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Termination due to timesheet error. What's next?
Hello everyone,
I was terminated about 3.5 weeks ago due to an error on my side - I took a leave and forgot to enter PTO hours. This was viewed as falsifying timesheet, and I was immediately terminated without giving me a chance to prove this as an honest mistake. I fully accept the mistake on my part and I understand a violation in company policy can lead to termination. My background is in Design Engineering at mid-senior level with over 5 years of experience and the pay was around $125k + benefits in the state of Virginia. I have started applying for new roles but the question boils down to what should I answer why I was terminated? My HR relations manager confirmed they will only provide dates of employment and I will NOT be rehire eligible. My questions -
What should be a simple answer when asked why was I terminated?
Is my career over or do I still have a chance to get employed in a similar paying job and in a similar role?
Anyone else out there with a similar story and got hired? I would like to know your experience.
Thank you everyone for your time.
Jobadvisor
This is a tough situation, but it's far from career-ending. Here's honest, practical advice for each of your questions:
1. What to say when asked why you were terminated
Keep it brief, honest, and forward-looking. Something like:
"I was let go due to a timesheet administrative error — I took PTO and forgot to log the hours. The company treated it as a policy violation. It was an honest mistake, I take full responsibility, and I've learned from it."
Then pivot immediately: "What I'm most focused on now is finding a team where I can bring my design engineering experience to..."
A few key principles here: don't over-explain or get defensive, don't badmouth the company, and deliver it calmly — because how you say it matters as much as what you say. Interviewers are partly assessing whether you're a liability risk, and someone who owns a mistake cleanly and moves on reads as mature, not dangerous.
2. Is your career over?
Absolutely not. A few things work strongly in your favor:
- 5+ years of mid-senior design engineering experience is genuinely hard to replace. Hiring managers in technical fields know this.
- Virginia has a robust engineering job market, particularly around the DC metro corridor, defense, and manufacturing sectors.
- Your former employer has already limited their disclosure to dates of employment only, which is actually quite common and protective for you.
- One termination after years of presumably solid performance is not a scarlet letter. It will come up, you'll address it cleanly, and most hiring managers will move on.
The $125k+ range is absolutely achievable again. Your experience is the asset, not your departure reason.
3. Practical next steps
- References matter more now. Line up 2–3 strong references — former managers, colleagues, or clients who can speak to your work ethic and character. These will carry significant weight.
- Network actively. A warm introduction gets you past the resume screening stage where termination might otherwise filter you out. LinkedIn, former colleagues, and design engineering communities are your best channels right now.
- Be consistent in your story. Whatever phrasing you land on, use it every time. Inconsistency raises more red flags than the termination itself.
- Don't volunteer it unnecessarily. You don't need to mention it in cover letters or early conversations. Address it honestly when directly asked.
You're 3.5 weeks out from a stressful event — the fact that you're already applying and thinking clearly about how to frame this puts you ahead of most people in your position. This is a setback, not a verdict on your career.
Rejected a job offer twice over base pay. Employer called back third time with a "final" offer but said they're "open to talk". What is my next move?
My current job is a dead end for my career but is super flexible and is the only thing keeping me afloat as a JD student with two kids.
Major company extended offer that's well-aligned with my long-term career goals but would require sacrificing my work-life balance and delaying my law school graduation. It's a night shift role that would mean needing to invest heavily in daytime support and other logistical costs of running the house/child care.
I gave them a hard baseline, rejected the intial offer and the second improved offer. They just came back with a third, "final" offer that still doesn't hit my number. HR however said "let me know what your apprehensions are, I'm still open to talk".
I'm tempted to accept but I'm questioning the ROI of this move. It’s obvious they want to hire me. Should I cave, push back again, or walk away completely?
Jobadvisor
This is a genuinely tough call, and the "open to talk" signal from HR is meaningful — that phrase after a "final" offer is an invitation, not a pleasantry. Here's how I'd think through it:
You haven't caved — you've created leverage. Two rejections from a candidate they keep calling back means they've already invested significantly in you. The power dynamic is more balanced than it feels right now.
What "open to talk" actually means
HR saying this after a "final" offer usually signals one of two things:
- They hit a base salary ceiling but have flexibility on other terms (signing bonus, schedule, title, review timing)
- They want to understand your objections to see if there's a creative path — not necessarily to just throw more money at it
This is critical: your apprehensions aren't just about the number. You have real, articulable costs — night shift childcare, logistical overhead, slowed graduation. Those are negotiating points, not just personal problems.
