'The crew decided to ride [a roller coaster] after hours': 15 Star employees who got fired instantly

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 12, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

You think you know a person… and then they let you down. It's human nature: nobody's perfect, and everybody makes mistakes. 

In the workplace, it's all about making the right types of mistakes. Some things can be overlooked by HR, while serious offenses, like stealing merchandise or lying about getting your college degree, will ultimately spell the end of your tenure at that company. U/machewwy wanted to hear stories from managers who'd had to fire employees they really liked, and more than 4,000 people replied! 

Although there were a variety of reasons that these supervisors had to let someone go, a lot of them had to do with theft. As an retail employee, it can be easy to want to sneakily steal a shirt or a bottle of body wash. After all, the store makes thousands of dollars per day, they aren't going to miss one little item! But what employees underestimate is how petty stores are about theft. A lot of retail locations have excellent security cameras that capture every angle of the store. And these days, a lot of stores will let people steal over and over again, until they've wracked up enough stolen merchandise to send the person to jail. It's hard to resist that five-finger-discount, but it's not worth the punishment. 

Next up, read the exact opposite of this article: here are some workers who quit on the spot thanks to their utterly awful bosses, with one person revealing, "An entire department quit on the spot." 

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  • 01
    'During slow hours, he was skimming money by deleting orders and taking the money instead'
    via Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
  • 02
    Employers and managers who had to fire their best employee - what happened?
    via u/machewwy
  • 03
    TupacSchwartzo... Had a great waiter, Robert, could run circles around the entire staff. He knew the kitchen as well, could jump in at prep and assist if we got backed up. AND STILL tend to his tables.
    via u/TupacSchwartzODoyle
  • 04
    Dumb put a $3 bottle of White Zinfandel in his backpack, right in front of a security camera AND while the owner was sitting at the bar eating. He was a student and working part time he had to be bringing in $300- 500 in cash a week.
    via u/TupacSchwartzODoyle
  • 05
    Xodarkcloud Worked in a restaurant at hotel chain; management regularly found meaningless. reasons too suspend various employees or cut hours. This one guy had been there almost 13 years, clients loved him, staff appreciated his presence and he often came to the rescue of anyone requiring help.
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 06
    Everyone could depend on him and he supported everyone. He had, like everyone in a restaurant, bumped heads with management now and again, like EVERYONE. On one particular season they decided they were going to "groom him" in the eventuality to take on more responsibility. His position. would eliminate his right to tips but it came with
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 07
    insurance, a retirement plan and steady pay. He had kids, was in his mid 40's, it all made sense why someone would take that job. He would however no longer be in the union. Fast forward to the day after his training is complete. The guy comes in with his management uniform and all. Some waiter calls in sick, and instead of him calling in another employee he
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 08
    decides he was going to handle a few tables and the management responsibilities. At the end of the shift the hotel manager "summons" the guy into his office (like the boss of his boss). They fired him straight away. He was escorted out of the building and our boss said there was strict rules and management working tables "harmed" the hotels image.
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 09
    It was complete B/S. He had maybe taken 2 tables and split the rest amongst the rest of the staff. Everyone basically agreed they promoted him just to get him out of the union to be able to fire him.
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 10
    A number of employees left. shortly after for other various reasons. It was a sort of shaking up the coup and anyone who wouldn't fall in line would be shown the door.
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 11
    Today, that restaurant no longer exists, they closed. down maybe 2 years later, rebranded the restaurant from American Steakhouse to Italian/French dining. New cooks, new waiters, new management... It was just sort of the catalyst or the first domino.
    via u/Xodarkcloud
  • 12
    Lutheritrux Had a guy who would work his off daily inputting data into spreadsheets.. Would come in, put in solid hours of actual work, not goofing off. He would literally get 4 times as much stuff done a week as anyone else in the office. After 3 weeks strait of this, other people start to take notice and occasionally ask him to help them out when they are
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 13
    behind, and he obliges. This gets worse and worse, and eventually people are basically just walking all over him while they spend all day facebooking and whatnot, because he won't say no if they ask him to help with their work. The dude just keeps trucking through though. About 4 months into working there, its gotten to the point where you can hear the extra girls
    via u/
  • 14
    talking about leaving early and not getting in trouble because "He will just do all the work for us if we ask anyway". Well the guy goes into the bosses office, and I work right next to it so I can hear more or less the entire conversation. I am paraphrasing but it went something like this. "I would like a raise, I am doing way to much work for how much I am getting paid.
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 15
    Everyone else who works here is so lazy, I even have people making jokes about how I will do their work for them and they will get paid for it." "Well (name) I can sympathize with you, but you have to understand, I can't just GIVE you a raise. If I give you a raise I would have to explain to everyone why you got a raise and they didn't."
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 16
