'I fired 3 new hires on the first day': 20+ Employees who got hired and fired at lightning speed

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 19, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

No matter how badly you perform at your job today, take comfort in the fact that you aren't a newly-hired chef who doesn't know how to make even the simplest quesadilla. Hired on as an executive chef, the bosses soon realized that the guy couldn't even put cheese between two tortillas without a struggle. I can't imagine what this wannabe chef was thinking… there's lying on your resume, and then there's just throwing caution to the wind and hoping you can learn everything on the fly. Of course, most business professionals will see right through this kind of ruse. It's amazing some of these people even got through their interview stages before getting shown the door. 

Some people are just smooth talkers. They chat up the HR person, or perhaps they're a nepo-hire, and they land a job that they have no business being in. Some people realized this within an hour or so, while others lasted a few weeks or months. Sometimes you have a job so briefly that it doesn't even make an appearance on your resume. 

So truly, take heart in your own workplace abilities today: scroll down and check out all of the hilarious and surprising stories of these hired-then-fired workers. Then, read about one new hire whose bold tactics cost him his job immediately: "By 3 PM his keycard didn't work anymore."

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    Cheezburger Image 10518396416
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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

    123abdce During their onboarding training, they stole my bosses wallet on camera.... 1 hour in..
    via u/123abdce
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    jbiggs107 5 days. My boss hired an "Executive Chef".. dude didn't even know how to make a quesadilla...
    via u/jbiggs107
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    [de... Heard this from a manager I worked with when I worked in fast food. There was this one kid who didn't show up for work. He ditched work often, so the manager called around, couldn't get anyone to fill in his shift, so she had to fill it for him.
    via u/[deleted]
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    A few hours into his shift, the dude ditching SHOWS UP, with his friends, and orders food from that manager. She fired him on the spot.
    via u/[deleted]
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    Ninth Reever First day of work, he walks in, says "what the f is up dumba "to the guy that parked next to (didn't touch) his new Camaro he bought since he got hired.
    via u/Ninth Reever
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    The guy was the CEO of the company I used to work for, on visit to our branch. Literally ten minutes into his shift he was signing release papers.
    via u/Ninth Reever
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    CB... We had a recent college grad that would use his corporate card for personal purchases. He figured that the company would just keep deducting from his payroll until it was paid off.
    via u/CBus-Eagle
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    He was fired after three months of constant reminders to stop doing it. I don't think it qualifies as the fastest, because he lasted three months, but it was so idiotic.
    via u/CBus-Eagle
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    [deleted] I work construction. We had 2 new hires that were friends starting the same day. Boss told one take a coffee order and come back. Took everyone's money and said he needed his friend to go with him cause it was a big order. They never came back.
    via u/[deleted]
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    Insectshelf3 guy got hired, while going through orientation realized that his ex gf worked there too, turned around and walked right out the front door.
    via u/Insectshelf3
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    Slim_Thicc_Jesus This was a while ago at my old job. New guy gets hired as a bus boy. He was super annoying and tried to insert himself into everyone's conversation whether they wanted him there or not. It only took a couple of hours for the whole restaurant to hate him. I was working the bar and he kept eating the bar fruit. I personally didn't care but the manager did.
    via u/Slim_Thicc_Jesus
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    Manager comes over and tells him to stop eating the fruit. He looks the manager in the eye and eats another piece of fruit. Manager says "Really?" followed by "Come with me to the office". New guy promptly replies with "Alright man, calm down. I can tell you got that big energy for a good reason" followed with cliche wink and nudge from his elbow. In front of me and like 4 other employees. I wanted to slam
    via u/Slim_Thicc_Jesus
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    my face into the ice bin, it was so cringey to witness. He promptly walked out the front door 10 minutes later without his uniform on anymore. The worst thing about it was the manager was an insanely laid back guy. H I, the whole restaurant was insanely laid back. You really had to try hard to get fired from this place. Had he not thrown in
    via u/Slim_Thicc_Jesus
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    that big line, I'm almost positive he would have just gotten a slap on the wrist and kept the job.
    via u/Slim_Thicc_Jesus
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    Pun... I got hired as a long-term temp with one other person to do some basic data entry work at a major brand pretty much everyone has heard of. And it was at their corporate headquarters so pretty prestigious. Anyway, we went through all of this onboarding stuff in the morning that required us to get photo IDs and figure out parking and all that stuff.
    via u/PunchBeard
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    Then after 2 or 3 hours we were introduced to one of the employees in our new department who began going over what we were going to be doing. None of it seemed overly difficult and I figured that while it was new system I had never used before I'd be able to work it out in a few days as long as I asked questions and took notes. And that was the thing that made me realize
    via u/PunchBeard
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    that the other person who got hired with me probably lied on her resume and was completely out of her depth. She didn't take any notes and didn't ask any questions. And whenever I glanced at her I could see flashes of panic on her face. Well, lunchtime came and when we came back she said that another company had called her and offered her a permanent position.
    via u/PunchBeard
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    and she couldn't work with us ay longer. Both me and the person training us knew what was going on but I'll give the other lady credit for finding a way out without losing face too badly. The takeaway here is: Yes, "Fake it Until You Make it" can and does work. But you gotta' be able to fake it. You can't fake faking it.
    via u/PunchBeard
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    KnightofShaftsbury New guy started on Monday and was gone by Friday. The guy hit some racking in the warehouse with the forklift, boss saw him do it, and the guy decided to lie about it when asked if he knew what happened.
