Sometimes a bad day is all it takes for a boss to fire an employee. Sometimes it takes even less than that. From petty disagreements to unappreciated catchphrases, these Redditors shared the dumbest reasons they were fired. A few of them are still a little bit bitter…and you probably would be too.
1. Icy Response
When I was 19, I was working in the middle of an ice storm. I asked my boss if I could leave early (I was supposed to work from 4:00 pm to midnight) before it got worse and all the highways shut down, so I could make it safely home. He told me no. That's when I went nuclear. I told him he should take the stick out of his butt, and that was that, I was fired. Hey, I’d rather make it home alive!
2. NSFW
I worked midnights at a steel mill as a very young adult for two years. I had access to the entire network to do some of my work, even though I was just a general laborer. Long story short, someone had left their login and password in a file on the public directory. I, being the good little worker I was, pointed it out to my direct supervisor. From there, I thought it was over. But it was just the beginning of the nightmare.
Turns out, he took this account, one that belonged to a wonderful older woman who also happened to have unrestricted access, and used it to log into “naughty” sites while at work. He was busted hard...but it backfired right on me. Because then what does he do? He points the finger at me and says I'm the one that gave him the password and login. BLAM...fired for "hacking" a corporate network!
3. In Fashion, Out Of The Job
I worked in this costume shop, and my boss, who was obviously very unhappy with her life, had built this place up in her head and acted like we were some designer store on Rodeo Drive. In my free time, I write for a couple of local blogs and magazines, go to events, Fashion Week and things like that.
I always got invites to these events and she never did, and she would always say it was because she is too important for them so people were intimidated to invite her. When I'd work the day after an event, she'd pick on me the entire day and say the event was probably boring and all the people there had to be tacky.
She even got in my face and called me a skank one day because a guy from one of the events recognized me and said hello while I was working. Finally, after I got an amazing opportunity and got to cover Fashion Week and go for free and everything, I went into work and she told me I was fired. I'd "betrayed" her.
The plus side is I immediately got offered a job at an actual clothing store, with benefits and commission. No more selling hot dog costumes.
4. Mono On A Monday
I was scheduled to work on a Friday and got diagnosed with mono on a Monday. I don't know if you've ever had mono, but it knocks you on your butt pretty hard. I showed my employer my note on Monday and promptly was picked up by my mother and brought home to "get taken care of properly".
That should have been it. It wasn't. I got a text that made my blood boil. I got a message from my boss saying that I needed to come in or I was fired. When I reminded him I had mono he said that my job was "to sit at a desk and take to-go orders". I also CHECK to-go orders, which means I have DIRECT CONTACT with people's food. Dumbest thing ever.
5. The Beat Down
The General Manager of my restaurant comes in one night (he wasn't working) and asks to see this tiny little 18-year-old kid "outside". I'm still in shock about what he meant. As in, he wanted to fight him. This kid had just been promoted like two weeks prior. I was 21 at the time, and the other manager was maybe 5'5" and 120 pounds soaking wet.
About 20 minutes, later the General Manager comes back in rubbing his knuckles and looks me in the eye and says, "Hey man, I'm going to need you to clean up some blood". So, I go outside and sure enough there is blood all over the back garbage area. I start to clean it up while he stands and watches me while telling this sap story about his life and money woes and how much the kid deserved it.
He then goes home and the rest of the staff and I are just kind of standing there stunned that this just happened. About an hour later, the 18-year-old manager comes back, and his face is barely recognizable. I told him to go to the hospital, but he refused for whatever reason and he said he called the authorities and asked me to back up his story, which I told him I would.
Another half hour or so passes and then officers show up at the restaurant. I give them a statement that is completely truthful, chat with them for a while, and give them some free tacos and then head home for the night. The story doesn't end there. Next day, I come into work and the General Manager now asks to see me outside.
Now, I'm 6' tall and 275 pounds, and grew up in a rougher neighborhood. I'm not some easy target and was, at that point, almost eager for him to hit me so I can teach him a lesson. He got in my face and it seemed like he was weighing his options, but he decided against it and just asked me if I talked to the authorities, which I replied yes and I'm surprised he hadn't been detained already.
He then says "Finish out your shift and don't bother coming back, you're fired". I had the perfect response. I said, "Oh no, if you're gonna fire me, have the dignity to do it in front of everyone". I walk back inside, ask all the staff that were there to gather around and tell them that the General Manager has something he'd like to say.
Put on the spot, he fires me then and there. I go home to call the labor board to see how badly I can sue his butt for wrongful termination. Turns out, I hadn't worked there long enough and didn't make enough money, which was a real low blow. I hated that job anyways and I got another one pretty quick so it wasn't a huge deal, but it still blows my mind this all happened. People rarely believe me when I tell the story, but it did.
