I was recently fired from Ubisoft, mainly because the human resources people were not familiar with the type of visa I had.
This type of visa allowed me to work outside the country - it was not the regular working visa, but rather something very close to a permanent residentship. I had to use this option when a member of my family died and I had to return to my home country to take care of things and the rest of my family. This was agreed to and approved by my manager and I asked him to take care of personnel issues - he said sure and I left the country. At the same time, he got approval for my transfer to another studio in another country.
A few weeks ago, I received a threatening message from a human resources person claiming that by leaving the country, I had put the studio in danger and so on. Turns out they had lost my visa information and decided to shift the responsibility to me. I tried to fix it, sent them everything they needed, but it didn't work. They decided to fire me because that was the easiest way they thought it would be.
So they fired me. They gave four reasons for firing me in the termination letter. None of those reasons were stated in the policy or in my contract.
As a cherry on top, the HR officer blamed me for what happened, ignoring the facts, ignoring previous email threads, ignoring my manager who told him that everything was actually handed over and everyone had been informed and coordinated. The HR person lied to upper management (both HR and IT) and presented me as if I had left the country without informing anyone. As a result, I lost the opportunity to be transferred to another studio.
Remarkably, no one in IT or HR management (except for my direct manager) spoke to me during the process to hear my side of the story. They ignored my manager as well.
Another fun fact - when I came to the company, it took them 1.5 months to make sure I could actually work on this visa - it took me 10 minutes to call the ministry and get verbal confirmation, and another 2 minutes to find the relevant information on the government website. It was definitely a red flag, but I unfortunately ignored it.
F*k them. It was one of the worst experiences in my carreer. The way it was communicated, the fact that noone even tried to listen to me, it was just so humiliating. Had they communicated it properly, I would have quit myself and waited for the transfer. Instead, they presented me as an enemy and kicked me out of the company.
This type of visa allowed me to work outside the country - it was not the regular working visa, but rather something very close to a permanent residentship. I had to use this option when a member of my family died and I had to return to my home country to take care of things and the rest of my family. This was agreed to and approved by my manager and I asked him to take care of personnel issues - he said sure and I left the country. At the same time, he got approval for my transfer to another studio in another country.
A few weeks ago, I received a threatening message from a human resources person claiming that by leaving the country, I had put the studio in danger and so on. Turns out they had lost my visa information and decided to shift the responsibility to me. I tried to fix it, sent them everything they needed, but it didn't work. They decided to fire me because that was the easiest way they thought it would be.
So they fired me. They gave four reasons for firing me in the termination letter. None of those reasons were stated in the policy or in my contract.
As a cherry on top, the HR officer blamed me for what happened, ignoring the facts, ignoring previous email threads, ignoring my manager who told him that everything was actually handed over and everyone had been informed and coordinated. The HR person lied to upper management (both HR and IT) and presented me as if I had left the country without informing anyone. As a result, I lost the opportunity to be transferred to another studio.
Remarkably, no one in IT or HR management (except for my direct manager) spoke to me during the process to hear my side of the story. They ignored my manager as well.
Another fun fact - when I came to the company, it took them 1.5 months to make sure I could actually work on this visa - it took me 10 minutes to call the ministry and get verbal confirmation, and another 2 minutes to find the relevant information on the government website. It was definitely a red flag, but I unfortunately ignored it.
F*k them. It was one of the worst experiences in my carreer. The way it was communicated, the fact that noone even tried to listen to me, it was just so humiliating. Had they communicated it properly, I would have quit myself and waited for the transfer. Instead, they presented me as an enemy and kicked me out of the company.