'19-year-old forklift driver... didn't understand why he was fired': 20+ Employees who got quickly fired after making big mistakes while on the job

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 27, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Though some managers agonize over their decisions to fire certain employees, others decide to fire them on the spot. It all depends how bad of an employee they are: some people get away with doing the bare minimum for decades, and still manage to keep their jobs. Others do a perfectly fine job, but find themselves on the boss's bad side, or make a single giant mistake, and find themselves suddenly out of work. 

Sometimes workers just need to be fired because the mistakes they've made are so egregious that they just can't continue their employment. Some employees got caught snoozing on the job during important shift work, and there's no denying what a camera records you doing! Others clocked in, goofed around all day, then clocked out, leaving extra work piling up for their coworkers to handle. Check out a bunch of surprising tales below! 

After that, read about the cashier who confronted a hair salon customer who refused to tip on a $950 styling: "She told me I am not welcome back." 

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  • 01
    'She fired her mom over text'
    via Curated Lifestyle for Unsplash+

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

  • 02

    "What's the worst way someone you've seen get fired?"

    earic23 Guy was stealing peoples lunches. He denied it and denied it until finally they pulled up surveillance footage of him going nuts on someones lasagne then putting the last of it back. It was super awkward and weird.
    via u/earic23
  • 03
    zerbey We had a rash of thefts within the office, everyone kind of suspected it was one employee who was known to steal people's lunches but it had escalated to personal electronics going missing. One day, he's bragging about his brand new iPod and shows it to another coworker. Coworker flips it
    via u/zerbey
  • 04
    over, on the back it's engraved with the name of another coworker. He was gone by noon. Stealing from people you work with makes you the worst kind of scum.
    via u/zerbey
  • 05
    VirginiaGecko1911 I was a Finance Director at a car dealership, we had 3 new sales reps start that week. On Saturdays, we'd order lunch from a local restaurant and send one of the new staff to pick it up. The rep we sent gets a speeding ticket & reckless driving (20 mph over the limit), does a couple shots of tequila at the restaurant
    via u/VirginiaGecko1911
  • 06
    waiting on the food, then ordered Surf & turf (Filet Mignon & Lobster tail) for themselves when told it was to be a salad or sandwich menu item. The idiot put the tequila shots on the tab that was emailed to the dealership.
    via u/VirginiaGecko1911
  • 07
    40yearoldnoob I was working in IT for a company, and would receive termination lists from HR so that we could remove the employees from our systems. Went on vacation with my wife, came home, turned my blackberry back on and got a term list from HR with my name on it... A very moment..
    via u/40yearoldnoob
  • 08
    Zeebie_ I didn't see it, but somehow the 19 year old forklift driver who was in charge of the temp warehouse ran into centre support with such force it bent and totalled the forklift. He ran off without telling anyone. I had to call the boss and explain what had happened.
    via u/Zeebie_
  • 09
    he turned up the next day like nothing had happened and didn't understand why he was fired.
    via u/Zeebie_
  • 10
    CapitalM-E I had to let someone go once. For a lot of reasons, but tardiness was a big factor. Not a 5 minutes late guy, like 4 hours late and acted like nothing happened. The day of his firing came. He was late. The guy was late to being fired.
    via u/CapitalM-E
  • 11
    KristiCannonzWQR My first job ever was for Baskin Robbins when I was 15. I went in for my first day of training excited to finally be making pocket money! The owner made me try to memorize the ice cream flavours in the first 30 seconds of being there.
    via u/KristiCannonzWQR
  • 12
    When I was unable to recite them perfectly in their order he did this big hand motion and screamed "training over!" I laugh now but man that was crushing for a nervous teenager.
    via u/KristiCannonzWQR
  • 13
    realteamme I worked in an office that had different parts of the business spread out over a couple different floors. They announced layoffs on another floor and mentioned this guy I worked with in their announcement.
    via u/realteamme
  • 14
    People that were on that floor came down to console my co-worker about losing his job and were like "We're really sad to see you go!" and he had no idea what they were talking about. They'd announced it upstairs to the whole floor before even talking to him.
    via u/realteamme
  • 15
    SirDiesel1803 When i worked at a supermarket years ago a new guy started at 6 in the morning with me he looked really hungover. He was working with me and he kept disappearing for 20 mins every now and again. It was a big supermarket so i just figured he was getting his bearings.
    via u/SirDiesel1803
  • 16
    He took lunch at 11.30 came back at 2 p ed as a Started smashing up the freezer section and trying to fight every man he saw. Police were called. He was arrested. Never saw him again.
    via u/SirDiesel1803
  • 17
    Koc
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 18
