I lost track of the amount of times I wondered off. My bestie and I once decided to build a fort in his backyard when we were suppose to be hanging out front. We neglected to tell anyone, cut to two hours later and the whole neighborhood is scouring the block for us. Needless to say getting punished was an understatement. I'll never forget the look of horror and relief on my babysitter's face. Sorry Janeen.
EVIL
Bad Child GIF by Tones and IGiphy"A family from church asked my mom if I could babysit for them, so I had to."
"Soon after the parents left, sitting in their living room watching cartoons with both the kids, a boy and a girl, the little girl asked for some kind of elaborate snack or something and I chuckled and said "no sorry."
"No expression on her face, the little girl stood up, crossed the living room to a crate that their large dog was locked in, released it, and told it to go after me, which it did. I remember that evil little kid cackling while this huge dog chased me in circles around the house. And that was the end of my babysitting career."
- Badddger
PANIC!!
"My sister was babysitting and I got a screaming panicked call from her. She was putting one child down for the night (a girl around 3, I think), and the little boy (around 6) stopped playing, grabbed a chair, unlocked the front door, and left the apartment. She was distraught. I told her to call 911 and I'd come help her with the toddler. When I got there, the police were talking to her and wrapping up."
"Thankfully, even though it was dark, two older women had been out for a walk and found him wandering down the sidewalk of one of the busiest roads in town!The weirdest thing is that the parents were completely unfazed. They apologized for NOT TELLING HER HE HAD DONE IT BEFORE and wanted her to babysit again. My sister never babysat again."
The Filthy Guy
"When I was in high school I used to baby sit for a family that had a glass door off their kitchen and when ever I'd get something out of the fridge for the kids I'd think to myself how scary it would be if someone was just standing there looking in."
"One night it was storming really bad and I went to get one of the kids a glass of milk and lighting flashed and a filthy man I'd never seen was standing there framed in the glass door staring in. I screamed and yelled for the kids to go hide. Of course they didn't listen and ran into the kitchen."
"Turns out it was their uncle stopping by to drop off something he had borrowed. He worked construction and had gotten quite muddy and was just going to leave what ever it was by the door which is when I saw him. So it ended up being a case of nothing, but the terror I felt when the lightning lit him up was pretty intense."
Bad Dad
"The estranged husband showed up, drunk, demanding to see his kids. Tried to break into the house. I called the wife and the police. Never babysat for them again, even though the wife was very nice - just too traumatizing for all. The husband moved away I believe. Wife is remarried and much happier."
Too Thin
Over It Maid GIFGiphy"So I used to babysit for the lady who lived next door to me a few years back."
"Her children's room was the bedroom that shared a wall with me. While putting the kids to bed I heard someone moving around my bedroom (the walls were stupidly thin). One of the children told me that they hear the noise a lot. My parents weren't home. I didn't want to go home."
See, this is why I started a neighborhood dog walking business instead of watching kids. Kids are a mess. And their parents aren't much better.
Shots in the Fall
Drunk Happy Hour GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"1978, fall (October?), Wyo. I was watching my Spanish teacher's kids when I heard a gunshot."
"It actually went through a small shared section of the wall. Scared the crap out of me! I knew a cop, called his house and he came over. Turns out the neighbors were cleaning their hunting rifles… drunk."
Damn Cousins
"Babysitting" my cousins when I was like ~10 and the three of them were less than 5. Babysitting is in quotes because their mom was home but I was in charge of them in the bedroom. She was in the living room with my oldest cousin. I was playing with one of them when the youngest, about 2, started coughing, holding his neck."
"I clearly remember just standing there for 5 seconds, stone cold completely bewildered. I had NO idea what to do. I just froze. Luckily my oldest cousin somehow heard the baby choking and he rushed in. He grabbed the baby and pulled a barbie shoe out of his mouth, while I still stood there, shocked."
"I got an earful from my aunt and mom for nearly letting the baby die. I'll never forget it. I wasn't afraid, I wasn't scared, I didn't feel anything. Just froze. Let this be a lesson to never let 10 year olds watch babies. They're just not equipped to deal with disaster... or at least I wasn't."
Poor Bub!!