    via u/KnightofShaftsbury
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    wa... A 19 year old kid got hired to work the seafood counter. See him twice and then never again. Asked a coworker what happened. He had closed seafood one night and was walking out of the store and the 5 pounds of crab legs he'd stuffed down the back of his pants fell out in front of the closing manager.
    via u/wanderin_fool
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    [deleted] This was a pizza place I worked at in college. New guy was started on Thursday. Fine worker we showed him the ropes. He was on subs which is the easiest job. The instructions are right in front of your face. Friday he no call no shows (it's Friday. The busiest night of the week.
    via u/[deleted]
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    And he and I were the only kitchen workers that weren't also drivers). Monday a police officer shows up at the restaurant looking for him. No idea what happened as he wasn't there. Tuesday the owner informed me he was let go.
    via u/[deleted]
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    pdxchris Couldn't pass the simple tests given at the end of new hire orientation. Yelled at test facilitator when she wouldn't just take the test for him.
    via u/pdxchris
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    UltimaCaitSith The IT crew at a large government office worked on a ticket system, meaning that the government workers submitted their problem online and one of the IT guys would pick it up on their end. The new guy just started his first day, logged into a computer at an empty office, and submitted
    via u/UltimaCaitSith
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    a "reinstall entire OS" request so he could spend all day there. The manager decided to check in on him before lunch to see how he was doing, and he was completely asleep. Fired before they even finished his hiring paperwork.
    via u/UltimaCaitSith
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    Davran Spent my summers in college working as a laborer for a construction company. Anyway, we were doing a bunch of renovation in an active hospital, so noise and dust were a huge concern. We were a small crew and just starting renovations on an area with a super tight schedule, so the company hired a subcontractor for some of the work.
    via u/Davran
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    Enter these two clowns who show up to do some demolition work. Foreman gives them the talk about how they may be used to doing things a certain way, but this is an active hospital so he'd rather the work take longer than for them to make a huge mess or a lot of noise. An hour later, we apparently got multiple complaints about the noise and the mess, so the foreman calls me up and
    via u/Davran
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    says to go over there and clean up NOW, and that he'd be by shortly to see what the h I was going on. These dudes had dust and broken wall everywhere. I could hear them half way down the hall, just smashing away without a care in the world. The foreman shows up and we walk into the room to witness this dude standing on a pile of rubble swinging a sledgehammer
    via u/Davran
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    over his head at a brick wall that he's removed the bottom from. Somehow the rest of this wall is still hanging from the ceiling, I have no idea how. Guy wasn't even wearing a hard hat, apparently oblivious. that at any moment that wall might give way and crush him.
    via u/Davran
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    The foreman lost his mind on these guys. Kicked them out immediately, and got on the phone with their company and told them he didn't want to see these guys on site again. Lots of choice four letter words were used, even threatened to fire the subcontractor entirely and get someone else to do the work.
    via u/Davran
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    PresidentStone Coworker quit his job, great job, great pay, great benefits to work in a radio repair place. I mean, gotta do what you love and he was also a big radio enthusiast. Got fired the first day on the job for stealing parts for his own radios at home. Took him
    via u/PresidentStone
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    over a year to get back with us. Surprised they rehired him. He then got fired for being a security risk about a year or so later.
    via u/PresidentStone
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    lost_access New director starts, at lunchtime goes to cafeteria, pays for the first salad plate (by weight), then goes back twice for refills without paying. Cafeteria has cameras, cafeteria manager talks to the Partner in charge. New Director fired before the end of day.
    via u/lost_access
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    jeff_the_nurse As a teenager, I worked at a bowling alley. Within an hour, a new girl was fired on the spot for dropping a ball on the foot of a complaining patron.
    via u/jeff_the_nurse
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    Obsolescencee A man was hired to do stock at a tea store that sold lots of delicate China. Manager walked into the back on his like third day and saw him just throwing boxes of tea cups and teapots. Instantly fired.
    via u/0bsolescencee
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    Broken_Castle I owned a construction business and we recently hired 3 new employees due to expansion. I didn't get to meet them yet as my business partner was the one who interviewed them and watched them get started on the first day and would check in on them most mornings. Along with the new hired, we promoted one of our best workers to
    via u/Broken_Castle
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    manager to oversee them. So after a few days days I noticed that we were behind schedule on the job, this wasn't all that surprising because we had the new hires but I decided its best to go in and check it out to make sure everything was going well. So I call up my manager and tell him to go to a different site (we did multiple sites each day) and
    via u/Broken_Castle
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    that I will take over at the place with the new guys. I arrive at the site half an hour late due to traffic and everyone is already hard at work, and in fact they are working efficiently and correctly on everything. I asked them a few questions about what they are doing and so on and get all the right answers. I figured the delay was just the first 2 days of learning and am very
    via u/Broken_Castle
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    pleased that everything was picked up and seemed to go well. Now it is important that at this point I didn't actually introduce myself and nobody asked who I was so it seems everyone just assumed that I was just another worker from the company they never met before.
    via u/Broken_Castle
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    So two hours before we are supposed to finish for the day, a guy comes over and says "Hey, just so you know, were all gonna head out now, but clock in that we worked the whole day. [manager] allows it, and the owners never notice." So that is the story of how I fired 3 new hires on the first day I met them... and also how I had to fire our best worker.
    via u/Broken_Castle

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