    JTWDK Not really fired, but we had an intern show up 40 mins late on his first day, then the cops showed up 15 mins later saying they had been. chasing him for the past hour. He was taken away in cuffs. I work at a childcare institution with kids aged 1- 6.
    via u/JTWDK
  • 19
    [deleted] Not fired, but quit. And it wasn't the worst, it was just incredibly weird. Guy was...really, really strange. Anytime he was asked questions about how long it would take to complete something in meetings he would simply get up and walk out. He took ages for even the really simple stuff and he was, essentially, a short time away from being
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    put on a plan and booted. Thankfully he put in his notice, but it was the day of his leaving that was remarkably weird. My boss. went over to walk him out at lunch, collect his ID, etc, and the guy...runs away. He ducked down and hid in the middle of the cube maze. My boss walked around looking for him and was about to call security when the guy popped up from
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    around a corner and did the "tickle tickle tickle" thing on my boss's tummy, laughing. For everyone who saw it, no one knew what to do. It was surreal. He stood up, laughing, handed in his badge, and walked out. Three months later another employer called asking for a reference. We didn't give one.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    desireddiamond I had a coworker who got suddenly fired (we didn't know the reason) and days after, her furious parents went to the company building to complain to the management about the sudden termination of their daughter claiming that the termination is unjust, and that she is diligent and reports to work everyday like how a parent complains to
    via u/desireddiamond
  • 23
    the principal's office. Turns out, this coworker only come inside the office to clock in for work and go out again to be with the boys, smoking and whatever they were doing, coming inside the office again to clock out without doing any tasks.
    via u/desireddiamond
  • 24
    maddomesticscie... I don't know if it counts as fired per se but one of my drivers was flying to his home state and decided to punch a flight attendant in the face less than two weeks after 9/11. Never was seen or heard from again.
    via u/maddomesticscientist
  • 25
    nyli... At one of my previous jobs, my HR department had a fund, which was designed to assist employees if they faced hardship. One day, the director of HR went to make a deposit into the account, and discover over $40k missing. There was only one other person who had access to the account, which was another
    via u/nyliram87
  • 26
    HR manager who had a debit card to the account. That HR manager showed up to work the next morning, and was carted away in handcuffs, jailed on a $5k bond (I always found that a bit ironic)
    via u/nyliram87
  • 27
    gingerjuice My mom's best friend is 60. Let's call her Mary. She lost her job and her daughter has a cleaning business. They clean offices in the evenings. Daughter offered her a part time gig while she looked for something else.
    via u/gingerjuice
  • 28
    Mary did her best but apparently it wasn't good enough for daughter. She fired her mom over text. My mom was there and she cried. [?
    via u/gingerjuice
  • 29
    KnowledgeFeign Boss man always said if you fall off the roof your fired before you hit the ground.
    via u/KnowledgeFeign
  • 30
    WeasersMom14 Worked at a law firm - they hired a new secretary. She was very nice and seemed professional. The attorney who hired her is an a, he fired her at the end of the day because she "didn't work out." ONE day. Didn't even give her a chance and that woman did nothing wrong. We were all shaking our heads at him.
    via u/WeasersMom14
  • 31
    h_T... I work in IT, specifically cybersecurity. We had a woman working for us who was doing accounts payble, ordering, and stuff like that. I was coming into work one morning, and I see her office has that yellow warning tape all over the door, and the door is closed and locked. My I hadn't even made it to my desk yet, and my manager pulls me in and
    via u/h***s_cowbells
  • 32
    shows me a laptop and tells me I need to clone the hard drive and open an investigation. I ask what happened, and he pulls up a local news website. There was a story on there about a woman getting arrested for embezzling from a Girl Scout troop, a youth soccer group, and some church group. It was our employee.
    via u/h***s_cowbells
  • 33
    Bawkalor On a Friday a co-worker was recognized for 30 years of service without a single tardy or missed day. They gave him a watch.
    via u/Bawkalor
  • 34
    On the following Monday, he walks in and the boss hands him a box with his stuff from his office and says, "Congratulations! You're retired!". The boss was wearing the watch.
    via u/Bawkalor
  • 35
    UncleGrako I worked in a factory, and there was this REALLY strict policy about not being on the factory floor without full PPE on. This guy rode his bicycle to work, and he went into the bathroom, and changed into shorts and walked about 30 feet to the break room and got fired.
    via u/UncleGrako
  • 36
    Granted there was another bathroom farther away that you could have changed in and stayed in a blue-zone (safe area where PPE isn't required) all the way to the break room... but I guess he didn't want to walk an extra couple hundred feet.
    via u/UncleGrako
  • 37

