Normally, getting fired is not something you’d picture as your best day. With dreams, hopes and credit balance shattered, for many, it would feel like things are getting out of hand and hey, saying it that it wouldn’t be the most pleasant feeling would be an understatement.
Unless you’re one of a bunch of ex-employees who say that getting fired was “totally worth it.” So in order to find out in what exact scenarios getting expelled from your workplace is a happy ending, we are going to look at the answers people posted in response to “What's your 'got fired, but was totally worth it' story” on r/AskReddit.
The got-happily-fired stories are to remind everyone that context is everything, and if your job is a toxic rat hole in disguise, you are better off without it.
#1
Worked at a tire shop and just by a fluke of pertfect timing I caught the Asst. Mgr take an upskirt picture of a customer who was bent over looking in her trunk for a lug key. I broke his nose. They fired me and it was absolutely appropriate to do so, and I don't even feel bad about it cause they fired him too.
286points
#2
The woman I loved was dying in hospital. I asked for time off to be with her. Since I was still in my probation period they cancelled my contract.
We're engaged.
224points
#3
Reported coworker for sexually harassing a minor.
Manager fired me for making the accusation against her friend.
She got fired, the district manager got fired, he got fired after he was caught in a bathroom with a minor.
202points
Bored Panda reached out to Dawn Moss, the founder of “Your Interview Coach” who has been helping both candidates and hiring managers through the recruitment and selection process since 2013.
When asked what are some of the most common reasons employers may fire their employees, Dawn said that there are three main reasons: poor performance, misconduct, and sickness absence.
“One of the most common reasons is poor performance,” the recruitment coach told us. “Typically, most jobs will have a probation period. This is a set period hiring managers get to assess the new employee’s performance. Hiring managers will have certain expectations depending on the job.” Dawn said that if an employee doesn’t meet those expectations, then it’s time to have a serious conversation.
#4
I got fired once in college for giving a burnt fried shrimp dinner to a homeless dude. I was a floor manager. The burnt food just sat in the window for like three hours. He came in, said he was hungry and would take anything. I bagged up the dinner and gave him a togo cup with water. I was fired for "feeding those f*cking stray dogs."
189points
#5
I worked in a bar with an awful boss. He would always flirt with the young female bar staff making us all uncomfortable, even though he was 50 y/o. We all knew his wife and two young children but about 6 months into me working there he began to ‘date’ a 22 year old customer. By date, I mean he used to go downstairs to his office and sleep with her ...while he was on shift. No one was allowed to talk about it but we all knew. Quite quickly he knocked her up and ended up breaking up with his wife, but he still flirted with his staff relentlessly even when his new baby was born. He once told a male employee that he liked asking female bar staff to pick up things from low shelfs so we would bend over and he could check out our ass. EW.
So anyway, he always used to break health and safety rules if he could get out of doing a task he didn’t want to. He was prolific for asking bar staff to clean human waste (vomit/poop customers had done on the floor) even though legally anyone cleaning that stuff needed to have passed a certain health and safety qualification. I spoke to my assistant manager about this and she confirmed that only management can do it, and I should refuse next time.
One day he demanded I cleaned up vomit in the male toilets, and I refused, repeating what the assistant manager told me. My boss went absolutely mad (he wasn’t used to people standing up to him) he told me to come downstairs to his office to speak about it. At that moment I knew I wanted to quit, so I told him I won’t be going downstairs with him. He asked me why, and I replied: “The last girl who went down their with you ended up getting pregnant so that’s gonna be a nope from me”
Lost my job but worth it
182points
#6
Was working at Little Caesars at the time, was probably my 2nd month or so. About an hour before my shift starts, my mom calls and says my grandma fell down the stairs and is at the hospital, and I need to go right away since she works farther away and I can get to her first. I call LC to tell them I can't come in, and my boss said if I don't come in, I'll be fired. I say ok and hang up. A few hours later I get a voicemail saying I've been let go from LC. Totally worth it to make it to my grandma to check on her.
161points
Another reason the employee may be expelled from their job is misconduct. “There are several behaviors that would be unacceptable in the workplace. It could be anything from swearing, bullying, harassment, discrimination, stealing, industrial espionage, disputes about Intellectual Property (IP), and the list goes on…”
And when it comes to sickness absence, most companies will have an absence management policy in place. “If too much time is taken off due to ill-health this may result in dismissal, or medical retirement,” Dawn said.
