'A guy bought a car on the company card and... got fired': 20+ HR professionals share the wildest moments they had to fire an employee

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 19, 2024 5:00 PM EST

These HR pros wondered how employees thought they'd get away with their schemes. In this day and age, digital receipts and/or cameras will catch any workplace foolishness! Still, there are a lot of workers out there who just don't seem to care. 

One of the best stories here is about one creative employee who found a way to avoid working all day every day. Apparently he kept clocking in, disappearing all day, and then leaving at the end of the day. No one could figure out where he was, although he was definitely inside the building still. After a little sleuthing, the higher-ups finally realized that this dude had found an elevator shaft with a crawl space in it. He was spending 8 hours a day napping there! That's one of the most dangerous and most ingenious ways to get out of work ever… until the elevator needs maintenance, that is! At least that worker got discovered before he got hurt, and good for him for taking naps on company time (he's living the dream!). 

Scroll down to check out a bunch of great stories from HR professionals and employees who witnessed their coworkers getting fired. Then, this couple was dealing with a nosy neighbor, so they gave her exactly what she wanted so they'd fit into the neighborhood: "We decorated." 

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    Cheezburger Image 10430542336
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    People who work in HR, what's the wildest thing you've discovered that led to a firing in the course of your career?
    via u/HighElfEsteem
  • 03
    MysteriousPla... Obligatory not HR, but a contractor for the US federal government (USGS) brought his work laptop into an unauthorized country on personal vacation and then tried to use it. Taking a government issued laptop across country lines requires a great deal of paperwork, depending on the data security and likelihood of theft in said country. This
    via u/MysteriousPlatform59
  • 04
    guy brought his laptop into a red-flagged country (worst data security) on a personal vacation. When he logged on his IP was instantly flagged and IT bricked the entire laptop remotely. Obvious instant termination. Don't f with federal government property, folks.
    via u/MysteriousPlatform59
  • 05
    wyoflyboy68 We had an administrator that was in charge of the program that oversaw the entire operations of the two company jets. She would regularly schedule and fly her kids to visit their grand parents five states away. One of the pilots filed a complaint for misuse of the company jets. Guess who they fired, the pilot, for not keeping his mouth shut.
    via u/wyoflyboy68
  • 06
    Pancovnik One of the salespeople has printed their new offer of employment from a direct competitor from a company laptop, on a company printer and forgot it there. She was not the sharpest tool in the shed. All of her stuff got immediately locked and she
    via u/Pancovnik
  • 07
    had also tried to download the whole client database and sent it as attachment from her work email to her private one. All this happened in one day.
    via u/Pancovnik
  • 08
    AidynValo Car dealership. Co-owner of the company had a used car lot he had registered under a friend's name. The big dealership would take in used cars, he'd pay a technician off- the-books to give it a bad inspection so the car would go to auction. He'd use the other company to purchase. the cars for dirt cheap and
    via u/AidynValo
  • 09
    sell the cars at a huge profit margin. Essentially got our KBB rep fired because she was evaluating trade-ins as being in good condition, but the inspections would all come back bad, so in the company's eyes, she was terrible at her job and paying people way too much for their trade-ins.
    via u/AidynValo
  • 10
    They started to catch on when they realized close to 40% of all the trade-ins were getting poor inspections. So they implemented a system where two technicians each did their own inspections. Suddenly, not so many cars were getting poor inspections. Then it all
    via u/AidynValo
  • 11
    unraveled when they looked into it deeper and realized every single bad inspection. came from one technician. In total, they estimated roughly $400k in profit had been stolen from the company over the past couple years. It was pretty messy.
    via u/AidynValo
  • 12
    Timbo2702 Dude requested a letter from HR to provide his insurance company, to state that he was on-shift on a particular day at a particular time and therefore could not have been the one driving when his car was involved in an accident. For similar letters in the past, we provide 1) Their roster for the day, 2)
    via u/Timbo2702
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    Confirmation of their clock in and out times and 3) Their scan in and out times of their security ID. (To show someone was rostered on, clocked in and didn't leave the building before clocking out) Turns out this guy hadn't actually worked that day - and when he realized we would actually check before putting it in writing, tried to use his supervisor level