    Very uncool reason to fire an employee

    wetlettuce42 Somebody got fired for wearing a christmas jumper for a non event
    via u/wetlettuce42
  • 38
    RipAgile1088 Probably not what you're looking for but it's still a f ed up situation. Basically this place I used to work at. Great pay, great benefits, and great retirement. The thing was though the nepotism was horrible there. Used to be you needed to "know somebody" to even get hired. Also it was full of
    via u/RipAgile1088
  • 39
    stereotypical "type A". personalities. Well there was this one guy that was hired. He was a great worker but didn't really "fit in" to put it short. He was pretty much laid back did his job but didn't get involved with office politics. People started to shun him and basically bu y him. Well they ended up terminating him for not being a good fit or some other BS.
    via u/RipAgile1088
  • 40
    Well "weird coincidence" the person that took his position was the nephew of a city official.
    via u/RipAgile1088
  • 41
    HydroGate They just printed out a picture of him loading boxes of stolen frozen chicken into his car and taped it to the shift sheet.
    via u/HydroGate
  • 42
    fermat9990 My supervisor gave a wonderful speech at our GED graduation ceremony and an hour or so later her severance was coldly announced on the company (non-profit) email. Vicious!
    via u/fermat9990
  • 43
    clocks212 Young employee in our department started yelling at one of the nicest, smartest, kindest employees in our department over some data for a project, right in the middle of the cubicle farm. He was pulled aside and walked out. He didn't report to me but he was likely making $80-90k right out of college given his title. Bridges burned.
    via u/clocks212
  • 44
    biscuitdoughhand... I was working at a Walmart and there was an overnight janitor who came in one night as I was leaving and he was obviously on some stuff. After the store closed he sat down in the chair by the application machine and slept his entire shift. Said chair was literally right in front of an obvious camera.
    via u/biscuitdoughhandsman
  • 45
    During a meeting with the manager he denied sleeping until they started the footage, when he immediately walked out
    via u/biscuitdoughhandsman
  • 46
    BABYCNQ 渝中环 渝北区
    via Erin With on Unsplash+

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

  • 47
    [deleted] Quite recently, a co worker got fired purely by association. The manager of his department was fired for many actual reasons and the GM fired him too (0 hour contract so legal). None of us were happy with this, I knew somewhere close by looking for staff and got him an interview which he went to and was offered the job.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 48
    He was unemployed for less. than 24 hours. My GM about a week later realised he shouldn't have fired him, offered him his job back but obviously the guy told the GM to fk off. GM still doesn't know it was me that got him the other job.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 49
    JASPER933 Security walking the affected person down the hall past the cubes. Not a good site. Only would give them 2 min to gather up their belongings.
    via u/JASPER933
  • 50
    AJ... I had a coworker that got fired from 2 dealerships. We worked at the autoparts store down the street, so I met both of his old managers and asked why he got fired (he was a massive dumba so I knew it would be funny, but I was not expecting either of these) First one, he got fired after he tried to be a mechanic
    via u/AJMaskorin
  • 51
    and work on something he wasn't supposed to (he was a tire tech). He got into an argument with his manager, and after he finished with the car he was supposed to work on, he took it down off the rack and started doing donuts in the parking lot. Well, the owner of the car showed up when this was happening and tried to get him to stop. He almost hit the guy with his own car.
    via u/AJMaskorin
  • 52
    The next one (still a tire tech), he didn't tighten the lug nuts one the owners grandson's Ram 2500, and the wheel came off on the highway. The manager said he wasn't at the dealership when this happened, but called them and said "If he's still there when I get back I'm going to kill him"
    via u/AJMaskorin
  • 53
    zwickertron I was working at a lumber yard and one of the guys. that got hired same time as I did would just sit out in the open on his phone ignoring customers. The owner pulled in while he was doing that and here is their conversation. Owner: "Do you work for me?" Phone Zombie: "yeah" Owner: "What's your name?" Phone: Zombie "I don't know"
    via u/zwickertron
  • 54
    Owner: "What? Your fired. Get off of my property" I was about 20 ft away helping a customer trying not to di from laughter. That story was told pretty much weekly for the 3 years I worked there lol.
    via u/zwickertron
  • 55
    Adept_Grapefruit... The boss had a zoom call and said he was letting everyone go
    via u/Adept_Grapefruit703
  • 56
    xSlippyFistx I watched someone get walked out in handcuffs. Basically the company was running a promo where you get a $100 gift card for a certain mobile phone transaction. The employee just wasn't telling people who didn't know about the promo and was pocketing the gift cards. So it got flagged when he was using his rewards membership and
    via u/xSlippyFistx
  • 57
    using gift cards that he had activated himself. He was an idiot, one of our managers was so giddy when the cops came in and arrested him. He was recording the entire walk of shame with his phone just giggling the whole time.
    via u/xSlippyFistx

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