"At 8 or 9 I was put in charge of my infant brother for some reason. Got distracted by my lipsmackers collection, and the little booger climbed up the bunk bed (I didn't even know he could do that!), he fell onto the side of a wooden toy box and broke his leg."
"My mom insisted it wasn't broken even though he wouldn't stand, because he barely cried. Poor bub got a big banana yellow cast while I sobbed hysterically, I STILL feel bad about it. He would turn out to just be the injury prone brother. I don't know why that never tipped them off it's a bad idea to put children in charge of children."
- Fimmy
Tragedy
Sad Tears GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"Nothing spooky, just generally unsettling. Their first baby died of SIDS so I basically sat in silence listening to the baby monitor the whole night, worried in case something happened."
It takes a special kind of heart to look after kids. I don't have it. And kids today need better rearing. So I'm stick with fur babies. I need a Xanax after this thread.
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Clearly, I'm not the only one this has happened to. Bad jobs are a universal struggle, and getting fired for dumb reasons happens all the time. Lois_is_whatever asked:
People who got fired for the stupidest reason, what happened?
Retail jobs can be very fickle. That’s why these former employees left on unsteady terms.
This is so shady.
“Worked at Best Buy in the mid 90s when I was 16. I worked selling computers, and was pretty good at it. We also sold things like memory, and hard drives that were behind lock and key. Part of our job was to take the tagged inventory from the trucks, and put it on the shelves. This included said memory.
So I close one night, put away all the new inventory, lock it up, and hand the keys to the manager. They do their checks of our department and we leave for the night. Next day I'm scheduled, I go in and the loss prevention manager said he has me on video stealing memory. I laughed and said, show me the video. Well I'm somewhat tall, red hair, and white. The video he shows me has an older, very short, white guy with a shaved head. He told me that it was me, and that I was fired, and only showed me the video once, and immediately turned off the monitor.
Being 16, I didn't know any better, said some things on my way out, like f*ck you, f*ck this place, and the like, and I left. Turns out the loss prevention guy, and his son were stealing for years to the tune over $250,000 and the guy on the video he showed me was his son. Anytime problems popped up of missing inventory, they just fired a random person to keep the attention away from themselves. When police arrested them, their house was loaded with televisions, computers, everything from the store.
TL;DR fired for stealing when the video was of the loss prevention manager's son stealing."
When employers can’t take responsibility for their own mistakes.
schitts creek comedy GIF by CBCGiphy"This would have been one of my first jobs that I didn't even get a chance to start.
I applied to be a deckhand on a local ferry. Went through unpaid training as part of the interview process. First aid, CPR, crisis management, safety policy whatnots. All group interviews. Anyway, I got the job after about a week. I also got my offer in writing with the expected start date. That was going to be a Tuesday two weeks later (and I remember this detail because it went to sh!t.) I accept and sign and take my copy.
I was thrilled. I was going to be on the water and making money for the summer. My friends were hanging out down by the water when I left the interview so I went and told them all about it and the start date, etc. Again, cementing that start date in my mind so I was ready.
The following week, a week before I was supposed to start, I got a call from the office asking where I was. "We expected you to be here an hour ago", and so on.
I asked them to check the offer that I had signed because I was never told that my start date had changed. I mean, I was available and explained that I'd be happy to come down right away but I hadn't known of any changes. They checked, agreed that they had made the mistake, and then told me that, nevertheless, a miscommunication this early on was a bad sign and they would not be hiring me.
So I was 'let go' because someone put down the wrong date."
That’s definitely not what they said.
“During my senior year in high school, I was working at McDonald's, it was right after Christmas and we were really busy. I'd been there 4 hours, had 2 to go, was supposed to get a 30 minute break, since we'd slowed down I asked if I could have a break. The shift manager said no one was getting breaks. I said "thanks a lot', she told the assistant manager (pretty sure they were sleeping together) that I told her to f*ck off. He fired me on the spot. Wouldn't even let me give my side of the story.
A week later I was working at Jack in the Box. Was a shift manager in 6 months, did that through a couple years of college, dropped out (never wanted to go anyway) and moved up to assistant manager and then a couple years later, general manager. I remembered how I was treated at McDonald's and made sure I treated my employees well. Had the 3rd lowest turnover rate in a 95 restaurant region, had the second highest average hourly pay...and #2 in profit improvement. Take care of your people and they'll do the same for you."
