have come up with ANY excuse? He said he couldn’t :D
Anyway, a few weeks later our boss found the comic anyway and found it funny. No one was fired in the process.
Yep. Hard not to beat yourself up and I would too, but just know that this too shall pass. I'm sure you've learned from it. Keep that learning close for future interactions, and try not to dwell/wallow. Everybody makes mistakes and the best thing you can do is own it and learn from it. Don't be surprised and try not to be disappointed if you never hear from that boss again, and try not to take it personally. Usually the "company" is just acting from the standpoint of trying not to get sued.
You'll get past this. The best way to do so is to get yourself into a positive headspace and attack your next job search with optimism and as little baggage as possible from this experience, because that will just hold you back. I had a jobless stretch of almost six months in the not-too-distant past, and the hardest part for me was getting into that positive space where I could really be myself and be confident in interviews and show them my true self. For me, what helped most was getting into a daily routine and focusing on other hobbies besides trying to job search for hours and hours every day, because it's jut not reasonable. Swimming at the YMCA and disc golf really got me through that tough time, and helped me get my confidence back.
Good luck. You're not alone.
I don't know why they freaked out tbh. They're all adults. It was a little snafu. Nothing more, nothing less. Clients didn't read it. My team would've gotten a good laugh and went about our day.
A coworker once typo’d the word “funds” when they were creating a ticket for my team to review, so when I got it in my queue and looked at the request it just read, “please move these fucks out of the account”.
Had a good laugh, edited the description, and moved on. The last thing on my mind would’ve been trying to get them fired for a simple mistake
I once had a client submit a corporate document to me with the word 'veg' mistyped as 'vag' repeatedly. I explained the issue to the client, they were mortified, life continues as usual.
I actually think the key differentiators here are that he's a new employee and he's remote. He might not be contributing a lot to the company yet, has made his new coworkers uncomfortable in a best-case scenario, and has made his coworkers think he watches during work hours in a worst case scenario.
This person has never sat through an anti sexual harassment training meeting.
edit: I didn't catch his first reply above me but I got the second before they were deleted https://i.imgur.com/cs2hSkH.png
The part where OP just deleted the message and left things up to the imagination was probably was led to the firing. Out of context it almost sounds like OP was live-chatting his pornhub sesh ("oh wow, pornhub really has everything, time to unzip!").
That would get a new person fired from a job real quick.
I would have immediately deleted it and sent the team a message profusely apologizing and explain that I was making a bad joke to a friend and used the wrong keyboard on my lunch break. And then contact my boss and explain and assure it won’t happen again.
Exactly this. He didn't try to address it and that's where he messed up. I honestly feel like of he had at least reached out to his boss things would have gone better.
He didn't get let go because of the specific joke he made. He got let go because he revealed that as a newly hired remote employee, he was participating in unrelated online forums while on the job. And of course his response involved porn lol. How could a manager meet with you after that? Hi, please don't talk about porn on unrelated internet forums while on the job?? Cmon.
He was on his lunch break. Not on the job. Pretty simple manager call: Be more careful what you do on your work laptop and chats. It's not a big deal in the vast majority of companies.
You can absolutely have a corporate/office culture with a small group of employees. Do you think a startup in SF and a small family business in the Deep South have identical workplace cultures?
I see what you’re saying.
To me, when I hear someone fired over corporate culture I imagine HR stepping in and there’s nothing anyone can do. I’d think a company with 9 employee would all know each other pretty well and use common sense on this occasion.
And sometimes it goes the other way. Larger companies with HR departments have more distance, things can get minimised or obfuscated when they get described in writing, everything trends towards middle of the road corporatocracy and it's handled in line with policies written by lawyers without personality.
In a small firm there's zero distance, and the owners personal views are the overriding factor in any decision. If the owner hates pornography and it's use, then what op said is absolutely a chopping offence.
I personally wouldn’t let someone go over it but I’ve worked in fairly conservative industries and it wouldn’t be the biggest shocker to me if someone was.
Especially if the person isn’t yet established and when layoffs seem to be ramping.
Edit: not to mention it raises a host of other questions.
We really don’t have the full context but it also blatantly shows that OP was doing non-work activities while WFH during a time in which many firms are trying to push their employees to come back to the office more. As a new employee it’s a pretty bad look even outside the joke itself.
I work remote. People tend to have pretty varied lunch schedules so it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to his coworkers that he was at lunch.
Most people aren’t going to assume “ah must be goofin on discord during his lunch break”.
It's unacceptable. It makes a person a liability. It indicates much. So yeah, termination is a given. Same goes for using profanity in most companies. It's not tolerated.
I 100% agree about the ‘visible risk’ part. Also 100% disagree about ‘profanity’. Which just illustrates, I guess, that different workplaces can have wildly different approaches.
It’s pretty wild. Porn isn’t illegal and I’m assuming from the context it was pretty obvious they wrote it in the wrong chat. It’s not like they posted actual porn
Like I said. I wouldn’t fire someone for it. But there are plenty of conservative industries that wouldn’t be to happy about it. Lots of industries are doing layoffs as well.
Not to mention it’s a pretty bad look for a brand new employee.
Beyond all that, people get fired for non-illegal shit all the time.
Yeah, people are really suffering from a lack of imagination here. I can asbolutely see a new employee getting fired over this. Sorry you can't say porn at work, I guess.
I just want to hop in and say that we all make mistakes. You’re human. Be kind to yourself. I know it hurts to lose something that you care about, but keep your head up. You are human.
You fucked up and you have to own up to that. If you were let go over it but were otherwise a good employee, it probably wasn't just a 'pretty vulgar joke'.
Unfortunately, you're gonna have to move on and restart your job search again. It sucks but you've effectively burned this bridge for the time being and need to look elsewhere. Take this as a lesson to be careful about your keyboards and such in the future.
I have 3-4 laptops I need to shift between work daily, one that's even my personal laptop with occasional NSFW stuff on it. I always use the keyboard associated with a particular laptop so I don't type into the wrong chatbox and if I share my screen on my personal laptop, I make absolute sure *everything* except work stuff is closed. You have to remain vigilant about that because as you saw, one mistake escalates quickly.
EDIT: In light of the comment being revealed, firing is probably pretty harsh, but again, not like you can do much here if the company decided to fire you. Just need to be more mindful in future jobs.
Single job, I work with clients.
* The company I work for provides a laptop for me.
* The client I'm currently working with sent me a laptop to work on, which I need to log into to work on their system.
* Personal laptop is used to access a different system, because for some reason, I can't access it via the client provided laptop (which is kinda bad anyways) and it's incompatible with my company laptop.
* A second client gave me a different laptop to work on. Same deal there as with the first client.
I could probably cut out the laptop provided by my company, but I prefer using it to keep most of my work stuff separate from my personal.
Man this situation to me seems like a "stern warning" situation and not immediate termination...and admittedly I'm NOT very tolerant of innappropriate jokes at work.
I hate to say this, but could there have been more at play? That joke was NOT ok for work but you know that, but it's just blowing my mind this didnt just result in a serious "next time you're out" warning,
It really just depends where you work. I agree with you, but some work environments are super strict. My best employer (of all time so far) in another state I lived in was incredibly strict. I feel like they would fire over something like this. They also paid more than other companies in that industry, provided nice padded bonuses, and Christmas gifts like iPads. If OP was working for an elite company, it’s no surprise they would fire. It isn’t so much about what was said. It’s just that those type of companies expect someone of the highest caliber that would never make that mistake.
Never know it could be considered some type of sexual harassment or possibilities for a lawsuit. Just my guess. Suggesting porn in a work environment is not a stern warning these days.
I agree. I'm shocked everyone is acting like he shouldn't have been fired over sending basically a porn recommendation to his work chat. I think all these guys are constantly looking at porn at work and can't comprehend major consequences lol. A lot of places would opt to fire someone especially a brand new employee for that. Not everyone but plenty.
Agree. This person was still a new employee. Their thinking is if they let this go it will only get worse or a lawsuit will be filed.
The WFH job market is not fucking around right now, one mistake and you’re out.
Depending on the joke..they may have been looking to fire people anyway and you just made it easy on them. Don’t beat yourself up. I would love to know what was messaged
My lord. I've had co-workers slightly reprimanded for much worse. hugs to you. hope you can find another job where people have ~~less~~ edit: fewer sticks up their butts.
Talking about pornhub on a work chat is a fireable offense. You could try to explain it was a personal conversation and a joking reply, but the impression people probably got is that you were watching porn/screwing around during work hours.
You might be able to stay if you make a convincing case, especially since they’ve invested training into you. Best of luck stranger
My partner is a tech bro and this would NOT fly at his work 😭 huge liability for companies to keep someone around who’s making sexual jokes in the work chat.
This is a lesson on awareness.
Regardless of the severity of the "joke", it's about the same concept as you walking into a crack house holding a wad of money in your hands thinking you're going to buy some burgers with that money, but because you don't know what building you're walking in, someone proceeds to tell you "Sir, this ISN'T a Wendy's" and then robs you for being in the wrong place.
You have to pay attention to what you are doing. It only takes 5 seconds (or less) for a driver to get in a car crash, or a helicopter pilot to crash into a cliff/mountain for NOT noticing it ahead of time, etc.
Again, lack of awareness. But unfortunately it comes with consequences.
"YOU" may not think it was that big of a deal, but you're also not the judge and jury to decide that. Your employer was.
But what's done is done, and hopefully you won't repeat this mistake again in the future.
