19 IRL Stories Of New Employees Starting A New Job And Then Getting Fired In Record Time
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A little while ago, Reddit user u/bartertownbeer asked the question, "What is the fastest you have ever seen a new coworker get fired?" and members of the BuzzFeed Community had a lot to chime in on with their own answers. Here is what some people had to say.
1."I was fired from a fast-food restaurant the first day. I was about 10 minutes into my first shift and was at the register. My boyfriend and his best friend came in to get some lunch and say hi. I didn’t talk to them other than to say hi and take their order, but it was clear to my manager that I knew them. My manager asked if they were my friends, and I said one was my boyfriend and the other was a friend. She fired me because the friend, who was the son of the franchise owner in our area, had worked there and stolen a ton of food and money from them. I didn’t know this, but obviously, my boyfriend and his friend knew and thought it was hilarious to see the manager get extremely angry to even see them there. She kicked us all out. I broke up with my boyfriend the next day because he wasn’t sorry. They cost me my job."
2."I work in a small office. A couple of years ago, we hired a temp worker to help out while the regular secretary was out on medical leave for a month or two. The temp was overall doing well — but made some weird mistakes, and talked a lot. Still, we chalked it up to her being new and nervous. Everyone liked her, so the HR manager told her that we'd be happy to hire her full time in an entry-level position once her temp term was up. Two hours later, another coworker came flying in to find me in a panic. The temp apparently 'celebrated' this good news a bit too hard and was fall-down wasted at the front desk."
"Turns out she had a drinking problem. The reason she made some weird errors was that she drank so much 'coffee' and was really quiet in the morning, then super chipper at the end of the day. Turns out she was drinking EVERY DAY. We found an unfinished bottle of tequila in the desk drawer. Needless to say, she didn't even see out the temp term."
3."I had to train a woman as a cocktail waiter. She was miffed that she hadn’t been hired as a bartender at a high-volume, top 40 meat market. Half an hour in, she asked me what went into a gin and tonic. That was only the beginning. It was obvious she was more interested in finding a boyfriend than working."
"I talked to the boss. The next day, he told me I could fire her the first time she messed up. Another time, he hired a regular and she told me she was only doing the job until she got enough money for a planned trip. I shared that, and he called her the next day to say it wasn’t going to work out."
4."My first job was as a host at a nice restaurant. One of the other hosts came in with her friends on her night off and tried to order drinks with a fake ID, apparently not realizing that her employer knew she was under 21. We never saw her again."
5."My summer job in college was working at a printing press in a mill. We made cereal boxes. It was hard manual labor: 12-hour shifts, six days a week, and incredibly dirty. On my first day, there was a group of five of us starting. One girl had long hair, perfectly manicured French-tip nails, and a face full of makeup. I only noticed her because she stood out against the rest of us in our old jeans and work boots (guys and girls). They paired each of us with someone on the floor to 'see how it was done' before our official orientation. We hit the floor at 7 a.m. We went on break at 9 a.m., and the girl told everyone she was going outside to smoke. She never came back. She apparently told her trainer it was 'too hard.' She lasted two hours."
6."I got a job when I was 17 as a host for a brunch place because my friend was the other host and they were basically giving the job away. I worked maybe three or four shifts total."
"On the last day, it was Sunday morning and I had been up since 3 a.m. with food poisoning. I called in sick, and the manager fired me over the phone and then hung up on me. I’m still afraid to call in sick to this day."
7."At my last job — a café — my manager hired two guys who interviewed well. They were really slow when it came to learning things on the job, however. My manager wanted to fire them both in their first-month review, but I talked her out of it to give them a chance to improve, and said that a month of only working an average of two shifts a week was hardly enough time to learn the job well."
"By the two-month review, one of them had managed to be sexist to his professional coffee trainer during a special training session, had given up on most health and safety things because he claimed it was too difficult to remember and his old job didn't follow them, and managed to set fire to a microwave. He was fired during that review, not because of all the things he had done, but because he refused to take the blame for any of it.
"Thankfully, the other guy picked things up a little better, so I could at least prove I was right not to just fire people after barely training them."
