'Forgot cheese on cheese pizza, twice': 30+ Bosses share the super stupid reasons they had to fire someone

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 4, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

We hear a lot about bad bosses, so today, let's turn the tables and see why these bosses had to fire their employees for particularly outrageous behavior. 

Bosses of Reddit joined in to share the actually crazy reasons they had to let their employees go. In any workplace, there are going to be your share of Perpetually-Late-Patties and Fake-Call-Out-Freds. But these employees took it one step further. They didn't just toe the line, they jumped over it. 

I saved my favorite story for last — a story of a catering employee who was so incompetent at her job that she sounds like Amelia Bedelia. She was told to put some water bottles into a cooler of ice, and she instead opened every single bottle and poured it into the cooler. Her boss must have done a facepalm heard round the world! She took things way too literally, and she's not the only employee to be too literal in the workplace. Keep scrolling to check out this incredible thread. 

And speaking of facepalms, click here to laugh at these peoples' failed texting conversations. 

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  • 01
    Purple - 'Worked at a nightclub. One if the workers called in sick, but he was actually going to some party instead. Could you guess where they went after the party? Yes, to our nightclub.'
    via Ameer Basheer
  • 02
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/Jed118 Bosses of reddit, what is the stupidest thing you have had to fire someone for?
    via u/Jed118
  • 03
    Font - This guy always tried to hide at work to avoid working. One day I was looking for him and I stepped into the bathroom. I notice a shoe print on the back of the toilet, and I look up and one of the ceiling tiles is pushed a little to the side. I climb up there, and this mother f er is hiding in the ceiling.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 04
    Font - Internet Validation Wasn't the boss sorry, but a coworker at the gas station job I had in high school got fired for just pulling scratch-off lottery tickets off the roll and scratching them off right on the counter. Directly in front of the security cameras we all knew about.
    via u/Internet_Validation
  • 05
    Font - Morally Deplorable Manager at a delivery joint here, we had to let someone go because they decided to deliver pizzas in a stolen car.
    via u/MorallyDeplorable
  • 06
    Font - yooki42. We worked at a place that bought in used cell phones. She bought a cell phone from a guy and his Facebook was still open. She posted as the guy on his Facebook something like "I'm a big f king idiot". Guy came back to complain. She was fired.
    via u/yooki42
  • 07
    Font - mckeanna I was managing a restaurant and did morning cash out (I checked all slips against the information in the computer). I noticed a new hire had really good tip averages the day before when I had been paying her out. The next day I was going through her slips and noticed a... discrepancy. Mainly that she had added a 1 in front of each tip and changed the total. How could I tell you ask? SHE USED DIFFERENT COLOR INK! She was fired and we refunded the money... seriously, at least use t
    via u/mckeanna
  • 08
    Font - aardvarkious I worked in a fast food kiosk in an amusement park. We had a machine that cooked our burgers and toasted our buns: one of those ones where the food goes through on a conveyor belt. One day, it was raining. While walking to the kiosk, a girl got wet. So, logically, she took her clothes off and put them through the machine so the heat could dry them. Her shirt caught on fire and set the kitchen sprinklers off. Her shoe forced the two toasting plates in the bun section far apart
    via u/aardvarkious
  • 09
    Font - tleb Receptionist who forgot to wear pants. I was at a satelite office and had 4 employees call me seperately to let me know. There were some previous issues, plus they were pretty sure she was on something.
    via u/tleb
  • 10
    Font - [deleted] Not a boss, but HR. Had a guy on a temporary work comp transitional assignment at a retail store. His regular job had very good pay, a lot of benefits, etc. The moron stole a used scuba suit from his temporary job site, on camera. Bonus: we're well over 1,000 miles from any ocean.
    via u/deleted
  • 11
    Font - NCC74656 a PC technician was being pestered with questions from a customer about sales stuff. he lost it and while looking the customer square in the face (the employee had his eyes closed however) said: "GET AWAY FROM ME OR ILL EAT YOUR FACE". it took half the day to get over the laughter and WTF of the situation before we could even begin on paperwork.
    via u/NCC74656
  • 12
    Font - overusesellipses I once worked in a retail store where we all had our own access codes that allowed us to do stuff, and if our code didn't allow us to do it, we weren't supposed to be doing it. On his first day during training he managed to catch the General Manager's code as he was typing it in and used it for about a week. Pretty much gave away thousands of dollars of equipment in the manager's name.
    via u/overusesellipses
  • 13
    Font - It was particularly stupid because he did it because he still had his trainee position which required somebody to look over most of what he did if he wanted to give discounts, etc. If he had waited another couple of days he would have been moved up to full staff member and could have given out most of those discounts anyway without anybody noticing or caring. He just couldn't wait to give his friends all the free swag.
    via u/overusesellipses
  • 14
    Font - Poker_Fingers I got a great one. My friend and I were both district managers for a vendor company that worked in Home Depots building displays and merchandising. One day one of the workers was on the store phone talking with one of the owners of the company. Owner hears in the background an in-store page for a manager he knows had been fired a month before. Turns out this guy had made an hour long recording of the inside sounds of a Home Depot, and would play it on his stereo anytime some
    via u/Poker_Fingers
  • 15