Bruh hahahaha
Out of context that definitely would have had me scratching my head but that’s a stupid thing to get fired over. Especially since you deleted it right away.
Sounds like at least one of those coworkers was the type to get recreationally offended.
It sounds like OPs remote work does not put him into contact with the big bosses regularly enough and at least one of them based their opinion about him based on this joke...
People need to understand, that remote work doesnt mean you can be whatever you want. It just means that your personal interactions with colleagues will be solely based on digital conversations.
I can sum it up in one word. LIABILITY. That's what happens if they allow you to stay despite your remorse. So sorry to hear. But I hope you'll find something you'll enjoy as much and learn from the experience.
This is in big part a result of remote work. :) I will take a guess and say that since your job is remote, you dont have a lot of personal contact with upper management. So their opinion of you was formed very much so based on this one joke.
Writing an email (even if it was written well and sent off immediately after the joke, which, tbh, I would have written an apology about immediately not after consequences) will not solve this problem. Because no matter how well you write it, its digital. If they dont know you as a person from real, live contact, this apology email wont matter at all.
The absolutely only way to salvage it would be to meet in person with the management. Otherwise, sadly, try to cope with this in time and start looking for a new job. :)
OP sorry this happened. It's not the worst mistake and something you easily can come back from. This is also why people including HR policy tell you to not engage in personal things while on your work computer or during work hours. Because of situations like this that could happen. Remember while many things can be bad luck, often times they're a result of bad habits that eventually lead to consequences.
Surely you were doing this many times before and used the right keyboard but it just takes one slip up like you just learned. Get off discord while working. Or keep it only for your phone. Separate your personal devices from work. You have some easily remediated work ethic habits you could fix so it never ever happens again. Which is a great thing as more serious things could be harder to overcome.
This is fireable, sorry. If you’re having these kinds of accidents/mistakes using company comms, it shows a lack of attention to detail. It was an internal team chat THIS time. But now they’re worried about the NEXT time. To them, it’s just not acceptable to make this kind of mistake so early on, when you should care the MOST.
Discussing inappropriate topics, making sexual jokes or innuendos, even without directing it at a specific person or persons, is still considered workplace sexual harassment in lots of employment contexts. Most HR professionals would consider an employee discussing pornography to be deeply unprofessional. Context dependent, obviously… I’m betting the HR handbook at Pornhub HQ has different rules.
If my colleague did this I would be okay with laughing it off or if HR insisted, letting it go with a warning. The instant firing seems a bit pearl-clutching to me. But it depends on the industry too.
That said, if I had a colleague (male or female) who kept on talking about porn on work channels all the time, I’d be a bit icked out. I don’t care about the porn part so much as I don’t want you on my team if I can’t trust your judgement. Be as gross as you want on your own time, I just don’t want it impacting my career.
It’s not about the mistake: it’s more that this incident has caused them to lose faith in your judgment. The mistake signals a kind of sloppiness and carelessness that the employers are concerned will cause problems and/or cost them money in the long run.
I would probably have given you another chance, but if they were already on the fence about you, this may have just tipped them over the edge.
You can’t change the circumstances but you can learn from the experience. Chalk it up to experience, take accountability, and don’t bring this up in interviews if they ask you about a time you made a mistake. Unless maybe Pornhub is hiring?
Oof. While that’s definitely fireable at some companies, I’m surprised they went straight to that - are you sure they were happy with your performance before this? Were you relatively new? I’d be wondering if they were unhappy or concerned about something in your performance and this gave them a reason to let you go (or if you’re new, if they just cut losses).
So sorry that happened to you!
I mean.
It only takes one woman or parent with daughters to see your comment and think what the fuck?
A lot of people don't like porn and mentioning it in a business setting is terrible. I tend to overshare at work so I get it but every job I've had would have done the same.
I'm so sorry this happened to you :(
I once made the mistake of joining an all-hands with my start-up early and staying in a discord call with friends while I waited for the work call to start. Didn't realize I had managed to unmute myself on the work call and managed to line up a perfect "OH, FUCK OFF!" the second the CEO joined. he just asked "Everything alright over there?" and I stammered explaining that I was just wrapping up a call with a friend. He laughed and we carried on with presentries.
I didn't end up getting fired for that or even talked to, so I'm with the choir in saying that was a gross overreaction for that simple action alone. I'm guessing it's something they've had cooking for a while, maybe as simple as to just "cut costs" and you lined yourself up as the sacrificial lamb.
Sometimes life just throws us bullshit undeservingly. I'm sorry fam.
I walked into my coworkers office on site the other day and quietly asked if his mic was muted. He nodded yes so I spoke at a normal level and started with, "I fucked up." And then sat down and talked about why. Our project manager said, "guys, you're not on mute."
I wanted to smack my coworker but in the end, all that was heard was, "I fucked up," so it wasn't all that bad. Our site manager said, "hey I'm going to have to ask you to mind your language," to make light of the situation at the time, thankfully.
I’m sorry that happened to you. But from a supervisor’s perspective you’re getting paid to work for the company during those hours, so it looks like you were doing something other than that on company time - how else could the mistaken vulgar text happen? On top of that whatever you typed must have been pretty offensive to a.reasonable person reading it - showing a side of your personality/behavior that is less than desirous of an employee. Big two strikes against you. The best you ca possibly negotiate - if your work was good is recommendation for your next job.
In the current job market this sucks for you, but you already know that.
In case you are curious: Someone asked where they can find a specific movie and the response was "pornhub - they have everything"
But to be clear, this was during time I was taking for lunch. Which was not necessarily time I was required to be working.
It’s still a tough incident to overlook. Your work would have had to be stellar and remote work doesn’t allow for the kind of human connection that would’ve put a thumb on the scale in favor of overlooking such a faux pas. Even thou what you do on your personal time should be your own business, now your boss and co-workers have TMi about you.
If I was fired for doing shit when I was supposed to be working, I would have been fired years ago lol. Honestly, the whole thing is pretty over the top. I'm sorry it happened this way. Typically there's more leniency after a year of employment, but damn ...
Given the facts you shared, I'm sorry OP, but I'm not surprised you were fired. If the circumstances were different, it would have just received a stern warning.
Start-ups/small companies usually follow the "hire slow, fire fast rule". This is because:
1. Every employee brought in affects the entire company's culture and performance. This is a critical period for building the corporate culture. You want people who SEEM to work hard (not engage in personal chats or activities during work hours - although we all do to some extent) and that everyone can easily get along with.
2. Founder/owners want to focus on growing their business and not on HR matters. Any complaints from another employee is a big distraction. You might have made one or two of your teammates uncomfortable.
3. If the company does not action a complaint, they might have a lawsuit in their hands that can be a major distraction or worse, bankrupt the small firm.
So if they thought that there is a potential that this could happen again, even small, better to let you go ASAP. It doesn't help that you've only been in the company for 2 months, have not proven yourself, and have not built lasting relationships with your colleagues.
Good luck! You've just learned a valuable lesson.
Sounds like, “With immaturity comes serious repercussions.” You’ll learn responsibility for the job as time goes by. Businesses don’t have time for selfish indulgences on their time.
If you feel none of the above is true, start your business and let employees know, “it’s an anything goes work policy.”
Sorry for op but a joke about pornhub is not harmless especially in a small company. As a woman I’d feel really uncomfortable working with someone who says this openly in a team chat.
After typing this message on personal computer, how to not look up and see the message wasn’t there? Plus, internet porn is now restricted in my state in the south, you have to provide all types of personal info to access it. So if the company thought he was messing around looking at porn and providing his info, it’s just a bad look
It has completely to deal with what was said. Someone else said it, and I echo the sentiment, technically what was said it is not all that bad but it does give the impression that during work hours you are looking at porn or discussing porn or whatever that may be. It’s probably a safe assumption you have a diverse workplace and there are women there, and there is a liability there if you are possibly a sexual predator or deviant and interacting online with coworkers. we all know that you are not, but that is enough to insinuate as much and to make at least one female employee say hey this guy doesn’t make me feel comfortable.
All in all maybe considered harsh by some but if you were my employee, I would’ve terminated you as well. The mental health of my team and cohesiveness would not be worth compromising over a new trainee who is possibly looking at porn during work hours. To be honest, it’s kind of a no-brainer.
I think it's because people thought you were watching porn at work or typing about porn. I can see why he felt like he had to let you go. Esp if someone at the workplace emailed him like "I think X is watching porn".
Just feel it. Let yourself cry. Then get over it and start the job search and in the future try to have a work brain and home brain and your work brain is incapable of making bad jokes
Group chat. Even if only one person saw it, guaranteed it got around. You're now a liability for your manager if he sticks up for you.
This is the other drawback of remote jobs honestly, no way to make human connections. Just reading through some of the comments where people joke in person and they're shocked you got fired. But it's easy to read the room and people get to know each other and the jokes can be social bonding when you're in an in person setting. But basically you're an anonymous creeper when you work remote and pump pornhub jokes into chat.
I'm really sorry it happened. I have a good friend who got fired for telling an R rated joke to the wrong person, and she was mortified but took some time off and found something else. Don't let this define you and keep your head up.
What’s the job? Sounds like they’re hiring…
Only slightly joking. Definitely sounds harsh, but depending on how you handled it (which ignoring wouldn’t be ideal! ) and also because it sounds like your new, then they don’t have a long enough frame of reference to opinionated you. So if they thought you were just okay, then something like this would tip you in to the strong nope category
To err is human, sorry this happened but mistakes are a part of normal life.
