15+ Fired employees who were excited to leave their jobs: 'She quit that day [and] joined the competitor'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 9, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

If you're already interviewing at other jobs and giving 50% of your effort each day, getting fired might just be a blessing in disguise. 

Even though getting fired unexpectedly can put a damper on your month, it's not permanent. You'll find something new, and probably something much better. At some jobs, people manage to quit just at the right time — like they had a hunch that management wanted them gone. 

Some bosses will make up crazy rumors or falsehoods in order to drive the employee out of the role. For example, one person got sick, and was then swiftly fired. Why? The boss claimed they had "abandoned the job." Uh… that seems like an awfully convenient excuse! 

Another person shared that the reason they were fired from their mall just was just as ridiculous: they closed a store 2 minutes before actual closing time. Even if a customer had walked in at 2 minutes til close, there's no way they would have bought anything… but those 120 seconds still cost that person their job. Oh well, onto greener pastures! 

Next up, read about this pregnant woman who is being driven up the wall by her inconsiderate neighbor who keeps leaf-blowing his yard for between 3 to 6 hours every day: "I don't think I should have to wear headphones in my own home." 

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    Cheezburger Image 10562332928
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    This is the ultimate flex

    femsci-nerd I took a job at KMart for the summer. I was told after 3 months I wasn't KMart material...so I went back to college and became a biochemist.
    via u/femsci-nerd
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    Not Sure _Cam... I contracted Co id, was out sick for a week, emailed my manager that I had Co id and checked in daily. Manager claimed that I abandoned the job.
    via u/Not_Sure__Camacho
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    Shrikeangel So this is kinda a fun one. How about the first time I have been fired. It's been well over a decade. I had barely started working at this business that now would be defined as kind of a fast casual. Due to having classes several nights a week I had made it very clear that I had schedule limitations. Which was fine
    via u/Shrikeangel
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    with the manager that hired me, but the night shift manager took an immediate disliking to me. This manager started by complaining about the quality of my work, and got fairly ped when I asked. why only the male employees were required to clean the restrooms. It's not like it was tied to seniority.
    via u/Shrikeangel
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    But about a month in the manager I worked well with left due to a promotion. The night it was official that he was gone I was fired - all three write ups came from after I had left work that night. Apparently I left early, which wasn't possible - it was a night I had a hard cut off. The lobby wasn't clean enough, the lobby had been
    via u/Shrikeangel
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    Cheezburger Image 10562332416
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    closed that day. And I hadn't gotten management approval to clock out - which had never been a thing before. In the end this horrible manger also claimed the holiday of another country for why she couldn't be bothered to get me my final pay check on time.
    via u/Shrikeangel
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    Frankly she did me a favor by cutting my loose immediately. Looking back I can see that staying would have been so much worse.
    via u/Shrikeangel
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    Chicken_wingspan I got hired as a manager at a boutique hotel, didn't take a day off in six months and tried my best to improve everything from staff moral to quality of the food being served. Hired a lot of nice and good looking people and gave them some leeway so they're happy (nothing much just let them sometimes eat mango and blueberries from the
    via u/Chicken_wingspan
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    breakfast buffet). After a year the director (aka top dog) brought in a "consultant" that started to basically f everyone's mood and bu ying half of the staff. I started buying him back like the petty little sh that I am and I got a 5 month severance pay. Went there after some time and I am glad I left.
    via u/Chicken_wingspan
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    Big_Orchid3924 I closed the store 2 minutes before closing time. The mall was de d, and I wanted to go home. Little did I know, the manager was keeping tabs on me from other stores to get this info.
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    how to do my job and i was lying about my position, and within a month i had gone from shift lead, about to take the assistant manager exam working 45hr/wk. to cashier at the concession stand working 13hr/wk my pay was also reduced from $12.50 to $6.25 because i lost my shift lead and my assistant manager in training bonuses. I tried to just deal with it, at the time i was
