Reddit user, NamelessDaedra, wanted to know about those times when getting fired wasn't so bad when they asked:
What's your "got fired, but was totally worth it" story?
Adios, Girl!
GiphySophomore year in college I worked as a busboy at a restaurant. When I got hired in August they said I could be a waiter by the end of October. Well Homecoming rolls around and we are slammed. I'm talking a line out the door and that same day I asked the Manager when I could start as a waiter since it's getting close to the end of October. She seriously said "Oh we just hired 4 new waitresses so you could maybe start in January or February"
I was livid and already contemplating walking out and while I went to go take a water break I looked at my phone for the time. I'm never the person to sit on my phone at work every chance I get. I like to try and be a good employee. Well the Manager saw and straight up told me to get out and leave and to call her before my next shift. I wasn't even sh*tty, I got to leave and get drunk with friends instead of working until close.
I texted her next morning, said that there won't be a next shift for me and I'll be there next Friday to pick up my last paycheck.
I ended getting a nice job with great management and coworkers, they pay me $14.75/hr in Indiana as a college student and they always worked around my schedule. Getting fired was the best thing for me. I'm still there as a senior and I never looked back.
Manipulative Jerk
I was assistant manager at a popular no longer in business electronics store (lets call it Shortwave Shanty) and never got along with my regional manager. Basically half of every team meeting was all the other managers kissing his *ss and talking about how awesome a sales guy he was, something I never participated in.
But because I was an excellent assistant manager who basically trained up half the actual managers in the district he never had an excuse to can me. We were opening up a new store and he picked me as full manager of it.
It wasn't open yet, so he pulled me out of my current store and told me I would get a call when the new store was ready.
Meanwhile I got to wait around at home unpaid until then. After weeks of hearing nothing, and not having my calls returned I figured out what was up and found another job. Months after that I get a call from him, the new store is ready, I start on Monday. I just laugh and tell him to f*ck off. He angrily replies that if I don't show up I'M FIRED! I just laugh more.
I Felt The Earth...Move...Under My Feet
GiphyI kept avoiding calls at the company I worked at because we sold cable and every single customer that walked in and every single call was someone screaming at me and telling me what a piece of sh!t I was cause they were angry about something on their bill.
I got told by an old woman she hoped my mom died in a fire over two dollars. So they call me in and tell me I'm fired for call avoidance and I just shrugged, said okay and left. Didn't feel bad. Didn't wallow in it. Felt a giant weight come off my shoulders.
Workin' At The Carwash
I got fired from this car wash I used to work at. All my co-workers were scumbags that went to this alternative school or didn't even go to high school but we all smoked daily on the job so I can't complain.
The money in the register was constantly off at the end of the day because these morons couldn't count. Then one day my manager said something hinting at the fact that they thought it was me. So for the next two weeks I didn't even touch the register, all I did was wash cars.
After two weeks I got fired. This kid and his friends were stealing money from the register and blaming it on me so I got one of my friends to jump him. Needless to say it was a bloody mess.
I Planned This
I worked at a place I hated so got myself fired on purpose by being rude to a customer that had abused the sh*t out of every member of staff.
I'd got another job lined up first, enjoyed a week of paid suspension followed by dismissal with two weeks pay.
That with the pay from my new job made a very good pay day at the end of the month.
It Worked In My Favor
GiphyI went to United States with lots of hopes and dreams. I was good in academics and worked hard to enroll in Ivy league (Brown) and then got a good job. Then got fired.
Left the country came back home (India) was home sick, even though had a visa extension.
Now I make a lot less than what I made in U.S (started my own company). But I feel so good in my heart. I get to see my parents, sister and friends a lot more.
Losing that job made me the person who I am today. I would have been a miserable working a 9 to 5 with the immigration breathing down my neck. Trying to fit in society as a outsider. I am so happy I am not that person.
Yikes Ball Change
Was working one full time job and one part time job on the weekends for a little extra money. I would do 11pm to 8am at job A, 10am to 6pm at job B, go home and sleep from 6:30pm to 10pm. Rinse and repeat for three days. It was harrowing.
A month after starting at the part time gig I got pulled into the office and let go because I "wasn't a good fit." The boss was super sweet about it and gave me a good reference. I honestly think she just saw how much of a burnt out husk of humanity I was by that third day every week.