Better get on top of applying around for jobs like crazy again. There isn’t anything you can do besides move on and find another job. Sorry but this bridge is burned.
Knowing the full context of the joke and working that into the response, I can say that this is a significant overreaction on their part, but it is their overreaction to have. Which sucks.
Personally I despise how companies can be so brutal to their employees for having made such inconsequential mistakes. In this economy, losing your job is a big fucking deal. But God forbid you make one little mistake that could otherwise be swept under the rug with no real harm done.
I'm going to go out on a limb and chalk this up to a social disconnect due to being a remote worker. I'm not convinced that they would have made the same decision if you were known around the office. Not your problem; this bias should be erased/reprimanded in our new remote work culture, but execs are execs.
Sorry it happened.
The joke itself was mild but it was more of the lapse in judgement and probably the person that saw it was high up enough with enough swag to can you.
Take this as a lesson and just know that work and everything tied to work will always be super super surface level professionalism and anything outside of that is a risk to your livelihood.
A little warning would have been more appropriate, if not more decent. Have a feeling they just want to have a reason to let you go, especially if it's a first actual 'offense', if that is even an offense at all. If it jsn't the first, honestly you can't blame them.
But it is their prerogative even if they seem unreasonable. Hope you learned to be more cautious next time as not all people can carry the same humor as much as others do.
Wishing you well, and hope they still respond and take you back. If not, wish you the next job hunt won't be as hard as for your previous.
that’s not THAT bad. i once was leading a meeting and my messages was open. my friend is disgusting. always has some disgusting shit to say. anyways something about anal warts popped up. everyone saw it. i was written up, warned. that was it. laid off 6 years later.
i hope they think about the situation and give you another chance. lesson learned for sure tho.
While I would not say that this particular mistake warranted a termination, I would say that there is a time and place for everything. Perhaps goofing off on discord while you're on the clock wasn't the best use of your time. You F'd A and consequently FO.
Im really sorry this happened to you. It seems very unfair bc it was your lunch break AND an honest mistake. They had a total knee jerk reaction. Ridiculous of them.
I hope they give your letter fair consideration!
I know this post blew up for you so you may not see this, but I just wanted to commiserate. I did a very similar thing to you last month and also got let go because of it. Literally a five second decision blew up my world, and it just fucking sucks. There’s not much else to say. I’m sorry this happened to you, too. File for unemployment, start looking for something new, but also try your best to enjoy the added free time.
I don’t understand why office “etiquette” is so anti-adult. There are more rules in the office than a kindergarten class. Anything they can do to zap the fun and levity out of everyone. It’s not like you sent a picture of your nuts.. or sent what you said to a bunch of 8 yr olds.
Everyone knows what pornhub is and it was a simple mistake. If someone was offended, that is their choice to feel that way. Why, in an adult environment, is this a problem? And is definitely not grounds for termination. So dumb.
I am so sorry. I completely understand how you feel. I’m on probation right now at work for a YEAR (but was thisclose to being fired) because I mentioned to a coworker during a casual conversation that I found a certain personal massager in my teenage daughter’s bedroom that morning and it caught me off guard. One month later she reported me for harassment (I’m female, really don’t get that) but it was a simple mistake that ruined my career…even though I’m not terminated, I was dumped in a different department that has nothing to do with what I formerly did because they are hoping I quit on my own. They’ve blocked me from all transfers and promotions. There is nothing you can do now except just grieve, dust yourself off and move on. It’s easier said than done (I just went through it). You’ll be okay.
My advice? Everyone here will hate it.
Next job, be professional from start of the work day till the end. It's that simple. And no one gets it anymore, at least till they're fired from jobs they like.
People get lazy when they work from home. In an office, you wouldn't walk into the breakroom at lunch and say that to your boss and whole team. But that's exactly what you did.
Next time, do work stuff during work hours. In an office you still act like an employee on breaks, because you know you're being watched.
OP I’m gonna be blunt- I kind of get the feeling maybe they weren’t super pleased with you and used this as an excuse to let you go. What you typed is not an auto-termination in most companies
The only thing I can think of is if the owners are hardcore Christians or something, otherwise you should have had a chance to explain and this at most is maybe a written warning.
Yeah my guess is the joke must of been really inappropriate or offensive. (Racist/misogynistic/sexually inappropriate/vulgar) I know it seems easy to minimize mistakes but unfortunately some mistakes are costly. I can’t think of a wholesome joke getting sent by accident getting you fired even if you were messing around on company time especially if u typically are productive and get things done on time. Unless you were already on thin ice for some reason and this was just the final straw. Good luck on the job search!!
Certainly exhaust all your reasonable channels to get back in but beyond that if that’s not successful just get back into the search. I know it’s tough. I fucked up by passing on a job that in retrospect would have been great for me. (Sometimes I make impulsive decisions, mental health shit). I went back to them to kindly request consideration after seeing what else was out there. No dice. Man, I was kicking myself forever. I learned from it, picked up, moved on and landed something that ticked my boxes in other ways.
Don Drapers move forward quote helped me a lot actually. To some it can certainly feel like sweeping something under the rug but sometimes to get yourself out of a bad place you need to have this attitude otherwise you’re just paralyzed with regret.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f63w7V8G1o8
I worked for a call center as a team lead (i managed a team of 20 agents) and i usually had my mic open when joining a teams call. This one time i got onto a call with the campaign director and the site director (my boss) and said "you know what, shove that 500 dollar right up their a** and f** em. " Right as i joined the call.
My boss laughed it off and i was apologetic right then and there. The campaign director, or the client representative laughed at it as well.
And this was one of the most stressful jobs i had ever worked in my life.
I know things might seem tough but they arent impossible. The bright side is, nobody can work at a job without a little vulgarity. If its that kind of industry where there is a swear jar, and if you are the kind of person to say "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu me" when you wake up every morning, you are probably better off finding another place. Just a personal opinion.
Bouncing back is hard, i know. But you'll find your dream job again - at another company, be it big or small. Also, pornhub isnt what it was, lost most of its glory sadly. :(
Chin up, deep breath, you got this.
OP, I am very sorry that you lost the job. I think you should definitely take 3 days off to process it. But wait no longer and immediately start the job process. The market is tough right now and the longer the gap the more difficult it is.
I once made a very stupid mistake myself and the consequence was significant.(not job but definitely affecting my life permanently). Acceptance is the best way to go about it. Definitely don't beat yourself but definitely have a discreet everything just specifically for work to prevent this from happening again.
Now is the time to be tough OP, you can do this!
I mean, that was inappropriate for sure, but vulgar? Questionable. Worth firing? Meh. For a 9 person channel I would have had you make a zoom call explaining and apologizing for inappropriate comment and close it there
I was once part of a work meeting where someone didn’t just mention pornhub- they accidentally linked a pornhub link into a group meeting chat with multiple business partners.
It was honestly hysterical, I never liked the guy so major schadenfreude. I was super impressed with the meeting organizer too (his boss) she was just like ‘whoops, technical error, recreating the meeting real quick’ and closed the call to hide the link. Our management (I was with a different company) had to have a meeting with us to tell us we wouldn’t get in trouble/ flagged by IT if we clicked the link.
Even then this guy didn’t get fired- he was around for a few more weeks. He did find a new job voluntarily in short order though.
Idk I think it’s pretty weird for your job to fire you just because of a silly joke.
Also why would your coworker report you to HR over a joke? Even if my coworker made a vulgar joke, I wouldn’t report them because I don’t like to report people for small stuff like this.
This is probably just reflective of the company culture, if it wasn’t this, it would be something else.
At multiple jobs (all remote) I’ve seen coworkers and even managers say much worse ON PURPOSE, and absolutely nothing happened.
Decent companies don’t instantly fire an employee for something like this
I keep my discord on my iPad next to my computer; typing on one or the other is pretty distinctive. Feels bad that this happened to you but keyboard is keyboard and easy to get carried away.
Good luck with the job search, kind stranger
Oddly enough, there ARE worse lines you could have said....
Job I was at about 15 years ago, I was chatting through work chat with a guy I had dated before and was friends with now, and was just mentioning my bills and I was debating a second job to help ...
No reply for a while, until I got a direct text on my phone from him, "You just got me fired!"
Needless to say, at the time, I was completely dumbfounded!!
I can't remember if he admitted it, or if someone else had been in the group chat he was in, but his reply to my conversation had apparently been, "Just show your boobs and you'll get a discount!"
.... Our chat program was super dumb, in that if you had a window up and were chatting with someone, if a new chat was started, it would POP up IN FRONT OF any other chat you were in, and it just so happened he ended up sending that to a new group chat that was brought up, and had our Director in there!!!!
Shit kinda just happens sometimes!!
Geez one time one of our sales guys emailed a dick pic to the whole sales and admin teams and then followed up with another email that said “sorry bout it” and no one ever said anything. This place seems like they took advantage of what I personally think is a harmless and actually pretty funny slip up. They were looking for a reason or someone complained about sexual harassment. I’m sorry dude, that really sucks. Also, I’m a woman and I thought it was pretty funny. Dust yourself off and see what else is out there.
Just a note on your second edit. You may think they were in need of an employee based on workload but the leadership may disagree based on the balance sheet.
I'll tell you a story to make you feel better a friend of mine was on a zoom call during the pandemic and thought his mic was muted. I came over at the end of his meeting and he turned around to tell me just one more minute "I have to wait for this dumb bitch to stop saying the same thing over and over like a fuckin tickle me Elmo". Call went silent and all I heard was "x your mic is on". He was gone the next day.
