People Are Sharing Stories About How “That One Coworker” Got Fired, And They’re Wild (30 Answers)
Interview
Having a coworker get laid off or fired can be difficult. You wonder how to act and what to say, and you worry about your own job security. If it was a close friend, you may even feel lonely afterwards.
In some cases, however, a coworker getting fired comes as no surprise. You may have suspected it would happen sooner or later, or maybe even inevitably saw it coming due to various reasons. So when someone posed a question “How did that one coworker get fired?”, the stories started rolling in one by one, each better and funnier than the previous one. Below we wrapped up the most interesting ones!
We also reached out to Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts and best-selling author of seven books, including a global bestseller Never Go With Your Gut: How Pioneering Leaders Make the Best Decisions and Avoid Business Disasters. He was happy to share some insights into how getting fired affects employees long term and how to see the positive side of it. Scroll down for the full interview!
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Apparently he had been getting into those pickup artist classes and books b******t and how to be a real man wankery. Some female colleague disrespected his manliness by asking him to clarify a work issue or something that offended him so during a conference meeting he just got up, walked around the desk, and slapped her so hard that her head bounced of the table knocking her out and fracturing her jaw. His ring also gashed her cheek and damaged her eye. He then sat back down and tried to casually continue on with the meeting. He didn't understand why we called the police as well as the ambulance and why we wouldn't let him leave the room. He is in gaol now hopefully being sodomised like the little wankstain b***h he is.
He had this job for several years. Nobody really liked him. Maybe because he told them he had the highest IQ of any of them. (he also worked the lowest labor grade job). I never talked to him much, but around the pandemic, I mentioned about the shortages. He started telling me he was ready for everything to crash with a bunch of silver coins and some gold. I was okay with our conversation until he started with white supremacy s**t. A few days later, a new guy he was training asked the boss to put him with someone else. He was Hispanic and the dude had started telling my that white people were superior because they were more intelligent. He got called in to speak with HR and he told the (black) HR manager the same thing. That's how he got fired.
You'd think he'd have had the sense to keep a lid on his horrible beliefs if only for the sake of self-preservation, but then racism and extreme dumbassery do go hand in hand.
Planned an armed robbery with her boyfriend on the phone. On the work phone. While on the clock. What about the boyfriend, I heard nobody ask? In jail at the time. On a monitored phone call.
Shop S-Mart, folks
Dr. Gleb explained that losing a job can leave you feeling like a ship lost at sea, with waves of psychological effects washing over you. “Some common reactions include feelings of shock, disbelief, anger, and even shame. It's crucial to recognize and address these emotions, lest they fester and become a hindrance to your personal and professional growth.”
To navigate this emotional maelstrom, Dr. Gleb’s advice is to consider seeking support from friends, family, or even a professional counselor. “Remember, even the most accomplished professionals have weathered setbacks and emerged stronger.” So, he argues, it’s best to embrace the resilience within and set sail towards new horizons with confidence and determination.
US military. Guy in my squadron was getting a general discharge for bad behavior like missing appointments, mouthing off, refusing to adhere to uniform standards, that sort of thing. (For anyone not military, anything other than an honorable discharge means you don't qualify for veteran's benefits and there's a little mark on your background check.) Still, a general discharge isn't the end of the world and was the best possible option for this guy. So all his paperwork was signed, bags were packed, and our first sergeant was escorting him to the airport to fly home. You know what he did at the airport? Punched the first sergeant in the face. So instead of flying home with a slap on the wrist, guess who got shipped off to military prison to await a court martial. Moron.
I'd say dumb as a sack of hammers, except hammers are so much smarter
She picked up a customer's baby without permission and walked off with her, the customer was beside herself thinking she'd been kidnapped. Co-worker didn't think she had done anything wrong because she's also a mother....
We had an employee cafeteria at a Fortune 500 company. You'd get your food at a counter and bring it, in one of those white foam clamshell containers, to the register where you'd just tell the cashier what you got. This one fellow regularly ordered 3-egg scrambles and told the cashier he had just one egg. He got caught once and told never to do it again. He did it again, and lost a $100k+ job for stealing eggs.
Many people wonder how a person’s further career can be affected by being fired. Dr. Gleb said that embarking on the job hunt after being fired can feel like trying to sell ice cream in Antarctica.
“Nevertheless, there's a right way to broach the subject with prospective employers. Be honest, but focus on the lessons learned and the growth you've experienced as a result. Position the termination as an opportunity for self-improvement and highlight how it has made you a stronger candidate for the new role,” he said.
