Patricia Grisafi
Look, we’ve all been there—fired for a stupid reason. Either the scheduling got mixed up, you had an emergency that was way more pressing than going to work, or were messing around too much on the job. Some reasons for being fired are understandable, but some are just baffling.
On Reddit, people are sharing the stupid reasons that they got fired.
So be careful! You wouldn’t want to lose your job because you got someone a drink of water, right?
1. Is Your Family More Important Than Your Job?
“My brother had emergency gall bladder removal. I called in to tell my employer I’d need to take a couple days off to help him since our parents were out of town for something. They started cussing me out and asked what was more important my job or family. Then the same guy tried calling the next day like nothing happened asking why I didn’t show up for my shift. Dumb*ss.” — I_am_no_Ghost
2. Scheduling Issues
“I was fired for accidentally showing up for a shift I was not scheduled for and then leaving when I found out I was not scheduled for said shift.” — britneyspearmintgum
3. Wrongfully Fired
“I once worked for a small private school. A new supervisor was hired, and she called an after-hours meeting the Wednesday night right before Thanksgiving. One teacher didn’t attend and she was fired. When the new supervisor was finally let go, I heard from the owner that they had 4 lawsuits from employees being wrongfully fired.” — fannyj
4. Wrongfully Blamed For Stealing
“Someone was stealing from the register. I got blamed. Turned out to be the owner’s brother (who blamed it on me). I was let go just before Thanksgiving. I never got my job back, but the owner did apologize months later.” — wombatarangutan
5. Sister’s Wedding
“Accepted job and notified them I would need X date off for my sister’s wedding (2 months after the start date). Came back from my sister’s wedding and sh*t hit the fan while I was gone. Not my responsibility, but my name was on some of the changes in the document. Canned that day for ‘not being there when they needed me.'” — IowaTransplant21
6. Start Date Changed
“I applied to be a deck hand on a local ferry. Went though unpaid training as part of the interview process. First aid, CPR, crisis management, safety policy whatnots. All group interviews. Anyway, I got the job after about a week. I also got my offer in writing with the expected start date. That was going to be a Tuesday two weeks later (and I remember this detail because it went to sh*t.) I accept and sign and take my copy. I was thrilled. I was going to be on the water and making money for the summer. My friends were hanging out down by the water when I left the interview so I went and told them all about it and the start date, etc. Again, cementing that start date in my mind so I was ready. The following week, a week before I was supposed to start, I got a call from the office asking where I was. ‘We expected you to be here an hour ago’ and so on. I asked them to check the offer that I had signed because I was never told that my start date had changed. I mean, I was available and explained that I’d be happy to come down right away but I hadn’t known of any changes. They checked, agreed that they had made the mistake, and then told me that, nevertheless, a miscommunication this early on was a bad sign and they would not be hiring me. So I was ‘let go’ because someone put down the wrong date.” — tris_majestis
7. Boss Was Scared
“Guy preparing to retire, who had been training me to take over his job for the past 7 months, felt I was ready to take over completely. Boss was afraid to lose 30+ years of experience and fired me to keep the old guy for a little longer. From what I understand there was a pretty big fight. Old guy was a wonderful reference for me with the new job I obtained, with a 20k+ pay raise, and begrudgingly agreed to stay on for another year.” — engineertr1gg
8. A Broken Hand
“I broke my hand and got fired for asking to take a day off to go to the doctor, I never called in there once in the five years I worked there.” — myneighborsowndildos
9. “Lack Of Commitment”
“I took a job with a movie theater in high school, only accepted the job because they promised me a set schedule. Me and another coworker worked it out where one of us was always on shift. About a month after I started, they handed me a new schedule starting at 2pm. I was in class until 3. Told them no. Got fired for my lack of commitment to the theater.” — cmikesell
10. Too Much Overtime