    Font - My friend asked him where he was, and he goes "I'm at the store." We tell him, you might want to look out your window. We see his curtain part a little bit and close fast. We told him don't bother coming out, you're fired. Got to give him credit for the balls and ingenuity though.
    via u/Poker_Fingers
  • 16
    Font - ImScaryTerry_B In high school a guy I knew stole a giant Ronald McDonald made of legos from the McDonalds he worked at. It was one of those guess the number of pieces contests. He got away with it, but later on he was busted for stealing boxes of hash brown wrappers with monopoly game pieces on them. Cops show up at his place to arrest him over the hash browns, lo and behold there sits Ronald in the middle of his room.
    via u/ImScaryTerry_B****
  • 17
    Font - or red98muswha Employee wrote "as bottom of a customers oil filter. Customer decided to change his oil one day.... something something something Fired. "1 on the Edit: At the time employees were required to sign their initials for upper bay and lower bay with the date. The upper bay tech signed JJ, and the lower bay tech was AS. JJ was ped at AS that day and finished the lower bays initials with SHOLE beside it and handed it to him to install. Customer found it a month later doing his own
    via u/red98muswha
  • 18
    Font - kazador Worked at a nightclub. One if the workers called in sick, but he was actually going to some party instead. Could you guess where they went after the party? Yes, to our nightclub.
    via u/kazador
  • 19
    Font - [deleted] Forgot cheese on cheese pizza, twice.
    via u/deleted
  • 20
    Font - MardyBumperCar Friend of mine wasn't fired, but they stop letting her make the pizzas at the pizza place she worked at because she would configure the toppings into smiley face pictures and such.
    via u/MardyBumperCar
  • 21
    Rectangle - Donnelly14 Putting a customers info in the system as: first name: don't care. Last name: smells like s.
    via u/Donnelly14
  • 22
    Font - [deleted] backstory: employee 'Ed' works a union job, works 40 hours per week, makes about $60k per year, full benefits, full pension, tons of paid vacation, and is in his early to mid 30s. Ed has absolutely no education, did not even finish high school, is socially awkward, pretty much sucks at his job, is physically weak, often 'injured' (never enough for a doctor to find a problem, just enough to get alternate duty). Basically, the picture I'm painting is that Ed would be homeless if i
    via u/deleted
  • 23
    Font - Motherf ing Ed takes funeral leave for a Thursday and a Friday for his mother's funeral. Some other manager who seems to remember his mom dying a few years ago does some snooping, and eventually asks for some proof. Ed turns in a FAKED obituary, gets found out, and fired. I still think about that guy some times. He turned down the best gig of his life for a stupid 4 day weekend, when he had like 20 paid days off available for use anyway.
    via u/deleted
  • 24
    Font - severinusofnoricum Guy who worked in the mailroom figured he could score a new laptop by ordering one in the CEO's name and forging a purchase order. Someone busted him before the laptop even arrived.
    via u/severinusofnoricum
  • 25
    Font - flatlined2 Had an employee call in sick a few busy retail Saturdays in a row. The pattern got my a bit suspicious, but I had no proof until..... a coworker, who wasn't all too happy working upfront short handed again, came into my office cell phone in hand to show me selfie photos that the "sick" employee had just posted to facebook of her sunbathing!
    via u/flatlined2
  • 26
    Font - [deleted] There was one time I had to fire someone because I sent him out on a job that would only take 2-3 hours to complete. Before he left, he mentioned to the receptionist that he was going to make it last all day. She mentioned it to me, and sure enough, he returned over 8 hours later. Being dishonest with a client's money is not something I was going to tolerate.
    via u/deleted
  • 27
    Human body - Interior Renekton Had someone Mop a table at the restaurant once.
    via u/Interior_Renekton
  • 28
    Font - pizza_throw I'm a manager for a well known pizza chain. We use GPS tracking to keep track of our delivery folks. Mostly just in case a customer calls in and asks..."Dude...where is my pizza?!?!" Delivery guy takes a couple of orders out to drop off in the same area. Customer(s) call in..."Hey, we ordered over an hour ago. Where is the pizza?!" I check the GPS system. Delivery looks like its one or two blocks away. Depending on who he drops off first.
    via u/pizza_throw
  • 29
    Font - I say..."Looks like within 5 minutes. I'm sorry for the wait. Would you like me to email you some discount codes for the wait?....blah blah blah" 15 minutes pass. Calls again. "HEY....still no pizza! I want a refund." I say..."I'm sorry sir...certainly and I will still send you some coupons." Check the GPS system. Car still in the same spot. Drive out to check on driver. 1. He is asleep in the car. Seat cranked back. 2. Has a cord and adapter plugged into his cigarette lighter..... 3. Its
    via u/pizza_throw
  • 30
    Human body - Dude....its fing pizza delivery. Drive....drop off the pizza while its hot. Make sure the order is right. DONE.
    via u/pizza_throw
  • 31
    Font - I own a catering company. Two quick stories. One time I asked one of my employees to fill a cooler with bottles of water and ice. When I came to check on her an hour later she had filled the cooler with ice and had opened every individual water bottle and dumped it into the cooler. She also didn't understand why that was wrong.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 32
    Font - A few weeks later I gave the same lady the task of melting some butter for a clambake. She put about 25 pounds of butter in a double boiler pot and turned on the burner. She decided it would be a good idea to walk away from the pot of melted butter to go have a cigarette. When she came back the butter was burnt and boiling. In a panic this woman decided to take a bucket of ice and dump it into the pot so the "butter wouldn't be burnt anymore" The ice mixed with the boiling butter caused t
    via r/AskReddit

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boss workplace-stories employee fired work stories askreddit funny employment
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