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Audio Visual Goodbye
Worked at A/V integrator, sales gave me a new project plus some "service work" left over from a PM's botched cutover the previous year. After four days of install, the new PM said, "all work must be completed today!". I told them it would take at least 100 more hours to fix the botched work, sent home and fired the following Monday.
My brother-in-law worked there too, he said the other techs/new PM spent 180 hours fixing it. The branch's engineer was so pissed he walked off the job and did not return to the site.
Electrolytes And Sugar
GiphyWorked at Lowe's Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday was always a 4 hour day. So one day I just stopped going to see how long i could get away with it. In the end my boss called me to his office. Head about to explode cause I had accumulated 37 missed days of work on just Friday's plus call-ins so I Got away with Not going to work one of my 3 days for more then half a year.
When someone got fired a few weeks before this for having 6 missed days. and the best part: I didn't get fired. I ended up quitting that Sunday, after spending my last paycheck on gatorades and candy for my co workers. 'Twas a good last day.
Pizza Partayyyyyyyy
My first ever job. Went around neighborhoods and dropped flyers for a pizza store (individually owned, not a franchise or anything) to the doorsteps of houses.
Me and my buddy's strategy was to drop 2-3 flyers per house and a whole stack at any apartment buildings, this way we'd be done far faster than the boss expected us to.
We'd spend time at the community centre while we wait for a realistic time that we'd be done if we handed out the flyers honestly. I didn't feel too bad as we were fairly underpaid considering the summer heat.
One day, the boss commended us and offered us free pizza. But as we were feasting on this gift, she received numerous complaints from home owners having received multiple flyers... I guess it was a tight knit neighborhood who all notice the same thing. So the boss scolded us and fired us while we were having here free pizza ;)
I Brought It Down
I was the hardware & software development person and the only one that knew the Linux and applications side. My newly promoted boss had run off about 6 other employees before they were placed over me and about 6 other engineers. After a few weeks of micro managing me and telling me how to do my job, something they knew absolutely nothing about, I called her an *sshole.
Was suspended and terminated 4 days later. Within a few months they had to lay off 65% of the company and within a couple of years the parent company sold them off. There are maybe 3 to 5 of the original 100 employees still there but the company will never recover. I landed a new position within a week and almost doubled my income. To this day my ex-boss still has my accomplishments listed on her Indeed resume.
Career?!
GiphyWorked at a Payless Shoesource for like 2 months. When I got hired, I requested off a day because my band had a gig that night. When the schedule came out, I was scheduled to work that day. Tried to get it covered, but the manager refused to even try since "your career is more important". Called in sick that day, and her response was "your last shift will be Monday after that you're fired". No I didn't show up for that shift.
It Just Don't Be Working
I was fired a week and a half before Christmas. It was my first "adult" job out of college and I'd only worked there for about a month. I was hired to be their technical writer, in a temporary position that had the potential to go full time. I was to update all their procedures. I finished that project in that within the first month. I was supposed to be there for three months before it was determined if my position would be made permanent.
My boss fired me because I'm shy and didn't go out of my way to talk to everyone (as in go to every single person's office every day for a chat). Even though no one else went out of their way to chat and were often in their offices all day. She also said I never came up with any new ideas or offered anything to the company, which was flat out untrue. It's just that everything I suggested, she brushed off.
She told me I wasn't built to work in an office and should go back to the big box store I'd worked at previously. What's more, up until that point I'd received nothing but positive feedback. This came out of nowhere.* (My dad thinks they really fired me because I finished their procedures a lot faster than they thought I would.)
A few months later, I found a job that was closer and paid more. My new bosses value the skills I bring to this job. I've really come out of my shell and excelled here. Even though I still don't love it, this job is a far better fit for me than that one was.
*While this is true, I did have a dream the night before that I got fired. My boss even used the same words she'd used in real life the next day ("It's not working out.") And it was an eerily realistic dream, in that my office looked exactly like it did in real life. I'm not suggesting anything by mentioning this. I just thought it was weird and interesting.
It Took Them So Long
I graduated college in 2009 and there were no jobs in my field and I needed to pay the bills. I got a job working 35 hours a week at Walmart as a cashier, it was fine and I have no complaints. I finally got offered a job in a different state and I updated my mailing address with HR, and the just quit showing up to work. Party because it was Walmart so who cares, and partly I wasn't even sure who I was supposed to resign too.
About 2 months later I got a letter in the mail. It was a letter from Walmart saying that I had been terminated for missing too many shifts.