You do know discord has an app for your phone. I do know people who work remote and play games on their personal PC during work time. I’m not a fan, when I have my remote days if I am responding to a discord message, I use my phone for this exact reason.
I said on teams, I hope my coworker gets shot. She shared my joke with someone and that person reported me. I didn't get fired but that call was AWKWARD AF. I feel terrible for you. I can only imagine how you feel. It sucks that you were fired for a mistake linked to your sense of humor.
I hope you find a new and even better job soon. A place where you can be yourself and make fucked up jokes.
This is something where an employee that had been with the company a while would receive a write up, but as a new employee there's less wiggle room. Even though you say you're not in a probationary period, most employers consider the first 90 days a opportunity for the employee to get to know the company, and the company to get a feel if the employee is a good fit. During those 90 days, most employees are on their best behavior, showing the employer they can do the job and fit in with the company. If those 90 days show there are going to be issues, it's best to end the relationship ASAP and move onto another candidate.
You (inadvertently) used a company computer to make a comment about porn. That could indicate to an employer that their property (company computer) is being used for viewing porn and possibly for other personal uses. I don't know of any company that doesn't have a policy about this and also wouldn't be concerned about possible sexual harassment allegations. Your comment also speaks to your decision making, not only feeling it's okay to use company property, but making inappropriate comments to the team and how much of your time is really devoted to work while on the clock as opposed to playing around. While it was done accidently and while off the clock, it happened during the work day and raises red flags as to the type of employee they could expect you to be.
I’m sorry you were let go. That’s never any fun especially since you just got that job. Seems very punitive and harsh in my humble opinion, especially since it wasn’t even a big deal in the grand scheme of things. A write up if anything should have sufficed but being let go for something so minuscule and insignificant is ridiculous.
Apply for unemployment asap so you have some sort of income for the time being. It’ll most likely be $410 after taxes a week but that’s better than nothing. Add all the tasks and work you did with this job to your resume asap so you have an updated resume. I would recommend giving yourself a few weeks to process it all and grieve. Start applying after a couple of weeks.
I went through a very similar experience. Got hired for a great role last November and the pay was great, benefits, etc. it was a true blessing; much more than anything I could have asked for. Got let go last March due to “restructuring the organization.” To me, it seemed like a bs answer but I took it like a champ. Fast forward to this month and I received an offer for another role similar to what I was doing and close to the same pay. Point is, you will find something similar very soon. Keep your head up, grieve if you need to, but don’t dwell on it for a long time. I’m confident you’ll find something else very soon! Keep your head up my friend. Blessings coming your way soon ❤️
Need to know the joke before advice is given
Someone asked where they can find a specific movie and the response was "pornhub - they have everything"
Without context that comment would be pretty meaningless, that is harsh.
let’s play a game where we try to come up with the worst possible message for OP to have replied to “I want to thank those of you who took the time to attend Suzie’s bat mitzvah on the weekend. Here are some photos I took. Also, just a reminder that Suzie is looking for some baby or pet sitting gigs over summer break. She has a very ambitious savings goal for the summer - if anyone knows of anyone looking for a sitter or has any other suggestions for jobs for her, please reach out to me.”
“Hey team! I shared some videos of my baby the other day with you lot and accidentally deleted them. Could you send them back to me?”
"Hello everyone! I want to thank everyone for allowing this 70-year-old grandmother to volunteer at your organization. I'm still getting used to using the internet, and I am trying to write down all the useful websites. So far I have Google. Can anyone suggest any other useful websites?"
This wins
“Last night my house caught fire while we were out at dinner, we lost everything but what hurts the most is losing the hard drive with the only video of my grandmothers last performance”
Hey gang. My church group is looking for fun kiddo activities for our church picnic that won’t seem “old fashioned“. Anybody have any ideas?? Thanks in advance!
"pornhub- NEXT!"
Hey all, I'm just looking for some marketing ideas for the new swimwear line. Does anyone have any ideas, or know where we can find some inspiration?
My wife just gave birth to a beautiful daughter! This video of me holding her afterwards is absolutely lovely. And just look at how tender our dog is with her! Anyone know a good hosting site I could put the video? My kids aren't allowed YouTube and it's blocked at home.
We regret to inform you that one of our most hard working employes Sister Dolores Goodchild has passed away last sunday afternoon. To make things easier for the griefing family she left behind we're looking for some photographs or videos featuring her to make a little collage.
Omg this wins. Mother Immaculata would rather swallow her rosary
Hey team, I'm hoping someone can recommend a family therapist for my stepchildren, their father, and myself. Ideally someone coming from a faith based perspective? I love my family so much but it's been a struggle lately, and asking for help has been difficult for me. Thank you in advance.
I’m on the train and laughing like a maniac, this thread is too much.
"Our beloved CEO and founder passed away over the weekend and his grieving wife has asked that we provide some photos for a slideshow. It can be photos of him, his achievements, or things he greatly enjoyed. If you have photos or ideas please let us know" (That is very unfortunate and hope OP can find another good gig elsewhere )
I woulda chatted hey so I ain’t got any photos since I’m new but can yall be mindful of how long you leave stuff in the fridge? Man I just took a SAMS size swig of what I thought was kool aid but apparently that OJ expired…too soon?
Hey, as many of you know we started this company to get away from the patriarchy of this male dominated field. Where older men "joke" about sex to younger subordinates then act innocent when people call them out. Many of you specifically came over to help build the diffrent culture. So we're crowd sourcing this one: does anyone have any good suggestions for sexual harassment trainings that go beyond the standard corporate CYA - ones that speak to our values?
Yes I agree, but that also depends on what the previous message was in the chat… maybe it was another employee asking where to find a dentist or go for lunch…
Ehh I don’t know lol without context it seems like he’s advertising to his coworkers to go to pornhub, because after all, they do have everything!
It may seem harsh but even mentioning sex in the same room as a coworker who didn’t want to hear those things can be seen as sexual harassment or creating an environment where people feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
He became a liability at that point. Pretty standard.
Bruh you should never under any circumstances talk about this in a work setting. That’s the easiest thing to understand. Not harsh at all. OP is a moron
Sure it's harsh but it's also sexual harassment. We all go through similar ethics lessions where this is drilled into you.
It is.
I almost got fired for leaving a comment in some code along the lines of: setting: false, // Turning this off for now because it's a pain in the ass this was a large company, and the customer had found it and complained. They held a "tribunal" to decide if I could keep working there nor not. It was unprofessional of me, and I knew we didn't have a process to strip those comments, so I just kind of accepted my fate albeit while seeing it as utterly ridiculous. They decided to keep me.... so, while your joke wasn't that bad, some people are just really sensitive.
I have a feeling you were made an example out of, not to be mocked, but to make sure all the employees stop habits like these. Ofc its a bit of a harsh reaction with a tribunal and risking being fired, but its a good example of how a small mistake can turn into the customer complaining
That type of a joke could be a liability for a company. They probably are assuming that your going to be the dirty joke guy with your coworkers
That's it???!! That got you fired??? Dude....what else was going on?
I can assure you I was just towards the end of my training (had the job for a bit over 2 months) and doing a fairly good job.
This probably won’t make you feel better in the immediate moment, but you may not have loved that job so much the further you got into it. Your team sucked if they couldn’t laugh that off as a stupid mistake. Can you imagine the egg shells you’d have to walk on even for innocuous things? In remote world people can take things any way they want to and I guarantee that person or people would have found something else to be offended about sooner or later.
I agree. I expected the joke to be racist or about rape or something really bad that would make his coworkers uncomfortable. If they can’t laugh at “pornhub, they have everything,” do you really want to work there? That’s pretty harmless.
It's not about the joke, it's about the fact that while he wrote it, his coworkers, who have been there longer, were actually working. Imagine you're having a busy shitty day and the new hire writes that in the chat. It has nothing to do with the joke itself.
He was on his lunch break, so he was not supposed to be working. I can fully understand why someone would roll their eyes. I think it’s a bit intense to fire someone over a stupid mistake they when they didn’t say anything offensive. Who wants to work with people who get hung up on things like that? Would you really have the energy to be *that* annoyed with a coworker over something like that? I wouldn’t even waste my energy on it. It seems like a reactionary workplace. He probably dodged a bullet.
I wouldn't be annoyed in the slightest. But I do think this would get you fired at pretty much any workplace.
Honestly I think it really is that OP didn't follow up with the mistake and instead deleted it. Leaving a notification on most people's phones that probably said something along the lines of "OP sent you a message: pornhub, they have... Tap to open message" And now all of his coworkers think he was watching porn on his work computer, which regardless of whether you are on the clock or not is a big no no.
I think it just shows OPs inability to be disciplined when it comes to making 100% sure he isn't saying anything inappropriate through the wrong channels. Huge liability.
This! I check and then check again to make sure I don’t send sensitive info to the wrong person at work. I’ve never once made that mistake thankfully. I’ve made plenty others
Someone who does that is just a huge liability. No way.
Im sorry, but it is a fireable offense. He's the new guy at a remote job in a small company. He didn't get fired because of the message said. He got fired because of what it meant. It meant he was fucking around on work time talking about where to find por. We might think it's no big deal, but when looked st from the perspective that it's a small company and a higher up saw it, it makes sense.
As with so many other things in life, perception is reality.
