Everything in this life, both good and bad, sooner or later comes to an end. Everything, including our work - and no matter how good we are as employees, we still sometimes have to face a pink slip. Yes, layoffs are the norm of modern life, and what is even more offensive is that unfair and strange layoffs are also gradually becoming the norm...
And it's no surprise that when the user u/JavaMamma0002 asked "Why did you get fired?" on the AskReddit community a few days ago, the thread almost immediately went viral, racking up over 16.3K upvotes and nearly 10.3K various answers. So please feel free to read this list of weird and sad stories of dismissals carefully collected for you by Bored Panda!
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For doing my job too quickly and sitting down the rest of the time. Gas station cashier 3rd shift.
Me: “Why should I stand when I’m the only person in the store?”
Manager: “It’s more professional to stand than sit”
Me: “then why do you sit in your office?”
I was denied a raise by HR after consistently working 60-70 hours weeks, and my VP (who had supported and requested the raise for me) told me to stop putting in the extra time, work my 40, and spend that extra time applying to new jobs. Within a month, a meeting was called to "mutually part ways" because my work wasn't getting done.
I was gratified to learn that they had to hire two people to do my job after I left.
Edit: Sucks to see how much this resonates with people who have been in a similar situation. I left this job back in 2015, thankfully. The VP is no longer there either, and good for him.
I'm a very loyal and meticulous worker... to a point. If it doesn't get rewarded, I work to the rule. Exactly what is in my contract and that's it. No extras whatsoever. I do believe you need to put it some effort. Nothing comes from nothing. But I expect to see results pretty soon. My current employer sees that and treats me well. They got my very best. I'm fast. I can do the job of two people without even doing overtime. For a price. You'll get a free trial, but then you better pony up. I'm not Netflix. You can't just make a new mail adress and give it another go. You get one round, if you don't like what you see enough to pay for it appropriately, I'll find someone who does
I asked the CNA I was working with to stay with a confused patient, while I went and put a new IV in another patient.
The CNA left the patient alone.
She fell out of bed and got a big bloody skin tear on her arm.
After I took care of that, I went and found the CNA and told her the patient was injured because of her insubordination.
The CNA cussed at me, and left the unit.
I did not see her again that shift.
She and another CNA decided on their own to trade assignments.
I wrote the CNA up.
The CNA went to mgmt and lied about me. She said I called her by a racial slur and yelled at her.
I did neither.
Mgmt fired me rather than deal with a false claim of racism.
I collected unemployment.
The CNA did something similar with another nurse a couple of weeks later, and was fired.
My mgr asked if I could be rehired. HR said no.
When my mgr quit to start her own nursing agency a year later, she hired me.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with being fired. People have been laid off for various reasons, and people who were really outstanding and successful have been fired too. At different times, Steve Jobs and Phil Jackson, Walt Disney and Michael Bloomberg also fell prey to dismissal. What can I say - Oprah Winfrey once lost her place as co-anchor at the six o'clock news because the producers did not like her manner of presenting information. So in any case, dismissal can often be not a step back, but a signal for a leap forward.
Was on the edge of a serious burnout and had a sick leave for two weeks. The day I returned, I got fired. This all after I had pretty much given my all for 1,5 years working 10-14 hours every single day, working from home and not having a private life at all. That’s how I learned that you should never give too much at a job. It’s just a job and they won’t thank you for anything at the end of the day…
Yup, you have learned a valuable lesson in life ; give most employers a proverbial inch and they WILL take a mile ; f**k 'em, do the bare minimum unless you either get paid a shed load of money or enjoy what you do. Never work for a bad employer, if you do, start looking for another job and leave as soon as possible : also, if your new employer asks why you left, tell the truth, if your ex employer was an arsehole your new employer will most likely have more respect for you if you have stood up for yourself.
For reporting elder abuse
I was a brand new Engineer out of college. Like green. I got a job offer at an aircraft factory (Cessna, a Textron Company) as a Quality Engineer. I had been an intern for 3 years and they helped put me through school. I worked in a _Projects_ group designing new floor layouts and how these business jets flowed through the process. I had always received good performance reviews and that is why my internship turned into a scholarship and into a job offer.
When I started full-time, I was assigned to a facility across town that did sheet metal stuff. I remember walking into the office on my first day, introducing myself to my new manager. She immediately turned away, refused to shake my hand and ignored me.
The next 6 months were the same. She legit would not speak to me, would not give me projects, would not schedule one-on-ones to give any direction, and if I was on an email chain and she was looped in, she would take me off. I would walk over to her and she would hunch her back and try to cover whatever she was working on so I couldn't see, as if it was some big secret. Finally I got involved in some continuous improvement projects, I was asked by our director to run with a few special projects and I started (in my opinion) really finding a groove.
