Employee gets a flat tire on the way to work after having to come in late due to a medical emergency, leading entitled boss to fire them on the spot: ‘You're done’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jan 6, 2026 1:00 PM EST

Sometimes you run into one obstacle after another, and there is no end in sight.

The employee in the story below was faced with a series of unfortunate events that eventually led to them being fired, but they didn't deserve to be blamed for a single one of these events.

Working as a pizza delivery person for a minimum wage job is already not the most appealing position, but imagine being forced to come into work during a tornado, a medical emergency, and after you just had a flat tire. All of those happened to the employee in this story below, in that exact order. First, it was the tornado warning, through which the employee's boss insisted everyone remain at the pizza place and continue business as usual. Our employee refused and instead went to a shelter. Only by chance did the pizza place evade being completely destroyed by the tornado, and with it all of its employees. Still, refusing to stick around was the employee's first strike.

The second strike happened when the employee hurt their back at work, and had to go to the doctor to treat the injury. By doing so, they had to miss work, which was not acceptable to their boss, who considered the need to miss work, even after providing a doctor's note, as completely unprofessional.

Then, the last and final strike was when the employee, who was working while still suffering from their back injury, got a flat tire while delivering a pizza. With nowhere to change the tire, the employee had to call their boss and let them know they would not be able to continue working, after which the boss simply told them: 'You're done.'

Unfortunately for this poor employee, who cannot seem to be able to catch a break, this was not the end of the misfortune cycle. Even after they were fired, they still struggled to file for unemployment, and their (now former) boss was still bent on teaching them a lesson.

Keep scrolling to read the full story and share what you think the employee should do next, and maybe help them find their way out of this whole mess…

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  • Woman sitting on the ground next to a flat tire on her car
    via marrio31

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I was fired due to a medically excused absence and a flat tire and denied unemployment

    I worked a minimum wage job for 15 months and unlike most, if not all my coworkers, I never missed a single day off work that wasn't due to a flat tire or a medical issue that was covered by a doctor's note.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Like my coworkers, I was constantly screamed at by the general manager. About a year ago, one of my managers was stealing my tips, and after the fourth time I accused them and got yelled at by my general manager for daring to accuse the other manager of such a thing.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Late last spring, during a tornado warning, I left work to go to a nearby storm shelter in spite of my managers telling me that the local lake would make tornados always avoid our town.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • 5 to 10 minutes after I reached the shelter, an EF-4 tornado passed a mile south of us.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • The tornado leveled homes and left only concrete foundation blocks; if it would have gone over the little pizza shop where we worked, everyone would have died - I'm the only one who drove to the storm shelter 2 minutes away, and everyone else stayed at work because the managers told them too.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Now here is how I lost my job, because I was such a horrible employee: Once, towards the end of my shift after being told I had to stay at work for 5 hours longer than scheduled, I had an onset of severe back pain.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I let my managers know that if my pain persisted the next morning I would be unable to come to work.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I received phone calls from a manager, the general manager, and the district manager demanding that I show up to work.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • The manager texted me "If it was Serious \[sic\] you would be in the emergency room not calling a chiropractor", and the district manger told me that a doctor's note wouldn't count as an excused absence, that if I didn't come in to work right now it would be a no call/no show, and if I didn't show up the next day I was scheduled I would be fired, even if I had a doctor's note.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • A month later at the gym, I accidentally injured the same area on my back I had previously injured at work.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • The resulting back pain was the most severe pain I've ever experienced, and made it almost impossible to get any sleep that night.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • The soonest possible appointment with my chiropractor was during the morning right before work. After the adjustment, my pain was still severe, to the point where on the way from the chiropractor to work I had to once stop and pull over on the side of the road due to the extreme pain.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • While at work, I accidentally ran over a pothole on a rural road while delivering a pizza and got a flat tire, possibly due to extreme pain affecting my ability to concentrate on the road.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I called a bunch of tire places, but nowhere had the correct size; however, I called around and found a place that said they'd be able to order a tire that would come in on Monday.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I let my managers know that I would not be able to deliver on Saturday and Sunday.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • My managers were freaking out. One of them called me and said they had found a car place that had my tire size in stock 5 minutes before they closed, but the place was only open in the morning the next day (Saturday).
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Due to being unable to sleep the night before due to extreme back pain, I accidentally slept through my alarm and when I woke the car place was closed. up
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • When I called over the phone to let my managers know I had slept in, I was told "you're done".
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Weirdly, I remained on the online work schedule and was still signed into the employee app for a week afterwards, receiving messages meant for the employee group chat.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Because I wasn't entirely sure if I still worked there, I showed up to my next scheduled shift, where the manager confirmed that I no longer worked there, and proceeded to give me a lecture on my moral failings.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Pizza Delivery Boy Holding Boxes with Pizza
    via pixelshot

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Ironically, I wasn't yelled at during this "lecture", but rather spoken to with pity and moral condescension.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I asked if they wanted me to return my employee uniforms, which I had brought with me, but was just told to leave the premises.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • After being fired, I applied for unemployment, navigating through an ancient, dysfunctional government website that crashed about a dozen times while I tried to submit a claim.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • Eventually, after a month. of waiting and bureaucratic nonsense, I received a letter in the mail letting me know that in 2 days I would have a phone interview - my former employer had contested my claim and told unemployment I was fired due to misconduct.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • 2 days later I received a call from a number with no caller ID. The person who called me immediately began complaining about "an echo" on the line, and asked if I had my phone on speaker or was recording them.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • They then hung up, and then called again and said "the echo" was still there. I later realized this was probably a psychological tactic in order to disorient and confuse me.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • They then began to interrogate me rapidly. They were extremely rude and questioned me with the rapidity of an auctioneer.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I began to become confused by the rapid fire questioning and was silent for about 5 seconds while I tried to reorient my brain.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • They yelled "HELLO!!!" and before I could reply, they hung up the phone. So that's the story of how I was denied unemployment.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074
  • I'm sure this is a very typical American story, but I had to get it off my chest.
    via Fast-Armadillo1074

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Tags

boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job car pizza delivery flat tire overworked-employees workplace delivery
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