15 Employees who had "memorable" days at work: 'Layoff of 700+ people... ended up losing almost 800'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 25, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

You can only push an employee so far before they just completely break down. Some workplaces know this, and handle their employee's emotions gently. Others are less gentle, but they still defend their employees from their worst clients or customers. And then there are workplaces who are simply do not care about how their workers feel. And if that worker crashes out and storms out of the building, well, that's totally fine, because there's another worker who can take their place in a minute. 

At retail stores and restaurants, an employee meltdown is just par for the course. Customers can be so impolite, and they do not care about making that staffer feel bad. If a diner's meal came out cold, they'll have no trouble berating the waitstaff until they're brought to tears! At least some of the workers who told their stories below quit their jobs on the spot, which is a feel-good moment for us all. 

Next, read the polarizing story of the dude who bought a $50k guitar for $4k, but the circumstances led to everyone in his social circle getting mad at him: "[I'm] refusing to sell it back." 

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    WIN
    via Austin Distel on Unsplash+

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

  • 02

    "What was the most memorable workplace meltdown you ever witnessed?"

    nagyboh I worked in a building with a cafeteria in it, we noticed that one of the everyday cashiers had stopped showing up to work and found out that she had passed away. My coworker asked who we were talking about and upon finding out, stood up from her desk, flung herself to the ground, and proceeded to roll back and forth crying as loud as
    via u/nagyboh
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    she could. We all freaked out, we had customers on the phone we had to put on hold until we could get her to her feet and someone could her somewhere else so she could calm down. She took the next few days off, including the day of the funeral. Assuming she had gone to the funeral, we asked her how it was, she answered with, "Huh? I didn't go, I barely knew her..."
    via u/nagyboh
  • 04
    [deleted] This crazy lady they hired as a cashier didn't take getting fired too well. After they fired her, she told the owner to f off and proceeded to ram his truck with her car as she left... And it's funny because it barely dented the owner's bumper, but her car got really f ed up. I don't even think he pressed charges.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    Leumas_ Worked in a video store when there was such a thing. My co-worker showed up very, very h_. He was also about 6'3" and 140 pounds, so he stood out in a crowd to begin with. Anyway, he came in for a 4 hour shift, stood in the middle of our bank of checkout registers...and just ate chips. Like, 6 bags of chips back to back, and he
    via u/Leumas_
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    ate them SLOW, and savored the sh out of each bite. The whole time he had zero facial expression, think of the dull stare of a chewing dairy cow. After about 3 hours he calmly turns to me and says "I can't do this anymore"...gently sets down his bag of chips, and walks out the door. We never saw him in the store again.
    via u/Leumas_
  • 07
    sweaty_obesity I've posted this before, but it still makes me laugh. I wasn't the one that got fired, but I watched it happen. I was at Publix getting a sub when I hear this: Manager: What the h I are you doing?! You know I have to fire you for doing this again.
    via u/sweaty_obesity
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    Worker: What is the problem? I didn't do anything wrong. Manager: You are allowed to get something to eat on your break, not eat while you're packing food. Worker: So I had a couple chicken wings, it's not that big of a deal.
    via u/sweaty_obesity
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    Manager: THERE ARE 50 WINGS IN THE BOTTOM OF THAT TRASH CAN!!!! Nothing else was said and the manager escorted the wing eater out. The guy was making baskets of wings and was basically going "1 for the basket, 1 for me" and eating his way through the batch of wings. Best part was the two people making subs just start laughing and one goes "if the manager
    via u/sweaty_obesity
