Deciding which person to hire to work for you can be difficult, because employees are acting their best in the interview, so you can’t really know what kind of a person they truly are. Sometimes it turns out that their behavior in the workplace is unacceptable and employers have to lay them off.
Reddit user GravyxNips was curious what were the craziest reasons bosses had to fire their employees. They received over 9k responses and all of those reasons for firing people seemed quite justified. Among other things, these employees were fired because of stealing, being irresponsible, or making people around them feel uncomfortable.
Don’t forget to upvote the stories that you thought were the craziest and comment if you've had any similar experiences!
More info: Reddit
#1
Had to fire my own brother from our distribution "company". Really was not easy and defintely caused family fights. He had been using our product so much so that we lost half our stock.To be fair he got over it in about half an hour, we were 7 and 5 selling candy to fundraise.
Image credits: contradiction4
#2
One of my ER nurses was chasing another down the hall with a scalpel in her hand screaming at the top of her lungs “I’m going to cut you b****!”
Image credits: EzraSteel
#3
Hoo boy...I'd have to go with the guy who in the span of 24 hours...
Started a fist fight with another employee (on camera, with witnesses) then called the police and said the other guy did it, trying to press charges. I just sent the video.
Trespassed on the property the following day and slurred at my boss (on camera, with witnesses), then called the police and said my boss did it. I just sent the video.
Hurt himself somehow and went to the hospital, where he told the doctor he'd been attacked at work. Doc found no injury consistent with his story and well yeah, camera...
Image credits: YDAQ
#4
Dumba** stole a $100 bill out of the register at the end of his FIRST shift alone on register.
Image credits: USPSA-Addict
#5
Once a had a guy call in sick to his restaurant/bar shift right before his shift and then proceeded to show up s*** faced drunk for happy hour during the time he was supposed to be working.He was not a bright man.
Image credits: skdubbs
#6
We had someone fall asleep at his desk with a lit cigarette in his hand. In a office full of cubicles like maybe... 6-7 years ago? Smoking wasn't legal anywhere indoors let alone in an office building lmaoAnd the first time he wasn't even fired. He was fired when it happened again!
Image credits: CactusPearl21
#7
I had to fire a pizza delivery driver because he threatened another driver with the giant rocker knife we used to cut pizzas. His reason was the other driver was gay and he didn't like his "decadent" life style.
Image credits: buzz1208
#8
Years ago, at a lumber company. Had a guy, less than two hours after he started on his first day, pick up his car with a forklift and stand underneath it to see what was rattling when he drove.
Image credits: woodenman22
#9
Not too crazy. More stupid than crazy. One of the programmers on my team was sitting at his desk looking at p***. And this is cubicle land. No offices. My Director walked into the area to talk to me and saw it. Then it was the first thing he told me about, so I got up and walked over for a look myself and there it was. Me and the Director looked at each and I said I gotta take care of this. So we walked back to HR, I told them what was going on and what we saw and they told me to fire him. So I did. He lost a $110K job for looking at p*** on his computer at work.
Image credits: TheJaundicedEye
#10
Harassment. He harassed virtually every person in the department on sexual, racial and religious grounds. Human Resources put up a fight while I had people crying and quitting because of him.
Image credits: Gene_Carrier
#11
Fired a guy for looking to pay someone to cast black magic on the owner and the owner’s family to bewitch them into giving him a raise and, ironically, never firing him. Only reason I found out was because he asked someone else in the office for help in finding a witch doctor to cast the spells and word got round. No one wanted to be in the same room as him after that.When I confronted him he said the devil made him do it so it wasn’t his fault. I live in the Middle East. I definitely did not wake up expecting to fire someone for black magic that day. Side note: practicing black magic is literally a death sentence here.
Image credits: rivanko
#12
I work at an art studio where we teach classes and sell pottery that our artists make for others to paint. I'm one of the artists and the manager. I started getting a funny feeling about one of my employees.. she wasn't doing anything blatently wrong, just seemed to work really slowly sometimes, request insignificant but kinda odd schedule changes, and have different break habits from the other staff. I started feeling like she was stealing but this is a really small business so I didn't have her on camera or any way to really prove it... Until she accidentally sent me a video of herself painting pieces that I MADE from her home!
