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People Divulge Things Their Coworkers Have Done That Should've Gotten Them Fired But Didn't

Reddit user Shelendrea asked: 'Have you ever witnessed something that should've gotten someone fired at work? If so, what happened?'

woman in white t-shirt looking at the window during daytime
Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

My second college internship led me to a small content creation company. It was so small that the two editors were the only paid employees. Everyone else was an intern.

I was excited to start so I could add more to my portfolio only to realize that one of the editors replaced my name with hers every time she edited one of my articles. Not much of the content was changed, but I was too shy to question it.

I eventually found out that she did this to all the interns, and most of the interns had learned to private message their draft articles to the other editor, who did not take the bylines.

I asked one of my fellow interns if the founder of the company knew the editor took bylines. Turns out, the founder knew, but for some reason no one else could figure out, the editor never got fired.

It turns out this story isn't unique. There are lots of instances when someone does something at work that should get them fired, but they manage to hold on to their job. Redditors have plenty of stories like that and are eager to share.


It all started when Redditor Shelendrea asked:

"Have you ever witnessed something that should've gotten someone fired at work? If so, what happened?"

Needs More Than A Demotion

"Coworker jokingly threw a box at my chest and knocked the wind out of me and I collapsed. He begged me not to tell anyone and I didn't. The guy was a weirdo. He'd talk about how he'd burn insects and starts fires. Weird sh*t. He ended up getting in more trouble later on for some reason or another...crass jokes, sexual comments....either way, he eventually transferred stores and I never saw him again. This all happened back in 2013-14."

"Fast forward to earlier this year 2023, my store was getting a major remodel, and he was one of the managers that came from afar with a team of workers to do the remodel. I was surprised he was still with the company, let alone in a leadership position. I said hi to him a time or two, but he was busy with the remodel project on the other side of the store so I eventually stopped seeing him."

"This whole time things were tense between the remodel crew and our store crew. Pallet Jack's getting stolen, supplies going missing, etc. Both sides hated each other."

"I hadn't seen (we'll call him John) in a few weeks and noticed there was a new manager on the remodel crew. Either way, things were finally cooling down between us."

"Out of curiosity I asked one of the remodel crew what had happened to John, and they told me, "Oh you didn't hear? He got demoted for trying to start problems between our teams. He'd tell us to steal your pallet Jack's and tried getting a few people to fight.""

"Unreal."

– AdamR91

Got Milk?

"I worked in a milk factory. I was working with a man that was a bit off. We had to take the milk cartons on a conveyor belt and place them on a pallet. While we were working he said "time for a break" and slammed a blade used to open boxes into the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt got absolutely destroyed and the machine was in maintenance of two days after that."

– LyricalJerrycal

"Hey, when it's time for a break, it's time for a break."

– MyOpinyunIsRight

"How dairy?!"

– StrongestAvenger2211

Money, Money, Money

"The supervisor left the safe open."

"At this job, he should have absolutely gotten fired but his blunder got overshadowed because one of the douchier employees stole 50k and went on the run for over half a day."

– BW_Bird

"...doesn't that just highlight why the supervisor should keep the safe shut?"

– akaioi

"You'd think."

"Honestly, I wasn't too upset. Sups was a nice guy."

– BW_Bird

A DQ Thing

"When I was in high school, I worked at Dairy Queen. I was on the opening crew one Saturday and the assistant manager unlocks the doors, lets us in, and tells us "Guys, I'm really hungover right now so I'm gonna sleep in the back. Wake me up if you need me." She goes back and curls up on top of the laundry machines (we washed all the uniforms on site because they get covered in ice cream). It was a slow day so and she was the cool manager, so we all let her sleep and never told the owner."

"Another night, one of our cook's buddies parked their car in our lot and he just hung out there with them smoking weed for a couple hours. If someone ordered food, we'd go out and get him. He'd come back inside, cook it, and go right back out. The rest of us had the decency to smoke after work, but nobody ratted him out either."

– SeveralAngryBears

"Must be a Dairy Queen thing. When I was seventeen I was the grill cook at Dairy Queen and the employees had a pact with each other that if one of us came in after 4 pm when we weren’t working and made food and walked out with it, nobody would see the person doing it. We only had a shift leader, no managers after 4pm. So, my friends and I would smoke weed, drive to Dairy Queen, and I would walk back to the kitchen and cook a bunch of fried food and burgers, then take it out to my stoner friends waiting in the car. As you can imagine, I was pretty popular with my weed smoking friends."

