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74 New Hires Who Barely Made It Through The Door Before Getting Fired
Starting a new job can be really scary. Suddenly, you have to get used to new coworkers, a new workspace, and figure out which workflow works best for you and your peers. It can be quite daunting, but also exciting.
But some people take these new opportunities and quickly become HR's worst nightmare. And we have some stories to prove it. Someone on r/AskReddit asked about the quickest they've ever seen someone get fired, and well, some of the answers are truly shocking. So, hey, if you're looking to hold on to your job, here's what not to do.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
They started on 4th of January and didn't show up. Not even picking up the phone. They did show up on the 5th of January and just explained they "didn't feel like starting their new work on a Monday". And that was it.
RELATED:
#2
Teacher here.
A new sub came in for 1 period then left and never came back. Still my favorite phone call:
Secretary: Hi, this is Tracy
Me: Hey, Ashley’s sub is not in the room and the kids are yelling that he quit.
Secretary: he ran out for a coffee, I’ll call him. Please watch her class.
2 min later…
Secretary: yea he quit. We will send someone else to cover.
Me: he quit after one 45-min class?
Secretary: he said he’d rather go back to work at the prison he just retired from.
#3
Same day he started. Told him he needed to wear his safety glasses to protect his eyes and the dust mask whilst we cut chipboard as its toxic for your health proceeds to say no way and calls me a weak coward for wearing mine.
Unfortunately for him our operations manager was standing right around the corner and heard the entire exchange he was gone within the hour.
Finding the perfect person for a job can be challenging. From understanding who the candidate is to assessing their qualifications and determining whether they'll fit into the company culture — there's a lot to consider.
So much so that a global survey by CareerBuilder found that nearly 74% of employers admit to hiring the wrong person for a role, with the average cost of a bad hire exceeding $14,900. This figure accounts for the time and money lost to training and recruitment, as well as reduced productivity.
#4
Two hours into day one. Dude stole a clearly labeled sandwich from the break room fridge that happened to belong to the HR director who had just finished giving him the office tour.
Security escorted him out before his company laptop even finished its first mandatory Windows update.
#5
First week on the job he closed a deal with a client. People were hyping him up. However, after the client left the meeting, he realized he had forgotten to have them sign the pre-contract agreement... So he forged their rep's signature on it. It was noticed within 24 hours and he was fired immediately.
#6
Police Department hired a new officer. Hours later, they learned he'd been fired from a nearby department and was pending losing his law enforcement certification. Fired on the same day of hiring.
#7
New Hire walks in. Stellar interview, super composed, knows what he’s doing. He meets his immediate supervisor, and she says she’s looking forward to working with him. The New Hire says:
“I don’t work with [c word].”
He immediately goes to the Manager, asks who his supervisor is. The Supervisor reports what he said, and the Manager confirms it with another employee. The New Hire tells the Manager that he won’t work under a woman, and when the Manager says that he will fire the New Hire if he doesn’t apologize and work under her, the New Hire asks the Manager if the Supervisor is sleeping with him.
New Hire gets escorted out by security.
But even with that number in mind, while getting let go on your very first day is quite extreme, the numbers show that being pushed out of a job early on is actually pretty common.
Research by BambooHR, an onboarding and HR analytics firm, found that 31% of employees quit a job within their first six months. Even more surprising, a significant number of employees walk out or are asked to leave within their first week. And after reading these stories, we're not surprised.
#8
About 5 hours. It was this girl’s first day driving the ambulance, and I was her FTO. I had been correcting her all day for following too closely to people and braking too late. We came up on some traffic, and she was not paying attention and slammed into the car in front of us, who drove out of the way, then she continued to slam into the car in front of him and pushed that car into another vehicle.
Even though she had crashed the ambulance, that still wasn’t a fireable offense. What she did get fired for however, was disappearing for 3 hours before showing up for her mandatory test. We figured she was trying to find some clean urine, because she had also asked me what would happen if she didn’t pass her test.
I still have chronic neck pain from that accident.
#9
Worked a delivery job in college. Had a new hire quit after 45 minutes of riding around with me on his first day. He didn’t even do anything yet, just riding in the passenger seat and said “ nah, this is not for me.”
Fastest I’ve seen someone actually get fired was when I was working at a big box store. New cashier made it through the couple of days of computer training. Within 30 minutes of being put on the floor for the first time, she got busted taking pictures of people’s credit cards and texting them to her sister who was buying stuff online with them. She was sitting in the back of a cop car within an hour of starting her actual job.