Image credits: ENEBZILE
#13
Not my personal experience, but one fellow contractor had a safety guy for 6 months. One weekend he took a trip out of town for non work related reasons. But used the company truck, and charged it all on the company credit card. On his way up there he ran a random person off the road, who just so happened to be one of the owners of another contractor who works closely with the one who employed this guy. Shortly after he was fired and I'm sure criminal charges were being brought against him.A couple weeks later his wife calls his former employer saying he had called her randomly and killed himself in his truck on the side of the highway. Me and another colleague went searching for records of this guy, couldnt find anything no claims of a suicide in the local paper where he supposedly killed himself at. Thought it was wierd but whatever. It turns out this guy falsified all his qualifications and job experience.
Fast forward a month later, and I heard through the grapevine that the original contractor who had employed this guy recieved a call from some contractor across country because he applied for work there and put them down as his previous employer.
He faked his own death to get out of trouble with the company then proceeded to put them down on his resume not expecting anyone to check his references lol.
#14
I'm training a new girl. We're sitting at a computer together. The whole time I'm training her, she's scanning the perimeter around her. She's asking about this guy. Is he single? What about that guy? She's paying very little to no attention to what I'm telling her about, you know, the JOB. She's not even looking at what I'm doing as I'm demonstrating the work to her. She's rubbernecking every male who walks past.At first I was nice. Ok did you see what I just did there? Now when this happens, we do that.
Etc etc. Her eyes were glazed over, she wasn't absorbing anything, I could tell.
Nice wasn't working. After a time, I said to her very sharply, "Are you here to work, or are you here looking for a boyfriend? Because if you're not here to work, I'm going to need to find someone else for this job (I had hiring authority)".
That snapped her into reality for about 15 minutes. I finally said it's break time. She smiled and said, "I'm going to go up to the 4th floor and see if there's any fresh meat up there."
After break time, I sent her into the fax room to collect some faxes I needed. The mail guy was in there changing rolls of fax paper. He came out of the mail room and said I think there's something wrong with your new girl. He was very nervous. I said what happened.
Apparently she was in the fax room which tended to get hot because of all the machines in there. She had perched her a** up on the edge of the table, hiked her dress up to where her underwear was showing, arched her back, unbuttoned the front of her dress, and fanned herself with the sheaf of fax pages and said, "Oh, it's just so...HOT...in here." Yeah. Like that. Like the opening of a p****.
I totally believed him. I believed she did that. 100%, she totally did that.
I called her temp agency and said she's not working out. I think this was under 2 hours.
I have stories about temps for days lol.
Image credits: speecyspicymeatball
#15
When I was working at Burger King, our restaurant manager was away on maternity leave, so we had someone from another store come in over that time to fill the role.He ended up hiring someone who had worked there 5-6 years previously (high turnover, so a lot of hiring/leaving), the few staff that had known her before she’d left hated her, but had no idea why she left. She even passed all the checks from head office before she was hired.
Restaurant manager comes back about a month after she’s been hired, takes one look at her, and RAGES. Like my RM is yelling at this girl, she’s yelling at the manager that hired her, and all the crew that had known her when she was here last. Obviously none of us knew what was going on, but it turns out this girl hadn’t left, she’d been fired, and management at the time hadn’t told anyone that, just that she’d quit.
This girl had scammed BK by pretending to be pregnant (fake ultrasounds, plans, baby shower, the whole lot) and then took paid maternity leave so she could go work somewhere else, because it was seasonal work with better pay, with the idea of having a job for the off-season to come back to.
I have no idea how she got through the head office checks, but she was fired that day. (Super impressive when you consider that I’m in New Zealand, so getting fired is usually a month+ long process here)
#16
I worked at a retail store and found one of my coworkers was using the company iPad (that we used to play music and order lunches) to go on Craigslist and search for hookups. She didn’t even bother to delete the search history.
Image credits: arbrady
#17
I worked at a pet store, and was the lead cashier so I had to train this girl who didn’t think she had to abide by the uniform because it’s just(store name) and doesn’t count as a real job. That was a warning that despite her thinking she did need to follow the uniform rules. Then when ringing up customers she actually told customers they couldn’t buy certain items because we were running low and she planned on getting a pet soon and wanted these items. I apologized and rung them up. Second warning with me explaining how that’s not how it works and she could shop when she’s off the clock. Finally my manager fired her when she tried to steal one of the cats that were up for adoption after being told she needed to wait for approval after they do a home visit and make sure she can care for the cat. Her excuse for trying to steal the cat? Her landlord doesn’t allow pets so she wouldn’t be approved and she’d be a much better pet parent then anyone who else who wanted the cat and much better than any of the customers we got. The girl didn’t even last a week.#18
At a retail job, we had a kid come in and punch in for the day then go home. Would come back at quittin' time and punch out.#19
Some dude wasn’t making calls (his job) and I did a remote session to see what he was doing. Sent the screenshot to the boss and he came over like it was a black friday TV sale. He had been warned by me before.Boss: Why are you job searching on my time.
