Did you ever lose a job for a stupid reason?

[anthony87]

Worked in a cinema a few years back and I was doing a shift on the concessions stand. A customer came and asked for a large popcorn with butter and a coke, as I was getting it together I told her that we didn't do butter on the popcorn so she paid and left. About 2 hours later the same woman comes back with a manager in tow and I'm suddenly getting asked why I told this woman to "Fuck off". No matter what I said the manager didn't believe me, gave the woman a refund and apologised for what I apparently did.

This didn't get me fired but it put me on that particular managers radar, she was always keeping an eye on me calling me into the office and moaning at me for such things as giving too much cheese to a customer who asked for extra cheese. Didn't really come as a shock when she fired me a couple of months later.

 

[Vanbael]

Got fired from Sam's Club (once was Walmart) mainly because I had too many carts on a cart pushing machine. I've been there for a couple years and those machines could take loads of almost twice the 'limit' and it could be handled safely (never had one accident or injury on my time there, but nobody gave a shit). How was I caught? my bonehead coworkers did the same thing, but with way to damn many carts for my liking, and lost control of it because it was too much weight. So that happened, the managers see that on camera, see me on camera with my load (seriously, it was only 4-5 carts...), and they let me go. We kind of had to sneak those extra carts on otherwise customers would be waiting for carts when there were none, and we would be yelled at for not getting enough carts in...I seriously could go into a full rant of that bullshit.

Moral of the story, NEVER, I FUCKING REPEAT, NEVER WORK FOR WALMART! Their policies are bullshit it smells bad.

 

[Roofstone]

Working at a little private gas station, worked there for a few months. Where I kept getting in trouble, and eventually got fired for refusing to sell cigarettes to minors. >_<

We lost money on that bad behavior of mine you know! ...Sigh.

 

[SaetonChapelle]

I walked into work one day to write down me schedule. I didn't have a piece of paper, so I just grabbed one from behind the desk (a blank notebook paper) and wrote my schedule down. I got fired for theft the very next day. Merrrr

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Got fired from Sam's Club (once was Walmart) mainly because I had too many carts on a cart pushing machine. I've been there for a couple years and those machines could take loads of almost twice the 'limit' and it could be handled safely (never had one accident or injury on my time there, but nobody gave a shit). How was I caught? my bonehead coworkers did the same thing, but with way to damn many carts for my liking, and lost control of it because it was too much weight. So that happened, the managers see that on camera, see me on camera with my load (seriously, it was only 4-5 carts...), and they let me go. We kind of had to sneak those extra carts on otherwise customers would be waiting for carts when there were none, and we would be yelled at for not getting enough carts in...I seriously could go into a full rant of that bullshit.

Moral of the story, NEVER, I FUCKING REPEAT, NEVER WORK FOR WALMART! Their policies are bullshit it smells bad.

As a former cart boy myself, I gotta laugh at the difference of my store. We just had one of our stock man hit a car by accident and he hasn't gotten so much as a talk about it. They told him not to put more then the recommended number on it (Which they grossly underestimated to be 15 carts total.).

 

[Keiichi Morisato]

yes i got fired for being white, i tried to file for racial discrimination but no one took me seriously.

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

yeah I actually was at my local grocery store back when I was in high school. I worked there for little over a year on Friday, Saturday and Sunday did an okay job. The manager told me to go home early one night and said he would call when he needed me to come back in. Well after two weeks of waiting I called them back and they told me I was laid off due to budget cuts and that the store was struggling to make a profit so I was like eh okay.

Four months later they got brand new carts for the customers and hired a bunch of new people for the summer. I hate being lied to first of all, if I was doing a bad job tell me up front and I will try my best to improve. I even asked the manger the why he didn't call me back and said "oh well we just didn't need you anymore."

 

[kasperbbs]

A week after i got the job one of the 2 other people working in my shift got serious food poisoning and wasn't seen for the rest of the month, so i basically got fired for not handling the work of 2 people alone with little training too. I did have one coworker left, but she was fully occupied with her own job.

