Business Owners Share The Wildest Reasons Why People Quit Or Were Fired

Being let go from a job is a generally crummy thing. There’s the sense of rejection that comes along with it, not to mention the insecurities and concerns around the loss of earnings. There are also those times when an employee decides to leave on their own, whether it be for their own personal reasons, or because they couldn’t cope with something related to the job. Either way, the manner in which a working agreement is ended can lead to some awkward, albeit humorous stories…

Business managers have found solace through unity on the Interwebs, as they’ve gathered to share the most outrageous reasons why people have either left their jobs or been fired. Their stories will surely make you think twice if you’re considering leaving your job…

She Just Couldn’t Handle It

One of the employees at the company I work for quit fairly recently, not because she was having a hard time at work or because she didn’t like the job, but for personal reasons. Fair enough, but I could not for the life of me understand how this had anything to do with her.

It was the fire in Notre Dame…. She left because she “couldn’t handle the burning of Notre Dame.” She said she felt like she needed to be with her mom during this time. We all live in Mississippi, and she’s never even been to Notre Dame. Reddit User: SlytherinF1

The Break Room Thief

At my previous job, we had several issues with food being stolen from the break room fridge. It turned into a big problem, but the culprit continued to take food, so the company, very obviously, installed a security camera in the break room. It was a big camera, and it was in plain sight, pointing directly at the fridge; no one could miss it….

The boss came in and told everyone, “There is the camera; you really want to lose your job over eating someone’s sandwich?” A few days go by, and a guy gets fired for stealing food. It was right there on the camera. He just grabbed the lunch and ate it right there. Reddit User: GeneralDisturbed

Sweet Revenge

One of our employees who had been fired made quite the scene when he was asked to leave; he had to be physically removed from the building. We don’t know why he was fired, but after he was let go, he used the company FedEx to deliver his eBay sales. When they found out, they brought charges against him because it wasn’t just one or two sales; it was over 20 shipments a week….

He must have thought that the company was too big a corporation for them to be reviewing the FedEx bills. He was right; the only reason they found out was because one of the executives hired a family member, and we had to find something for them to do. Reddit User: thetinkerbelle44

Everybody Get Out

I’m a student manager, so I don’t really have the ability to fire someone, but I had to in this situation. This one employee always seemed to cause trouble, but nothing that we couldn’t work through. One day, I asked him to go check the bathrooms to make sure they were clean and fully stocked.

That’s when everything went downhill….He asked if he should check the women’s bathroom, and I told him to knock and make sure that no one was in there before proceeding. He did this by banging on the doors and screaming, “WHO’S IN HERE? EVERYBODY GET OUT!” He then entered the bathroom where this poor little elderly woman was inside, using one of the stalls….

He continued to bang on the stall, yelling, “GET OUT!” He was yelling so loud that I could hear him, and I rushed over to investigate. The poor lady was whimpering and on the phone with the police. The sad thing is that he had no idea how he came across. I had to tell him that he was done and needed to go home. The poor old woman was so upset that she refused to leave the bathroom until I called her son to come to get her. Reddit User: clearemollient

Covering Your Tracks

One of the pawn shop employees where I work decided to steal $400 from the cash register, not realizing that there were video cameras everywhere, because obviously there would be. When he saw them, he panicked and knew he needed a way to cover his tracks.

He figured that he could do so, but he had no idea where the video camera footage was stored….He proceeded to set the store on fire. He got burnt pretty badly and had to be taken to the hospital. Right after, he was taken to jail. Reddit User: FBI_RedditAccount

Lying About My Father

My father owned his own business working as a color corrector and editor. He had several employees, but one had been with him from day one and was now the assistant manager. The company had been around for 10+ years, and he recently had to be let go for spreading several nasty rumors about my father that almost cost him the business….

Apparently, he’s been telling the other employees and customers that my father had an issue with gays, people who are not white, and that he had issues with his family. He basically drove all business away, pushing the company towards bankruptcy. My father was just sad that people never trusted him enough to tell him what the guy was saying. Reddit User: catalie_nurren

How Dare You

I manage a fairly popular store in a mall, and I had a feeling that one of my employees was having an affair with the mall security guard. When I came by the store on my days off, he would scurry off all flustered. I never mentioned it, despite the guy coming by the store all the time, to the point where it was keeping her from doing her job….

