'Not sure why he didn't get fired': 10+ times coworkers messed up majorly and got away with it

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 16, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

Every toxic workplace has a problematic employee or two, and everyone is secretly wondering why they're still working at the company. Especially after all the nonsense they have pulled over the years. Perhaps they know the big boss at the top. Perhaps they're even related to them (nepo baby alert!). Perhaps no one at the managerial level is aware of some of the craziness these terrible coworkers have gotten away with over the years. You are smart enough to stay out of it and just observe all the drama from a distance because you don't want to get on anyone's bad side. After all, if the troublesome coworker is still working at the company, it's highly likely that they have the kinds of strings to pull to get you booted if they discover your doubts about them. 

Keep scrolling below for these wild coworker stories that somehow didn't result in immediate dismissals. For more content like this, check out these job red flags.

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  • 01
    Table - "Ok my coworker is definitely getting fired for this one" ECI
    via Austin Distel
  • 02
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/liftoffer What's your, "okay my coworker is definitely getting fired for this one" story, where he/she didn't end up getting fired?
    via u/liftoffer
  • 03
    Font - paulvs88 Worked at a small radio station. Guy who was on air before me would record the local news for me to play at 6pm. It was recorded so if he messed up he would just start over and edit that part out. Well one day he forgets that he messed up so he doesn't edit it. I play the news on-air at 6 and in the middle I hear "GOD NOW I HAVE TO DO THIS THING AGAIN...(then in his pleasant radio voice) Hi I'm Jim Thomas with your 6 o'clock news update". Not sure why he didn't get fired. ↑ 9.6k
    via u/liftoffer
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    Font - 4. [deleted] A guy I worked with got a dui in a company owned car with used car dealer plates on it, doing 75 in a 35 with 5 people in the car. He's is now the used car manager. ↑ 9.0k ↓ Share
    via u/liftoffer
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    Font - HighOnGoofballs. Accidentally emailed the salaries of about 1,000 employees to those employees, so everyone got to see how much more money the new guy who was worse than them made. Cost a lot of money to level all those salaries. ↑ 8.2k ↓ Share
    via u/liftoffer
  • 06
    Font - michikade At one hotel I worked at one girl got caught dropping empty drop envelopes into the safe and taking the cash. I'm talking about hundreds of dollars per shift for multiple shifts. She was hot though. I think the owner liked staring at her. By the time i quit, she was still there. 5.9k ↓ Share ...
    via u/liftoffer
  • 07
    Font - M Srslywhyumadbro He was GM, owner was his college roomie, and he was only at work a maximum of 40 hrs out of 80 in the two-week pay period. He would leave in the mornings and go do his other job, leaving me (production manager) to run the place, and then come back towards the end of the day. He still billed the owner 80 hours per two-week pay period. He did this for at least 6 months. I told the owner when I left the company. They had a long chat. He still works there. His name is Chad.
    via u/liftoffer
  • 08
    Font - asdlpg IT-guy deleted all bills of the last five days. The accountant came in and yelled at him for 40 min straight, went home and couldn't speak for nearly three days. Our CEO didn't fire the IT-guy because he was one of his friends. Other coworkers and I had to call about 200 other companies to ask them, if they have received a bill from us. At the end, somebody got the glorious idea to ask the mailman where the post sent those bills and saved our If the taxman had found out about this
    via u/liftoffer
  • 09
    Font - A_HORRIBLE_PERSON. Facilities maintenance company I worked for got taken over by a new company. The new company was to work for. One of the guys was getting really stressed out and since his wife made big bucks she told him to quit. Instead of quitting he decided to just come and go as he pleased, stole whatever he wanted, used the shop area and company supplies to work on personal projects for his house. This went on for over a year. They promoted him out of his position into management.
    via u/liftoffer
  • 10
    Font - partofbreakfast Back when I was doing my student teaching, a teacher punched a student in the face and did not get fired. In his defense, the kid was 17 and thought it would be funny to rip the wig off of a female teacher who was going through chemo. The teacher who did the punching was right there and it was pretty much an immediate reaction. Not a single person in that school blamed that teacher for what he did. 2.6k Share
    via u/liftoffer
  • 11
    Font - Christopher Ocean I used to work at a fast food chain restaurant as a cook. One Sunday it was extra busy around lunch time and one of the cashiers kept messing up orders. My assistant general manager, who at the time was cooking with me, got so frustrated with the cashier that he took all the food that was on the grills and fryers and threw it against a wall. 2.0k Share
    via u/liftoffer
  • 12
    Font - PM ME BEEF_CURTAINS Had a tantrum, screamed at me (for catching her falsifying reports to the government), smashed her keyboard on her desk (snapped it in two), I got fired 1.8k Share
    via u/liftoffer
  • 13
    Font - waterwaytogo She got onto the library board, and when she was pushy before, she suddenly became super entitled. • She reported me and another employee to our boss for "ignoring and mistreating an employee" even though we were just joking around with the patron while we were helping her, and she was playing along.
    via u/liftoffer
  • 14
    Font - ● • She gave one employee an anxiety attack because she berated him every time she saw him for "not doing his job properly," even though he was a perfectly good employee.
    via u/liftoffer
  • 15
    Font - ● • She kept asking pretty much everyone on the staff to give out other patrons' information, even though that's strictly against confidentiality policy.
    via u/liftoffer
  • 16
    Font - And she was just generally a mean, miserly old witch hiding behind a thin veneer of sweet old lady. So I got excited when I didn't see her for a while and I thought they finally got her off the board. But then she came back from an illness and it turns out all of the staff's legitimate complaints can't unseat age, especially with a scarcity of other people wanting to be on the board. 1.2k ↓ Share
    via u/liftoffer
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    Font - [deleted] Pizza place, it was a busy night and a couple Togo orders took too long, and the owner comes in raising Owith the guy rolling dough about ticket times. The situation escalated quickly and the guy started cursing back and forth with the owner. Guy screams something like fire me if you think I'm doing such a job, old man!" Owner: "Are you with me?" fire me, hate this job, hate my life, and I hate this F restaurant! Fire me!" Sh Guy: "No, do it! I Owner apologized later. 244 Share
    via u/liftoffer
  • 18
    Font - fuzzy-maraca I work in child care. One day we had a fire emergency during nap where all the rooms started smelling like gas. We wake up the kids in our room, get them outside and wait for the all clear. Five minutes pass and the fire fighters are carrying out a preschooler that had been left asleep on her cot and completely forgotten about by not one, but two teachers. Everyone was sure they were going to get fired, you know, for endangering a child's life in a fire emergency? But no. Jus
    via u/liftoffer
  • 19
    Font - The next week someone else got fired for back talking a manager, but you know, who cares about the safety of the children? Just don't question the managers! 290 Share
    via u/liftoffer

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terrible coworkers workplace-stories fired work stories toxic-workplace job work coworkers reddit thread Reddit company job interview interview toxic-work-environment
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