#10
How fast he got fired isn't really the interesting part, it's how he got fired:
He got highly elevated on the job by spraying WD40 on his cigaratte then smoking it.
#11
Working on ships, the various watch shift rotations mean that the mealtimes are pretty precise because it's not like everyone onboard can just stop what they're doing to go eat.
Day one of having a new cook onboard and some shipboard operations meant we needed to bring lunchtime forward an hour to accomodate for the impacts to the shifts.
Captain tell the cook. The cook says no. The Captain makes a face.
"Cap, what I do is art. The meal will be ready when it's ready."
Yeah. He was gone that afternoon.
#12
His fourth day. I work in a fairly professional workplace, office and lab work, defined core hours - 10am is the latest start time, and it's 7.5 hours a day. Start times are agreed with your manager, and then have to be stuck to. Standard stuff.
First day, the guy was due in for 8:30am. Didn't arrive until about 10:30, very apologetic, blamed it on the trains. A bad start, but recoverable.
Second day, he didn't arrive until 11:00. Same excuse. No call to say he'd be late before he arrived. Left at 4pm, several hours short of a full day.
Third day, he didn't show up at all. No phone call, didn't answer his phone.
Fourth day, he again showed up well after 10am, with no phone call. He was sacked on the spot. I honestly can't fathom what was behind it all.
But not everyone who walks out is necessarily an incompetent worker. Sometimes, it's the promise of a different experience that makes employees want to leave or walk out altogether.
A study conducted by The Muse found that 72% of job seekers experience something called "shift shock." This happens when they suddenly realize the job or company culture is completely different from what they expected during the interview. Unfortunately, that's where many first-day clashes begin.
#13
Had an intern start, go through orientation Monday and Tuesday, then get fired Friday.
We had a going away lunch for someone retiring. He got food, then cut the line to get more before others had had their first turn. He then put his head down on his desk to take a nap. After that he wandered over to talk with the CEO who was sitting on a bar stool talking to people where he knelt down to try and look up her skirt. She then stood up and asked the room who this person reported to. When the team lead came over to claim him, she just said "he's done. Get him out of here!"
It was a entertaining train wreck.
#14
20 minutes.
Manager liked this consultant (lady in her mid 60’s) that was helping on / off for about a year and was converting her into a full time employee.
Manager sent the division wide email out to like 250 people saying “Please Welcome Judy, the newest member in accounting” and then 20 minutes later HR sent an “effective immediately Judy has left to pursue other opportunities, please wish her luck”
Found out that she failed the substance test twice. First was a diluted positive and the second was a positive.
Apparently the manager really liked her and was trying to ram through the conversation even though she failed the test for. They thought if it was announced, HR would be embarrassed and just allow it.
Funny enough, “Judy” given a 60 day notice of the test.
Honorable mention was a guy in IT who told his boss (a pretty cool boss at that) to go do himself, twice on the first week.
#15
1 day.
I was teaching at a kindy in China. An older woman joined us on Friday. We all talked to her. She seemed decent.
On Monday she did not come in and we discovered she had been terminated. Turns out she was a president of Australian Dykes on Bikes. We would have been fine with that but the school was not. Apparently as soon as they discovered that they fired her.
It was a shock to us. As soon as we knew she was terminated we looked up her name and found out.
#16
Day two or three of training. A guy said something homophobic in a group discussion about retail customer support and after a fifteen minute unscheduled break he didn't return.
It was so out of the blue too, just no reason for it.
#17
I don't know if this counts but my daughter's school hired a new first grade teacher. The first day of school she took dozens of pictures of the students and put them on social media, and for some unknown reason listed their names in each of the pictures. Of course this is big time against school policy, so by day 2 of school she was fired.
Social media is destroying us. It's the first day of school how about you put your phone down and focus on the kids for a bit? Not everything has to be posted online.
#18
One week.
I had lunch in the cafeteria with someone I had just hired the week before - just to find out how things were going so far. She spent the time complaining that the job was not what she expected. It was an IT Desktop Support job.
During her interview, I had given her a tour of the facility, introduced her to her fellow IT support team in the Help Desk room and pointed out her workbench and desk in the shared Help Desk room. I also walked her through a typical day of taking help desk calls and visiting coworkers' desks to help troubleshoot their computer issues. The IT Help Desk staff was present and participated in the discussion. She had a copy of the job description when she applied for the job.
