Making mistakes is human, and many of us make them when we do our jobs. In fact, one in five workers in the U.S. say they have made some kind of a critical mistake at work. What's more, only 11% got caught and faced repercussions, but a whopping 48% got off scot-free.
But sometimes, employees do such wild things that surely should get them fired, yet they still remain employed. Bored Panda has come across two threads online, where someone asked: "What’s the most messed up thing you’ve seen someone do at work and still not get fired?" and we've gathered up the most outrageous stories for you below!
#1
Me. I got hammer drunk on vodka at work and passed out in a client’s porch swing. My coworker found me. I had been driving a work truck all day while hitting the bottle.
I did not get fired, and this was not my first or last incident of drinking at work. My bosses loved me and work was like my family at that time in my life.
Obviously I am a raging alcoholic. But I’m happy to report that I haven’t drank for over 5 years now.
I did not get fired, and this was not my first or last incident of drinking at work. My bosses loved me and work was like my family at that time in my life.
Obviously I am a raging alcoholic. But I’m happy to report that I haven’t drank for over 5 years now.
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67points
#2
Old school company about 25 years ago.
We had a small conference room that was rarely used, outside of a daily morning standup. One day the room starts developing a funky smell. After a few days maintenance comes and looks at it, thinks we have a rodent problem. They do their thing but problem gets worse. Now they think something is dead in the wall, so they guy the room and re-do it completely, finding nothing.
Smell shortly returns.
This is where it gets weird. They put a camera in the room to see if they can figure out what is happening. Not a secret camera, wide out in the open, installed infront of everyone, the office is taking bets on what the camera will find, camera.
A couple of days later, they bust one of the IT guys urinating in the ficus tree in the corner of the room.
He gets called into HR, offers no explanation for it, and DENIES its clearly him on video. Its right in the middle of the .com crash and HR doesn't want to freak anyone out with the first layoff in 50 years, so is just, "well, if it was you, don't do it again".
A couple of days go by, they catch him again. This time someone is smart enough to finally get rid of the ficus tree. HR chews him out again, and moves his desk directly across from the bathroom. Like, they reorganized furniture so he would be as physically close to it as possible without actually being in it. I'm not sure if this was for shame, a threat, or someone thought it would solve it, but whatever.
A couple of days later, dude just goes and does it in the corner.
A couple of days later they finally fired him, but again, not wanting to freak people out, they send out a company wide letter basically saying "Look, our policy hasn't changed, we aren't doing layoffs, you know we always try and work through stuff with our staff, but steve over here keeps urinating in the tree in conference room B, so we had to do something"
I wish i saved it, because it was glorious in how it was written, with the perfect blend of HR speak, legal speak, and well, letting the world know that steve urinates in trees. You know that the thing spent days winding its way through various departments with people all the ways at the top having to discuss it and sign off on it.
After that whenever we would hire people and would give them the lay of the land, we would constantly emphasize the most important, unbreakable rule of working there, which was "You can only urinate on the tree in conference room B twice, the third is a firing, so make them count".
We had a small conference room that was rarely used, outside of a daily morning standup. One day the room starts developing a funky smell. After a few days maintenance comes and looks at it, thinks we have a rodent problem. They do their thing but problem gets worse. Now they think something is dead in the wall, so they guy the room and re-do it completely, finding nothing.
Smell shortly returns.
This is where it gets weird. They put a camera in the room to see if they can figure out what is happening. Not a secret camera, wide out in the open, installed infront of everyone, the office is taking bets on what the camera will find, camera.
A couple of days later, they bust one of the IT guys urinating in the ficus tree in the corner of the room.
He gets called into HR, offers no explanation for it, and DENIES its clearly him on video. Its right in the middle of the .com crash and HR doesn't want to freak anyone out with the first layoff in 50 years, so is just, "well, if it was you, don't do it again".
A couple of days go by, they catch him again. This time someone is smart enough to finally get rid of the ficus tree. HR chews him out again, and moves his desk directly across from the bathroom. Like, they reorganized furniture so he would be as physically close to it as possible without actually being in it. I'm not sure if this was for shame, a threat, or someone thought it would solve it, but whatever.
