15+ Employees who made huge mistakes, but didn't get fired: 'He stole over $10,000... but was never fired'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 30, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

Some workers are content to clock in for the day with a zero percent chance of them doing their actual job. This used to happen to me constantly when I worked in food service, and I viewed this with a 50/50 mix of annoyance and admiration. When your coworker refuses to work, it makes things harder for everyone else. At the same time, clocking in while announcing out loud that you aren't doing any work today is very punk rock. So… it's a draw. 

I always admired my coworkers who would clock in and immediately start arguing with the managers. They'd announce that they would not be doing anything: not working with customers, not sweeping or dropping French fries. Instead, they'd hang out in the back office with the managers, soda in hand, eating food they didn't pay for. It's iconic! It's annoying! And believe it or not, people in all types of jobs slack off, make mistakes, or refuse to work, and they won't even get fired for it! Some workers just stay in their jobs on and on, defying all logic. 

Next, read about some marriages that ended super quickly, like one wedding where "The bride threw the ring at the groom." 

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  • 01
    kgaragetech My coworker saw a nail in a tire and didn't want to repair it so he took a sharpie and colored the nail black then sent the vehicle on its merry way
    via u/kgaragetech
  • 02
    margegunderson I used to work at a hockey rink where nobody gave a sh and it was basically impossible to get fired. One of the rink rats was particularly crotchety and one time I saw a twelve year old kid throw a piece of garbage at his feet and say, 'Pick it up, arena man.' So the rink rat choked him. Not fired.
    via u/margegunderson
  • 03
    redls1bird I used to work in a newly built Land Rover and Jaguar dealership in the southeast US. There were only 3 techs in the shop because it was quite slow when we first opened. This one guy (i'll call him Bob) used to do dumb sh daily. The worst I remember is when Bob brought his motorized gas scooter to work one day. He hadnt ridden it in a while
    via u/redls1bird
  • 04
    because there was a hairline crack in the gas tank that would cause it to leak. Bob decided "f and fired it up. It "filled it gas immediately started pouring gas onto the floor as he drove away, leaving a steady stream behind him. The shop was a one-way style with one door at each end. Bob goes out one door, all the way around the shop, then back in the other. He
    via u/redls1bird
  • 05
    stops right next to where he started, produces a zippo lighter from his pocket and lights his gas trail. He waits for it as it comes around then building then takes off LEAVING A TRAIL OF FIRE THROUGH THE BUILDING BEHIND HIM. The GM of the dealership saw the whole thing through some large glass windows that went along a wall in the shop. Not a single f was
    via u/redls1bird
  • 06
    given. After that I dubbed him "24 karat Bob" since he was golden and could not get fired. EDIT: grammatical errors
    via u/redls1bird
  • 07
    BlueLine_Haberd... Worked at a gas station for about 6 months. A guy I worked with got his hands on a large number of "close enough if you're not paying attention" counterfeit $5 bills and started swapping them out with real $5 bills with ballsy regularity. He bragged about it to his non manager co-workers (myself included), saying he kept getting away with it by
    via u/BlueLine_Haberdasher
  • 08
    passing the fake bills onto customers as change so he rarely had to leave any in the register after his shift. This went on for about at least a month.
    via u/BlueLine_Haberdasher
  • 09
    Shockingly, he got turned in. District Manager came into the store one day when I was working the shift before. this guy. They called in somebody to cover his shift and had a "meeting" with him in the office. I left figuring he was done. Worked with him 2 days later.
    via u/BlueLine_Haberdasher
  • 10
    [deleted] Where do I start, this was all at the same ill-managed company: . Employee steals a brand new computer that had arrived that day. All of it is caught on camera, not fired.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    • The dude who handled our chargebacks found out that our accountants were so backed up trying to not pay our vendors that they didn't do the due diligence on the charge* backs. Apparently he worked it out so that he was charging back things to his credit card every day in small amounts.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    Apparently he stole over $10,000 in money from the company, but was never fired. He quit voluntarily. • There was a group of 5 guys who would play Starcraft on our network all day.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    CafeSilver It's pretty hard to get fired here. The last person to get the boot actually had to accidentally transfer $80k to the wrong bank account that ended up not being recoverable to get shitcanned. That was not a good day for anyone.
    via u/CafeSilver
  • 14
    Bob06 A few years ago a former employee, who didnt get fired at the time but later quit, pumped over 100 gallons of AVGAS into a Conquest. The Conquest takes JetA. The aircraft had to be pumped dry of the AVGAS and then have its internal engine parts
    via u/Bob06
  • 15
    cleaned. Not only did we have to pay for it but we also lost about 500 dollars in fuel. Luckily we still have that customer.
    via u/Bob06
  • 16
    glassjailer While working in an industrial kitchen joint bakery, the assistant FS manager was in a mood as usual, and in a terrible hurry, and managed to push me into an oven just as I was pulling a full, blistering hot rack out of it. I fell into the hot rack and burned the h I out of my forearm. She barely even stopped when I screamed.
    via u/glassjailer
  • 17
    Just paused, glared, and kept walking. I was so very upset. A coworker saw the whole thing, and agreed to back me up. When I reported her, the management looked into it, but due to her 2 year contract, she wasn't fired even for gross incompetence. Turns out she actually had cancer, and was stressing out
    via u/glassjailer
  • 18
    about that, but I don't think that is an appropriate excuse.
    via u/glassjailer
  • 19
    lookylieu I had a coworker who got written up 17 times because she was over a half hour late to her shift. Never even got yelled at by the boss. I got fired for discounting someone 10 cents.
    via u/ookylieu
  • 20
    WuTangClam Worked at a movie theatre. Coworker accidentally gave one customer too much change. She had already been written up for being severely off on her till before, and didn't want to get fired so she purposefully shortchanged a kid (maybe 10 years old) in order to make her cash balance at the end of the day.
    via u/WuTangClam
  • 21
    13718
    via A F For Unsplash+