– Horror-School-6713

Going, Going, Gone

"At my last job we had this guy who seemed normal, I knew he did some club drugs outside of work but I don’t have a problem with that. Anyways, he shows up to work one day COMPLETELY f*cking blasted. Like couldn’t walk right, couldn’t talk. This motherf*cker gets mad at me when I send him home, the next day I get to work and our boss is like "hey man what did you say to Tyler last night? He said you’re a huge a**hole and he’s never working with you again”. I told him and my boss goes “oh. Okay. Well I think he quit, he said if I don’t fire you he’s done here""

"Bold f*cking move to make after showing up in a k hole during your third week of work at our company lmfao"

– _clydebruckman

A New Kind Of Sneeze Burgers

"Was working at McDonald’s. Watched a female crew member sneeze into her hands, and proceed to make a wrap and sent it out. I threw it in the bin before front staff got it."

"Edit* I should mention - I was genuinely shocked to see it happen. McDonald’s are extremely strict on hygiene. I reported her to a manager, but she denied it and said she sneezed into her arm. We were too busy for anyone to check cameras."

– RewardNew5810

Nepotism At Its Finest

"Work in a residential setting for teens with behavioral issues. There’s 1 staff in particular who should not be working with kids and it was clear on my 2nd day. He’s almost 50 and behaves like a 15-year-old. He’s always going back and forth and gets mad about everything with them."

"One day, things got heated between him and a kid for the 100th time and he ends up choking the kid. The kid was actually being more mature about it and he wanted to continue to fight the kid. We separated them and I was holding the staff back when he started to get mad at me for not letting him beat up a 14 year old."

"I’ve only been at this job for 3 months and was told by other staff that this has happened multiple times now with different kids."

"He still has a job because he’s best friends with the 2 bosses."

– i-piss-excellence32

Wrong Accountability

"I worked at a special needs day program many years ago. Wednesdays were classic film day at the local theater and we’d take the clients. I was a 1:1 meaning I had only one client. My direct superior had 3, and a substitute had 4. The substitute lost one of her guys and didn’t realize it until after the film when we were counting clients."

"Long story short, I got fired & the superior got fired. But the one whose responsibility it was to watch him kept her job. The client was fine, though, he was found a mile down the road asking for a police officer to help him find his way home."

– iateacakeonce

It Is The Night Shift

"I work overnights at a hotel. They hired a guy to be the security/valet and in the first two weeks he was found sleeping on the job. The first time he was found by a third coworker. We told the manager and nothing happened. The second time the manager found him sleeping in the bell closet in a wheelchair. He got sent home but didn’t get fired."

– aolewahine808

"I'm overnight too, sometimes it feels like they just want a living body and don't care about much else."

"One of the guys I've had over the years would fall asleep constantly and sounded like he was drowning he snored so horribly, no consequence."

– wickedblight

Santa is Real!

"I worked at a small map company. Our first task when we started was to add rivers and lakes over satellite imagery/topographic maps. It was a summer job when I was in college. Both me and the guy who worked next to me were 19-20ish. It was very dry, repetitive, tedious work. We weren’t really allowed to talk while working so for the most part just plugged away at our own computer stations. Occasionally we would write notes to each other. Towards the end of the summer when he was about to go back to school my coworker went off the deep end. He just started drawing line art with the GIS software and naming them things. He drew Santa and his reindeer. Made up like half a dozen lakes with a bunch of whacky names like “Lake Milk Was a Poor Choice.” I didn’t tell anyone what he did and I wonder what the quality control people thought of it. He definitely would have been fired had they known."

– JMaple

Just One More Zero

"Yep."

"Few weeks ago one of my sales rep comes in to drop off paperwork for a sale he had just completed."

"The whole time he's bragging about how the customer couldn't believe his great deal even though he was paying MSRP."

"I take the paperwork, and start looking through it to verify the same amount to put the commission in for payroll."

"I come up on the price, and in the box it says: $2,100. I look at him in complete disbelief. I show him where he put the price, and his face went white as a ghost."

"$2,100 when it should've been $21,000. By misplacing the comma, and not adding an extra 0, the dumb S.O.B let a BRAND NEW UTV GO FOR $18.9K BELOW MSRP!!!!!!!"

"I had to tell the owner who told sales rep that 1% of the price would come out of all future paychecks until the price was paid back."

– amethyst_haired_emo

Yikes!

"I worked in a pizza restaurant from age 15 to 23. My answer is almost everything. Just a tip, when people say be kind to your servers, this is for your own benefit, not theirs."

– Silver-B-NotGold

I used to be a server. This is very true!

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.