She told me at lunch that I had promised her her own office and ensured her that she would not have to get up to go visit coworkers for desktop support issues. I felt like I was in the twilight zone.
After lunch, I went directly to HR and explained to them that I wanted to let her go as soon as possible. In less than 30 minutes, I had her meet me in HR and said, "Today is your last day with the company..."
#19
Two hours. Financial Planning & Analysis department for an S&P500 regional bank. The CFO had a strict policy that every number presented to the C-suite or board had to have a 10-key paper tape signed and stapled to a printout of the presentation. New guy said "I'm not comfortable doing that." Dude, putting your signature on the most basic audit possible is the very definition of entry-level work.
#20
Guy got hired at a local convenience store chain in the northeastern USA named WAWA(happy??)
He was hired by the AGM and his interviews only involved the AGM and Food Service Manager. His first shift he came in asked a few questions to the shift manager, Shift manager asked the GM what he should be doing and then he was given Computer based training modules.
The GM had just ordered himself Lunch. Got pizza delivered and put it in his office (Right next to the computer training area) while he finished up a busy rush.
GM came back to his office 45 minutes later. Found half his pizza missing, looks out and sees the new guy eating pizza while doing his training. At this point the GM had never met the new hire in person yet.
GM asked the new hire where he got the pizza from, without a seconds hesitation the New Hire said " I brought this in with me".
GM told him to stop doing his training and go home, New Hire got angry yelling "Who tf do you think you are? I was hired by (AGM's name)!".
GM replied " Im his boss and the person you just stole from on your first day".
Never saw him again, overall lasted maybe an hour.
#21
First week into the job, guy aggressively speeds through the company carpark (underground), narrowly missing the managing director walking to the elevator.
The director walks over and tells him to slow down in future, to which the dude responded with a resounding: "mind your own business".
He did not make it to lunch.
#22
I caught a pharmacy tech taking a big gulp out of a stock bottle of promethazine with codeine. It was her third day.
#23
He was fired two days into the one week training because he was bragging about having a hidden camera shaped like a pen. Then he was caught taking pictures of the women in the class with it. Then, when confronted, he got hostile and started threatening people. Security walked him out.
#24
About eight minutes. Temp walked onto a demolition site in dress shoes. Didn’t even make it through orientation.
#25
Myself, one of my first jobs.
Temporary job office offered me a callcenter job.
I was told I'd help people who struggle subscribing to some kind of insurance. "A bit like tech support?", I remember asking.
Once I arrived, I got told to cold-call people to get them to subscribe. I got told to follow a script that had nothing to do with my job and was straight up lies, and explained how I should insist more with the elderly to boost up my stats.
I modified my script to make it truthful, then told them during the lunch break that I wasn't willing to scam grandmas to feed myself.
Karma must have liked it, I ended up getting an actual tech support job a few weeks later and didn't starve.
#26
"Who's that old guy with a face like a slapped bum"
Said within earshot of the company owner who was said old guy. Not fired on the spot but was gone by the end of the day after being told his services would no longer be required.
#27
3.5 hours.
We were unboxing computers for a call center in South Texas. I was there to assist with setup and train the new IT staff. There is no one in the building aside from IT and HR who is conducting interviews for the new site. As we head for lunch, I tell the guys we can leave our boxcutters on the counter. One guy says "Thank god! I was starting to feel like a Mexican, carrying around this knife all day.".
HR was on the other side of the counter, all of Mexican ancestry. I was barely out of the parking lot and my phone rings. It's my boss. Fire him, fire him right now and don't you dare take him for lunch on our dime.
#28
In college I was the crew leader for the night stocking crew at a large supermarket. I met a guy in one of my classes who immediately asked me to put in a good word for him to be hired. I told him i didn’t know him well enough to recommend him but he kept coming back to me begging for me to help him get a job and I finally relented.
He was hired and showed up the first night. He told me his plan was to break his arm and get workman’s comp. We both laughed. Night two he intentionally broke his arm and blamed me for making him do something unsafe. The jerk did it right in front of two other crew members. We all three turned him in. He settled for $1k from the store insurance company which I really resented.
#29
In the 1990s I knew a head of department who joined us on a Monday. He was a bit of a go-getter and kind of dazzled everyone with his chatty nature and ideas - very different to the somewhat staid and old fashioned environment that was the factory we worked in. He lasted a few days before being marched out by security. Turned out that he had been paid a fee to relocate (fairly standard). Instead of getting a removal company, he got a friend to do the move; but then faked the invoice. When the company's finance department went to pay it, they found out, and queried it with HR. So... two days I think.