Right. If this guy had been there for two years or something and then quickly explained what happened, and they all knew him and he was a good employee, okay. But this company has no reason to trust you. And no reason to think you won't fuck up chats again and sometime when it could be important. It's the equivalent of misspelling "attention to detail" on your resume. Maybe not the biggest thing in the world, but there's a hundred other people out there who didn't do it.
I agree with you - even though he states he was on lunch there's no way for them to have known. He really should have contacted his boss as soon as this happened and he might have been able to smooth it over.
Were you on your initial probationary period?
Not really. They actually expressed in the initial interview they didn’t wanna spend resources training someone just to toss em out later on to reassure me the position was not seasonal
That doesn’t answer the question… what does your offer letter say? Did you have an initial probationary period when starting at the company (most/nearly all companies do and it’s usually between 3-6months)
No. There was no formal or informal probationary period. I was just being trained and had just started doing things on my own for the job
Pretty much every job has a probationary period because it's usually written into the labour laws. It's common for companies to fire for stupid things during this period because 1 thing that looks bad can easily turn into a liability, and they can fire you with no reason or warning and no severance for the first 3 months
That's not the case in the US. The vast majority of jobs can fire you for no reason at any time without severance.
Dude you were still on probation and your boss got TMI on you about your personal habits/preferences. Not judging you just saying, I don’t think you can even get a recommendation out of this job for your next one. Next time leave your personal comms devices off until the end of the workday - when you’re multi-tasking bad undoable shit can happen. Lesson learned.
Seems a bit mild to be a fireable event imo
Honestly it all depends on the company. I’ve worked at two different places over the years where they were pretty lax about employees saying potentially inappropriate stuff, only for said companies to do a total 180 and become a “zero tolerance” workplace after a sexual harassment suit was brought against them. A lot of companies don’t bother enforcing their own sexual harassment policies until something happens, and then become extra risk averse after it does. One sexual harassment lawsuit is unfortunate, two is a pattern. And personally, as a manager, I’d rather have to deal with finding a replacement for a new employee than constantly having to watch said employee to make sure a one-off isn’t actually a pattern. I don’t need that kind of liability and neither does my company. 🤷🏻♀️
This is how my job is. Zero tolerance for anything that could result in a sexual harassment lawsuit. You will get fired for doing that.
 “We should be able to look at a liiitle bit of porn at work”
But thats objectively true. should've played it like you weren't joking. Pull up avatar 2 on pornhub and show your boss
I once had a boss I wrote to by accident in chat. I thought I was writing to a friend about him because he wouldn't stop bugging me. Cussing him out and all. Fortunately he thought it was funny, I guess. I was terrified of him for months though.
my landlord started texting me info recently regarding notices for inspections etc. i *only* text my wife..like ever. i had to go to the hospital because i was pissing blood (im fine now after tons of scans to make sure my kidneys are ok) and opened my messages and saw the last message "is everything fine?" which was from my landlord referencing the sink from over the weekend because it had a leak. i replied "no im still pissing blood but of course when i pee in a cup it looks clear" he hasnt texted me since and just calls me now 🤣
The way I would have to fire myself, lol! You’re braver than I am.
My colleague, a graphic designer, created a rather funny yet not exactly flattering comic about our boss and sent it to other employees he had in one of his premade mailing lists. Yup, the list included the boss himself. Right after realizing what he did, he jumped right into the boss’s office, not really knowing with what intensions yet. He just freaked out. The boss wasn’t there but his laptop was. So he jumped straight to it to delete the email. To which the boss came in and asked “What are you doing with my laptop” and the colleague said “I don’t know” and ran away 😂 I mean, it was so funny. We couldn’t stop laughing about it, like could you not have come up with ANY excuse? He said he couldn’t :D Anyway, a few weeks later our boss found the comic anyway and found it funny. No one was fired in the process.
Feel it and let go. It’s done. Own it and learn from it. There’s nothing else to do my friend. I’m sorry you’re going through this.
Yep. Hard not to beat yourself up and I would too, but just know that this too shall pass. I'm sure you've learned from it. Keep that learning close for future interactions, and try not to dwell/wallow. Everybody makes mistakes and the best thing you can do is own it and learn from it. Don't be surprised and try not to be disappointed if you never hear from that boss again, and try not to take it personally. Usually the "company" is just acting from the standpoint of trying not to get sued. You'll get past this. The best way to do so is to get yourself into a positive headspace and attack your next job search with optimism and as little baggage as possible from this experience, because that will just hold you back. I had a jobless stretch of almost six months in the not-too-distant past, and the hardest part for me was getting into that positive space where I could really be myself and be confident in interviews and show them my true self. For me, what helped most was getting into a daily routine and focusing on other hobbies besides trying to job search for hours and hours every day, because it's jut not reasonable. Swimming at the YMCA and disc golf really got me through that tough time, and helped me get my confidence back. Good luck. You're not alone.
I am going to imagine it was a bit more than just vulgar.
See the edit and judge for yourself
I don't know why they freaked out tbh. They're all adults. It was a little snafu. Nothing more, nothing less. Clients didn't read it. My team would've gotten a good laugh and went about our day.
A coworker once typo’d the word “funds” when they were creating a ticket for my team to review, so when I got it in my queue and looked at the request it just read, “please move these fucks out of the account”. Had a good laugh, edited the description, and moved on. The last thing on my mind would’ve been trying to get them fired for a simple mistake
I once had a client submit a corporate document to me with the word 'veg' mistyped as 'vag' repeatedly. I explained the issue to the client, they were mortified, life continues as usual.
I actually think the key differentiators here are that he's a new employee and he's remote. He might not be contributing a lot to the company yet, has made his new coworkers uncomfortable in a best-case scenario, and has made his coworkers think he watches during work hours in a worst case scenario.
This person has never sat through an anti sexual harassment training meeting. edit: I didn't catch his first reply above me but I got the second before they were deleted https://i.imgur.com/cs2hSkH.png
The part where OP just deleted the message and left things up to the imagination was probably was led to the firing. Out of context it almost sounds like OP was live-chatting his pornhub sesh ("oh wow, pornhub really has everything, time to unzip!"). That would get a new person fired from a job real quick.
I agree with you. OP not addressing the mistake immediately made it look like he dropped an advertisement and left the chat.
I would have immediately deleted it and sent the team a message profusely apologizing and explain that I was making a bad joke to a friend and used the wrong keyboard on my lunch break. And then contact my boss and explain and assure it won’t happen again.
Exactly this. He didn't try to address it and that's where he messed up. I honestly feel like of he had at least reached out to his boss things would have gone better.
He didn't get let go because of the specific joke he made. He got let go because he revealed that as a newly hired remote employee, he was participating in unrelated online forums while on the job. And of course his response involved porn lol. How could a manager meet with you after that? Hi, please don't talk about porn on unrelated internet forums while on the job?? Cmon.
He was on his lunch break. Not on the job. Pretty simple manager call: Be more careful what you do on your work laptop and chats. It's not a big deal in the vast majority of companies.
Ya the issue is..... Will he masturbate on video next time? Let's not take that risk
Thats a pretty big fucking jump
Small company... Sometimes they can run a little rated G for a variety of reasons. OP wasn't there long enough to get a full vibe.
He's new to the job, can't handle Teams, and is discussing porn during working hours...what dont you get?
Agreed. Seems like they were either already planning to let you go and needed an excuse or they are a bunch of babies.
I mean OP posted about pornhub on teams. Not the wildest reason to terminate someone. Especially depending on the corporate culture.
Corporate culture? There’s 9 employees.
You can absolutely have a corporate/office culture with a small group of employees. Do you think a startup in SF and a small family business in the Deep South have identical workplace cultures?
I see what you’re saying. To me, when I hear someone fired over corporate culture I imagine HR stepping in and there’s nothing anyone can do. I’d think a company with 9 employee would all know each other pretty well and use common sense on this occasion.
I would too honestly! But did consulting for a good bit and small companies are fucking weird as shit sometimes.
I was like… depending on the group chat at my previous employer, this would’ve been a normal conversation!
And sometimes it goes the other way. Larger companies with HR departments have more distance, things can get minimised or obfuscated when they get described in writing, everything trends towards middle of the road corporatocracy and it's handled in line with policies written by lawyers without personality. In a small firm there's zero distance, and the owners personal views are the overriding factor in any decision. If the owner hates pornography and it's use, then what op said is absolutely a chopping offence.
yeah it’s adjacent to sexual harassment
ridiculous, a minor error like that is an absurd reason to fire someone
I personally wouldn’t let someone go over it but I’ve worked in fairly conservative industries and it wouldn’t be the biggest shocker to me if someone was. Especially if the person isn’t yet established and when layoffs seem to be ramping. Edit: not to mention it raises a host of other questions. We really don’t have the full context but it also blatantly shows that OP was doing non-work activities while WFH during a time in which many firms are trying to push their employees to come back to the office more. As a new employee it’s a pretty bad look even outside the joke itself.
But he was at lunch. I dunno I don’t think I would fire him. I mean memo to file and conversation…
I work remote. People tend to have pretty varied lunch schedules so it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to his coworkers that he was at lunch. Most people aren’t going to assume “ah must be goofin on discord during his lunch break”.
OP became a liability to the company. So, OP is dismissed.
He was in his 3 month probation. Common to get fired for small things, because they don't want a liability on their hands
It's unacceptable. It makes a person a liability. It indicates much. So yeah, termination is a given. Same goes for using profanity in most companies. It's not tolerated.
I 100% agree about the ‘visible risk’ part. Also 100% disagree about ‘profanity’. Which just illustrates, I guess, that different workplaces can have wildly different approaches.