Dr. Gleb urges people to remember that life is full of setbacks, but it's how we bounce back from them that truly defines our character. “Treat your termination as a trampoline, not an anchor.”
Got fired for "updating his resume using company property".
It was me. The job sucked a*s and I don't regret it.
My boss hired a new guy to help out on the closing shift (2p-11p) at a convenience store.
He started pissing people off right away; wouldn't stock any of the booze in the cooler because "his religion" forbade so much as touching it. Played fundie-a*s music in the store even after being told not to. Intimidated the manager.
He wasn't there a full week. One afternoon, the assistant manager was at the counter and Dale was in the office. A Sheriff's Deputy came in, looked around, asked of Dale [so & so] was working that day. Ken nodded and pointed toward the office door. "He's back there."
Deputy thanks him and goes back out. Comes back with a second deputy and they head for that door. Didn't take long. They came back out with Dale in cuffs.
Turns out our squeaky-clean preacher boy had warrants out for cocaine possession and for beating the living c**p out of his wife.
A few days after the arrest, the results of the company's background check finally came in and he was fired.
Here endeth the lesson.
I had a manager at Walmart who used to make snide remarks about my disability and gave me grief anytime I was trying to get an Acommodation.
She got arrested for stealing about $40,000 in merchandise.
We also wondered what it takes for an employee to get fired on the spot from their job. Dr. Gleb explained that in the business world, there are indeed certain indisputable reasons that warrant firing an employee on the spot.
“One such reason is the display of gross misconduct. This includes, but is not limited to, acts of theft, physical violence, harassment, or severe breach of company policies. When an employee's actions jeopardize the safety and well-being of colleagues, clients, or the organization as a whole, there's no room for hesitation,” he said.
“Just as a pilot can't afford to ignore a fire in the cockpit, a manager must take swift and decisive action to maintain a healthy work environment,” Dr. Gleb concluded.
Dude would drive to the site, park his work van, then have his GF pick him up and take off for 8 hours, come back and pick up the van, thereby cleverly fooling the GPS tracker in the vehicle...
But not the camera pointing directly at the spot where he parked, got picked up, and dropped off. Cost the company a substantial contract. And himself a job.
Had a guy do this at my previous job. Only he dropped everyone off at the job site. Said he needed to go get supplies. He was tracked to a casino 30 miles away. For 3 weeks he gambled while they worked. When he was fired and they cleaned out his company truck they found he was also making meth and selling it from that truck. He’s currently awaiting sentencing 15- life for getting caught with 22 pounds of meth.
A temp office worker arrived around 10am.
She was found rifling thru someone’s wallet at noon.
Arrested and taken away by 12:30.
Caught on camera stealing tablets and laptops multiple times.
Caught on camera getting physically violent with a girl.
Threatened violence against two girls half his size when no one else was there. Didn’t deny it when HR got involved. Acted like they were wasting his time by holding a meeting and trying to resolve the situation.
Different people at the same job.
"Trying to resolve the situation". You call the cops and you fire them, situation resolved.
He got drunk at the Christmas party, started hitting people's food and drinks out of their hands, kicked a wet floor sign at the CFO, fell and rolled down a flight of stairs on his way out, then ripped license plates of cars in the car parks and threw them like Frisbees as he left. Never saw him again.
I don't understand how did they fire him. This was my normal behaviour at company parties... Now, I'm self-employed and I just receive a Christmas basket (that I have to buy myself).
Our company was in the process of being sold. This guy who was like the assistant manager had been told by the original company that he would get the manager job when the other guy was promoted to regional manager (I'm simplifying it but that's the gist).
Anyway, the manager was kind of a d**k, and we didn't care for him, but this guy was a total douche. If he'd been promoted, it would have been a disaster.
When the time came for us to sign our contracts with the new employer, he went to each and every person in the department and asked us to refuse to sign unless the manager was fired and he was promoted.
He tried to stage a coup.
Nobody agreed with his plan, and one person reported him to the higher-ups. He took the next day off - because it was his birthday - and when he returned to the office HR was waiting for him.
Then he sued for wrongful termination. He lost.
Sued for wrongful termination and lost. Folks that's why companies have HR. They protect the company from people like this.
He was an arsonist…. I work for a fire department…..