    via u/Timbo2702
  • 14
    access to alter historical records to say that he was on shift. He got caught out because the system wouldn't let you alter your own roster. When the inevitable "No, we will not help you commit insurance fraud - turn in your ID" conversations happened and all facts. presented to him, it was the
    via u/Timbo2702
  • 15
    only time I've heard a union rep say words to the effect of entirely siding with HR in a dismissal
    via u/Timbo2702
  • 16
    Caspers_Shad... Not HR, but my coworker went to work for a competitor and never quit her job with us. She traveled for work and was able to work both jobs for months. Lasted until a customer mentioned he heard she left our company and asked who his account rep would be.
    via u/Caspers_Shadow
  • 17
    No-Celebratio... It came to my attention (after a few times) that a woman would stay in a restroom stall and take all the toilet paper off the rolls by just unraveling it, and she was seen putting what she had rolled up and put it in her locker a few times. She claimed she was too poor for women's hygiene products, so she was told that they are provided and
    via u/No-Celebration3097
  • 18
    there was no need for her to use that much toilet paper for that. Hoped that was the end of it, it started again and she claimed this time it was for wounds and she couldn't afford gauze and wound dressings. Ok so we just told her again she could use what was in the first aid kits, management wanted to be gentle. So it starts up again
    via u/No-Celebration3097
  • 19
    and she confessed she just liked stealing things and this was easy. She was termed after that one.
    via u/No-Celebration3097
  • 20
    stitch714 We had an employee who would clock in at the time clock everyday and then go home. They'd come back to clock out for lunch and back in after an hour. Then come back at the end of the day. It was impressive how long it took a manager to catch on.
    via u/stitch714
  • 21
    AnimusFlux So, I used to work at a software company and we kept getting complaints. about a nap room being cluttered and trash from the nearby breakroom being left around in the mornings, so we asked security to do some late evening walk-bys to see what was going on. One evening, they found a young Asian woman hiding. in the nap room. She didn't
    via u/AnimusFlux
  • 22
    work there and she didn't speak English. It was super weird. It turns out, one of the software engineers who worked in the building had purchased a mail-order bride. But here's the kicker - he was already married. So, unable to bring his new -
    via u/AnimusFlux
  • 23
    mail-order bride home, he kept her at the office. No idea where she hid during the day, but at night she made good use of our little nap room. Gotta feel bad for that poor woman.
    via u/AnimusFlux
  • 24
    FleetAdmiralC... My experience I have seen a lot of wild stuff, but people in HR were the wildest. HR generalist was pregnant. The father was one of the people on the production floor, but she didn't know which one. Fist fights broke out among all the potential fathers.
    via u/FleetAdmiralCrunch
  • 25
    HR VP was fired after a paid conference he attended was actually just a free vacation for him and his family, and he didn't even go to the same city as the conference HR director was having an affair with IT director, both married. When they were confronted, they both denied it, so they were both fired. I saw them 7 years later on a plane coming back from Europe. Still together.
    via u/FleetAdmiralCrunch
  • 26
    DrPeekinside I did some repair work in a food production facility. One of the employees there told me a funny story about a guy that got fired. This guy would come in every day, clock in, do a little work, then disappear. It took a while for anyone to realize he was not working as this is a big facility, but no one could figure out where he was going. He wasn't
    via u/DrPeekinside
  • 27
    leaving the building either. This apparently was a mystery for a while. Finally it was discovered he had somehow got his hands on a copy of the elevator service key, and he was running the elevator up part way, stopping it, opening the doors, and climbing into the space below the elevator car. Elevators have a crawl
    via u/DrPeekinside
  • 28
    space below them for maintenance. He apparently slept down there and then came out before the end of his shift, did a little work like nothing was wrong, then went home.
    via u/DrPeekinside
  • 29
    Smurf_Cherries When I worked for the federal government, one of our senior managers was "dating" 2 women that were his contractors. They lost the contract to a competitor. Not wanting to lose his harem, he demanded the new company hire them.
    via u/Smurf_Cherries
  • 30
    They said "lol, no." He cancelled their contract in retaliation. They sued and the truth came out. Our CIO demanded he quit. He said he was a disabled vet, and she couldn't fire him. He literally told her to go f herself. He ended up just moved. Not fired. Not demoted. They just moved him out of IT. He still works there.