6. Infected
I worked in a gas station in Chicago, making about $700 a week. I had one day off a month and I had to come in to do inventory on that day. I didn't mind all the hours because the pay was good. Anyways, the day rolled around and I came down with an infection near my eye and went to the ER. The doctor told me I had to be admitted. I said I couldn't do that because I had to work.
He told me that if I didn't go, in the best case I would just lose my eye, but more than likely the infection would go to my brain and that would be the end. So I called work and let them know I was in the hospital. I spent four days there hooked to an IV that gave me 24 hours of antibiotics a day. Finally, I get out and go to work...and get fired because of it. My boss told me it was because he needed someone for that shift and he really couldn't let them go after just hiring them.
The company was too small to sue them over it. And to top it off, he fought my unemployment claim.
7. Lost Email
I had the best college job in the world: watching the library computer labs on campus. I had about four shifts of varying length every week, and I always showed up on time, very very rarely had someone cover, and I would pick up a shift every other week or so. There was a rather large automated system so my "boss" knew I was among the more reliable lab attendants, which he even admitted after firing me.
Anyway, there is one meeting before the start of each semester, and if you didn't show up for that meeting you were fired. End of story. There was nothing important at the meeting. If you sent an email letting him know you were not back in school yet, he would not fire you. When you consider the meeting would last about 15 minutes and there was really nothing to cover, it's all very arbitrary.
He just had to fire a few people a year to make his job look important. So I sent an email saying I wouldn't be on campus yet. It all went so wrong. He didn't receive it, and he sent me an email at the start of the semester to let me know I was fired, which is kind of like breaking up with someone via Twitter. I replied asking to meet him in person, which he pretty much never did with any of us...except for the one meeting every semester.
After going back and forth, I finally was able to meet him and I showed him the email I sent. He admitted that it was hard to fire me as I was a very reliable lab attendant, and picked up shifts no one wanted. Then it got ridiculous. He said he would still probably have to fire me, using the excuse "What do I say to the other two people I fired for the same reasons? What if they come up with an email, too"? WHAT email would they have, exactly?
I asked if I was still, in fact, fired, and he said, "I'll have to think about it". I requested, very clearly, that at the very least he call me or have me come by his office to tell me I am fired. Three days later he sent me another email saying I was still fired. Mainly, I was annoyed that I was fired by email, and this guy, who was such a lazy, useless boss that he contacted me all of zero times the year I worked in the labs, didn't even have the guts to fire me in person.
8. Fix It
After graduating from university, I was hired to do communications at a small transportation company. I did newsletters, website updates, etc.. I was doing really well at that and seeing great results, so the president decided that naturally my skills could easily be transferred over to the Operations department, which was totally failing and needed to be turned around.
Long story short, he gave me a month to fix a department that had been performing poorly for four years, and then fired me when I wasn't able to fix it. Never mind the fact that I am in no way trained in or qualified for work in operations. Never mind the fact that I was still doing a great job at the stuff I'd been originally hired to do.
Three days before firing me, he told me I was "a star" at the company communications. And never mind the fact that it takes at least a month just to learn how a department functions, and then much more time to come up with the ideas for improving its processes. Ugh, still makes me angry just thinking about it.
9. Bada Boom, Bada Bing
I worked at Burger King for two weeks. I went out in a blaze of glory. I got fired by a district manager immediately after I said to a customer over the intercom, "Bada boom, bada bing, welcome to the King, may I take your order"? It just rolled off the tongue and the customer got a kick out of it. Apparently I wasn't allowed to have a personality on the job.
10. Snack Attack
I worked at a grocery store as a young teen. On my 14th birthday, my friend who was working the register gave me extra yogurt-covered pretzels, worth a total of $1.18, as a little something special in addition to the other things I was purchasing. I was fired, she was fired, and the bagger was fired for not reporting it. I can understand firing us, but the bagger? Really? I doubt she ever paid attention to any of the transactions in such detail.
11. Getting Shifty
I worked as a laborer in a roofing factory through a temp agency for about nine months. On the third shift (11:00 pm to 7:00 am), there were four of us operating a roofing roller, but only three positions to fill. So, everyone took turns. 30 minutes on position one, 30 minutes on position two, 30 minutes on position three, 30-minute break, rinse, repeat.
If you showed up at the roller last, you would inevitably have to take a 30-minute break as soon as you walked in. I realized how I could use this to my advantage. I intentionally started showing up first and taking position one, so that my last 30 minute break would begin at 6:30 am and I could clock out and head home early.
The non-temp workers (including several supervisors) knew what I was doing, and didn't see any problem with it. After several weeks of this, I go into the temp agency to pick up my paycheck. The lady at the front desk tells me that I have to talk to the boss man to get my check. So, I head back to his office and promptly get canned for "costing [the temp agency] money".