Nothing Better Than Saying Bye
GiphyWalmart hired me as a Customer Service Manager (CSM) on Black Friday 2017. The store was 50% short of employees, including CSMs. There should be two or three CSMs working the Christmas rush. It was just me and I was shown how to do each task once. I somehow did my job well, which included staying a hour of overtime to count cash drawers. I accumulated too many demerit points and they fired me. I was relieved as I said goodbye to everyone.
Capitalistic Dickheads
I got fired once in college for giving a burnt fried shrimp dinner to a homeless dude. I was a floor manager. The burnt food just sat in the window for like three hours. He came in, said he was hungry and would take anything. I bagged up the dinner and gave him a togo cup with water. I was fired for "feeding those f*cking stray dogs."
The End Was Nigh
When I was 16 I got a busing job at this sh*tty diner. Didn't need the money because I had no bills and hated the job. Called in sick all the time. One time I tried calling in sick because I "had diarrhea". Manager basically said "Look, you can either come in for your shift today, or come in Friday and pick up your final check". I thought about it for a few seconds then replied "OK, I'll just come by Friday then" and hung up the phone. I was such a little sh*t head when I was a teenager, but I got to go get messy with my friends that evening so it was totally worth it.
I Said Boy Bye
GiphySeveral years ago I worked for a veterinarian. He was such an *sshole. Verbally abusive to all us tech and office staff on almost a daily basis. I cant remember why, but he called me a dumb b*tch. After the day, on my way home I always dropped his mail off at the post office. That day I tore up his house payment check and didn't send it. F*ck that guy. That was the last day I showed up at work.
Roof You, Dude
I was a roofer in NJ the summer after I graduated college. August rolls around and my crew said it was too hot to work. It was easily 105 with a heat index of 115. The roofing co. owner rolls up and I tell him we think we should stop at noon and pick up again early the next day. He looks at them, then me, then them again. They're all working again at this point. Left me hanging. So the owner told me to go home and not bother coming in the next day. I went home to my air conditioning and laughed as the state got hit by a 20-day heatwave.
Snake Snake Snake
My brothers friend worked for a big IT company while he went through a divorce. He basically wanted to maintain a party lifestyle while his wife decided to opt out and that was basically the situation. So my brother yelled me that his friend is dating a super gnarly drug lords little sister and my brother is worried for his friends life at this point. My brother partied a lot and I've gone to concerts with the two of them so when my brother told me he was worried for his friends life, I believe him.
So apparently after a binge with this girl he doesn't show up for an important meeting with his company and its not the first time. He gets a text while he's lying on the couch wit girlfriend and his boss explains that everyone is at the meeting except him and wants to know if there's a reason he isn't there. My brother told me his friend responds with a picture of his naked girl on the couch. Not sure where the guy is now, but he was a pretty shifty guy with little or no morals whatsoever. In this country, I'm sure he's a great success somewhere, probably politics. I'll have to ask my brother.
Two Things Out Of Quitting That Job
GiphyI was once working casually for a phone kiosk shop, and the manager sold the shop to another owner who cut back my shifts AND dropped my wage! After the end of one shift I said to the assistant manager who was an absolute troll that I'm not coming back, he proceeded to Facebook message me telling me I have no work ethic etc and I proceeded to tell him that was rich coming from a bloke who apparently came to work drunk one time (or something to that effect). The real kicker was I still got paid for that shift and later joined a telco as a customer service rep where I met my now husband 💪
No Customers, Byeeee
I was let go because I refused to put pressure on the kids on my team and would let them go as soon as their shift ended.
Thing is, the middle manager liked when the guys left 30 minutes after their exit hour so his boss would think they were working hard. After 5pm, we were there sitting idly because all of our customers had already left.
So, I was let go because I refused to suck up to the higher ups. Got let go one day before my birthday, but got paid for 2 whole months, which was when my contract ended. F*ck them.
Bye Girl! Byeeeeeee.
I got fired from a convenience store eons ago, where I was the third shift guy. I always wore batting or paintball gloves when dealing with money, because cash dries my hands out. Someone complained about it, and when I refused to comply, I was fired.
While I didn't do anything personally, the manager realized that no one liked working third, to the point she had 4 different people doing it over the course of 5 months, eventually having to shut down at 11pm for a year because no one would take the job. Then the manager herself got fired shortly after. Still makes me smile.