Finally she pulled me into a conference room, yelled at me for 2 hours (yes 2 f*****g hours) about how I was not doing the things she wanted me to do. She gave me a self-help book and told me I needed to read it and tell her what was wrong with myself and she terminated me without HR or anybody else knowing.
To this day, I never knew what her problem was or why she hated me from the moment I introduced myself. I have a wonderful and successful career and currently manage quality for 4 factories in a Swedish conglomerate - and if I ever see her again I will tell her how I have modeled my management style after promising myself I would never be like her. My employees always know:
* What is expected of them
* How they know if they are succeeding
* Where they can go for help if they are not
By the way, very often the reason for the dismissal of really good employees is the incompetence of the manager. For example, business coach Marcel Schwantes, analyzing the reasons why managers lose experienced staff, cites the following main factors: unwillingness to recognize the unique abilities of subordinates, inability to communicate with the team, unwillingness to share information, manual team management, inability to listen, removal from subordinates, obsession with one's own ego, as well as simple indifference to staff.
And then the company often suffers from rash decisions made by the boss. A great example is this post of ours, about a new hotshot manager who didn't like an "inflexible" employee who had been working almost since the company was founded. The manager eventually got him fired, but did not take into account that this employee's contract provided for a hefty termination fee. The result was, as you might well guess, another layoff soon after...
I went to the Emergency room instead of work. Came back with an ER note and they said “We won’t be needing that. Can you come with us?” I was 18 and it was my first full time job.
I refused to come in 15-20 mins early unpaid for my shift. I was always 5-10 min early but they decided they wanted me there earlier. I carried on as normal as I’m not coming in if I’m not being paid. Turned up for a 12pm shift at 11:49, no one would look at me when I arrived then was thrown in a meeting and fired for being “late”. Was out the door before it even hit 12.
It was the only time I’ve ever been fired.
Legal case waiting to happen right there! Being fired for being late is unfair dismissal, if you're early every day!
*They* sent *me* home because I sneezed and I was forced to get tested for Covid. Then when I tested negative, I was terminated for “Abusing pandemic policies to stay home”
In any case, dismissal, no matter how unreasonable and unfair it may be, very often becomes a difficult test for our psyche and self-confidence. To better deal with this problem, HR experts recommend, firstly, getting the reason for dismissal in writing, and secondly, asking for an exit interview. "When you learn about your firing, ask your employer to write you a letter of termination. Make sure they include the reason why they are letting you go," Indeed writing team notes in the dedicated material. "This can be a useful document to have if you suspect a union or contract violation. Likewise, if a future employer asks about your termination, you will have documented proof of the reasoning."
I got fired once for putting in my 2 week notice.
The only other time I've gotten fired was working for a trade company, during the first week. I was a supervisor, and there was a second supervisor on site. I got a call that my wife had been rushed to the hospital, which was literally less than a mile away. I asked the other supervisor if I could go to attend to her, and he said "sure, no problem, I've got things here. Go." I returned to the job site later to find the boss there, and he let me go on the spot for leaving the team "without a supervisor". He knew what had happened, and still fired me. I won't lie, that one kind of pissed me off.
My Parole Officer wanted to make sure I actually had a job, so he went to my employer listed on my file to surprise visit me on the job. I did home wiring so I worked at different job sites and rarely in the office. He called me to say he was going to charge me with a violation for lying to him about my whereabouts (this could've landed me back in prison for my remaining 10.5 years sentence). The owner of the company had to speak with him and vouche for me. My Parole Office didn't charge me, but the owner sure did fire me that day. Finding a job with a felony isn't an easy thing, and it wasn't long before my PO threatened to charge me with a violation if I didn't find a job soon 🤦🏻
It's hell having a government funded babysitter whose soul purpose is to put you back in jail. People are skeptical about hiring someone with a criminal record to begin with but then having to deal with said babysitter makes them feel even worse about having you as an employee. I get wanting to follow up and making sure that you're not lying about a job but there has to be a better way of doing it.
I was 19 and working as a janitor at a large self storage facility, where most days were filled with sweeping and mopping endless hallways of flickering fluorescent light. And when someone went delinquent on their bill (after a 3 month grace period), I would be instructed to empty their unit and dump everything in the trash outside. Once or twice it was a person who died, but otherwise it was a pretty common to see a room full of absolute junk that someone got tired of paying for. Banged-up furniture, garbage bags of ratty clothing, stacks of old magazines, it was usually pretty hoarder-friendly stuff, and not that I'd want any of it but the policy was I had to throw it into the dumpster outside no matter what it was.
