20+ Employees who had to leave their jobs quickly: 'Nobody talks to me like that'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 1, 2025 11:00 AM EST

As a manager, you never want to let your employees go, but sometimes they give you no choice. Some employees are just so ill-fitted for a job that it's clear they're not going to make it in that role. Like if you interview to work at a construction company, you should probably expect to do physical labor, get your hands dirty, and lift a lot of weight throughout your day. 

It's not a job for people who just want to sit around and write emails: if you're doing construction, you are going to work. That's why it's very funny that one construction worker couldn't even make it through an entire shift before giving up. He said the work was "too hard," then called his girlfriend to pick him up. Maybe he underestimated just how difficult the job would be, but his coworkers must've laughed at him behind his back for barely trying and then giving up very quickly. 

A bunch of workers shared their stories of the funniest times their coworkers got fired or quit ASAP. Some workers steal from cash registers and get caught red-handed. Fired! A different employee started working at a fast-food chain and decided to give all his friends free food. Also fired! However, that is a very funny bit, and unless he got in really big trouble for stealing too much food, that's a hilarious way for a teenager and his friends to get some free meals before just finding another minimum-wage job. 

Up next, read about the entitled step-parents who couldn't get along with their step-kids, like one step-mom who "canceled all of my family dinners for my 21st birthday." 

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  • 01
    'I worked in construction... [An employee] said it was "too hard" and he was calling his girlfriend to pick him up'
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "What is the fastest you have ever seen a new co-worker get fired?"

    BaconReceptacle I worked in maintenance at a beach resort. One of the housekeepers managed to get her delinquent son a job as a "runner"...someone who would collect the dirty laundry after the housekeepers stripped the beds. She was actually worried when he started working because I guess he had a bad track record with other jobs. About three days
    via u/BaconReceptacle
  • 03
    after he started working, his mother confronted him about his new expensive- looking athletic shoes and a gold chain around his neck. He just shot back something about having a job now which didnt make sense because he hadnt even been paid yet. Anyway, about the same time there were a couple of reports at the front desk by guests who were missing large sums of money. A police report was
    via u/BaconReceptacle
  • 04
    made and people were questioned. So after only about four days this kid was fired and went to jail for stealing from guest rooms.
    via u/BaconReceptacle
  • 05
    [deleted] I used to train new hires at a warehouse. We have a floor for robots to zoom around on, full of merchandise and cold spite. Only certified technicians may set foot on that floor. The rest of us? Instant termination if we do it. We stress this frequently throughout orientation.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    I'm training a group of new hires at a work station. It's their first night. Not even lunch yet. One of our managers comes over to introduce himself. One guy, who has already been copping an attitude, asks him about stepping on the floor. Manager reiterates what we all told everyone: Do it, and you're fired.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    Guy: "You mean don't do this?" puts one foot on the floor And away he goes. I heard the rest of the new trainees laughing over how stupid he was. He was even whining about it the whole time his termination was being processed.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    I'm just glad I didn't get stuck training that snotty, dimwitted little pain in the a 20 for two days.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09

