To survive, people have to contribute to society, i.e. have to have a job. So losing it might be really scary as your livelihood depends on it. A lot of the times you may think that it was unfair and feel unappreciated for the skills and knowledge you offered to your employer.
Being fired might be expected or come out of the blue, but it’s always unpleasant and redditors shared the worst way to get fired after preshowerpoop asked them, “What is the worst way you or someone you know has been ‘fired’ from a job?”
There were some wild and bizarre stories that showed just how much companies don’t care about their workers or how weird employees can be. Let us know if you have any of your own experiences in the comments!
More info: Reddit
#1 Got Fired Because The Boss Put The Blame On Them
I got fired because my boss f****d up and blamed it on me.
I started my own business in the same field and made all key people leave my former employer and work for me instead. A year later they had to file for bankruptcy.
Ah, the malicious delight.
Image source: anon, Maryland GovPics
#2 Fired A Guy After His 12 Hour Shift On Black Friday
I worked in retail and our manager fired a guy after his 12 hour shift on Black Friday. Could’ve spent the day after thanksgiving with his family, but instead, the manager made him work in case it was busy, then fired him at the end of his shift. It was a douche move.
Image source: Lnonimous, Răzvan Băltărețu
#3 Fired During ‘Take Your Daughter To Work’ Day
My dad told me once about a coworker getting fired on take your daughter to work day. It was before lunch too so they both had to be escorted out of the office carrying their brown paper lunch bags.
Image source: schnit123, The National Guard
#4 Fired Before Heart Surgery
One capable IT employee was in the hospital due to an unexpected health emergency. They went to the hospital and fired him before his heart surgery. I s**t you not.
Image source: salzocow, Arkangel
#5 The Manager Asked To Stay 2 Unpaid Hours After She Fired Them
i was fired from petsmart for reasons i can no longer remember. immediately after the manager delivered the news, she asked me if i would mind staying for two hours to wait until the evening shift relief arrived. unpaid, of course. i laughed in her face and left.
Image source: elentaari, Ted Van Pelt
#6 Found Out She Was Being Fired While Looking For Another Job
I worked at a Chiropractic office once. One if the girls found out she was being fired when she was on Craigslist looking for other jobs and found her job posted for another X-ray technician. She came to work pissed and stripped off her scrubs in front everyone and walked out in her undies. My hero.
Image source: anon, Aaron Jacobs
#7 Expected To Be Fired For Confronting The Boss About Her Committing Fraud And Embezzlement
Not quite fired yet, but today 3 of us publicly confronted our boss over proof of her committing fraud and embezzlement. The organization serves people with mental health conditions and we confronted her during a public meeting in front of those the organization serves.
It was painful, we hated doing it, but the truth needed to come out.
Image source: LolaZe, UBC Learning Commons
#8 Was Fired 3 Days After His Kid Was Born For Missing Time At Work
Was fired 3 days after my kid was born for missing time because I requested the weekend that my ex was in labour off, got the go ahead from my supervisor but I guess that never made it upstairs to the top boss because they got rid of me lol.
Image source: koopakid902, Reimaging Erica
#9 Found Out They Are Fired Over CNN
Being the top dog of the FBI and finding out over CNN
Image source: Crockpotbob, Shinsuke Ikegame
#10 Fired Because The Company Found Someone More Experienced But Asked To Train That Person
I had a friend who worked in an office doing office type s**t. One day, his boss croaked and he was was made interim boss. Anyways, he busted his a*s in order to try and keep his new position. A month later, he interviewed. A week later, his boss called him into the office and said…. *You know, we really wanted to hire you, I was rooting for you, but someone with more experience and qualifications got the job….. do you mind training him?*
They asked him to train his replacement.
Image source: anon, U.S. Army CCDC
#11 Fired Before Christmas After Doing All The Planning For The Work Party
Girl I knew was here on work visa. She had been working at a company for several years that treated her well but ended up moving and got a job at a new one. Her boss apparently used her as a scapegoat, set her up with impossible, b******t tasks (like planning the office Christmas party about a week beforehand), then fired her shortly before Christmas. That meant her work visa expired and she was going to be sent back to her home country. Apparently it’s the law that the employer in this case pay for the fired employee’s plane ride home, and her boss chose to fly her out on Christmas.
