'Thank you so much for firing me': People share how they burned bridges on their last day of work

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 5, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

Some of us are people pleasers and could never imagine causing drama on our last day at a job, but others feel that they have nothing left to lose. 

 

Honestly, power to these individuals. I could never motivate myself to be that savage, even if I were completely in the right. I've been candid about the experience as a whole, certainly. If I have an exit interview, I do believe that affords employees on their way out with a healthy opportunity to professionally discuss the issues within their place of work. The chances of your managers taking your advice may be slim to none, but it won't really affect your day-to-day in any way since you won't be working there anymore. However, anything more requires a kind of confidence and audacity that I do not possess. Some of these former employees, who shared their stories via this r/AskReddit thread, engaged in sabotage, confessions, bold statements, out-of-line behavior, etc. Again, I could never imagine myself doing or saying these things, but reading about them certainly provides a sort of vicarious fulfillment.

 

Keep scrolling below to see what these folks did while they were one foot out the door. For more lists like this, check out these silly reasons why couples broke up.

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  • 01
    Post-it note - 1 Ctrl 1 2 r/AskReddit Posted by u/caseyfrazanimations 22 hours ago £ 3 Fn Cap: Whats the best "burning the bridge on the last work day" story you've heard? $ 4 € 5 Alt C. 6 & 7 * 8 I QUIT! ( 9 O Alt Gr
    via Nick Fewings + u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 02
    Font - some_guy_76. 1 day ago I worked at a call center for 6 years and 3 days. On my last day I did the exit interview, it normally took people 5 minutes to do the exit interview. It took me just over an hour. I spilled the tea on everything! Every dirty deed, every affair, every illegal act, ALL the harassment that went on...............EVERYTHING!!! A few days later word got back to me from friends that corporate came in and was doing an investigation into everything I had talked about. In th
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  • 03
    Font - salty_c_witch 1 day ago . It was me. I burned the bridge, gleefully. For context, this was pre-COVID. I was a cashier at a pet supply store and had turned in my two-week notice the week prior. Then, I came down with a nasty cold and lost my voice. I was coughing quite a bit too, and they could hear it over the phone when I tried to call in sick. But they gave the classic, "if you call out during your two-week notice, we'll blacklist you". They insisted I come in. Fine.
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  • 04
    Font - I was young, and this was my first job so I took the threat seriously. But I had some malicious compliance in mind. As a cashier, I had to go over the store intercom whenever I needed backup at the register. So whenever I had to call for backup, I put on my worst, most gravelly, nasally voice I could and blasted it all over the store. But hey, I was just doing my job, right? Sometimes I even put in a cough for good measure. I could see that quite a few customers were getting disturbed. I'
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 05
    Font - PloppyTheSpaceship 22 hr. ago. edited 19 hr. ago This is one from my dad's old work. A guy is pretty sure he's about to be laid off. The company's been laying lots of people off and he's fairly sure he's next to bite the bullet. So just before he's called into his manager's office to be given his marching orders he writes a bit of code that will up the company's databases. Sets it to go off in a few minutes. And into the office he goes. He's staying. As soon as he hears that he dashes out
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 06
    Font - PasLagardere. 1 day ago I used to work for the company that was responsible for the distribution of electricity and gas in my city. One of our tasks was to schedule the opening, closing, installation and removal of gas and electric installations. I had a co-worker who had been dumped by her fiancé, approximately 1 week before their wedding, becaus he had an affair with their neighbour. My college had been extremely sad about this, but on her last day of work (approximately 4 months later)
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 07
    Font - Her shift ended at 6 PM that day, we wished her well and all that. It was a Friday. Cue to Monday, when we receive non-stop calls from her ex, who was absolutely furious because that Friday someone had come to remove the electric installation. The electricity contract was still on her name so she was legally allowed to ask for the removal of her electric installation. It took 2 weeks before he had electricity again and she had to pay a fine. ↑ 337 ↓ Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 08