A couple of days later, dude just goes and does it in the corner.
A couple of days later they finally fired him, but again, not wanting to freak people out, they send out a company wide letter basically saying "Look, our policy hasn't changed, we aren't doing layoffs, you know we always try and work through stuff with our staff, but steve over here keeps urinating in the tree in conference room B, so we had to do something"
I wish i saved it, because it was glorious in how it was written, with the perfect blend of HR speak, legal speak, and well, letting the world know that steve urinates in trees. You know that the thing spent days winding its way through various departments with people all the ways at the top having to discuss it and sign off on it.
After that whenever we would hire people and would give them the lay of the land, we would constantly emphasize the most important, unbreakable rule of working there, which was "You can only urinate on the tree in conference room B twice, the third is a firing, so make them count".
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43points
#3
There was this unhinged girl at my job who was obsessed with a male in another department. She was full blown stalking him and one day bit his ear! She was a lunatic, driving by his house, contacting him from all different numbers.
How did it get handled? They told HIM that he could relocate to another location (my work has 6 local locations) and she didn’t even get a slap on the wrist!!!
Actually the most disappointed I have ever been with a company in handling a situation.
Imagine if the roles were reversed? I just feel like it would have been a completely different story!
Edit to add: she ended up working there another 3 years before she quit on her own terms.
How did it get handled? They told HIM that he could relocate to another location (my work has 6 local locations) and she didn’t even get a slap on the wrist!!!
Actually the most disappointed I have ever been with a company in handling a situation.
Imagine if the roles were reversed? I just feel like it would have been a completely different story!
Edit to add: she ended up working there another 3 years before she quit on her own terms.
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32points
#4
Due to some laziness and negligence, our department informed a mom of 3 kids that she had an aggressive breast cancer and started her on chemotherapy. Come to find out, someone (my supervisor) mixed up this patients images with someone else and she does NOT have breast cancer. We didn’t refund her for a single payment made to our facilities and not once did we apologize since it would be an admission of guilt. I feel disgusting clocking in here everyday.
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31points
#5
Worked as a licensed mechanic, boss hired his friends kid. He was a menace, wrong oil filters (they would fall off), improperly torqued wheels amongst a large list of smaller things.
He didn't put a van in park (tbf if you know the Ford shifters it can easily happen). Leaped out to close the bay door, then proceeds to get closelined by the door of said van going in reverse. Somehow got back up in time to chase it through the lot before it hit anything else. Also the door got fully bent the other direction
He also did a full on brake stand in the middle of the shop (I believe he tried hitting the brake hard and ended up on both pedals) I yelled at him to shut it off.
He screamed instead and took his feet off the pedals causing it to rocket into the wall.
I told my boss within the first 2 weeks of that kid being here to get rid of him because of how careless and reckless he was but he never got fired.
He didn't put a van in park (tbf if you know the Ford shifters it can easily happen). Leaped out to close the bay door, then proceeds to get closelined by the door of said van going in reverse. Somehow got back up in time to chase it through the lot before it hit anything else. Also the door got fully bent the other direction
He also did a full on brake stand in the middle of the shop (I believe he tried hitting the brake hard and ended up on both pedals) I yelled at him to shut it off.
He screamed instead and took his feet off the pedals causing it to rocket into the wall.
I told my boss within the first 2 weeks of that kid being here to get rid of him because of how careless and reckless he was but he never got fired.
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23points
#6
Company had a "Family Fun Health and Safety Day" (yes that was really what they called it) annual picnic in the office carpark
Attendance was mandatory for all employees, and we were "encouraged" (read: pressured) to bring spouses and kids
Employee A was having an affair with married Employee B
Married Employee B shows up to the compulsory "Family Fun Health and Safety Day" with his wife and kids.
Employee A goes off on him for this, goes off on the wife, and the wife and the side piece get into an actual physical brawl in our carpark, under the mildew smelling canvas of our "marquee", in front of the BBQ, the Port a Potties (located right next to the BBQ), God, man, B's kids, everyone else's kids, various employees who never wanted to be at this stupid mandatory picnic in the first place, probably some curious seagulls who came by to steal the food before seeing the setup...