We had a work meeting with the entire staff where I had to call it out. I said to everyone, “I know it gets slow in here during the week, and I’m guilty of it myself, but from now on, I need everyone to keep personal visits to a minimum or during your lunch break.”

She stood up and started screaming at me….How dare I accuse her? And she even called me a few names before she quit the job. After she left the job, she called my personal number a few times to leave harassing voice-messages. Reddit User: thatseemsrisky

The Silent Alarm

A few years ago, while doing some consulting work, I hired a young woman to help me out, mostly clerical work. I had to fly down to St. Thomas for a meeting and got a call from Sonitrol (the security system) at 10:30 pm. It was confusing because she also had the keys and it was late, but I guess she didn’t know about the alarm….

I found out that she and her boyfriend brought another couple down to one of my offices to have some alone time. It was in an office I had converted to a bedroom so I could crash when I worked late. So I decided to call…while they were in the middle of their business. She answered and tried to act as normal as she could….

I talked about a few unimportant details, and then I told her to make sure that she was only in the office between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm because there was a silent alarm that would call me with audio activity in the building. When I got back to town, she left her keys on my desk, and that was the end of it. Reddit User: JosefKaiser

Flirting Scheme

At my place of work, one of the operations managers would change the log-in password fairly often, mainly when he saw an attractive woman come in. Why? So that he would be the one to help them out to solve the problem (that he put in place). While he helped, he also tried to flirt with them, no matter how many of them turned him down….

When they rejected him, he turned nasty, and quite a few of them reported him to human resources. They did their investigation and noticed that not only was he hitting on the customers, but he was the one changing all the passwords. It didn’t take long for them to fire him. He’s lucky; it could have been a lot worse. Reddit User: EasyCommercial

Anaphylaxis A-Okay

I’m the owner of a pet store that was looking to add another member to our staff. One day, a young man came in looking for work. He seemed nice, respectable, and personable, and I recognized him as one of our regular customers; he would come in with his mother. Because of those factors, I decided to give him a chance….

I soon found out that he’s allergic to fish…like he has a full-on anaphylactic reaction to fish, and not just eating them; it also happened when he touched them. We sell fish…live fish. The worst part was that he kept saying that it was fine because he had an Epi-pen. Would you look for a job at a peanut factory if you were allergic to nuts? Reddit User: tripperfunster

The Writing On The Body

I’ve heard stories like this many times, but I often dismiss them as fiction because these things don’t happen, right? No, turns out they do. One of my close friends’ father is a nurse who works in the operating room at a local hospital. He once had a patient who had to remove a mass from her underarm/breast area….

He took a medical marker and wrote, “Solid. Call me” as well as his cell phone number on her while she was under anesthesia. He was reported and fired. As for the patient, the writing was removed before she made it out of the operating room. I never imagined that he would be so stupid as to do something like that. Reddit User: [redacted]

Refusing To Work

I’m not the owner, but I had a supervisory role with the company. We had a driver who refused to drive at night. According to her, it wasn’t safe. The odd thing was that she knew that she worked the third shift; it was expected of her. She was supposed to do between 3 and 7 trips a month from 9 pm to 5 am after she pleaded for the time slot….

Because the director of the company was a bit incompetent, her behavior – refusal to work her designated shift, went on much longer than it should have, six months too long to be exact. I was so happy when she let go, and we found someone who was willing to do the work. Reddit User: KP_Wrath

Wrong Pictures

A while back, I had my own translation business, and things were going great, but I needed to hire someone to seek out contracts for me. I found a guy, and after negotiating, we settled on paying him a 20% finder’s fee. He was doing a good job until he sent something to a client that he wasn’t supposed to….

Instead of sending out the finished project to the client, he accidentally sent some graphic photos of himself. I found out about it when the client forwarded me the email half an hour after they received it. There were several of them, and even I was surprised and slightly impressed. He was a good guy, but he had to be cut loose. Reddit User: Unfa

Not On Schedule

Let me start off by saying that working at restaurants is not the most stable job out there. I’ve seen people being fired at the drop of a dime, but I never thought that it would happen to me, especially for something as small as this. I was fired from a successful chain of restaurants for not working on someone else’s shift….