One day I get notified to empty out a unit, so I grab the bin, cut the lock, fling open the gate. The room is full of huge cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. I open one up out of curiosity, and it's full of brand new, unopened Gundam models. The entire room is full of them, dozens of boxes with dozens of models in each, and I'm talking the $50-$100 ones I saw for sale at my local comics shop every week. The manager would check up on me once or twice a day, and that morning he walked up and I showed him all of the brand new merchandise and said there has to be a better system than trashing all of this. He said rules are rules, something about insurance I didn't understand, and told me to throw them all away.
So I went and I backed up one of the complementary U-Haul style box trucks, picked a few models out for myself, and loaded it up the truck with the rest of it. On my lunch break I drove over to the Children's Resource Center that I'd volunteered at during high school, it's a place where any child (but usually poorer ones) would go after school for arts and crafts and activities to keep them busy until their parents got home. The people at the drop-off dock were so grateful, before I even left they were handing them out to some extremely excited kids. Drove back to the self storage place with enough time to eat a sandwich and smoke a cigarette before clocking back in.
But that's not why I got fired. I got fired because the manager came to check on me that afternoon, and after awhile of looking around, found me sitting cross legged on the floor of the janitor closet with model parts spread all around me, happily assembling a sweet translucent Zaku model. I was so entranced I didn't even hear him come in, I just hear this long, drawn out, exasperated sigh. I look up and he just says "keys" and that was that. I spent the rest of the week assembling Zakus and Valkyries and lying to my parents about getting replaced with a Roomba.
Be that as it may, at the moment when you hear these ominous words "You're fired!" it is worth remembering that the real impact of this situation on your life can only be assessed years later. After all, if Colonel Sanders had not been fired several times in his younger years, he could have worked as an insurance salesman all his life, and the world would not have known the taste of KFC wings and whatnot. So just scroll this selection of dismissal stories to the very end, maybe add another one in the comments if you want, and always remember that any termination is best accompanied by the words: "I'll be back!"
A business I went to long ago was hiring and I got the job. Right after I signed all the paperwork, the department manager comes in and asks who I am. I tell him I was just hired as a temp. Manger says he never authorized any hiring and fired both me and my boss on the spot. I did not work for this company at all and they fired me. :(
my manager kept losing my class schedule
worked at a subway. i had class two days a week. several times he put me on those days anyway. i gave him multiple copies every time. owner took me off the schedule for "calling out too much"
when i showed the owner proof he said it was too late and they already hired someone else
this was 12 years ago. im still mad
Got fired for not only calling the health inspector but posting pics of many food safety violations on FB while tagging the restaurant in the post while on the clock in the restaurant.
My only time getting fired, I was 13-14, working at a go kart track. I had been there about a month when I was left alone for a solid week to take care of the track as the other 2 track attendants sat around smoking, drinking, and chatting with the boss. I ran it flawlessly and had no issues. My first day off after working like 12 days straight I got called in, I showed up within 5 minutes aaaand they fired me saying that all I did was sit around and make the other guys run the track. They literally accused me of doing what the other guys were doing. I slammed that place so hard to everyone I knew and they went out of business within the next 2 years.
they lowered my pay so I started sleeping at work and do only half the task they wanted me to do. Took them 3 years to fire me.
His wife thought he was having an affair with the office manager.
He asked me if I thought it was possible that he was having an affair with the office manager.
I said, “It’s possible, but I don’t think you are. I could see why your wife might think so too.”
I was 21 and naïve as hell. Never should have said anything.
Because my job "was eliminated". This was code for "getting rid if you and hiring someone to replace you at half the salary." Their scheme was less than a stellar success because: The person they hired was an idiot and could not do it, the customers got severely pissed, they gave me $15K severance if I promised not to sue them, I took their money and still sued them for age discrimination, and won.
My boomer manager kept insulting me, blaming me for things my coworker did and kept getting an attitude with me any time I didn't bend over backwards to accommodate her ego.
So one day she asked me why my coworker did a certain thing. I told her I had no idea. She pressed me. I said "How am I supposed to know? Explain it to me. Tell me how **I** am supposed to know what **he** did." She said "I don't know", so I walked away to keep doing my job. Next thing I heard was "You know what? Just go! Get the F**K out!"
I got un-fired by her boss a few hours later, and transferred to a better location, but being able to cold shoulder her after months of asking her nicely not to belittle me was quite satisfying.