Scapegoated
GiphyI landed a job that I was extremely happy for as it brought me into the field I was always chasing after. I was already working there for a while and my supervisor approached me mentioning that our company allows visitors to come during an employee's break or during the company's lunch time and suggested I bring my girlfriend over to have lunch with me and my coworkers.
After getting my lead's approval, my girlfriend at the time came to visit me, signed an NDA, and then had lunch with me. I was notified later that day that I'd have to turn in my badge and at end of that week no longer show up to work.
From what I was told, the company was bought out within the week prior and before they notified us, the parent company had enforced their own strict visitor's policy on us and couldn't allow me another chance.
My girlfriend at the time and I are no longer together now and she still doesn't know the real reason why I no longer work there. I don't think I'll ever tell her the truth about what happened. It's the only lie I've ever made between us and I hate myself for doing that, but I don't ever want her to feel a shred of guilt. I cherish her more than anything and I loved the day that she came to visit me, I'll always remember it.
It Was A Name That Did It
Was 16 working my first job as a bagger in a grocery store. Told one of my coworkers that the store manager was an *sshole to which he replied, "I'm gonna tell him you said that," to which I replied, "Go ahead!" Twenty minutes later I got called in his office, and he fired me for calling him an *sshole. The funny thing is I got away with so many other things that deserved getting fired over like smoking in the customer bathrooms and breaking glass bottles in the parking lot when I was supposed to be rounding up shopping carts.
Wal-Screw That
Worked at Walmart as lead hand unloader. Worked 28 days straight without a day off leading up to Christmas. On Xmas eve, we finished early and I got permission to leave early by the Assistant Manager, in front of my whole team.
Came back to work on boxing day and was fired for "Job abandonment" Assistant Manager lied and said I did not have permission to go home.
Not surprised, the new head Manager introduced himself to us a couple months earlier and literally said we'd all be fired. He also assumed I was stealing from the company. I wasn't, but it turns out a couple other unloaders were.
Turns out I got a way higher paying job with way less stress shortly after, so I guess it was good to get out of that shit hole when I did.
Laundering Without Detergent
GiphyI worked at a store that offered a 10% discount on large orders to non-profit organizations but didn't advertise that fact. I found out about it and would occasionally use it as a selling point to close a large potential sale. I was working one such deal that would have grossed the store about $500,000 with a net merchandise profit of 27% even after the 10% was applied, and I'd personally seen that discount applied on larger sales than that so I knew it didn't exceed the maximum.
My department manager took over the sale since he needed to approve the discount and informed me that the customer decided to walk. I reached out to them on my own time to see if there was anything we could do to get them back and my contact informed me that the manager had told her, in no uncertain terms, that they weren't wiling to work with her and she should go elsewhere.
After digging for a bit I found that the department manager had been actively seeking out customers for whom the corporate 10% off policy applied and selling them packages at full retail, then re-rolling the sales with the 10% discount and pocketing the difference, to the tune of about $400,000 just that year.
I reached out to the compliance hotline and was given the runaround, so I went to the loss prevention manager for the district, who was also the regional HR liaison. It turned out that not only were he and several of the general managers aware of the issue, they were in on it and it had apparently netted them several million dollars district wide.
I wasn't immediately fired but was removed from the schedule or would have my schedule changed at the last minute so that I eventually was let go for attendance related issues. I finally heard back from the compliance hotline a month or two after getting fired and denied unemployment, and decided I might as well share what I'd found. I had also by that time reached out to local law enforcement.
I wasn't given the specific details but the last I heard several of those managers did time in jail for racketeering, money laundering, fraud and a number of other charges. I also won out because I haven't had to work in retail since then.
And Yet I Don't Care About The Lawn
A coworker of mine used to have a lawn care business. He had a customer whose yard he took care of. Customer and my buddy get to talking and the customer mentions that his wife's name is Frank. My buddy asks if that was short for like Francine or something. Guy says no, her name is Frank. So my buddy says, "so, when you guys are in bed it's like, 'give it to me Frank!'" The customer fired him and told him not to come back. My buddy says it was worth it to have the story.
Not For A Stop-N-Shop. No Sir.
My brother and I started working from a very early age. We both started delivering papers at the age of 12, when kids in our area still did that. However, my first real job was working in a local grocery store. Initially the manager seemed to like me quite a bit. I was hardworking and had a good attention to detail. One day a friend who also worked for the grocery store begged me to ask the manager to switch positions for the day. For whatever reason, this made the manager hate me. He tormented me for the next two months. I basically was the only person performing two jobs (I inherited my friends and kept my original responsibilities).