12. Under New Management
I got fired from a mom and pop video store because me and this other guy were both trying to buy the store from the previous owner. The landlord picked him over me only because every time the landlord came in looking for the previous owner, he came in the morning. I worked nights, and the other guy worked mornings.
The guy tried to be cool about it, saying he "didn't need me anymore" like he was doing me some kind of favor. I feel it's important to mention that he is legally blind and couldn't even drive himself to work. He had to hold everything right up to his face to even see what it was, and even then he still made mistakes on what movies were taken out.
That place closed barely a year after that. I was sad to see it go but I love that he failed miserably. I like to believe I could have kept it alive for a few years before all video stores went the way of the dinosaur, but who knows...maybe it's best I didn't buy it.
13. Customer Comes First
I was in charge of finishing a project and did what the client wanted instead of what my control-freak-of-a-boss wanted. The client was happy, but the boss was furious at me for disobeying him. That was years ago and to this day I'm still happy with the decision I made to keep the client's wishes. I mean, the customer’s always right, right?
14. Finders Keepers
I used to do landscaping for about a year and a half at my previous job. My boss offered me commission/finder fees for any jobs that his employees found him. One of my good friends needed a lot of work done around his family's house. I thought, "Perfect, I'll give this job to my boss and collect the $200 he had offered".
The job was not a small job in the slightest; he had quoted them $4,000 to complete the work. Upon asking my boss about the finders fee, his answer made me want to scream.He gave me the run around and stated that he can only give me $50. I thought about it for a minute and then said screw that noise. So I got my revenge.
I called him the next day and told him my friend didn't want the work done anymore. I then told my friend that I would do the work on the weekend for $2,500. I went there on my day off and got the entire job done with my own tools. I hired my own crew and paid everyone well. Except, one of the people that I hired (a supposed "friend") knew my boss and told him that I did the job. The boss fired me. Worth it.
15. A Hairy Situation
I was fired by my jerk boss because I was "non-compliant" with their company policy. I was a dishwasher (no one ever saw me) and he had the most ridiculous brushy handlebar mustache the world has ever seen. I mean the follicles of his mustache would fall all the time. When he ate, talked to customers, and took orders, hair was falling out.
But my two-day grayish shadow (I can't grow facial hair) was the last straw. So he canned me. I can't regret it though, because from that day on I vowed never to work in the food industry again. Six and a half years later, I graduated college and I landed a pretty fat job. Moral of the story: Sometimes the stuff life throws at you works in your favor. Keep your head up.
16. Button Banter
While I worked as an usher at a theater (for plays) I was asked to dispense promotional buttons after the show. This was difficult since the very old audience was always entirely focused on navigating the two stairs to the exit. I started to describe the buttons a bit, at first just saying “Bra button?”, since it had a picture of a conical bra on it (the show was a British farce).
This evolved into other bra jokes that the old ladies really enjoyed, and I handed out a lot of buttons. Two shows later, I'm ushering the opening night of a new show. It was a sad drama about an old man looking for his long lost sister. The button had two hands reaching for each other, which was not nearly as funny as a bra.
During the five minutes it takes for the theater to empty, the best description I came up with was “tragic hand button”? I knew I would have to work on that line but I didn't get the chance. When I arrived for my next shift, my manager said one of the theater's board members heard me say “tragic hand button” and was furious with me for insulting the art. Fired.
17. Watching The Clock
I got a new boss a while back because our current one had messed something up. She decided she was going to "clean up" the department. I work in IT, and in the six years or so prior to this happening, it was understood that you could be five to ten minutes late because odds were you'd be putting in a few hours of unpaid overtime that week anyway.
Things break and you have to skip lunch, or stay late, or come in early, or show up in the middle of the night. Anyway, an IDF (a big box containing wiring and networking equipment) in one corner of the plant goes kaput in the middle of the night. I show up at about midnight to fix it and am there until nearly six in the morning.
I emailed my boss to say that I wouldn't be in at nine that morning due to being there all night beforehand. I figured that was that, as had been the case every time previously. I soon found out how wrong I was. A few days later I'm called into HR and told that taking a day off was never authorized, even though nobody ever called me to ask why I wasn't in.
They sent me home. The next morning, they call me to say I'm fired, citing the day I didn't come in and the regular lateness by five minutes or so that everyone else was practicing anyway. Not that it makes anything better, but from what I've heard several people from my old department have or are preparing to quit since then.