    via u/Smurf_Cherries
  • 31
    Vecoma My dad was working as HR in the construction industry. The story that stands out the most, they had a guy take a sh in another fellas backpack.
    via u/Vecoma
  • 32
    [deleted] It didn't lead to a firing but someone had to be told that referring to their coworker as an and I quote "bucket of s" wasn't the best thing C to do.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 33
    40ozTOFreedom I heard a story of a guy using an unmarked company car to run Uber eats and door dash all day. He got away with it for a couple years. He finally got caught because he was using his work phone for Uber and his data was astronomically higher than anyone else in the company.
    via u/40ozTOFreedom
  • 34
    If he had just used his personal phone, he probably could still be going.
    via u/40ozTOFreedom
  • 35
    CaliBelgique Not in HR, but there was a story at my company that a guy bought a car on the company card & obviously got fired. Seriously, how do you think you're gonna get away with that...
    via u/CaliBelgique
  • 36
    We had a guy with a company car for travelling to client sites but we didn't care too much if he used it for personal reasons (it's more pain to keep track than it's worth). Somehow, he was still submitting expense reports for commuting expenses.
    via u/xiclasshero
  • 37
    Turns out, he has been taking taxis/Ubers to client sites while his wife was using the company car as an Uber driver. It was pretty bizarre.
    via u/xiclasshero
  • 38
    chewie8291 I worked at a recruiting agency. Had a candidate with an interview lined up. Big biker machinist. Couldn't get a hold of him to set it up. Finally got a hold of his girlfriend. She had kicked him out. She informed us he
    via u/chewie8291
  • 39
    got fired from his previous job because he threw his boss into a dumpster. Like WWF style. I was envious but sill put him on the do not call list.
    via u/chewie8291
  • 40
    Nelson Muntzo... My mom works at a local hospital in HR and she told me this doozy a while back. They had an employee that worked in the maintenance department and also happened to be dating a nurse from that hospital. The employee and the nurse broke things off and the guy had nowhere to live and access to the whole hospital
    via u/NelsonMuntz007
  • 41
    and offsite buildings. He continued to do his job but was living there during his off time. People would report a laptop and blanket and pillow and sleeping setup where there shouldn't be someone sleeping. It was in supply closets or unused offices. Nothing was ever said to him about it but they had to fire him when the local police had to arrest him during his shift in front
    via u/NelsonMuntz007
  • 42
    of everyone because the ex gf accused him of stealing her stuff. Weeks later when he came back asking for his stuff did they know for certain it was him 'living' on the property. My mom said he was a nice guy but it was a really awkward situation.
    via u/NelsonMuntz007
  • 43
    vsysio Tl;dr Employee stole credit card, went on vacation, got stranded. Not HR (obligatory), but felt this one qualified. Some discrepancies were noted on a corporate credit card. However, it wasn't 100% sure if it was for legit purposes, and they were in the middle of an acquisition,
    via u/vsysio
  • 44
    so an investigation didn't immediately begin. Until a huge charge landed on the card. Something like $5000. Turns out a random employee had purchased a trip for themselves and their family to some resort banana country.
    via u/vsysio
  • 45
    Whats better, said employee had already left the country on vacation. They canceled the return trip.
    via u/vsysio
  • 46
    Quartermaster... A developer in our team delivered his work and replied to emails at odd hours instead of typical 9-5. Few days it was okay but when it happens every single day we were a bit alert. We worked remotely and interview was also done remotely. My manager and I decided to call everyone to office for a week. This guy came in like everyone else
    via u/Quartermastered
  • 47
    but didn't speak up during meetings. Always said I'll look into it and respond over email. Now we felt we were onto something. The 3rd day he said that we confronted him to join the discussion then and there instead of replying later on email. He got scared and broke and confessed that he
    via u/Quartermastered
  • 48
    was not the one working on those projects and even somebody else interviewed for him and he was just lip syncing. He was fired on the spot and we added a in- person interview as the last step before every hire.
    via u/Quartermastered
  • 49
    amashouse In the manufacturing industry, work at a huge plant. I was doing some filing work on old terminations. I found out that my company once fired a janitor because he brought his George Foreman grill to work and was running a
    via u/amashouse
  • 50
    secret side hustle selling burgers and hot dogs out of the janitor's closet. The report said that he had removed the cleaning supplies from the shelves and lined them up with bags of chips.
    via u/amashouse

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