    "You could tell them its because I am doing half of their work for them while they look at stupid memes" "I'm sorry (name), it just wouldn't work out well." "Well then is there any positions available above mine that I could apply for a promotion too." "I don't think we can really look into a promotion this
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 17
    early into you working here. We would need time to properly evaluate your work ethic." "Seriously. You seriously just said that to me. I'm not going to break my back doing an entire office's work for a company that doesn't give two about me. You and this entire office can go themselves."
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 18
    He walks out of the office fuming mad and yells "Hey everyone, (boss) just denied my raise, so no more leaving work early for any of you lazy heads, cause I quit!" It was like a scene from Office Space only in real life.
    via u/Lutheritrux
  • 19
    spookycamphero Top manager for retail job I worked at "lost" her keys to the store that also had the keys to all the registers on the key ring. The registers started going short or would be empty aside from the change and dollar bills in the drawer. This went on for months. Corporate found out after installing a new set of security cameras overnight without her
    via u/spookycamphero
  • 20
    knowledge. She enlisted a group of sales associates to do most of the dirty work but they found out she was the ringleader when they found out all the sales associates would bring her the stolen money and she would dole it out after taking her cut.
    via u/spookycamphero
  • 21
    co... I didn't have to do the firing, but for whatever reason, my colleague had it in for this mid-level supervisor. She was a great trainer, did everything she was asked, took initiative, and then some. She was always worth well more than what she earned, and had an absolute passion for the work (we worked with kids with autism).
    via u/corkum
  • 22
    After a few months of having some vendetta against her, my colleague wrote her up, literally for "being away from her desk too often". Her uncle had recently been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and she was the only relative in town who could care for him. So the times she was away from her desk, she was stepping out to cry when she felt
    via u/corkum
  • 23
    overwhelmed and didn't want people do see her cry. I found out after she was let go for this that she had informed the supervisors of this when her uncle was diagnosed and that she was feeling very emotional about it and may need to take days off/take more frequent breaks to gather herself again and remain productive. Instead of
    via u/corkum
  • 24
    showing compassion, my colleague used this as an opportunity to terminate her despite having no other red flags, feedback, or performance issues. There was simply a personality difference and she didn't gossip with the other supervisors. And this was all done with our other colleagues and supervisors' blessings.
    via u/corkum
  • 25
    I don't work for this company after I found out about this.
    via u/corkum
  • 26
    AmyAloha78 Not me, but a story from when I worked at Disneyland a long time ago in Attractions (rides). The area manager loved this one particular Cast Member (employee). Like, this was the son he never had. This CM was promoted to lead on one of the roller coasters fairly quickly in his regime.
    via u/AmyAloha78
  • 27
    One night he was the lead on the closing crew, and the crew decided to ride after hours. Idiots that they are, they went without the lap. bars down, and on one turn the ride is visible from the walkway. Even though the park was closed to guests, security was still in the park, and a security guard saw the train go by with the CMs standing up through the turn. Security gets a hold of
    via u/AmyAloha78
  • 28
    Theme Park One (the manager in charge of the park for the night), who calls Attractions One to find out what's going on. Not surprisingly, every CM who was on the closing crew that night was fired. Unfortunately, so was the prodigal son, because he was the one who dispatched the train without the lap bars down.
    via u/AmyAloha78
  • 29
    [deleted] Obligatory 'Happened to a coworker' Working at a bank, my branch had the Biggest superstar in the STATE, always crushing sales numbers, he generated more revenue than the rest of the branch COMBINED. He set up a really big business account
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    presentation, but his mother died literally on the day he was supposed to give the talk. Branch manager stepped in, held the presentation.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    The guy had built everything up, it was essentially a done deal, branch manager just had to get a signature on the paperwork. Obviously feeling bad for him, thinking he deserved the credit, they booked the deal under his name the next day (technically to get credit for a deal you HAVE to be there at signing). BOTH were fired within a week for sales manipulation.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 32
    Corporate set a trap, and baited him into stealing. He was a great guy, fun and interesting. Easy to get along with. He would volunteer to take the early shifts and open the store. He'd receive the new inventory and stock the shelves himself. His cash was always correct and he
    via r/AskReddit
  • 33
    never did anything wrong, until he did. One morning he opened the new stock shipment, and loaded the shelves. There was an extra item in the box that wasn't listed on the manifest. The correct procedure was to add it to inventory, and put it on the shelf. He instead opted to claim it wasn't there, and took it home. The perfect crime, right?
    via r/AskReddit
  • 34
    I had to fire him the next day. And it sucked.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 35
    darkstar606 Part of my job is to process expense reports from the sales department. I noticed one month that the top salesman had claimed a plane ticket expense twice, once when he booked it and then again when he took the flight months later. I reviewed his past expenses and noticed he was doing this regularly. When he booked the flight originally
    via u/darkstar606
  • 36