His replacement was even worse, but didn't try fraud on his first day, so managed to survive.
#30
The fastest I’ve fired employees,
Daniel- 10 minutes…. Showed up for his first day and some Asian buyer walked in. He in front of everyone says “don’t bother with them they’re cheap and don’t buy anything.
Joe- 30 minutes….lied to me about having a car then demanded I pay for his uber to get there…..
Braden- 5 hours…. Actual nut job. Verbally berated other employees then took his shirt off and tried to fight me because I didn’t agree with his actions.
More details below
Braden then text me after about his hours, he calculated them on a crumbled piece of paper with a crayon and sent me a picture of the crayon calculations.
He was calculating hours for days he didn’t work……. And that’s he’s calling and that he’s calling an employment lawyer and suing me.
I had to explain to him that he didn’t start on a Monday…..
He started on a Thursday……
The Grand Finale …….. I mail his check because I don’t want him coming into the office and being belligerent.
He starts texting crazy that i robbed him and where is his money…..
I tell him I mailed it.
He said “how? you don’t have my address?”
Dude, the address you put on file the day of onboarding….. which wasn’t even 48 hours before the check was cut.
He then tells me that he gave us a FAKE address because he doesn’t like people giving his information……
Bro, I’m your employer. I have your whole a*s social security number, copy of the physical card and your drivers license!!!!
Typing this made my brain hurt….
#31
I used to run 2wk inductions at my company. The model was that we had a third party trainer come in who ran the training, and then I was in there to represent the company and provide the "real world" support to the training. I also had firing powers for anyone who did anything egregious during training.
I fired two people.
The first was after three days. Young woman, early 20s. We had an office dress code, but it was extremely chill. It basically amounted to; no ripped clothes, no skintight or revealing outfits, be neat and tidy.
This girl just kept showing up in basically club wear.
The first day she showed up in a black mini-dress and kitten heels, no tights. I took her aside and very politely said that she needed to comply with the dress code she'd been sent. The next day she came in in skintight shiny vinyl leggings and a bralette with nothing over the top. I asked her if she'd read the dress code and her response was "yeah I read it but I don't own any clothes like that." I warned her that she was going to be asked to leave if she couldn't dress appropriately.
Anyway, on day 3 she came in in a pink ruffly miniskirt and ankle boots. Once again, no tights.
I felt a bit bad for firing her, she clearly didn't understand what she was doing wrong, I get the impression it was her first office job. But like... come on...
The second guy got fired after lunch on his first day, and I didn't feel bad at all. He was a white guy in his mid-40s.
My trainer buddy for his particular induction group was a guy who went by Addy. 2nd generation Indian Muslim. We all liked him, really lovely guy, funny, etc.
We're doing the opening spiel and Addy introduced himself. He mentions (as he does every induction) that he won't be around on Fri mornings as he goes to mosque and I'll be running the group alone until lunchtime.
The guy makes a loud, derisive noise at the mention of a mosque. Several of the other inductees look at him. Addy and I give each other brief eye contact of "oh.. oh, I hope this isn't..."
Later that day, we're done with intros, they're all on computers finishing the mandatory eLearning (we liked to get it out of the way in the induction where poss). The guy has some problem, raises his hand. Addy starts coming over and the guy says "No, not you. I want her to help me." (I am white).
Again, Addy and I share eye contact. Nothing conclusive so far, but we're watching.
Cut to lunchtime. All the inductees are up in our staff cafeteria. I walk past with my lunch (planning to say hi to the group, who all sat together) and overhear the guy just giving the most stereotypical, over the top rant about brown people in workplaces and how this country isn't British anymore and he can't believe they let him work there.
I can see from the looks on the faces of the other inductees that they are decidedly not into this. I stop the guy as they're all going back into the room after lunch and inform him that he has failed probation, give him the reason, and this nice security guard will escort him out of the building.
#32
We had a new excavator operator who had just finished a retraining course after badly injuring himself as an arborist who rolled an excavator in his second day.
He was told he needed to switch machines, that his trench was too big to straddle, bur he had completed a certification and the guy telling him to switch machines didnt so he ignored the advice.
#33
Work at a zoo. Kid working food stand got caught by a guest pouring straight liquor (which is served at his stand) into his cup and slamming it 3 times within a couple minutes. Security came and got him, insta-fired, made it less than a week.