The person who was supposed to work called out a few hours before they were supposed to show up, so it was not my shift. In addition, I never agreed to work, because if I did, I would have been there well over 12 hours. I explained this to my manager, and as I was walking out, my manager fired me. Reddit User: hippielove80

Not Enough Notice

A while back, one of our IT administrators landed a job with Microsoft as a field engineer, which would be a big deal for anyone, but the problem was that they wanted him to start in a week. When he told HR, they made a huge fit saying that he had to give at least four weeks’ notice or he’d have to forfeit all his accrued time off….

Like any other sane person, he argued with them about it. Some words were exchanged, and they terminated him at the end of the week. They gave him four weeks severance and told him that he could never work there again, which was unfortunate. Six months later, we call Microsoft for site support, and guess who shows up. Classic karma. Reddit User: Polar_Ted

Fired Before I Began

During the last stages of the hiring process, I was asked what my availability was, and I told them that I would be getting married the next week, then going on our honeymoon right after. When I came back, I’d be completely free. The person hiring said that it was no problem, as they wouldn’t be able to train me that soon….

However, a few days later, I got a call letting me know I was supposed to start training on the same day as my wedding. After explaining it to the caller, they asked me to reschedule my wedding (which I’d been planning for two years). When I said no, I got a call later that day from the company, letting me know I was “being let go for not being a team player and not being an adequate fit for the company.” Reddit User: Llamageddon24

You Can’t Handle Him

Back when I was an RA (resident advisor), our boss insisted that we come to her, and not each other, if we had personal problems. She said she would help us through whatever came up. One of the guys went to her because he was having a bit of a hard time; he was in the process of coming out, and it didn’t go as expected with his friends or family back home….

Soon after, he started dating guys and was nervous about how it would go. A day later, she fired him. Why? Because she said that he couldn’t handle his personal life and the job. A few weeks went by, and she asked the staff why no one wanted to talk to her and why people left the room when she entered. Reddit User: Ganglebot

Squinting Face

I worked at a same-day procedure facility where one of my nurses was legally blind. She often described seeing as “looking through a pinhole” and would squint when she had trouble seeing something. One day, we had a full case of patients, and every one of them fell in love with her.

That was everyone except our return “VIP” patient who came in at the end of the day….The blind nurse squints while charting, and the patient said that she must really hate her job because she looks so unhappy. One of the scrub techs who had it out for her told the supervisor, who then told the president.

He came down as was ready to fire her on the spot, but everyone ended up vouching for her. She ended up getting written up for having a resting negative face when all she was trying to do was see. She decided to quit the next day. Reddit User: mmeezyy

Not Clocking Out

It was the end of the workday, and we were all in the back, ready to clock out. One of my coworkers was about to clock out when she saw another work colleague (a receptionist), and instead of finishing what she had set out to do, she went over to show the receptionist photos of her wedding dress on her phone….

She then clocked out and went home. The next day, we find out that the receptionist turned the other coworker in for having her phone out during work hours. The coworker got fired without so much as a warning. They didn’t even ask her if it was true or not. We didn’t talk to the receptionist after that. Reddit User: [redacted]

You’re Doing It Wrong

I got fired from a deli for cutting cheese wrong…I kid you not. Oh well. I’d been rotating positions to learn them all, and so far, I had done the meat section, cash register, and the backroom stocking. It was my first official day in the deli, and while I was being taught, my trainer had to go do something. I was the only one there, and I had no experience….

The customers were lining up, and I was feeling the pressure. The first one wanted sliced provolone, so I tried my best with the deli cutter thing, and while it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t terrible. He complained to me anyway. I told my trainer what happened, and she said, “Oh, it shouldn’t be a big deal, I’ll cover for you since I shouldn’t have left you alone….”

