I missed a deadline because I was taken in for an emergency surgery. A coworker I was good friends with and had worked in tandem with on a regular basis, had been let go a month prior. After she’d been let go, it had seemed as if I was being given all the most unpleasant tasks in the hopes that I would quit. I never complained, just did the work and called it a day.

I had notified both the client, and the company I was working for, that I was going to miss the deadline, and why, and that I would get the job done as soon as possible after the surgery. Instead, I was let go. I was offered the job back again after several clients stopped doing business with my now former employer. They had found out why I’d been let go. One of the clients offered me a job very similar to what I’d done, only now in-house, and at a better pay rate. I took that instead, with gratitude. It was a much nicer climate to work in.

When I was in high school my dad's girlfriend worked at a women's clothing store at the mall. They needed help over a busy season to organize the displays, that kind of thing, and the manager liked me and hired me.

For some reason this manager took leave just weeks later and a new manager came in and this guy was on a power trip.

He liked to make the staff work past what the work schedule said. So if you were scheduled to work til 9:30 you were expected to work til 10. I worked in the back shipping out transfers and checking in the new stock. I was the only other guy.

The girls didn't like this work-past-the-time thing and after awhile I didn't like it either.

So one day I rushed to get all my work done by the scheduled time and left when my shift was done. Well, the manager didn't like this and called me into the office when I went in for my next shift. He said I was disobeying orders. I said the schedule says I work to 9:30 and at 9:30 my work was done so I left. So he fired me basically because i didn't put up with his shit.

Less than a year later he was fired because there was too much staff turnover at his store.

All he had to do was write the schedule differently. If you want people to work until 10, just write 10

100% Gods honest truth. I was fired because, I CLOCKED OUT AN HOUR LATE. Yes, you read correctly, not an hour before, but an hour AFTER.

Of course there was history between me and the Boss. He had wanted to get rid of me for over three years, and I never give him the reason to. I worked in a sort of scrap yard in semi-precious metals such as Copper and aluminium. My job was to change the blades on a granulator machine through the night. I loved the job. We worked x4 10 hr nights Monday to Thursday.

I’m not 100% certain, but the company said they were robbed because 8 tons of granulated copper went missing. I heard it was an insurance scam and nothing went missing at all. Working nights we didn't get to hear any gossip at all. Anyway, when the police investigated, my name was mentioned. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I wasn't even in the same town when it supposedly happened. I was suspended and I went to seek out a lawyer. I was told if I was found guilty I was looking at up 8 years in prison. But I was told they had to prove it was me. Of course they couldn't. I was interviewed by the police and they pretty much said we know you didn't do it, but your bosses keep phoning up asking have we spoke to you yet.

Long story short, the case was dropped and I was allowed to return back to work. After a short while I was summoned into the boss’s office. I was told, let's start over and get back to how things were before. But I was told I had to sign a new contract which stated I had to start over like it was my 1st day on the job. In the UK we are protected somewhat if we have over 2 years service in. It entitles us not be sacked for instance, simply because they wanted to get rid of you. You could claim unfair dismissal after 2 years also if you thought you were wrongfully dismissed. But I knew all this and I refused to sign knowing full well they could fire me once I signed it.

But by refusing to sign it I was treated like dirt for over two years but never doing anything wrong to give them reason to sack me. Then after two years it happened… I was left a message to come in on Friday morning. I was told the supervisor needed to speak to me. I finished work at 7 AM Friday morning, but because I had to come back in an hour later, my shift boss let me go early. I was told don't worry about clocking out; it will be sorted. This wasn't unusual, many a time we would take it in turns to clock everyone out. It just let us get away 30 minutes early on our last shift before weekend.

So I came back in at 8 AM and went to the canteen to get a drink. I noticed I had not been clocked out which was strange, so I clocked out and it showed 8 AM and thought nothing of it. It happened a couple of times before but was very rare. I was extremely tired by morning and the person clocking out like I said on a couple of occasions had forgot, mainly due to being distracted with the new shift coming on. I can't recall why I was called in, but I think it was something to do with my request for a holiday I wanted off. Again nothing unusual, but it was strange to ask me to make my way back in. But I was so tired I was just relieved I could go home and go to sleep.

Weekend over and I'm back at work Monday night. I'm just about to start and the bosses come into the canteen. They ask to speak to me and ask why I clocked out an hour late and I explained. But they didn't want to know really; they said I was fired for gross misconduct. I ask on what grounds and they say, “for trying to steal an hour’s pay”.

