Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Share The Dumbest Reason They Ever Got Fired From Their Job

office full of desks and workers

Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

Reddit user strykazoid asked: 'What's the dumbest reason a job ever fired you?'

I once worked in a cubicle farm doing finance and accounting. A new employee disappeared just a few hours after the day started.

Eventually they were found.

On the floor.

Under their desk.

Sleeping.

They were promptly fired once they woke up. I wonder how their version of the story goes.

While that was a ridiculous way to be fired, for these folks, the employers were the ones with questionable judgment.


Reddit user strykazoid asked:

"What's the dumbest reason a job ever fired you?"

Heartless

"I was 17. My Grandpa died unexpectedly from a heart attack. My Mother called my work’s office to let me know."

"I was called to the office to talk on the office phone to my mother, and staff (who were told what was going on) left the area so my mother could privately break the news to me."

"I was obliterated of course, and walked outside for about 15 minutes to clear my head. I then went back to work."

"The woman who was in charge of the entire operation fired me for leaving the building."

"Human Resources stepped in and stopped the situation before I could be notified that I had been fired."

"I only found out that this had happened after my grandpa's funeral days later."

"I quit immediately."

~ moochir

Weekly Occurrence

"I had an alcoholic handy man who was promoted to manager. This was a family owned restaurant and this guy had known the father of the current generation."

"He 'fired' me several times a week for not bumming him a cigarette or not wanting to work the second dining room when we had 5 reservations or taking my approved unpaid time off."

"But he was a drunk who started with scotch and moved into amaretto so never remembered."

"I'd just come back the next day."

~ Shababajoe

Going Surfing

"For surfing the internet."

"Punchline: part of my job was to surf the internet and find content for their social media platforms."

"I wish I was making that up. I am not."

~ Sea-Woodpecker-610

Throwing Their Voice

" Fast food manager said a customer complained that he could hear me cussin' in the back."

"It was a couple days later when they fired me, but they said the incident happened on a day I happened to be off."

"I had a feeling the manager didn't like me much and planned poorly on when they'd claim the so called 'incident' happened."

~ Cool1Mach

"'I heard you cussin' when you weren't here. Don't ask me how that's possible'."

~ probablythrowaway71

Not an Escort Service

"I was 16 and refused to date the owner’s niece."

~ VosTutZich

"Do people think other people are property???"

~ Crackheadwithabrain

"Yes. Many, many people who own or manage businesses think exactly this."

~ G0-N0G0-GO

Last In, First Out

"In the days after 9/11 my employer (multinational bank) instantly fired the last 2 people hired in every department where there was redundancy, hedging against a financial collapse whenever the markets reopened."

"I just happened to be the last guy hired in my department."

~ ClmrThnUR

Poor Pandemic Planning

"Covid-19 forced everyone to work from home on hastily setup computers and infrastructure."

"Then they fired the IT staff because we were deemed ‘nonessential’."

"Bit them in the a** hard enough to remove chunks."

~ wkarraker

Not a "Team Player"

"Not 'fired' but let go with severance. CFO told me to make up historical reports because they weren't done in the past, but now required, and wanted to show how so much better metrics are now than in the past."

"What they were asking for was literally not possible to do since the data was not tracked to what they were asking and wanted to tweak the past numbers into a full-on made-up breakdown."

"I told the controller I wasn't comfortable doing this. The next week I got paid out."

"A month later I found out the CFO was canned."

~ Kir-ius

On Your Own Time

"Performance was bad. one of the reasons given was."

"'Reading newspapers in the lunch room'."

"Which was during my scheduled break."

~ tmacdevitt

Oops!

"I wrote a video game script for a small developer. They 'forgot' to tell me when they started voice work—part of my job required me to help with voice acting sessions."

"I finally was invited to a session with a big name actor, especially known in video games. The director asked me why I hadn’t been present for the past two weeks’ worth of recording."

"Apparently, telling the truth, that no one had told me recording had begun, was the wrong move."