This is actually more common than you would think. A lot of folks on volunteer fire departments have a special fascination with fire and that is why they join. Put their obsession to good use.😁
She tried to sell drugs to the owner of the company’s young teenage daughter.
She was responsible in handling a shipment of flu vaccines in which sat outside of a refrigerator for five days and cost the company +$30,000.
He was stealing Klondie Bars from the company freezer.
One of the managers brought in a hidden camera to catch the thief. We all knew the camera was there so he crawled over to the freezer all ninja style to stay under the camera's field of vision.
It would have worked, except, when he stood back up he tried to do it all fancy, and fell backward back into the camera's view.
Happened a few years after I left, but a reporter at the TV station I worked for committed a hit and run on her way in to work. Drove right to the station and went to work editing her news package. Police show up, and go back to her edit bay. They say, "Do you know why we're here?" She says yes, and they took her away.
I should have clarified. It was a hit and run of a pedestrian.
omfg the last line was crazy because I can imagine being distracted and clipping a bumper without noticing but A PERSON
Carried a bag for his own product line, complementary more than competitive to ours. In sales calls (that we sent him on) would make a pitch for both. Apparently had been doing this for over a year. Was caught when a customer called us for a quote on his product. Gone like sh*t through a goose.
He would answer a call, put them on hold, fall asleep and when they hung up and the next person in the queue came through, the ring would wake him up.
She called in sick during the weekend and the boss discovered she was at a rave the whole weekend because she posted the footage on social media. This is why you don't befriend bosses on social media
Or, why you don't lie about being sick so you can go to a rave all weekend. Maybe have some integrity?
Accused a coworker of sexually harassing female coworkers but got caught in his own lie when cameras showed he was the one doing it on the date/time he gave the manager to investigate
She was putting in her own number for rewards points whenever a customer didn’t put theirs in. Racked up tons of points, getting free gift cards and food and drink items from it.
Wrote a hilarious bad review for us after she got fired too.
I had a co-worker who did this exact same thing. Not only that, but this membership system allowed you to claim cash as well. He also got fired.
New associate straight out of law school got drunk on the annual summer river cruise, flirted heavily with the managing partner's husband, leaned in unexpectedly to plant a big ole kiss, fell overboard into the water, had to be fished out.
There are plenty of people who have done worse and not been fired, and gone on to be executives or something so that their misdemeanours are just amusing anecdotes to tell at Christmas parties. Although those stories might have been from the 70s!
She called in sick for an entire week and then went on FB talking about my bridal shower. Tagged me in a bunch of pictures. She didn't realize I was friends on FB with our boss; who had been looking for a reason to fire her. One of the posts suggested she had been playing hooky all week.
Worked in demolition. Pranked my coworker with a fire extinguisher by luring him into a small room an spraying him. We were in full hazmat gear so he wasn't harmed.
He thought it was so funny and ended up getting drunk that night and tried to pull the same prank on our co-worker in the hotel we were staying at. Then the fire alarm went off, and he tried to jump off the bed and kick the smoke detector off the ceiling.
Dude got canned
Bounty hunters came to get him while he was on shift. I don’t know what for, but I guess it was something minor, because he was out again pretty quickly. He tried to come back to work for a little bit, but then stopped coming in without saying anything, so boss told us to consider him “let go”. The last time I saw him, (a couple months later) he was getting arrested (again) one shopping center over
More likely he was caught for something major, got out quickly on bail, quit coming to work again when it was time for his trial, and was arrested again for breaking bail when the trial didn't go well.
He sniffed a lady's hair
This one could be me. I worked with a man semi obsessed with me. Always stopping by my desk, any excuse to talk to me. Asked for dates (I declined). One day he asks for a hug, I said no. He begged and begged. I shouldn't have said yes, but I let him. He grabbed me and buried his nose in my hair and breathed in deeply. My co worker had to yell at him to let me go, since he had latched on to me. He was gone the next day. That was 18 years ago and still creeps me out.
Note: this post originally had 52 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Oooh, I have some good ones. 1. I went through Basic Training and part of AIT (where you learn your specific job skills) for the army with S. He made it a point throughout training to mention his daughter, and would show us her picture. We had to wait for a few weeks after graduating to start AIT, no big deal, but once we began training he almost immediately got busted for drinking and smoking (military trainees aren’t allowed to drink or smoke) and got 4 “Army” tattoos. This (the drinking and smoking) got him kicked back into the class after us. After about a month of training, he got word that his “fiancée” had been in an accident and his daughter was in the hospital, so he got sent home to spend time with his daughter. One of our drill sergeants had a soft spot for children and wanted to send the kid flowers, a stuffed animal, and a Get Well card, so he tried to find the hospital that she was in. Well…. Not only was there no child in the hospital, the dude had made her up.
