'They are literally chasing a beaver around in their golf cart': 20+ Employees who were fired on day 1

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 17, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

Being fired from your job on day one should earn you some type of medal. It's a very special achievement after all. When managers are training a new employee, they expect them to mess up basically every task for a while. But you can't blame everything on being unaware or untrained. Some things, like employees who can't focus on the job or those who berate the customers, have to go ASAP. 

One person revealed that they handed their brand-new secretary a stack of papers on her first day. She must've forgotten to be on her best behavior, because she chucked a paper across the room "like a frisbee," a story which must live on forever in that office building. That's the kind of unhinged hilarity that fuels an office: having a common enemy to rally around can boost morale. I can't imagine what this woman was thinking when she did that. Maybe she was just trying to joke around? But if your job title is "secretary," maybe you don't want to be hurling papers around on your very first day. 

Up next, read about a couple of the "worst lawyers ever," who got lazy when drafting a retirement document and gifted an employee a free pension. 

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    via Icons8 Team on Unsplash

    Image does not depict actual subject of these stories. 

  • 02
    Managers of Reddit, what is the most unprofessional thing an employee has done that resulted in an immediate termination?
    via u/MarsNeedsFreedomToo
  • 03
    SandmanD2 I gave my secretary a document that I wanted incorporated into a letter I had written, and she hucked the document like a frisbee into her trashcan. It was literally my only copy so I had to walk over and fish it out. That was her last day.
    via u/SandmanD2
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    SgtDefective2 He slashed my tire after I told him to go work instead of sitting in the break room
    via u/SgtDefective2
  • 05
    83... I was part of a group of IT contractors together for a large international project. The client would get us apartments to live in at each implementation site for 6-12 months. A member of my team got into a disagreement with the CTO when he came to visit our site, which resulted in her screaming personal attacks at him in the hallway when
    via u/83-Edition
  • 06
    he tried to step outside to de-escalate the argument. She was fired on the spot, but then proceeded to go back to the apartment provided by the company and completely wreck it. The site was in the middle of the desert and she had opened all of the windows/doors, turned the AC on max, stopped all of the drains and turned the water on, threw red nail polish all over the
    via u/83-Edition
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    bathroom... it was the most extreme breakdown in a professional environment I'd ever seen. Edit: This got a lot of traction! To answer the most common question: I never learned of any follow up, i.e. legal action. I think because the CTO was embarrassed he had to ask us to check her apartment since he had
    via u/83-Edition
  • 08
    already left town. While I did not fire her, I was offered the chance to work with her again 12 years later via anonymous reference and obviously rejected her as a candidate. Think twice about burning that bridge, or at least how you do it.
    via u/83-Edition
  • 09
    kingforpres I once had an employee snap chatting as he drove an ambulance with a crew member and patient in the back, through an intersection during a red light.
    via u/kingforpres
  • 10
    MAZON I work in pizza delivery and we had a guy back in the day (fellow manager) who tried to shut down the store 5 hours before the time that corporate set for us to close. He clocked every person out and sent them home and then just refused to take the phone calls or anything like that. He was
    via u/MAZ0N
  • 11
    fired immediately after our boss found out and he even tried to come into work the next day like everything was fine.
    via u/MAZ0N
  • 12
    ann-ette I wasn't the manager, but watched the whole thing happen. A few years ago I worked at a restaurant and we had kind of an annoying new hire. One of those, "I'm too good for this types". It was this kid's first job and first day out of training. One of his tables was a family with two small children, who were being obnoxious, but hey, it's a family restaurant
    via u/ann-ette
  • 13
    that's expected. While walking away from the table he muttered something along the lines of, "shut up kids". Except your he didn't actually mutter, he spoke at a normal volume. The mother overheard and was not pleased. He was sent home, and invited to not return.
    via u/ann-ette
  • 14
    [deleted] Years back a co-worker got into some trouble for something and got called into the owners office. Few mins later you hear a huge thump, idiot broke his hand on the bosses desk during their disagreement. He got a police property off the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    I_throw_socks_at... I'm not the manager involved, but I think this fits the bill. A co-worker of mine who was a little bit too into his car got snapped doing twice the speed limit. Instead of pulling over for the patrol car behind him, he decided to run for it. He led a police chase to the office and shook them off by hiding in the underground parking.
    via u/I_throw_socks_at_cat
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    The GM watched it happen from his office. He took the lift down, found co-worker's car and told him not to bother getting out.
    via u/I_throw_socks_at_cat
  • 17
    MonkeyDaFist Worked as a bartender at a restaurant. I was cashing out a waitress who decided to enter the bar to "make herself a smoothie". After fumbling around she dropped a wine glass from the hanger and it smashed all over the counter. I told her she's gonna need to clean that up before I can finish cashing her out. She then begged me that she
    via u/MonkeyDaFist
  • 18
    needs her tips right now as her friend who she owes money to is waiting outside and that she was going to deliver the money, come back and clean it up. She never came back and i had to replace all the ice and all the fruit garnishes on a busy weekend night because of broken bits of glass that landed all over. Of course the manager comes over to ask why the drink tickets are 10 minutes long and I told