#7
Was an assistant store manager at Lowe's and decided to go back to school to become a teacher and drop down to an hourly position for three months and then I was going to leave the company after that to study full time. The day before the transfer they fired me which saved them from paying me half of my saved up vacation time which was worth about $300.
As I am being led out of the store my buddy in HR says you can get unemployment and slides me a note with the phone number. I get 6 months of unemployment at $300 a week.
135points
#8
Went into a business meeting for the ice cream shop I managed Bold Stone I was told that the girl that was 7 months pregnant need to be written up as much as possible so they could have a legal reason to fire her. Told them it wasn’t going to happen and they suggested that I put in my two weeks and find other work. So I did, then I was told that I was going to be gone in two weeks and might as well just fire her. Was no way in hell I would do that.I walked into that meeting with a 50 hour a week decent paying job and left with nothing but my integrity. I then preceded to drive to my store and pull the girl aside and let her know what was going on. Last I checked I believe she manages the store now.
118points
#9
Worked at a "big" supermarket chain. Did cashier job, placed out products and some behind the scenes management. One day i get called to the back. It was the regional manager, said my deficit after my shifts as cashier is getting out of control, about 10-50 bucks every shift. Threatened me with cops saying that they surveillance videos showing me stealing the money. I said sure, get the cops here, i'll just wait. After 30 minutes cops arrived. When we started watching the footage there was nothing showing that i stole the money, cops said there is no evidence against me, and took off. I still got fired on the spot and they even banned me from entering their stores all over the country.
Few weeks later i get a call from the girl that was working there with me, covering me for smoke breaks when i was cashier. Teared up, choking from crying. It was her stealing the money all the time while i used my breaks. Got charges pressed against her, did 120 hours community service and paid a huge fine.
Few days after that i get a call from regional manager apologizing for the inconvenience and asking me if i want to return. Told him to f**k off and hung up.
116points
We also asked if you should hide the fact that you were fired from your previous job. “This is going to be a tricky situation,” Dawn said and added. “No one wants to admit to being fired. However, I’ve always said, honesty is the best policy.”
“If you don’t admit you’ve been fired and the new employer finds out later, then you may be dismissed anyway. It’s not worth the risk,” she said. Dawn also suggested thinking carefully about how you are going to handle this question; “Why did you leave your previous job? If you got fired, admit it, and take responsibility, and talk about the lessons you’ve learned.”
#10
Had this English works supervisor in Ireland once who was really nasty to Polish migrants. I had been asked to help out on the project and this as**ole who had been used to pushing around Polish immigrants got a shock when I hauled him up in front of everyone for workplace infringements. He tried to accuse me of being racist against English people but all the Polish got behind me and compiled a catalogue of outstanding grievances which got his a*s kicked off the project. Last I heard he'd gone back to England.
104points
#11
I was working in a small accounting firm making less than minimum wage $30000 (minimum wage in Australia is $38,000). The boss was exploiting the fact that people like me were desperate to get their foot into the door of accounting as it is very competitive in Australia.
One day i was stupidly posting on a forum about my situation and looking for advice. The boss found out and fired me on the spot.
Feeling pretty spiteful about the whole thing, i reported my situation to fair work ombudsman Australia. A month later i got payment for the amount i should have been making at minimum wage for the 6 months i was there.
About a month after that i landed a much better role at large company making almost double what i was making previously.
The icing on the cake is the firm ended up getting investigated by fair work and i can only assume they received a hefty fine because they are no longer in business.
95points
#12
I worked at a place in Grand Bend Ontario. I was the chef.
The year before I was hired; they'd left the place a mess and violated health code to the point where they had been cited, I was working up hill against that and a crazy owner who would rather act like she was 21 than run her f**king business.
On a July evening, someone stuck a hot, dirty, sautee pan into my stack of cool clean pans. I wrapped my hand around it and...man. That was an intense level of pain. Literally had to peel the pan from my hand.
Crazy owner wouldn't let me call an ambulance because it would be bad for business. Insisted I run service from the other side of the line.
I took a few days medical leave after that, all the while fielding harassing phone calls saying how I was letting them down.
This place was awful and I'd had no staff for weeks because, again, ownership ran them off. I handed in my notice and was promptly escorted off the property.
It was gratifying to watch their reviews sink after that. Food going out cold. Moldy mushroom burgers. Etc.
87points
Moreover, it’s probably best to “not go into lots of details and try not to waffle on and on. Keep it short, concise, and factual.” Dawn also reminded that bad-mouthing the previous employer or your previous manager is also a bad idea since “that’s only going to reflect badly on you.”
