@HoldYourHeadUpHigh said:
I might have said, "Works for me!" as I was walking out the door.
You, my friend, are one arrogant fucknard. I, for one, can certainly see why they canned you: it's because they started noticing that attitude.
@HoldYourHeadUpHigh said:
I still don't think it was a significant problem. If I cared and paid more attention, I would have noticed Bill freaking out and losing his shit. I didn't pick up on it because I didn't care until I was leaving and Bill caught up to me, finally explained why it was a big deal. After that point I sat down and hacked in a solution, so I could leave as soon as possible.
So, blakeyrat was right: you went from not-a-big-deal to I-had-to-fix-it in less than a single paragraph. Either you, in retrospect, don't think it's a big deal, or Bill explained why it's a big deal (which would imply that you now do think it's a big deal). It can't be both.
Except if Bill explained why it was a big deal, you realized from his viewpoint he was right, and then decided that his opinion was inferior to yours. Which is not only arrogant, but (more to the point) untrue. First of all the arrogance: you are both human beings. As blakey said, what's the big deal about staying for a few minutes and humoring your boss? It's Friday for him, too. He's losing his shit on a Friday afternoon, only to find you being a dick to him about it.
Next the untruth: from your words, I deduce that you understood that it's a big deal to him for reasons that make some kind of sense. And the rub is, he's your boss. I understand that technically he's only paying you until 5 PM, but he's still paying you, and if he's got an issue that he thinks is important for reasons that are not moronic, then it is, because he is your boss. I'm not saying that's an infallible or always-valid argument, but in this case I think it holds up pretty decently.
The response your boss get from me, would be a long sigh, because I would probably not be able to hold that in, and then a sort of friendly "well-I-suppose-I'd-better-get-cracking-then" look. Then I'd get cracking and fix it, leaving any other questions like: do I really have to do this, is this really such a big deal, why didn't you come to me an hour ago, etc to next Monday. This shows your boss: "he doesn't like being held in on a Friday afternoon with something tiny, but he's still going to fix it for me so I can stop losing my shit, and so can my customers". And that, is how we try not to get canned. To be fair, I have the benefit of hindsight and not being tired from a long week of work. Also, I am my very own walking set of WTFs because I would proceed to ponder this incident all weekend, working myself up and up and up, only to arrive at work on Monday, not raising any of those questions...