    via u/MonkeyDaFist
  • 19
    him what happened, who then immediately went into the schedule and gave all her future shifts away to others. The waitress called the restaurant not even 5 minutes later to ask why her shifts have been forcibly given away and the manager replied "cause you're fired" and hung up.
    via u/MonkeyDaFist
  • 20
    [de... I own a Tree Removal service. Hired a guy as a ground worker. He worked great the first two weeks. Didn't complain, seemed to know the work, and I paid him well. The third week working for me, we did a job that consisted of two big Box Elders to be removed. It was 95 degrees that day. I told all the guys that day- don't push yourselves too
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    much, make sure you're getting enough fluids, and if you need a break, take one. The new guy drove his own vehicle to the job as he needed to leave that day 40 minutes early to make it to a dentist appointment. We are like 40 minutes into the job. I notice he's moving. really, really slow. Just looked really unmotivated, and like he didn't want to be there. We had the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    customers driveway blocked off with brush everywhere. At this point I'm still climbing in the tree and I see the new guy driving through the customers yard (which was like 2 acres) and then onto the road in a serious hurry. I called him probably 30 times to make sure everything was alright. Didn't hear back from him. My other employees had no idea and were in shock.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    They saw him hop in his truck, and just dart. He decided right then and there || this" and left. Still haven't heard from him to this day. I didn't terminate him, that's the closest I would have come to firing. someone.
    via u/[deleted]
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    Edit: I don't know if I would have fired him if he showed up again the next day-but he would've had to do some pretty good explaining with a sincere apology for not letting anyone know, and having the rest of the guys pick up the slack.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    Gstrang513 Not a manager, but I was a higher up over this high school kid. I worked at a golf course. during the summer as a lead instructor for golf camps and we just hired 2 high school guys to help out. Each day I usually go through a small teaching session and then let them out the course to play. So I
    via u/Gstrang513
  • 26
    get through the lesson and send groups out to different holes. I told them I would watch over holes 1-5 and they watch over 6-9. So I gave them their own cart(big mistake on my end) to navigate quicker from hole to hole. Everything was going smooth until about an hour later, when one of the kids came up to me and said there were dirt trails all over #8 green. I take my cart over
    via u/Gstrang513
  • 27
    to inspect it and sure enough, these kids were doing burnouts and drifting on the green. Now I'm irate, and want to go confront these kids and them out. I head back down the fairway towards hole 7 to find these guys and you not, they are literally chasing a beaver around in their golf cart. A beaver, on a course with literally no ponds and water traps. How
    via u/Gstrang513
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    this beaver got there, I have no idea but what I do know is that these two got fired immediately after that. We decided not to hire anymore high school kids after this fiasco.
    via u/Gstrang513
  • 29
    DizzyedUpGirl Had a guy that would ring up dine in orders with 5 sodas (the amount that the people ordered), but then before they cashed out, he'd remove all but 1 or 2 and would pocket the difference.
    via u/DizzyedUpGirl
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    He would give them the first copy and since of course that's what they ordered, they never said anything. When he realized they would be paying cash, he'd change it. I realized it one day as he was fired.
    via u/DizzyedUpGirl
  • 31
    indrid_cold I was a blacksmith at a federal historical site and I used to make nails as a demonstration. I didn't see this but another blacksmith was making nails and a lady remarked "They didn't have nails back then!" (17th century) to which the blacksmith replied "Right lady, they scotch taped Christ to the cross!".
    via u/indrid_cold
  • 32
    smileylord Wasn't the manager at the time, but I work at a movie theatre and we like most places have a rewards program. You show your card to the box office cashier as you purchase your ticket and as you cycle points you get free drinks popcorn and eventually a free ticket. This one cashier who seemed to always have tons of cash on her person
    via u/smileylord
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    would take the guest free tickets and keep it. When the next guest would come and pay exact change she would use the free ticket and pocket the cash. La We do have cameras in the box office so it was shock she got away with it for so long. She got caught because a very regular guest ask to speak to our GM and was wondering why she isn't getting free tickets
    via u/smileylord
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    anymore. Fast forward a few days the same guest comes back but she can't stay for her movie she had to leave and wanted a refund our GM goes down to handle it for her and notices the ticket was a free movie so we can't give her a refund. She insisted she paid exact change to the cashier that was there a few hours ago.
    via u/smileylord
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    She reviews the footage and sure enough exact change for a ticket no coupon but the cashier had in front of her and slides it sneakily to use.GM greeted her in the break room and told her to take her stuff home she no longer works here.
    via u/smileylord
  • 36
    UnparallelDharma Had a girl call in and say she was terribly sick. She's friends with me and the other two bosses on social media. An hour after calling out she posts pics of herself at a local pool. Smh. Don't post that if your boss can see it!
    via u/UnparallelDharma
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    imonfiyar Setting a paper packing machine on fire because it got stuck.
    via u/imonfiyar

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