20+ Employees who got fired unexpectedly: 'His cunning plan didn’t work, and the company folded in under a year'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 6, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

An unexpected firing can really dampen your spirits. You go from having a job one day to suddenly having nothing to do but mope around your house and start applying for new jobs. And as we all know, applying for jobs is basically a full-time job in itself. So there you are, feeling your worst, dressed in your sweatpants and eating snacks, applying to job after job after job. 

Still, sometimes being fired is a blessing in disguise. Though it rarely feels that way at the time, you might benefit from the fresh start, not to mention the potential for a salary boost. Even though the interview process can be frightening, there's always the chance you'll love your new bosses and coworkers. And who knows, maybe you'll even end up with a dental plan or a 401k. Dream big! 

Up next, this entitled author insisted that his social media manager do exactly as he say, leading the social media person to share, "I received 4 emails in 15 minutes telling me all the things I was doing wrong." 

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    區
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    'What was the most unexpected firing from a job you've ever seen or heard about from anyone you know?'

    Vorengard I used to work at a major distribution center in Virginia managing temp agency employees. That job had interesting challenges because in VA temps can be fired at any time for any reason. So one day one of the Plant Managers comes up to me and says "does John Doe (not his real name) work for
    via u/Vorengard
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    [your company]?" | responded that he did, and she immediately says "I just saw him commit a safety violation, I want him gone before the end of the day." Now, unfortunately that was that. John was a temp, he could be fired at any time for any reason, which was a shame in this case because he was a great associate. But there was nothing we could do, so I went and
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    escorted him off the premise. Fast-forward two weeks and I'm sitting in my office talking to John Doe on the phone, trying to solve an issue with his last check. At that exact moment, the same Manager comes in and says "I thought I told you to fire John Doe!?" The timing was frankly surreal, given that I just so happened to be on the phone with him at the
    via u/Vorengard
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    time, but i answer that yes, we had fired him two weeks ago, like you told us to. Then she says "well then why did I just see him walking around the plant?" Long story short, it turns out the person who had actually committed the safety violation had been some other guy, who we'll call Paul. She saw Paul do this dangerous thing, and
    via u/Vorengard
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    had simply turned to the nearest person and asked "what's that guy's name?" That random person had said "oh that's John Doe", and without verifying anything she had come over to my office and demanded we fire John Doe. TI; Dr dude got fired because some random person got his name wrong. Didn't get his job back either.
    via u/Vorengard
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    m053486 Oooh me! I was hired by a roofing company to increase their B2B sales and get them set up to bid on government jobs. Spent a couple months getting everything set for bidding which required certification, registering with several different government
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    entities, setting up computer programs, and making contacts with people involved in the bidding process. The day we're going to go live and start placing bids my boss calls me that morning and tells me I'm fired. I'm guessing he figured "he's got everything set up, I'll save some money and run the process myself."
    via u/m053486
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    Unfortunately for him I hadn't saved any of the information to our shared drive. No logins or passwords for any of the necessary websites, no contact information for any of the helpful people I'd spent weeks cultivating, etc.
    via u/m053486
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    Long story short his cunning. plan didn't work and the company folded in under a year. Not just due to his inability to pursue big jobs, he'd also burnt pretty much every bridge with contractors in the area as well.
    via u/m053486