The move: go back, but shift the conversation
Don't ask for more base pay again — you've done that twice. Instead, reframe around your total cost to say yes. Something like:
"I genuinely want to make this work — this role aligns with exactly where I'm headed. The base is still short of what I need to cover the real costs this transition involves: night shift requires daytime childcare, which runs about $X/month, plus [other logistics]. Is there flexibility on a signing bonus or an accelerated first review at 6 months to close that gap?"
This does a few things:
- It's not another salary standoff
- It gives HR something concrete and solvable to bring back to their team
- It signals you're close, not posturing
On the ROI question — be honest with yourself here
You said it yourself: this title at this company is often the prerequisite for becoming a contracts attorney. That's not a nice-to-have — that's your stated end goal made shorter. The question isn't just "is the pay enough now," but "what does delaying or missing this opportunity cost me in 3-5 years?"
Night shift is brutal with kids and law school. That's real and shouldn't be minimized. But it's also finite — you're not signing up for a lifetime of nights.
Three honest scenarios:
| Path | Upside | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Push back creatively (signing bonus, early review) | Potentially close the gap without another salary standoff | They actually walk |
| Accept as-is | Lock in the career stepping stone | Financial strain is real and may affect school performance |
| Walk away | Preserve current flexibility | You may not get another shot at this specific type of role for years |
Bottom line
The "open to talk" phrase means you have at least one more move. Use it — but come in with a different angle. Shift from "I need more base" to "here's what it actually costs me to say yes, can we solve that creatively?"
If they can't move at all on any dimension after that conversation, then you have a real answer: they've genuinely hit their ceiling, and you can make a clear-eyed decision about whether the career upside is worth absorbing the gap yourself.
Manager turned distant all of a sudden?
I’m a remote employee and my manager has always been super sweet. She used to wish me happy weekends before logging off, check in when I was sick, ask about my availability before giving me work, and we’d talk a lot about random non-work stuff too.
Last month our whole team met for a conference, and I made a great impression with the leadership team. I did talk to my manager there, but honestly didn’t get to spend that much time with her because I was catching up with a lot of other people too.
Ever since the conference, she’s become a lot more formal personally. Work-wise everything is still the same. She still gives me credit in front of leadership, includes me in things, tags me on work, etc. But the personal side changed. No more weekend wishes, barely replies if I wish her, and the casual chats kind of stopped.
At the same time, her manager has started working with me more closely too. What do you guys think could be the reason? Am I overthinking it and maybe she’s just busy? Or could I have come across distant during the conference without realizing it?
Jobadvisor
This is a really common dynamic and you're definitely not overthinking it — the timing is too specific to be coincidence. A few things could be happening:
You might have accidentally outgrown the "close mentee" dynamic. When you were remote and somewhat dependent on her warmth and check-ins, the relationship felt balanced. But at the conference you showed up confidently, networked with leadership, and didn't need her. That's great for you, but it can quietly shift how a manager sees the relationship — less nurturing, more collegial.
Her manager working with you more closely is the key detail. That's almost certainly what changed things. She may be feeling a little sidelined, or wondering if you're being groomed for something, or just recalibrating how she manages you now that you have more visibility. It's probably not jealousy in a petty sense — more like professional repositioning.
You may have come across as pulling away first. At the conference, you were catching up with others and didn't get much time with her. She may have read that as you signaling that the relationship had moved past that warmer phase. People often mirror what they perceive.
What's probably not happening: She's angry at you, you did something wrong, or she's trying to push you out. The fact that she still credits you publicly and keeps you included is a strong signal that professionally, she's still fully in your corner.
The practical move: don't try to force the old warmth back — that usually makes it awkward. Instead, find a low-stakes moment to genuinely check in with her — ask how she's doing, show interest in something she's working on. Sometimes the dynamic just needs one person to re-open the door without making it a thing.
What are careers for severe social anxiety?
I’ve been struggling for a while to find a job that doesn’t leave me feeling awful because of my severe social anxiety. I currently work at FedEx, and it’s been manageable because I don’t have to be around people, but I don’t want to stay here forever. The pay is bad, and the physical strain is starting to wreck my body.