Well, she didn’t. The next day, when I come in, the boss stops me and tries to berate me for not perfectly cutting the cheese, and then he fires me. There was nothing else; that was the only negative comment I’d received. About cheese. A few weeks later, the business shut down. I guess I dodged a bullet. Reddit User: Jay985

I Won’t Do It

I worked at a cancer-related non-profit organization, and I hired a lady whose son had the cancer we were trying to raise money to cure, to bring awareness of, and to treat. One day, my boss comes in and tries to make me fire her because her schedule is “unpredictable.” She wasn’t wrong; her son had chemotherapy and unexpected doctor visits….

I told her that it would be a very, very bad idea and refused to do it. She said I’d be fired if I didn’t fire her, but I stuck to my guns. I then decided to ask to talk to higher-ups, and it worked out in my favor. I kept my employee and my job, but my boss kept her job too. She made my life a living hell, lied about me to my employees, and would schedule me for 13-hour days. Reddit User: SplendidTit

Too Much Overtime

Another coworker and I were under fire for working overtime. They specifically told us that if we continued to work overtime, we would both get fired. Here’s a bit of context; there are three people in our department: me, my coworker, and another coworker, and because it’s a tour company, we can’t just cut off the tour because the shift is supposed to end….

Taking the new rule into account, my coworker was finished with his closing shift, and a guy came in to ask for a tour. My coworker politely declined, explaining that we were closed. He told the man that we could schedule a tour for another time. The guy gets upset, then complains to the bosses. When my coworker goes to work the next day, he gets fired. When I find out, I quit, then our other coworker quits too. Reddit User: nagol93

Sticking Your Finger Where You Shouldn’t

Just recently, my friend got fired from his job for sticking his finger in a moldy orange. We work at a casino as bartenders, and one of our duties is to make sure that the bars are stocked with different fruits for garnishes for the cocktails. One night, while cutting up oranges, he came across a moldy one, and to show the boss that he wasn’t just throwing away good produce, he did this….

He held it up to the camera, stuck his finger in the orange, and said, “Hey, this orange is too soft.” About a week later, he got a letter saying that he was fired for “harassment,” even though no one had been “harassed.” We found out that they meant the orange, and while he did poke it with his finger, it wasn’t anything vaguely inappropriate. 

With the help of the union, he’s fighting back on this and is on the verge of receiving a great big sum of money against the casino for wrongful termination. According to the union, he can get the casino back for wrongful dismissal. Reddit User: LordofSnails

“What Are Those?”

I worked at a grocery store, and they hired a girl after she submitted an application in colored pencil, complete with a few palm trees. On her first day, I was showing her around with the manager: the produce section, to be exact. She kept asking, “What’s this thing, what are these called?”

I understand, leeks and fennel bulbs aren’t available in every neighborhood, but she was pointing to totally common fruits and vegetables that I know she had in her house….She was from the city. She also had internet access, and she knew what a potato looks like. It seemed like she was just playing with us.

Then she went to ask, “So these are…?” And before she could finish, the manager said, “Girl, that’s a freaking lime! You know what a lime is.” She then went on her lunch break and didn’t come back. She showed up the next day asking to get paid, and we had to explain that you don’t get paid every day. She was fired after that. Reddit User: Funkentelechie

The Wrong Colored Tie

My friend worked at a chain restaurant whose slogan was “something neighborhood grill something,” so you can figure it out. Her manager was a scum bag; your typical mid-40s single man, the type of person you would expect to be in that position. He would hire younger women just to try to hang out with them, but none of them felt the same way about him….

He would fire them every time they said no, so he was constantly annoyed. My friend showed up wearing a black hair tie instead of a red one. He told the higher ups that he let her go for not wearing the appropriate work attire. Reddit User: IronMermaiden

Not Having To Cover Medical Expenses

One of the guys working at the office had a heart attack, which put him in the hospital for a few days. When he got out of the hospital and off his restrictions, he came back to work only to be fired by the boss. The reason was that his FMLA paperwork hadn’t been filled out correctly, so the boss told him that there were too many unexcused absences….

The man was in the hospital and wasn’t able to deal with work or the paperwork they required. The company wasn’t going to go out of their way to make sure that it was filled out correctly. If you didn’t, it was your problem. They basically fired him so they wouldn’t have to cover his medical expenses, which was pathetic on their part. Reddit User: Ratnix

Fired For Doing #2

I was fired for relieving myself while at work, and for not knowing what the reasonable accommodation for disabilities laws were. A while back, I had to have my colon removed because of a medical condition. I’m thankful that I got it resolved, but as a result of removing the piece, I usually have to make several trips to the bathroom throughout the day….

