15+ Employees who got fired for great reasons: 'A coworker drove 80+ MPH making a delivery'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 17, 2026 3:00 PM EDT

Some employees make mistakes so big that there's no coming back from them, and they find themselves suddenly unemployed

While no one follows the rules 100% of the time, some workers really push the limits by following almost none of the rules at all. 

Most of us have encountered a handful of coworkers like this during our working lives. It defies logic! While you are beholden to your manager's strict oversight and monthly KPIs, the dude next to you takes naps in his seat, never knows what's going on, and watches Netflix for most of the day. You wonder how long he can possibly get away with it

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  • Sure, there are slackers, but a lot of people here got fired on the spot because their mistakes were so egregious. Like if you're a delivery driver, all you have to do is deliver the food on time and interact politely with customers. What you shouldn't be doing is zipping down the roads at 80 miles per hour! And yet that's exactly what this one delivery guy was doing, and you guessed it, he got fired in a snap. 

  • 01
    Blue-collar worker realizing he's going to be fired, as manager in suit shows him a clipboard full of papers.
    via Getty Images

    Blue-collar worker realizing he's going to be fired, as manager in suit shows him a clipboard full of papers.

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

  • 02
    AgentMorpheus_ Someone accidentally sent a message about how much they hated the boss... In the company group chat.
    via AgentMorpheus_

    An unfortuante accident that seems to happen literally all the time. Just in case you didn't know… even your private direct messages to your coworkers can be read by someone with admin privileges. When you're in the workplace, just pretend HR is sitting next to you at all times. Simply try to never bad-talk anyone, either. It's not a good look, and chances are, that message will get back to that person at some point. 

  • 03
    TheMountain11 Cashier at a fast food place never gave a drive through customer their CC back. She went shopping that night at WalMart. But.. they have cameras!! Ooops.. she got arrested and never saw her again.
    via TheMountain11
  • 04
    Itstotallysafe Owner drastically changed the commission schedule for the sales team and the Sales Manager argued with the Owner about it during a zoom meeting with the entire leadership team. Owner fired him for not siding with him about the change.
    via Itstotallysafe
  • 05
    Sales Team (about a dozen of them) all quit the following Monday. I guess it's not so crazy for this subreddit but it was a wild thing to do at that toxic place. It caused a domino effect where earnings slumped for over a year, causing multiple layoffs. Glad I'm not there anymore.
    via Itstotallysafe
  • 06
    Super proud of all those guys for sticking together though, even though I was one of those who got laid off later. My life is so much better now.
    via Itstotallysafe
  • 07
    H010CRON Called out sick with CO ID and then walked into the store to "hang out." (This was just as the lockdowns were happening) Another coworker tried to claim workers comp by deliberately placing their hand on a baking screen fresh from being use from
    via H010CRON
  • 08

    Slow down, pal!

    the oven. Clear as day on the cameras. A Coworker drove 80+ mph making a delivery. There's no road that goes above 45 in our delivery area.
    via H010CRON
  • 09
    Crowbarscout He pocketed the money from a sale and then lied about it when confronted. Dude only did the ONE transaction that day.
    via Crowbarscout
  • 10
    Newdude333 Kinda basic, but stealing chapstick. For some reason, she thought she could just use chapstick and put it back. She was a cashier, by the way, doing that at the register. I even warned her a
    via Newdude333
  • 11
    week before she got fired that she could probably get fired for doing that, but nope, the lips were apparently just that chapped.
    via Newdude333
  • 12
    LittleTatoCakes My manager started working for an insurance company while still working at my company. He had influence at my company for decision making including insurance companies. He convinced the owner of my company we needed to switch up our insurance. When the paperwork came in to sign the deal, the owner noticed
    via LittleTatoCakes
  • 13
    said managers name in the documents. Turned out, my manager was going to get commission for the deal and quit my company after the papers were signed. He got fired from both companies and we went with a different insurance company altogether.
    via LittleTatoCakes
  • 14
    pfzealot Disobeyed a Supervisor and then wrote a multi-page letter explaining why women should not be in leadership roles and how no woman could have changed the tire he was asked to change. Left out the part I did most of the work has he had little idea what he was doing.
    via pfzealot
  • 15
    The icing on the cake was the account manager and HR manager were both women. I explained this to him and his response was "you are too young to know how the world really works".
    via pfzealot
  • 16
    He was fired and tried to file harassment complaint using me as a witness. I enjoyed reciting for the person all the ways he was accommodated and or given special treatment.
    via pfzealot

  • This guy sounds like he couldn't handle the “new” ways of the world. It's not even like respecting women in the workplace is that new of a concept, but HR sure does enforce that these days. Adapt or perish, old chum. 

