You’re fired! Employees from around the world gathered to share their stories of being fired. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who contributed. If you would like to read more stories like these, be sure to check out the source link at the end of this article. Comments have been edited for clarity.
I was at a call centre job where you got fired if your call time was consistently lower than 20 seconds. I was nearly at that point, so I just left my call on one of those loop menus while I went for a cigarette break. Turns out the calls were monitored more closely than I thought. OH WELL.
[deleted]
I was told to pick between my grandmother funeral and working an “optional” 12 hour shift
They then told me optional meant the option was take up the extra shift or be terminated.
fcmetro
Myself and another guy were hired at a bagel store at roughly the same time, and we shared a shift. He was skimming money from my till when I wasn’t looking, was on break, or was in the back. It wasn’t possible to be at the till all the time.
Rather than figure it out, they just fired us both. It got comical after that, as they tried to deduct my wages for the money this guy took. That was against the law, so when I got my last cheque, I called up one of the owners.
Conversation went like this:
Me: So you deducted from my wages without my consent, which is illegal, and I would like my money.
Lady: (screaming) We told you when you started to watch your till at all times because you were responsible for the money inside!
Me: Okay. Well, if you don’t pay me I am going to file a complaint with the labour board.
Lady: (still screaming) You do that! (hangs up)
So I filed a complaint and three weeks later she was forced to write me a cheque for 80 bucks. Totally worth it.
greysector
I sent them an email saying that I was quitting since “college needed my full attention”. Then she emailed back “Hey take your time, just let me know when you can get back on the schedule”. Okay, what? I’m clearly quitting. So I send an email back clarifying my intention. Then, Saturday comes and I get a call from the manager saying that he REALLY needs to know when I’m coming back. I’m done dealing with this crap, so I don’t call back, I made it clear. Then the next weekend, he calls back saying I was fired. Ha!
ForEmmaAnHourAgo
I was a young idiot, 10 years ago. I had been working for a bread company as a teenager for about a year, making 13$ an hour. Well, after a year and a bit of doing that, I just decided I was not going to do that anymore. By that, I mean I’m just not going to do it, also not going to mention it to anyone. I mean they’ll figure it out, right? Well, 8 months after I quit working, while still getting checks, I get a call from my boss to chew me out for forgetting to stock some item. I apologized and said I’d do better. Turns out they took a closer look at me and my position and fired me a couple weeks after that. I think I figured they paid me like 11 thousand dollars after I quit and was eventually fired.
Shinya_Aoki
I had been working at a company for 12 months, and at the time my dad nearly died from a heart attack. We needed to see how much money was coming in to the house and he asked me for pay slips. “What are they?” I asked. I never got any.
So I go to my employer asking for them, and he goes, “Er yeah I’ll sort it”. A week goes by, nothing. Then another week, nothing. I then go in and ask and he said ,”Oh yeah, the pay roll machine is down.” I tell him that that’s a joke. We then have a massive argument.
I go back the next day, he’s expecting an apology. I ask him, does he have my pay slip? He says no, so I ask him why, does he think I should apologize to him? He fires me on the spot.
Turns out, they’d been deducting tax from our pay cheques but not paying the taxman. Just pocketed it themselves.
sgtBerbatov
I was fired 7 years ago, 6 months was too long to work at a crap hole like that. They destroyed themselves. The department store I worked at preyed on people who didn’t understand credit terms, who had bad credit, or were new to the country. They insisted we try to push the store credit card onto people. The store could look like a bomb went off in the clothing departments, but management didn’t care. It was like the company discouraged giving good customer service. I got in trouble for spending too much time helping a woman pick out and figure out outfits for her kids for back to school.
How can you sign someone up so quickly for a super high interest credit card and have a conscious? Daily we had people coming to the register with bills, not knowing what they were getting billed for, or totally confused by the card, and ticked off by the high interest and card fees. I was told by management when I was fired, that in 6 months I only signed up/did applications for 3 people, when it should have been closer to 1300. YES 1300.
Even though so many of my shifts were working before store hours, doing price changes or store clean up, when the managers got too many complaints from customers that they couldn’t look though clothes properly because it was such a mess.
But! It was a blessing, since a couple months later I found a amazing job that I’m still at today.
_northernlights
I was hired to be the front-of-office person to a physical therapist who was opening her own private practice. We were friends. Two weeks later, she fired me because I couldn’t design a new website for her. I was like what? I signed up to answer phones.
mofei
I worked as an overnight stocker for a grocery store. I was in high school. I originally asked for a cashier position on the application, but they called me and offered this position instead. I needed money, so I just accepted the interview request.