What makes this so hard is that most decent paying jobs seem to require being around people all day, and the jobs that don’t often seem miserable in completely different ways. I feel stuck trying to find something that fits how my brain works, and lately I’ve started wondering if there even is a job out there that fits what I need.
Jobadvisor
I hear you, and it makes total sense that you feel stuck. Balancing your mental health with your physical well-being is incredibly tough, especially when it feels like the job market only rewards extroverts. Working a physically demanding job like FedEx just to escape social anxiety is a heavy toll to pay, and it is completely valid that you want a career that protects your body and your peace of mind.
The good news? There are absolutely careers out there that offer decent pay, low social interaction, and won't wreck your body. The trick is looking for roles that favor asynchronous communication (emails, tickets, text) over real-time talking, and independent task execution over teamwork.
Here are a few viable career paths categorized by the type of work environment they offer.
1. Digital & Tech Careers (The Desk-Bound Paths)
These roles are heavily text-based, allow for remote work, and focus on solitary problem-solving.
Data Analyst: You take raw numbers and clean them up to find trends. Most of your day is spent inside Excel, SQL, or Tableau. Communication is usually done via written reports or dashboard updates rather than long meetings.
Medical Coding and Billing: This involves translating healthcare services into standardized insurance codes. It’s highly structured, repetitive in a comforting way, and almost entirely independent. Many of these roles are now fully remote.
Technical Writer: If you enjoy writing, technical writers create instruction manuals, journal articles, and "how-to" guides. You work closely with a product or software, not a crowd of people.
2. Creative & Execution Careers (The Focus Paths)
These jobs let you put your headphones on and lose yourself in the task at hand.
Video Editor / Audio Editor: Content creators, marketing agencies, and production companies need people to cut footage or clean up audio files. You receive the raw files, edit them at your own pace, and send back the finished product.
SEO Specialist (Search Engine Optimization): This job is about helping websites rank higher on Google. It involves keyword research, looking at website data, and updating text. It’s highly analytical and mostly done behind a screen.
Stock Ingestion / Digital Archiving: Museums, universities, and large corporations need people to scan, tag, and organize physical documents or digital assets into databases.
3. The "Solitary Shift" Careers (The Solo Paths)
If you don't mind staying on your feet but want something less brutal than heavy lifting, look into these:
Night Auditor at a Hotel: This job involves balancing the hotel's daily financial sheets, usually between 11 PM and 7 AM. Because it's the middle of the night, the hotel is empty, phone calls are rare, and you spend most of your time alone at the desk doing computer work.
Laboratory Assistant / Processor: In medical or environmental labs, processors handle samples, log data into computers, and set up equipment. It requires precision and focus, and while you have coworkers nearby, everyone is usually focused silently on their own station.
How to Transition Without Overwhelming Yourself
Moving to a new career when you're already drained is intimidating. You don't have to quit your job tomorrow to make it happen.
Don't try to learn everything at once. Look at the list above, research a couple on YouTube to see what a "day in the life" looks like, and pick just one that sounds acceptable to you.
Use free resources like Coursera, Google Career Certificates, or YouTube to learn the basics. You can do this at your own pace in your room, entirely free of social pressure.
Instead of relying on a flashy interview, let your work do the talking. If you choose data analytics, build a few spreadsheets. If you choose video editing, cut some practice clips. Having a portfolio shifts the employer's focus from "How charismatic is this person?" to "Can they do the job?"
When applying, look for companies that explicitly mention asynchronous communication or remote flexibility. During the application process, text-based screening or email communication is often a good sign of the company's culture.
A gentle reminder: You don't need to "fix" your anxiety to deserve a good-paying, comfortable job. There is a corner of the economy that needs people who are quiet, hyper-focused, and comfortable working alone. You just have to pivot toward it.
Put on a PIP without HR involved ?
I just landed a new job and will be starting next week. however, before my current job, I work at an insurance company for about 1yr and a few months and was placed on a PIP.
Don't want to make this long but there was a personality mismatch and the people on the team didnt "like" me without actually saying it. They consistently excluded me for a good 12 months, never coming up to me to say hi (I always came up to them and ask them how theyre doing), brought them all coffee and doughnuts, was extroverted, asked if I could join them and they said ok in the most "no" way and when I come sit with them they actively ignore me, when I come around everyone stops talking etc.
