Did you ever lose a job for a stupid reason?

[ffs-dontcare]

I almost got fired from my customer service job at a petrol station for accidentally leaving the store door unlocked. During operating hours.

Let me explain:

I do graveyard shifts which is 11pm to 7:30am. During most of this time, the door remains locked and I do all transactions through a drawer. Anyone who doesn't like it either sucks it up or goes somewhere else. This company is absolutely over the top when it comes to safety rules, but this is one safety rule I completely and utterly agree with.

Between 5am and 6am is closed door entry. This means I can let people in but I have to unlock the door for them, then lock it again once they've stepped inside the shop. Letting them out is the same kind of thing.

Unfortunately, while I was talking to the bread man one morning at around 5:20am, two regular customers were (apparently) able to just walk inside without me having to let them in. My manager was checking CCTV for something else entirely when she caught this and sat down with me in her office to discuss it along with a co-worker who was there as my support person (manager's idea, not mine since she knew I'd be nervous and co-worker was able to keep me from crapping bricks). It was a rather good discussion between the three of us, but in the end she was forced to seek advice from the head of Human Resources and it was recommended by him that I have a disciplinary meeting over it.

I narrowly escaped dismissal but as of now I'm currently on final warning.

Of course, I think it's all a bit silly as Mobil is very pedantic about it to the point where it's considered a huge no-no to leave the door unlocked starting from 5:55 or even 5:59am but then it apparently switches to being completely okay once it hits 6:00 exactly.

My manager told me to think of it this way: whenever I feel like I want to open the door five minutes early, I need to remember that those five minutes could cost me my job. But she understood where I was coming from when I made my point about how the possible danger of some bad guy hiding around the corner with a knife doesn't suddenly disappear at 06:00:00am.

 

[xmbts]

I didn't know when I was scheduled. I went in to check, it wasn't posted. I went to the managers office and asked her for the schedule. She gave me the wrong days causing me to miss a single day.

They asked me why and I said I was given the wrong schedule by them, they said I should have come in person to check, I tell them I did. They said I should have specified what week I was referring to, because clearly I wanted a refresher on last weeks schedule.

A few months later they decide they're going to make a big deal of that incident and suspend me for a week. The boss tells me she's willing to fight so I can keep my job. I told her not to bother and left.

Never went back.

 

[MetalDooley]

However I have been refused a job for a stupid reason. In 2004, I applied to work at a supermarket. I got an interview appointment - the first and only one I've ever had - and off I went to it.

Things were going so-so until they asked me whether I'd be prepared to change my "messy" hair and shave my beard.

Now they weren't wrong, my hair *is* messy. One because I cut my own hair and always have. Two because I fucking like it that way so get stuffed. As for my beard, it's a short goatee- a bit longer than a shadow, that's it.

Naturally I said no(t a chance in hell what's wrong with you). They said something that I chose to hear as "you aren't 1950's-white-picket-fences enough for us". That was basically the end of that.

Did we apply to the same supermarket because I had an almost identical situation happen to me.The guy in the interview told me I'd need to cut my hair and shave my beard to be considered for the position(I had long hair and a goatee at the time but my hair was always kept clean,brushed and tied back and my goatee was only a tiny bit longer than average).When I asked why he trotted out the bullshit excuse that it was for hygiene reasons which was absolute nonsense as A)I was applying for a nighttime shelf stacking position so I wouldn't have been anywhere near any fresh food and B)there was plenty of long haired women working in the store

I refused as it was essentially discrimination and was basically told "thanks but piss off".I've never shopped in that store since

 

[Lionsfan]

OP, I feel for you, but since you knew you had no bike - you probably should have left for work with ample time to get there. I also don't have a car, and when I've been forced to walk (sometimes 90+ minutes to, and then from work) you gotta do what you gotta do. After the first or second day, you should have been able to arrive on time.

Sorry. That's the truth of it.

As for me, I've never been fired, though I have been blamed for things that were not my fault.

Also, if you don't have a car, it's usually a bad idea to have a job so far away from home. Personal experience talking...

While I see your point, I would counter with the point that any management staff that intentionally blinds themselves to circumstances are probably not worth working for in the first place. Yes they have demands they have to meet by their boss and blah blah, but life is going to happen regardless. If they refuse to accept this, to hell with them.

Yeah but they didn't blind themselves to circumstances. On the first day, when he was 40 minutes late, they understood.

It was only after consistent lateness that he was fired. Because if you're always 10-15 minutes late, there's an easy solution......leave the house 10-15 minutes earlier

 

[Aeonknight]

OP, I feel for you, but since you knew you had no bike - you probably should have left for work with ample time to get there. I also don't have a car, and when I've been forced to walk (sometimes 90+ minutes to, and then from work) you gotta do what you gotta do. After the first or second day, you should have been able to arrive on time.

Sorry. That's the truth of it.

As for me, I've never been fired, though I have been blamed for things that were not my fault.

Also, if you don't have a car, it's usually a bad idea to have a job so far away from home. Personal experience talking...

While I see your point, I would counter with the point that any management staff that intentionally blinds themselves to circumstances are probably not worth working for in the first place. Yes they have demands they have to meet by their boss and blah blah, but life is going to happen regardless. If they refuse to accept this, to hell with them.

Yeah but they didn't blind themselves to circumstances. On the first day, when he was 40 minutes late, they understood.

It was only after consistent lateness that he was fired. Because if you're always 10-15 minutes late, there's an easy solution......leave the house 10-15 minutes earlier

I would agree if it was a simple point A to point B commute. But they mentioned having to take a train, which typically runs on a set schedule. Leaving 10-15 minutes early would mean having to wait 10-15 minutes @ the station, and still being stuck walking from there. At that point it becomes an issue of taking the train before the one they typically take, which could put them a few hours early...

That's a little excessive compared to 15 minutes where I doubt anything seriously vital in the OP's job duties needs done right then and there. But that's just an assumption.

 

[rasputin0009]

I was working at Toys'R'Us doing the Night Shift unloading and stocking during Christmastime.

After two months, I called up the regional manager, very angrily, and lost it on him. He fired me.

The reason I'd lost it on him? Because in the two months I'd been working there, I hadn't received a single paycheck. And when I complained to the store managers, they said to me "It's probably a computer error, you should just get over it."

There is a lot of shit I will take from a boss. Not being paid is not one of them.

2 months of not getting paid? Holy shit, congrats on holding out that long. I would have freaked out after 2 weeks.

OT: I've never been fired from a job. Always have quit for a better job.

I've gone head-to-head with bosses before about them doing their job right. Older males in authority don't like it when someone younger than them cleverly tells them they suck. Even made my one boss cry while making him raise my salary. Seriously, crying in front of me does not make me feel sorry for you if you're a 50 year old man.