I knew they had got me and that was that. I simply said, “You finally got me, you bastard”.

I went to see a solicitor and I won my unfair dismissal claim, but I was refused to go back to work. I got a decent-sized compensation deal out of it and I bought myself a van and ended up being a courier delivering same day packages up and down the UK. And I haven't looked back since.

So there you have it. Fired for clocking out an hour late!

I was on a business trip with my boss during payday several years ago. I got a deposit notification from the bank and the amount looked a little odd. I had some expense reimbursements in my paycheck so it wasn't way off, but when I dug in deeper, I saw I'd only gotten paid half my usual salary. While riding in the car with my boss to our meeting, I mentioned the issue and he didn't know anything about it. So I called HR and they explained I'd been fired because my commercial drivers license had expired. Mind you, I was a software developer at the time.

Luckily, my boss took the phone and got everything straightened out. The person who should have been fired was one name down from me alphabetically. HR hadn't double-checked their work and I'd been fired instead.

Oops. I got reinstated and paid. Only time I've been fired.

I was fired, but I probably deserved it.

When I was 18, I had a job as a receptionist in a small doctor’s office in a rural area. There were three doctors who were based in another community. Their hours at this clinic were sporadic. This was when our healthcare system was in transition and many of the rural people didn't understand the complicated new changes.

I noticed that the head doctor, who owned the business, was doing some dodgy things. He was billing the government for treatment, and then charged the rural people cash for the same visit. For example, a girl who had saved up money came in to have her ears pierced, was charged cash. The doctor then billed the province for an “ear infection.”

This same doctor opened an x-ray clinic in his own community, and apparently almost everyone who came through the door “needed” x-rays.

There’s more. In those days, the family doctor went all the way with his pregnant patients, from a positive pregnancy test, to delivery. Except this doctor was a no show, every time. Sometimes he went golfing after getting these calls! Sometimes he walked his dogs instead of attending the birth, birth after birth. Most times he got the message and simply ignored it.

This was awful! These poor rural people were being cheated, and the pregnant moms, too.

So, I took photocopies of government billing and the receipts for cash. I had lots.

I began telling these pregnant clients the truth, and they started going elsewhere for treatment.

I was at a loss as to what to do next, so I took all my photocopies to the mayor of the closest large community. He thought they were interesting. I was so pleased. However, the mayor didn't tell me what would happen next…

I went to work the next day and the day after that. THEN, I got a call from the wife of the doctor, firing me. She didn't say why, it was a short call. I'd never been fired before, and I had such hurt feelings that I actually cried. I felt so terribly unwanted.

Then I got a call from an employee at the other clinic. She said there were two mean guys from the government there who showed up with some kind of paper that said they could search through all the files. Later I learned that the doctor lost all his hospital privileges in the provinces. A couple of years later, he closed his business and left the country.

Still satisfying. All these years later.

I was an intern software developer, hired on for a six month contract.

1. After two months, contract gets extended to twelve months.
2. I get multiple praises for good work by both staff and management.
3. After four months, I get a $1.50/hr ($3,120/yr) raise that I didn’t ask for and it wasn’t the company performance review season.
4. I get assigned directly to the VP of a 180 persons company to do some project organization work with him.
5. Get a $500 Christmas bonus when other engineers weren’t getting one (again, I’m a junior in college, not full-time graduated employee)
6. Girlfriend gets hired.
7. Months later, girlfriend and I break up. She quits the next day.
8. I get fired the day after that (there was no drama at work, ever).
9. HR says it’s due to “poor performance”.

Senior engineer that mentored me later told me in confidence that it was due to the company scared of dealing with a sexual harassment scandal from the fired ex-girlfriend. I guess when she quit she was screaming and yelling, which didn’t surprise me because she was absolutely nuts. Since I was only an intern, it wasn’t worth the risk of keeping me around, regardless of my good work.

The strangest and the last.

After being fired this last time, I decided never to put myself in that position again.

I work for myself now- no-one can fire me.

What happened?

I left my long term employer to join a competitor for one reason: to win a large public service contract.

They employed me on a very good package. My basic was huge and I had the promise of an enormous bonus if I won the contract.

So, for a whole year, I put together a winning proposal, presented it and won.

This was the biggest contract my employer had ever had, by far.

So, as soon as the contract started, they fired me. No reason given, no apology, just an enormous pay off.