18. Italian Surprise
I worked at an Italian restaurant part time when I was in college. My freshman year roommate was one of the managers, and we were pretty much best friends. My family and I had planned a vacation to Italy late in August, and I got my shifts as a server covered months in advance. The day before we were supposed to leave, the general manager asked if I wanted to start bartending on Saturday nights.
Since they usually made more than the servers, I obviously said yes. When I came back from Italy, I found out I was fired because I didn't show up for a bartender training shift they scheduled me for after I had already left for Italy. The best part is, they made my friend fire me, to rub the salt in the wound a little deeper.
19. Not Very Entertaining
I worked as an activities coordinator dealing with elderly and mentally infirm clients and dementia clients. It was December, and I had been in the job for 18 months and had no formal training. My job description was simply "entertain the clients" and I did my best, but I wanted support and got none.
I tried getting my manager to sign me up to raining sessions, but the $120 for the day course was deemed as costing too much. For the Christmas entertainment, I booked a double act who sang songs from the WWII era and did costume changes through the whole thing. I had them before, and they were amazing.
Then I got told three days before they were due to cancel on them because it cost too much. It was $150 for four hours! I said fine, called them, and was told there was a $75 cancellation fee. I told my manager and she just said "do it" so I canceled them, costing $75. I should've realized the signs then. The day I come back, I get told that I am getting a four-week notice to improve or I'm getting fired, the main reason being the lack of entertainment over Christmas.
I say fine, and start doing double what I normally did, even clocking off and staying another couple of hours a day so I could do more. I DID NOT want to be fired. A week into this "probation" period, my girlfriend, who also worked at the care home, is getting her appraisal from the boss, and she mentions that she is worried for the future because of the situation that I am in.
The boss tells her that she's firing me anyway. My girlfriend runs out in tears, tells me that I'm getting fired, and she never worked there again. Her confidence has been knocked back even further than my own. I worked my notice and that was that. We’ve both been out of work since, scared of getting another boss like her. A manipulative and evil woman.
20. Hustling
In grade 12 I had been working at a home-owned company for over a year. I had saved all my spares so that I only had one morning class and the rest of my day was free. I asked if I could have more shifts, they said no. I told them that I wanted to go find a second job because I had too much free time. Eventually they said that would be okay, just as long as I worked the same shifts at my first job.
I got a job interview for another job and used my boss as a reference. My new employer called my current employer for a reference. Thank God she gave me a reference, so I got the new job. But it came at a high price. 20 minutes later, I got a text message from another of my bosses saying, "Hey, yeah, you're off the schedule". I texted him and called the store several times without him answering.
So I went down there. He was sitting in the back playing games on his computer. I got into a debate with him about how he couldn't possibly fire me over this. We had a deal, and I'd been nothing but a loyal employee to his company. Then he and two other owners had a "meeting" where they all debated whether or not I was "allowed" to still work there.
It was really humiliating. They talked through me like I wasn't even there. After about an hour they tentatively allowed me to come back, but with a pay cut and I lost my hours I had established to work so I could manage both jobs. Needless to say I did not come back.
21. Replaced
I was technically "laid off", not fired, but it amounted to about the same thing. I was working at a comic book store. It was a small company with only two locations, and the manager at the store I worked at was the owner of the company. A couple of weeks earlier I had asked if I could get more hours over the summer and he had said that should be fine.
So one Monday afternoon, when I was supposed to work that evening, my mom came home and she had gotten laid off from her job. Shortly after I got this news, I got a phone call from my boss who basically said, "I have to lay you off, don't come in to work tonight. I hired someone else full time and he's coming in tonight to be trained". Worst day ever.
22. Not Quite Peter Parker
One day in 2005, I get up and notice I have some kind of spider bite on my inner thigh. I slept in the basement so that's what I chalked it up to. I get out of bed and start getting ready to go to work since I overslept. As I'm getting dressed, my leg starts throbbing and swelling. I say "eh" walk out the door to work. As I'm walking I can feel it hurting and swelling more and more.
I make it to work and get told to get in the kitchen, as someone called off and we are super busy. I limp on past the General Manager and a normal manager. They ask what’s wrong I tell them, get in the kitchen, and bust out all the orders for about maybe an hour. That's when it all unraveled. The pain set it. On a scale of one to 10 I was at a 50.
So here I am on the floor, basically in tears, all sweaty and holding my leg, while the other guys in the kitchen make food. The manager comes back and asks what's wrong. I tell her I have to leave because something is really wrong with my leg and I can't work if I can't stand. Here is what she tells me: "If you leave you are fired, that's not coming from me, that's from the General Manager". I flip out: "What do you mean, he left like an hour ago?!"
Apparently as I came limping in the General Manager (who was a jerk to begin with, that's another story) tells the manager "I bet he and Nick (the guy who called off) are up to some tricks. They probably planned this out. If he tries to leave, fire him". I do end up leaving and going to the hospital and it turned out that I had MRSA. MRSA is some serious stuff. If you don't know, if it gets into your bloodstream it can be fatal.