This sucked but I was young and indestructible so it didn't bother me too much. The straw that broke the camel's back was when he chewed me over some BS out in front of perhaps 100 customers. To exact my revenge, I used a box cutter to slice up an entire pallet of freeze dried coffee. Seeing him utterly freak out trying to figure out who did it made it tough not to incriminate myself, but I didn't get caught. Ultimately I just stopped showing up for for (quit without telling anyone) and I was fired. I never regretted my actions in the least.
They Made It Happen
GiphyOut of high school I got a summer job at a large catering company, cleaning toilets and washing dishes. There was always either one or the other needing attending to. The pay was bad, people were overworked, and management was mean and heartless. I hated it. Six weeks in I was fired for inciting and encouraging employees to organize and rebel against the company. Two days later almost everybody that wasn't management threatened to resign and leave collectively and at once if they were not provided better pay and conditions. The owners could't afford not servicing the customers and deals they had. They wouldn't recover from something like that. They weren't too happy but they quickly agreed.
Lost A Job, Got A Good Night Out Of It
Worked as a bartender one summer for some side money at a very high volume outdoor recreation facility. Full of craft beer, concerts, and outdoorsy stuff. One girl hops in front of me and goes, "Hey, you look super familiar." Of course, I have no clue who she is and tbh, I straight up told her that.
She starts flirting, I was totally feeling it. She's hot, I tell her that I'll take care of her beer. Queue brand new manager, hard-charging his way into a super laid back workplace.
He calls me over not 5 minutes later and said I was harassing a customer (see: hot girl) and giving away free beer. I'll give him half of that. Offered to do the sh*tty side-work to make it up, he wasn't having. Hard charger, remember? Fires me on the spot. No prior issues, just making an example of me.
I take it on the chin, tell him that it's cool. Go change my work shirt in the bathroom, and who do I bump into as I walk out? Hot girl. We start chatting, I tell her what just happened, she feels awful. Now I feel awful for turning it on her. Offer to hang out and grab our next round to not be an a**hole.
Long story short, we hooked up.
Definitely Worth It To Stick It To The Man
I was "strongly reprimanded" from a school that I worked at because I made a Facebook post standing up for human rights.
A classroom of five year olds were made to decorate and wear "head dresses" with feathers at a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner at school during school hours.
Since I was a helper in the class, I also had to participate which I voiced that I wasn't comfortable doing because I felt it was racist and morally wrong.
I decorated my "head dress" with #NODAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife, took a picture of it and posted it on my personal FB page after school hours. I was called into the principals office after break got back to have a meeting.
This meeting consisted of the principal, her boss, and her bosses boss. I was written up because of a violation of FERPA (which I was not in violation of) for having vulgar pictures on my FB, and how I wasn't allowed to post on social media about how I corrupt kids and to stick to the "facts" about Native Americans rights that are in the history books.
I left that job real quick and flip them the bird whenever I drive past the building on my way to a different school that has diverse ethnicity and embraces different cultures.
My Kingdom For A Drink
GiphyI waited tables at a restaurant/bar and this drunk chick tried to chuck a hot fajitas skillet at me with no success. I then threw her drink right back at her and the guy she was next to. I kinda felt bad because the guy seemed nice, but sometimes there are casualties in war.
Pumped My Soul With The Gas
I worked at this soul sucking job (gas station) for almost eight years. Six months in, I get promoted to assistant operations manager. A few months later to operations manager (assistant manager), due to the current one walking off the job, which I held for years. Then I got demoted cause of my bad behavior following a bad breakup the year before.
Continued at the job until the person who took my old job took a promotion running her own store and was offered my old position back. They offered a certain raise and I demanded more. I hoped they wouldn't accept but they did.
Since then, hours often changed multiple times. Our Walmart changed from being 24 hours to closing at midnight, which made it hard to find food after midnight. There wasn't much open besides the Indian casino, and they still shut down around 3am for cleaning.
Since, I wasn't able to get food at my will with Walmart closing at midnight and I'm now getting off at 12:15am, barely eating all day, I chose to return to my workplace take food from our kitchen to eat at home.
My boss has been giving me a hard time about stupid infractions in the past. Write ups that mean nothing. Write ups cause I had to take a shit when I lived 5 minutes away and didn't call in late.
I was glad to be fired.
Yes, I stole food.