Image source: iprocrastina, spablab
#12 Was Fired While On Holiday
I got notice while on holiday. The day before I was supposed to fly back.
I ended up just not getting the plane back and living in holiday city with a new job <2 weeks later, so it didn’t all end badly.
Image source: DrippyWaffler, allen watkin
#13 Fired Before Promised Promotion
I posted this in an askreddit thread about a week ago, but it fits this thread perfectly:
When I was in my early 20s, I was about 9 months into a job at a retail store and I had been working my a*s off for a chance to be part of a new department that the store was about to open. I aced my review and I got the promotion to the brand new department. It was going to be more challenging work, it came with a pretty hefty pay bump, I would have my own office, and the work would be impactful to the whole company.
The promotion didn’t kick in until the start of the next week. I was laid off that Friday. When they were asked to cut payroll, management literally selected the people who were making the most money. My name was listed next to the salary I hadn’t yet received. Instead of admitting that they f****d up and keeping their best performing employee at that store, they doubled down and tried to hold my last paycheck ransom until I trained my replacement in the job that I hadn’t even done yet.
The store owner just happened to be around that day. Normally he was a very kind man and knew everyone by name. I tried to explain the ridiculous situation to him and he just told me to go home. In a rare moment of frustration, I said something to the effect of “You know, b******t like this kills stores”. He coldly replied “Hastings will be around longer than you.”
Image source: Nevermind04, Preston Fassel
#14 Was Fired During The Night Shift So They Were No Longer On The Travel Routs For Night Shift Workers Of The Company’s Transport
Not me but a very close friend that was working with me at the time.
His shift started at 11pm, mine started at Midnight, and we were both given transportation from door to door, meaning, pick up at your house, drop off at the very office, every day.
My friend was picked up on time and brought to the office as usual, 15min before his shift started. He was fired on the very spot, for some errors he had made, that in my opinion shouldn’t be grounds to fire him but for a warning and coaching, but whatever, they were clauses in our original hiring contract, so, it wasn’t appealed. Now comes the bad part.
In my country, the last buses run at 11PM for most areas, and even earlier in some others, and he lived two cities away, and while firing him, they also revoked his access to the building and the business center where the building was located, and was escorted out, with no way to get home.
And of course they wouldn’t provide transportation, as he was no longer an employee, and neither could he wait outside for the buses or even his scheduled morning transport, since by firing him, the system automatically removed him from the travel routes.
Couldn’t they fire him at the end of his shift, or at least call him and let him know so he would have got to work on his bike? Or at least, not showed up to work that day and come in the next morning, when there are transportation options and then do the paperwork. It was awful.
Image source: Aedrian87, Eric Fredericks
#15 Found Out They Were Fired By Given Their Paycheck
I know someone who went to his company mailbox and found a paycheck. It was stamped “TERM CHECK”. He went to his manager and asked about it. She said “Oh. About that. You were fired…”
Image source: shakycam3, Bullitt D. Bourbon aka Elle Ko
#16 Fired For Yelling At A Kid Who Was Shooting Too Near To Them
I was working 20 ft up a ladder on the side of a house. I hear a BB gun fire and the pellet hit the wall a few feet beside me. After a couple more of these I turn around tell the fat kid standing in the yard if he does that s**t again he better be able to out run my hammer. Mom starts screaming about me threatening her kid. 15 minutes later I’m unemployed.
Image source: RazorRush, Mike Mozart
#17 Was Filling In For Their Own Boss Until The Company Found Someone New And Fired Them
This one resonates to me as I was let go three weeks ago. So story time:
I was hired at a company back in October by a woman whom I consider the ebst boss I ever had. Awesome person, kick as marketer, we are still friends to this day. Anyway, at the end of December before we go on a New Year Break, she tells us she is leaving for a much better company. I don’t blame her, the company is awesome.
Now when we get back, I instantly inherit all of her work and basically become a Director of Marketing without the title. I proceed to bust my a*s to pick up all the new duties, make sure everything is attended to, and try to make a case for being the replacement. Well the VP goes ahead and does interviews, we meet with some candidates, ultimately they hire the one who was my last choice of the four. I didn’t like her. She was just off…anyway, I take it in stride and just go back to doing my job well.
