There was no public humiliation. The only person who saw the assessment form was my boss.

Glad to hear, however isn't that form added to his record/file with the company? I don't see HR shredding it. Unless I'm wrong.

If the boss deserves a negative assessment then he deserves to get one. The mistake that the OP made is believing that HR is there for low level employees and putting his true feelings on paper.

Always remember that HR is present to safeguard the company. They will look after the manager more than they look after you because he is, to the company, much more important.

OP: you need to learn what I learnt during my time in corporate America - focus on getting what u want instead of focussing on being right. When your a startup founder you can work on creating a better workplace. For now though focus on getting along with the boss. It's a way to make good money and it's a great skill to have - being able to work with difficult people.

HR was never involved in this (except in doing the admin stuff after the termination).

And it wasn't about my true feelings or me being right. I enjoy analyzing and thinking about stuff, and so when you give me an assessment form with about 20 topics, you will get a (critical) analysis of them. With my thoughts on what's good and what could be improved. And many questions. For me it was like a code or design review.

Well all reviews go thru HR and its basically safer for you that way.

So your saying that a manager fired you solely on feedback u gave to him? I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

Also you seem stuck on "being right". That's a lonely place to be in my friend.

> So your saying that a manager fired you solely on feedback u gave to him?

Yes.

> I'm pretty sure that's illegal.

Why would that be illegal?

You have to have good reason to fire an employee. There needs to be a paper trail of him not being able to do his job or him being generally insubordinate. The only thing that can legally get you fired on the spot is sexual harrasment or where you've broken the law in some manner that could affect the company.

Anyway you dont fit in to a regular command and control type organisation. Welcome to my world :) ....

Now if your generally a rebel but you do love creating things then you _might_ be an entrepreneur. First get a job and then view the job as the thing that allows you to become an entrepreneur in the future. Ie the job is your "Venture Capitalist". Save up enough so that you can quit in the future and go it on your own.

Again this means you have to put what you want before your urge to be right. This will take you about 3 years to learn. In 3 years you could have $50000 saved up and the oppurtunity of a lifetime to be an entrepreneur.

Actually, if someone is an "at-will" employee in the U.S. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment), you don't need any reason at all to fire him. Certainly gross insubordination (such as refusing to do a job when asked) is something that people are fired for all the time. Paper trails are useful when the employee is a member of a protected class and could allege in a law suit that they were fired because they were a minority, pregnant, over 40, etc. But that doesn't seem to apply to the original poster's situation.

I'm pretty sure your wrOng. There's a reason why incompetents ate kept on payroll for so long.

That's true. In my case I was not fired on the spot from a legal point of view. I had just to give up the keys, and my access to the company network was revoked, but legally I was still an employee for a while.

And maybe you are right about me being a potential entrepreneur. It's something that's in the back of my mind, but so far I didn't find a business idea.

Go help someone. Someone who helps about of people is an Entrpreneur if he can figure out a way to make money for his help.

focus on getting what u want instead of focusing on being right. This is excellent advice.

If the boss deserves a negative assessment then he deserves to get one. Yes, but not without speaking with him first, giving him a chance to correct himself or working something out with the OP. It is wrong to come at anyone from the left field. Just like an employee does not deserve getting fired w/o fair warning, the boss does not like being written about to HR about without ever communicated with first.

Note: I am comparing firing with a bad review because they are both the strongest action the given party can take against the other.

Lots of my bosses have given me negative reviews without talking to me first.