    Font - Havingfun922 1 day ago I worked at a supermarket for 10 years. I just got another job and was ready to give my notice. One night I was running the store and got paged to the front counter. It took me a few minutes to get up there, as I had to deal with other customers first. When I get there, the guy waiting for me said "Took you long enough!"
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 09
    Font - He had an issue with the new kid at the seafood case not knowing where something was in the back freezer. As I am walking back to seafood with him, he is l about the kid. He was being a real the whole time. I go to the freezer, find the shrimp he needs, then go to the counter to weigh it up.
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  • 10
    Font - He sees the bag of shrimp and about there being too much ice in the bag, and isn't paying for ice. Residual ice is factored out of the per pound price. I explain this to him, but he doesn't believe me. I am done at this point. I take the shrimp, slam it on the counter, and say to him "I am done with this and dealing with like you! I have another job and don't anymore. I'm need this leaving."
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  • 11
    Font - Best part: As I walk away from the seafood counter, I point to him and say "Oh, and one more thing: YOU!" You only get one chance in a lifetime to say something like this to a customer, I made sure I took advantage of it. 332 Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 12
    Font - webhick 23 hr. ago I handed all my keys back to security and not my boss. Those keys were coveted because most of them were skeleton keys and the rest were likely the only ones that could open some doors. And no one was supposed to have them anymore so security was never going to let them go. Oops. Lolololol 299 Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 13
    Font - Shas_Erra 23 hr. ago I spent five years running the regional-level delivery arm of a retailer. I literally wrote the book on how to do that job, designed the processes and procedures from scratch and built a whole host of programs, tools and databases to make it easier. In my first year, delivery accuracy went from 60% to 99% and we were making just shy of £1M a year from online orders alone.
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 14
    Font - Management walked someone brand new to the company into my office and insisted that I train her to be my immediate superior (a job I had been covering the whole time and had been promised on multiple occasions). They got my resignation instead and I wiped the hard drive and USBs containing the only copies and backups of everything I had built. Sometimes I feel sorry for the new hire for being dropped into that mess but it felt good burning the entire operation to the ground. Reply Share 2
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 15
    Font - hunnyjo 1 day ago When I worked for Radio Shack it was pretty common place for store managers as their last act to lock the doors and then throw their keys of the roof of the store. Most would also make sure their 2nd key wasn't scheduled to open the next day. 240 Reply Share
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  • 16
    Font - someguyfromsk. 20 hr. ago This entire post is the reason a lot of companies will you out the door and pay you out the second you give your notice. 163 Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 17
    Font - Adorable_Cuckquean. 19 hr. ago A trainer at the gym was fired in front of everyone and he literally jumped in the air as high as he could in joy, ripped off his name tag, threw it on the ground, then calmly but loudly said Thank you so much for firing me. The manager looked so confused but I heard they treated their trainers like garbage ↑ 161 ↓ Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 18
    Font - Luke5119 1 day ago edited 1 day ago I don't know about best, but funny. A former coworker (retail) used to but heads with our manager like CRAZY. Manager was but for whatever reason he and this coworker were just at each others throats most of the time.
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  • 19
    Font - Coworkers last day he's all smiles and he surprised all of us by actually fulfilling his two weeks rather than quitting on the spot. But later that evening we realized why he was all smiles... Said manager coworker had problems with comes back in the store after his shift was up and he's FUMING! Turns out my coworker decided to zip-tie the managers doors shut on his car and used industrial strength glue on the handles as well.
    via u/caseyfrazanimations
  • 20
    Font - The store had no facing cameras in the area of the lot where the manager was parked, so there wasn't any direct evidence of him doing it, but everyone knew he did it. Last I heard the manager attempted to take him to small claims court, but I never heard what came of it. 143 Reply Share
    via u/caseyfrazanimations

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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work askreddit Office reddit thread Reddit toxic-work-environment
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