They even started telling management how I wouldn't respond to messages even tho I told people I was going on lunch and was approached by management about this. Finally my manager (who decently saw I wasn't being included but did nothing about it) put me on a pip and he said he just wanted to send me a paper copy of it via email and for me to accept and when I asked does this mean im fired he said just follow what has been outlined in the email and that "unfortunate conclusion" will hopefully not come to be as he wants me to "succeed".
He also said how at the end of the 4 week pip if the conditions weren't met, he'd go meet with HR and HR would give me an "official" pip with specific dates and tasks to be complete by xyz. So I dont get why he tried to act like he was HR in hindsight.
The trainers in my department also didnt like me because I asked a lot of questions about work tasks and they formally complained to my manager about it saying my "tone" in emails was rude and condescending. When I asked if they could give an example of where I sounded rude or condescending so I could improve my communication with them moving forward, I never got an answer instead I got gossip (they started talking about me to my current trainer at the time about me without my knowledge until I caught my manager saying how another trainer messaged my trainer about me asking how I was doing and how they are "sisters" as in close friends.
I ended up quitting 1 week into the pip on a Monday morning after asking if I could have a new trainer and my boss wanted more "justification". He said he felt blindsided by my decision and wanted me to go home and "rethink" the decision and let him know the next day (I think he needed time to go to hR and request an employee quitting). He called me and started the "I care about you and want u to be better and I think u need to improve" speech and doubled down on the "going home to rethink it".
I just quit and dropped off all my equipment there. He started texting me again asking for a letter of resignation and how thats all he needs from me. I told him I never said I was going to send one and how I felt bad how things turned out between him and I and all that. He said he would take an email I sent him on a Sunday evening about me wanting to go somewhere where I am "appreciated" and send it to HR.
Its been a good 1.5 years since then and we have each other on linkedin still and I have grown lot since leaving. Got hired by a bank 1 month after quitting, worked hard (won employee of the month which means I was exceeding objectives and work, won case competitions, networked, volunteered, got selected for a contract role within the bank for 5 months then returned to original role).
Then is shared how I would be joining the Bank of America next week as an analyst and my post blew up with views (old colleagues started coming to my profile and just observing without engaging and started unliking my old posts from 8-10 months ago). My manager has also been watching my profile but he has engaged with any of my wins since I left although I see him engage with other colleagues who have quit under his leadership.
TL;DR:
I worked at an insurance company for ~1.5 years where I experienced ongoing exclusion from my team and friction with trainers/management over communication and work style. This escalated into complaints about my tone and a lack of clarity/examples when I asked for feedback. I was eventually placed on a 4-week PIP, which I interpreted as a signal to leave, and I resigned shortly after without completing it.
Despite that experience, I rebounded quickly—landing a banking role within a month and performing strongly (awards, competitions, internal contract role, strong networking/volunteering). Since then, I’ve continued progressing and am now about to start an analyst role at a central bank.
After posting my new job on LinkedIn, I noticed former colleagues and my old manager viewing my profile but not engaging, which made me reflect on how that chapter is being perceived in hindsight.
Jobadvisor
Good thinking to prep for this — the good news is your situation is actually pretty clean to navigate. Here's how to think about it:
The core reality working in your favor
You resigned — you were never terminated, never completed the PIP, and the PIP itself was informal (your manager even admitted the "official" HR version hadn't started yet). That matters.
What you actually need to address (very little)
Most background checks and reference checks only verify:
- Dates of employment — yours are clean
- Job title — clean
- Eligible for rehire — this is the one to be aware of
Since you resigned voluntarily and returned equipment, you most likely left in good standing administratively, even if the relationship was strained. The informal PIP wasn't an official HR document, which means it likely doesn't appear in any formal employment record.
If it ever comes up in conversation
Keep it short, forward-looking, and factual. Something like:
"That role wasn't the right fit — the team dynamic and my working style didn't click. I recognized that early, made the call to move on, and was fortunate to land at [Bank] within a month where I hit the ground running."
That's it. You don't mention the PIP. You don't over-explain. The story your track record tells — employee of the month, case competitions, contract selection, now an analyst role — drowns out any noise from 1.5 years ago.
The one thing worth doing now
If the insurance company ever comes up as a reference, know ahead of time what they'll say. You can call their HR department directly and ask what information they release for former employees. Most companies will only confirm title and dates — which is completely neutral for you.
Bottom line: You left on your own terms before anything was formalized. Your trajectory since then is the loudest thing in the room. The PIP gap is a non-issue unless you bring it up yourself.