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    knew how much that guy has eaten in the 2 weeks he has worked here, he would sha brick. The other day he just sat there eating a whole container of potato salad while he was working the fryer."
    via u/sweaty_obesity
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    Ecclesia_Andune I worked in a shop as a cashier for a while and during a really busy rush period there's only me and this other woman on tills Anyway we're working away and suddenly there's a police officer and my manager watching and they point at the woman working with me. Then they promptly walk over and take her away.
    via u/Ecclesia_Andune
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    She didn't go easy though. She was doing the whole soverign citizen thing, shouting about rights she thought she had (like a lawyer being present at the arrest or whatever) then started crying about needing to get her son or whatever.
    via u/Ecclesia_Andune
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    I distinctly remember this because i was annoyed they didn't put anyone else on to help me and a customer made a snarky comment about queue times. Like my colleague just legit got arrested for theft, what do you want me to do Linda? Go put your £8 candle through the service, christ self
    via u/Ecclesia_Andune
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    [d... I got into a screaming match with my boss. He was furious, and after the altercation, I saw him head to the elevator. I knew he was going to Human Resources, so I ran down the stairs and beat him to
    via u/[deleted]
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    the HR office by about 20 seconds. He had to sit in the HR waiting room for half an hour until I was done speaking to them which made him even more furious.
    via u/[deleted]
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    elevator_guy96 I didn't actually witness this, I did it. I was working at a Wendy's my senior year of high school with that being my second job, the first was the McDonald's across the street. McDonald's taught me drive thru, and Wendy's got 1/10th the business so i was a drive thru god there. One night there was a football game we didn't know about, and when it let
    via u/elevator_guy96
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    out we got absolutely slammed. I was working 3 positions in drive thru, which i could handle, but when i had to do fries i couldnt deal with it. I asked the guy who was working front counter, who hadnt had a customer in about an hour, to hop on fries and help me out, he mumbled something and walked over there. I relax and go back to drive thru, and when i go to bag my order i see all this kid did
    via u/elevator_guy96
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    was drop a basket of fries, not make any of the 20+ orders we had. At first i was like f him i got this, and made a large fry. I then turned and threw it at him calling him a lazy incompetent a h le you cant even work a fast food job, walked back to the office and tossed my head set at the manager and told told him i quit
    via u/elevator_guy96
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    BromanJenkins Suit guy. We worked in a business casual office, most of us just wore button up shirts, decent pants and dress shoes every day. However, Suit Guy showed up as a new hire and wore the same exact tan suit every day for the three months he was there, which is what earned him the nickname.
    via u/BromanJenkins
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    He also drank a large coffee, a Monster energy drink and a can of Mountain Dew in that order between when he walked in at eight and when he had lunch at noon. Apparently he was going through a divorce that was getting pretty contentious and the combination of caffeine and rage put him over his boiling point one morning when he began screaming at his phone. while at his desk and then
    via u/BromanJenkins
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    broke his cell phone in half. This was 2012, so it was a full screened smartphone that he somehow bent until it broke. I don't know how he did it, my friends and I tried to replicate it using one of my old phones a couple days later and we could cause some bending, but no break.
    via u/BromanJenkins
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    He came in the next day with a new phone and acted like he hadn't made a scene the day before.
    via u/BromanJenkins
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    11111
    via Caitlyn Wilson on Unsplash+

