I’ve always believed that it’s damn hard to get fired from a job. I’m not talking about downsizing or getting ‘let go’ because of institutional troubles beyond the employee’s control, I’m talking about an employee getting fired based upon a mistake they made. Below, a bunch of bosses shared stories of the dumbest things their employees have ever done that has resulted in a firing. I’m shaking my head at the thought that I share the same air as some of these people because the stupidity level is that damn high (via AskReddit)…Is it not a little strange that a shit ton of these stories involve substance abuse in restaurants?
Mirraklewhippn:
I didnt personally fire this person but I was manager on duty at a resturant I work at.
New-ish server was dealing with a complaint a customer had with their BLT. Rather than having me talk to the table he took a bite out of it and said “Im not seeing the problem.”
Tlou145:
We had a secretary, we were all curious as what she really did during the day since it seemed like nothing got done. I ended up giving her lists to complete but she would throw them in the trash.
I got fed up and looked at her computer at the end of the day. Which was probably shitty on my part?
Found out she was prostituting herself with her company email.
iStankonia:
I had an employee apologize to two different tables for forgetting to put their food order in. They had been waiting like 45 minutes and nothing had been entered into the system.
We looked at the camera system because he had been acting weird all day. After he wrote down their order, he proceeded to go outside and fire up a joint. He was apparently too high to remember to put in the order.
Half_Past_Five:
I was assistant manager at a restaurant for a while and one of the newer bussers had called in 3 times in his first two weeks. He called in on Saturday telling me he was deathly sick and couldn’t even get out of bed.
Around 9pm after the dinner rush one of my servers ask me to go check on table 42. I turn the corner and there is the ‘sick’ busser stoned out of his mind with two buddies eating.
racord360:
I had an employee lock another employee in a closet one time. The person that was trapped called the police from inside the closet. It was quite an HR nightmare.
CharmanderMeanderer:
I knew someone at Subway who did NOT get fired for going to the washroom and taking off his pants and underwear.
He was making sandwiches wearing only an apron and shirt.
The manager laughed at him. I think the entire store must have been on drugs.
Interesting tactic, Phil.
AtlantaPesto:
During my first real dev job, the company I was working for tried to implement a bunch of things to improve efficiency and employee satisfaction. Two interesting programs they implemented were ‘work from home’ and agile development, along with the requisite bullpens (shared team areas). What this basically meant is that we only had to show up in the office for core hours (4 hours) 3 days a week, and the rest of time we could work in shared areas, restaurants, parks, home – you name it. Sometimes, if you couldn’t be at core hours, you would just dial in. We were young and excited and dedicated, so the core team really got a lot of good work done with this model.
About two weeks after we started, our scrum master casually mentioned ‘Has anyone seen Phil?’ Phil was a quiet guy, and he was still answering emails and IM, so it took us a while to agree that no-one had actually seen him in a long time. She called him from the speakerphone in the bull-pen, and as God is my witness, here is the call that took place:
Boss: Hey Phil! What’s up?
Phil: Hey Boss – not much, what’s up with you?
Boss: Hey, we were just noticing we hadn’t seen you much lately. You ever coming back in for core hours?
Phil: …Probably not…
Boss: Oh… why is that?
Phil: Because I moved to Idaho.
Boss: …But Phil, we’re in DC?
Phil: I know.
Boss: Why didn’t you tell us you wanted to move to Idaho?
Phil: Oh. Because I knew you wouldn’t let me.
Monsternsuch:
We had an employee get taped to a chair and left in a back room. Couldn’t reach his phone but Siri dialed 911 for him. Police showed up, owner was pissed, they find him and un-tape him. Employees who did it were fired on the spot, one was arrested, and tape guy was up in HR for 4+ hours before they settled on enough money to make him shut up. It was an insane day.
Smitty_Oom:
Every day at lunch, she would drink roughly half of her Jimmy Johns (or whatever) soda, then take it with her to the bathroom to fill it back up with whiskey. She did a pretty good job covering up the smell, and since she did it from day 1 it wasn’t immediately obvious that she was getting drunk.
Found out on day 4 when she knocked her full cup over and we all got punched with the smell of booze in the afternoon.
pawvel_catsyuk:
Forging a tip on a receipt. Like adding $20 wasn’t going to get caught.