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    Vorengard I used to be a supervisor at a major distribution center for a well known clothing brand. One of my coworkers, a really cool guy named Danny, always wore a collared shirt and tie to work, even though we didn't have to, because he was that kind of guy. He did this every single shift, and
    via u/Vorengard
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    everyone knew it. He was the only guy in the plant, including the VP of Production, who wore a collared shirt and tie. Unfortunately for him, that was technically a safety violation, because the tie could theoretically get caught in a conveyor belt. Now, in reality, that wasn't going to happen, because the belts were mounted to the ceiling. There was zero
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    chance of any real incident happening. One day he's just doing his rounds, walking the floor like he always does, and he passes by one of the plant managers, a guy he had seen and worked with every single day for 7 months now. The dude points at him, says "that tie is a security violation, you're fired" and that was it. Game over. Zero recourse.
    via u/Vorengard
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    But that was just how that company worked. They cut excellent employees for stupid reasons, then complained about shortages and lack of competence.
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    Red1990-12 I was made redundant because the general manager decided to get into a contest with our biggest client (my client). When they called his bluff he dumped them and me as they could no longer afford my salary.
    via u/Vorengard
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    I was then fired from my next job because I took too many days off to care for my wife and new born who had a very very high risk and troubled birth. I took 14 days off. This is in Australia.
    via u/Vorengard
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    L
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    Norisprinkles I had one of the highest ratings in my company. I was booked a month in advance with an agenda full of regulars. My one draw back - I was not putting enough. effort in selling their products but more into establishing long term customers. Every single customer had already at least one product from their strongest sellers.
    via u/Norisprinkles
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    The year I got fired I also got the news that my father was diagnosed with terminal canced and I was pregnant. Their excuse? I called in sick too much. I even came to work with a broken ankle. In a knee high cast and for a 100% standing job.
    via u/Norisprinkles
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    Today, 5 years later, my salon is thriving with an average of a 93% full agenda except recent lockdowns which I survived thanks to pre-paid appointments from the 80% loyal customers of total customers, while they are closing salons left and right including their biggest one.
    via u/Norisprinkles
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    It seems my work ethic and strategy works better long run. Who would have thought.
    via u/Norisprinkles
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    jrhawk42 I worked for a company that didn't ever fire anybody. Laid people off a lot but never fired them. I had people late 3 times a day. Had a guy no call no show for over a month. Had people who's 90th day was like the first. Even had a guy who was not only unproductive himself but
    via u/jrhawk42
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    also dragged down productivity of those around him. Still nobody ever got fired. Except one guy. He accidently leaked some information on a public forum with coworkers and was fired within an hour of posting it.
    via u/jrhawk42
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    MrDStroyer A friend of mine worked at a factory. Noticed his paycheck was short one week. Went in on his day off to talk it over with payroll. Payroll told him to talk to his boss. He approached his boss. His boss said something like, "you think you can come on the floor and not work?" My friend
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    said, "you think you can not pay me?" My friend got written up for insubordination, then got a call on MLK day, saying he's fired. My friend was able to get unemployment because he'd never had another write-up, then got a much better job.
    via u/MrDStroyer
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    Cheezburger Image 10490271488
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    That's what you get for getting too deep in other people's business, well-intentioned or otherwise