So I get an IV, pain pills, and all that fun stuff, and I get a doctor’s note saying that I can't work until I'm healed. I call the manager to tell her what's up and she tells me I'm still fired and she will mail my check to me. After I can work again, I call the higher-ups and tell them what happened. We have a meeting with all parties involved.
They admit they did wrong and agree to hire me back. They tell me to come in on Thursday. I come in on Thursday and they say "We told you Wednesday, you're fired again".
23. Creative Excuses
About two years ago, I worked for a widely-known arts and crafts store. I have always been into art and was excited to work where I thought I would fit right in. I could not have been more wrong. The assistant manager seemed really awesome and laid-back and when she decided to hire me we sat there and joked around. It was awesome.
That was about it as far as the welcome mat, though. This assistant manager then turned into a tyrannosaurus jerk. She would give me assignments with absolutely NO instructions, like putting away merchandise but not telling me how to read the code so I knew exactly where they went. And if I asked her for help, she'd huff and puff and act like I was the world's stupidest idiot.
She would constantly chew people out and make all of these little petty rules, like when you use the intercom, don't hang up to end the message because it sounds too Wal-Marty. And yes, I got chewed out for that. They would have me put boxes away when the front wasn't busy but I wasn't meeting their time expectations.
Sometimes I wouldn't see a customer right away and they would constantly pull me aside to see why I wasn't getting to them within 10 seconds. No joke. And after all of this, they fired me because I needed a manager/lead signature to approve some check amount. A lead helped me and promptly walked off. I asked her to sign it but she never got around to it, so I just put her name down as the one who supervised the transaction.
Somehow, she saw me writing and pulled out the sheet of paper and immediately reported it to the assistant manager, who said she had to terminate me on the grounds of "forgery". Even though the lead did supervise it but was somehow too lazy to sign the sheet. I'm still a little bitter, as you can tell.
24. Whose Mistake Was It
My first "real" job was at an animal hospital. I gave incorrect information about the hours when the pet owners were allowed to pick up animals they were boarding with us. Granted, it was stupid mistake that I have no excuse for, I'd been there for a year and a half. But I didn't deserve what I got. The vet followed me around for an entire day just so she could mock and belittle me.
I left in tears that day, gave my two weeks notice the next and was asked to leave the day after. But then I learned the truth. I came to find out, the night before I made my mistake, a dog that had been in for a routine spay developed a fever during post-op and they couldn't figure out why. After an X-ray they realized that the mean vet had left a tool inside the dog and it barely survived the infection.
She made an even worse mistake than I did, and she took it out on me. I loved working with animals and the owners, but the vet and a lot of the staff at that clinic were mean, hateful people full of spite.
25. Revenge Is Best Served During All-You-Can-Eat
I worked as a dish washer at an all-you-can-eat place. I was the only dish washer and they would schedule me for 14-hour or more shifts, starting at 5:30 am and ending around 8:00 pm. I fell asleep on my lunch break for too long (an hour or so?) on my second day in a row of 14-hour shifts, and the manager said to pack my stuff, I'm out.
That day and the next I had 30 or more missed calls begging me to finish my two weeks notice and that I had a $1 raise if I stayed. I strolled in a few days later to eat there with friends and made the biggest mess I could, smiling the whole time at said manager.
26. Dollars And Cents
I got fired from Sears for allowing a customer to buy a $2 item with their debit card, and instantly returning it so they could have pocket change to make a call and buy something from the vending machine. They said that I shouldn't have let the customer return the merchandise since the store would still have to pay the processing fee (not true, by the way).
I was in sales part time and made about 20k at the time. I was a good employee and never missed a day of work, and I was great at selling warranties. To them I was nothing, and they discarded me without hesitation. After this I decided to really focus on school, got good grades, got an internship, and graduated. Now I make about three times what I made there. I visit the store every now and then and have no hard feelings, since their mistreatment of me forced me to excel in school.
27. Coffee Sharks
When I was 16, I worked at a Tim Horton's for about a month. There wasn't a training session and they basically just threw you to the coffee hungry sharks. I thought I was doing okay, but being a timid kid I was afraid of asking too many questions. This led to my demise. I got called into my boss's office and was basically accused of stealing money from the register and was fired.
The best explanation I can give is that I was working the credit card scanner wrong, so every time someone gave me a credit card they got free food/coffee. I hated that job anyway. The boss told me that the only reason I got hired was because they had mostly girls working and none of them wanted to clean the bathrooms or mop or do stuff like that.