"The developers fired me the next day despite my work already being done, which essentially meant I’d have no part in DLC or sequel(s)."

~ drewxdeficit

Should Have Dropped Out

"I worked at Walmart while I was in high school and one of the managers kept scheduling me to open or for me to be there at 2."

"I told them, many times, that I was in high school and those shifts wouldn't work."

"I guess they didn't get that memo; the store manager fired me for missing work and being late."

~ stackjr

What Do You Mean You Were Gone?

"Walmart fired me because they put out the schedule while I was on vacation and put me on the schedule during my approved days off."

"When I brought this up they just told me approved days off are just a suggestion but not guaranteed days off."

~ Tee_hops

Good Customer Service

"I gave highway directions to a customer."

"They fired me for talking to my friends at work."

"I was a barista."

~ Cobra-Serpentress

Bereavement?

"Took a day off for my Grandpa's funeral which was out of town."

"Fired me when I came back the next day."

~ bublesboo

"My wife was fired for not coming to work after she found her father’s 2-day-old corpse in his apartment."

"She had to talk me down from some violent intentions towards her former employer."

~ isinhower

Has an employer ever done you dirty for an absurd reason?

Sound off in the comments.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Seth Moulton; Donald Trump
MS Now; Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

Dem Rep. Offers Brutally Accurate Reason For Why He Can't Understand 'The Mind Of Donald Trump'

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Seth Moulton made a fitting observation about President Donald Trump's mind after Trump gave a 20-minute address to the nation about his war in Iran on Wednesday evening.

Trump claimed “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” in the Iran war and vowed to strike Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks. He said that he would finish the job "very fast," without setting any timeline for ending the war. He pledged to "bring them [Iranians] back to the Stone Ages, where they belong.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

Solicitor General Sparks Alarm After Telling Supreme Court He's 'Not Sure' If Native Americans Are Birthright Citizens

The relationship between Indigenous American nations and the colonizers and later settlers who arrived and established the United States is complicated.

Indigenous peoples were integral parts of the survival and success of early colonizers. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy's Great Law of Peace offered a blueprint for the United States Constitution and the structure of the federal government including the three independent branches offering checks and balances, ideally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Iraqi soccer fans hold a banner at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as a man in an orange jacket confronts them and tears it down.
@hussein_pepe96/Instagram

Racist Guy Caught On Video Tearing Through Iraqi Soccer Fans' Banner At Dallas Airport: 'Don't Come To America'

With the United States set to host the 2026 World Cup, a video out of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is drawing attention for a very different reason: showing a man ripping apart an Iraqi soccer fan’s banner and telling them, “Don’t come to America.”

The video, posted on Instagram, shows a group of Iraqi sports fans standing in an airport holding a banner with Arabic and Spanish writing. The fans were there to support Iraq during their World Cup qualifier against Bolivia, which resulted in a 2-1 upset victory earlier that day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @themouselets' TikTok video
@themouselets/TikTok

TikToker Edits Dad's Disney Vacation Into Horror Movie After It Keeps Getting Interrupted By 'Work Emergency'

Sometimes you can only realize how bad a situation has gotten when you see it in a photo or video.

TikToker @themouselets works in civil engineering and is a part-time Disney content creator, making frequent trips to the park, but it's still a rare occurrence for her to be able to go with her entire family.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @tts_tiktok22's TikTok video
@tts_tiktok22/TikTok

Videos Of Squirrels Trying To 'Vape' Are Going Viral—And We Don't Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry

Some viral videos come along that leave us unsure whether we should laugh or cry. In the case of squirrels trying to vape, crying is unfortunately the more likely outcome.

E-cigarettes have dramatically increased in popularity in recent years and are often even portrayed as a cool accessory on social media. Unfortunately, disposable, one-time-use e-cigarettes have been made affordable and easily accessible, and instead of properly disposing of them, people often leave them on the ground like cigarette butts.

Keep ReadingShow less