  • 17
    Klumber Not a co-worker, but one of my apprentices. Decided it was fine to steal money from donation-pots. They hadn't realised that the cameras weren't just for show. Most disgusting HR case I've ever had to deal with as a manager. Who the f steals money from a charity?
    via Klumber
  • 18
    scuba_scouse Worked with a bloke in an automotive production line. Our job was to use orbital sanders to remove weld flash from the car bodies prior to paint. This bloke had a can of red bill on a table behind him and decides to "orby" the can to see what would happen.
    via scuba_scouse
  • 19
    The can exploded. Red bull went up the walls and a piece of aluminium can hit the foreman. He was sacked on the spot.
    via scuba_scouse
  • 20
    Ashamed worker leaves workplace he's been fired from while holding box of his possessions.
    via Getty Images

    Ashamed worker leaves workplace he's been fired from while holding box of his possessions. 

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

  • 21
    Co... I was an asst manager at a home improvement store. One day I go to another store in the area and needed a new door. Went to talk to the worker and he ended up being the supervisor for the dept. He asked me if I needed help to install it. Mind you, he was talking about personally, not through the store's program.
    via Complete-Fix-3954
  • 22
    I just ignored it, wasn't my mess. Fast forward like a year and I get reassigned to his store, and he had no idea who I was. Well, I didn't forget. Long story short: he and one of the other managers were pocketing the installation fees for all kinds of stuff. I estimated over 200k in lost revenue. The regional VP (in charge of like 200+ stores)
    via Complete-Fix-3954
  • 23
    came in personally to fire them and have the police arrest them. I got reassigned to another district out of fear of retaliation from other employees that could have been involved. Regional VP gave me some cushy assignments like training new managers and I eventually moved on after realizing the only chance to move up would have been to
    via Complete-Fix-3954
  • 24
    move across the country, plus being a store manager before 30 was not common at all. Ninja edit: why did I make a big deal about it? Store bonuses and manager bonuses were directly tied to these types of upsells. I saw it as taking money away from the lower paid cashiers who worked their butts off, the night time stocking
    via Complete-Fix-3954
  • 25
    folks, and other managers like me that wanted to have good performance and not be trapped in a low performing store.
    via Complete-Fix-3954
  • 26
    Realistic-Drumme... Was caught with 3 empty watch boxes in his locker. He'd wear the watches out the door, past security (major retail store), and hide the boxes in his locker until he could dispose of them.
    via Realistic-Drummer565
  • 27
    Worked for the company over 20 years. Lost his co- contributory portion of his 401k which was a few hundred thousand. Over watches that were maybe 300 bucks each.
    via Realistic-Drummer565

  • What was this guy's plan if a manager ever saw him wearing 3 watches and grilled him on it? Bro was not thinking ahead in any capacity. 

  • 28
    rohdawg At my old job there was a guy who had his own side business that directly competed with my employer. Big no-no even if he was careful about it, but he was not. Apparently he was doing work for clients that he had at my former employer, but doing it through his own business.
    via rohdawg
  • 29
    I'm not sure exactly how long he was doing it, but apparently he was sloppy about it. He sent out at least one report to one of our clients using the company report templates, and didn't even change the company letter head. That client told my former employer, and he got fired immediately.
    via rohdawg
  • 30
    Loleeia Stole approximately 10k income from a restaurant by taking the money and not booking the food. Took my boss forever to figure out why the inventory was never right
    via Loleeia
  • 31
    Channel250 I knew a guy who got fired for planking. Kotaku wrote an article about it. Then, the follow-up article where he was denied unemployment. To be fair, it was a pretty good plank. And he didn't like the job anyway.
    via Channel250

  • This might be the silliest — and possibly most dated — way of getting fired yet!

  • 32
    PckMan I used to work for a place where the manager was a complete and total a , and incompetent to boot. Every day he'd come up with some new idiotic idea about how we're all doing our jobs wrong and how he will "elevate" the business and our output. These were all bad ideas because on a fundamental level he had no
    via PckMan
  • 33
    clue about the actual job he was supervising. Whenever we talked to upper management about it they'd be concerned but then he'd fluff them up with various tales about how wrong and incompetent we were instead. Well turns out that upper management wasn't as stupid as we thought because while I left that
    via PckMan
  • 34
    place, I did keep in contact with some coworkers and they told me that the manager had been fired after the company conducted a background check on him, after ~12 years of working there, and discovered he had lied about everything in his resume. All his past jobs, all his supposed credentials, degrees, training, all lies. He
    via PckMan
  • 35
    was a random nobody who had managed to lie his way up on nothing but fluff.
    via PckMan
  • 36
    Woman throws up her hands in frustration after being fired from her remote-work job.
    via Getty Images

    Woman throws up her hands in frustration after being fired from her remote-work job.

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

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