MPs picked him up at his parents’ house, dragged him from California all the way back to Ft. Bragg, and then booted him from service. 2. M was a drunk at the first school that I worked at. He would chug a flask of whiskey every morning before every class, during the mid-class break, and would chain smoke in front of our office. He was supposed to teach intermediate writing, but did not understand grammar and would mix up synonyms with similes. Didn’t matter much; he would only “teach” for about 20 minutes (out of 85) then dismiss the class so that he could stand outside of my classroom and leer the young women in my classroom. You could smell him before seeing him, so I’m pretty sure that he never showered/washed his clothes. He finally got fired because we had a “semester’s over” party for the students and he showed up completely wasted and started creepily flirting with the students.
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Had a new installer for a glass company I worked for get canned their first week. The installers would carpool to a job in the morning and then carpool back to the warehouse at the end of the day. New guy was driving and on the way back to the warehouse thought it was a great idea to stop at 7-Eleven, grab a 12-pack of Busch, and proceeded to guzzle a few cans while not only driving with a few coworker in his car but also while still on company time. One of his passengers secretly recorded him doing so, and as soon a they made it back he immediately went to the owner's office and showed him the video of this dude driving and slamming beers like a frat-boy. Got the ol' heave-ho which worked out for us because the foreman said he sucked anyway.
Wasn't hired by the company yet, but was waiting for an interview at Sears when a guy came out of the office angry and stomped off. I went in for my interview and the manager says "Sorry about that..just had to fire him. He decided to curl up in the cabinet where we keep the cushions for the outdoor furniture and take a nap." I said "Someone found him?" He said "Well it wasn't that hard considering how loudly he was snoring." Oopsie.
Oooh, I have some good ones. 1. I went through Basic Training and part of AIT (where you learn your specific job skills) for the army with S. He made it a point throughout training to mention his daughter, and would show us her picture. We had to wait for a few weeks after graduating to start AIT, no big deal, but once we began training he almost immediately got busted for drinking and smoking (military trainees aren’t allowed to drink or smoke) and got 4 “Army” tattoos. This (the drinking and smoking) got him kicked back into the class after us. After about a month of training, he got word that his “fiancée” had been in an accident and his daughter was in the hospital, so he got sent home to spend time with his daughter. One of our drill sergeants had a soft spot for children and wanted to send the kid flowers, a stuffed animal, and a Get Well card, so he tried to find the hospital that she was in. Well…. Not only was there no child in the hospital, the dude had made her up.
MPs picked him up at his parents’ house, dragged him from California all the way back to Ft. Bragg, and then booted him from service. 2. M was a drunk at the first school that I worked at. He would chug a flask of whiskey every morning before every class, during the mid-class break, and would chain smoke in front of our office. He was supposed to teach intermediate writing, but did not understand grammar and would mix up synonyms with similes. Didn’t matter much; he would only “teach” for about 20 minutes (out of 85) then dismiss the class so that he could stand outside of my classroom and leer the young women in my classroom. You could smell him before seeing him, so I’m pretty sure that he never showered/washed his clothes. He finally got fired because we had a “semester’s over” party for the students and he showed up completely wasted and started creepily flirting with the students.
Load More Replies... Had a new installer for a glass company I worked for get canned their first week. The installers would carpool to a job in the morning and then carpool back to the warehouse at the end of the day. New guy was driving and on the way back to the warehouse thought it was a great idea to stop at 7-Eleven, grab a 12-pack of Busch, and proceeded to guzzle a few cans while not only driving with a few coworker in his car but also while still on company time. One of his passengers secretly recorded him doing so, and as soon a they made it back he immediately went to the owner's office and showed him the video of this dude driving and slamming beers like a frat-boy. Got the ol' heave-ho which worked out for us because the foreman said he sucked anyway.
Wasn't hired by the company yet, but was waiting for an interview at Sears when a guy came out of the office angry and stomped off. I went in for my interview and the manager says "Sorry about that..just had to fire him. He decided to curl up in the cabinet where we keep the cushions for the outdoor furniture and take a nap." I said "Someone found him?" He said "Well it wasn't that hard considering how loudly he was snoring." Oopsie.