It Ain't Fun At The YMCA
I got taken off the schedule at Orange Julius for an incident involving an ice fight and a secret shopper...we had an ice fight, my coworker threw a cup of ice at me, I ducked it hit a shopper who just happened to be a secret shopper...I hated that job any how my mom forced me to get a job when I was 15 for 6 months ...then I got to be a "counselor in training" at the YMCA day camp-which meant me-unpaid untrained watching 40plus kids while the paid/trained people screwed around...lasted about a month and then said f**k it never went back
Why Not The Court
GiphyDelivered pizza for a few years during college.
Came in one day. Several managers were working and they are all dragging *ss. Turns out that the Regional Manager had made them all work overnight to deep clean the ovens.....while off the clock. The GM was a young guy that just wanted to look good for his bosses and avoided confrontation at all costs, so he didn't say anything.
I brought it up and was 'quit or be fired' immediately.....so I called the owner and corporate. The RM panicked and tried to rehire me. During our conversation I may or may not have mentioned the labor board after refusing her job offer. (There was no way in hell I was going to work for a GM or RM that fire people for 'causing contention' and a 'hostile work environment' (for, you know, telling then that they could lose their jobs for making people work for free)
Everyone got paid for that night, and I never had to work another day in that hellhole.
I do realize that I could have had some sort of court case due to the whistleblowing laws, but I was a poor college student and couldn't afford a lawyer. I refused the job offer and technically quit. It would have probably just cost a ton of cash and I probably wouldn't have gotten anything out of it.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Worked at a "big" supermarket chain. Did cashier job, placed out products and some behind the scenes management. One day i get called to the back. It was the regional manager, said my deficit after my shifts as cashier is getting out of control, about 10-50 bucks every shift. Threatened me with cops saying that they surveillance videos showing me stealing the money. I said sure, get the cops here, i'll just wait. After 30 minutes cops arrived.
When we started watching the footage there was nothing showing that i stole the money, cops said there is no evidence against me, and took off. I still got fired on the spot and they even banned me from entering their stores all over the country.
Few weeks later i get a call from the girl that was working there with me, covering me for smoke breaks when i was cashier. Teared up, choking from crying. It was her stealing the money all the time while i used my breaks. Got charges pressed against her, did 120 hours community service and paid a huge fine.
Few days after that i get a call from regional manager apologizing for the inconvenience and asking me if i want to return. Told him to f-ck off and hung up.
Not Paid Enough To Care
I was working in a small accounting firm making less than minimum wage $30000 (minimum wage in Australia is $38,000). The boss was exploiting the fact that people like me were desperate to get their foot into the door of accounting as it is very competitive in Australia.
One day i was stupidly posting on a forum about my situation and looking for advice. The boss found out and fired me on the spot.
Feeling pretty spiteful about the whole thing, i reported my situation to fair work ombudsman Australia. A month later i got payment for the amount i should have been making at minimum wage for the 6 months i was there.
About a month after that i landed a much better role at large company making almost double what i was making previously.
The icing on the cake is the firm ended up getting investigated by fair work and i can only assume they received a hefty fine because they are no longer in business.
Grandma or Pizza?
GiphyWas working at Little Caesars at the time, was probably my 2nd month or so. About an hour before my shift starts, my mom calls and says my grandma fell down the stairs and is at the hospital, and I need to go right away since she works farther away and I can get to her first.
I call LC to tell them I can't come in, and my boss said if I don't come in, I'll be fired. I say ok and hang up. A few hours later I get a voicemail saying I've been let go from LC.
Totally worth it to make it to my grandma to check on her.
Never Touch The Merch
I worked at TigerDirect. I got fired 30 minutes after the store closed as soon as the "investigation" ended.
Someone stole a laptop. They blamed me. Not for stealing it, but for "aiding" the thief.
This was false. I gave the laptop to the cashier and told her it was for that guy. The guy slipped out of line and said "I forgot 1 other thing". Came back with a monitor box and placed it beside the laptop to hide it away from the cashier's PoV. While she was cashing other people out, he swiped the laptop, walked up the greeter at the door and said "this is my laptop, I was just getting it repaired". The greeter let him go and off he went on his merry way.
TigerDirect does not have barcode door detectors. The greeter also got fired at the end of the shift, and he was rehired 5~ months later because he has down-syndrome and was going to sue the store...
...That was my first "infraction" and was there for 2 years as a Service Technician. Selling laptops wasnt even my job, I was doing the salesman a favor. The same thing would have happened to anyone. But because I TOUCHED THE LAPTOP, I was automatically labelled as an aid in theft.