Guy: I am trying to apply for my career.
Boss: I am not paying you to shop for jobs.
Guy: I want to be a flight attendant. (guy is 300lbs and not in touch with reality)
Boss: Gets red faced and walks away.
Email from boss: Get that s*** out here before I lose my temper.
Me: Hey Neil, yah, you can’t apply for jobs while you are on the clock. You need to clock out and go home.
Neil: For the day?
Me: No, good luck on your flight attendant career.
#20
My coworker at a coffee shop.Told a customer she didn't feel like making x drink and she should go elsewhere.
Wore cookie monster PJ pants while we had a very strict "black or khaki pants, no jeans, no leggings" policy at the time.
couldn't figure out the concept of milk?? This still baffles me to this day. Like I was trying to show her how to steam milk properly, she was off in la la land and when she snapped back into the conversation asking, "What are we doing again" followed by me reminding her and she quite literally asked what was in the gallon jug that I poured into the metal pitcher. I told her it was milk and she just looked at me, her eyes saying, '???!??!!?"
She was there for 2 days.
#21
He worked at the company for 2 weeks, came to the Christmas party on friday, got s*** faced, told the HR manager that she was a s*** and would die alone (they had some previous vaguely romantic history, went on a couple of dates or something) tried to fight 2 of the customer service managers who asked him to calm down, and while being escorted out he turned to the CEO and COO and told them to go f*** themselves.He showed up to work on the Monday talking about how fun the party was and how he had seen some people who would probably be called into HR that morning.. he was the first and only employee to be called and was sacked on the spot.
#22
CEO ordered me to fire one of my interns because he was trying to hit on one of the other interns the CEO had the hots for.
Image credits: DonkeyTron42
#23
Profanity filled road rage rant through and Ambulance PA system at a crowded intersection.I had complaints coming in for well over a month.
#24
A guy told a female co-worker he wanted to take her newborn baby home with him to “inspire” his wife to have one. Dude was creepy as f*** before that, but the complaint she made to management was what got him cut loose. He denied ever having said it, despite corroborating statements from other employees and a couple customers.#25
I work construction, and one of the subs gave me an invoice with no receipts. Turns out he wanted 30k for 4 weeks of work without paying the companies he rented equipment/dumpsters from. I paid off the companies he owed money to and told him to f*** off#26
The guy had somehow hung on by the skin of his teeth when caught making plastic model funny cars at his desk (pro tip: throwing a newspaper over the model doesn’t hide the smell of the glue), but when a client called complaining about our hero trying to sell him golf clubs out of the trunk of his car, he was gone.#27
I was a bartender/bar manager. This guy came in one night and said he was an aspiring DJ and asked if we would consider hiring him to come in just on Sunday nights to DJ for us. He said we wouldn’t have to pay him at first, he would just take tips and we could renegotiate after he helped to build up our Sunday night crowd.He lasted less than 3 months. He drove away so much business and I got SO many complaints. He played the same songs every week and when people made requests (for commonly known songs), he had no idea who they (the musicians) were.
I had to fire someone who was working for free. He was a nice guy, which is the only reason he lasted as long as he did.
#28
plumbermy helper and I went to do a punch list at a new home.
when the very attractive 20 something year old answered the door
I ask what the problem was, and she said,
"when I take a shower, the shower head makes a whistling noise."
my helper said,
"Hell if I saw you naked, I'd whistle too"
she complained to the super.I had no choice but to fire him.
#29
My assistant manager announced to a female coworker that he had officially named both of her b****, after working with her for three years. This was the second time he had said something sexual to her within a week and had to be let go. He was a 47 year old virgin who still lived with his ailing parents. I didn’t know who to be sorry for the most.#30
He said, My ex wife died and there’s no one to take care of our kids. Needed a week off to sort everything out. Ex called to talk to him. Boom.One of the guys went to lunch with short hair and came back with a ponytail down to his a**. Identical twins that were sharing the job. All the guys knew and thought it was funny. Yikes.