The office was locked up once the "picnic" started (probably to prevent us sneaking back in to do work or, idk, access a toilet with running water) and the carpark only had the one way in or out, which was where they were fighting, so none of us could leave
Everyone involved in this situation kept their jobs. Maybe that was the real punishment all along...
Attendance was mandatory for all employees, and we were "encouraged" (read: pressured) to bring spouses and kids
Employee A was having an affair with married Employee B
Married Employee B shows up to the compulsory "Family Fun Health and Safety Day" with his wife and kids.
Employee A goes off on him for this, goes off on the wife, and the wife and the side piece get into an actual physical brawl in our carpark, under the mildew smelling canvas of our "marquee", in front of the BBQ, the Port a Potties (located right next to the BBQ), God, man, B's kids, everyone else's kids, various employees who never wanted to be at this stupid mandatory picnic in the first place, probably some curious seagulls who came by to steal the food before seeing the setup...
The office was locked up once the "picnic" started (probably to prevent us sneaking back in to do work or, idk, access a toilet with running water) and the carpark only had the one way in or out, which was where they were fighting, so none of us could leave
Everyone involved in this situation kept their jobs. Maybe that was the real punishment all along...
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23points
#7
I worked as an infusion nurse, and occasionally we had patients who required central lines. One day, a patient was fully prepped for a procedure: consented, awake, and a sterile field carefully set. The PICC team nurse arrived, donned sterile gloves—and then ripped the tip of one glove off with her teeth before proceeding. There were two of us standing there. When it happened, we looked at each other in complete disbelief. I spoke up immediately and said that the sterile field had been broken, offering to help her get a new pair of sterile gloves. She declined. I did not want to alarm the patient, who was awake and clearly listening to the interaction, so I didn’t escalate further in the room. We reported the incident to our unit manager right away. Unfortunately, the manager was friends with this nurse and asked us not to mention the incident again, assuring us she would “handle it privately.”
After that, similar issues continued. This PICC nurse repeatedly attempted to place lines without verifying placement. On more than one occasion, the line was visibly blown and would not flush. When we firmly but professionally stated that the line could not be used for patient safety reasons, she became angry and had to restart the procedure.
Another incident involved a patient who came to the unit for a central line dressing change. The dressing was so poorly applied—taped entirely around the line with adhesive fused to itself—that removing it safely risked dislodging the catheter. I asked another nurse to assist me, and when we checked who had applied the dressing, the initials belonged to the same PICC nurse. This did not surprise us.
We escalated these concerns to higher management via email, clearly outlining issues related to patient safety, sterile technique, and repeated procedural failures. The response was an “educational in-service” reviewing sterile technique for the unit as a whole. Shortly afterward, the nurse in question was promoted and transferred to an outpatient oncology role.
Backstory: I loved my job and was very good at it, but the management culture was toxic. The unit was dominated by “mean girl” behavior, and nurses who did their jobs well—or helped others—were penalized. I was explicitly written up once for “helping other nurses too much,” despite teamwork being fundamental to nursing practice. When I asked who had complained so I could not offer "too much help", management refused to say, claiming it would harm teamwork. I should have left when this sort of thing started because it just got worse and worse after this.
I became a clear target. I was repeatedly called into the office for trivial or fabricated issues, including clocking out at my assigned time. When I requested HR involvement, several of the write-ups were significantly altered or walked back by my manager which told me that they were inflated. Ultimately, I gave my two weeks’ notice because I refused to continue enduring psychological harassment. After I resigned, my direct manager would not make eye contact with me and never spoke to me again. That silence spoke volumes about her character and about how favoritism operated on that unit.
Unfortunately this experience tainted me as a hospital nurse. It had nothing to do with patients and all to do with a toxic work environment. I wish I had felt more confident at the time to not let them belittle me and corner me into leaving.
After that, similar issues continued. This PICC nurse repeatedly attempted to place lines without verifying placement. On more than one occasion, the line was visibly blown and would not flush. When we firmly but professionally stated that the line could not be used for patient safety reasons, she became angry and had to restart the procedure.
