‘I would’ve quit’: Worker who ‘exceeds expectations’ says company gave him a performance improvement warning to avoid giving him a bonus. It gets worse


In a viral video, a man says he was recently fired after his company gave him a performance warning to avoid giving him a bonus. Viewers tell him to get an employment lawyer.

TikToker Jason (@averagejoejason) has reached over 560,000 views and 54,000 likes on his video by Wednesday. His video is captioned, “Gotta love corporate! #work #layoffs.”

To start the video, Jason says, “I don’t care how irreplaceable you think you are at work, they can and will let you go for any reason at all.” 

Despite past performance reviews stating he “exceeds expectations,” Jason says, “they decided to hit me with a final warning Corrective Action Form for performance.” 

“How convenient,” he adds, “right before they pay off my bonus for the past year of working there.” 

Next, Jason says he will “go through this form of lies” for the audience in reference to the Corrective Action Form.

“They provided me with a technical assessment right away and observed some concerns with my skills,” he reads. 

Jason says that “there were no concerns” with his technical assessment.

Then he reads, “In late September, they provided a course list, and as of January, I only completed 1-2 of these courses.”

Jason asks the audience, “Notice how there’s no, like, specifics here?”

“They never actually provided me with the course lists,” he says. “I was taking everything on my own.” 

Next, Jason says he had a one-on-one meeting with his boss and that the Corrective Action Form states they “both expressed concerns.” 

“All we talked about was how well I was doing and how much progress I had made,” he says.

After stating that “the whole thing is lies,” Jason says the best lie on the form is that “in mid-September, I introduced a bug into production.”

According to the form, which Jason shows viewers on his computer screen, the comment is in reference to a “Welcome Letter” bug, which caused “problems with the Welcome Letter not being sent as expected.” 

Jason says he had made an internal switch from a business role to a technical role but didn’t make this switch until mid-October.

“So I didn’t even have access to the code base in mid-September,” he says, “let alone know how to make a pole request.” 

Jason says he was fired six days after the company presented him with the Corrective Action Form.

“There was no way I was ever gonna ‘improve’ to their standards,” he adds. 

Before ending his video, Jason says he had to forego his bonus. “It is what it is, man. They can do it, and I can’t do much about it,” he concludes. 

@averagejoejason Gotta love corporate! #work #layoffs ♬ original sound – Jason

Viewers in the comments section tell Jason to get an employment lawyer and fight for his bonus.

“Get an employment lawyer. Gather all your exceeds expectations performance reviews, get this, and you might have a case!” one says.

“Employment lawyer. If your bonus is measurable it could be considered commission in your state,” another says.

One viewer had a similar experience and told Jason, “Exact same thing happened to me. I got a lawyer. Just settled for over $30K.”

Jason posted a follow-up video responding to the comments telling him to get a lawyer.

Jason says, “Unfortunately, I reached out to a couple, and I was not able to do much.” 

“And to file a claim with the [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission], you have to have one of these reasons,” he says while showing a list of reasons on his laptop that state why “I believe I was discriminated against.” 

“A lot of them are retaliation,” he says, “none of which apply to me.” 

Next, he says, “A ton of people were telling me to name-drop the company.”

“I’m looking into doing this, but I’m not gonna do it just yet,” he adds. “I wish I could come on here and say I’m suing them for all they got, but unfortunately, it’s just not like that.”

The Daily Dot reached out to Jason via the TikTok comment section.

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Source: https://www.dailydot.com/news/worker-fired-corrective-action-performance-lies/