#31
They stole a $3 bottle of wine that could have easily put on the "house" check for employees.Prep cook stole a 25lb bag of onions.
#32
I am a chef at an upscale restaurant, the sauté cook has a lobster dish on his station that involves a technique called deglazing that involves alcohol so in turn the pan catches on fire briefly and flames up. When you do it correctly (hard to do it incorrect) the alcohol is cooked off and the flame goes out. Every time he made this dish he would deglaze the pan, catch it on fire and then blow it out, blowing his own germs and nastiness all over someone’s food and everything in the blast radius. That was a week ago. Fired him after he did it multiple times after being asked not to. Maybe it’s because of the current state of affairs, but I couldn’t believe a trained cook would do that.#33
Might not be the craziest, but when I was working in Fast Food(Subway) I had to fire a guy for assaulting a customer. He had a bad temper. He threw the tuna scoop at a particularly difficult Karen. I had to request the customer to not press charges.#34
A guy was hired at the metal fab shop I was working at. He had been laid off when we were slow He was re-hired on a Friday, started Monday. Goes and does his drug test first thing. He failed. Apparently he had celebrated being rehired over the weekend. It was funny listening to my boss say, "Are you kidding me? You knew our testing policy! You couldn't wait three days??".#35
Had an employee that was going to get fired for simply showing up late constantly with no legit reason. During the term meeting she tells me another employee cut the brake lines in her car - it’s obvious this was to save her from being fired. She didn’t realize that something like that gets cops involved. She was termed, and then detectives showed up to her house to get statements. Of course, no evidence of lines being cut and now she’s dealing with police for making false statements.#36
He kept doing yellow text on a white background for briefing slides. He was a graphic designer.#37
Once had to fire someone from a testing job because they were live streaming the unannounced game with their phone right in the lab in front of everyone, after signing their NDAs. More than fired really, they are f**** for life.#38
Because she saw her friends partner cheating in the pub and she told her friend. Cheating girl came into the pub during the middle of lunch service and made a massive scene threatening to smash up the pub and the girl. She was kept safe in a room and let go. Poor girl didn't deserve to lose her job#39
A guy shaved/trimmed off his p**** and left them scattered across a shared desk in a shared office. When confronted, he pulled a George Costanza: “Oh, is that frowned upon?”#40
In the early 2000's I managed a coffee shop that required the customers' names to be put on the cup. One guy looked like he was doing it but upon closer inspection on some cups he was writing an IP address.Turns out he was running an illegal sports book out of the shop.
He did quit before I had to technically fire him because he found out I knew.
#41
Dude I worked with badly photoshoped the face of a 40s something single mom that also worked there onto the body of some online p*** photo. He then proceeded to show it around to the other female workers like look what Woman#1 sent me you should send me stuff too. This was while he would continually brag about the girlfriend he had at home. He got fired, then dumped by his girlfriend and kicked out of their apartment.#42
She didn't show up for her first shift, then tried to blame us for it, then refused to turn in her uniform and key.FIRST SHIFT. What the hell lady?
Okay first solo shift, she showed up for the 2 training shifts before that, but still I can't believe it
#43
I work for a hotel. Had to fire 2 separate employees on 2 different occasions for letting people in vacant rooms to smoke c**** and steal from the rooms.#44
Manager showed up drunk to an overnight shift he wasn’t working and then got into a fight with 2 associates. Begged my associate manager not to tell me what happened. Didn’t seem to remember there were cameras all over the store.Oh, also the other manager at another job who sexually harassed 3 different employees and got a 4th pregnant. (The first 3 came forward once we began an investigation after the 4th told us about the pregnancy.)
#45
I was a florist and had a 40-something woman delivering for me. I received a call from the building manager of a brand new office building, with only one tenant, telling me my driver wrote on the elevator wall with a sharpie. They had video showing that she was the only person to use the elevator during the time the vandalism took place.The worst part for me was, this happened a few days before Valentine's Day.
#46
Told him he had to wait a day or two to have his logins created. He decided he would try to hack in without telling anyone in an effort to impress us. He was not successful and was shown the door promptly.#47
A coworker at a camp I used to work at got fired for posting 300+ photos of people with disabilities on her Facebook page without consent.#48
The saddest was a lady that smelled like alcohol pretty frequently. I don't think she was drunk on the job (maybe some shots done at lunch combined with sweating out the prior night). But the other members of the team started to complain about it and it was becoming disruptive.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3uUrOsl
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