On Call Welcome again to On Call, The Register’s weekly column in which readers share stories of earnestly trying to fix broken tech, and end up feeling broken afterwards.

This week, meet a reader we’ll Regomize as “Tex,” who briefly worked at a semiconductor company in the second-largest state of the USA.

“I was working in their receiving department inspecting and processing incoming components,” Tex told On Call.

Most of the kit that crossed Tex’s desk was mundane and uninteresting, but the job was a foot on the ladder and never more so than the day he was asked to inspect an incoming batch of motherboards.

“That excited me because I would finally be working with something technical,” he told On Call.

Tex was one of a few staff asked to run an eye over the motherboards, and a manager made sure they were ready for the job by staging a quick training session.

Scarcely a minute into that talk, Tex pointed out two defective parts.

“This really surprised the manager since at that point they hadn’t explained anything about the motherboards,” Tex told On Call. The manager therefore demanded Tex explain his diagnosis.

“I pointed out that some of the chips were incorrectly mounted,” Tex wrote, an observation that provoked an incredulous response because the manager assumed Tex was entirely ignorant on the subject of motherboards.

“It was then I pointed out that the chip was upside down,” Tex wrote. The pins that were supposed to nestle into the motherboard were instead pointing skyward and it was utterly obvious that no electricity could flow through the part.

Someone had soldered the chip in place regardless.

“When I pointed that out, I was immediately let go,” Tex drawled.

Have you been fired or disciplined for being right? The right thing to do is click here to send On Call an email so we can share your story on a future Friday. ®