Everything in this life, both good and bad, sooner or later comes to an end. Everything, including our work – and no matter how good we are as employees, we still sometimes have to face a pink slip. Yes, layoffs are the norm of modern life, and what is even more offensive is that unfair and strange layoffs are also gradually becoming the norm…
And it’s no surprise that when the user u/JavaMamma0002 asked “Why did you get fired?” on the AskReddit community a few days ago, the thread almost immediately went viral, racking up over 16.3K upvotes and nearly 10.3K various answers. So please feel free to read this list of weird and sad stories of dismissals carefully collected for you by Bored Panda!
More info: Reddit
#1
For doing my job too quickly and sitting down the rest of the time. Gas station cashier 3rd shift.
Me: “Why should I stand when I’m the only person in the store?”
Manager: “It’s more professional to stand than sit”
Me: “then why do you sit in your office?”
Image credits: CelebrationBrief4184
#2
Was on the edge of a serious burnout and had a sick leave for two weeks. The day I returned, I got fired. This all after I had pretty much given my all for 1,5 years working 10-14 hours every single day, working from home and not having a private life at all. That’s how I learned that you should never give too much at a job. It’s just a job and they won’t thank you for anything at the end of the day…
Image credits: Kuddel0205
#3
For reporting elder abuse
Image credits: New-Class-8352
#4
I went to the Emergency room instead of work. Came back with an ER note and they said “We won’t be needing that. Can you come with us?” I was 18 and it was my first full time job.
Image credits: iridescentmoon_
#5
I refused to come in 15-20 mins early unpaid for my shift. I was always 5-10 min early but they decided they wanted me there earlier. I carried on as normal as I’m not coming in if I’m not being paid. Turned up for a 12pm shift at 11:49, no one would look at me when I arrived then was thrown in a meeting and fired for being “late”. Was out the door before it even hit 12.
It was the only time I’ve ever been fired.
Image credits: TheSuperAlly
#6
*They* sent *me* home because I sneezed and I was forced to get tested for Covid. Then when I tested negative, I was terminated for “Abusing pandemic policies to stay home”
Image credits: Ok_Ant1809
#7
My Parole Officer wanted to make sure I actually had a job, so he went to my employer listed on my file to surprise visit me on the job. I did home wiring so I worked at different job sites and rarely in the office. He called me to say he was going to charge me with a violation for lying to him about my whereabouts (this could’ve landed me back in prison for my remaining 10.5 years sentence). The owner of the company had to speak with him and vouche for me. My Parole Office didn’t charge me, but the owner sure did fire me that day. Finding a job with a felony isn’t an easy thing, and it wasn’t long before my PO threatened to charge me with a violation if I didn’t find a job soon 🤦🏻
Image credits: Rico_Pobre
#8
I was 19 and working as a janitor at a large self storage facility, where most days were filled with sweeping and mopping endless hallways of flickering fluorescent light. And when someone went delinquent on their bill (after a 3 month grace period), I would be instructed to empty their unit and dump everything in the trash outside. Once or twice it was a person who died, but otherwise it was a pretty common to see a room full of absolute junk that someone got tired of paying for. Banged-up furniture, garbage bags of ratty clothing, stacks of old magazines, it was usually pretty hoarder-friendly stuff, and not that I’d want any of it but the policy was I had to throw it into the dumpster outside no matter what it was.
One day I get notified to empty out a unit, so I grab the bin, cut the lock, fling open the gate. The room is full of huge cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. I open one up out of curiosity, and it’s full of brand new, unopened Gundam models. The entire room is full of them, dozens of boxes with dozens of models in each, and I’m talking the $50-$100 ones I saw for sale at my local comics shop every week. The manager would check up on me once or twice a day, and that morning he walked up and I showed him all of the brand new merchandise and said there has to be a better system than trashing all of this. He said rules are rules, something about insurance I didn’t understand, and told me to throw them all away.
So I went and I backed up one of the complementary U-Haul style box trucks, picked a few models out for myself, and loaded it up the truck with the rest of it. On my lunch break I drove over to the Children’s Resource Center that I’d volunteered at during high school, it’s a place where any child (but usually poorer ones) would go after school for arts and crafts and activities to keep them busy until their parents got home. The people at the drop-off dock were so grateful, before I even left they were handing them out to some extremely excited kids. Drove back to the self storage place with enough time to eat a sandwich and smoke a cigarette before clocking back in.
