'This guy... scrapped $360,000 in airplane parts': 20+ Times workers avoided being fired after making huge mistakes

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 7, 2024 11:00 AM EST

Some people can get away with absolutely anything. It's like a natural gift that some folks are born with. They can talk their way out of any situation; they can befriend anyone in an instant. It's a wonder to watch people like this work their magic. But if they happen to be your irritating coworker who seems unfireable, that's a whole different story. 

It seems like a lot of people who are immune to being let go are nepo-babies. These are the children of nepotism: they're the grown adults with no life experience who suddenly find themselves as the VP of their parent's company, just so they can earn a nice salary while doing almost nothing. But if your parent runs the company, it's easy to sit back, put your feet up, and not learn a single thing about the job. Then that leads to these people missing deadlines, undermining the work, or even just being a tattle-tale about the other workers in the building. 

Other workers just made a few devastating mistakes, but somehow managed to keep their jobs! It seems that some managers are much more forgiving than others, and sometimes people are given way too many chances to prove themselves before getting shown the door. 

After you read through these stories (and maybe feel a little better about your own terrible coworkers), check out this person's brilliant exit strategy, which was indirectly their boss's idea. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 9876533760
    via LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash
  • 02
    What is the worst thing that you've seen a coworker do and still avoid being fired?
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    ASoft7 A guy at the plant I work at scrapped $360,000 in airplane parts because he didn't even bother to look at the work instructions. He just drives a forklift now..
    via u/ASoft7
  • 04
    k1rage Stole a bunch of marked tools (they were painted white) Showed everyone in the shop pictures of his deer with said tools in the background. Gets reported, boss calls him on it. He said "you got me, I stole a gallon of white paint" Never heard the boss laughing so hard Year later or so he gets promoted lol
    via u/k1rage
  • 05
    UnsaidPeacock Worked with a guy who punctured the main gas line to our shop three separate times. It was a construction company and he somehow was still my superintendent although he could have blown up the shop.
    via u/UnsaidPeacock
  • 06
    5.0 Aufwader Accidentally send the last three years of account details/back statements from one company to their direct competitor
    via u/Aufwader
  • 07
    NotSoTinyUrl Worst coworker ever was the credit mooch. He would constantly horn in on other people's projects, getting his name added to them to make it look like he was doing when he actually not. If people tried to assign him any work on said project he would have "a personal emergency" or "a virus would make him lose all his work" or "his schedule is booked with other project" or the worst, he would pull some sucker in to "help" him with it, and said sucker would end up doing it all in utter
    via u/NotSoTinyUrl
  • 08
    Because he was so good at stealing credit, he managed to get top marks on his reviews despite doing absolutely zero actual work for the company. I know at least four people quit due to this guy getting better raises than they did. Far as I know they never actually got rid of him.
    via u/NotSoTinyUrl
  • 09
    PBandJman941 Had a co-worker as a standard business practice falsely condemn furnaces in winter to pressure homeowners into buying new systems and pad his commission check. I couldn't do anything as I had no direct proof, but he would joke about it all the time. It did finally catch up with him when one customer smelled BS and
    via u/PBandJman941
  • 10
    called other companies with advanced testing machines. Took those results and sued out of him. I ended the up working for that second company and haven't looked back
    via u/PBandJman941
  • 11
    JO TwoTerabyte This dude walks a server out of the server room every six months or so to sell on eBay. We have literally no security except the front door, but the owner is so ancient and out of touch I doubt she even remembers things are being stolen.
    via u/TwoTerabyte
  • 12
    [deleted] Oh man. It was winter time and she was helping a customer by carrying something they had purchased out for them. Once outside (but still on the store property) she slipped and sustained an injury. Was threatening to sue the business and was also trying to claim workers compensation - came into work every day with a sling on her arm and constantly wincing and being in pain.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    Anywayyyyyyyys. HR and the store manager call her into a meeting, sit her down and show her the video surveillance from OUTSIDE (which she obviously didnt know was there) showing her faking her fall. I dont know everything but she got called out hard and she broke down and admitted everything. For some reason they kept her on.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    She then tried it AGAIN like six months later (this time claiming that a customer had something from their cart hit her or fall on her or something). Again, tried to claim workers comp and had this whole show of being injured. They pull up security footage AGAIN and disprove her injury/claims. She still wasn't fired. Blew my mind lol
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    camoe1888 I know someone who managed to close an entire supermarket early for the first time in its history (costing the company several thousands of pounds) because they tried to set a clock on a computer back an hour to avoid missing some deadline for a daily routine. He said it seemed such a good idea at the time.
    via u/camoe1888
  • 16