    he would claim the full amount of the ticket. Then when he used the flight he would claim each leg of the trip as a separate daily expense so that the receipt amounts wouldn't match so as to avoid detection. This is how I figured out he was doing it intentionally. I
    via u/darkstar606
  • 37
    showed the evidence to the CFO and he was gone the next week. I only went back three years but he stole about $10,000 over those three years.
    via u/darkstar606
  • 38
    [deleted] Best Buy manager. Had a guy in Geek Squad who was a great sales person. Probably top 10 in the district. He had an incident during a data transfer where he accidentally transferred another clients information to the external drive. The customer flipped out, and
    via u/[deleted]
  • 39
    unfortunately due to company policy, we had to let him go. Fortunately, he knew it was going to happen, but it was just a matter of time.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    alsomaggie I work at a store where we have to ask for donations for the charity we support at every transaction. We're in competition with the other stores in the chain, and whichever store has the highest percentage of donations after 3 months. get a bonus. Every employee, cashier or not, gets $100. Well one of my
    via u/alsomaggie
  • 41
    assistant managers was awesome, always had the highest percent of donations per transactions, and highest dollar amount. She always did a great job in all other aspects of the job as well. Well, it turns out she was offering every customer
    via u/alsomaggie
  • 42
    her employee discount if they donated. So if someone spent $500 and she gave them 30% off, they wouldn't at all mind donating $10-$20 per transaction. WellIIIll it came back from corporate what she was doing and we had to let her go.
    via u/alsomaggie
  • 43
    [deleted] He was our fastest fork lift operator. Guy could get a truck loaded in 7-15 minutes. But he started developing a attitude and we just couldn't work with him. The new operators
    via u/[deleted]
  • 44
    we have take 30-45 minutes to get a truck loaded and they're legitimately a little dumb and have a hard time reading. I don't know if it was worth it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 45
    [deleted] Few years back, working in returns. One girl always worked the morning shift because she knew no one else wanted to get up and be there by 7AM. Always on time, never called in sick, etc. Quick description to set the scene: Our returns department didn't handle cash. We would give
    via u/[deleted]
  • 46
    vouchers that could be cashed out or used as credit or did returns right to cards. Each return required the password of a security personnel to ensure the items being returned were in fact being returned. Returns over 90 days old could only be returned as a gift certificate, and required a managers password. Well one day I come in and ask where she's at (it was
    via u/[deleted]
  • 47
    busy, we needed another body for returns) and my manager tells me she's been in the GM's office for two hours. Thought to myself, "That's weird. Maybe they're promoting her?" Nope. Turns out she was returning items off of 3+ month old receipts paid with cash, then walking down to the cashiers and having them put the money on a gift. card. She watched the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 48
    managers and the security people put in their passwords and while no one. was around in the mornings. she would find high dollar items and return them this way. She got over $25,000 in gift cards over the course of 2 years. Corporate was monitoring her doing it for a year before they called the cops.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    Last I heard she didn't do any jail time but she had to return all of the merchandise she purchased that way and is never allowed to set foot in the store again.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 50
    tophutti Was one of my best. Was being "Reclassified" into a salary position (with raise). HR reviewed his original application and it said he had completed college. HR verbally asked him (no research done) and he said. "No, I haven't". Wasn't required for role, nbd. Writing it down? Big deal.
    via u/tophutti
  • 51
    Gave him (almost to the point of coaching him to say. it) every chance to say "Whoops, made a mistake". He didn't. He cowboyed up and said "I lied on my application". I am fully sure they would have let him go back to work with just a note in his file (totally survivable)
    via u/tophutti
  • 52
    Super big (Fortune 10) company. No option. Fired him immediately for falsifying his application. HR person was in tears. I did my best to help him find his next job.
    via u/tophutti
  • 53
    nevinator23 Out of highschool I got a job at Arby's, and there was a guy who pretty efficient at drive thru and could run it by himself during lunch rush if he had to. Turns out during slow hours he was skimming money by deleting orders after taking the money instead of completing the transaction. Manager's estimated he did it for 3-6
    via u/nevinator23
  • 54
    months without getting caught and took upwards of $2,000-$3,000. They never pressed charges cause he confessed. edit: almost forgot, he signed for the package and stole our team's christmas "bonus" walmart gift cards. that were $25 each.
    via u/nevinator23
  • 55
    AJ... Work in retail. One of the staff from checkouts was amazing and would come up and help in our cafe constantly. She was fast, friendly with customers and we would get so many compliments and we asked if we could have her up here permanently. She stole a pen. Security had her on camera, fired immediately.
    via u/AJKettles
  • 56
    EDIT: pen was a fancy pen, packaged on shelf to be sold. She was right under the security camera stealing it, security saw, told higher management and I don't really think stealing, regardless what of, can just be ignored. I believe they probably did it to scare employees like "this is what happens if you steal"
    via u/AJKettles
  • 57
    ErwinAckerman This happened to me. I was told by the owner that I was the best salesperson. Then I texted a friend calling the owner a (he was very to my fiance). General manager who hated My guts asked the friend what happened. She then went
    via u/ErwinAckerman
  • 58
    and whined to the owner "ErwinAckerman said you're a !!1! You should fire her!" So he did. TL;DR I got fired for calling. the owner a via text.
    via u/ErwinAckerman

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