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Other times, it was less understandable, and they might have simply been a victim of downsizing or nepotism, making their dismissal all the more frustrating.
Then there are the cases that people are still trying to wrap their heads around.
Where someone ended up losing their job for reasons that, to put it simply, were just plain stupid.
Redditor qwerty_sux was curious to hear the all-time silliest reasons someone lost their job, leading them to ask:
"What is the dumbest reason why someone at your workplace got fired?"
When You're Only Trying To Help...
"I was at a summer camp, and two teenage boys (like 16 years old) got into a fight."
"A slightly older female camp counselor (maybe 19 or 20 years old) ran to get help breaking up the fight."
"She was pretty small. The guys were pretty big."
"She got fired because she left the kids unattended for maybe 45 seconds while she went to get help."- 2legittoquit
Best Way To Get Someone To Do Something is Explicitly Telling Them NOT To...
"I work for the Canada Revenue Agency, and we are instructed to never look at our own file upon being hired and told in no uncertain terms that it will be immediately flagged and would be the end of your career."
"At least once a year around tax season, I will get a memo reminding us of this because several people looked up their own file."
"Plugging your phone into your computer is also a big no-no because it can store information or compromise the network; I get yearly reminders about that too."
"I once watched a co-worker plug her phone in, I told her to take it out, but it was too late, and she was escorted out within the hour."- Regnes
So Much For Being Thankful...
"Years ago I worked at a movie theater that had a coffee bar inside."
"On Thanksgiving one year, a guy working the coffee bar got himself a serving of whipped cream to eat with the Thanksgiving meal we provided for everyone."
"He was suspended immediately for theft, then fired."- No-Rip5491
hungry whipped cream GIF by U by Kotex BrandGiphy
Um... WHAT?!?!
"A coworker infested the office with fleas, but he didn't get fired until he did it a second time."
"The first time it happened, the boss closed down the office and had an exterminator come in, and told the guy 'here's a laptop. You telecommute now'."
"It turned out, he lived in a trailer with over a dozen stray cats."
"He kept taking in these strays and just not doing anything for them - no shots, no flea treatments, not even a bath."
"So pretty soon, the whole place was infested with fleas."
"He just didn't realize how bad it was because he was on some cocktail of medications that made him smell odd."
"Apparently the smell made the fleas not want to bite him."
"They just got in his clothes and he carried them to work."
"After a few days, he was already complaining to my boss that the laptop didn't work right."
"My boss tried to send me to this guy's trailer to fix whatever was wrong, but I said I would rather quit than set foot in Fleapalooza 2012."
"So he told my coworker to just deal with it himself."
"A couple weeks later, the guy came in to the office to pick up his paycheck."
"In the 30 seconds he was inside, he infested the place again."
"After that, everyone threw a fit."
"The boss only fired the guy to avoid a full-scale revolt."- captainmagictrousers
Oops!
"Dude I knew in the Army was supposed to go on leave for a month, so he got high that weekend, but his flight got cancelled."
"Monday morning there was a mandatory drug test, and he popped hot."- Steel_Reign
Honesty Is Always The Best Policy
"Dude, I worked with at an outdoor retail store lit off a can of Bear Spray... indoors... during business hours."
"I wasn’t there at the time, but as the Outdoor Supervisor, I got called in to deal with the mess."
"Thankfully, the idiot fired it into a corner behind the gear counter, so he mostly got himself."
"However, Bear Spray comes out in a kind of dense fog, unlike 'regular' pepper spray that comes out in a stream."
"The whole store had to be evacuated and it took like 4 bottles of neutralizer to get the carpet 'clean' again."
"Dumb Dumb claimed he dropped it by accident, but the security camera showed him very clearly popping the safety and hitting the thumb trigger."
"During his out-processing, the GM and I showed him the video and asked what was actually going through his head. He said:"
”'I wanted to see how bad it was. It was really bad'.”
"The intrusive thoughts won, I guess."
"Last I heard, the dummy had bought a tow-truck and started a towing business."- scissorslizardspock
Everyone Deserves A Second Chance... Although...
"New office assistant was asked to drop some laptops off at FedEx to be shipped."
"Come to find out, she literally just walked in, saw the line was too long, and just left them on the counter."
"She expected FedEx to know what to do with them."
"We have no idea what happened to them."
"They decided to keep her, which was a mistake because she ended up emailing all of our competitors highly sensitive information by mistake."- bromosabeach
When Getting Fired Is The Least Of Your Troubles...
"I worked at dollar general."
"Pretty hard to get fired there."
"My coworker got caught selling drugs to customers."
"They just nicely asked him not to anymore."
"Half my coworkers were drunk or high."
"If you get fired from Dollar General, you really f*cked up."- manykeets
Even If It's Your Boss?
"Did a minor safety infraction 10 minutes into the job. I pointed it out."
"He stormed off saying 'Nobody tells me what to do'."- Captain_Coco_Koala
Dont Tell Me What To Do Saturday Night Live GIFGiphy
Undercover Boss
"I saw someone get let go because they didn't have a 'good attitude'."
"For context:"
"Myself and a few other people had just been hired for an entry level accounting job."
"Those first few weeks/months were... rough."
"The CFO had a tendency of greeting newer people without telling them who he was."
"One would never expect this guy to be in C-Suite by the way he dressed."
"He didn't even have a LinkedIn profile, so unless one dug around it was hard to figure out who he was."
"Anyways, he stopped by our pod and greeted us."
"Asked us how we were doing."
"One guy made the mistake of being honest and said that he was tired."
"And not in a cheery way."
"I didn't blame him."
"We were all tired."
"The next day this guy was 'let go'.'
"I overheard later from a gossiping supervisor that the CFO hated 'bad attitudes' and made it a point to remove them from the company whenever possible."
"Since then I have been extra-guarded about how I respond to questions whenever I join a new company until I learn who to trust."- Shahfluffers
Bullying Should Never Be Tolerated
"He pantsed a guy in the middle of the office."
"Literally pulled a Co-workers pants down in front of the full office."
"Underpants came along for the ride."
"The pantser was fired."
"The pantsee was off work for 6 weeks due to 'distress'."- Extension-Housing153
Best To Take Off Your Skates When You're On Thin Ice
"She already had a few trips to HR and then got moved to another department at another site."
"She went out to her car to go to lunch, then came back into the office."
"She then claimed someone put a note on her car in the parking lot that read: 'Get out of town, racial epithet'.”
"Hands note to supervisor."
"She got loud in the office area, started to list off names of who she suspected, and everyone heard what was going on."
"HR pulls her into a meeting later that afternoon and says 'we had security pull the video recording of the parking lot for the first 4 hours of the day…do you wish to change your story?'”
"She was let go immediately."- goth-milk
Melissa Villasenor Oops GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy
When Trying To Prove A Point, Make Sure It's A Point Worth Proving
"He took a turn too fast on the fork truck."
"Got two wheels lifted off the ground."
"Supervisor told him to cut it out and drive safe."
"'Safe?? SAFE???!? NOTHING in this place is safe!!'”
"And then he spent twenty minutes running around the plant floor tripping alarms and setting off the emergency air horns to “prove” that none of it worked (all of it worked)."
"He finally left when the super threatened to call the cops."
"Everyone was real confused about his outburst… until we found the half-empty bottle of tequila out behind the dumpster."- CharsOwnRX-78-2
Being fired for breaking a rule you don't even know exists is unjust, to say the least.
That being said, anyone who thinks drinking on the job is ok probably shouldn't show up to work at all.