#34
New guy on day 2 called and said he was snowed in. Nobody else was snowed in. He then sent a picture that not only showed maybe half inch of snow on a sidewalk but was also immediately located with reverse image search.
#35
I have such a good one for this. 20ish years ago I was training at my first corporate restaurant job in a mall. They hired a handful of people at once so there was a day of group training classes where they teach us about the company. It was split into a morning session, an hour break, and a night session.
In the first half there was one older woman (Darlene) asking dumb questions and being obnoxious but as a high teenage busboy I didn’t care enough to notice. She shows up right as the second session starts, and just a few minutes later so does the bartender from the other restaurant on the other side of the mall. Apparently during the hour break Darlene had gone to the bar, pounded 4 vodka Red Bulls, and then walked out on her tab.
She did this while wearing the uniform for the restaurant we were all training at complete with name tag. Darlene called the bartender a [gay slur] and told him to go away. Then she sat down so the training could continue. Once my manager got over his shock she was told to leave, but allowed to keep the uniform. I think he just wanted her off the property as soon as possible.
#36
I was head of security at a hotel when I was 19. I'd started as a bouncer in a suit more or less, but somehow within 3 months every other security person including the guy who hired me got fired, so I ended up in charge just because I was a moderately level headed kid who looked plausible in a suit.
It was a big hotel though, and we had all sorts of weekend events I couldn't cover alone, so until they hired other internal security they contracted out to one of those uniformed security places. I was a little annoyed because the bookkeeper told me they were paying the company 4 times my hourly rate and all these guards would do is just sit in the lobby.
So whatever. An elderly lady in a fake cop uniform showed up. I introduced myself and gave her a radio and walked up to the front desk with her.
It was a relatively quiet night. The largest group that evening was a very large extended black family who'd gotten a ton of rooms and rented a ballroom for a family reunion. They were great, zero issues. Seemed like the most I'd be dealing with was trying to stay awake.
But I mention them being black because as I was standing at the front desk, one of the family members walked up requesting a wake up call or something, and this old lady looked at me, dropped a racial slur and said 'I hope they all get sickle cell and d*e'.
Like not in a whisper. She was 3 feet from him.
I yelled at her, a lot. And I apologized, a lot.
I wasn't actually sure I was allowed to just fire her on the spot since it was like the first night of their contract, and I was just a 19 year old kid dealing with someone three times my age, so I pointed her at a chair on the other side of the lobby and said 'That's your new post until I get this sorted out, don't speak to any guests for the rest of your time here, which I assure you will be short'.
I think we comped that guys room immediately and explained that they weren't an employee and that we'd deal with her. He was honestly way more gracious about it than he had to be. Then I called the night manager and got the contract security supervisors number, and relayed what had happened.
Her security supervisor immediately told me to send her home and then he showed up to fill in for her for the evening. Her supervisor was a black dude as well, and from the way he was talking she appeared to be done for good.
Good.
I'm a white guy from a pretty rural background, and I never approved of that racist bull, but that was maybe the most casually overt crazy stuff I'd ever heard. It must have been less than a half hour before she got the boot. Working that place exposed me to some wild stuff.
#37
Worked as a coffee roaster/wholesaler. Had someone come in the first day and was teaching them how to grind coffee and the person used their fingers to push beans into the grinder. Said once don't do that, your liable to get a finger caught and that will be bad for you. Saw them so it again 30 minutes later and that was the end of it. Call to management, immediately fired.
Also had a lady who was fired inside a week because she kept insisting the French First Lady was a transvestite after repeatedly being told to stop talking about it but that took a little longer.
#38
Coworker: 2 days. She wasn’t a fan of the chair and felt the room was dusty, on day 3, no call no showed. On day 4 job did a wellness check with the cops and she answered as if nothing was wrong. Finally called the job back, and when they asked what was up, she said, I didn’t like the chair or dust and didn’t think I needed to return until it was addressed. Day 5 they had her drop her computer off and she walked away like nothing happened.
Me: 1.5 days. They had us clock out then restock for 2 hours unpaid everyday. Left during lunch.
#39
Restaurant in a casino. New guy on the cold line. Busy night. All he has to do is dress salad and look busy. Regional manager pops in for a surprise visit, comes thru the kitchen. New guy is balls deep eating chips and salsa right out of the cold line. Manager stops and looks at him, he looks back, munching, no idea who he’s looking at. Manager just looks at the gm walking with him, he does a little head shake and finger across the neck, and the gm just grabs the new guy by the arm and pulls him out of the kitchen. Never seen again. I didn’t expect him to last long but darn, like 30 minutes. And for the record we told him very explicitly not to eat salsa out of the cold line.