    This dude thought he had the perfect life-hack...but he was so very wrong

    MrCoolizade A number of years back I worked at an inbound call center that also had an upsell side to it. A new guy fresh out of training was bragging about how he did over 10 x the monthly goal in his first week alone. Didn't see him the following week and heard he was laid off because he was upgrading everyone's plans who called in to the highest costing
    via u/MrCoolizade
  • 10
    plan without their consent or informing them. About a week or two later I got a text from him asking if I could be his reference for a new call center job he got. He somehow got a hold of a bunch of our numbers and just spammed everyone asking for a reference.
    via u/MrCoolizade
  • 11
    Makerbot2000 Our ceo rarely sent all- company messages unless there was great news or some major event/holiday/emergency etc. One day he sends an email reminding everyone something about an extra day off everyone earned hitting a major deadline and how and when to use it.
    via u/Makerbot2000
  • 12
    New woman in accounting - looked like a nice 50 something Dallas church lady, hits the reply-all and writes "I suppose we all should bow down to Mr. Generosity for the measly day off." Meanwhile she never worked on the project or was affected by long hours.
    via u/Makerbot2000
  • 13
    When she realized what she did, the other finance people in her area heard a gasp come from her desk and without saying a word to anyone, she picked up her purse, took a box, added her personal items, and walked out the door to her car never to be seen again.
    via u/Makerbot2000
  • 14
    apocalypticradish I worked in construction for eight years. Guys would quit all the time but the fastest was this kid named Austin. Austin was rail thin and wouldn't stop looking at his phone. Our boss told him to run a wheelbarrow full of dirt to a pile and he sighed before trudging over to it. The kid moved that wheelbarrow maybe fifteen feet, set it down and started
    via u/apocalypticradish
  • 15
    looking at his phone again. Boss asked him what he was doing and he said it was "too hard" and he was calling his girlfriend to pick him up. Austin lasted a grand total of five minutes.
    via u/apocalypticradish
  • 16
    Umbran_scale Call centre worker, new beginner came in hungover as sh on the 1st day of the job. Within 2 hours of their shift, they struggled to look at a computer for more than 10 minutes, couldn't form a coherent sentence, walked away from the desk without
    via u/Umbran_scale
  • 17
    a word only to just full on faceplant in the floor of the office. I'm sure the actual termination took longer, but it was obvious they lost their job the moment they walked in like a zombie.
    via u/Umbran_scale
  • 18
    M_Looka I worked at a bill collection firm in the early 90's (don't judge me). A guy started working there, went through the 2 days of training, then started working. After about an hour, he got up and left. Didn't say "I quit." Didn't say "this job isn't for me." Didn't
    via u/M_Looka
  • 19
    say "f you." He just got up to go to the bathroom, went through the front door and drove away. It took the managers a few hours to figure out that this guy got the job with a fake name, and erased his own debt on the computer.
    via u/M_Looka
  • 20
    Captain_Coco_Ko... 15 minutes. Working at the wharfs where we had to unload shipping containers with forklifts; new bloke starts work who claims to be a wiz at operating forklifts. First container and he drives in too fast while another worker is opening the
    via u/Captain_Coco_Koala
  • 21
    container door. I'm not the foreman but I have a go at him about him and tell him to pull his head in. He walks off the job muttering under his breath 'Nobody talks to me like that'.
    via u/Captain_Coco_Koala
  • 22
    BurnTheOil Worked in a warehouse. Minimum staff, temp workers during peak times. Ask my boss for a temp or two for the next day as I wasn't keeping up and we had a truck coming in. I get one temp. I put him to work cleaning and sorting a corner of the warehouse while I got as many orders
    via u/BurnTheOil
  • 23
    pulled as I could before the truck came in. 15-20 minutes later I go looking for him, and he's not where I asked him to be. I find him in the other end of the complex, pushing a broom. I drag him back to the corner I'd brought him in to sort.
    via u/BurnTheOil
  • 24
    10 minutes later, around 9am, the truck arrives as scheduled and we need to get it unloaded. I go looking. for him. Not in his corner. Find him sweeping again. I tell him the truck showed up. I bring him to the loading. dock and I climb up inside to get the top row out. I pass a handful of boxes to him.
    via u/BurnTheOil
  • 25
    "Is this what we do?" "Yes, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week" "This is too hard. I'm going home" I hop out of the truck and walk him to the boss's office. Never saw him again. Total time: barely more than an hour.
    via u/BurnTheOil
  • 26
    cleo_wafflesmack First day at a CPA firm, guy gets a talking to from management because he followed a group of female coworkers to a restaurant at lunch, sat at a nearby table, and stared creepily at them for the entire meal.
    via u/cleo_wafflesmack
  • 27
    He got fired a couple of days later for logging into and using a coworker's computer without permission. Never heard what he was doing on that computer, but I think it's pretty safe to say it was something that he didn't want to use his own computer for.
    via u/cleo_wafflesmack
  • 28
    eatMYcookieCRU... Showed up early to work on her first day to eat. We worked at Firehouse subs, and she came in with Subway and started eating in the lobby while in uniform.
    via u/eatMYcookieCRUMBS
  • 29
    The boss asked her nicely to eat in the back so customers wouldn't see. She started screaming and throwing a fit so boss told her to leave and not come back. Idk if you can really even say she got fired. She never clocked in once.
    via u/eatMYcookieCRUMBS
  • 30