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    thinking maybe they thought i was to young for that level of work, so i was hoping if i took the assistant manager exam it would prove i knew what i was doing. I talked to HR put in my request for time off because the test was at the corporate office in another state and it would take me a few days to get there, to take the test, and then get back. all in all i took 1 week off of "unpaid personal leave"
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    I went, took my test, passed it with flying colors, drove home and waited, and waited, 3 weeks passed 3 new schedule and i wasn't on them, at week 3 i wasn't even on the list of employees anymore, then on week 3 day 4 i got a call from one of the shift leaders that they needed someone to come in and since i hadn't worked in a month at this point i needed the money. I
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    work a 12 hour day followed by a good 45 minutes of being screamed at by the manager because i wasn't on the clock or authorized to come in to cover a shift. I wasn't on the schedule for week 4, when i went to get my paycheck for the day i worked i noticed my time punch was missing and finally at aout week 7 i received a letter in the mail informing me that I was no longer employed due to
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    going on leave and never returning, that this wasn't being fired so i would qualify for unemployment. and yes, i did talk to an employment lawyer, who did inform me that i very likely had a case... that would cost about $20,000 in 1990's money to fight, would probably result in me winning less than $10,000 in lost wages and i would then
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    be on the corporate sh list for the company so not only would i probably be under a magnifying glass until they found a reason fire me, it could result in me not being able to go to and use the companies services anymore. I did also start looking for a new job when my time card went missing, took me a few weeks but i got one that paid well enough and actually
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    accepted my assistant manager exam certificate as qualification to start as an assistant manager instead of an assistant manager in training.
    via u/Big_Orchid3924
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    trxvvrci When I was 18 I was constantly late to a barista job I had. They told me I had the option to quit or they'd fire me. I quit. That's the closest I've ever been to being fired and it made me get my act together.
    via u/trxvvrci
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    JustSomeGuy_56 I refused to look the other way while my client systematically defrauded their customers. I had another client who ordered me to do something that was unethical and possibly a violation of SEC regs. I refused.
    via u/JustSomeGuy_56
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    Jncocontrol Walmart did workplace buying. Best mistake of my life not working there
    via u/Jncocontrol
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    Inevitable_Quail... I was terminated from a large home improvement store for failing to lock 3 exit doors during a closing shift. They claimed the alarms were triggered 45 minutes after I left the building. They also stated the local police were dispatched to the building when the salary manager arrived. No video footage was ever shown to
    via u/Inevitable_Quail_835
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    me of the incident. I spoke to another police officer who was on duty at the time of the incident. He told me the manager was in and out of the building within 4 minutes. The doors that the company claimed I did not lock or power down were on the opposite side of the entrance the manager went through. That's a very fast
    via u/Inevitable_Quail_835
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    walk to lock three doors and reset the alarm in a big box home improvement store.
    via u/Inevitable_Quail_835
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    Lemonbear63 I got fired for playing a game on a personal laptop on my break in my office with the door closed.
    via u/Lemonbear63
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    Digging UpTheCo... Our division reported an issue with the financial system and accounts in place. We got rewarded by getting mass layoffs. I got threatened with jail time, citing "misappropriation of public funds" and all sorts of other jazz.
    via u/DiggingUpTheCorpses
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    Thankfully I kept physical and digital backups of every penny I was authorized. Dropped an audit on my account of nearly 2 years credit history with memos and signatures from higher- ups to authorize transactions. They didn't like it but eventually the charges were dropped.
    via u/DiggingUpTheCorpses
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    where I'm at now. Glad she did me the favor of firing me.
    via u/DiggingUpTheCorpses
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    Mega_Moose_ No real idea. Constant praise. The whole "can't run this business without you" bs. I think it's because I tried to explain tariffs. Quite literally said "you're my favorite person here" right before he fired me.
    via u/Mega_Moose_
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    Former boss has now sued me twice. 2nd is still pending, so we'll see if he goes for number 3 when I get this one dismissed too.
    via u/Mega_Moose_
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    kablamo I was a "packer" and always assigned to that position. One day I got pulled to do some random job that I had no idea what I was doing in a different department. I got notified the packers got let go early so I clocked out