#40
4 hours, he cornered a lady in the factory and was yelling at her to "show him her chest". The lads in the factory moved faster than I ever seen and he left with some black eyes and a bloody nose.
#41
I hired a person and typically I would have them fill out an application while waiting for the interview to start.
This person convinced me that they would take it home and return the next day as there was information being asked that they did not have with them. I was reluctant but they were charming and I agreed.
They had stellar references that I checked and everyone raved about this person and their skill sets/work ethic.
Person gets hired and is involved in a workplace accident almost immediately. Not the end of the world, no one is actually injured, but it does require paperwork to be filled out and reports to be written.
This person spends about 4 hours writing a 3 paragraph report and it’s obvious from their penmanship, spelling and grammar that they’re functionally illiterate.
So yeah, they were fired. In hindsight it was obvious his “references” were friends and family.
#42
Like 3 hours. First day lunch break he got caught rubbing one out in the backroom bathroom by the manager and she wasn't impressed, apparently.
#43
4 days and this was just a couple weeks ago. He literally kept going up to random employees and defending the Cornell 7. The guy also said he keeps cameras in his house so he isn’t wrongfully accused. Just creepy all around.
#44
Guy starts on his first day. We show him to his office and do all the onboarding stuff he hasn't done yet. We make a nameplate to hang outside his office that says "John Doe - Payables Staff Accountant."
Within an hour or two, he had changed his name tag to say "John 'Big Daddy' Doe" and removed his title altogether. He left for lunch and when he came back, HR was waiting for him because he had apparently told a coworker that he could show her why everyone called him Big Daddy if she wanted to hang out after work.
He never clocked back in from lunch. Made it around 4 hours.
#45
Several hours into their first shift. This was back during my FedEx truck loading days. The guy just couldn't keep up with the flow of packages and the supervisor got sick of it and said, "You're a good guy, but this isn't the place for you. If you can't keep up, you're out."
#46
We hired a social media manager to help our marketing manager, who reported to me. On her first day, I stopped by her desk to ask her to go to HR and finish some paperwork. She had earbuds in and wasn’t acknowledging me, so I knocked on her desk to get her attention.
She ripped out her earbuds and shouted, “What do you want?!” She hadn’t even been there an hour.
I said, “Nothing,” walked into the president’s office, and asked him to fire her. She was gone 15 minutes later.
#47
I worked a night shift job stocking shelves at a large midwestern/southeastern grocery store chain. There was always one last slot on the night crew they just could not keep filled.
Out of all the people they hired, at least half just never showed up for their first day.
Out of the ones that did show up, at least half of those would clock out to lunch during their first shift and never come back. I was kind of shocked how common this was.
Out of the ones that made it past lunch on their first day, at least half of those would never show up again.
Out of the infinitessimal new hires that made it through all that (maybe 3 total during my 3 years there) they would get fired on the spot within a week for showing up drunk/high or getting into a physical fight with someone.
#48
Half an hour. New guy in the kitchen spilled ice on the floor- picked it up and threw it back in the machine. Chef said - You can go home, this isn’t going to work out.
#49
I've had two experiences in my old job of someone being fired/quitting after a few days.
First one was a guy who joined our team, he started doing the mandatory training, usual stuff. Told our boss on day 2 that he "doesn't need the training as he's here to be the CEO not some pencil pusher" this was after the first day where someone got up to make a cuppa and he just said "won't be long before you're making tea for me" arrogant jerk.
He wasn't a good fit for the team and let go after about a week after it was found he didn't scan and archive some important confidential documents he just threw them in his filing cabinet. I don't think he did any actual work. I can remember the hissy fit when he was let go "thanks sooo much I've gained sooo much here" really sarcastically
Edit: The best way to describe it was he was treating it like some high powered job you'd see on TV. He'd make loud obnoxious calls on his mobile using what he thought were business terms, and kept going on about optimizing his chances to meet the CEO and would try and look slick rather than do any work.
The second guy came in as IT support, went through all the training and intros etc on day one, seemed alright, nice chap.
On day two he finished his training in the morning went for lunch and never came back. He left a message with our IT guy apologizing saying he'd lied on his CV and in the interview had absolutely no idea what he was doing and was really sorry.