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

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    This guy just got pushed slightly too far... luckily he wasn't fired for his outburst!

    sohaliatalitha There was a guy I used to work with. He was the most boring, straight laced guy you could ever meet. He was very into entomology and environmental presentation. He used to do things like count the crayfish in a patch of creek at the weekend. He spoke very quietly, and I often couldn't hear him even when I sat right next to him.
    via u/sohaliatalitha
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    We worked in a call centre, and he was renowned as one of the best agents you could get calling through. He was so patient and gentle with even the dumbest sheep of customers. It was hard on him though - he was the kind of guy who flushes really obviously when he got ped off. You could sit next to him watching him quietly seethe as he gently said "Yes ma'am, now if you
    via u/sohaliatalitha
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    could just click the text under the sign in button that says "forgotten you details?"...." Then one afternoon he just couldn't hack it any more. I have no idea what it was that got to him. This woman must have said something though cause he just screamed "F OFF" down the phone line and threw his headset across his desk.
    via u/sohaliatalitha
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    Then he picked up his office chair and kind of rammed it into the wall, and marched out the room. 10 minutes later he came back, quietly apologized to the manager, and carried on as if nothing had happened.
    via u/sohaliatalitha
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    [deleted] was interning at a local ABC news station for awhile. one day, I was alone on the set sitting on one of those couches you always see anchors sitting on in morning shows (I was waiting for my boss to come down and tape something for his show.) enter the weatherman. he walks over to his desk, looks
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    at something on the computer, stands up, slams his hand on the table and yells at the top of his lungs. "THIS IS SO OUT OF CONTROL! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? GOD DAMNIT!", then straightens up his tie, calmly and coolly walks by me again and says "pardon my French" and walks out the door. I sit for a minute in shock and then go upstairs.
    via u/[deleted]
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    turns out the national weather service was trying to get him in trouble because someone reported a live tornado in a distant corner of the state, when there actually wasn't a tornado at all, and caused the sirens to go off. I think, that's at least what I got out of what him & the other weatherman were talking about.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    pjjtlc 2008 what a wonderful year. Working for a large, well known company, who happened to have a high risk mortgage bank in their portfolio. Needless to say, they made the decision to lay-off over 700 employees. So, they schedule it for a Tuesday, notify all the managers that would have to lay someone off. (I don't
    via u/pjjtlc
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    know why big corps like laying off on a Tuesday, seems to be a trend). Tuesday rolls up, they begin laying off around 9:00 AM, by 9:30 AM they stopped the layoffs. Seems on three separate floors they simultaneously laid off people with over 30 years in. They all flipped.
    via u/pjjtlc
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    I watched one storm out of the little meeting room they were in, with their manager trying to grab them on the way out. He proceeded to just randomly grab anything he could and throw it, no targets, just grab and chuck. Monitors, laptops, phones, and chairs yes, just like those videos you see. Eventually, one of his friends tackled him, and he was escorted out, via the stairs, from the 14th floor.
    via u/pjjtlc
  • 34
    Next day, I'm walking into the building and there is a half dozen police officers behind the security gate, just hanging out. When i got to the fourteenth floor, there was another outside the elevators. Come to find out they had them on each floor where layoffs were going to occur.
    via u/pjjtlc
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    Makes it worse, they had to call some of the layoffs back, as people quit on the spot when they saw the heavy police presence, and they freaked out.
    via u/pjjtlc
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    tl;dr; - layoff of 700 plus people delayed 24 hours because three flipped out, and police asked to monitor the building during the second attempt. Ended up losing almost 800 and had to call some of the lay offs back, because many quit due to fear.
    via u/pjjtlc
  • 37

