When we put in the effort to meet our employer’s professional expectations, it can be very frustrating and demotivating to see other coworkers completely ignore those standards. For many, the internet is the best place to vent and share their stories of employees who probably should have been fired for their misconduct but weren’t.
As funny or shocking as many of these stories might be, some of them may reveal serious underlying problems at their workplaces. Here are a few reasons why bad employees might be held on to by a business:
- No replacements available;
- Blackmail;
- Interpersonal relationships.
There are others as well, but even if the reason is understandable, preferential and unfair treatment can still have a negative impact on other employees at the company.
#1
Back when I was doing my student teaching, a teacher punched a student in the face and did not get fired.
In his defense, the kid was 17 and thought it would be funny to rip the wig off of a female teacher who was going through chemo. The teacher who did the punching was right there and it was pretty much an immediate reaction. Not a single person in that school blamed that teacher for what he did.
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195points
#2
Wow, a question that I have a really relevant story for:
So, I got my buddy CJ a job at my gas station and it's his first day. He was working a register and was doing pretty good. My manager was messing with the cigarettes or something behind us.
I hear CJ say from his register, "C'mon, Grandma, hurry up. You've used a debit card before."
My manager looked like a deer in headlights. Both of us just look at him. I'm f*****g FURIOUS that he just f****d up the job that I vouched for him to get. He looks confused for a second, then starts to chuckle.
It was his actual grandmother.
We all had a good laugh and it was a good day.
So, I got my buddy CJ a job at my gas station and it's his first day. He was working a register and was doing pretty good. My manager was messing with the cigarettes or something behind us.
I hear CJ say from his register, "C'mon, Grandma, hurry up. You've used a debit card before."
My manager looked like a deer in headlights. Both of us just look at him. I'm f*****g FURIOUS that he just f****d up the job that I vouched for him to get. He looks confused for a second, then starts to chuckle.
It was his actual grandmother.
We all had a good laugh and it was a good day.
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156points
#3
It was actually me, i still have no idea what i was thinking.
The owners of the company all showed up for a company meeting, and gave this 30minute long speech about how much they value our work and they wanted to reward us. They started handing out checks, i open it up and see $2,000. Now, I dont make a ton of money and I was having health issues and been to the ER a few times in the last few months. So this money would literally save me.
Everyones is all excited and very surprised our management who were known to be penny pinches that didnt care at all about employees would do this.
Then I see it.
The checks were all dated for for 2 years from now. They said if we stayed with the company with no write ups and never miss a day of work we could cash those checks in 2 years.
I just lost it... I walked up the front of the presentation, held my check up, ripped it into shreds, and said "This is some serious b******t." and threw the shreds at the owners.
Surprisingly I wasnt fired. Probably because I am the highest producing employee in the company. or maybe they realized toying with people like that really wasnt a good idea. Who knows.
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128points
Unfair treatment should always be addressed if a coworker’s actions are abusive or illegal. However, if their excesses aren’t that extreme, there may be a reason they’re still working that they can’t see. Some reasons might include:
- Cost-benefit ratio: A rare or altogether unique skillset may make the worker extremely difficult to replace. Or perhaps, despite their drawbacks, they perform very well at their job. It may make more sense for your boss to keep them.
- It’s not a big deal: If an employee’s quirk doesn’t prevent them from performing at their job, then it may be asking yourself whether that quirk is bothering everyone or just you.
- Onboarding costs: Some positions require a lot of training or other onboarding processes to get people up to speed. Management may feel that letting someone go isn’t worth the trouble of finding and training a replacement.
#4
Accidentally emailed the salaries of about 1,000 employees to those employees, so everyone got to see how much more money the new guy who was worse than them made.
Cost a lot of money to level all those salaries.
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115points
#5
I worked at a pizza place 4 or 5 days a week after school, and everyone else that worked there was a boy; not a single female but me. The boys that I worked with acted as you would expect, picking on me and always making me the butt of their jokes. I wasn't too bothered, i can handle a joke pretty well. One boy, named Tyler, took it really far and threatened to rape me several times, and would grab my chest after i repeatedly told him not to. I told the manager about it, and instead of the reaction i had hoped for, my manager laughed in my face. I quit the next day.
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93points
#6
A guy I work with has been caught with a prostitute in his work truck on company time.
Twice.
One of them was underage.
I don't know how he still has a job.
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82points
It’s important to familiarize yourself with local labor laws. In some cases, you may find out that something you didn’t mind at all is actually a violation of your rights. You may also discover laws or organizationsthat give you the opportunity to address a workplace grievance anonymously, or will at least shield you from illegal consequences.
#7
Worked at a small radio station. Guy who was on air before me would record the local news for me to play at 6pm. It was recorded so if he messed up he would just start over and edit that part out. Well one day he forgets that he messed up so he doesn't edit it. I play the news on-air at 6 and in the middle I hear "GOD DAMNIT NOW I HAVE TO DO THIS F*****G THING AGAIN...(then in his pleasant radio voice) Hi I'm Jim Thomas with your 6 o'clock news update". Not sure why he didn't get fired.
