The most ridiculous reason I've seen a colleague get fired

So I joined a team at a tech company a few years ago. Initially, they had promised a great culture during interviews and later showed their true toxic colors citing management policies.

We had this senior engineer who was brilliant. Now with appraisal season approaching, the management decided to collect a huge mandatory contribution for the big boss's birthday gift. My colleague politely declined because of personal finances. To this, the manager denied at first. Then he said he could skip it but his appraisal would get impacted. After further persuasion, he said, he would have not be given his bonus and he would have to pay the team for ruining the morale. The HR was no good either - toxic companies! They tried to break him every way possible when he was completely devastated by the constant harassment. He somehow held himself together and kept working after which he was abruptly terminated for a fake "culture fit" reason.

Fast forward to yesterday on Monday, I found out he had applied for a small startup - they had a promising product. The manager from our old job and the founder were batchmates apparently. The manager reached out to the founder for his review (without telling him). And the manager, as expected, gave a very negative review.

Thankfully, the startup looked forward to hire him given his expertise in the field. But how low do you have to stoop to ruin someone's career and be so insensitive all along just over a birthday gift.

I am pretty sure, he did the same with another startup who was keen on hiring, asked for his documents and later ghosted. The VP there was a friend of the manager.

It's been worrying me for a while, so wanted this out once and for all.

Now that I am a manager, I give balanced feedback because i have learnt that people who probably do not thrive in one environment might do brilliantly in other setup. Who are we to judge?

P.S. If you are ever in position of power, be neutral and empathetic to your juniors. Kindness goes a long way!