Another incident involved a patient who came to the unit for a central line dressing change. The dressing was so poorly applied—taped entirely around the line with adhesive fused to itself—that removing it safely risked dislodging the catheter. I asked another nurse to assist me, and when we checked who had applied the dressing, the initials belonged to the same PICC nurse. This did not surprise us.
We escalated these concerns to higher management via email, clearly outlining issues related to patient safety, sterile technique, and repeated procedural failures. The response was an “educational in-service” reviewing sterile technique for the unit as a whole. Shortly afterward, the nurse in question was promoted and transferred to an outpatient oncology role.
Backstory: I loved my job and was very good at it, but the management culture was toxic. The unit was dominated by “mean girl” behavior, and nurses who did their jobs well—or helped others—were penalized. I was explicitly written up once for “helping other nurses too much,” despite teamwork being fundamental to nursing practice. When I asked who had complained so I could not offer "too much help", management refused to say, claiming it would harm teamwork. I should have left when this sort of thing started because it just got worse and worse after this.
I became a clear target. I was repeatedly called into the office for trivial or fabricated issues, including clocking out at my assigned time. When I requested HR involvement, several of the write-ups were significantly altered or walked back by my manager which told me that they were inflated. Ultimately, I gave my two weeks’ notice because I refused to continue enduring psychological harassment. After I resigned, my direct manager would not make eye contact with me and never spoke to me again. That silence spoke volumes about her character and about how favoritism operated on that unit.
Unfortunately this experience tainted me as a hospital nurse. It had nothing to do with patients and all to do with a toxic work environment. I wish I had felt more confident at the time to not let them belittle me and corner me into leaving.
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21points
#8
Store manager got caught adding hours he didn't work to his time card. He got a reprimand and they removed the ability for managers to edit their own hours.
About a month later he gets caught using another manager's login to add more hours he didn't work. Another slap on the wrist and is still working at the same place.
About a month later he gets caught using another manager's login to add more hours he didn't work. Another slap on the wrist and is still working at the same place.
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21points
#9
Four people I worked with were playing World of Warcraft at work - one was in IT and unblocked the ports for him and his friends. And I don't mean they'd play after work on work machines. They played at work. For at least a year. They barely got a slap on the wrist as far as their colleagues could tell. No one fired.
Yet - the guy that flipped out because people kept touching his workstation in the lab? He got fired. No violence, no threat of violence - just a loose screw and was yelling about how 'people keep touching my things!' Yeah - that guy got shown the door same day.
Yet - the guy that flipped out because people kept touching his workstation in the lab? He got fired. No violence, no threat of violence - just a loose screw and was yelling about how 'people keep touching my things!' Yeah - that guy got shown the door same day.
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19points
#10
This 18 year old kid at a store I worked for ate this elderly woman's lunch right out of the fridge. She walked into the breakroom and caught him eating it. She asked him why he stole her lunch, and he cusse at her.
She cried, she talked to the manager about it and he didn't even give the kid a writeup. Just told him to knock it off and not to take food that didn't belong to him.
A week later, he took her boots (she changed out of her winter boots into sneakers for work) and he threw them into the compactor. Nobody had evidence he did it, but we all knew.
That poor woman, he even got arrested one weekend for stealing a car!
She cried, she talked to the manager about it and he didn't even give the kid a writeup. Just told him to knock it off and not to take food that didn't belong to him.
A week later, he took her boots (she changed out of her winter boots into sneakers for work) and he threw them into the compactor. Nobody had evidence he did it, but we all knew.
That poor woman, he even got arrested one weekend for stealing a car!
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18points
#11
Bump into my breasts with his hands during a work meeting - TWICE!!!
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17points
#12
I worked with a guy who literally had no job. He was the "studio supervisor" but there was no activity in the studio to supervise because the studio had effectively become non-operational. He coasted for a full 8 years at this job. He would come in the morning, open his email, get coffee, gossip and complain about the industry for an hour, leave for an hour, come back for lunch, leave for another 3 hours, come back, send a few emails and then officially leave for the day. It was infuriating and majestic.
17points
#13
He liked throwing ice cubes into the deep fryer. He'd stand far enough away that he wouldn't get splashed, which made it a complete surprise to the person working the fryer. If you've never done this, it kind of causes a mini explosion of bubbles in molten grease, which splashes everywhere and, at the very least, makes a mess.