It’s almost as if some jobs want 100% loyalty, despite the fact that their employees have a life of their own.
“Job before family”? Really?
“I was driving cars for a shady dealer. (Under the table while I was laid off from my real job) Got a call that my uncle had attempted suicide and was in a psychiatric ward in a local hospital and wouldn't talk to anybody else but me.
Told boss I had to roll. He said something like; "Your job comes before family. If you leave, don't come back."
I left. The next morning he called and asked me why I wasn't at work. I hung up on him.”
School comes first.
Season 2 Wtf GIF by Parks and RecreationGiphy“I took a job with a movie theater in high school, only accepted the job because they promised me a set schedule. Me and another coworker worked it out where one of us was always on shift. About a month after I started, they handed me a new schedule starting at 2pm. I was in class until 3. Told them no. Got fired for my lack of commitment to the theater.”
People Describe The Worst Adult Tantrum They've Ever Witnessed | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
God forbid they drink water.
“My wife got fired once for giving a high level donor (she worked for an art gallery) a bottle of water at a big dinner and art auction. Her boss had insisted that there be no water at the event, but when the donor asked for water, my wife went and found some d*mn water. Boss found out and fired her the next day for insubordination.”
It’s important to remember that if you get fired for a dumb reason, you probably wouldn’t want to work there anyway.
Thanks a lot, mom.
“My first job ever was as a dish washer. I was so proud. I was 18. Of course, my parents didn’t believe me so my mom called them and asked them if it was true.
They fired me that night because they felt I was unreliable. I have yet to let my folks live that one down...”
Weird rule but ok.
Reese Witherspoon Mom GIF by HULUGiphy“Got fired from a public library for taking TWO carts to collect books from the outside Dropbox instead of ONE. The past few times I emptied the dropbox on a Monday it required two trips, So I brought two carts instead.
It turns out the matter of how many carts were used in emptying the dropbox was a matter of a library board vote and I was in violation of a town ordinance.
Mind you, I wasn't fired. I was placed on paid administrative leave pending a library board inquiry at which I was welcome to call witnesses. I couldn't keep a straight face, so I resigned.”
What happens on break, stays on break.
“I was fired for playing solitaire on my 15 min break when I was working as a receptionist. The doctor who owned the clinic was dumb enough to put that as the reason in my termination letter. I collected unemployment after he tried to appeal it. They explained in great detail how stupid of a reason this was for termination.”
Let the man retire.
“Guy preparing to retire, who had been training me to take over his job for the past 7 months, felt I was ready to take over completely.
Boss was afraid to lose 30+ years of experience and fired me to keep the old guy for a little longer.
From what I understand there was a pretty big fight. Old guy was a wonderful reference for me with the new job I obtained, with a 20k+ pay raise, and begrudgingly agreed to stay on for another year.”
Like I said, jobs that pull this kind of stuff are not jobs you want to work for. Good jobs are out there- you just gotta find them.
And to the bosses listed in this article- maybe stop being so shady? Just a suggestion.
And then there are those who are just miserable in their jobs but choose to remain on the payroll. These people also leave it up to their bosses to terminate them from the job.
So what makes them get to this point?
Redditor 12345burrito wanted to know and asked strangers:
"What was your 'go ahead and fire me I don't even care' moment at your job?
Bosses with bad tempers and obsessed with power like these tend to experience high turnover.
Pee Monitor
"When after 20 years working my a** off. They started timing our bathroom breaks. I have never been completely and totally done with anything that much before."
Twist Ending
"I was working as a software developer and providing second line support, in the hospitality/conferencing industry. I had overheard a colleague trying to provide support for something that was clearly the client IT team's fault. Later got a call from the client's MD's secretary wanting to set up a call with our founder to complain that the problem wasn't being dealt with. I said 'I can't call him, I'm really sorry, please don't ask me why. I know our support people are working on it.' Why couldn't I call the founder? Because his wife had, that day, lost a full term baby - which I obviously couldn't disclose. Soon after I got a furious call from the client MD himself. His IT team was obviously lying to him about our not returning calls - I had heard the calls being returned. And he just wouldn't accept that I couldn't call the founder and couldn't tell him why. So eventually I just hung up on him."