    [deleted] Nothing. Documenting work as completed when no actual work had been done. Management knew or was suspicious of it, but not so much as a write up our reprimand. Eventually, management changed, figured out no work was being done, called it fraud, and canned them. The job was easy too, and good money. I don't get why they didn't just do the work.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    biiingo HR rep found out about a person's elective surgery and made fun of her with a former employee. Let me recap: this person knew about an employee's private medical information, because she worked with our healthcare plan in her role as HR, and shared that private information with another person for the sole purpose of mocking the employee. She was not fired.
    via u/biiingo
  • 18
    JonnyRebel357 Drill a hole clean through a condensate line and have the ceiling of a three car garage collapse when the drywall gave. Me I am that guy. AMA.
    via u/JonnyRebel357
  • 19
    GergChen I work in a garden center, this just happened today. Buddy has worked ONE (today) of his scheduled shifts in the past two weeks. He calls in all the time, leaves a message with the cashiers, and hangs up before a manager can talk to him. On the off chance he does show up, he doesn't do anything besides move some plants around., my mom was walking through the garden center today and saw him squatted behind a stack of plants playing on his phone.
    via u/GergChen
  • 20
    Further, the guy takes multiple unauthorized breaks a day and sits in his car for at least an hour because his "back hurts." He has had two write- ups for missing work and somehow this lazy is still on payroll. He's an towards both coworkers and customers alike. Nothing he's done is as preposterous as some of the stories I'm sure are on this thread, but the sheer consistency of his laziness is baffling to me.
    via u/GergChen
  • 21
    [deleted] I have a coworker that has terrible work ethic. He doesn't know how to separate his personal life from his work life so if he's in a bad mood (which happens often), everyone will know including customers. He's had at least three disciplinary meetings. Once he was caught just around for an hour (not exactly sure what happened but our boss wasn't happy).
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Another time he just didn't show up to work without calling in, and it was a day that everyone knew would be busy. I don't know why he hasn't been fired yet, everywhere else I've worked he would've been gone by now.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    I work in an, agency that coordinates services for individuals with disabilities. We have one worker has about 12 people on her case that gets all of her attention and about 20 who are basically ignored. Its clear she isn't trying. One of the people on her caseload was my former client. I told her the correct contact info. The stuff in the online,system was wrong. If she checked the yearly plan or looked in the physical file she could get it.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 24
    The next evaluation three months later she said she had called the number in the online system and nobody answered. I asked about the otherways of contact and she said she wasn't going to check any of the other places. I sent her the info and she got in contact the next day.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 25
    She constantly says we shoups drop people from services because they can't be contacted and then when somebody else tries they get somebody the first time. Removing somebody from services and getting them back in can be a multi month process and if they were getting services they would lose them and maybe not, be able to get them back. During evaluations she screams pretty non stop when anything bad is pointed out
    via r/AskReddit
  • 26
    Hey. Sh4d0w23 Throw a large container of water out of a work vehicle and hit a motorcyclist.
    via u/Sh4d0w23
  • 27
    Chaz_wazzers Guy maxed out the company credit card at a casino.
    via u/Chaz_wazzers
  • 28
    mofomeat Absolutely nothing. I have folks that I send emails to with no answer. I reply weekly, sometimes 7-10 weeks at a time and they just ignore me. Occasionally I'll walk into their office to ask about them, and they're quite obviously playing video games on their phone or watching youtube videos on their computer. Yet I'm still held to the metrics that I can't reach because they won't do their part.
    via u/mofomeat
  • 29
    PM_me_your_fantasyz I worked for an organization that had a small maintenance department. It only consisted of two guys. They both hated their jobs and felt underpaid, and were applying to other jobs. They both left work without telling anyone they were leaving to go to the same job interview. On the clock. The job interview also happened to be for a job at a sister location for our office. And they both used our manager as a reference.
    via u/PM_me_your_fantasyz
  • 30
    She got a phone call within minutes of their interviews, and collected their un- stamped time cards before they even got back to the office. She had them dead to rights for wage theft. But it also took two months to fill any position at our organization because of crushing bureaucracy for job postings. And the lawn needed to be mowed before the weekend.
    via u/PM_me_your_fantasyz
  • 31
    They both got to keep their jobs. They were still working there six months later when I left.
    via u/PM_me_your_fantasyz
  • 32
    Donald-Pump Had a co-worker that got caught saving customers private photos to his personal SD card when they brought their cell phones in for service. He just got lectured that it was inappropriate.
    via u/Donald-Pump
  • 33
    [deleted] There are gonna be some savage responses out there but I work in a pretty professional environment so the worse thing I've ever seen was my coworker falling asleep as the head of our department starting announcing lay offs. She was not one of the people who were fired that day and still falls asleep in meetings. I don't work there anymore and I still get updates about where she last passed out and those people that tell me work with her but are not her co- workers.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 34
    Hanky Panky4763 My current boss was the top salesman at the company. He was doing side deals and stealing from the company. The owner called him in to talk about it and somehow he walked out the new manager.
    via u/Hanky Panky4763
  • 35
    Spork12345 A child care teacher left a five year old on the playground and forgot about him. In 20 degree Fahrenheit weather.
    via u/Spork12345

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