Nothing this exciting has ever happened at the BroBible office, not once:
ryanzbt:
2 new employees got into a physical altercation because one claimed the other wasn’t “hood” enough, it was 2 females and this is an office job, absolutely ridiculous
LillyYoyoINeedGogert:
Back in my days working at a used car dealership, we had a teen come in and test drive a 1,500 (mile) Corvette, todays equivalent would be the ZR1.
Anyway, the kid drives it around our set loop once, and is being a little waffley on if he wants to get it or not, he says it doesn’t really drive as well as he thought it would.
My salesman told him it was user error, and he’d prove it to him, they went out for another loop around, with the employee driving it.
He managed to get pulled over doing 135 (MPH) in a school zone, got arrested if I recall correctly. Needless to say, he was not welcome back at our store, however the teen did buy the car.
Zeke219:
Had a (restaurant) server drink out of the customer’s Dr.Pepper and Coke to see which was which….in front of them…
bbatwork:
Hired a girl to work in a bagel store, who on her first day told me she couldn’t touch any of the meats because she was vegan.
Had another guy show up for work his first day, was doing just fine, seemed to be good with the job. I went to the office to get some paperwork for him to fill out, and he was just gone. Never came back, didn’t steal anything, no explanation at all.
The bad one was had to fire a girl for not showing up for several days in a row, saw in a newspaper the next week that she had been in jail the whole time because she had locked her kids in a closet while she was buying coke.
Always know who’s watching…
MachineGunTeacher:
New guy, around 20 yrs old or so, called in sick saying he thinks he had a stroke. Since he lived across the street from the store where we worked, we all then stood and watched through the store’s glass door as he packed up his truck with beach gear and drove off with his girlfriend. Fired the next day.
Allthenamesareregone:
Guy hired to manage a store in a mall REFUSED to park in employee parking.
As I’m sure everyone knows, mall employees have designated parking places, far from the choice spots near mall entrances. This guy refused to park there, and every time he parked illegally, the store got fined $100. And he parked in customer parking Every. Damn. Day.
He was called out on it, the policy was explained over and over. He got written up. He was told that on the next infraction he would be fired. And he did it the very next day.
Was totally blindsided when we actually fired him.
Better to get the firing out of the way then find some weird shit happening down the line…
MrHarmCity:
Offered a job to a candidate, but had to step out of the office to grab some paperwork. Came back and a bus pass that was on the desk was missing. Newly hired employee stole it. I asked him to return it because a previous candidate dropped it and he said he needed it more than they did and walked out.
11181514:
I’ve got a few…
Fell asleep on a ladder on the sales floor
Fell asleep during day 1 orientation training videos
Doing drugs in the bathroom
Getting into a shouting match with a customer right in front of the company President (fortune 500 company)
Shouting “I’M DRUNK AS FUCK RIGHT NOW” across the sales floor
Lots of stealing, not showing up, stuff like that…
jayleavitt91:
Sex with an employee, hitting another employee, getting arrested for drugs. Selling drugs, animal abuse, ummm putting fresh water goldfish into salt water fish tank. Oh and telling me you can handle any animal only to break down and cry when you have to feed a snake. Worked at a popular pet store chain.
just_some_babe:
My college town hamburger joint gets busy as fuck on the weekends. We had a five man crew on a Saturday night and about an hour n a half into service I notice my fry boy is taking a helluva long time bringing back frozen appetizers from the cooler. I leave expo in a huff and stomp to the back to yell at him, threw open the walk-in door. This short Irish leprechaun-looking dumbass is getting his dick sucked by the new dish girl (owners friends barely legal daughter).
Fired him after the dinner rush.
Is this not accepted office behavior?
aaronsweber:
Not me, but a friend of mine had to fire a sales clerk because she stole computer duster from the office and left the sales floor during her shift to hide in the supply closet and get high with it.
Alright, bros, that wraps up the stories of dumb ass employees doing dumb ass things to get fired. I’m sure we could continue reading these forever but I only wanted to include the best. If you want to keep on reading through the AskReddit thread you can CLICK HERE to see that in full, and if you’re a boss who has a story to share about a stupid employee living up to his name then you can share that story below down in the comments!