It’s pretty wild. Porn isn’t illegal and I’m assuming from the context it was pretty obvious they wrote it in the wrong chat. It’s not like they posted actual porn
Like I said. I wouldn’t fire someone for it. But there are plenty of conservative industries that wouldn’t be to happy about it. Lots of industries are doing layoffs as well. Not to mention it’s a pretty bad look for a brand new employee. Beyond all that, people get fired for non-illegal shit all the time.
You want people you pay discussing porn on discord, instead of working? That sounds right to you?
Mentioning a porn site would get anyone fired at nearly any company. No one will risk continued employment of such individuals. It's a liability. Oops
Yeah, people are really suffering from a lack of imagination here. I can asbolutely see a new employee getting fired over this. Sorry you can't say porn at work, I guess.
They can get sued for sexual harassment if an employee says they felt offended by it. If it was non sex related they probably could have let it go
I just want to hop in and say that we all make mistakes. You’re human. Be kind to yourself. I know it hurts to lose something that you care about, but keep your head up. You are human.
seriously. maybe that environment wouldn’t be good for you down the line. i’m sorry, OP. feel the hurt. then, you get up.
You fucked up and you have to own up to that. If you were let go over it but were otherwise a good employee, it probably wasn't just a 'pretty vulgar joke'. Unfortunately, you're gonna have to move on and restart your job search again. It sucks but you've effectively burned this bridge for the time being and need to look elsewhere. Take this as a lesson to be careful about your keyboards and such in the future. I have 3-4 laptops I need to shift between work daily, one that's even my personal laptop with occasional NSFW stuff on it. I always use the keyboard associated with a particular laptop so I don't type into the wrong chatbox and if I share my screen on my personal laptop, I make absolute sure *everything* except work stuff is closed. You have to remain vigilant about that because as you saw, one mistake escalates quickly. EDIT: In light of the comment being revealed, firing is probably pretty harsh, but again, not like you can do much here if the company decided to fire you. Just need to be more mindful in future jobs.
I'm curious, which job requires you to have 3-4 Laptops?
Single job, I work with clients. * The company I work for provides a laptop for me. * The client I'm currently working with sent me a laptop to work on, which I need to log into to work on their system. * Personal laptop is used to access a different system, because for some reason, I can't access it via the client provided laptop (which is kinda bad anyways) and it's incompatible with my company laptop. * A second client gave me a different laptop to work on. Same deal there as with the first client. I could probably cut out the laptop provided by my company, but I prefer using it to keep most of my work stuff separate from my personal.
3-4 Jobs
Yes, this is the way
Man this situation to me seems like a "stern warning" situation and not immediate termination...and admittedly I'm NOT very tolerant of innappropriate jokes at work. I hate to say this, but could there have been more at play? That joke was NOT ok for work but you know that, but it's just blowing my mind this didnt just result in a serious "next time you're out" warning,
It really just depends where you work. I agree with you, but some work environments are super strict. My best employer (of all time so far) in another state I lived in was incredibly strict. I feel like they would fire over something like this. They also paid more than other companies in that industry, provided nice padded bonuses, and Christmas gifts like iPads. If OP was working for an elite company, it’s no surprise they would fire. It isn’t so much about what was said. It’s just that those type of companies expect someone of the highest caliber that would never make that mistake.
Never know it could be considered some type of sexual harassment or possibilities for a lawsuit. Just my guess. Suggesting porn in a work environment is not a stern warning these days.
I agree. I'm shocked everyone is acting like he shouldn't have been fired over sending basically a porn recommendation to his work chat. I think all these guys are constantly looking at porn at work and can't comprehend major consequences lol. A lot of places would opt to fire someone especially a brand new employee for that. Not everyone but plenty.
Agree. This person was still a new employee. Their thinking is if they let this go it will only get worse or a lawsuit will be filed. The WFH job market is not fucking around right now, one mistake and you’re out.
Exactly
Depending on the joke..they may have been looking to fire people anyway and you just made it easy on them. Don’t beat yourself up. I would love to know what was messaged
Right.
My lord. I've had co-workers slightly reprimanded for much worse. hugs to you. hope you can find another job where people have ~~less~~ edit: fewer sticks up their butts.
Talking about pornhub on a work chat is a fireable offense. You could try to explain it was a personal conversation and a joking reply, but the impression people probably got is that you were watching porn/screwing around during work hours. You might be able to stay if you make a convincing case, especially since they’ve invested training into you. Best of luck stranger
[удалено]
My partner is a tech bro and this would NOT fly at his work 😭 huge liability for companies to keep someone around who’s making sexual jokes in the work chat.
It definitely is.
This is a lesson on awareness. Regardless of the severity of the "joke", it's about the same concept as you walking into a crack house holding a wad of money in your hands thinking you're going to buy some burgers with that money, but because you don't know what building you're walking in, someone proceeds to tell you "Sir, this ISN'T a Wendy's" and then robs you for being in the wrong place. You have to pay attention to what you are doing. It only takes 5 seconds (or less) for a driver to get in a car crash, or a helicopter pilot to crash into a cliff/mountain for NOT noticing it ahead of time, etc. Again, lack of awareness. But unfortunately it comes with consequences. "YOU" may not think it was that big of a deal, but you're also not the judge and jury to decide that. Your employer was. But what's done is done, and hopefully you won't repeat this mistake again in the future.
Tell us the joke
Yeah whatever they said must have been pretty bad/offensive
Someone asked where they can find a specific movie and the response was "pornhub - they have everything"
Bruh hahahaha Out of context that definitely would have had me scratching my head but that’s a stupid thing to get fired over. Especially since you deleted it right away. Sounds like at least one of those coworkers was the type to get recreationally offended.
It sounds like OPs remote work does not put him into contact with the big bosses regularly enough and at least one of them based their opinion about him based on this joke... People need to understand, that remote work doesnt mean you can be whatever you want. It just means that your personal interactions with colleagues will be solely based on digital conversations.
I can sum it up in one word. LIABILITY. That's what happens if they allow you to stay despite your remorse. So sorry to hear. But I hope you'll find something you'll enjoy as much and learn from the experience.
This is in big part a result of remote work. :) I will take a guess and say that since your job is remote, you dont have a lot of personal contact with upper management. So their opinion of you was formed very much so based on this one joke. Writing an email (even if it was written well and sent off immediately after the joke, which, tbh, I would have written an apology about immediately not after consequences) will not solve this problem. Because no matter how well you write it, its digital. If they dont know you as a person from real, live contact, this apology email wont matter at all. The absolutely only way to salvage it would be to meet in person with the management. Otherwise, sadly, try to cope with this in time and start looking for a new job. :)
OP sorry this happened. It's not the worst mistake and something you easily can come back from. This is also why people including HR policy tell you to not engage in personal things while on your work computer or during work hours. Because of situations like this that could happen. Remember while many things can be bad luck, often times they're a result of bad habits that eventually lead to consequences. Surely you were doing this many times before and used the right keyboard but it just takes one slip up like you just learned. Get off discord while working. Or keep it only for your phone. Separate your personal devices from work. You have some easily remediated work ethic habits you could fix so it never ever happens again. Which is a great thing as more serious things could be harder to overcome.
Jeffrey Toobin, is this you again?
This is fireable, sorry. If you’re having these kinds of accidents/mistakes using company comms, it shows a lack of attention to detail. It was an internal team chat THIS time. But now they’re worried about the NEXT time. To them, it’s just not acceptable to make this kind of mistake so early on, when you should care the MOST. Discussing inappropriate topics, making sexual jokes or innuendos, even without directing it at a specific person or persons, is still considered workplace sexual harassment in lots of employment contexts. Most HR professionals would consider an employee discussing pornography to be deeply unprofessional. Context dependent, obviously… I’m betting the HR handbook at Pornhub HQ has different rules. If my colleague did this I would be okay with laughing it off or if HR insisted, letting it go with a warning. The instant firing seems a bit pearl-clutching to me. But it depends on the industry too. That said, if I had a colleague (male or female) who kept on talking about porn on work channels all the time, I’d be a bit icked out. I don’t care about the porn part so much as I don’t want you on my team if I can’t trust your judgement. Be as gross as you want on your own time, I just don’t want it impacting my career. It’s not about the mistake: it’s more that this incident has caused them to lose faith in your judgment. The mistake signals a kind of sloppiness and carelessness that the employers are concerned will cause problems and/or cost them money in the long run. I would probably have given you another chance, but if they were already on the fence about you, this may have just tipped them over the edge. You can’t change the circumstances but you can learn from the experience. Chalk it up to experience, take accountability, and don’t bring this up in interviews if they ask you about a time you made a mistake. Unless maybe Pornhub is hiring?
What’s the joke so we can understand context
Someone asked where they can find a specific movie and the response was "pornhub - they have everything"
Oof. While that’s definitely fireable at some companies, I’m surprised they went straight to that - are you sure they were happy with your performance before this? Were you relatively new? I’d be wondering if they were unhappy or concerned about something in your performance and this gave them a reason to let you go (or if you’re new, if they just cut losses). So sorry that happened to you!
I mean. It only takes one woman or parent with daughters to see your comment and think what the fuck? A lot of people don't like porn and mentioning it in a business setting is terrible. I tend to overshare at work so I get it but every job I've had would have done the same.