My immediate manager, who knew about my issue, was fine with it because it didn’t stop me from getting my job done. He took a week off to go on vacation, and in his absence, I was fired for wasting time in the bathroom. Apparently, there are only so many times you can go to the bathroom in a day. Reddit User: Abyss1213

A Nasty Rumor

It had never been an issue before, and most importantly, it wasn’t true. Someone who didn’t like me started a nasty rumor about me. They told people in the office that I was racist, and it didn’t take long for me to be exiled. The first sign was when people stopped speaking to me.

Then my log-in suddenly just stopped working, and when I went to IT, they said that I should speak to the boss about it….When I did, he told me that I couldn’t log in because I don’t work there anymore. They said that a colleague said I was racist.

The colleague obviously wished to remain anonymous. When I asked what made them think that, he said that I needed to leave his office and the premises immediately. I had no leg to stand on…it was an unpaid volunteer position. Reddit User: NotYourStrawMan

Don’t Sit Down

One of the guys working at the same movie theater as me was fired for sitting down while waiting for a movie to finish so that he could clean out the theater. He wasn’t the only one; there were two other people with him, one of whom was a supervisor. The only reason they got busted was because one of the managers was there….

He was there watching a movie on his day off. He didn’t say a word when he saw them. The next day, he went up to the main office to complain about people sitting during work. No one liked him before the incident, and after the guy was fired, it didn’t help his case. We just all tried to avoid him after that. Reddit User: Faiakishi

Be Aggressive

I’d been working at a pizza joint for three weeks, and things were going well until I was fired for not being “aggressive” enough when taking orders on the phone. I left the job confused and in tears. I never knew that someone could be fired for not being aggressive enough, but here I was; I felt like a failure….

I later found out that that wasn’t the reason why I was let go. It turns out that my manager didn’t appreciate me taking a certain delivery driver’s attention away from her. I found out several years later from a friend of the driver. I thought that it was pretty funny. I hope that things worked out for them. Reddit User: KissThe Bottle

It’s Not Your Place To Say

The new guy at our job suggested to the operations manager that we be provided with respirators instead of paint masks; you know, paint particles and all. He explained that there were many harmful chemicals being sprayed constantly, and that they could seriously affect our health.

He wasn’t wrong. The operations manager didn’t agree with him and sacked him on the spot….He must have contacted OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), because a few weeks later, the operations manager offered one to every one of the team members to keep. When I got to work, I found out that OSHA had shown up on two separate occasions to stop what we were doing because it they considered it as a health hazard. Thanks man, wherever you are. Reddit User: kaotisk42

The Fast Track

I, along with the entire management staff, was let go from a place that had only been open for less than a month. The owner, who fired us, said that we were not making him enough money and that he could do a better job than all of us combined. A few of us were very offended by some of the things that he said, but what could we do?

We had to move on. He was expecting to make his entire investment, a sum of about $5 million, back within the space of 8 to 12 months. At the rate we were going, we weren’t on track to do that. Those were his exact words. The majority of us had only been there for three weeks: not long enough to get our first paycheck. Reddit User: Spiffster91

$160K vs. Two Rolls Of Toilet Paper

A group of guys and I worked at a mine site, and although it was far from glamorous, it paid really well. One of the guys got fired for stealing two rolls of cheap toilet paper. He stole two rolls of tissue paper from a job that paid $3000 a week. The company’s view was “theft is theft,” so no matter what he stole, he would have been gone….

I would have given anything to hear the “I lost my job” conversation with his wife. “Hey honey, I got sacked from my $160,000 a year job… but here are two rolls of toilet paper. It should last us a week, maybe two if we don’t use too much.” Reddit User: Biz2324

Play Us A Tune

I worked in a factory, and one of our engineers was tapping on a silo, probably to check how full it was. I wasn’t sure. I shouted, “Play us a tune, Pete!” He looked at me and then went back to tapping. I shouted again, “Ah c’mon lad, play us a tune!” Without warning, he leaned back with a hammer, and I laughed because I thought he was just messing around. No, he launched it right at me….

