In John Foley’s blog, HSC has responded:

Did Wright get fired or quit? HSC spokeswoman Michelle Augert returned my call and confirms that Wright submitted his resignation to the company and says “his resignation has been accepted.” I asked if Wright was also fired, but she declined to answer that directly. “I’m not going to dispute what he has said” was her response. Augert says there are “two sides to every story,” but that company policy prevents her from discussing personnel issues.

Yes. My resignation, filed December 18th or something was accepted on January 5th. As a result I was escorted out of the building.

I find it interesting that they can’t talk about personnel issues. However they can state that my resignation was accepted.

This is obviously a weird situation, with HSC not wanting to appear like a big bully or whatnot. HSC really has a lot of public ill will already. Internal staff emails, from Augert’s own office, have shown that nobody really understand’s what’s going on and everyone is simply reacting.

Put it this way. HR didn’t know I’d been fired. Payroll didn’t know I’d been fired. Employee Relations didn’t know I’d been fired until I asked them to check. And nobody, I mean nobody that I’ve gotten in contact with knows anything about a severance package.

The reality is that accepting someone’s resignation means you either pay out their time and send them home or you let them work out the rest of their time.

Somehow I’ve managed to do both. Working through 4 weeks, and being asked to leave 4 weeks early. Realistically if that’s all that this was about, that’s all that had to be said. Talk of my “business ethics”, company secrets didn’t even need to be said.

I would have been happy to have been “released from my obligation”. It’s the long term effects of being fired, specifically “with cause”, that I have issues with.

So much for forgetting about this and putting it behind me, eh? ;-)

Edit: Also, I really don’t see why this had to become personal. The individual who fired me sent me an incredibly nasty (and anonymous) email. Several HSC employees I used to work with have done similar, saying that the individual who fired me told them “the truth about what happened”. If this was simply a resignation thing, there shouldn’t be any hard feelings. But, then, “should” is always a strong word in these kinds of situations.

Edit 2: Several people have stated that my version of the story couldn’t be true. That I’m obviously lying. They’ve asked for proof. Sadly, I have none. I was given no record of employment. No letter of termination. No offer of renumeration. I was simply told I was fired and escorted out. All I have in this matter is my memory, which isn’t something even I would trust 100%.