8."When I was in college, I worked part time for my older cousin, who was a family law attorney. My job title was 'court runner,' meaning I took documents to court for filing, but she had me do everything else under the sun for her, like going shopping for birthday gifts for her own grandkids. I worked there for two and a half years, constantly having my hours changed, barely getting a $1 raise after practically begging, doing menial chores for her, and then she fired me because one of the other attorneys 'caught' me working on homework — while I was on a break. Needless to say, she was cut out of the family."
9."She wasn't fired for this, but it was added onto the checklist of why she was fired. A woman who never really worked (but wanted more hours — she'd always say yes to more hours but then say, 'Oh, I can't work it') asked someone to cover her shift. The sweet employee said okay, since nobody else could, even though her husband was off and they wanted to spend the day together. Well, the woman CAME INTO THE STORE THAT VERY DAY SHE ASKED OFF. She browsed around like nothing mattered. The other employee working for her was clearly upset, and she's not one for confrontation (honestly, me either, but this was a snap), so I said, 'I thought you couldn't work today. So why are you here?' That was the big check next to 'She will be fired within the month.'"
10."I work in a kids area at a gym — actual gym classes for kids to promote physical activity. The supervisor told me a woman was coming in to learn the ropes. She showed up late with no other reason than 'It's not a big deal,' did not go near the kids or speak to us, was not in uniform, and left after half an hour (shift is four hours) because 'she had places to be.' She was fired half an hour after she left."
11."My dad hired a shop manager once and suspended him less than 10 minutes later when he refused to do any of the menial work. He thought that as a manager, he just got to sit around and give orders all day."
"His dismissal was confirmed about a week later because, you know, laws against unfair dismissal and all that. You can't just fire someone. You have to prove you had a legitimate reason for it."
12."I'll never forget this one coworker I had when I worked retail. Her first shift was a Friday; she called and said she was sick, and I told her to try to get coverage and gave her options. Never called me back and never answered the phone. I tried her again Saturday just to see if she was coming in. No response and no voicemail. A coworker called her from her cell, and she picked up the phone — at a party. She didn't show up on Sunday. She FINALLY came in on Monday and did okay. Wednesday, she was late, but she made it. Friday rolls around again, so I'll finally get to meet this person, and she's a no-show/no-call. Needless to say, my boss had to fire her."
13."I work at a restaurant. They already had a guy working, probably around 18 years old. He only worked once a week for a few hours; he was just starting out. He was late every time and didn't do anything, really. We'd be in the middle of a lunch rush, and all of us would be running around like crazy, making food, serving, taking orders, etc., and he would just be standing there on his phone or staring out the window. He always had to be told to do something. When I stopped seeing him after two or three times, I didn't even have to ask why."
14."I was the head lifeguard at a small-town public pool for several summers. We had one high school kid on our sub list to fill in when we were short-staffed — and he lasted one shift. He did several dumb things, but the worst was that he just left the pool. I was guarding the shallow end, and he was watching a couple of kids in the deep end. All of a sudden, I looked up and he was gone. His reasoning: We told him we rotated every hour, and when his replacement didn't relieve him exactly on time, he thought he deserved a break anyway. If he had just said something, it would have been fine."
15."I work at a school with students who have special needs. The new guy left for lunch and came back smelling of weed. He was politely told to go home and never come back."
16."I saw a new colleague introducing himself around the office at roughly 8 a.m. Someone noticed his absence at around 4 p.m. and asked where he was. It wasn't long before we found out that he'd been sacked. Apart from our bosses and their PAs, nobody knew what he did to warrant the sacking."
17."I worked in retail, and a new girl on her first day told a woman with her child that she couldn't hear her over her 'annoying whiny brat' and then refused to honor a coupon for a customer and told the woman it wasn't her problem. She was escorted out within three hours."
18."I once saw somebody get fired because she came into work smelling like booze and then passed out, drunk, in the bathroom after lunch."
19."I witnessed this at a retail job. Part of the closing duties were to put the store back in order by folding clothes and vacuuming. A new hire was really enthusiastic until she was asked to sweep the floor with a Swiffer mop. She broke down crying, saying she never had to do that before, and quit. The weird thing was that she was from a fast-food store in the same mall — she never had to mop the floors?"
—Khim
Do you have any stories about seeing people get fired quickly? Let us know in the comments.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