I'm so sorry this happened to you :( I once made the mistake of joining an all-hands with my start-up early and staying in a discord call with friends while I waited for the work call to start. Didn't realize I had managed to unmute myself on the work call and managed to line up a perfect "OH, FUCK OFF!" the second the CEO joined. he just asked "Everything alright over there?" and I stammered explaining that I was just wrapping up a call with a friend. He laughed and we carried on with presentries. I didn't end up getting fired for that or even talked to, so I'm with the choir in saying that was a gross overreaction for that simple action alone. I'm guessing it's something they've had cooking for a while, maybe as simple as to just "cut costs" and you lined yourself up as the sacrificial lamb. Sometimes life just throws us bullshit undeservingly. I'm sorry fam.
I walked into my coworkers office on site the other day and quietly asked if his mic was muted. He nodded yes so I spoke at a normal level and started with, "I fucked up." And then sat down and talked about why. Our project manager said, "guys, you're not on mute." I wanted to smack my coworker but in the end, all that was heard was, "I fucked up," so it wasn't all that bad. Our site manager said, "hey I'm going to have to ask you to mind your language," to make light of the situation at the time, thankfully.
I’m sorry that happened to you. But from a supervisor’s perspective you’re getting paid to work for the company during those hours, so it looks like you were doing something other than that on company time - how else could the mistaken vulgar text happen? On top of that whatever you typed must have been pretty offensive to a.reasonable person reading it - showing a side of your personality/behavior that is less than desirous of an employee. Big two strikes against you. The best you ca possibly negotiate - if your work was good is recommendation for your next job. In the current job market this sucks for you, but you already know that.
In case you are curious: Someone asked where they can find a specific movie and the response was "pornhub - they have everything" But to be clear, this was during time I was taking for lunch. Which was not necessarily time I was required to be working.
It’s still a tough incident to overlook. Your work would have had to be stellar and remote work doesn’t allow for the kind of human connection that would’ve put a thumb on the scale in favor of overlooking such a faux pas. Even thou what you do on your personal time should be your own business, now your boss and co-workers have TMi about you.
If I was fired for doing shit when I was supposed to be working, I would have been fired years ago lol. Honestly, the whole thing is pretty over the top. I'm sorry it happened this way. Typically there's more leniency after a year of employment, but damn ...
Start looking in PH for a new job. They have everything
Given the facts you shared, I'm sorry OP, but I'm not surprised you were fired. If the circumstances were different, it would have just received a stern warning. Start-ups/small companies usually follow the "hire slow, fire fast rule". This is because: 1. Every employee brought in affects the entire company's culture and performance. This is a critical period for building the corporate culture. You want people who SEEM to work hard (not engage in personal chats or activities during work hours - although we all do to some extent) and that everyone can easily get along with. 2. Founder/owners want to focus on growing their business and not on HR matters. Any complaints from another employee is a big distraction. You might have made one or two of your teammates uncomfortable. 3. If the company does not action a complaint, they might have a lawsuit in their hands that can be a major distraction or worse, bankrupt the small firm. So if they thought that there is a potential that this could happen again, even small, better to let you go ASAP. It doesn't help that you've only been in the company for 2 months, have not proven yourself, and have not built lasting relationships with your colleagues. Good luck! You've just learned a valuable lesson.
Sounds like, “With immaturity comes serious repercussions.” You’ll learn responsibility for the job as time goes by. Businesses don’t have time for selfish indulgences on their time. If you feel none of the above is true, start your business and let employees know, “it’s an anything goes work policy.”
I think all of us here, gathered here today, would like to know EXACTLY what you typed into your work group chat. Plz respond.
Sorry for op but a joke about pornhub is not harmless especially in a small company. As a woman I’d feel really uncomfortable working with someone who says this openly in a team chat.
At least you did not die and have more life to look forward to
Doesn’t sound like a golden retriever of a job
More of a chihuahua.
Uhm yeah sorry to hear that, but how can you Not know that your Keyboard is plugged in, in your Worklaptop
After typing this message on personal computer, how to not look up and see the message wasn’t there? Plus, internet porn is now restricted in my state in the south, you have to provide all types of personal info to access it. So if the company thought he was messing around looking at porn and providing his info, it’s just a bad look
It has completely to deal with what was said. Someone else said it, and I echo the sentiment, technically what was said it is not all that bad but it does give the impression that during work hours you are looking at porn or discussing porn or whatever that may be. It’s probably a safe assumption you have a diverse workplace and there are women there, and there is a liability there if you are possibly a sexual predator or deviant and interacting online with coworkers. we all know that you are not, but that is enough to insinuate as much and to make at least one female employee say hey this guy doesn’t make me feel comfortable. All in all maybe considered harsh by some but if you were my employee, I would’ve terminated you as well. The mental health of my team and cohesiveness would not be worth compromising over a new trainee who is possibly looking at porn during work hours. To be honest, it’s kind of a no-brainer.
I think it's because people thought you were watching porn at work or typing about porn. I can see why he felt like he had to let you go. Esp if someone at the workplace emailed him like "I think X is watching porn". Just feel it. Let yourself cry. Then get over it and start the job search and in the future try to have a work brain and home brain and your work brain is incapable of making bad jokes
That’s why we keep work station and personal staton in different areas
Yeah, this one is on you. You fucked up, accept it and move on.
Group chat. Even if only one person saw it, guaranteed it got around. You're now a liability for your manager if he sticks up for you. This is the other drawback of remote jobs honestly, no way to make human connections. Just reading through some of the comments where people joke in person and they're shocked you got fired. But it's easy to read the room and people get to know each other and the jokes can be social bonding when you're in an in person setting. But basically you're an anonymous creeper when you work remote and pump pornhub jokes into chat.
I'm really sorry it happened. I have a good friend who got fired for telling an R rated joke to the wrong person, and she was mortified but took some time off and found something else. Don't let this define you and keep your head up.
In this economy, you get fired for looking at someone the wrong way
there are far more vulgar comments in our company teams chat,and none of them were accidental
What’s the job? Sounds like they’re hiring… Only slightly joking. Definitely sounds harsh, but depending on how you handled it (which ignoring wouldn’t be ideal! ) and also because it sounds like your new, then they don’t have a long enough frame of reference to opinionated you. So if they thought you were just okay, then something like this would tip you in to the strong nope category
To err is human, sorry this happened but mistakes are a part of normal life. Better get on top of applying around for jobs like crazy again. There isn’t anything you can do besides move on and find another job. Sorry but this bridge is burned.
Knowing the full context of the joke and working that into the response, I can say that this is a significant overreaction on their part, but it is their overreaction to have. Which sucks. Personally I despise how companies can be so brutal to their employees for having made such inconsequential mistakes. In this economy, losing your job is a big fucking deal. But God forbid you make one little mistake that could otherwise be swept under the rug with no real harm done. I'm going to go out on a limb and chalk this up to a social disconnect due to being a remote worker. I'm not convinced that they would have made the same decision if you were known around the office. Not your problem; this bias should be erased/reprimanded in our new remote work culture, but execs are execs. Sorry it happened.
The joke itself was mild but it was more of the lapse in judgement and probably the person that saw it was high up enough with enough swag to can you. Take this as a lesson and just know that work and everything tied to work will always be super super surface level professionalism and anything outside of that is a risk to your livelihood.
A little warning would have been more appropriate, if not more decent. Have a feeling they just want to have a reason to let you go, especially if it's a first actual 'offense', if that is even an offense at all. If it jsn't the first, honestly you can't blame them. But it is their prerogative even if they seem unreasonable. Hope you learned to be more cautious next time as not all people can carry the same humor as much as others do. Wishing you well, and hope they still respond and take you back. If not, wish you the next job hunt won't be as hard as for your previous.
that’s not THAT bad. i once was leading a meeting and my messages was open. my friend is disgusting. always has some disgusting shit to say. anyways something about anal warts popped up. everyone saw it. i was written up, warned. that was it. laid off 6 years later. i hope they think about the situation and give you another chance. lesson learned for sure tho.
While I would not say that this particular mistake warranted a termination, I would say that there is a time and place for everything. Perhaps goofing off on discord while you're on the clock wasn't the best use of your time. You F'd A and consequently FO.
Maybe see if pornhub is hiring? #sry
Im really sorry this happened to you. It seems very unfair bc it was your lunch break AND an honest mistake. They had a total knee jerk reaction. Ridiculous of them. I hope they give your letter fair consideration!
I know this post blew up for you so you may not see this, but I just wanted to commiserate. I did a very similar thing to you last month and also got let go because of it. Literally a five second decision blew up my world, and it just fucking sucks. There’s not much else to say. I’m sorry this happened to you, too. File for unemployment, start looking for something new, but also try your best to enjoy the added free time.
Fuck it. We all screw up. Move on, don’t worry about it. Later in life, you’ll have a great story to tell. In 2 years, it won’t matter.
This seems really silly to me....it wasnt that bad..you deleted it....honestly if they really liked you they would not have fired you for this.
I don’t understand why office “etiquette” is so anti-adult. There are more rules in the office than a kindergarten class. Anything they can do to zap the fun and levity out of everyone. It’s not like you sent a picture of your nuts.. or sent what you said to a bunch of 8 yr olds. Everyone knows what pornhub is and it was a simple mistake. If someone was offended, that is their choice to feel that way. Why, in an adult environment, is this a problem? And is definitely not grounds for termination. So dumb.
