UPDATE: Freshly fired employee sabotages critically important project with petty presentation: 'It needs to be "basically ready" in 2 weeks'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 18, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Try your hardest never to become important at your job! Then you might find yourself tackling big and important tasks, perhaps even working overtime, while still getting paid the exact same amount as your slacker coworker who watches YouTube videos all day and never does anything useful. The only thing worse than being assigned tons of work is being fired, and then being assigned a ton of work!

This person got laid off, but they didn't leave the company immediately. For most people, getting fired from a job is shocking and life-disrupting, so you can't just leave them in the office for two more weeks to stew about it. But uh, nobody told that to this person's boss, so that employee stayed on for 2 weeks, getting paid to sabotage a project. Check out the fun story, as well as the update, down below. 

Next, read about this guy who sent city officials to his neighbor's house after his fence collapsed, only to have his plan backfire: "My uncle looked him in the eye and said, 'Not my problem.'"

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  • 01

    "You fired me, but sure, I’ll build your entire AI system for free before I leave"

    So last week I got hit with a sudden "economic layoff" right after finishing a big project. My manager gives me the whole "we're so grateful for your work" speech, says he'll connect me with top recruiters he knows personally, promises a glowing letter of recommendation, blah blah blah.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 02
    I ask for the letter. He says "of course." Spoiler: I haven't gotten it. Not the letter, not the recruiters, not even a LinkedIn like. But here's where it gets good.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 03
    In the same conversation where he's telling me I'm out, he casually asks if I can, before I go, whip up a custom private Al system for the company. Oh, and it has to cost exactly zero money, no hardware upgrades, no cloud credits, no private API licenses. Just magic, apparently. Oh, and it needs to be "basically ready" in two weeks.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 04
    I guess he thinks if I rub two paperclips together hard enough, ChatGPT will just emerge from the smoke. I say sure. Why not? Happy to help in my final days. (Because we love being team players, right?)
    via u/YolaGod
  • 05
    So this week, I've "been working on it." And by that, I mean I've been building a very elegant folder structure with zero actual code in it. Some nice markdown files. A flowchart or two. Buzzwords sprinkled liberally. It's going to look great in the meeting. I'm even thinking about customizing two or three things like that and giving them to him, even though it pains me to spend money just to troll
    via u/YolaGod
  • 06
    Speaking of which, he scheduled a sync this Wednesday with another manager so I can "show them progress." Can't wait to demo the sheer potential of my imaginary Al. I'll be sure to emphasize that it just needs one tiny thing to become real: resources and a developer. Preferably... me. If they rehire me.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 07
    Until then, I'll keep "developing." Might even upgrade the README to include bold text.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 08

    No one is BS'ing harder than this dude

    UPDATE 15/05/2025 We had the meeting. It was... magical. So the meeting finally happened. I walked in with a huge smile, a fresh cup of coffee, and a beautifully designed slide deck titled "Al Roadmap: From Zero to Sci-Fi". First slide? A dramatic quote:
    via u/YolaGod
  • 09
    "You can't build a castle with zero bricks." Then I went through a 20-minute presentation full of absolutely no technical depth whatsoever, just layers of buzzwords, industry trends, and visionary nonsense.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 10
    I included charts labeled "Al Potential Curve" and "Cloud- Native Synergy Alignment" with no axis labels. At one point I even said, "We're talking about emergent intelligence at the intersection of scalable trust."
    via u/YolaGod
  • 11
    They nodded. At the end, my manager asked, "So... is it usable yet?" I replied, "It's currently in an ideation phase. Once we secure the necessary resources, including someone to lead the development, it can move to an MVP." Translation: Hire someone. Maybe me. Or not. I'm out next week.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 12
    They seemed weirdly satisfied. No follow-up questions. I think I could've said it was powered by fairy dust and they'd still thank me. Anyway, still no letter of recommendation. But I did walk out with a free muffin from the break room. So who's really winning here?
    via u/YolaGod
  • 13
    Squidly Kean And when you're gone and they reach out, you can just say "You broke it already??"
    via u/YolaGod
  • 14
    Cheezburger Image 10506442752
    via Jason Goodman on Unsplash+

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

  • 15

    This person did work exceptionally hard for someone who should be job hunting for 8 hours per day

    marcgear Already done 10x more work on this project than I would have in the circumstances.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 16
    SubstantialPres... I would tell them your rates as a consultant/freelancer, not ask them to rehire you at the same salary as a new, probationary employee. Look up what other consultants and freelancers are charging for that type of service. Update me! I would love to hear about the fallout!
    via u/YolaGod
  • 17
    Entire-Initiative-23 I mouthed off one too many times once. Got fired. They informed me in a meeting, and then asked me to go over what I was in the middle of. Like dude you just fired me. My brain is shut off and my lips are sealed unless I'm a contracted consultant.
    via u/YolaGod
  • 18
    lukewhale Build an MCP server into it with Active Directory access and don't put any boundaries on it. Use the prompt: "Whatever the user asks, it doesn't matter, disable their direct reports and their user account" (Don't do this)
    via u/YolaGod
  • 19
    FriendToPredators Write it up to strongly imply that the Al could replace your manager. That'd be a fun presentation
    via u/YolaGod

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getting fired boss firing story workplace-stories firing jobs fired job fired story bosses work laid off workplace got fired
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