During the interview, I made it very clear that I wanted it to be a part time job, especially because it was overnight, and I was in high school. Work started at 10PM, and ended at 6AM, (2 hours before school started). They scheduled me for 4 hours a day per week, so 20 hours, exactly as much as I wanted.
I worked bulk everyday. I was able to finish all of my lanes within my work time, every day. I would swipe out of work at about 2 AM everyday, 4 hours, exactly what I was scheduled for.
A couple of times at the end of shift, my boss would ask if I would like to “stay overtime to help.” Every time the question was asked I would reply with, “If you guys need the help I would gladly stay over, but if you can get it done in time without, I’ll just go home if that is okay.” He would say, “Ya we can handle it, you’re good to go.” I assumed he was understanding that I wouldn’t want to work overtime after I specifically asked for part time, considering I was in high school.
One day in the middle of work, I get called down to his office for him to tell me, “You aren’t a team member, we’re going to have to let you go.” This was my first ever job, so I just left and didn’t care, but I always thought his reason was pretty stupid. If you want a full time worker then hire one, not the high school kid who asked for part-time during the entire interview process.
I graduated high school soon after, and got a job as a basic to high level math tutor at my community college, got paid less, but it was so much more enjoyable as a working experience.
Blarrgz
Drinking on the job. I was a bartender and would drink “samples” of the craft beers we had on tap. Apparently I did it too much. I’m really embarrassed about it. I pulled into the parking lot one morning, ready for work, and was met by the manager, saying that someone complained, saying I was drinking behind the bar.
Extrasherman
My director walks into our office in shirt and shorts. I didn’t know who was the director at the time as I’ve only been at this IT job for 5 months. Most of that time was spent at a different location.
He asks my honest opinion of my job and if I could improve anything. So I gave him my honest opinion, which was mostly positive, and I pointed out some flaws in our ticketing system and how to improve it.
Two weeks later, my manager, at the request of my director, told me I wasn’t fired, but I would no longer have hours.
Your boss doesn’t want your honest opinion, he wants you to stroke his ego.
CaptainChuko
I worked for a rather large miniature gaming company in their retail store back in 2000. We’d have some great fun at weekend meetings after work at a local games and drinks establishment in the same mall. Our manager would tell us to shut down the store, but don’t worry about going over and making the money drops, he’ll do that after the meetings. This happened a few times and no one really gave it a thought.
Cut to a few months later. We have an unpleasant briefing in the store about how money has gone missing on more than one occasion and this had happened while the assistant manager was working. So, he was fired for that. A few days later another meeting, another employee gets fired. A week later and it was my turn.
The guy that was next in line after us kept good notes, and he gave those notes to the regional manager. Each bag that had missing money in it was dated on the nights we had our meetings. No surprise – the manager was the one stealing the cash the newbie was the one that caught him. The company’s response was to black-list the fired employees from the store and admit no wrong-doing.
But, that got me out of retail, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
jeremyrayne
I was a security guard at a rather small university. I got fired for asking a car full of people what they were doing parked in the middle of one of the empty lots at 2 AM. They refused to answer ,after me asking politely twice, so I calmly left and called my supervisor to see if he knew anything about it. Turns out they were there for a school-sanctioned trip I hadn’t been briefed on, and they were leaving early that morning, so I said “Oh, okay” and didn’t bother them again.
Next morning, I was fired because they all told the college I was harassing them. Nothing of the sort happened, but the college didn’t want to deal with any potential backlash, so they let me go.
I ended up pressing charges against the school and one of the women in the car, and won the lawsuit. The conversation between myself and the women in the car began with me smiling and asking if they needed help, (I thought maybe they pulled into the parking lot and were lost). They immediately said “[F] off”, so I calmly obliged without a word, left the area, and privately called my supervisor, who informed me of what was going on. Us security guys were always asked not to get into an argument without anyone. Just leave, (unless someone’s life is in danger), and let the higher-up people handle it. We’re not cops, after all, just bodies with keys and phones.
The women then decided, once they got back from the trip the next day, to file a written complaint. The one that filed it stated that A) I called them nasty names, and B) threatened to have them arrested if they did not leave, and C) threatened to drag them out of the car.
Thankfully, I was recording audio of the entire conversation. In our state, it’s legal to do so without two-party consent. I handed that to the judge, and he was quick to award summary judgement. The woman that filed the complaint was found guilty of defamation and perjury. The school settled before any proceedings started.
I don’t know why they did what they did, but I handled the interaction cheerfully and respectfully. They did not, and doubled down on lies that ultimately cost me my job. Whether or not they had a bad experience with a cop in their past doesn’t make that okay.