“I once got chewed out for going into overtime when I worked for an Olive Garden. The shift manager blew up at me when I mentioned I was well over 40 hours at the end of a Friday night with a full Saturday shift still to work. Told me I had ‘screwed’ her over by taking extra shifts. I not-so-politely pointed out that she was the moron who had scheduled me for six consecutive doubles, a shift that could easily be 10-12 hours long, and that I hadn’t picked up a single shift that week. I also pointed out that, because it was Tennessee, overtime pay was one dollar and six c*cksucking cents more than the base pay of $2.13 and the company could probably afford that.” — WillemDafoesHugeCock
11. Playing Solitaire
“I was fired for playing solitaire on my 15 min break when I was working as a receptionist. The doctor who owned the clinic was dumb enough to put that as the reason in my termination letter. I collected unemployment after he tried to appeal it. They explained in great detail how stupid of a reason this was for termination.” — Elsa_the_Archer
12. In Violation Of Town Ordinance
“Got fired from a public library for taking TWO carts to collect books from the outside Dropbox instead of ONE. The past few times I emptied the dropbox on a Monday it required two trips, So I brought two carts instead. It turns out the matter of how many carts were used in emptying the dropbox was a matter of a library board vote and I was in violation of a town ordinance. Mind you, I wasn’t fired. I was placed on paid administrative leave pending a library board inquiry at which I was welcome to call witnesses. I couldn’t keep a straight face, so I resigned.” — dojijosu
13. Asked For A Break
“During my senior year in high school, I was working at McDonald’s, it was right after Christmas and we were really busy. I’d been there 4 hours, had 2 to go, was supposed to get a 30 minute break, since we’d slowed down I asked if I could have a break. The shift manager said no one was getting breaks. I said ‘thanks a lot,’ she told the assistant manager (pretty sure they were sleeping together) that I told her to f*ck off. He fired me on the spot. Wouldn’t even let me give my side of the story. A week later I was working at Jack in the Box. Was a shift manager in 6 months, did that through a couple years of college, dropped out (never wanted to go anyway) and moved up to assistant manager and then a couple years later, general manager. I remembered how shitty I was treated at McDonald’s and made sure I treated my employees well. Had the 3rd lowest turnover rate in a 95 restaurant region, had the second highest average hourly pay…and #2 in profit improvement. Take care of your people and they’ll do the same for you.” — scottwax
14. Boxcutter Drama
“I brought my own boxcutter to work at a temp job I had worked for 2 days already because they refused to replace the blades in their box cutters and got fired because it looked like a knife.” — SkyfangR
15. Probably Saved A Life
“This happened over 20 years ago, at a medical insurance company. I didn’t sue them, mostly because I was young and just didn’t know that could be a thing. I’d do it again. I wasn’t looking for kudos; someone needed help so I did what was needed. I didn’t have any idea that it was Against Company Policy. We certainly didn’t cover it in my training class! Oh – and the lady didn’t call her insurance company instead of 911. We were trying to solve an issue with one of her claims. I came back to her having an emergency after I’d had her on hold.**
I worked in a customer service call center for an insurance company. A customer called in and had a medical emergency (probably a heart attack, but I’m not sure) while I was on the phone with her. I used the phone in the empty cubicle next to me to call 911 and stayed on both lines to be sure that EMS got to her. I was fired because A) I took too long on calls already and this was exceptionally long, B) I made an unauthorized outgoing call, and C) I gave the customer’s personal information (name and address) out to the 911 operator.” — mrscake76.
16. Creepy Boyfriend
“My sister was dating this guy who was constantly accusing her of cheating. He would sometimes come into the restaurant she waited at to see if she was there. She got fired because he kept coming in too frequently and not getting anything.” — SoonToBeDumbass
17. Got Someone Water
“My wife got fired once for giving a high-level donor (she worked for an art gallery) a bottle of water at a big dinner and art auction. Her boss had insisted that there be no water at the event, but when the donor asked for water, my wife went and found some damn water. Boss found out and fired her the next day for insubordination.” — RocketDocRyan
Featured Image: Pexels