    via u/kablam0
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    with them. The next day my boss waited for me at the punch clock to tell me I clocked out early and it was a volunteer quitting. It was my first job and I was extremely confused
    via u/kablam0
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    barrydingle420 I got 13 messages from my boss that I didn't get in the cooler after close. It was so busy it was already a half hour past shifts end when I walked out of there that night. Mind you I had done the job for 2 and a half years with no problem but this new boss just really hated the fact I had a I used some four letter words in a text response to
    via u/barrydingle420
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    her because I thought 13 messages was a little overkill. Her 14th message was that I was fired. I enjoyed unemployment for 3 months on them while I attended to stuff in my personal life and then got a new job. She fired me but the rest of the store quit withing a few weeks after. Left her with one employee to run the store from 5am- 10pm. I'm much happier
    via u/barrydingle420
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    Delicious_Spot_... Boss found out that I was looking for another job and fired me instead. I got cobra for a few weeks. Kinda f ed up given that I was going to leave anyway
    via u/Delicious_Spot_3778
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    StrangeBaker1864 I was fired for requesting a vacation the prior shift. My performance was cited as the reason. 5 workdays ago they said it would take a few months to properly gauge my performance, oh well.
    via u/StrangeBaker1864
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    Murb1e Never been fired, but when I worked in car sales I had a d khead manager who would threaten your job as a way to "motivate" you. He pulled me into his office a week before the month end and went off on how I was about to be fired, that he was doing his best to help me keep my job but that I was next on the
    via u/Murb1e
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    noesanity Officially i was "let go" for "failure to return" which also resulted in a corporate "not rehirable" flag, due to being a flight risk. what actually happened, is we had a change in owners which led to a change in managers. I don't know why, but the new manager hated my guts, from day 1 they were telling me i didn't know
    via u/noesanity
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    chopping block. Dude was yelling and cursing at me, looking like his head was boutta explode. He clearly hadn't looked at my sales numbers for the month when he chose to do this. A couple days later I turned in my resignation, effective immediately. Later found out from a coworker that apparently even without working that
    via u/noesanity
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    last week, I was the 3rd highest grossing out of like 14 salespeople for the month.
    via u/noesanity
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    antigravity-flipflop I reported my boss to the state attorney general
    via u/antigravity-flipflop
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    prezvegeta I've managed to get tossed from multiple jobs, but my favorite was telling a customer to STFU when I worked at a call center
    via u/prezvegeta
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    Early_Explorer627 I have a knee issue, where my kneecap pops out of place.. I was working one day as a cashier when I was 16 before I knew what the issue was.. and my kneecap popped out of place. I needed to go home because I needed to rest my leg, | was unable to walk. Well, the
    via u/Early_Explorer627
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    store thought I hurt myself on the job and wanted me to fill out work comp papers.. but, I didn't hurt myself on the job, so why would I? So.. they fired me. Saying I was a "work liability".
    via u/Early_Explorer627
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    Pink_Mermaid_1... The official reason was II falsifying records" but the reality was I worked at a picture studio in the mall that corporate expected us to have like 5 new customers a day. So some times we would walk around the mall and hand out coupons but on some days we would just put fake names in the system as a
    via u/Pink_Mermaid_193
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    new customer. The senior manager was the one who told us to do it. But I was an assistant manager and got caught on my shift. Most of us who worked there were teens or young twenties so it didn't really bother me to be fired. I was more irritated I drove to work that morning and then was fired. Like couldn't do it at the end of my shift the day before so I could sleep in?
    via u/Pink_Mermaid_193
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    ThatBrenon131 My boss screamed at me, like full force cause I had to reschedule an appointment since the client wasn't going to be home. I parked my work truck and got a ride home. He had to then find the work truck in western ks and drive it back to coffeyville 2 hours away.
    via u/ThatBrenon131
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    prettysouthernc... I got carjacked and when I called into work for that night they told me I was fired.
    via u/prettysouthernchick

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