Depending on where you live, it can be pretty hard or very, very easy to fire you. If you are a Hong Kong banker, you might get months of severance pay after being fired. But some folks do things so deeply idiotic that not a single soul is surprised when they are let go more or less on the spot.
Someone asked “What's the dumbest way someone you worked with got fired?” and people shared their best stories. So get comfortable as you read through these folk’s misadventures, upvote the best (or worst) ones and be sure to add your own thoughts and experiences to the comments section down below.
#41
I worked for the audit team of an international energy firm with the HQ here in the UK. We hired someone based in Texas to undertake our US based work with an inflated salary due to difficulties recruiting the right person.
Within a week of them receiving their company credit card for expenses they spent $20,000 on furniture, make up and luxurious personal items.
They were an Auditor for God’s sake!! I don’t know how they thought they were going to get away with it.
Within a week of them receiving their company credit card for expenses they spent $20,000 on furniture, make up and luxurious personal items.
They were an Auditor for God’s sake!! I don’t know how they thought they were going to get away with it.
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19points
#42
Worked in kitchen. A co-worker got caught attempting to steal a bag of napkins. He put a whole pile of them in a paper bag, then looked up at the security camera, then tried to subtly put the napkin bag under the counter.
Someone found the bag filled with napkins, so they checked the security cameras. And the guys behavior was so sketchy, it was obvious he was trying to steal them.
Managment decided that if he tried to steal these, he probably had already stolen other things, and they fired him - it was his first and only offense.
Right after he got fired, covid started. Last I heard, he spent all of covid unemployed, struggling to buy insulin for his girlfriend. I never imagined someone's life could be so wrecked by napkins.
I felt bad about the whole situation, but I had nothing to do with it. He was probably stealing the napkins because he couldn't afford toilet paper.
Someone found the bag filled with napkins, so they checked the security cameras. And the guys behavior was so sketchy, it was obvious he was trying to steal them.
Managment decided that if he tried to steal these, he probably had already stolen other things, and they fired him - it was his first and only offense.
Right after he got fired, covid started. Last I heard, he spent all of covid unemployed, struggling to buy insulin for his girlfriend. I never imagined someone's life could be so wrecked by napkins.
I felt bad about the whole situation, but I had nothing to do with it. He was probably stealing the napkins because he couldn't afford toilet paper.
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18points
#43
Back when the Internet was newish I worked for a company you have absolutely purchased fuel from... and we hired a guy to come and sort out some infrastructure issues and work out who was using all the bandwidth.
A month later we got a bill for like $27,000 for "bandwidth overrun".
Turns out that within an hour of being in the building he had set up a Napster node and was downloading every file in there, and re-sharing them.
When we fired him he had tears 😭 in his eyes and was genuinely destroyed... he just kept saying "But I read the Employee Handbook and there was nothing in there saying I couldn't do that!".
A month later we got a bill for like $27,000 for "bandwidth overrun".
Turns out that within an hour of being in the building he had set up a Napster node and was downloading every file in there, and re-sharing them.
When we fired him he had tears 😭 in his eyes and was genuinely destroyed... he just kept saying "But I read the Employee Handbook and there was nothing in there saying I couldn't do that!".
18points
#44
I worked in the medical office of my county's jail. I was a medical officer, employed by the sheriff's dept. Once weekly, a dentist and his assistant, who were contracted to work there as opposed to being sheriff's dept employees, came in to treat the inmates.
The dental assistant was smuggling in loose tobacco and rolling papers to an inmate by hiding it in the inmate restroom trashcan. She was also giving him clandestine b**wjobs in the X-ray room.
The inmate sang like a pigeon in hopes of getting better accomodations (of course). The d*****s assistant was not only fired, but arrested on a class C felony for trafficking contraband. But that's minor in comparison to the condyloma infection (genital warts) she caught from the inmate.
The dental assistant was smuggling in loose tobacco and rolling papers to an inmate by hiding it in the inmate restroom trashcan. She was also giving him clandestine b**wjobs in the X-ray room.
The inmate sang like a pigeon in hopes of getting better accomodations (of course). The d*****s assistant was not only fired, but arrested on a class C felony for trafficking contraband. But that's minor in comparison to the condyloma infection (genital warts) she caught from the inmate.
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18points
#45
A particular receptionist was constantly on her phone at the reception desk despite being told we were not supposed to have our phones on us during our shift. She got sooooo many warnings. One day, she came in to work and was fine, happy, her normal self. About an hour later she was asking someone to cover the desk so she could go to the bathroom, she was crying. The manager came out when she came back and asked what was wrong, worried a patient had been a*****e. Oh no, not work related. Her boyfriend had been texting her and they got into a fight and she needed to go home to resolve it. They told her to go home and not come back, she had too many warnings about no phones.
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17points