"I told the most senior person around, expecting to be fired on the spot for hanging up on a client. Her reaction: 'Oh yeah, he's not a nice guy: he's physically attacked me in the past.' Not the outcome I was expecting!"
– thx1138a
The Colleague's Note
"We had a manager that was an @ss. It was a sales role and he had no empathy when our sales were flat. He's get very abusive and threatening."
"One day, he was shouting at us and my colleague got pissed off. He was explaining it was one bad week off the back of seven good weeks. You got to expect ups and downs with sales."
"The manager just yells louder claiming my colleague is a 'quitter' and doesn't have a winner's mindset."
"Colleague tells him 'I've had enough of this sh*t. I'm done'"
"Manager screams 'I want your resignation in writing.'"
"Colleague scribbles a note and gives it to him. Manager had a sh*t reputation and couldn't recruit. Our sales were even lower with one less person on the team. It ruined his career."
"But funnier than that was the short, but sweet resignation note from my colleague. It read…"
"Dear Bob. I'm off. F'k you".
Fast Food Boss
"I used to work in fast food when I was 18. We would be rostered alone, no lunch breaks or bathroom breaks because we couldn't leave the store. No training. School kids would have to work closes until 12am on school nights. He made us serve expired seafood and deli meat. The last straw for me was when I got a call on a Monday screaming at me because the store wasn't clean and it was obviously my fault even though my last shift was on the Thursday (and I left the store spotless). Multiple people and shifts had occurred since I had even worked but I somehow got the blame. After that call I emailed him saying I quit and blocked his phone number. His store closed down now a few years ago too."
Holiday Shift
"Was working 3 jobs one being a full time position but wanted to help the stores through the holidays. Specifically asked one store that I had been working for over a year through three store managers to only schedule me on Thanksgiving if was an emergency. She scheduled me anyways along with enough other people to handle the rush."
"This came after multiple occasions where I would show up 3 hours before opening to unpack the shipment and had no one to let me or the shipment into the store so I ended up having to waiting in the back hallway (mall store) guarding a few $1000 dollars of merchandise."
"Day before Thanksgiving I asked to take my 10 minute break so I could eat something. No customers in the store at the time. Same manager who repeatedly bailed on me refused to let me take it so I decided screw this and said I'm taking it. If I'm done I'm done. Sure enough they said I was done so I cleaned out my locker, carried my things two doors down to my higher paying job and got the go ahead to clock in early. So I worked the same amount of hours I would have for more money."
Missed Forms
"During this pandemic we have to fill out a form before entering the building attesting we feel good and are able to work. I forget to fill out the form once last summer and I forgot to fill it out again once this summer. As I forget twice within a year my boss came to me and said he is looking at writing me up as per HR policy."
"I told him that I filled out these forms over 180 times over the past year and if he is going to write me up over two missed forms I will frame the write up for everyone to see."
"He didn't write me up."
Engineer Vs. Boss
"I was a manufacturing engineer. New boss (transfer from overseas plant) wanted to break a running spec on our new machines in favor of what they do in the overseas plant. In good faith I told him that we can't do that, in my plant that spec was set by the (very picky) customer after a long, arduous process that I assumed he was unaware of. To change that spec would have been a major quality violation and could compromise the safety of the end product."
"He did it anyway. This was the last straw for me. My old employer was terrible in many ways, but the blatant disregard for safety by this new manager was sickening. He even had the gall to privately message me and say 'I am the manager, you are just the engineer. I am in charge.' I responded with 'Yes, I'm the engineer- and it's my job to make sure we follow quality standards so our [products] don't hurt people.'"
"I got fired on my next day at work. I nearly cried with happiness. I got fat unemployment checks and they lost the only person who knew how to manage those machines."
Jake Gyllenhaal Reaction GIF by MOODMANGiphyThese bosses lacked compassion when an employee was suffering from moments of despair.
The 16-Year-Old Who Had Enough
"I was 16 and my Step-Dad was in hospital around 5hrs away dying from cancer. I got a phone call at work for about the third time in a couple of months that I needed to get down there ASAP to say my goodbyes, as this could be it. My bosses were all well aware of the situation, one of them was even friends with my Step-Dad. When I rushed out the back to tell them I had to go, this bloke looks at me, a crying, frightened,16yr old girl, and told me I had to stop doing this, and get my priorities right. In a rare showing of assertiveness, I looked that d*cksnap in the eye and told him he was right, and quit on the spot."
