New hire gets fired for wrong start date given

He said, she said.

Imagine getting fired before you even start your new job? That’s unfortunately what happened to this poor soul, who was given the wrong details about their start date — and then got fired by their employer, because they thought the new hire never showed up.

Who’s in the wrong here?

During a time of a deteriorating job market, finally getting an offer letter for a new job is something worth celebrating. But that excitement quickly came crashing down when this new hire received an email that read:

“This email is to inform you that your employment has been terminated from [redacted] effective 09/02/2025 due to not reporting to work on the first day. If you have any questions, please [reply] to this email or contact me with the information below. Thanks.”

The shocked new hire turned to the r/jobs forum on Reddit to share their grievances and ask for advice on how to handle this disappointing situation.

One HR commenter shared some insight into what goes down behind-the-scenes with start dates: “Offer letter is usually a proposed date and not a set date. Most of the offer letters I send out are different from the actual start date email since it usually gets changed due to background checks or drug tests.”

“So I can see why you would think the confirmation email was the set start date. However, due to it being 3 weeks from the original date, I would’ve definitely asked for a confirmation,” they wrote.

“Also, even if they intended it the start date as today 9/2) the day of the week is still wrong. The 22nd is a Monday the 2nd is a Tuesday. They messed up the date and day of week,” read another comment.

“Even with it being the first day, I feel like I’d at least give you a call asking if you were still planning on coming in. It’s strange that they would just immediately fire you with no attempt at communication. You probably don’t want to work for these people. Bullet dodged imo,” someone else pointed out.

This OP should not feel singled out for a random firing — as another employee who might’ve shown up on the right started date, unfortunaltey only lasted three months on the job before being terminated.

The employer told her that her 90 days of employment were up and they felt the employee “wasn’t a great fit.”

“I received very little feedback from you and often there were times where I did reach out to you without being told anything or having any reply or response whatsoever,” she said.