- A TikToker and recent college grad said she was fired on her sixth day of work.
- She claimed she'd been improperly trained, spending most of the first week doing "nothing."
- A commenter applauded her for calling out the current state of corporate onboarding.
A recent grad who said she was "hired and fired in less than two weeks" from her first job out of college has sparked a conversation on TikTok about the deterioration of corporate onboarding.
The creator Sierra Desiray Frederick said she'd recently started a new graphic design job at a Tennessee firm that does print work for grocery store chain Aldi, though she declined to name her employer. She said it was her first full-time job after graduating from college last August.
In her TikTok, posted last week, Frederick told viewers she was at the job for five days, three or four of which she did "nothing because there's two other people on my team and they didn't know how to train me."
@sierra_fred i still dont know what happened. live love adulting #aldis #what #gotfired #lol
♬ original sound - Sierra Desiray Frederick
Frederick said her colleagues told her they didn't know what to give her to do, which led her to feel "useless." She even considered lodging concerns with the CEO of the company.
But when she arrived to work on her sixth day, she recounted he was standing at her desk with an envelope and told her she was being let go. She was told it wasn't working out and the company would be seeking another candidate.
Frederick was initially convinced it was her fault
In a follow-up video, Frederick said she was initially plagued by "self-doubt" and convinced she was at fault — until she was assuaged by friends and family, who maintained she hadn't been given a fair shot.
Many commenters pointed to the degradation of the training norms of yesteryear, and others said that they, too, had been let go amid inadequate onboarding.
"Most jobs training today is: Figure it out yourself. It's amazing. 30 years ago we had trainers," one viewer wrote.
Another commenter claimed they were also fired for having "idle time" and not being "proactive" in asking for work: "I got let go for not being productive and a 'quick learner' when I wasn't being shown anything."
@sierra_fred jobs are stressful #gotfired #aldis #what #lol #fypシ
♬ original sound - Sierra Desiray Frederick
Others cited generational differences, even applauding younger workers for calling out broken systems.
"Elder millennial here," a third viewer added. "I love gen z. When this happened to me i internalized it & thought I was the issue."
Frederick did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment but said on TikTok that she's already back on the job hunt, with three interviews on the books.