'Fired for stealing jelly beans': 20+ Super strange reasons people got immediately fired from their jobs

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 14, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

The deli employee who got fired for eating all the skin off every single rotisserie chicken behind the counter is living the dream! What a glorious act of rebellion, probably never repeated twice, to eat the most delicious parts of the rotisserie chickens, and then become a living legend before getting (rightfully) canned. That person is super unhinged, as are numerous other people in the hilarious stories included below. 

Every workplace has a story of "that one guy," who everyone knows did something strange and got caught in the act. While working fast food, I had a friend who got fired because they got in a verbal altercation with a customer, and the customer demanded they take the fight outside. This person was already hopping mad, and management couldn't stop them…so my manager weakly looked at them and asked them to take off their name tag before starting a physical fight. This person ripped off their name tag, slammed it on the counter, clocked out, and physically fought a customer in the parking lot. The cops were called, and that person got fired ASAP, but they were utterly legendary in our restaurant for their sheer boldness. As we watched from the drive-through window, we all knew that this person was "that one guy" at our place. 

Check out the super strange reasons that these bosses had to let their workers go. Then, this guy bragged about a trashy prank he pulled as a youth, but ended up getting dragged in the comments. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/AskReddit. Posted by u/monstasanta Bosses of Reddit, what's the weirdest reason why you had to fire an employee?
    via u/monstasanta
  • 02
    Font - red_firetruck I worked for a shipping company and on of the van loaders got fired for stealing jelly beans. When he was brought into the office they found jelly beans in his pants, pockets, shirt pocket, and even in his boots!
    via u/red_firetruck
  • 03
    Font - EricksA2 I was fired from a dog kennel for unknowingly playing with a wolf. She thought I knew it was a wolf and I was being a reckless teenager.
    via u/EricksA2
  • 04
    Font - thewoodstonight A friend worked at a huge international car company. The marketing director was fired for stealing 2L of milk from the company fridge every Friday afternoon.
    via u/thewoodstonight
  • 05
    Human body - plado Put a customer on hold to check his Fantasy Football. Dude, it's Wednesday. You can wait!
    via u/plado
  • 06
    Font - tricerabot We had a kid that worked at the deli in the supermarket from my home town who was fired after he ate all the skin off of every rotisserie chicken they had.
    via u/tricerabot
  • 07
    Font - whaleplushie I was a manger at a McDonald's once...we had to fire someone for carving "SLAYER" on the bathroom wall. When confronted, the kid apparently responded: "Of course I did it, Slayer f ing rules."
    via u/whaleplushie
  • 08
    Font - mirandapd Nurse here, first job was in a nursing home. One resident told me there was a devil in the window and it kept scaring her. I thought dementia. Walked in the room just as a person in a devil mask slammed themselves against the window. I ran outside and tackled them and pulled off the mask a la Scooby Doo. It was one of the CNAS. He thought that giving her a heart attack would be fair retribution for her being a little cranky when he took vital signs. Fired him on the spot even th
    via u/mirandapd
  • 09
    Font - mjw04 Sister had to fire my aunt. She got her a job at a call center for a cable provider. Aunt decided she didn't want to work for a few days, called in and said her husband died. Sister found out when co workers were pooling money to send flowers... It did not end well. Uncle never knew he died!
    via u/mjw04
  • 10
    Font - o TrustyChords One of our mid-level field consultants (father of 2, well educated and decent guy) got a pretty poor customer survey sent in from the CEO of one of our large financial clients. This CEO also brings his 2 white labs to the office just about every day. Fast forward a few days later, CEO calls us up saying he needs us to come in and review security camera footage. Apparently, when the aforementioned field consultant was tasked to go back and fix what he didn't fix the first ti
    via u/TrustyChords
  • 11
    Font - [deleted] I wasn't a boss at the time but I had a co-worker that decided to leave work on the clock to pick up his friend. About an hour goes by and the store gets a call; it was my co- worker, he had to explain to management that he was in the back of a cop car for drag-racing. The funny part is management had no idea he had left.
    via u/deleted
  • 12
    Font - argonthree At my pizza place, I had to fire a guy because he called in sick and then ordered pizza for a party using his employee discount. Idiot.
    via u/argonthree
  • 13
    Font - CHollman82 When I was 17 I worked at Wendy's and one night one of my coworkers had a really bad asthma attack in the back room... the manager insisted that no one call for an ambulance because the company would be liable, after about 10 minutes of this girl gasping for breath on the floor I picked her up and took her to the ER where they gave her a shot of something to fix it... when I got back to work they fired me for leaving during my shift... I didn't even fight it that was the worst
