Employees Share The 4 'Dumbest' Reasons Their Co-Workers Got Fired

For people living in the US, our jobs are where we spend most of our waking hours. Our co-workers become an integral part of our lives, whether we like them or not. Our bosses have a say in our livelihood and well-being, in that they control whether or not we stay on the job. 

Getting fired is a rite of passage in the working world. Sometimes, people are let go for legitimate performance-based reasons. Other times, it seems like upper management is searching for any possible excuse to fire people. 

People on the subreddit r/AskReddit weighed in on various situations where someone they worked with was unceremoniously set free.

Employees shared 4 of the ‘dumbest’ reasons their co-workers got fired

1. ‘Stealing’ from work

Of course, stealing products from the workplace is a valid reason to lose your job, but sometimes, the repercussions for taking something are larger than what was actually taken. One person shared that a co-worker got fired for “breathing helium from a balloon.”

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Another person told a more involved story about the combination movie theater and coffee bar where they once worked. One Thanksgiving holiday, they were given a meal to share. As the person explained, “A guy working the coffee bar got himself a serving of whipped cream… He was suspended immediately for theft, then fired.”

Photo: Canva Studio / Pexels 

The disproportionate weight of the consequences for helping himself to some whipped cream clearly shows that the managers cared more about their product than the people who worked for them.

2. Being sick

Of all the things we can’t control, getting sick is one of them. Taking a sick day shouldn’t be penalized, yet as some people on the forum noted, they or someone they knew had been fired for calling out. “They got sick and missed 5 days in one year,” said one person.

Another person shared their own tale of workplace woe, saying, “I got fired from Walmart for calling out three times in a year. Two were in a row because my face was swollen and I had to go to the doctor for emergency surgery and I came back with a doctor's note. Didn't matter though.”

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Companies often tell workers, “We’re a family here,” which is a red flag in its own right. Yet families don’t punish people for taking care of themselves, and clearly, corporations do.

3. Taking advantage of remote work

Various people explained situations at their work where employees took advantage of the remote work environment we've found ourselves in these past four years.

One person described a co-worker “on their first day of onboarding... She calls into the Zoom from the airport, waiting to board a flight to the Caribbean for vacation.”

Another person described a co-worker’s egregious decision to leave work early without clocking out. They said, “She’d leave at 12 [or] 1 and then text someone around 5 [or] 6 to log her out.”

Photo: pixelshot / Canva Pro

Management didn’t penalize her for leaving early, until one day, she took a sandwich from the office fridge that wasn’t hers.

She “literally walked up to the very co-worker whose lunch she stole and asked him, ‘Hey, what’s in this sandwich?’ She didn’t know it was his.” The act of taking food that wasn’t hers is what got her fired, and “They finally decided to get her for time clock fraud, too.”

Yet another person shared a story of a co-worker who never logged into work, saying, “It was a remote job, he was new, we weren't expecting a lot of him. But he wouldn't log in or respond to Teams messages asking how he was doing in an entire day.”

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Someone else commented on the issue of remote work, in general, noting, “Remote work is freedom under personal responsibility. And some people just don't take that responsibility.”

They shared that someone they knew “just straight-up stopped working when she was switched to WFH. She literally didn't understand that there are systems in place to see if she actually, you know, logs in to her work computer. She simply thought ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ if the boss can't see her the boss can't know she's not logged in.”

4. Being a little late

Showing up on time to work is important, but sometimes, the rest of our lives get in the way. As long as we take accountability for our tardiness and make up for the lost time, there should be some level of flexibility.

One person commented that a co-worker would consistently come in 20 minutes late because he was making sure his kid got to school safely. “He also worked at least 20 minutes late in the evenings to balance it out,” they said, “Everyone was aware of this arrangement, and he was a great worker.”

Photo: Chevanon Photography / Pexels

According to this person’s account, the “lunatic who ran the place… Decided to fire the guy for being late one day,” despite him always making up for his missed time at the end of the day. “About one week later, they had to hire him back because he was the only person on the shop floor who had his act together and could handle the more complex jobs.”

A different person noted an equally harsh lateness policy at their workplace, sharing, “Someone at the company I used to work for got fired for being 1 minute late.”

Job security has become an illusion in the modern workplace.

Getting fired for performance reasons is a difficult but valid reality. Unfounded reasons for being fired highlight just how precarious the workplace environment has become. We’re told to go above and beyond for the companies we work for, yet that level of care isn’t reciprocated. 

It all goes to show that even though we’re told to do so, we can’t center our lives around work entirely, or we’ll likely end up getting burned.

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Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.