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

  • 22
    qmriis The #2 manager of my department (55, married) getting it on with the 16 or 17 year old #3 manager. Sometimes on the clock, at work. It was sort of an open secret. I actually saw them. making out once in the off season.
    via u/qmriis
  • 23
    He was eventually fired years later for unrelated reasons. Ran into the girl years later and she was married to the guy.
    via u/qmriis
  • 24
    Nick17692 I work for Australia post and we use motorbikes to deliver mail (honda ct110). Its our job to maintain fuel and oil levels. One of the people at work who has the nickname Horsey. I don't know 100% for sure but i think he has brain damage from alcoholism, he is really slow and does some of the weirdest sh. One day i heard from one of my
    via u/Nick17692
  • 25
    colleagues that Horsey went to fill up his bike with petrol and instead of putting fuel in the obvious place he unscrewed the oil filler and filled the entire bike with petrol until it came gushing out. He destroyed a $10,000 bike and he didn't get fired or nothing he just got a new one the next day.
    via u/Nick17692
  • 26
    imagirlmessageme This may not supposed to go here, but my dad used to be a janitor at TWA. Back then there were no security machines and almost anything went down. He told me that there was a man there, black, big, about 6'3. He was an office manager. My dad, a little short 5'2 Italian man, didn't like him. The man teased him for being short. My dad knew
    via u/imagirlmessageme
  • 27
    everyday at the same time he would sleep in the supply closet. When he was sleeping one day, he opened the door, threw fire crackers in it, and shut the door. Furious, the man came out ready to beat him, and my dad threw a cup of coffee in his face and yelled "You may be tall, but I'ma crazy!" And he still worked there until TWA went out of business.
    via u/imagirlmessageme
  • 28
    Nobody_Nailed_It I used to work with a super neurotic girl who was always butting heads with the management, the director of operations in particular. I was fortunate enough to sit in a cube right outside of the DOO's office. One day this crazy girl came storming down the hall and as she walked in the office the director said "first of all.."
    via u/Nobody_Nailed_It
  • 29
    Which was immediately cut off by this girl yelling at the top of her lunge cutting the director off with "FIRST OF ALL, YOU CAN F YOURSELF!" The door slammed and I couldn't hear much of the rest but she was still there for another 3 or 4 months, which she eventually got fired.
    via u/Nobody_Nailed_It
  • 30
    DropxBox Well, my co worker was aiming to get fired right. He wanted to off his boss as much as possible without quitting because he didn't want the job and HATED his boss. I remember him parking in his bosses reserved spot, disassembling a cubicle, throwing gutted fish away along with paperwork, stealing a printer, and
    via u/DropxBox
  • 31
    installing a computer virus that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars. This eventually lead to the building burning down but he was never fired and was actually promoted before the building burnt.
    via u/DropxBox
  • 32
    A... Call a manager a serve ' obviously raw food, blatantly argue with a customer, flat out exclaim that they were not going to do their job and proceed to actually not do it, purposefully make a mess because another employee was working the following day, threaten another persons job. The list goes on and on.
    via u/Aggort

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