When this got too boring, he started stealing kids meal toys and chucking them into the fryer. It took longer for them to start melting, and if he couldn't get them out, we had to turn the thing off for the rest of the day because it takes hours for it to cool off long enough to retrieve something, and then at least another hour to heat back up. I can't remember what it was that he threw, but it caught on fire and he ended up pulling it out with a pair of metal tongs and threw it in the sink. Then he turned on the water and made (to his surprise!) a BIGGER FIRE. Did he get burned? Yes. Did he get fired? No. Did he do it again? Sort of. I think he went back to ice cubes after that.
**TLDR; Technically he got fired, but it was with ACTUAL FIRE. The boss just kind of shook her head and let him keep working there.**.
When this got too boring, he started stealing kids meal toys and chucking them into the fryer. It took longer for them to start melting, and if he couldn't get them out, we had to turn the thing off for the rest of the day because it takes hours for it to cool off long enough to retrieve something, and then at least another hour to heat back up. I can't remember what it was that he threw, but it caught on fire and he ended up pulling it out with a pair of metal tongs and threw it in the sink. Then he turned on the water and made (to his surprise!) a BIGGER FIRE. Did he get burned? Yes. Did he get fired? No. Did he do it again? Sort of. I think he went back to ice cubes after that.
**TLDR; Technically he got fired, but it was with ACTUAL FIRE. The boss just kind of shook her head and let him keep working there.**.
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16points
#14
This guy at my workplace should have been fired so many times but I think the only reason he wasn’t was because he was our top salesman.
He went behind our boss’ back and secretly met with our boss’ boss claiming the boss was incompetent and he should have his job instead.
He accidentally discharged a firearm he brought to the office one day, putting a bullet into the floor with all his coworkers standing nearby.
He did an absolutely unhinged “fire safety” drill where he set off the alarm and locked all the doors to the main office. Everyone thought the fire was real and panicked, causing another employee to literally have a heart attack. (Thank god he survived.)
And as if that wasn’t enough, he cut the face off a CPR dummy during a First Aid demonstration and the company had to replace the dummy.
He went behind our boss’ back and secretly met with our boss’ boss claiming the boss was incompetent and he should have his job instead.
He accidentally discharged a firearm he brought to the office one day, putting a bullet into the floor with all his coworkers standing nearby.
He did an absolutely unhinged “fire safety” drill where he set off the alarm and locked all the doors to the main office. Everyone thought the fire was real and panicked, causing another employee to literally have a heart attack. (Thank god he survived.)
And as if that wasn’t enough, he cut the face off a CPR dummy during a First Aid demonstration and the company had to replace the dummy.
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15points
#15
A guy in my office printed out a 50-page report on how to do nothing at work... and got promoted! If that's not a career strategy, I don't know what is!
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15points
#16
We had someone miss a performance review for termination for sleeping on the job, because she was asleep.
The company moved her to another department where her strikes for sleeping on the job restarted at 1.
The company moved her to another department where her strikes for sleeping on the job restarted at 1.
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14points
#17
Secretary chewedout CEO in front of his board.
Everyone in that room knew she had enough dirt to bury all of them.
Everyone in that room knew she had enough dirt to bury all of them.
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14points
#18
After reading some of these, I'm not sure how much this counts....
Had a guy hired for internal IT for a **Pennsylvania** firm b/c he had specific certifications that our vendors\partners wanted us to have to prove we were capable of supporting their business. Over the next few weeks it becomes obvious to us, this dude doesnt know anything including simple things we asked him to do on systems he supposedly is an expert in. We confront him and straight up says, oh yea I brain dumped those certification tests.
We tell our boss. He doesnt care- the guy has the certs we need for the business.
The guy's making an excuse once per week on why he can't come in. Family tragedy, sickness, overslept after a wedding party, car towed, etc. Each time we used the opportunity to tell our boss that he needs to fire him b/c hes not contributing. But nothing.