    Customer service can bring out the worst in anyone

    squid1891 Worked at Wal-Mart for about two years before my current job. I worked back in layaway and was one of the employees that was up for CSM (customer service manager...basically you're a supervisor that's under an assistant manager) along with a few others. I didn't get it. I was somewhat disappointed, but still figured "Hey I still like what I
    via u/squid1891
  • 38
    do in layaway, so next time". One of the other cashiers who didn't got p ed off and yelled "this is bulls !" and shoved a whole bunch of stuff that was on a shelf in the office where he was being notified onto the floor and stormed out of the office. He was sent home and fired a few days later.
    via u/squid1891
  • 39
    zuizide Probably mine. I was doing car sales at 19, and was pretty successful at it. I was on pace to clear $100k that year, about 4 months in. Anyway, we got our checks on time and as I checked over my commission check, I noticed it was short. I grabbed my file and confirmed that there were 3 cars missing on the
    via u/zuizide
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    list of cars I was paid commission on. I calmly went to my sales manager and explained everything. He suggested I go to the accounting department with all my paperwork and explain to them. So I did. When I was done there, they said I had to go to the Presidents office and show him. So I did. When I was done with him, he sent me back to the sales manager, even though I told him I'd
    via u/zuizide
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    already showed him, he sent me to accounting and she sent me to you. So back I went. I told him what had happened and he told me he couldn't help me, that it was the accounting department that made the checks. So I went back there and she said if it was a mistake they made, I had to get it approved by the President (who was unwilling to help).
    via u/zuizide
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    So, I went to my desk, trying to calm down (I was HOT) and my manager came over and asked me to help someone that was aimlessly wondering on the lot. I clicked. I asked him why the f would I try to sell more of your vehicles when you won't pay me for the ones | did sell? He looked shocked and started to yell at me how it wasn't his fault and I needed to do what he said.
    via u/zuizide
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    So I went ballistic. I told him to get the f out of my way while I gathered up my sh and took it to my car as he pled with me not to quit. I told him he should expect me to come back and s up all the windows if I didn't get my check of what they owed me in the mail. I left peeling out. It was a huge scene, but it was over 20 years ago and I'm condensing it.
    via u/SerPuissance
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    I got home and called the labor board immediately. They sent me a packet of papers to fill out and I did as soon as I got them. Made copies of all my paperwork proving they owed me about $1800 or so and got them in the mail. Within a week I had a check in my mailbox from the dealer.
    via u/zuizide
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    I did not go sh ot out their windows. I probably should have though. I'm guessing. they were trying to pull one over on me since I was 19 and green to selling cars.
    via u/zuizide
  • 46
    laterdude After my buddy passed Psych 101, he considered himself Machiavelli reincarnate. He had an idea for a new app he pitched as 'Yelp For Dating'. You could post reviews of your dates and find out who was cool and who were those psycho to avoid. Plus you could find out what people
    via u/laterdude
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    really thought of you, behind their polite facades. He rounded up some programming geeks on campus and even went so far as to name our company 'Tom Sawyer'. The geeks thought it was a Rush reference. . . they were mistaken. My buddy's plan was essentially to get everyone else to do his work for free,
    via u/laterdude
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    like Tom Sawyer extolling the virtues of whitewashing that fence. The gold star and praise method worked for a couple of weeks until one guy finally caught on to all that we were hiding in plain sight. "So when do we get our stock options? We'll be ready to launch in a few more weeks."
    via u/laterdude
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    My buddy would obfuscate about how we were all doing this for the greater good of average frustrated chumps everywhere. I mean, what guy doesn't want to find out what it is about him that rubs women the wrong way? Bro-code, dude. We've got. to help one another!
    via u/laterdude
  • 50
    Finally, the Spartacus in our midst had enough, only in a passive-aggressive geeky sort of way. When we opened up the garage the next night, all the computer screens were flashing "Rush S ks!!!" and we discovered he had deleted every last line of our code.
    via u/laterdude
  • 51
    tl dr Friend thought he was Mark Zuckerberg, deliberately tried to get people to program his app for free with no IPO options
    via u/laterdude
  • 52
    -eDgAR- Not so much of a meltdown, but an epic walk out. I witnessed two employees walk out on their shift, leaving the restaurant unattended, while flipping off the security camera that our boss was watching. I told the full story of this a few months ago:
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 53
    "Not me but two people I worked with. I worked at a sushi restaurant that had a really high turnaround rate. The reason why is because one of the owners was a huge b who loved to yell at people. I saw people come and go, most usually lasted only a few days. There was a sushi chef there that had been there for a while. He was pretty cool and we got a long great when we worked together.
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 54
    His girlfriend also worked there as a cashier and a lot of times they were scheduled together. One Saturday that I was supposed to be off, I get a call from Carol (the b boss) asking me if I could come in. Apparently Max and his girlfriend had had enough of her and they both just straight up left and walked out of the restaurant. The place was pretty small
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 55
    so usually it was just the cooks in the back, the sushi chef, and the cashier/delivery driver. So, when they left, they basically left the place empty aside from the cooks, who did not speak English that well. I decided to take the shift for the extra money and when I got there Carol was already there behind the sushi prep area making orders. She
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 56
    usually didn't come in at all on weekends, but would still watch the security cameras occasionally from her laptop. at home and if she saw you standing around doing nothing, she would call and yell at you. It turns out that was exactly what she did to Max and his girlfriend and they had finally had enough. Carol showed me the security footage of Max yelling at her over the
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 57
    phone, hanging up, then taking off his apron and both him and his girlfriend flipping of the security camera and walking out. She was showing me because she couldn't believe how disrespectful they were and how they could just leave the restaurant like that when there were customers in it.
    via u/-eDgAR-
  • 58
    Personally, I thought it was pretty bada they walked out together, I know I wanted to quit hundreds of times when I was there, but I was a broke college student that needed the money. Last I heard of them was they both got jobs at the sushi place that was competing with the restaurant I worked at."
    via u/-eDgAR-

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