'So I was fired [...] Over this': Employee fired for refusing to break a customer's large bill four months ago, causes split reactions

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 2, 2023 8:00 AM EST

When you get fired, usually you have an idea of what went wrong… even if it wasn't necessarily your fault. But here, we have an instance in which an employee was told they violated so many rules and genuinely had no clue what was meant by that. After some investigating, they discovered that a manager had it out for them ever since the employee refused to break a customer's large bill four months ago. Talk about a particularly specific vendetta to hold against someone! 

While I personally have never been in this situation, I can at the very least sympathize with the experience of having a coworker who simply has a problem with you and wants to sabotage your future for no justifiable reason. Thankfully, this person was not a manger or someone higher up, which meant that they were completely hopeless in actualizing their dream of somehow getting me fired. That being said, the day-to-day was wildly unpleasant. In the end, however, I kept my head down and focused on my work, while the employee spent far too much time and energy focused on me, which led to their own mistakes and, ultimately, dismissal. Oh well! Karma is real.

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    "Fired for refusing to break a large bill" 3
    via Engin Akyurt

  • This thread was posted to Reddit by u/Sally_Throwaway_12, whose experience surprisingly caused some split reactions from folks in the comments section over the legality of refusing to break a customer's large bill. Regardless of that situation, the fact that this manager chose not to address the issue when it first occurred but stewed on it for four months until they had the opportunity to fire OP is not okay. Here's hoping OP finds a less toxic work environment with their next job. For more stories like this, here's one about some office Secret Santa drama.

  • 02
    Fired for refusing to break a large bill (from months ago...) I was fired earlier this week from my front desk job. It came out of nowhere, given how I have never been scolded, warned or written up for anything before and was recently awarded as the best employee. Until I was called in this week and told that I had violated so many rules that I was no longer allowed to work at this place. To call it shocking would be an understatement.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 03
    My superiors kept refusing to tell me the exact rules or violations despite all my questions. I only managed to get some answers today, from someone high enough to know these things but not high enough to have much influence over them. He told me about the case back in the summer when someone had tried to pay me with the second largest bill in this country's currency, despite the price being over four times less than that. I had refused it, as there hadn't been enough small bills in the register
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 04
    Well, this person had apparently flipped out, but not at me or in front of me, I would have remembered that. She found the phone number of the director himself online and called him directly to complain about me not wanting to break her huge bill. She had thrown a big fit. So I was fired. Not in the summer. Now. Over this. I feel like I am going insane. This can't be real.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 05
    wafflez77 18 hr. ago Wait 2 weeks until they hire your replacement. Then bring in large bills and ask your replacement to break the large bill. Call the director and complain about the employee not breaking the bill for you. Reapply to the position when it's open again.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 06
    Dizzy-Abalone-8948. 18 hr. ago But does one really want to return to a place that cast one aside so quickly?
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 07
    TornadoEF5 19 hr. ago phone the director yourself! if he doesnt offer compensation its up to you what you do next
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 08
    chrs_89 17 hr. ago Yeah it sounds like someone just didn't like you or wanted to get rid of you so they could hire somebody they knew. I've worked somewhere where I saw the regional manager walked in, saw a random employee(didn't speak to or otherwise interact with them) and randomly demanded that the GM fire them because they didn't like them. It was weird
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 09
    disappointedvet - 18 hr. ago They probably didn't fire you for that. It's more than likely they had to make cuts or someone in your chain of management didn't like you and they don't want to pay you unemployment benefits. Going back months, even years to come up with an excuse is what companies do when they have no good reason, but want to make it seem like they're releasing an employee for being at fault.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 10
    Miyuki22 17 hr. ago Reasons are usually pretext and lies to just get rid of someone. If your country doesn't have worker protection laws, you have no recourse.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 11
    RogueBookwurm. 6 hr. ago Leave 3-star reviews calling them "alright" or something lukewarm like that, but specifically say your review is as high as it is because they ALWAYS break large bills. Please notice I said reviews plural, make different word choices and errors to look like different people.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 12
    . SailingSpark 2 min. ago yes, they always break large bills, so they never have enough change.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 13
    PublicRule3659 4 hr. ago It's illegal in my state to refuse cash so I would've reported you as well. General Laws Part III Title IV Chapter 255D Section 10A. No retail establishment offering goods and services for sale shall discriminate against a cash buyer by requiring the use of credit by a buyer in order to purchase such goods and services. All such retail establishments must accept legal tender when offered as payment by the buyer.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 14
    thatgreenmaid 2 hr. ago If an item is $2.50 and you offer $100 bill, they totally can say I'm sorry I can't make change for that. Use a smaller bill. THAT BEING SAID-I don't think OP is in the United States.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 15
    PublicRule3659. 2 hr. ago Not in Massachusetts Vote thatgreenmaid 2 hr. ago Reply Share If you can't make change, you can't make change. It doesn't matter where in the world you are.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 16
    kornkid42 15 hr. ago You don't know were OP lives. And if you mean state as in USA state, it's not illegal, because there's no debt if you are just trying to buy something. Businesses refuse large bills all the time.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 17
    Mooseheadm5 - 9 hr. ago "Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment? There is no federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law that says otherwise.
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12
  • 18
    Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," states: "United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This statute means that all U.S. money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor."
    via u/Sally_Throwaway_12

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