    Some employees have a strategy for getting fired on purpose

    Jonny2284 Guy at a fish factory lasted half a shift before he was fired for refusing to adhere to any health and safety rules.
    via u/Jonny2284
  • 31
    Later got told it wasn't uncommon for people like that, they had to be seen to be applying for jobs to keep their benefits, would lose them if they quit, but could get them back immediately if fired.
    via u/Jonny2284
  • 32
    BlueFalconPunch Not fired but quit. New admin joins the team, gets escorted around to meet everyone. Next day shes gone. I asked someone and they said "She was told there was a background check and just left"
    via u/BlueFalconPunch
  • 33
    You accept a job at a gov facility and dont think they are going to look into your past? i still wonder what she had that she figured it wasnt worth waiting to get fired for.
    via u/BlueFalconPunch
  • 34
    Independent_Ad_... Worked on a logging crew 15 years ago. They hired a guy that "grew up on the farm working hard"... fired by noon day 1 because he literally looked like he was going to pass out and di after a few hours of "light duty" labor.
    via u/Independent_Ad_9373
  • 35
    october_rust_ Worked at Wendy's. New guy comes in for his first shift. Evening shift in the drive-thru. He literally posted on his Snapchat where he was and what he was doing and told all his buddies to come through for free food. He started up orders on purpose and handing his friends free stuff. Manager called the police and he got arrested.
    via u/october_rust_
  • 36
    thereald expert Threatened the long term. employees, including me the assistant manager, because they/we were younger than her, and shamed us and said "I've been in this industry longer than you! I know more. Okay?! Okay! Hahahaha". Granted, she had been in sales for 20 years, but if she was truly that good, she would have been hired on at a higher
    via u/thereald****expert
  • 37
    position. While screaming this, she was stomping her foot, slamming her fists on the table and standing just a few inches away from each employee when she'd state this. She was an absolute loon, and tiny. Plucked out eyebrows, greasy skin and all. How she got a sales position? I do not know, but I do know she gave a sob
    via u/thereald****expert
  • 38
    story and begged for the job. Needless to say when the big boss heard about it and she talked to her in the back she cried like I've never seen someone cry before. Instantly started, and instantly stopped once she was fired, and it was very very loud. She of course, claimed she never did anything worthy of getting fired.
    via u/thereald****expert
  • 39
    jthegamer Worked at a sausage plant and other meats. Guy got fired on the first day before even working. We had to pass thru a machine that cleaned our shoes as we washed our hands. It had timed sensors. He couldn't get thru so he went back into the lunch room for an hour till the boss sent him home.
    via u/jthegamer
  • 40
    madamsyntax I was working in a small grocery store and we had a new butcher start. He rocked up and asked the boss to pay for his taxi because he didn't have any money until payday. He works for a few hours and then goes on lunch and never returns. We find out why when we go to close the till and it's out by about
    via u/madamsyntax
  • 41
    $1000. So we check the cameras and watch him shove the cash into his big wellies. The kicker though? He went to play the pokies and that's exactly where the cops found him hours later, with some money still in his boot
    via u/madamsyntax
  • 42
    Zaq1996 At orientation, when going over benefits. Guy had been trouble the whole time talking about pay and benefits, apparently didn't have a bank account or anything so even paying him was a pain, he refused to get given a check for his pay so they basically had to give him a visa gift card every week, but health
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 43
    insurance was the final straw. When it came to health insurance, there were 3 options. Besides relatively standard stuff one had an FSA (flexible spending account) and 2 with an HSA (I forget what the "H" stands for but it's another spending account). Money in the FSA disappeared at the end of the year, but the HSA would carry over to the next year.
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 44
    You couldn't pull money out unless it was for medical expenses. Most importantly for this discussion, you do not have to put ANY money in them if you so not want to, it was an opportunity for you to put money aside specifically for medical reasons. This was completely unacceptable to this guy. Paraphrased a bit cause it was awhile ago, but
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 45
    basically it went like this: "Why can't I take it out, it's money!" HR: "if you're worried you won't spend it, don't have any taken out for it, it can have a balance of zero, that is not a problem" "Why are you making me put money in an account won't use! Why can't I take it out if I don't use it, you can't just
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 46
    make it disappear!" HR: "you don't have to put money in there, and if you want it to carry over just select one of the 2 plans. without an FSA" "I don't even WANT health insurance" HR: "you have to, it's the law" "This is bulls ! You're
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 47
    stealing from me! Why can't I just have MY money!" HR: you know what? This is how it works, I've explained it multiple times, everyone else gets it. If you don't like it, the doors over there. Storms out HR: calls security "make sure he actually leaves, and that he doesn't get let in if he comes back"
    via u/Zaq1996
  • 48
    Oss251817 A new hire nurse on my floor was fired after 2 weeks when my manager found out her previous manager lied about her being a reliable worker to get rid of her. Also several nurses refused to train her anymore after one day because she had such a snotty difficult attitude.
    via u/Oss251817

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