 

[Mid Boss]

Got fired for wanting too many hours.

Quit my part time job to go work full time at a kennel. Sadly, it was right at the beginning of the recession so business dropped off dramatically. They started having me work only 3 or 4 hours. Having to drive an hour to get there, that barely covered the cost of my gas. So I kept saying I needed more hours until they laid me off.

 

[rednose1]

Nope, I was always the one to end it, on agreeable terms. Had a recent close call (was joking with an instructor that if I failed an upcoming test I would have to go slash his tires. He complained to corporate that I threatened him and they started an investigation. Once I found out, went and talked to the guy, apologized for my dumb comment and found out the investigation led to absolutely nothing. Hadn't meant anything behind it, and everyone has made a comment like that to everyone else, just always with nothing serious meant. This guy was just not one for that kind of joking around. Why he couldn't just tell me directly I dunno, but I just steer clear of him now, and continue on with everyone else same as always).

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...

I gotta disagree slightly here. If you have been working there for awhile with no problems, and then suddenly late, normal boss would ask why. Being a temporary thing, it shouldn't have gotten beyond more than a dock in pay, letter in file that sorta thing. I don't even say this from a "nice boss" perspective, more of laziness. Firing people involves paperwork filled out, accommodating the sudden change to scheduled work hours, interviewing potential replacements, hoping they're better and not worse than previous employee, training them to get up to speed... much easier effort wise to let minor infractions be treated as such.

I do agree with not working so far from home though. That never works out well. (as was the case here).

 

[Blow_Pop]

I got fired from a job because I made my male boss feel threatened enough that he prevented me from fully learning my job so he could fire me. That was in an auto shop.

I got fired from a private security company for basically not being related to anyone else/fucking anyone else at the company and working too hard. It was a miserable job anyway.

And attendance issues from Disney but my union wouldn't fight for me since half my absences were taking care of my mom's medical issues and having an FMLA (family medical leave if abscence) form filled out.

Everywhere else either been laid off cause seasonal work (3 years haunt, 1 year gamestop) or I quit for varying reasons.

 

[Moderated]

I have no idea why someone would fire me for being late all the time

They fired you being you were unreliable. It doesn't matter if it wasn't your fault. They need someone reliable.

 

[The Hero Killer]

I never did but my brother once got fired from McDonald's for putting 4 pickles on a 3 pickle hamburger.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Twice.

Once, was at a pet food/supply store run by a friend of my dad's. At one point I'd done a return/void on something and done it wrong, so the register seemed short like $40. Even though I had the receipt from the register for the exact amount the register was short, but I think they doubted me. Another time I was sitting on the bags of dog food reading a book. Not very cool, I know. After that they got us a stool though, as business was very slow.

What got me fired, though, was one day I was scheduled to work a Sunday. I'd never worked a Sunday before as it was always worked by another girl. For some reason I was scheduled for it... but I wasn't told. And the schedule was on a clipboard and the clip was covering the Sunday so I couldn't see it. My fault, I know. So the store stayed closed that day and they fired me after that.

The second job was about a year or so later when I was 18-ish. I'd just started a few weeks before at a Sunglasses kiosk and liked it. Someone from another store complained about seeing me reading when they walked by one day, and I got chided for that though. What else was I supposed to do at a kiosk when I'd windexed the glass, checked the orders and polished the glasses already?

Anyway, I'd covered a shift at another location a couple weeks prior (a few days after starting there) and got secret shopped and I scored really well, so they were singing my praises. Roll around to a Saturday and I'm working with a girl who just doesn't like me as I'm competition for the assistant manager job. She wanders off and is gone for a couple hours. During that time, it's busy and I help people as best I can. Except I get secret shopped again. And the guy gives me a bad rating. The report even says "She was alone and helped everyone as best she could, but she gave me glasses to try on and turned away from me", so I failed. So a few days later I get fired, and the manager is pretty pissed at having to fire me. That one was pretty much bullshit.

