There’s been a revival of discussions around abusive employer behavior on social media, and that’s a great thing for workers’ rights. However, it takes two to tango, and sometimes, workplaces are totally justified in firing their employees. On Reddit, commenters recently shared the stories of how they got fired, and some of them accepted the fact that they had it coming.
Employer-labor relations have always been tense, but the aftermath of the COVID lockdowns have put their own spin on labor relations. Office attendance is mandatory for some and a dealbreaker for others, and both the lockdowns and recent economic turbulence have caused some to reevaluate their work-life balances.
#1
Laid off the week after I told my boss I was burned out and thinking about quitting. She told me not to quit, to wait it out a bit. I guess she knew lay offs were coming. It was great, I got a decent severance and unemployment benefits. I took a few months off and started doing stand up comedy. Found a new gig and I love it.
Image source: BunjaminFrnklin, Johnny Cohen
#2
Missed work for a whole week to be tested for cancer. Didn’t have cancer it was an autoimmune disease but the manager at the store said I was “unreliable” and “distracted”. Well yah I was being tested for CANCER
Image source: DavinaCole, Accuray
#3
Was working in McDonalds two years ago. I was the dude who was responsible of the fries. One evening this dude comes in asking for a regular order of a burger and fries. We serve him accordingly. Next morning he comes in screaming about how the fries he ordered yesterday were soggy and demanded to speak to me. By the state of him and his face he had clearly been drinking the night before. I went up to him and he started screaming at me, I started by apologising but then after him screaming at me for 10 mins I started defending the fries I had made. He said “Do you think I am lying just to get a refund, I just had the fries before coming here and they were soggy” One of the other staff members who was working the till recognised him from the night before. Turns out he had left the fries in his car the whole night while he was out drinking and still expected them to be fresh and crispy the next morning. I lost it and kicked him out. Two hours later the owner of that franchise comes in and fires me for kicking his NEPHEW out of the place. All the other staff members were on my side but he threatened fire them as well if they had a problem with his decision. The place closed down because they couldn’t find people to work there as the owner kept firing people for petty reasons
Image source: kingbatuk013, Nathan Dumlao
#4
Gave a spectacular demonstration of the top-heavy nature of a UPS truck. Rave reviews from locals, as the roadway was scattered with hundreds of packages. Management was unimpressed and suggested a different career.
Image source: pullin2, Daphne Fecheyr
#5
I already had a new job lined up but it wasn’t starting for another 2 months so I was just trying to lay low and then give a 2 week notice. My old a*****e boss made one snarky comment too many and I couldn’t help myself. I put him on blast over some of his nefarious activities in front of our CEO. He fired me at the end of that week, but he was forced to retire a month later after everything I said was confirmed.
I’m not exactly proud of it but…oh who am I kidding, f**k that guy.
Edit: Didn’t expect this much interest. I explained the nefarious activities in another comment below. Basically, my boss and a customer (his friend) were scamming the company to fund a side business.
Image source: asimovsroomba, Kaboompics .com
#6
I hit a wanabee hard man bully over the head with a frozen chicken.
Image source: Dazzling-Wash9086, JK Sloan
#7
I phoned in sick and went to a Prince concert. Zero regrets.
Image source: MrSpindles, Nainoa Shizuru
#8
Working as a cashier I missed a case of water underneath someone’s cart and turns out they were a secret shopper or something… I had a couple days off and I came back to look at the schedule and was told I was fired
Image source: spiderman96, Tara Clark
#9
I was overloaded with work and/so I was also put in charge of a new guy. Well, I taught the new guy everything and he did great for a while.
Until he didn’t, and he kept missing things. And I got blamed for it.
The boss kept getting mad at me like it’s my job to manage… I had a job, it just so happens 1 person is not enough to pick/package and ship out 150+ separate orders a day.
But apparently that’s how they like it, because he wasn’t hearing it. I bitched him out about how it’s not responsibility to watch over every move the guy makes, otherwise I wouldn’t have time to work, and he’d get mad at me again.
So yeah, bitched him out then simultaneously quit and got fired
Edit: thank you all for the upvotes! Never expected to get this many, and f**k you Rick you piece of s**t I needed that money back then.