Unemployment insurance saw through my boss' bullsh-t reasoning and compensated me for 9 months of same-wage pay. Win.
That's Lowe
Was an assistant store manager at Lowe's and decided to go back to school to become a teacher and drop down to an hourly position for three months and then I was going to leave the company after that to study full time. The day before the transfer they fired me which saved them from paying me half of my saved up vacation time which was worth about $300.
As I am being led out of the store my buddy in HR says you can get unemployment and slides me a note with the phone number. I get 6 months of unemployment at $300 a week.
"Wage Slave"
GiphyMy ex-manager here at the cinema. I can't fully tell his story because I wasn't directly involved but did have to stand at trial for claims etc as a witness.
He got fired over "budgetary reasons", in other words "We don't like your face because you won't bend over when we tell you to, wage-slave" just after he got cancer and had to take days off for treatment. Happened right around Christmas, so Jan 1st we come in and he's officially off the roster etc.
Thing is, he never really took vacations, or days off even as well as never claiming the extra hours he'd work here (fixing cameras, projectors, computers and databases etc.
Everything here is semi-autonomous) so over the past 30 or so years, he tallied up a fair bag of extra unpaid hours. Thing in Switzerland is, you can only claim the past 5 years as far as policy goes, so he did just that. It damn near bankrupt the company (they owe him around 60k at the moment), and they still haven't paid up fully because of it.
I see him now and then, he looks way better, less stressed out and happier. Works with helping old people now in his free time and coaching kids play volleyball.
If I Find Him, It'll Get Better
Unreasonable sales targets and in the middle of a 1:1 with my boss, who was asking me how I planned to make up for the deficit. I said, "find Jesus." She responded she'd given it a lot of thought and admitted not being able to think of anything on which I could be doing better, but used the, "find Jesus," comment to later get me fired.
In such a better role now, not only was the sarcasm worth it, where I am now is!
You Went Over My Head?
Worked in a govenment office where it's typical to wring hands, deny responsibility, and shift the burden onto citizens even if it's the state that made the mistake.
I had a county prosecutor calling repeatedly trying to obtain some documents. It was a drunk driver case, the guy was facing down some serious charges and they were trying to build their case and determine the extent of charges against him. Absolutely someone who needed to be put away.
Everything in policy said they were entitled to it, but the person who normally furnishes it was constantly out with all manner of excuses. I finally got sick of putting it off, stalling them, making excuses for her. I pulled the info myself and sent it. That didn't break any laws or policy, but they decided to sack me for it because I'd overstepped. But I'd do it again.
Not The Nicest Creamery
GiphyWent into a business meeting for the ice cream shop I managed
I was told that the girl that was 7 months pregnant need to be written up as much as possible so they could have a legal reason to fire her. Told them it wasn't going to happen and they suggested that I put in my two weeks and find other work.
So I did, then I was told that I was going to be gone in two weeks and might as well just fire her. Was no way in hell I would do that.
I walked into that meeting with a 50 hour a week decent paying job and left with nothing but my integrity. I then preceded to drive to my store and pull the girl aside and let her know what was going on. Last I checked I believe she manages the store now.
Shots For Everyone
Sure thing. I worked at a liquor store for 2 and a half years owned by this guy and his family. Got to learn alot about alcohol, meet lots of people in my neighborhood, formed a great bond with customers and coworkers alike. I tell my boss when i begin work i have lupus and i may end up with a flare sometime in the future. Fast forward 2 and a half years i end up with some obscure infection in my esophagus and stomach where i lose roughly 70 or so pounds, have fevers, night sweats, and awful arthritic pain.
My coworkers see this and support me every step of the way, giving me register work instead of lifting boxes and things while i waited for my doc to give me my results. I got called into hospital to stay a few nights and told my boss that i needed a week to get pumped full of steroids, id be back to work better than ever. I get back and they move my schedule from 5 days to 1 day because I was "unreliable".
I throw a fit because i feel pretty betrayed and it was just not at all how our discourse went/would lead to. He told me he would have to look for someone new soon. I got the message). So I helped one of my coworkers look for an accounting position at a nice place while he was getting his accounting degree and my other coworker we helped file and manage to help him do his CDL license application and test (english second language). Both coworkers find fantastic jobs compared to the store and we all call out for the week at the same time and after a freakout from management just quit. They sold the store shortly afterwards and I consulted the new owners who hooked me up with a nice lifetime discount.