28. Timing Is Everything
I told my boss I couldn't work on my birthday three weeks prior, but she put me on the schedule anyway. I tell her I can't come in until 5:00, she puts me down for 12:00 on my birthday. I come in at 3:00. I left my party to go work in the kitchen. She calls me out to the dining room to yell at me, calls me a liar and lazy, when I had been working 65 hours a week for the past two months.
I said I wasn't lying and she says "and now you're calling me a liar”!?! She tells me to leave, and I leave. I call back later to see if I still have a job. She says I can come back in but I would be working "on her terms" (that is, doing five jobs and being paid for one). I said no, and that was that. It was ridiculous and I’m happy to be out of there.
29. A Stone’s Throw
I was once fired from a waitressing job for having kidney stones. It gets even more ridiculous. I didn't know I had kidney stones until one shift when I literally fell to my knees in pain. It felt like a sharp dagger was being shoved up my urethra. Having worked for the restaurant for a long time, I assumed I would be okay to leave.
All my tables had paid but we were still busy. I was peeing blood. My boss told me to stay. I told him I needed emergency help and left. I was fired and was ineligible for unemployment. It turns out I went to the hospital just in time, so that boss of mine can suck it.
30. Seniority Rules
This happened just this past weekend. I was working at my local paintball/laser tag arena. I loved that job, had the highest seniority, but had to take off TWO months due to medical issues. I was able to come back to work and signed up for every upcoming weekend. I go into work to find that ALL of my shifts have been canceled and assigned to other employees.
I'm all like "Okay, what the heck". My boss says over the SIX months that I've been gone (not true), I have dropped to the lowest on the so-called "totem pole". So it rolls around to this Sunday where I get a message at noon from my boss saying "Where are you?! you were scheduled to work today”! I responded, "I was told all of my shifts were taken and am now spending time with my family".
She didn't like that, so now I get this back. "No, I told you that you were low-man in seniority after not working for six months. I told you to check the schedule, and I certainly don't need an employee who doesn't call or come in for his shift. Good luck, and I'm sorry the job didn't work out for you”! HAHA, that sucks, for her. I'm the only one who knows how to run the laser tag properly. Good luck in the future to you, jerk!
31. In Reverse
I was working at a car wash as a teen, and I took a standard car down to the car wash and parked it in the bay. Well, apparently the shifter was a piece of junk, and it decided to pop itself into reverse. What happened next made me go white as a ghost. I tried to jump back into the car and I didn't close the door fast enough. It bent the door completely the wrong way.
It was the hardest thing ever, telling your boss you smashed the life out of a customer's car door. So they call me on Monday and ask me to come in. Yes, they fire my sorry butt for something that wasn't really my fault.
32. Transferred
I was fired from Zehrs (a Canadian grocery store)...for not getting paid. I put in a transfer from one store to another, but the head office was taking too long to process the transfer, so I worked for two months without getting paid. I spoke to the cash office at work, my immediate supervisor, and my union rep. I was assured that the situation was "being handled".
After those two months, I was sick of working for free, so I told my manager that I wasn't going to come back in until I got paid. He said that was fine with him. The next day, I got a call from one of the store managers, telling me that she could give me $100 in cash and then "look into seeing if I'm owed anything else". I said no.
The next pay day, I got the $1000+ I was owed, so I went back in. My manager told me that I had been fired for skipping work, and the union let me know I could file a grievance over it the day before the deadline was up.
33. No Drink For You
I was fired from a coffee shop for a stupid reason once. I was on my way home from a shift when I realized I had promised my girlfriend I would make her a drink before I left work. I said whatever, I'll just stop by the location nearest my apartment and buy it for her there. I walked in, still wearing my store branded "uniform" t-shirt, so the barista says "Oh hey, you work at this company? You shouldn't have to pay, I'll give you this for free”!
I balked at first, saying no don't worry I'll pay, but everyone working at the time agreed I should get a free drink. They insisted and wouldn't take my money, so I caved. As soon as the drink was made and the barista went to hand it to me, out of the back burst this angry-looking manager with huge bushy eyebrows, furiously scowling at me.
He starts yelling "Who are you!? Where do you work? Do you really think you can scam me like that? Who do you take me for?" He grabs the drink away from me, spilling it everywhere, points to the door and starts screaming "OUT”! until I left. Somehow, it gets more bizarre. The next day when I arrived at my location, my manager takes me aside and shows me a series of CCTV printouts from the security camera at the other location I went to.
He says the manager claimed I was demanding free drinks, saying that I deserved them and if I didn't get them for free I would call corporate. No amount of explaining could convince him I actually wanted to pay for that drink.