Crazy Historical Events That Sound Fake But Are 100% True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
The Loss Of A Close Friend
"I had a similar situation when my closest friend died. My friend came from an abusive family so he lived alone and had no one close to him besides me. I had to take a day off and plan his funeral. When I got back to work the next day they acted like I had inconvenienced them. My boss told me not to lay out of work with such a short notice again. I told him I had enough of his inhuman attitude and quit on the spot. He called begging me to come back a couple of weeks later but I had already found another job."
– barvoues
The Unsympathetic Christian
"I was a teacher. I had confided in the school principal that I was struggling with depression but getting treatment. This a**hole (who also happened to be a deacon at my church) proceeds to tell me that depression is a spiritual problem that I needed to solve. I was too shocked and upset to say much of anything then, but I wrote him a letter telling him what I thought of his actions and his 'Christianity.' Ultimately cost me my job, but damn it was satisfying and I don't regret it in the least."
Wife Comes First
"my wife was attacked, was in surgery when I got called about it. I was less than 10 miles away. Got told: Finish the run (9 hours), then go see her, you can't help her anyway."
"Parked a Semi/trailer in the back lot of the hospital, told them to page me for the keys."
These Redditors did nothing wrong, but was more than happy to leave a job that had unreasonable demands.
The Accident
"My job was micromanaging the hell out of everyone. They had 3 different softwares that tracked where you were, speed, how much time you were on 1 job for, etc. On my way to get supplies for a job I came across an accident. No one had arrived yet so I pulled over and helped a trapped woman out of her car and tried to calm her and take care of stuff until Medics arrive. I
text my boss very quickly that I'm at the scene of a major accident rendering aid and that's why I'm stopped. I was told by boss A to not spend too much time there, as I am on the clock. I ignore him. After medics take over, I take a video of the scene as I leave to prove that there was a bad accident. I was fired for taking the video because it was taken from in the company truck. When they fired me, I smiled. There are 8 people that company in the position I was in. The 2 most experienced quit after that. The others are applying for new jobs."
The Shyster Company
"I was working at NTW (National Tire warehouse) before it was national tire and battery, and my first day I was scheduled for a 14 hour shift for some reason. About 6 hours into it, I asked my manager when out break time was. He said "what do you mean by break?" I said "a half hour break as mandated by law, and two 15 minute breaks required on top of that, also required by law." His response was 'most people don't take those here, we have costumers to take care of.'"
"After that, I clocked out and went to Wendy's to get lunch. I figured f'k these a**holes, go ahead and fire me."
"After lunch, I was doing a tire rotation and balance, the manager came out and told me not to balance the back tires if the costumer isn't watching me. That was the nail in the coffin for me. They paid for that."
"I got to talking with some of the longtime employees and they informed me that the sales counter guys (our managers) made commission from every sale and got bonuses every month while we got our minimum wage and raises were rare. I finished my shift and clocked out. Went looking for a new job the next day. Any company like that can go piss off."
"So when you go get your tires balanced, watch them."
Taking Care Of The Boss's Personal Belongings
"My boss once told me that I have to come in to the office the next day, which was a PUBLIC HOLIDAY, because we needed to clear out the office storage unit. He said that we can't afford to take time out of work days for that task."
"So I begrudgingly agreed and showed up the next day. When I opened the storage unit it was crammed full of stuff... full of the boss's PERSONAL STUFF. I'm talking boxes full of his old clothes, childhood toys, school projects and textbooks, gardening tools, furniture, sport and gym equipment, construction materials, paintings, etc. TVs."
"I was so mad that I quit on the spot."
Sometimes, people who weren't necessarily treated poorly can't handle the job and quit.
But instead of following protocols, they will make a scene because at that point, they have nothing left to lose.
I had a friend with whom I performed at a theme park. Yes, it was a grueling schedule but the company never violated any of our union's rules.
This guy, who was an exceptional dancer but simply did not enjoy performing in the show and took the job because he couldn't get work elsewhere, threw a major tantrum after finding out he had more rehearsals – with overtime – and just left the building. He never came back.
Some drama is better left up on a stage. Sheesh.