    via u/CHollman82
  • 14
    Font - kjoeleskapet I'm an art director and had to hire an assistant. She had an impressive portfolio, a decent (but not overly incredible) résumé, and when I called her references, they sang her praises. HR seemed to think that was enough and approved her for the position. About a month later, I was smoking a cigarette with a guy from IT and he said how funny it was that my assistant constantly Googled "How to [insert action here] in Adobe Illustrator". I thought it was funny too, so I went to
    via u/kjoeleskapet
  • 15
    Font - I found her portfolio and did a reverse image search. Every last image was stolen. I called back one of the references and the number was "not in service". I contacted HR, they did a background check, and it turns out she had just gotten out of prison for felony identity theft. She also had two gross misdemeanors for theft. She had never been a graphic designer and never even went to college. TL;DR My ex-felon assistant graphic designer faked a portfolio, references, and résumé and skated
    via u/kjoeleskapet
  • 16
    Font - powelly For posting "I hate my new job" on his first day, on facebook, using an office computer, while he was supposed to be working. LTP: Do not add you boss on facebook on your first day.
    via u/powelly
  • 17
    Font - ayb I had to fire a guy less than a week after he started. This was back in the late 90s and he was supposed to be writing some HTML. Instead, he took apart the desktop we gave him, laid out all the parts and started airblowing them ... day after day. I don't remember all of it, but that Friday was the day my boss taught me how to fire someone.
    via u/ayb
  • 18
    Font - o vertigo01 I was directing a commercial, as a favour I hired a newly graduated film student as a runner. Told him call time was 6.30 am he wanted to know why, told him so we would be filming by 8am. When setting up, he would not shut up. Sent him on a tea/coffee run, he screwed up the order, when handing out the drinks he said Scorsese didn't do tea/coffee runs. Boasted about his skills and knowledge as a film-maker but knew very little of the real workings of production. As I was preppi
    via u/vertigo01
  • 19
    Font - At 12.30 the client stops by and asks when can they view the rushes, I was about to tell them 5.30, film- grad student blurts in, it would be next day as the film had to be developed. I explained we were shooting on tape. Had to fire him on the spot, in front of the client. He only lasted 6 hours. He left in a huff mumbling about him having a 1st in his degree, when he's directing he ain't going to hire any of my crew, he'll make sure he slanders my name locally and I'll never work again.
    via u/vertigo01
  • 20
    Font - babno I volunteered at a museum as a blacksmith. I was 'fired' (was never paid, but they said never come back) for starting a fire in the blacksmith pit. I guess I was just supposed to hit room temperature iron?
    via u/babno
  • 21
    Font - Preminicious I work at a pizza place, and drivers get tips based on write-ins on tickets. One guy was taking a really long time to get out of his car (he was idling in the parking lot and we had about 3 to 4 deliveries waiting to go out) so I went out to see if he was OK. He was using white-out to cover the original tip on both sides of the ticket to try and hide that he was writing in tips. On seeing me watching him do this, he rolled his driver side window down, threw the bottle of whit
    via u/Preminicious
  • 22
    Font - mjw04 Fired a girl for hiding in a walking cooler and eating candy right out of the box with bare hands.(managed a DQ) I walked in, caught her with her hands literally in the cookie jar...and she still tried to deny it. Ahhh...gotta love fast food. edit format
    via u/miw04
  • 23
    Font - greyestofblue Fired a girl not because she consistently showed up 15 minutes lates w/o notice, or falsified her hours worked, or threatened other employees to cover for her tardiness, laziness, and general incompetence... No, she was fired because she would not stop singing. She was a theater major and felt the need to sing ALL THE TIME. Show tunes, mostly. When asked to not sing as it annoyed others she said us telling her she can't sing is us telling her to shut up, and that's harassmen
    via u/greyestofblue
  • 24
    Font - Cithog I had a new employee I had trained for about a week straight (We'll call him bob). His first day came around and it's time for his shift, no bob. I tried to call bob no answer. Thirty minutes later still no bob. finally an hour and a half later he calls the shop. His excuse "my mom wanted to take me shopping and said you would understand. I'll be there in thirty minutes". My retort "Oh no rush, turn in your apron and name badge when ever" click. edit: spelling edit: He had been lat
    via u/Cithog
  • 25
    Font - [deleted] I had to let an employee go for refusing to stop speaking in an extremely exaggerated English accent.
    via u/deleted

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