Then one day, they guy called in and said he had two flat tires- can't come into work. We made him tell our boss that. Then we told our boss, hey Brad lives close, why don't we ask Brad to pick him up. Sure thing, boss man says. Calls the dude, tells him Brad will pick him up in 30mins, and then says well actually, I'm in **Florida.**
Finally boss fires him, but the next week we see the dude got a job at another place. His certifications landed him another job within days of his firing.
Not fair.
Had a guy hired for internal IT for a **Pennsylvania** firm b/c he had specific certifications that our vendors\partners wanted us to have to prove we were capable of supporting their business. Over the next few weeks it becomes obvious to us, this dude doesnt know anything including simple things we asked him to do on systems he supposedly is an expert in. We confront him and straight up says, oh yea I brain dumped those certification tests.
We tell our boss. He doesnt care- the guy has the certs we need for the business.
The guy's making an excuse once per week on why he can't come in. Family tragedy, sickness, overslept after a wedding party, car towed, etc. Each time we used the opportunity to tell our boss that he needs to fire him b/c hes not contributing. But nothing.
Then one day, they guy called in and said he had two flat tires- can't come into work. We made him tell our boss that. Then we told our boss, hey Brad lives close, why don't we ask Brad to pick him up. Sure thing, boss man says. Calls the dude, tells him Brad will pick him up in 30mins, and then says well actually, I'm in **Florida.**
Finally boss fires him, but the next week we see the dude got a job at another place. His certifications landed him another job within days of his firing.
Not fair.
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13points
#19
I worked as a bus aide, and we got a few new buses. One of the drivers who was known to be difficult to deal with was mad she didn’t get assigned one of the new buses , and was also mad she didn’t get assigned in first place in line where we picked up the kids (we were supposed to wait in a certain order to make it easier for the kids to find the correct bus).
On the way to the school one afternoon she kept trying to cut in line by leap frogging her way to the front but the other drivers wouldn’t let (she’d pulled that stunt before and caused confusion with the kids). So when we got to the parking lot she decided to squeeze her bus between ours (we were third) and the line of teacher’s parked cars. When the kids came out they kinda milled about at first until the teachers led the way, because she was supposed to be much further back. It was such a tight squeeze when she opened her door the kids couldn’t get in, because the door was touching the side of our bus. The two busses in front pulled out when they loaded and we then tried to go but she darted in front of us to load her kids. All the other busses had to wait on her because all her kids had been led back to the school.
While all this was going on the other drivers were telling her to stop, what’s she doing, etc. on the radios and HQ was trying to figure out what was going on.
Several of us reported what had happened but all she got was a talking to.
Btw, all the kids were special needs.
On the way to the school one afternoon she kept trying to cut in line by leap frogging her way to the front but the other drivers wouldn’t let (she’d pulled that stunt before and caused confusion with the kids). So when we got to the parking lot she decided to squeeze her bus between ours (we were third) and the line of teacher’s parked cars. When the kids came out they kinda milled about at first until the teachers led the way, because she was supposed to be much further back. It was such a tight squeeze when she opened her door the kids couldn’t get in, because the door was touching the side of our bus. The two busses in front pulled out when they loaded and we then tried to go but she darted in front of us to load her kids. All the other busses had to wait on her because all her kids had been led back to the school.
While all this was going on the other drivers were telling her to stop, what’s she doing, etc. on the radios and HQ was trying to figure out what was going on.
Several of us reported what had happened but all she got was a talking to.
Btw, all the kids were special needs.
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12points
#20
Oh boy.
My grandfather was a computer technician at my dad's school when he was growing up, the man had no experience with computers since they were still kinda the new thing. This madlad interviews, gets the job by spouting out buzzwords and at the end of the interview is like, "Hey I'm a bit unfamiliar with this particular system, could I have the manual to look over before I start?" They're like "yeah whatever."
Guy aggressively reads this manual until he is an expert and knows everything about this computer. He held the job for years.
My grandfather was a computer technician at my dad's school when he was growing up, the man had no experience with computers since they were still kinda the new thing. This madlad interviews, gets the job by spouting out buzzwords and at the end of the interview is like, "Hey I'm a bit unfamiliar with this particular system, could I have the manual to look over before I start?" They're like "yeah whatever."
Guy aggressively reads this manual until he is an expert and knows everything about this computer. He held the job for years.
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12points