    WatchingInSilence I opened a can of worms. I fired one employee because she was not doing her job. When I had asked her to do her job, she said she didn't have to do any work. The branch manager got in my face for firing this employee and when I asked why he was defending an
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    employee who refused to do any work, he told me to "back off, or else." So I had security the branch manager from the building for making a threat, a very unoriginal threat, but still, it was a threat. This was all on my first day at this branch office. On the second day, I authorized a 45-minute meeting with the rest of the
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    staff to properly introduce myself and find out what the H I was going on with their former manager and that lazy employee. First, the lazy employee was having an affair with the HR rep I replaced. Then, the lazy employee cheated on the HR rep with the branch manager. The HR rep quit because he couldn't report them without exposing his previous affair. The lazy
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    employee assumed she was untouchable because she threatened to tell the branch manager's wife they were having an affair unless she kept her job. I fired the lazy employee and the branch manager assumed his wife was going to find out about his affair, which is why he got in my face.
    via u/WatchingInSilence
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    I ended the meeting by asking the staff to end any illicit affairs I did not yet know about.
    via u/WatchingInSilence
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    withoutlebels120 It was me. Hired as an Operations Manager to fix a company's day-to day ops and implement a new system. Worked tirelessly for 2 years rebuilding the culture of the staff and bridging departments cause the owners were sh. I hired 2 exceptionally intelligent people who helped me build a database that tracked data that could be used for
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    procurement/forecasting and also sales trends. This database was crucial to the implementation of the new ERP system. During implementation, the ERP consultants said that the database probably put us a few years ahead since the ERP system had all this advanced, clean data. Just before implementation was completed they hired a new GM. I knew this was the end
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    for me but I kept plugging away hoping for the best. Not a week after the system went live, they fired me. I was close to the HR Director and she called me a week later and told me that the entire supply chain team (warehouse, purchasing and production) walked off in
    via u/withoutlebels120
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    protest. A few days later, 10 people quit and 2 of them were the once responsible for the database and setup. The ERP system crashed a few weeks later and both owner begged me to come back.
    via u/withoutlebels120
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    [deleted] Health and Safety officers fired for upsetting the top- earning biology professor, despite you know, doing their jobs.
    via u/[deleted]
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    bo... We had a student who got caught using a fake parking pass. Her car got booted, she got a $300 fine, and she got kicked out of the program.
    via u/bottle-of-smoke
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    GotWheaten One job I had about 20 years ago. I was working as a visual basic developer at a small company. Every morning I would come in start up my IDE and check the necessary files out of source control app to start working. I booted up my pc and started my IDE fine but could not access Visual Sourcesafe. Asked the guy
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    next to me if he was having a similar issue. He said he was not. I next checked my email to send a note to IT about the issue and noticed I was not connecting to email. Then found I could not access any drives on the network, only those on my pc. Went to talk
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    to my boss, who was also the head of IT. He looked at me and said "yeah, I need to talk to you about something. Today is your last day." I asked what was going on and just looked at his wristwatch and said I should start packing my stuff. I grabbed my sh and left.
    via u/GotWheaten
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    kikibunnie my sister's fiancé, who was her girlfriend at the time, was fired after two days because the job realized they actually had to accommodate their disabilities.
    via u/kikibunnie
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    OldAppleGuardian My coworker got fired for sitting around talking on his cell phone for hours at a time while billing himself on projects for that time. It's a tiny 3 person company and the owner who hired us showed on the first day that she had a pet camera in the office that monitored it (this was due to a defense attorney downstairs
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    consistently having his clients of questionable character accidentally show up to her door). Turns out he also would turn around and look in the mirror to check out his own bt from time to time....
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    People started noticing that she was taking a lot of weekend vacations to Vegas with her friend, had a brand new car, and was flaunting some pretty nice jewelery. Turns out she was embezzling from business accounts that she noticed were not monitoring their account closely and/or had a lot of cash transactions.
    via u/OldAppleGuardian
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    To the tune of $1.2 million. Her colleague that helped her cooperated with the feds and got off pretty light. She pleaded not guilty and fought it... judge threw the book at her. Edit: Needless to say, she was fired.
    via u/OldAppleGuardian
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    help_me_do_stuff I had a job where every department had one meeting a week and one meeting a month for the entire company. My department had an unexpected meeting, but it was announced by management from elsewhere in the company. When we got to the meeting room, we noticed our manager wasn't there.
    via u/help_me_do_stuff
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    Turns out they snuck us all off to a meeting while they broke the news to our manager that he was being let go, they wanted him to clear his desk and leave before we got back, while they explained to us the big changes coming up for the company. He was a very good manager and the other managers did not understand our department. It was not a fun time.
    via u/help_me_do_stuff
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    They told me they would no longer have the mobile program anymore. I thought ok cool now I can go back in the shop. Nope they said they don't do lateral moves. I had more seniority than half the guys there. Oh well I'm in a much better place now and have the union to ensure no stupid sh like that happens again. It's the only job I've ever been let go from.
    via u/help_me_do_stuff
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    QuickWittedSlow... Got laid off from my last job on June 1st of this year, just a few weeks after my best performance review to date and being told I'd be getting a raise. That sudden turnaround took me by surprise for sure.
    via u/QuickWittedSlowpoke
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    Remz_Gaming Bank teller in my small home town at a small bank many years ago. I actually dated her daughter when I was in high school. She was generally well liked in the community. Everyone that used that bank knew her. She had been there for several years and was pleasant to deal with.
    via u/Remz_Gaming
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    [d... On a dare, a new employee got caught using the Executive Lavatory - a bathroom off-limits to regular employees. He knew it was risky, but did it anyway because he mistakenly believed the CEO was away. Instead, he got caught red-handed and was summarily fired.
    via u/[deleted]
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    I joined other regular employees in protesting his firing, stating that all lavatories should be available (unless they're inside an executive's private office). But we were simply told: "Rules are rules. Period."
    via u/[deleted]
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    MET90LX I was a mobile tech for Lexus. (Pretty much just programmed garage door openers and changed batteries) well one day after having a great day on the road service manager comes over and tells me we need to go upstairs. Well the only 2 things upstairs are HR and accounting... so I already knew it wasn't good.
    via u/MET90LX

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