I Watched a New Hire Get Fired for Acting Like He Had Backup

The Line in the Employee Handbook I Only Understood Later

On my third day, I found a line on page 12 of the employee handbook: “Forming cliques, creating factions, or ostracizing colleagues is prohibited.” It sat between the late policy and annual leave rules. I underlined it and moved on. What harm could come from eating lunch with coworkers?

Then I met Xiao Zhou. New hire. Smiled at everyone. Asked if anyone wanted milk tea. He clicked with A-Kai, another guy his age. They clocked in together, smoked together, bought oden at the convenience store downstairs. Nothing wrong with that.

The pantry changed things. Xiao Zhou started saying “we.” “We think this process is stupid.” “We told him yesterday. He didn’t listen.” He spoke to A-Kai, not to the room. If A-Kai laughed, he got louder. One time they stood by the microwave and picked apart another colleague’s report. Not loud. Loud enough for the desks nearby. Nobody answered. The printer hummed. Keyboards clicked. The coffee machine dripped.

I didn’t think it would blow up. Young people talk.

Then Lao Chen, Xiao Zhou’s mentor, got asked in the weekly meeting, “How’s the new guy?” Lao Chen said, “Not bad. Talks a lot.” That was it. Xiao Zhou’s face dropped. After the meeting, he and A-Kai disappeared into the stairwell. When they came back, neither looked at Lao Chen.

Next, Xiao Zhou started posting barbed comments in the group chat. Things like “Some people have been here ten years and still don’t get it.” No reply. He sent a sticker. No reply. A-Kai sent one. Two minutes later, Xiao Zhou deleted his message. Too late. Someone had screenshotted it. The screenshot moved to another group. I wasn’t in that group, but someone forwarded it to me. I deleted it.

The Thursday they called him in, HR’s Xiao Li came to his desk at ten. First time, he wasn’t there. Second time, he was in the stairwell. Third time, Xiao Li just stood by his desk. Xiao Zhou came back with a convenience store bag. Xiao Li asked, “Can we talk in the meeting room?” Xiao Zhou smiled. “Now? I still have a spreadsheet.” Xiao Li said, “Let’s talk first.”

Forty minutes. When they came out, the bag was gone. Xiao Zhou sat down. Turned his computer on. Turned it off. Then he started packing. Keyboard cover. Charging cable. A small green plant. He packed slowly. A-Kai sat diagonal from him, earphones in, eyes on his screen. Lao Chen walked by with a cup of water. He paused. “When you finish the paperwork, remember to return your access card.” Xiao Zhou said nothing.

That afternoon, he left. His chair was pushed in straight. The next day, A-Kai changed his profile picture. The day after, nobody in the pantry mentioned Xiao Zhou. The pothos by the microwave stayed there, leaves yellowing. Admin watered it and said, “Why is this one yellow again?”

Later I thought: was the company firing Xiao Zhou? Yes and no. They were firing the behavior. Gossiping during work hours. Turning a group chat into a way to pick sides. Turning “we” into something used against others. The handbook line wasn’t about friendship. It was about exclusion. It was about relationships becoming power.

What about the person who doesn’t join a clique? Does that person get bullied?

I’ve seen people left alone. I’ve also seen people who didn’t join anything and still got respect. What protects you is a support system, not a circle.

A support system works differently. It’s open. You can work with different people. You can ask for help. You can give it. A clique is closed. It runs on who’s in and who’s out. A support system runs on what needs to get done.

I know an old employee, Lao Wu. No dinners. No smoking. No drinking. Every project team wants him. He answers messages fast. He delivers on time. He doesn’t dump blame. He sends his manager a short progress email every week. He helps people in other departments when he can. When he can’t, he says so. He eats alone. Nobody thinks he’s lonely. He has allies. He just doesn’t have a clique.

So you don’t need to be an island. You can skip the clique. You still need people.

Here’s what I do.

Do the work. Be reliable. That’s the base. If you’re reliable, people want you on their project. If you’re not, no circle will save you.

Stay in touch with your manager. You don’t have to flatter. You do have to let them know what you’re doing, where it stands, what you need. A lot of people get pushed to the side not because they’re antisocial, but because their manager has no idea what they’ve done.

Build weak ties. Add someone after a cross-department meeting. Help with a small thing. Don’t eat lunch with the same two people every day. You don’t need to be friends with everyone. Different people should know your name.

Don’t pick sides. Don’t gossip. Don’t talk about people in public. Pantry talk travels. Screenshots travel. Keeping your mouth shut is cheap insurance.

Keep boundaries. Keep records. If something unfair happens, don’t run to a clique to complain. Write down the time, the incident, the words. Go to your manager or HR. Follow the process. Emotion won’t fix it. Evidence and rules might.

Read the room. If the company is full of factions, if your manager pressures you to pick a side, if not picking one gets you punished, that may not be your problem. It may be the environment. Do your job. Look for a way out. Don’t hand yourself to a clique just to feel safe.

Managers should think about this too. A handbook line won’t stop cliques. Cliques grow when resources are hidden, evaluations are unfair, communication is bad, and goals are vague. To reduce them, hand out opportunities fairly. Make rules transparent. Push cross-department work. Deal with exclusion and backbiting quickly. When people are seen, cliques lose their soil.

After Xiao Zhou left, A-Kai got quiet. One lunch, he sat next to me. “Was Xiao Zhou stupid?” he asked. I said, “No. He thought he had backup.” A-Kai chewed. After a while he said, “Lao Chen warned him.” I asked, “About what?” He said, “About the group chat. Told him not to post that stuff.” I asked, “Did he listen?” A-Kai shook his head.

He took his tray and left. I sat there and watched someone smoke outside. A new person sat at Xiao Zhou’s desk, wiping it down. New keyboard cover. Transparent. The pothos had been replaced. Leaves green.

I muted the department chat. I pinned the project group. The next day at lunch, I didn’t sit in my usual spot. I sat next to someone from another department. He asked, “Which team are you on?” I told him. He said, “Oh, that spreadsheet was yours?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “It was clear.” I said, “Thanks.”

We ate. Nobody mentioned Xiao Zhou.