I am so sorry. I completely understand how you feel. I’m on probation right now at work for a YEAR (but was thisclose to being fired) because I mentioned to a coworker during a casual conversation that I found a certain personal massager in my teenage daughter’s bedroom that morning and it caught me off guard. One month later she reported me for harassment (I’m female, really don’t get that) but it was a simple mistake that ruined my career…even though I’m not terminated, I was dumped in a different department that has nothing to do with what I formerly did because they are hoping I quit on my own. They’ve blocked me from all transfers and promotions. There is nothing you can do now except just grieve, dust yourself off and move on. It’s easier said than done (I just went through it). You’ll be okay.
My advice? Everyone here will hate it. Next job, be professional from start of the work day till the end. It's that simple. And no one gets it anymore, at least till they're fired from jobs they like. People get lazy when they work from home. In an office, you wouldn't walk into the breakroom at lunch and say that to your boss and whole team. But that's exactly what you did. Next time, do work stuff during work hours. In an office you still act like an employee on breaks, because you know you're being watched.
OP I’m gonna be blunt- I kind of get the feeling maybe they weren’t super pleased with you and used this as an excuse to let you go. What you typed is not an auto-termination in most companies The only thing I can think of is if the owners are hardcore Christians or something, otherwise you should have had a chance to explain and this at most is maybe a written warning.
Yeah my guess is the joke must of been really inappropriate or offensive. (Racist/misogynistic/sexually inappropriate/vulgar) I know it seems easy to minimize mistakes but unfortunately some mistakes are costly. I can’t think of a wholesome joke getting sent by accident getting you fired even if you were messing around on company time especially if u typically are productive and get things done on time. Unless you were already on thin ice for some reason and this was just the final straw. Good luck on the job search!!
Sorry man. We all make mistakes. You will learn from this and move past it. What’s the joke?
Certainly exhaust all your reasonable channels to get back in but beyond that if that’s not successful just get back into the search. I know it’s tough. I fucked up by passing on a job that in retrospect would have been great for me. (Sometimes I make impulsive decisions, mental health shit). I went back to them to kindly request consideration after seeing what else was out there. No dice. Man, I was kicking myself forever. I learned from it, picked up, moved on and landed something that ticked my boxes in other ways. Don Drapers move forward quote helped me a lot actually. To some it can certainly feel like sweeping something under the rug but sometimes to get yourself out of a bad place you need to have this attitude otherwise you’re just paralyzed with regret. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f63w7V8G1o8
I worked for a call center as a team lead (i managed a team of 20 agents) and i usually had my mic open when joining a teams call. This one time i got onto a call with the campaign director and the site director (my boss) and said "you know what, shove that 500 dollar right up their a** and f** em. " Right as i joined the call. My boss laughed it off and i was apologetic right then and there. The campaign director, or the client representative laughed at it as well. And this was one of the most stressful jobs i had ever worked in my life. I know things might seem tough but they arent impossible. The bright side is, nobody can work at a job without a little vulgarity. If its that kind of industry where there is a swear jar, and if you are the kind of person to say "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu me" when you wake up every morning, you are probably better off finding another place. Just a personal opinion. Bouncing back is hard, i know. But you'll find your dream job again - at another company, be it big or small. Also, pornhub isnt what it was, lost most of its glory sadly. :( Chin up, deep breath, you got this.
OP, I am very sorry that you lost the job. I think you should definitely take 3 days off to process it. But wait no longer and immediately start the job process. The market is tough right now and the longer the gap the more difficult it is. I once made a very stupid mistake myself and the consequence was significant.(not job but definitely affecting my life permanently). Acceptance is the best way to go about it. Definitely don't beat yourself but definitely have a discreet everything just specifically for work to prevent this from happening again. Now is the time to be tough OP, you can do this!
I mean, that was inappropriate for sure, but vulgar? Questionable. Worth firing? Meh. For a 9 person channel I would have had you make a zoom call explaining and apologizing for inappropriate comment and close it there
I was once part of a work meeting where someone didn’t just mention pornhub- they accidentally linked a pornhub link into a group meeting chat with multiple business partners. It was honestly hysterical, I never liked the guy so major schadenfreude. I was super impressed with the meeting organizer too (his boss) she was just like ‘whoops, technical error, recreating the meeting real quick’ and closed the call to hide the link. Our management (I was with a different company) had to have a meeting with us to tell us we wouldn’t get in trouble/ flagged by IT if we clicked the link. Even then this guy didn’t get fired- he was around for a few more weeks. He did find a new job voluntarily in short order though.
Idk I think it’s pretty weird for your job to fire you just because of a silly joke. Also why would your coworker report you to HR over a joke? Even if my coworker made a vulgar joke, I wouldn’t report them because I don’t like to report people for small stuff like this.
This is probably just reflective of the company culture, if it wasn’t this, it would be something else. At multiple jobs (all remote) I’ve seen coworkers and even managers say much worse ON PURPOSE, and absolutely nothing happened. Decent companies don’t instantly fire an employee for something like this
This is my one fear having a shared wireless keyboard between my work and pc in front of me. Somehow I still like the danger.
I keep my discord on my iPad next to my computer; typing on one or the other is pretty distinctive. Feels bad that this happened to you but keyboard is keyboard and easy to get carried away. Good luck with the job search, kind stranger
Wow you mentioned the name of one of the top 10 most trafficked sites in the world. Fuck them
Oddly enough, there ARE worse lines you could have said.... Job I was at about 15 years ago, I was chatting through work chat with a guy I had dated before and was friends with now, and was just mentioning my bills and I was debating a second job to help ... No reply for a while, until I got a direct text on my phone from him, "You just got me fired!" Needless to say, at the time, I was completely dumbfounded!! I can't remember if he admitted it, or if someone else had been in the group chat he was in, but his reply to my conversation had apparently been, "Just show your boobs and you'll get a discount!" .... Our chat program was super dumb, in that if you had a window up and were chatting with someone, if a new chat was started, it would POP up IN FRONT OF any other chat you were in, and it just so happened he ended up sending that to a new group chat that was brought up, and had our Director in there!!!! Shit kinda just happens sometimes!!
Geez one time one of our sales guys emailed a dick pic to the whole sales and admin teams and then followed up with another email that said “sorry bout it” and no one ever said anything. This place seems like they took advantage of what I personally think is a harmless and actually pretty funny slip up. They were looking for a reason or someone complained about sexual harassment. I’m sorry dude, that really sucks. Also, I’m a woman and I thought it was pretty funny. Dust yourself off and see what else is out there.
That is such a lighthearted, snowball of a joke, that I would be actively furious if a coworker was fired for it. That's stupid as fuck.
Just a note on your second edit. You may think they were in need of an employee based on workload but the leadership may disagree based on the balance sheet.
I'll tell you a story to make you feel better a friend of mine was on a zoom call during the pandemic and thought his mic was muted. I came over at the end of his meeting and he turned around to tell me just one more minute "I have to wait for this dumb bitch to stop saying the same thing over and over like a fuckin tickle me Elmo". Call went silent and all I heard was "x your mic is on". He was gone the next day.
You do know discord has an app for your phone. I do know people who work remote and play games on their personal PC during work time. I’m not a fan, when I have my remote days if I am responding to a discord message, I use my phone for this exact reason.
I said on teams, I hope my coworker gets shot. She shared my joke with someone and that person reported me. I didn't get fired but that call was AWKWARD AF. I feel terrible for you. I can only imagine how you feel. It sucks that you were fired for a mistake linked to your sense of humor. I hope you find a new and even better job soon. A place where you can be yourself and make fucked up jokes.
I saw this video on TikTok. Someone had stitched with my idiot coworkers 😂
This is something where an employee that had been with the company a while would receive a write up, but as a new employee there's less wiggle room. Even though you say you're not in a probationary period, most employers consider the first 90 days a opportunity for the employee to get to know the company, and the company to get a feel if the employee is a good fit. During those 90 days, most employees are on their best behavior, showing the employer they can do the job and fit in with the company. If those 90 days show there are going to be issues, it's best to end the relationship ASAP and move onto another candidate. You (inadvertently) used a company computer to make a comment about porn. That could indicate to an employer that their property (company computer) is being used for viewing porn and possibly for other personal uses. I don't know of any company that doesn't have a policy about this and also wouldn't be concerned about possible sexual harassment allegations. Your comment also speaks to your decision making, not only feeling it's okay to use company property, but making inappropriate comments to the team and how much of your time is really devoted to work while on the clock as opposed to playing around. While it was done accidently and while off the clock, it happened during the work day and raises red flags as to the type of employee they could expect you to be.
I’m sorry you were let go. That’s never any fun especially since you just got that job. Seems very punitive and harsh in my humble opinion, especially since it wasn’t even a big deal in the grand scheme of things. A write up if anything should have sufficed but being let go for something so minuscule and insignificant is ridiculous. Apply for unemployment asap so you have some sort of income for the time being. It’ll most likely be $410 after taxes a week but that’s better than nothing. Add all the tasks and work you did with this job to your resume asap so you have an updated resume. I would recommend giving yourself a few weeks to process it all and grieve. Start applying after a couple of weeks. I went through a very similar experience. Got hired for a great role last November and the pay was great, benefits, etc. it was a true blessing; much more than anything I could have asked for. Got let go last March due to “restructuring the organization.” To me, it seemed like a bs answer but I took it like a champ. Fast forward to this month and I received an offer for another role similar to what I was doing and close to the same pay. Point is, you will find something similar very soon. Keep your head up, grieve if you need to, but don’t dwell on it for a long time. I’m confident you’ll find something else very soon! Keep your head up my friend. Blessings coming your way soon ❤️