It just missed me, but it hit a metal table next to me, denting it a good one or two inches. So if it hit me, I was safe to assume that I wouldn’t be here writing. I was in shock, and all I wanted to do was launch it right back, but I loved my job, so I threw it to the side away from everyone and went to the manager….

Unfortunately, the manager was new and no older than 25. He had no idea what to do, so I had to work the entire night shift with the man until I could report it to the proper manager. While they investigated, all my shifts were canceled. I got a call a few days later to retell my story. They then told me that Pete had lost his job. A few went go by, and they told me that my contract had been canceled….

Pete told them that I threw the hammer back, and there were several people who confirmed his story. He was the lead engineer, and they needed him. It really stung. My dad, who also worked with the company, had a worse temper than me. Pete avoided him like he was the plague. Reddit User: Nanady-bear

A Dramatic Display

Back when I was a teenager, I was fired from McDonald’s, and here’s why. At the end of every night, while we were throwing away all of the apple pies, I pretended to cry about them throwing away good food. I took things a step further by smashing one in my face. It was very dramatic, but also very funny….

Everyone thought that it was, except for one manager. She took her job very seriously and reported me to the store manager. She told them that I was stealing food and eating food on the job. I was fired. The sad part was that I probably did way more fire-able things while working there, but this is what was going to stick with me. Reddit User: the_old_evergreen

CEO Oh-No

While working at a previous company, a sales guy, who had a bit of a bad record, came in to work without shaving and without a tie. The CEO didn’t like it, and he was out the door that same afternoon. A few weeks passed, then another colleague got fired for swearing. He had his finger in the crack of the door when someone slammed it, so he was swearing in pain….

A few more weeks went by, and a man was caught faking data that could have led to a lawsuit as well as millions of dollars in damages, which in turn could have shut the company down. When he was called in to explain himself, he cried to the CEO and was allowed to stay. I was beyond confused. Reddit User: gmabarrett

Using Crayons On The Job

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I once had to fire someone for coloring, with crayons, while I was trying to train her. There were several instances throughout the training process when I had to ask her to pay attention, and it was over the course of two weeks. No matter how many times I asked, she would go back to what she was doing….

It was a very easy overnight operator position, and after two weeks of training, she couldn’t perform the tasks, so it was time to cut our losses. The most awkward part is that I used to date her sister while in high school, and she had walked in on us once. If I knew that she was going to be hired, I would have vetoed even giving her an interview. Reddit User: TheSeed2point0

You’re Fired, You’re Hired

At my last job at an automotive parts factory, I had this one great coworker and friend. She had been previously let go when she was there through a temp agency, but 6 months later, she got put in again, but this time in a different department than before. She did an amazing job in her new position, but she wanted to go back where she was with me and the others….

She talked to the supervisor for our department, then the boss, and they both approved it. When her supervisor found out, he wasn’t happy, since she was doing such a good job. He decided to fire her, stating that she was always late and that the company shouldn’t be so lenient towards temps. Since everything was pre-approved, she just came to work the next week. He glares at her every time he sees her. Reddit User: DarkFett

Let Him Have It

When I was younger, I worked at a CVS-type drug store in a small mall with approximately 12 stores total. One day, a guy comes into the store and grabs a few cartons of cigarettes and starts to run away. The cashier closest to the exit tackles him as he tries to leave. Luckily, there was an off-duty police officer who was standing right outside who arrested him….

Just a few hours go by, and the cashier who tackled the thief gets fired. Apparently, the store has a policy against getting into physical altercations with anyone because they would be liable for any injuries that he or the thief had. I understood, but at least give him a warning. Reddit User: MonkeyPost

It’s Corporate = It’s Free

I work for a giant contractor corporation where we’d go to different stores to do the work. We hired a new guy who (at first) seemed normal, but he turned out to be a complete moron. One day, he went on-site with a senior employee shadowing him and decided to eat several things without paying for them….

When the senior employee saw him, he told him that he needed to pay, then the manager came to see what was going on. The guy began to fight with the manager, then got in his car and drove off. Needless to say, he was fired the next day. Reddit User: EquanimousThanos