For the next three weeks I proceed to continue doing all of the work I was doing before she arrived, and then some, while teaching her the business and how we did things. Well three weeks ago today I come into the office, go about my routine, and then get pulled into an office where I see HR. I instantly feel sick to my stomach. She then proceeds to terminate my position due to “budget” and I am let go. No severance, no real explanation, nothing.
So basically I manned a department for nearly four months, trained the new Director, and was then laid off by her three weeks into her tenure. Oh, and I found out she quickly replaced me with a friend she had worked with at four other companies. Needless to say it sucked and I was livid.
Image source: OriginalTodd, Brett L.
#18 Was Fired After Telling Their Boss They Had To Go On Their Reserve Unit Training
Told my boss I had a 2 week mandatory training block coming up with my reserves unit. Got told there’s no way I’m not working during that 2 weeks. Told him it’s not like I have a choice. Got fired.
Image source: anon, Louisiana GOHSEP
#19 Fired After Signing A Big Deal For The Company
Friend of mine helped secure a BIG contract for the company he was working for. An incentive for getting contracts is you get a percentage of the profit. He *Just* started working there about 2 months prior and went out own his own several states away to talk to a potential customer from a lead he got at a convention (Basically, “Oh yeah I have a buddy who’s looking into that. You should meet him”) in person out of his own pocket. He secured the deal, called his supervisor to tell him, was congratulated, then drove 12 hours back home. His payout would have come out to around $40,000 over 5 years Went into work the next day and was fired for “suspicion of theft” and the boss of the division (not the supervisor, that guy is lower) would be taking over all his current stuff. He lawyerd up immediately but since he was still on his probationary period and they could fire him without cause nothing but the finders fee (around $3000) was to be paid to him. Basically his boss tossed him to get some free money.
Image source: suitology, Olivier Duquesne
#20 Fired After Arranging A Birthday For Their General Manager
It’s a long story, but I was early in my career. I wasn’t fired for a good reason and I hadn’t really stood up for myself yet. I just took abuse from management and did the best I could
It was my GM’s birthday, and we all had to pick names out of a hat, and we had to buy them a cake etc for their birthday. Well I had the GM, who wanted to do his birthday in the morning with bagels.
So I picked up 30+ bagels, cream cheese, giant thing of coffee, and we had this stupid bagel birthday thing or whatever
Half hour later I get back to my desk, I’m called to HR and I was fired. Oh and thanks for the bagels
Image source: spaghatta111, Purple Slog
#21 Fired After Working During The Bussiest Time Of The Year
Ex Public Accountant Here – In ’09 one of the firms in my city laid off about 30 percent of its staff without warning a week after busy season (IE these poor accountants just worked 80-100 hour weeks with no days off for the last 2-3 months for an annual 50k salary).
I would have literally taken off my bosses high heel and tried to stab her in the jugular, Happy Gilmore style, if she would have pulled that s**t on me.
Image source: RichardCranium00, Ben Baligad
#22 Was Forced To Fire Her Colleagues Until She Was Fired Herself
My mom worked for a small medical practice that was fast on its way to bankruptcy. Her boss gave her a promotion without raise and over the course of the next year, made her fire her coworkers one by one. She came to realize the reason she was “promoted” was so her boss could make her do the firing while he avoided everyone. Her coworkers saw what was happening, but still drifted away from their friendships with my mom as they saw her as an accomplice with the boss. The stress of firing her peers and feeling completely isolated at work was really eating away at my mom right up until the day her boss fired her, too.
I’m sure there’s worse ways to get canned, but my mom is a sweet woman who hadn’t yet learned to speak up for herself and I’m disgusted at the lack of character and integrity her boss had.
Image source: looknass, New Voices
#23 Fired For Not Remembering Ice-Cream Flavors On The First Day
My first job ever was for Baskin Robbins when I was 15. I went in for my first day of training excited to finally be making pocket money!
The owner made me try to memorize the ice cream flavours in the first 30 seconds of being there. When I was unable to recite them perfectly in their order he did this big hand motion and screamed “training over!”
I laugh now but man that was crushing for a nervous teenager.