Similar but it was a zoom mtg and mgr so thoroughly lost her mind, screaming at me for not knowing some detail about software I'd never used, yhat she didn't hear me calmly say, "I quit". I was a remote worker but had turned in everything to corporate with an hour. Took them 3 days to "check" on me by email, instantly followed by my termination notice. 3 extra days pay!!
Reading during my lunch break 🙄
Apparently I’m destined to be fired from every job I’ll ever get then.
For getting lunch. I was 18, working at a mall kiosk with a "manager" title even though I managed nothing for something like $8/hour.
Hours painted on the door, 0 support or other employees to relieve for a break. The owner showed up while I had locked up to go get a bite to eat. Fired on the spot.
Another unfair dismissal. I hope the people in these situations sought out legal advice. Money isn't everything, but if you get fired unfairly, you should hit them where it hurts (in their pockets)
I got fired for submitting my time sheets on Monday at 8am when I got into work. By policy, they were to be in by noon on Saturday, but my Fridays ended in the field so I just did then on Monday mornings. My bosses didn't even look at them until noon on Tuesday so it had 0 impact on them. I drove home from being fired feeling relieved because of how unhappy I was at that job.
I was an entitled little s**t with a summer job between my junior and senior years in college.
I thought I was getting a “data entry” job. It was indeed data entry to an extent, but most of the work was actually taking items off the shelves in a warehouse and taking pictures of them. (These pictures would be scanned and then entered into a system with a description.)
I thought this was below somebody with my “obvious” skills as an engineering student (who had failed to secure a summer internship in his field). I told my boss that the work was really a two person job — the other person could do the warehouse stuff — and she agreed and said she’d look into finding another intern to help.
I took that to mean I could slack off posting on Warcraft 3 forums all day until they hired the other guy.
One day I came home to a voice mail telling me to not bother coming back.
I 100% deserved it. I hate my younger self sometimes…
That's called "personal growth". Well done mate, too many people never learn from their mistakes
I built a snow scorpion sculpture (I used ketchup for the red glowing eyes and everything) on a particularly miserable day at a ski resort. The guests enjoyed my sculpture very much, management weren’t so happy.
We formed a union and then the pandemic hit and they laid off all the unionized workers 🫨
Long ago, I was a bill collector who didn't have the heart to prey on poor and unsophisticated people who had no money for food and rent, let alone paying for their vaccuum cleaners and encyclopedias they got sucked into buying on years-long installment plans.
I lasted a coupla weeks.
The pay was good though. But not as good as the feeling of sleeping well at nights.
I talked my way into a job at a software company when they put a hiring notice in a local paper. I had no idea what the software did. I still don't. They hired me as a trainer and no one ever explained what the product was. I did a few weeks where I was trained on the software but literally none of it ever made sense to me. It was like they were speaking gibberish. One day I showed up, a lady I had never seen before gave me a check, and walked me out to the parking lot. No one even ever said "you're fired" or anything. It's one of the strangest things that ever happened to me.
Well done to you for blagging that job !!! And being paid for a few weeks of bluffing !!
I was jobless for 3 years. Did lots of online work during that time. Finally got a job. Forgot I got a job. Got a letter from my employer informing me that I got fired after a week
In college I had a temp job doing quality assurance. I figured out their internal site had profile pages that freely allowed the execution of Javascript in the form fields. I thought it would be funny to make my profile look crazy, changed colors, added some animation. This way when you went to the list of employee profiles you might get a chuckle and it would bring attention to the fact that it allowed executing code. Something I already brought to their sttention previously.
Anyways I got fired for "breach of security" lol
White hat hackers get paid big money to expose vulnerabilities like that.
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I was fired one time for stopping a temp employee from stapling his fingers to a piece of lumber. Reason? I grabbed his arm and pulled it away before the pneumatic stapler fired 1.5" staples into his hand. I was the safety director of this company!
Got talked into a job I wasn't qualified for. Owners said they would teach me everything but in reality taught me very little. Realized I was in over my head and planned to quit on Saturday after my shift. Got fired two days before that on Thursday. Reason: I wasn't qualified for the job. Big, duh.
I was fired one time for stopping a temp employee from stapling his fingers to a piece of lumber. Reason? I grabbed his arm and pulled it away before the pneumatic stapler fired 1.5" staples into his hand. I was the safety director of this company!
Got talked into a job I wasn't qualified for. Owners said they would teach me everything but in reality taught me very little. Realized I was in over my head and planned to quit on Saturday after my shift. Got fired two days before that on Thursday. Reason: I wasn't qualified for the job. Big, duh.