34. Drive On
I worked at a Speedway gas station several years back. The policy there was to pump your gas, then pay inside. If people pumped their gas and left without paying, I was not allowed to do anything about it. I couldn't say anything to the customer, wave them down as they drove, or anything else. Also, there were no cameras outside.
With all these awesome policies, of course people took gas all the time. I got fired due to the gas station's horrible policies. They told me I was causing too many drive-offs. That was five years ago when I was a student. I still avoid Speedway gas stations at all costs.
35. New Year, New Staff
I worked as a delivery boy/late-night slice guy at a pizza shop near my college. Winter break rolls around, and I get told that since students aren't there, there are no late-night shifts, so I'd pick up again in January. Come January, I go back to see where I am in the schedule and the owner avoids and avoids me and never lets me know.
Eventually, my friend that also worked there told me that everyone that worked there prior to winter break was fired because the owner had worked a late night and some jerks tried to scam him by saying that the regular guys give away free slices and drinks. He decided to just fire everyone and hire new staff.
36. Cleaning Up
I was hired to work the newly installed ice cream section at a little mom and pop restaurant about 15 years ago. The first day there, I was trained on how to properly clean the machines by the guy who installed them. But that night, the owner came up to me and told me he wanted them cleaned differently...in a way that would save them money but would definitely not get the machines as clean as they should be.
I decided to ignore the boss, he saw me, and I was fired. But there's a twist. He had been drinking that evening and I assumed he wouldn't remember. I went in the next day as though I hadn't been fired and kept working there for another few years.
37. Career Switch
I recorded my first CD. You see, I worked in a pizza place and truly hated my tenure there. The co-workers were rude, the customers were rude, and it was really a stereotypically bad job. However, as a poor student studying music, I kept at it since I didn't think I could find anything else. So one day I learnt that my services would be needed to record a CD.
I told my job roughly two months in advance that I would need two weeks off to record. They said it was fine, and to remind them when it came closer. So I proceeded to tell them at least one time a week, "Hey guys, remember that I need those two weeks off". So I have two weeks before I leave, and I talk to my manager and give him the last details of everything.
My last day of work, they all tell me good luck and they can't wait to hear it. The last day of recording (also my birthday), my friend sent me a text telling me I got fired over a week ago for not showing up for work.
38. Poor Choice Of Words
I've only been fired once, and it was complete nonsense. I was working at Papa Murphy's Take-n-Bake pizza in my town (newly opened) and there was this complete witch working there. As you may know, you can call ahead and order a pizza to be ready for pick-up, and on the day in question, I answered the phone in the midst of an argument with the aforementioned witch.
She used some...choice language while I was taking the order, and the customer heard it. The next day, the customer called back to complain, and the only people working were the witch and an assistant manager who was not a big fan of me. The witch rearranged the story so that I was the one who swore, and I got canned without even being given the opportunity to defend myself.
39. Not So Happy Hour
I was a bartender at a sports bar. One of the policies was that we couldn't drink there on a day we had worked, and on our day off we could, but were limited to two drinks. Well, it was my day off, and I was waiting for a buddy to get off work so we could have dinner. I had three beers. The owner was at a table eating. I knew he was there, but I had worked there for four and a half years and really didn't think he'd care, as he was well into his fifth bourbon and coke.
He saw me. After my next shift, the General Manager came up to me and said "Sorry, but that was your last shift here". I won unemployment less than 16 hours later and took him for over seven grand.
40. Hot Headed
I worked as a file clerk for Farmer's Insurance (I hate them) and was fired because the daycare called and said my son was running a fever and I needed to come get him. At the time I was a single parent with no other family or backup support in the entire state. The manager came to me and said "We have to let you go because you can't finish your shift. I think you should get your personal life together before you try working again".
I just stared at her and she started getting nervous, shifting from foot to foot and wringing her hands. I said, “Ma'am I don't know how else I am supposed to get my personal life together if I don't have a job. I hope whatever my kid is sick with isn't contagious and that you don't have to stay home one day...they might fire you too”.
41. A Labor Of Lung
I used to work at a major hospital. I became sick, very sick, with bronchitis. I could hardly breathe. I tried to show up for my shift on a Thursday, and was immediately sent home by a doctor. I did not improve by Friday, so I went to my doctor to get checked out. He confirmed my sickness. I was to report in for a Saturday morning shift but was WAY too sick to do so, and had a favorite co-worker cover my shift.
She showed up and worked with no problems from the boss. I got a call on Monday saying that I was fired because I didn't show up. They said it didn't matter that the shift was covered, I needed to be there. But they got what they deserved. The people at the unemployment office knew that this was an unfair dismissal and I now collect unemployment payments.