#50
Me, working a supermarket. General stuff, stocking shelves, cleaning aisles and so on.
Zero training or introduction. Day 1, I was left entirely directionless and without any clear indication of what to load, where to get the stuff, where the cleaning supplies were. Place was hilariously understaffed, no one else had time for me, I was basically treated as a nuisance to babysit because I didn't know what to do. Which, I mean, fair, but you didn't give me anything to work with?
Day 2, I show up at work and they just do not open the door for me. Locked out of the building. That is how I found out I had been fired.
#51
First day. He was a cashier who left to go to liquor store during his first break. He was drinking alcohol in a clear water bottle. As he was ringing up this woman's groceries he threw up on her. Store paid for all her stuff, probably still got sued. He got fired.
#52
At our first day HR meeting prior to starting work in a secure facility. Girl asks if she can have Facebook open on her computer throughout the day, and gets upset when told she can never use it at work. Got belligerent and was escorted out.
#53
5-10 minutes. When I was a kid working at McDonald's a 30~ something guy had started, and by the time I went into the change room, put on my uniform and came out he was in cuffs being walked out by two police officers.
#54
Back in like 2002 I worked at a clothing store. A new girl was hired and on her first ever meal break, she stole a soda from the case by the register. They fired her that day.
#55
She'd been on the job for about a week, working with me at a series of electronic shops in the airport, some locations past security. This lady had ZERO filter and would make the most obnoxious observations to everyone she spoke to. "Wow, you have really dry skin. Your shampoo is giving you dandruff, you know". Just really petty superficial comments and she couldn't tell she was just pissing people off.
One day she was told to work one of the locations past security and an hour later we got word she was fired. Apparently she thought she could just walk through with privilege as an employee (there's still checks, just a separate, faster line), and when the dark skinned TSA agent had to block her physically, she freaked out and hurled a slew of, lets say, choice insults at him. Not sure if she eas arrested or escorted, but I was relieved to have my peaceful shifts back.
#56
That'd be me. Started in a call center because I needed quick cash. Supposedly "almost entirely business to business" so no cold-calling random people.
Not only was their stamping policy highly illegal (you get logged out if you aren't moving your mouse for 20 seconds and have to log back in with your employee card. Not logged in? Doesn't count as labour. So bathroom breaks would not be paid, which is illegal in Germany), it quickly turned out there was an amount of calling almost random people.
I had the worst set of leads imaginable in the first day, despite the databank coming from the government. Not a single concluded call after hours because who the hell wants to take a 20 minutes survey about pensions and insurance.
After an old woman had cried her heart out over her insurance troubles, she mentioned something that made it clear that it wasn't even the right insurance company. I had just spent almost 30min stealing this old lady's precious time and given her hope that this would actually do anything at all for her and it wasn't even getting registered.
So I quit.
#57
After about a week. This was at a bank branch and she was hired as an operations manager (no banking experience but whatever).
There were some warning signs beforehand but she got fired for having a 10k shortage in the bank vault and lying on the balance sheet. This triggered a branch audit and it turns out she had just logged a new cash shipment wrong. She freaked out and figured lying was the best course of action?
She seemed genuinely shocked she was fired which was kind of wild in itself. I felt bad because she was nice but I don’t think this job was a good fit.
#59
We worked at a small startup. On everyone's first day, they intro the newbie to the entire company. So there's like 70-90 people in attendance.
One of the questions you're supposed to answer is "What is your guilty pleasure". Most people said normal stuff like Kardashians or long baths.
This one dude said "white women".
That was his last day.
#60
This should have led to someone in HR being let go, but... that didn't happen.
New guy shows up for work three weeks before Christmas. Around 10:00 he pulls his supervisor aside and admitted that he had no idea how to do his job.
Eventually discovered that [EMPLOYEE NAME] from Lower [COMMUNITY NAME] applied for a laborer job at the same time as [IDENTICAL EMPLOYEE NAME] from Upper [COMMUNITY NAME] applied for a lab technologist position. Someone in HR grabbed the wrong file when they hired him.
To complicate matters, the new guy and his wife had made the decision to put their Christmas money into fixing their vehicle so he could get to work in the city.
New guy did get two weeks pay, plus rumor is that some of the managers pooled their money together to give his kids a Christmas (I'd like to believe that last part actually happened, but I knew all the managers and I have my doubts).
