Employee Who Always Arrives Early And Works Late Gets Fired For Poor Attendance — 'What Did I Do?'
Her work accused her of arriving late and leaving early when she said she did the exact opposite.
George Rudy / Shutterstock A lot of people have crazy stories about why they lost their jobs. Unfortunately, sometimes, it just happens for unfair or confusing reasons.
One woman said she was unjustly let go for poor attendance, as she always arrived early and left late. However, TikTok users who heard her story weren’t so sure.
An employee was fired for doing the very thing she said she never did.
A TikTok user known as ex_barista shared in a video that she was fired for poor attendance. However, she didn’t know how that could be possible.
“So, a couple days ago, HR called me and fired me,” she said. “I was a little confused, and I’m like, ‘What did I do?’”
“She said it was because my attendance had been poor over the past couple of months,” the employee stated.
“I asked, ‘What the [expletive] are you talking about? Because I literally show up early and leave late,’” she insisted.
“And these were the infractions,” she said before listing the supposed reasons she was fired.
First, she said, “One morning, I was 30 minutes late to work because the fire alarm in my apartment complex went off because my neighbor had a fire.”
“Another time, I left work 20 minutes early because my period started, and I bled through my pants,” she stated. “Then there was one day I used PTO because I had court for a speeding ticket,” the employee continued.
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Additionally, “I was ten minutes late to work one day because there was an accident on the highway. Then, another day, I left 20 minutes early because I wasn’t feeling well. Turned out I had COVID.”
“And those are the times that I was either late to work or left early, and what got me fired,” she said.
This employee just had one question left for viewers. “I have to drop my keys off with the HR lady in the next couple weeks, and I just wanna know, should I go live when I square up with her?”
From this woman’s perspective, she only arrived late or left early a handful of times. It paled in comparison to all of the extra work she had put in, and it was all for justifiable reasons.
This employee’s fellow TikTok users weren’t so sure of the validity of her claims.
While some people who commented on the woman’s TikTok supported her, others weren’t quite so sure about her claims of showing up early and leaving late after what she detailed.
“‘I’m always early and leave late,’” one person quoted. “[Then] proceeds to list all the times she was late.”
“So, in summary, you were frequently late,” another said.
A third person chimed in and said, “No business wants to terminate a good employee. I have to think there is more to this that you aren’t telling.”
While you can technically be fired for being late or leaving early, there is a good chance that there is more to the story.
Magara Law wrote in a LinkedIn article, “If an employee is consistently late for work, their employer may be able to discipline them, up to and including termination. However, before taking any disciplinary action, the employer should first try to speak with the employee to understand why they are late and see if there is anything that can be done to help them improve their attendance.”
So, this woman’s company really should have reached out to her to see if there was any way they could help, especially since she had valid reasons for being late and leaving early. If they didn’t, perhaps they didn’t do enough to help her.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.