Sober Woman Gets Fired After Coworker Snoops Through Her Phone And Finds Recovery Apps

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Aug 6, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

It's so important that people at your job don't know everything about you. Even if you like your coworkers and have a solid bond, there are some things you shouldn't tell them. Even if you think they have good intentions, they could use aspects of your personal life against you in the workplace. You never know who's going to tattle to the boss about something utterly unrelated to the job you're doing. This is especially true in restaurant and retail employment situations, where gossip and drama are much more likely to cause somebody's downfall. 

One Redditor recently got fired from a BBQ restaurant for the prettiest reason in the world. Her coworker snooped through her phone and found she had several apps designed to help people recover from drug addiction. Instead of the coworker getting in trouble for looking through her things, the woman in recovery got fired for "being a drug addict." That's gotta be illegal, and yet, it happened. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/antiwork u/Audio-Starshine • 15h Fired FOR BEING SOBER! So, a little background, I struggled with addiction for 23 years. It started with oral Lortab, over time moved up to intranasal oxycontin, and the end of it was a few years of IV carafentanyl, fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. It was so hard to get clean, but finally I checked into detox, graduated there and instead of going home I went to an intensive inpatient rehab, graduated there, and immediately checked myself into outpa
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  • 02
    Font - The job sucked, the food wasn't great, and I was only making $8/hour but I was happy just to be working. After being there a while I go to go on break and when I walk into the breakroom I see one of the other girls who works there who's always causing some sort of trouble has gone through my purse bc she's holding my phone in her hand going through it. At this point I had been clean for nearly a year but I'm still very proactive about my recovery so there are a ton of sobriety apps on my
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  • 03
    Font - people for the next day so to just call on for my schedule. Next day I call and I'm not on the schedule. So I call the owner to ask why and she tells me that Amanda (girl who went through my phone) called her and told her I was on drugs. I told her that I was not, I told her how long I had been clean, I offered to sign a waiver so that she could speak to my case manager at the outpatient treatment center, I told her I really needed the job and I was trying to get my life together and that
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  • 04
    Font - o sekoku 14h ● 1. Always put a lock screen on your phone. ALWAYS. 2. You should probably talk to a lawyer due to #1. Reply 3.9k ...
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  • 05
    Rectangle - Sensitive_Object_414 - 12h Ya I'm pretty sure you have some sort of case of discrimination against your employer and Amanda. ... 1.5k
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  • 06
    Font - noodleq • 11h Addictions are covered in the Americans disabilities act or whatever that is. I believe that's federal law if I'm not mistaken. You may have a case I don't know. ... ↑ 1k 1k
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  • 07
    Font - LimeLauncherKrusha • 15h "She told me she didn't want anyone working for her who had ever had a drug problem" She's in the wrong business then ... Reply 393
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  • 08
    Font - Audio-Starshine OP 15h Lol, ikr. I'm not gonna rat anyone out who's only hurting themselves bc it's not my business, but I KNOW 2 of the other ladies there are in active addiction right now. 142 凸
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  • 09
    Font - NoRecommendation7275 12h I wonder if the boss enjoys alcohol on their time offdrug use is so stigmatized and it is so wrong. Congrats on your sobriety and don't feel too down about it. If they would fire you for something like this they were likely just looking for reasons to get rid of staff. You dodged a bullet! ... 449
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  • 10
    Rectangle - Autumn_Skald. 15h It really sucks how stupidly judgemental people can be about drug use. Congratulations on your sobriety. ... Reply 865
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  • 11
    Font - Audio-Starshine OP 15h 1 Award Thank you. I'm still not working, but I did start a training program to get my peer support specialist certification and yesterday I passed my test to end phase one of training and begin phase two. I'm doing my classes via zoom bc the place is an hour away and I don't have a vehicle but as soon as I can figure out transportation I can start on the 52 volunteer hours I have to complete before starting a paid internship with ROSS Recovery. I'll have to intern
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  • 12
    Font - isdrlady • 14h Sounds like you have a great plan for the future. I'm proud of you! 分 112 ...
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  • 13
    Font - JMaAtAPMT • 15h Hey, you should talk to a lawyer about filing suit against the coworker to teach her a lesson about doing this shit to people with a nice judgement for defamation. Reply 408
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  • 14
    Font - Audio-Starshine OP 15h Yeah, I thought about that, but idk whats going on in her life to make her such a bitch. Not that anything excuses what she did at all, but I don't want to be responsible for Making someone's laugh harder when things made or may not be hard enough. Besides she makes $9 an hour to barbecue restaurant I seriously doubt she'd be able to pay out on any kind of law suit. It's almost 6 here and I've got an NA meeting. I really appreciate the thought though. I wanted to cu
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  • 15
    Font - JMaAtAPMT • 15h Doesen't matter what's going on in her life to make her ruin other's lives. She needs to be taught that ruining other people's lives has consequences. Having a judgement hang over her credit for 7 years sounds like decent consequences to teach her to stop. G 4216 ...
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  • 16
    Balloon - Audio-Starshine OP 15h ● Yeah, you're right, and it really did f me up bad. The BBQ place was close to my house so I could find a ride there. If I hadn't lost that job I'd have been able to fix my motorcycle and have a way of going by now. 4100
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  • 17
    Font - JMaAtAPMT • 15h If you're suing for less than small claims limit, you don't need to pay a lawyer for this. You just need to bring in a check stub and evidence of what she did to small claims court for a nominal filing fee. You can get a statement from the employer / manager that would really help. Again, I'm not about actually collecting, I'm all about teaching people like this a lesson in legal consequences of their actions. A good rule of thumb would be x(months) of take home wages as d
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  • 18
    Font - Sea-Ad9057 • 15h i wonder what she was looking for when she went through your purse .... probably drugs and/or money. i think you had a lucky escape you can probably get a new job asap maybe be upfront incase you need a sobriety meeting or what ever and when you do find a new job i would write a review for the restaurant warning customers to be wary of certain staff members going through their posessions Reply 71 ↓
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  • 19
    Font - Audio-Starshine OP. 15h For sure, and idly she did it, but if it was drugs or money she was SOL on that looking in my purse. Lol. I can start an internship as soon as I can work out transportation back and forth 106 miles per day. I'm sure I'll figure out something soon. 28
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  • 20
    Font - Duke 582 14h ● Amanda should have been the one fired. Reply 40
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  • 21
    Human body - Bigkid6666 13h It was 8 bucks an hour...nuff said. 31 ... Reply 6
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Tags

management terrible coworkers sober getting fired antiwork fired manager bosses coworkers sobriety toxic-boss Horrible Bosses bad bosses Reddit coworker job
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