#61
I worked at a nanotech startup and they hired a PhD professor to set up a new laser lab. Well, literally within the first week he sent this invoice off to the CEO to approve this $20,000 specialty laser, and the CEO decides, hey, you know what, let me call the vendor, see if I can negotiate a little bit of a discount. So he calls and he finds out that the laser was only $2000 and our new director was planning to embezzle the rest of the money for himself. He disappeared pretty fast.
#62
We had a guy who said he could install furnaces like a god amongst men. He didn't last a week. The last straw was when he installed a furnace, we got called back since it wasn't working after he left. I show up and the guy didn't cut a hole in the furnace for the cold air return. Just straight up screwed the ductwork to the side of the furnace, he wired it up while staring at the side that should have a hole in it, somehow didn't notice. Some of the wildest stuff I've ever seen.
#63
Worked in a cafe where we hired a young guy as a dishwasher to help on weekends. He smelled real bad on his first shift, which was addressed to him but he was given grace cos maybe it was a one-time thing, but came in next day still stinking. Clearly never ever showered and got fired cos he just smelled so bad that no one could hack it.
#64
I'm the coworker. Got hired at a coffee roaster during COVID, lunch break on day 1 I had a guy come up to me and say "hey new guy, go ask Dan why he can't legally own dogs anymore". So I did. And I didn't go back for day 2.
#65
Before he even walked in the door.
He showed up late riding an e-scooter, out of uniform with a playboy hat on, and a joint hanging out of his mouth.
#66
I had a coworker who got on everyone's nerves, but did his job.
I was giving a presentation to my manager and her boss, and said coworker decided to ping me on Teams, criticizing my boss and her boss. After I told him not to ping me. Because I was presenting to the bosses.
The presentation was at 9am, he was gone before noon.
#67
Not nearly as fast as most of the answers here but at the start of the pandemic we switched to work from home as a company but were required to come in as needed if requested (we'd get like 48 hours notice to make plans and it was understood that this would be the arrangement). It was mostly because we kinda jumped in head first into work from home as soon as the pandemic started (kudos to them for that) but there were some things that they hadn't really worked out how to handle remotely yet.
Anyway, the 2nd week in, a couple members of my team were called back in for a day to work on an upcoming project and one of the guys couldn't make it because he had already relocated to California. So they ended up letting him go. Took like a year to get the company laptop back.
The irony is that all these years later and we're still remote and even have some of my team spread across the country and even in California. He just moved too fast (before they fully worked out the kinks of work from home) and didn't ask permission.
#68
A guy lasted only two days. He kept showing up late ignored intructions and on his second day he got into an argument with the supervisor in front of everyone.
#69
Orientation. Guy comes in with a group of 10. Trainer trying his best to go over what the job entails, this guy (fresh outta high school) wants to be the class clown. After repeated attempts to quite him down, management and HR cornered him at first break and got his badge. He couldn't make it to the end of a free paid day.
#70
i got fired after my first day at my first job ever. i got this cleaning job when i was 16 and was meant to clean this gym at night. Id been shown how to do the job and there was a bunch of room that was supposed to be cleaned. I sorta forgot which rooms so i just opened the doors with the janitor keys they given me to see if one of the rooms was behind the door. One of the doors i unlocked went to a room that set the alarm off and security pulled up 5 minutes later. I was questioned and let go and finished the job, in the morning i got a text telling me to hand in the keys and that i unfortunately could not continue the job. They didnt even pay me for the day, but i felt stupid so never pushed for it.
#71
About 24 hours. He failed to show up on his second day. Apparently he had slept in his parents’ room when they weren’t home and he forgot to set his alarm, got up late, then figured it was best just not to come in at all rather than show up late or call out. He was fired when he came in the third morning.
#72
30 minutes into one of my buddies shift and he gets told he's fired for wearing brown pants instead of black ones.
We are servers...
#73
Without a whole lot of details. An individual had been hired despite disclosing that they had been fired from a past position with a different employer for alcohol problems, told the interviewer they were sober and asked for a second chance.
Said person appeared at the initial off-site HR training intoxicated and became belligerent at the training location when accused of being intoxicated.
#74
My wife hired an intern at the non-profit where she worked. The intern was the daughter of one of the board members. The first day she didn’t show up. My wife called, and the intern said she didn’t have a car. My wife asked if she could take a bus, and she said she couldn’t. So my wife said it wasn’t going to work out. Then she called the mother and explained that if she couldn’t show up, it wasn’t going to work. The second day the girl doesn’t show up either and that’s it. I think she didn’t want to work and her mom wanted her to.
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