MosesIRL
I was a contractor, employed through a staffing agency. I got a call after work one day that my contract had been terminated, my badge would no longer work, do not contact my former colleagues, and if I returned to the building I would be trespassing. I had to go to a satellite office to collect the stuff I had on my desk. It made me feel like a total scumbag. Anyway, what happened was they were no longer doing business with the agency that I was employed through, but their contract stated that they couldn’t hire me back through another agency for 30 days. So they let me go, with the expectation that I’d be back, and put my work on hold. Just nobody told me that. So 30 days later they called me, but I already had a job lined up and refused their increasing offers three times. They offered me more than what my current job started at, but I wasn’t going back after being let go in such a heartless manner.
ElToberino
This was a while ago now, but I got fired for asking for time off for my high school graduation. They assumed I’d just settle for a GED and work there for the rest of my life like they did.
Johnale01
I refused to serve food that had been in a walk in freezer which had lost power overnight and had reached over 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
More_Bort
I was with a company for five months and saw a lot of safety issues. After careful consideration, I wrote a letter detailing my concerns and included suggestions of ways to deal with those concerns. I gave it to my boss on a Monday, and he was going to take it to the general manager later that day to set up a meeting. Well, the day ended without having that meeting, so I went home. The next day I went into work and was handed a termination letter saying that I was being let go for high absenteeism. I did miss some work the month before, because my wife’s dad died during my probationary period and we had to go back to her hometown to deal with that. Funny though, that the week before I was fired I’d been given a letter stating that I had successfully completed my probation and was being given a raise, as per my written contract. I took this to a lawyer, who said I had a good case against them, but due to the short period of time I’d worked there, it wasn’t going to be worth pursuing in court. Not the best outcome, but it didn’t matter in the long term.
Rambler43
I got hired to go door-to-door soliciting donations for bank reform. Yeah, bank reform. Like, “Hey stranger, banks are crooked as heck – wanna give me a donation to like…make that stop or something?” When they sent us out on our own, we were supposed to make $200 in donations in 8 hours. I just walked around, smoking cigarettes, and donated $20 of my own money, because I just felt so bad about going door-to-door and bothering people. My friend, who I lived with and started the job with, did exactly the same thing. We both go back at the end of the day and the manager fires us simultaneously in the nicest way possible. He says, “Hey, you guys seem like cool dudes – but it ain’t gonna work. We’ll pay you for the day.”
10/10, would do it again.
Idrinknailpolish
I was off from Tuesday to Friday. The manager changed the schedule on Wednesday. This had never happened before. Guess who now has to work Friday, but was never told.
Also it was my union that “let me go” and not the company. Their reasoning is that I should have called in to get the new schedule. I did learn an important lesson, when you get paid minimum wage no one gives a lick about you.
fast_cherry_bomb
I was working at an amusement park. It was an awful job, 0/10 would not recommend. To give an example of their horribleness, the office wouldn’t give me a week off for college orientation. They just wouldn’t. I told the woman, point blank, when she refused, that’s cool, but I’m not coming into work. They ended up writing me up every day I was gone and I came back to a week of writeups. Luckily, my supervisor was cool and tossed them.
When I gave my two weeks notice, the office lady wasn’t happy. I was like, “I’m leaving for college. Live with it.”
The next week, I noticed she’d scheduled me past my last day, so I went in to talk to her about it. She acted rude about it, and when I checked my schedule again, she’d not only left them, but changed my shifts for the last week so that my hours were much worse than normal. They didn’t bother to inform me either.
I never went back. I got a call two days later saying I would be written up if I didn’t return to work. “Okay, cool, I’ve already quit.”
On the day I was leaving for college, they called again, (must have been desperate for employees I guess), and told me if I wasn’t there in an hour I was fired. I just hung up at that point.
mrtrollstein
I actually was about to be fired, and quit just before that happened. I worked at a donation centre. I was one of the people who picked through the boxes of donated garbage for stuff to sell. There was a minimum hourly rate of 85 pieces for clothing and 100 for stuff like dishes and knick knacks. Except, you have to sort through boxes and bags of actual garbage to find these things. Sometimes, we weren’t allowed to put out certain things, like no heavy coats during summer when that’s all anyone donated, because it was hot. So, you have to somehow, at the speed of sound, tear through these enormous pallets of crap that you aren’t guaranteed to be able to sell. You have to pick out 85 pieces of clothing, hang them, put a tag on them and write the size on the tag. In an hour. Or, you have to dig through boxes of broken glass and wasps nests (yes really), for a few FILTHY pieces of dish-ware that someone took from granny’s garage after she died, wipe the six inches of crust off them with Windex, then put a sticker on them. It was impossible, and no one could meet the rate all the time, but for some reason the manager decided she didn’t like me, and I got wrote up for it like 5 times before I stopped showing up.
blueberries97