Image source: TooYoungToBeThisOld1, Nubelson Fernandes
#10
I “wasn’t a good fit” (after working at the company for 3 years). Was told a few days after getting fired that the head managers daughter was given my position. Because of getting fired for absolutely no reason, I had to go on welfare for 6 months and was almost homeless because I couldn’t afford rent anymore. Also starved regularly, as welfare was only 700$ per month, and rent alone was 650$ (for a bedroom, had to leave my apartment because rent there was almost 1200)
Image source: AkKik-Maujaq, christopher catbagan
#11
I wore dark gray pants instead of black pants.
Image source: SuperlativeSleep, Tyler Nix
#12
Pretty sure they were just wanting to get rid of me. I was working at a meat market/deli store and I was called on my phone after work hours by the owner to tell me he was letting me go because I upset a customer that day.
It was Saturday which were just half days but incredibly busy. An older man and his wife had ordered something chicken so I wrapped it up, priced it, and gave it to them to take to the register. Well he tells me he wanted the *breaded* chicken whatever. I say, oh sorry she didn’t specify breaded but I’ll get you the correct chicken. I unwrapped what I gave them and put it back in the case, throw away the wrapping paper and do it all quickly because there were people waiting in line.
So I get the breaded chicken wrapped and priced and hand it back to them. The wife asks is this the chicken whatever and I say it’s the *breaded* chicken whatever. I swear I didn’t say it with nasty tone just affirming that it was breaded. Well the husband gave me a dirty look and they leave.
Well the owner calls me later that evening to fire me because he was pals with that old guy. I file unemployment, the owner fights and I guess he tells the agent what he thinks happened because when the agent called me I was telling him my side and the agent and he tells me Well the owner said you did this thing and that and I tell the agent the owner wasn’t even there that day and him and that customer were friends. I think that sealed it in my favor because I got approved.
Image source: Glass_Chance9800, Hannah Wei
#13
I had full-on lesbian sex with my boss’s daughter. Totally worth it as I quickly found a better job afterwards.
Image source: RescueGirl557, Mahrael Boutros
#14
I refused to lie to our biggest customer about a project that was costing them 80 millions, but just didn’t work. I got the briefing for this while on my flight to that meeting. I said “I can not mention certain things, but I won’t lie if they ask for specifics. The s**t you want me to say to them doesn’t even exist and probably will never exist because it’s just not possible.” When I landed, I got a call from my boss telling me that I don’t need to go to that meeting because he takes over. I should just go out and have a nice day in Calgary instead. I did, and the next day he fired me. (But asked right away if I could still fly out to Bangkok the week after and train the people over there. I didn’t go to Bangkok.)
Image source: OneMorePotion, Gabriel Gonzalez
#15
Little Ceasers.
Mixing vodka and orange juice in the dough machine after close.
1991.
Image source: bardwick, Taryn Elliott
#16
I kept eating food when I just cooked it at McDonald’s and giving everyone 2x the amount of nuggets/chicken fillets etc. f**k that place it’s a depressing nightmare
Image source: xxjonesyx99xx, Shahbaz Ali
#17
I refused to make up reasons to fire my employees. (I was told to “clean house”). I put this process off for a few weeks while looking for a new job. I got my new job the week after they let me go.
#18
Threw up on my first day.
Image source: angelicdollface, Kyle Glenn
#19
I came back from holiday and was jet lagged due to the time difference, and therefore got tired towards the end of the working day. My tiredness was taken as an inability or unwillingness to do the job and I was marched off the premises
Image source: eezgorriseadback, Karollyne Videira Hubert
#20
Got a summer job that required me to live onsite in a remote area. Told my part time job that I would be gone for the summer, and marked up the calendar accordingly, they told me it wasn’t a problem.
About halfway thru the summer they fired me for not coming into work for the past month.
When the summer was over I showed them the calendar and reminded them how we had discussed this and I was reinstated. Just stupid tho
Image source: MrRogersAE, Estée Janssens
#21
Went to see Grateful Dead at RFK stadium in DC. I told the manager not to schedule me that weekend but he did anyway. Told him I wouldn’t be there. When I returned Monday I was fired. Worth it.
Funny thing is my wife (gf at the time) was also scheduled and went with me to the show. She wasn’t fired – but she quit when she found out I was fired.
Darryl’s Restaurant in Raleigh, NC. – by the way they had some pretty good food.