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80points
#8
I worked at a pet store for a long time. We had a Cyanobacteria outbreak and were bleaching individual tanks (once separated from main sump) and then dechlorinating the tanks and testing them before putting them back in with the main sump system.
We had been undergoing the process for about a week at that point, but apparently Ole Red hadn't been paying attention at all during that time period.
She reattached a tank half-full of bleach to the main tank system. As I walked into the store (it was my day off; I was just there for lizard food), I just see the majority of the fish moving around listlessly. Then they started death-spiralling. I point this out to my coworkers and they start freaking out. One of them starts dumping bottles of dechlorinator into the system.
Meanwhile, Ole Red fishes out her favorite fish, blood parrot cichlids, and starts blowing into their gills, trying to do some s****y approximation of CPR. She ends up throwing them into the separate sick tank in hopes of saving them.
Anyway, she killed 99% of the fish and I had to help shovel out their corpses while crying the entire time.
She didn't get fired and never took responsibility for the event.
tldr: Fishpocalypse 2012 caused by an idiot with a jug of bleach.
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79points
#9
Had a tantrum, screamed at me (for catching her falsifying reports to the government), smashed her keyboard on her desk (snapped it in two), was openly sexist, racist...
I got fired
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78points
#10
Facilities maintenance company I worked for got taken over by a new company. The new company was s**t to work for. One of the guys was getting really stressed out and since his wife made big bucks she told him to quit. Instead of quitting he decided to just come and go as he pleased, stole whatever he wanted, used the shop area and company supplies to work on personal projects for his house. This went on for over a year. They promoted him out of his position into management.
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69points
#11
New guy in office. We introduce ourselves. He then goes to the boss (which is a woman). Slaps her a*s from behind and when she turns around he kisses her on the lips grabbing said a*s.
Turns out they are married
EDIT: spelling
EDIT: they are married **to each other** since people asked ahah
EDIT: they are married **to each other** since people asked ahah
64points
#12
I was at a strip club in vegas with an ad exec who charged THIRTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS on his corporate card over the course of a very long night. Not a damn thing happened to him at work.
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56points
#13
At one hotel I worked at one girl got caught dropping empty drop envelopes into the safe and taking the cash. I'm talking about hundreds of dollars per shift for multiple shifts.
She was hot though. I think the owner liked staring at her.
By the time i quit, she was still there.
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54points
#14
Co-worker would read erotic Harry Potter fan fiction on her workstation for at least 6 hours a day at 40+pt font size.
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46points
#15
not sure which one is better. I work on exotic cars for clarification....
old dealership I worked for, car sales manager got caught taking a Lamborghini (without company permission) to pick up a date for a baseball game and ended up rear ending someone (he still works there)....
subsequent dealership I worked for, guy went to move an exotic race car... thought the big red button on the dash was to start the car. that was the mobile fire extinguisher button, filled the entire car up with fire extinguisher fluid (he quit 6 months after this).
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44points
#16
He was GM, owner was his college roomie, and he was only at work a maximum of 40 hrs out of 80 in the two-week pay period. He would leave in the mornings and go do his other job, leaving me (production manager) to run the place, and then come back towards the end of the day. He still billed the owner 80 hours per two-week pay period. He did this for at least 6 months.
I told the owner when I left the company.
They had a long chat.
He still works there.
His name is Chad.
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42points
#17
She came in still drunk from the night before. Her partner calls the director, who shows up and tells her to get a shower and sleep it off. I work for a 911 ems service.
41points
#18
I used to work at a fast food chain restaurant as a cook. One Sunday it was extra busy around lunch time and one of the cashiers kept messing up orders. My assistant general manager, who at the time was cooking with me, got so frustrated with the cashier that he took all the food that was on the grills and fryers and threw it against a wall.
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39points
#19
I work with this woman who should have been fired over a year ago, based on the company's policies. She was hired by her friend (surprise) and quickly figured out she doesn't have to do s**t because of it. We work in express restaurant, so lots of rules for good reason.
Just in the past 6 months she has caused multiple customers to complain about her specifically on surveys, caused other customers to call corporate to complain about her rudeness, broke a fryer, two thermometers, a sink, and 4 knives, opened the store with no paper towels or sanitizer (huge no no, we could have been shut down if the inspector came), oh and left the safe wide open and the doors unlocked for the entire night. This all when she was actually working and not hiding in the back texting or talking on the phone. No one knows how she isn't fired let alone demoted.
Another coworker and I were "promoted" to her spot with the promise that we would take her place when she was fired. We happily took on the responsibilities and waited for the actual promotion so we could have the titles and matching pay. Yeah she's still f*****g here, haven't gotten that raise or any of the others promised, and still technically ranked under her. I just saw I have to work with her tomorrow and I'm pissed.
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38points
#20
Phone call from employee with company car starts with: "So I just ran over this dude..."
Turns out dude had dementia or something, not the first time he's dashed out into traffic. Family did nothing. No insurance claim, no lawsuit, no nothing. His daughter came outside, yelled at the guy (her dad), and called an ambulance. Cops were involved. No idea how we ended up with no liability.
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37points