"Nope From Me"
I worked in a bar with an awful boss. He would always flirt with the young female bar staff making us all uncomfortable, even though he was 50 y/o. We all knew his wife and two young children but about 6 months into me working there he began to 'date' a 22 year old customer. By date, I mean he used to go downstairs to his office and sleep with her ...while he was on shift. No one was allowed to talk about it but we all knew. Quite quickly he knocked her up and ended up breaking up with his wife, but he still flirted with his staff relentlessly even when his new baby was born.
So anyway, he always used to break health and safety rules if he could get out of doing a task he didn't want to. He was prolific for asking bar staff to clean human waste (vomit/poop customers had done on the floor) even though legally anyone cleaning that stuff needed to have passed a certain health and safety qualification. I spoke to my assistant manager about this and she confirmed that only management can do it, and I should refuse next time.
One day he demanded I cleaned up vomit in the male toilets, and I refused, repeating what the assistant manager told me. My boss went absolutely mad (he wasn't used to people standing up to him) he told me to come downstairs to his office to speak about it. At that moment I knew I wanted to quit, so I told him I won't be going downstairs with him. He asked me why, and I replied: "The last girl who went down there with you ended up getting pregnant so that's gonna be a nope from me"
Lost my job but worth it.
After I made that comment about impregnation he became even angrier, firing me on the spot - which I later found out he wasn't even allowed to do. He yelled at me to get off his property. I just laughed and told him it's not his property. He simply manages the bar for a nationwide company so he certainly didn't own the land/ building. I left at my own pace supported by my colleagues who also disliked him. We left him there alone, spluttering in anger, red in the face. Still makes me chuckle thinking about it.
I think he ended up losing his job a little while later anyway, because when I spoke to my ex-colleagues they said he was long gone.
Shooting Yourself In The Foot
GiphyWas working in dialysis when another competing company came to town effectively eliminating the monopoly my current company had on treating kidney failure. The company I worked for had already lost their physician group and was so afraid of losing staff (and the patients that would follow them) to the new company they gave out huge retention bonuses. After receiving my bonus I was fired for a manufactured problem beyond my control.
I was hired by the new company, got a $10,000 signing bonus and took a couple dozens patients with me to the new company. Got my picture in the new company's brochure they mailed out to all the dialysis patients so they knew where I ended up. Just having a new company come to town to provide competition was also amazing for the patients. They got new heated massage chairs and new TVs with more channels and better/more staff to take care of them. The old company's dialysis centers across town that did not get competing dialysis units put nearby didn't give those patients anything.
The Worst Drive Time Hour
I worked at a radio station in the late 80s. Part time.
The way up the ladder was that you got hired part time, then as the full time people moved up and out, you were slotted in for promotion based on how long you'd worked there.
I'd worked my way up to the top of the part-time heap. The next full time slot that opened was mine by virtue of seniority.
But the next job that opened up was the mid-day show. That show had always been hosted by a female, and while I was next on the list, the job was given to a woman who'd worked for the station for a grand total of 2 weeks. She was terrible. It was unfair. And I expressed this in a letter to the program director.
I got fired for having "an attitude."
It was the best career move I ever made. I walked out of that place with my head held high, and within a year was working at a much larger station on my way to a career in major markets. Last I heard, my old boss is still there in charge of that little station.
Sear The Job Off Your Hands
I worked at a place in Grand Bend Ontario. I was the chef.
The year before I was hired; they'd left the place a mess and violated health code to the point where they had been cited, I was working up hill against that and a crazy owner who would rather act like she was 21 than run her f-cking business.
On a July evening, someone stuck a hot, dirty, sautee pan into my stack of cool clean pans. I wrapped my hand around it and...man. That was an intense level of pain. Literally had to peel the pan from my hand.
Crazy owner wouldn't let me call an ambulance because it would be bad for business. Insisted I run service from the other side of the line.
I took a few days medical leave after that, all the while fielding harassing phone calls saying how I was letting them down.
This place was awful and I'd had no staff for weeks because, again, ownership ran them off. I handed in my notice and was promptly escorted off the property.
It was gratifying to watch their reviews sink after that. Food going out cold. Moldy mushroom burgers. Etc.
Sometimes there nothing better than getting the boot and finding a new path. Do you have an epic firing story? We'd love to hear it in our comment section below.
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