Image source: fleetber, Edward Xu
#22
I told my boss that I intended to quit and asked him to find a replacement. Instead he just fired me.
#23
Finger was almost bitten off by an octopus. Boss fired me while I was in the ER waiting to get evaluated. Exact words were “Bro, I’m f*****g pissed. You’re fired”.
Image source: HunnaThaStunna, Alessandro Canepa
#24
Told school admin that they were full of s**t and that their academic honesty policy is b******t. I caught a senior cheating on my final (phone in hand googling answers admitting to it), failed him, he failed the year couldn’t walk. Admin said he didn’t cheat…
F**k that b******t.
Image source: Atotallyrandomname, Yustinus Tjiuwanda
#25
I’m a single mom with three kids. I had two deaths in the family back-to-back, then my kids got sick. I missed about 2 weeks in total of time over a span of 9 months. They demanded I get help with the kids, asking me where the father was. Explained that he is not around, filed a complaint to HR about them asking me that and also denying breaks, and got fired bc HR was a friend of my Supervisor. It was a terrible job.
Image source: notacreativename82, Vitolda Klein
#26
I was 19 and asked the wrong question. I was working in a call center way back when long distance plans mattered. Second week in I kill it hit the top of the weekly sales nice little bonus all good. Next week I can’t close for s**t I’m at the bottom, list seems stale people that we’ve called before. I’m pitching this one lady and then she says she just switched to our plan describes the rest of the pitch only the name of the company was diffrent then ours. Otherwise exact same plan. I was young and didn’t really care beyond a paycheck so I went to talk to my boss. He says there are a lot of long distance plans out there don’t worry about. Next few days lots of similar calls. I also noticed the manager room had a f**k ton of phone books from other states. Asked about that. End of the week I was canned for performance. Next Monday they got raided by FCC and FBI. Turns out they were reselling folks the same plan over and over again under a diffrent name. They were also illegally pulling names from phone books. And overselling the amount of long distance time they’d actually bought so people were getting over charged.
Image source: tdasnowman, bruce mars
#27
On paper? Called into the meeting room before shift and told “Making some changes.”
In reality? Discussing wages with senior employees. Which is why less than a month after I was gone, 2 of the remaining 5 production quit. The two with the most seniority.
Image source: kaosi_schain, Mario Gogh
#28
From 1980-1982, I was the publications director at a college. I always got very good/outstanding ratings from my supervisor.
One day she came in and did my review — as usual, all ratings were in the top two performance categories. Then she told me she was letting me go, but offered no explanation. She actually patted me on the head and said, “I want you to know it’s nothing personal, and if I had a daughter, I’d want her to be just like you.”
I was very young (25) and newly married, and as she was aware, my husband was a graduate assistant making $3,500 a year. I closed the door to my office and sobbed.
It took me a long time to get another job. I was a week away from running out of unemployment benefits when I finally got hired elsewhere.
I found out later that she routinely fired people in that position after a year. I held the job longer than anyone.
The woman who fired me was a psychopath. She would rearrange my office while I was on vacation. When my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to have a mastectomy, I asked to take a few days off to go out to help her. I had plenty of vacation time, but my boss said she would be out of town for a week and someone had to hold down the fort, so I had no choice but to stay. My boss was in the office all that week.
About a year after I got fired, I got a call from a woman who said she had just been fired from the same job.
Image source: BSB8728, Daria Pimkina
#29
I told the manager that she was an “entitled pompous self-centered mentally ill bully who was also almost certainly bi-polar”. Got fired within a couple hours.
Image source: Purposeofoldreams, Cherrydeck
#30
I took on a role that was not fit for me. It was my second job as a software developer, and the role was dev #2 at an early stage startup. As in, the entire dev team was me and another engineer.
Startup life can vary greatly, but this was a financial tech firm near Wall Street. To say that it’s a lot of responsibility is an understatement. There’s no such thing as saying “that’s not my job” or “I don’t know how to do that”. If the company needs it, you have to do it.
It was a good learning experience because I was pushed very far outside of my comfort zone, but it also gave me crippling anxiety and I got burnt out. I made a bunch of mistakes and was eventually fired over it. The job was so hard that I was actually relieved to get fired.
Image source: tenaciousDaniel, Elisa Ventur
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