#13
My ex-manager here at the cinema. I cant fully tell his story because i wasnt directly involved but did have to stand at trial for claims etc as a witness.
He got fired over "budgetary reasons", in other words "We dont like your face because you wont bend over when we tell you to, wage-slave" just after he got cancer and had to take days off for treatment. Happened right around Christmas, so Jan 1rst we come in and he's officially off the roster etc. Thing is, he never really took vacations, or days off even as well as never claiming the extra hours he'd work here (fixing cameras, projectors, computers and databases etc. Everything here is semi-autonomous) so over the past 30 or so years, he tallied up a fair bag of extra unpaid hours. Thing in Switzerland is, you can only claim the past 5 years as far as policy goes, so he did just that. It damn near bankrupt the company (they owe him around 60k atm), and they still havent paid up fully because of it.
I see him now and then, he looks way better, less stressed out and happier. Works with helping old people now in his free time and coaching kids play volleyball.
81points
#14
I worked at a cafe chain know for soups, sandwiches, and salads throughout high school. I was good friends with exactly three people, but whenever our group got to close the store it was always a fun time. We ended up taking the headsets (for the drive thru) after that had closed and we were just messing around chatting while cleaning up. There was a particularly attractive new manager that had been hired recently and she was a bit of a hot topic between a group of high school guys.
We were unaware that the store mics and cameras ran to an app on the manager’s phone. We all got called in the next day. They didn’t fire us ... oh no it was much worse.
The manager had a good sense of humor. She made printouts of our conversation and made us repeat it verbatim to the new hot manager, who was in tears laughing at how terrible we felt.
Taught us a good lesson. Good managing right there.
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76points
#15
I got fired from a restaurant job that I hated. The unemployment I got was more than the restaurant had been paying me.
74points
#16
I kept avoiding calls at the company I worked at because we sold cable and every single customer that walked in and every single call was someone screaming at me and telling me what a piece of sh!t I was cause they were angry about something on their bill.
I got told by an old woman she hoped my mom died in a fire over two dollars. So they call me in and tell me I'm fired for call avoidance and I just shrugged, said okay and left. Didn't feel bad. Didn't wallow in it. Felt a giant weight come off my shoulders.
72points
#17
Several years ago I worked for a veterinarian. He was such an *sshole. Verbally abusive to all us tech and office staff on almost a daily basis. I cant remember why, but he called me a dumb b*tch. After the day, on my way home I always dropped his mail off at the post office. That day I tore up his house payment check and didn't send it. F*ck that guy. That was the last day I showed up at work.
72points
#18
Worked in a govenment office where it's typical to wring hands, deny responsibility, and shift the burden onto citizens even if it's the state that made the mistake.
I had a county prosecutor calling repeatedly trying to obtain some documents. It was a drunk driver case, the guy was facing down some serious charges and they were trying to build their case and determine the extent of charges against him. Absolutely someone who needed to be put away.
Everything in policy said they were entitled to it, but the person who normally furnishes it was constantly out with all manner of excuses. I finally got sick of putting it off, stalling them, making excuses for her. I pulled the info myself and sent it. That didn't break any laws or policy, but they decided to sack me for it because I'd overstepped. But I'd do it again.
71points
#19
The treasurer of a club I was working at accused me of stealing beer from the cooler (I don't drink). He said "we need to talk when I finish my round."
He heads out and the phone rings. It was the father of kids I coached for several years. He offered me a job paying several times what I was making. Something he had done several times in the past, but I liked the job I had.
I just retired at 53 from the new job he offered. No regrets, and for those interested - I never stole a penny, or a beer. The treasurer admitted later he had forgotten to count inventory. Too late. He's actually a nice guy, but I never appreciated being accused of something I didn't do.
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70points
#20
Was working in dialysis when another competing company came to town effectively eliminating the monopoly my current company had on treating kidney failure. The company I worked for had already lost their physician group and was so afraid of losing staff (and the patients that would follow them) to the new company they gave out huge retention bonuses. After receiving my bonus I was fired for a manufactured problem beyond my control. I was hired by the new company, got a $10,000 signing bonus and took a couple dozens patients with me to the new company. Got my picture in the new company's brochure they mailed out to all the dialysis patients so they knew where I ended up. Just having a new company come to town to provide competition was also amazing for the patients. They got new heated massage chairs and new TVs with more channels and better/more staff to take care of them. The old company's dialysis centers across town that did not get competing dialysis units put nearby didn't give those patients anything.
64points