'Is it ok if I fire you?': Boss fires employee for being late, then surprises them with offer

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 10, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

If you're late, you're late — and your boss might not care about your excuses. 

A baffling thing that some people do is tell you that there are no excuses for your actions. Then, they still want you to explain yourself. So the conversation will start by your boss demanding to know why you're late. You then say that you were late because you had car trouble, or perhaps your nanny cancelled last minute, or any other good reason for not being on time. Even the best employees in the world won't make it to the office by 9AM if their car is a broken-down mess parked on the shoulder of the highway. 

Then, your boss tells you that there are "no excuses." You should just be on time, even when it is physically impossible to do so. That mentality just serves to drive employees crazy, because whether you have a good excuse or not, your boss won't change their mind about punishing you.

U/sc0ut3rofroy shared their story about being late to work, and the path their boss took to handle the offense. At first, it seemed like they were ready to fire the OP over a tiny offense, but the OP quickly realized what was actually happening. People in the r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit adored the story, and some added their own comments on the boss. 

After reading this workplace tale, read about these waving red flags that people noticed as they started new jobs. 

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  • 01
    Computer - 'I arrive to work, clock in almost an hour after the start of my shift, and am promptly told... my boss would like to see me in his office.' DELL
    via Arlington Research on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Is it ok if I fire you? LOC Obligatory long time reader, first time poster, on mobile yada yada. This is a story of MC that a previous boss had done, but involved me directly as will be explained. Timeframe is early 2000s for reference.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 03
    Font - In my late high school / early college years, I had a job doing telemarketing work during winter and summer breaks. While it was boiler room cold calling, we primarily were soliciting donations for agencies that had contracted us to do the work, so felt less scuzzy. Think police departments, fire departments, etc. We kept a portion of donations for operating expenses, everything over a certain threshold went directly to the receiving party. Everybody wins.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 04
    Font - I enjoyed the job as the scripts were simple, I was allowed to read a book and such between calls, and a number of my friends were also employed there so we could hang out during lunch breaks. The pay was a decent chunk above minimum wage at that time, so it was a good gig. I also had a knack for it, and at one point was 5th in "sales" across all their sites they had in operation, 2nd in our building.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 05
    Font - One summer, while driving to work, my car promptly dies with no warning and I'm left stranded on the road. As you do in this situation back before cell phones for poor college students were a thing, I walk to the nearest house and ask to use the phone. I call my dad who starts driving to get me, and call my work to let them know I'll be late. My boss says fine and that he will chat with me when I get in.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 06
    Font - Father shows up with my mother in two cars, I take the extra and he begins the arduous process of "towing" my car back to the house. This involved tying a rope to the front of the car and to the back of his vehicle and crawling back home so he could fix it himself. I've been in that back car, and did not envy my father being in the back car with only 10 feet of space between him and the car my mother was driving, but I'm off to work.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 07
    Font - I arrive to work, clock in almost an hour after the start of my shift, and am promptly told by the front receptionist that my boss would like to see me in his office. So I head on back. Beginning details completed. Cue the start of the MC story.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 08
    Font - My boss and I have always had a good rapport. I'm a good worker, get good reviews, and he and I have some similar interests outside of work we can chat about occasionally. When I arrive in his office, he's shuffling some papers around and has laid out a few documents facing me. As close as I can recall, this is the conversation that followed.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 09
    Font - Boss - "Hope everything worked out with the car, glad to have you here. Couple things I need to discuss with you. First of all, as I'm sure you are aware, being more than 30 minutes late to work is considered a class C violation (3 classes, from C to A, C being the least egregious) if insufficient time is given prior to the occurrence. This is your first violation, so I'd like to talk to you about what happens next."
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 10
    Font - I'm sweating at this point. I've never even been talked to about being out of order on anything while working here, and getting my first violation scared the heck out of me. So I'm sitting there, white faced, and he continues.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 11
    Font - Boss - "No official writeup or anything occurs for a first violation, or even the first few Class C violations, but it is managers discretion on the punishment depending on past behaviors. Now, you are a good employee and I've put in to corporate a few times to give you a raise, but because you only work during your school breaks, it is denied as you aren't considered 'full time'. So the papers I have here are your termination papers and an offer letter I'd like to extend to you to hire y
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 12
    Font - So we go through the process of him "firing" me, which then allowed him to extend an offer to me to rehire me at roughly a 25% increase in pay, since he could justify to corporate the bump as he was hiring someone with experience. In talking with him, he let me know it was something he occasionally did to the high school and college workers to get around the corporate's policy of not allowing raises to people that didn't work 1,000+ hours in a year. It was his own way of being maliciously
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 13
    Font - their back end systems worked, it wouldn't even show up as a break in service, since the firing and hiring happened on the same day, and since I never worked more than the minimum 1,000 hours each year I didn't have any tenure or anything to be worried about losing.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 14
    Font - The laugh he and the receptionist had when he walked me back to the front to introduce her to the new employee was enjoyable, and I've had a fun story to tell ever since.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 15
    Human body - TLDR - Boss fires me for minor infraction so he can then rehire me at a higher rate of pay.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 16
    Font - Edit - Thank you everyone for the comments and awards. I had to Google what the awards meant, as I've never made a post or comment that has had more than a few upvotes in the past. I've been doing my best to keep up with comments and thanking the award people individually, but I know there are many I missed or just didn't have the stamina to keep up with. I also wanted to answer a few commonly asked questions. 1 - Why do the fire department and police department need more money? - This wa
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 17
    Font - 2 - Did your dad fix the car / what was wrong with it? - I'm not a car person, so don't know what was wrong with it, but yes, my dad was able to fix it.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 18
    Font - 3 - Do you keep in touch with the boss? - This was close to 20 years ago, and unfortunately I don't keep in touch with very many people from my hometown including this wonderful man. Last I had heard, he was still working there 4-5 years after I had left, and it was still a great place to work.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 19
    Font - Many of your comments had me laughing, and I've enjoyed responding to them throughout the day and into the wee hours of the morning last night, and they are still coming in. Thank you all again for this enjoyable experience, I'm glad you had fun with my little retelling of years gone by.
    via u/sc0ut3rofroy
  • 20
    Font - No-Produce-6641 Very cool boss. 3.3k scOut3rofroy OP Reply Share The best of the best
    via u/No-Produce-6641
  • 21
    Font - AltharaD That did not turn out the way I was expecting and it was excellent. Gotta love bosses like that! 7.0k Reply Share scOut3rofroy OP. I enjoy the stories on here that have a happy ending, so am glad I could contribute to it. Wish all bosses realized that treating employees well makes them want to work harder for you.
    via u/AltharaD
  • 22
    Font - Angela-lala Bosses like this are rare. 123 Reply Share scOut3rofroy OP. Too rare, unfortunately. Not everyone deals with a bit of power the same way.
    via u/Angela-lala

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getting fired boss employee fired marketing malicious compliance bosses call work malicious-compliance-reddit cars telemarketer workplace phone calls
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