42. Lies
I got fired from a defense contractor for mis-charging four hours of labor. There was no warning and no chance to fix it. But in reality, it probably had something to do with the fact that I filed a confidential ethics complaint against my manager and it was leaked to her within hours by HR. I was hired with a bunch of promises about college funding and choices and time to take classes if I worked a year and a half first.
A year and a half later, I get an email saying I get basically none of that and "this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone". Anyway, my complaint got my classes paid for, but also got me the label of a bad attitude (perhaps well-earned?) and was probably a good part of the reason why they looked for any tiny mistake to fire me over.
43. Quick Escape
I said in a staff meeting that in the event of a fire, I would carry someone in a wheelchair down the stairs. The rules, however, stated I should leave them at the top for firefighters to handle. I found this rule to be cruel and inhumane. They thought it was grounds for a possible lawsuit and let me go. Good luck to them if they ever have a fire in the building!
44. A Stinky Situation
I worked at a Fry's electronics store as a cashier for about a year before I was fired. One day a supervisor told me and this other guy that someone had thrown poop on the ceiling of the bathroom. She said it was our job to clean it up. The other guy said he would and I said no, we have cleaners for that stuff.
I got into an argument with the supervisor about it and walked out. Turns out when the guy was cleaning it up later, it fell off of the ceiling and landed on his head. I think I made the right decision, I have a significantly better job now.
45. It's All For You
I got fired from CVS for dropping a box of crackers from a shelf. My 90-year-old boss said I did it purposely and I am "out to get her." Okay, lady.
46. Wink Wink
I was a mover, and one day we had to pack the customers' stuff into boxes. I had dresser duty, and I couldn't believe what I found. It was filled with "costumes" and a hilarious photo of the customer with a mustache and a hairy chest sitting in a hot tub. Anyway, I put a winking smiley face on the box containing all the stuff and was canned a few days later.
47. Skid Mark
I worked at a driving range and golf course. The staff golf cart had been busted for a few weeks, so when they finally fixed it, I felt it was my duty to take it for a test drive. Little did I know, they took off the thing that caps its top speed. The path around the golf course is gravel, except for around the first hole. So I'm flying around the path, having a grand old time, drink in my lap.
I get to the last part of the path, where it goes from gravel to asphalt, in the middle of a turn. I didn't slow down enough for the turn, drifted through the gravel, hit the pavement and the tires caught it. It put the golf cart on one wheel, on the front driver's side. The drink flew out of my lap.
I landed on my butt on the metal arm rest. I had a foot long, perfectly defined, black line bruise on my butt for about three weeks. I almost crashed the cart into the starter house, and my manager watched the whole thing. The worst part is that I wasn't even there working, I was just hanging out. And that was the end of that job!
48. The Joker
When I was 16, I got my first job at a high-end grocery store in Arizona. On April Fools’ day (almost a year after I was hired), I texted my dad from work saying I just got fired for some stupid reason. It set off a horrible chain reaction. My dad calls the store and starts yelling at my managers, who had no knowledge of my joke.
When they find out what’s going on, they call me and another co-worker to the back office and tell me that they were tired of how we always took the job as a joke and talked among ourselves. They made me sign a termination form and clock out, then escorted me out of the store. As I am getting into my car, shaking with anger and on the verge of tears, my manager says "April Fools'”. I never saw it coming.
49. Scared Straight
I got fired two weeks ago. I was working at a summer camp for the children of the rich, elite members of a very posh country club on the beach. I was the only non-blonde out of all the campers AND employees. So one day I was coloring with one of the young girls (who was about 10 years old) when she said "I'm going to draw a scary vampire! It's going to be soooo scary! Help me draw it and make it scary”!
We make it as scary as a crayon-colored vampire can be (I'll admit, it was pretty scary) with blood dripping off its fangs and a girl in the background with two X's for eyes and her tongue sticking out, and two little blood spots on her neck. Well, my boss got a hold of this drawing and scheduled meetings with me and country club executives who said they were "highly disturbed" by the darkness of the drawing and encouraged me to "seek help".
Keep in mind that I'm a 19-year-old girl and this was my first job as an adult working with kids. They couldn't even give me a warning or use it as a chance for me to learn. They could've at least just fired me without having me meet with all the directors of the club judging me by a stupid mistake. I cried for days afterward out of embarrassment. It was absolutely ridiculous.
Flickr, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
50. Something’s Fishy
I got fired from a small deli shop that I worked at in high school. A friend that worked on the deli side always messed around and one night he did not feel like breading the fish. He comes up with a disastrous plan. He dumps 40 pounds of frozen fish in the sink and turns on the garbage disposal. Now, this is also an ingenious plan since it will leave no evidence. Except for one thing.
The garbage disposal can't handle all the fish, and breaks after about five pounds. The managers found out what happened the next day and fired about half the staff, including me.
Sources: Reddit,
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