Why did they do it? My guess is that they needed to reduce their costs immediately before an imminent takeover.

Having won the contract, I was expendable and expensive.

Ces’t la vie, I suppose and I learned a valuable lesson: it doesn’t matter how good you are at your job, if your employer decides to fire you, nothing can stop them.

Take heed, boys and girls…

A good ol’ Pizza Hut. New server - and closer for the store. First weekend, I close the back. The second weekend, I close the front. The third weekend… I’m on my own closing the front.

I didn’t store all of the food on the salad bar. To be honest, I simply forgot. The Manager told me I was done when I told him I thought I was done. I went home. (He forgot too).

Next day, I learned that I ruined “up to $45 worth of food” by not doing the salad bar close.

Eh. I was a substandard employee anyhow (generally did what I was supposed to - and that was it). They were a substandard employer (I wasn’t getting the hours). It was a good thing for all. And I got in some extra frisbee golf where I let my Great Dane run the fields with me that week. I miss that dog.

The most ridiculous and unfair reason I didn’t get a job was when I went to an interview to work in the office of a waste management office i.e the office the bin men answer to. It was just basic admin, maybe occasional reception cover which I was more than qualified for.

I get into the interview when they say, “Our guys often come in to pick up new orders or hand in paper work but they’re… well they can be a bit… graphic with their jokes.”

“They tell a lot of dirty jokes.” The other interviewer clarified.

“Would that bother you?” The first interviewer asked.

I should note that earlier in the interview they mentioned that customers often come into the office to discuss issues.

“Well,” I said. “I don’t think it’s very professional that they do it in the office - especially with customers in. I wouldn’t have an issue if they did it in the break room out of earshot of the customers. If I ever did have an issue with one of their jokes, I’d try to resolve it with them first.”

They jotted some things down, nodded, then continued the interview. I got called less than an hour after the interview saying I wouldn’t be a good fit. They didn’t think I could handle the ‘atmosphere’ and working with the bin men.

So effectively I didn’t get a job because they thought I would get upset over dirty jokes. I noticed they hired a man to do the job. I know because it was a guy I temped with - he told me about it since at the time we were both temping at the same place. He really wasn’t the best worker. He would get away with the bare minimum, often hiding away, and clocking out as late as he could get away with. He wasn’t motivated, and even when he did work, he often made mistakes because he never really paid attention.

Two weeks later he was let go from the new job at the waste management office. I wonder why. It kinda sucks to have lost a job just because they thought my ‘feminine sensibilities’ would be hurt over dirty jokes. In fact it wouldn’t have been. I actually enjoyed dirty jokes, I just didn’t think it was professional to use them around customers and I said so.

Back in the 1970s I was 18 and worked for a convenience store chain that no longer exists. I became valuable as a “relief manager”. They only had a single person working in the store. If a manager called in sick, I’d get a call.. mostly last minute, to go open that store and work the day. Same thing if a second shift person called in, I’d run there to take over for the store manager who worked all day. A manager went on vacation? I’d fill in for the week.

I did this quite successfully for about a year, working around the six or so stores in the area. I thought I was valuable and would be promoted to having my own store. That’s the carrot they held out im front of me.

I got called in one day to meet with a corporate manager. I thought a store manager position had opened up but it was quite a different meeting!

The clowns in corporate security got wind that I worked in six different stores and deemed me a security risk because I knew the combinations to the safes! So I was terminated!

Before leaving I reminded them that I still knew all those safe combinations and no longer felt loyal to them! I saw the look of panic on their faces! But of course I wasn’t going to steal.

I did get a better job as a clerk in a real estate development company. I did well there, got interested in real estate and property management. I just retired after 45 years in facility management for Fortune 100 companies!

I worked at a place where we all got paid pretty good wages.

Welders could make a hundred grand.

One night a few of the guys wanted to order pizza, and one of the guys said he didn't have the cash. It was $5.

They were getting ready to order, and buddy showed up with the cash.

Right on! All was good.

The next shift, right at the beginning, some guys from the office, the foreman, and the union representative came and got the $5 guy, and escorted him out of the area.

It seems buddy went into somebody's locker, and took the money out of a guys locker that had a camera set up in it.

They fired him on the spot upon seeing the video.

Over $5!

Nobody could believe it.

Any one of us just would have given him the money. Not even lend it. Just give it.

I'm still shaking my head over that one.

The place was unionized and because the guy that got his money stolen didn't have authorization to have a camera in the facility, he was also reprimanded with a write up.