But that’s not why I got fired. I got fired because the manager came to check on me that afternoon, and after awhile of looking around, found me sitting cross legged on the floor of the janitor closet with model parts spread all around me, happily assembling a sweet translucent Zaku model. I was so entranced I didn’t even hear him come in, I just hear this long, drawn out, exasperated sigh. I look up and he just says “keys” and that was that. I spent the rest of the week assembling Zakus and Valkyries and lying to my parents about getting replaced with a Roomba.
Image credits: Dracula_Batman
#9
A business I went to long ago was hiring and I got the job. Right after I signed all the paperwork, the department manager comes in and asks who I am. I tell him I was just hired as a temp. Manger says he never authorized any hiring and fired both me and my boss on the spot. I did not work for this company at all and they fired me. 🙁
Image credits: Stompboxer1
#10
my manager kept losing my class schedule
worked at a subway. i had class two days a week. several times he put me on those days anyway. i gave him multiple copies every time. owner took me off the schedule for “calling out too much”
when i showed the owner proof he said it was too late and they already hired someone else
this was 12 years ago. im still mad
Image credits: stopbeingextra
#11
Got fired for not only calling the health inspector but posting pics of many food safety violations on FB while tagging the restaurant in the post while on the clock in the restaurant.
Image credits: TheMarathonNY
#12
My only time getting fired, I was 13-14, working at a go kart track. I had been there about a month when I was left alone for a solid week to take care of the track as the other 2 track attendants sat around smoking, drinking, and chatting with the boss. I ran it flawlessly and had no issues. My first day off after working like 12 days straight I got called in, I showed up within 5 minutes aaaand they fired me saying that all I did was sit around and make the other guys run the track. They literally accused me of doing what the other guys were doing. I slammed that place so hard to everyone I knew and they went out of business within the next 2 years.
Image credits: Cigars_whiskey_roids
#13
they lowered my pay so I started sleeping at work and do only half the task they wanted me to do. Took them 3 years to fire me.
Image credits: GussDeBlod
#14
His wife thought he was having an affair with the office manager.
He asked me if I thought it was possible that he was having an affair with the office manager.
I said, “It’s possible, but I don’t think you are. I could see why your wife might think so too.”
I was 21 and naïve as hell. Never should have said anything.
Image credits: OutbackAussieGirl
#15
For getting lunch. I was 18, working at a mall kiosk with a “manager” title even though I managed nothing for something like $8/hour.
Hours painted on the door, 0 support or other employees to relieve for a break. The owner showed up while I had locked up to go get a bite to eat. Fired on the spot.
Image credits: Jasayoh
#16
I got fired for submitting my time sheets on Monday at 8am when I got into work. By policy, they were to be in by noon on Saturday, but my Fridays ended in the field so I just did then on Monday mornings. My bosses didn’t even look at them until noon on Tuesday so it had 0 impact on them. I drove home from being fired feeling relieved because of how unhappy I was at that job.
Image credits: 12inch3installments
#17
I built a snow scorpion sculpture (I used ketchup for the red glowing eyes and everything) on a particularly miserable day at a ski resort. The guests enjoyed my sculpture very much, management weren’t so happy.
Image credits: SL-Apparel
#18
We formed a union and then the pandemic hit and they laid off all the unionized workers 🫨
Image credits: anthonystank
#19
I talked my way into a job at a software company when they put a hiring notice in a local paper. I had no idea what the software did. I still don’t. They hired me as a trainer and no one ever explained what the product was. I did a few weeks where I was trained on the software but literally none of it ever made sense to me. It was like they were speaking gibberish. One day I showed up, a lady I had never seen before gave me a check, and walked me out to the parking lot. No one even ever said “you’re fired” or anything. It’s one of the strangest things that ever happened to me.
Image credits: HiddenHolding
#20
I was jobless for 3 years. Did lots of online work during that time. Finally got a job. Forgot I got a job. Got a letter from my employer informing me that I got fired after a week
Image credits: Thankamani
#21
In college I had a temp job doing quality assurance. I figured out their internal site had profile pages that freely allowed the execution of Javascript in the form fields. I thought it would be funny to make my profile look crazy, changed colors, added some animation. This way when you went to the list of employee profiles you might get a chuckle and it would bring attention to the fact that it allowed executing code. Something I already brought to their sttention previously.
Anyways I got fired for “breach of security” lol
Image credits: a_little_obscene
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