 

[Sassafrass]

Was fired from my local McDonalds for putting my family first. Apparently my manager didn't see why I'd want to spend time with my family while my mother was in hospital dying.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Never was fired, but I forced the print shop I worked in to lay me off... They sent me home early on day, said there wasn't anything for me to do, but I know it's because I didn't fit in with the perfect good little company they had... Bullshit. Anyway they sent me home told me to call before I came in the next day to see if I had anything to do, they didn't want me wasting gas to drive to work. Did this for about 4 days before I got completely pissed, drove in to work & told them to either fire me or lay me off. They said they didn't have any work for me, but I could go clean out the rain gutters on the owners house. No thanks, that's not part of my job description, I was a graphic designer & pressman & I could use every other piece of machinery in the shop & I don't think they want someone that is terrified of ladders cleaning gutters on a 3 story house. Anyway they just laid me off & I say good riddance to them & their "better than you because we're good little christians" attitude. No offense to anyone that is religious, but that is how these people were.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Not a stupid reason, the company was, ehm, becoming more efficient, so it had to lay off a lot of people, me as a freelancer included. Later the upper management saw it had cut too deep, and I was first on their list to be rehired, and so I have been as of this September.

 

[Battenberg]

I got fired for telling the truth to my manager, that was pretty lame.

I used to work in a call centre for a fairly minor company selling windows, doors, etc. My branch got moved to fit in with another branch up the road which meant my supervising manager (let's call him Mr. Z), myself, and a few other members of staff got moved into a branch run by a different manager (let's call him Mr. A[sub]hole[/sub]). There were various rivalries and issues with all the new staff being pushed into someone else's branch and within a few days Mr. A called me into his office and essentially tried to trick me into giving him a reason to fire Mr. Z (presumably he didn't want the competition or something like that). I didn't give him anything because me and Mr. Z were actually pretty good friends (and Mr. A was obvioulsy a jerk) and later let Mr. Z know what had happened so he didn't end up getting blindsided later on. Then, when I was on my way home from work I got called back in to talk to Mr. A and Mr. Z together. Mr. Z essentially told me to "admit" I was lying and when I refused he fired me. Mr. Z quit on principle/ because he hated the guy on the spot.

Of course it was only a call centre job and the company went bust very shortly after this (they didn't treat their customers any better than their staff unfortunately) so looking back it was kind of a good thing. Still a dick move from Mr. A though.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

I was fired from Safeway almost a decade ago, and I thought it was pretty stupid (actually its more just me being butthurt over a simple misunderstanding). What happened is that I thought I had booked time off of work, but instead I misunderstood how things worked and it was actually just a request for time off (asking "please can I?" rather then "I cant work these days". So I ended up being scheduled to work on my Dad's birthday, but didnt know it (I had checked the calendar at work and saw nothing, so I just assumed). I didnt actually find out I was fired until the next time I showed up for work

Mine was a Safeway too! It was my first job at 16, bagging groceries, stocking and cart corralling. I pissed off the GM because I had a 1970 Chevy Nova and he thought I was hot rodding it at night and doing burn outs in the parking lot. Thing was it still had the straight in line 6cylinder so there was no way I was able to do that, this was in 1992. The previous owner had made it look like a muscle car with large back tires and small bicycle fronts. As well as a custom Metal flake paint job, but the engine wasn't touched when I bought it. I was working on fixing it up but as a high school student I didn't have the cash. Anyway so one day I go on break and buy a can of coke and a candy bar and as per policy tape the receipt to the can of coke. I finish the coke and toss it but I didn't eat the candy bar and put it in my locker. Well of course the manager asks me for my receipt later and I didn't have it as I had tossed the can. Fired on the spot, best part was the manager that confronted me was the same person I bought the coke and candy bar from so he knew I had bought one recently. He wouldn't let me dig in the trash to find the receipt as he said I could use someone elses receipt to justify myself. I started working for a competitor across the street and we ended up putting them out of business in about 8 months.