We had this idiot customer that come in the hardware store 3 days a week , you know the type he's been everywhere done everything and knows it all , but he doesn't realize how stupid he really acts or is . One day I had to cut a bunch of glass for window panes for a contractor. I was about half way done with the job and then the town idiot walks in. I'm cutting away on the glass and who comes back to my work area, Mr know it all ,he says what are you doing while I am looking at my list of sizes of glass to cut. I told him what I was looking at and that I was going to have to pull a nother flat sheet of glass to cut the other sizes I need. Well nature started calling and I new I better go to her . I came back to the glass department and to my shock there stood the town idiot with half of what I had cut and a hole sheet of glass I had pulled BROKEN IN A KAZILLLYOOOON. LITTLE PEACES . He said he wanted to show me the proper way to cut glass but this glass has defects in it. THATS WHEN I LOST IT AND EDUCATED HIM RIGHT THERE AND THEN. HE THAN WENT TO THE OWNER AHD TOLD HIM A…..D..S…S.H..G..M..F….THE BOSS CALLED ME INTO HIS OFFICE AND SAID THE CUSTOMERS ARE ALWAYS RIGHT. NOW YOUR FIRED . AD THAT WAS HOW IT WENT. ALL BECAUSE OF A DUM STUPID IDIOT. R L

We had the sweetest retired woman who worked part time in an agency I worked for. She was quiet, kind, always happy and positive. We all loved her.

She sat right outside my office door. Our boss tormented her constantly. He took out his stress on her because she was too polite to say anything. I heard every bit of shit she got from him. I talked her through tears more than once.

I couldn’t take it one more day.

He walked up to her desk and started on one of his rants. I lost it. I came out of my office, absolutely furious. I said “Leave her ALONE. You wanna fuck with someone, come at me!” He did, with an employee exit letter.

10/10- would do again.

I was general manager of a pregnancy resource center. It was a 501(c)(3) corporation, and we were completely dependent on donations. It was going broke when I took over. We got back to solvency within a year, without having to back off at all from the services we provided. In fact, we had grown quite a bit. There were 5 full time employees, and about 35 volunteers.

One day, right out of the blue, I was called to go to the office down the street of the chairman of our board of directors. When I got there, he and another board member summarily fired me. Before I left that office, the board chairman had written a glowing letter of recommendation for me.

Curious, I asked him why I was being let go. He said that the board had voted me out because I ran the place too much like a business and not enough like a charity. He had voted against firing me, but was outvoted. The reason they were going broke before hiring me was that no one in the place had any ability to manage money. So, making it more businesslike internally, without that being noticed by our clientele, just seemed wrong to them.

A few people are making comments about being over-educated or over-qualified for positions, however these aren’t technically ridiculous reasons. Hiring and training new staff takes time, effort, and money. Hiring someone who’s overqualified (and/or underpaid) comes with the risk of that person leaving for a more appropriate position. If an employer has given this reason for not hiring you, then they’ve not been convinced of your dedication/interest in keeping the position for any great length of time.

I think the most ridiculous reason for not getting a job are from those companies that only hire 17–18 year old people, and expect them to have 3+ years of experience in addition to completing their schooling.

Yes a few times and it's been nothing as gut wrenching as this last one. I received zero notice and had no idea. I was making more than I probably ever will again and I was working remote. My unemployment has run out effective today and my depression is getting the best of me. I've had an 18 year career with only a couple of jobs lasting 4 years or longer. It's a sad time to be 42 years old and still renting. As soon as I've saved enough for down payment along with having very high credit score the valuations of homes was too high so I waited. Now I'm out of a job, on my 4th month without work and the dreams of ever having anything continue to die a bit more each day.

Outsourcing.

My job and 150 other jobs got outsourced to India the day after I finished the last process document for the back office.

I was pissed, but I had another job that paid more a couple weeks later. It worked out okay for me.

It was completely stupid for the company. You see, they didn't tell me they wanted process documents so they could outsource. I only included the most common scenarios. I figured the subject matter experts would be available to answer questions and work the one offs.

The company laid off all of the subject matter experts.

The company decided to add another nail in the coffin by picking an outsourcer that had to bus their employees in and no one could stay over for an emergency. The outsource company could not meet the logistical needs of the company.

It took 6 months for all of jobs to come back. I along with a number of other people got offered our jobs back. I declined but others accepted.

Again, completely stupid of the company.