Image source: Hippyhumanitarian, bargainmoose
#24 Was Fired Over The Phone While In Hospital
I was in a wreck on New Year’s Day of 2009. A drunk driver hit me, injuring my leg up really badly. The driver didn’t have insurance, their tags were fake, and their license was suspended at the time of the accident, so I was f****d. I couldn’t walk and my job was being a soda merchandiser, so I was on my feet all day long. After reporting this to my employer, they told me to concentrate on getting well and to report back to management after seeing the doctor after a week or two of rehab.
My doctor stated I may have to have surgery and wanted to run some tests, so I called my boss after an appointment. While I was being rolled out of the waiting room in a wheelchair, my boss fired me over the phone.
Image source: crouchingroundhouse, Prairie Kittin
#25 Were Told They Will Be Shown A Presentation On Sexual Harassment, Got Fired Instead
Once when I worked in an office, they told us that we had to visit “corporate” for a presentation about sexual harassment in the office. We were broken in to groups to go on different days. Monday – Thursday, the groups got a video on harassment. The Friday group got fired en mass. The whole thing was a set up.
Image source: sykopoet, Jaysin Trevino
#26 Found Out They Were Fired After Accidentally Getting An Email Talking About Their ‘Unsatisfactory’ Work
Headed out with family to celebrate at a Christmas Eve service, phone dinged because I inadvertently got copied on an email from my boss to an office assistant, directing her to draft up a letter terminating me “for cause”, starting with the “unsatisfactory” job I did painting the entire new office on my own time when I started the job as an associate attorney one year prior. I immediately called him to ask “WTF?”, He responded that he couldn’t talk because he was in a church service with his family.
Image source: HamDragons, Dmitry Boyarin
#27 Employee Thought She Was Fired So She Didn’t Come To Work And Was Actually Fired
On night shift a coworker comes in and tries to log into the computer system. It doesn’t work. She’s locked out of everything. She’d also had trouble clocking in. The night shift supervisor is off that night. This lady starts freaking out and crying. She says she knew they were looking for a reason to fire her. When were they planning on telling her? What is she suppose to do now? Despite multiple people reassuring her that if they were going to fire her, this is not the way they would do it and suggesting there might just be a mistake, she is still determined that she’s been fired and they forgot to tell her before they cut her access. She goes home and doesn’t come in the next night either. She won’t answer calls, and is out for the rest of the next week.
Turn’s out they hadn’t fired her, but they had been looking for a reason to fire her. Not calling and not showing up for work was enough of a reason, so then she really was fired.
Image source: name_pending__, Mike
#28 Many Employees Were Fired Due To The Company Being Sold And One Of The HRs Firing People Was Also Laid Off
I worked at a place that was sold to investors, they brought in a hotshot CEO to bump up the numbers, then sold to our major competitor. During the transition, about 20 people were let go in one day. The head of HR (M) and the other HR employee (F) spent all day at it. It wasn’t easy, since a lot of the employees had been there since the early days, 15+ years. There were tears, some shouting, the awkward “Hey Imma just stand here casually while I make sure you don’t get weird while you clean out your desk also I’m so sorry this is happening” thing… After a whole day of that, the head of HR turns to the other HR employee and tells her, “Oh BTW we’re gonna have to let you go too.”
You may ask, how did I know there were tears, shouting, etc.? Because that skeezy b******e head of HR shared all the gory details with my coworker the next day, in our open office workspace. She didn’t ask, but he needed to tell someone. To this day I get mad thinking about it.
Image source: owls-and-vergubas, Stephen Edmonds
#29 Nobody Announced To Anyone The Employee Was No Longer Working In The Company
I found out today when I got an email from a client stating. ” <employeeX> was suppossed to be here today and won’t answer his phone”. I make a couple calls only to find out EmployeeX was asked to resign and nobody bothered to inform his accounts. I flew out of state to smooth things over (I’m in the hotel lobby right now, as this happened today).
Image source: anon, Steve Parker
#30 Foud Out They Were Fired After A Presentation That Didn’t Reflect Reality At The Company
We were having a departmental meeting, and the head of engineering, Myron, was giving a speech about how all of our customers are happy – and how all of his ideas are f*****g awesome. Both of these were very false, so he was either lying or is disillusion.
Next his boss is giving her presentation, and the little email message popped up at the bottom corner of the screen saying “You need to fire Myron” . Myron was soon fired… and good riddance.
Image source: ooo-ooo-oooyea, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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