35 Most Sociopathic Ways People Were Fired
That's what makes it especially heinous when some people and companies seemingly go out of their to way to grind once-loyal employees into dust. Down below are a series of unfortunate souls recalling the absolute most merciless ways they were given the boot.
1.
I worked at a Chiropractic office once. One if the girls found out she was being fired when she was on Craigslist looking for other jobs and found her job posted for another X-ray technician. She came to work pissed and stripped off her scrubs in front everyone and walked out in her undies. My hero.
2.
One capable IT employee was in the hospital due to an unexpected health emergency. They went to the hospital and fired him before his heart surgery. I s**t you not.
3.
I got fired because my boss f****d up and blamed it on me. I started my own business in the same field and made all key people leave my former employer and work for me instead. A year later they had to file for bankruptcy. Ah, the malicious delight.
4.
My dad told me once about a coworker getting fired on take your daughter to work day. It was before lunch too so they both had to be escorted out of the office carrying their brown paper lunch bags.
5.
Was fired 3 days after my kid was born for missing time because I requested the weekend that my ex was in labour off, got the go ahead from my supervisor but I guess that never made it upstairs to the top boss because they got rid of me lol.
6.
I worked in retail and our manager fired a guy after his 12 hour shift on Black Friday. Could've spent the day after thanksgiving with his family, but instead, the manager made him work in case it was busy, then fired him at the end of his shift. It was a douche move.
7.
I had a friend who worked in an office doing office type s**t. One day, his boss croaked and he was was made interim boss. Anyways, he busted his a*s in order to try and keep his new position. A month later, he interviewed. A week later, his boss called him into the office and said.... *You know, we really wanted to hire you, I was rooting for you, but someone with more experience and qualifications got the job..... do you mind training him?* They asked him to train his replacement.
8.
I posted this in an askreddit thread about a week ago, but it fits this thread perfectly: When I was in my early 20s, I was about 9 months into a job at a retail store and I had been working my a*s off for a chance to be part of a new department that the store was about to open. I aced my review and I got the promotion to the brand new department. It was going to be more challenging work, it came with a pretty hefty pay bump, I would have my own office, and the work would be impactful to the whole company. The promotion didn't kick in until the start of the next week. I was laid off that Friday. When they were asked to cut payroll, management literally selected the people who were making the most money. My name was listed next to the salary I hadn't yet received. Instead of admitting that they f****d up and keeping their best performing employee at that store, they doubled down and tried to hold my last paycheck ransom until I trained my replacement in the job that I hadn't even done yet. The store owner just happened to be around that day. Normally he was a very kind man and knew everyone by name. I tried to explain the ridiculous situation to him and he just told me to go home. In a rare moment of frustration, I said something to the effect of "You know, b******t like this kills stores". He coldly replied "Hastings will be around longer than you."
9.
Not quite fired yet, but today 3 of us publicly confronted our boss over proof of her committing fraud and embezzlement. The organization serves people with mental health conditions and we confronted her during a public meeting in front of those the organization serves. It was painful, we hated doing it, but the truth needed to come out.
10.
i was fired from petsmart for reasons i can no longer remember. immediately after the manager delivered the news, she asked me if i would mind staying for two hours to wait until the evening shift relief arrived. unpaid, of course. i laughed in her face and left.
12.
Girl I knew was here on work visa. She had been working at a company for several years that treated her well but ended up moving and got a job at a new one. Her boss apparently used her as a scapegoat, set her up with impossible, b******t tasks (like planning the office Christmas party about a week beforehand), then fired her shortly before Christmas. That meant her work visa expired and she was going to be sent back to her home country. Apparently it's the law that the employer in this case pay for the fired employee's plane ride home, and her boss chose to fly her out on Christmas.
13.
I was working 20 ft up a ladder on the side of a house. I hear a BB gun fire and the pellet hit the wall a few feet beside me. After a couple more of these I turn around tell the fat kid standing in the yard if he does that s**t again he better be able to out run my hammer. Mom starts screaming about me threatening her kid. 15 minutes later I'm unemployed.
14.
Not me but a very close friend that was working with me at the time. His shift started at 11pm, mine started at Midnight, and we were both given transportation from door to door, meaning, pick up at your house, drop off at the very office, every day. My friend was picked up on time and brought to the office as usual, 15min before his shift started. He was fired on the very spot, for some errors he had made, that in my opinion shouldn't be grounds to fire him but for a warning and coaching, but whatever, they were clauses in our original hiring contract, so, it wasn't appealed. Now comes the bad part. In my country, the last buses run at 11PM for most areas, and even earlier in some others, and he lived two cities away, and while firing him, they also revoked his access to the building and the business center where the building was located, and was escorted out, with no way to get home. And of course they wouldn't provide transportation, as he was no longer an employee, and neither could he wait outside for the buses or even his scheduled morning transport, since by firing him, the system automatically removed him from the travel routes. Couldn't they fire him at the end of his shift, or at least call him and let him know so he would have got to work on his bike? Or at least, not showed up to work that day and come in the next morning, when there are transportation options and then do the paperwork. It was awful.
15.
I know someone who went to his company mailbox and found a paycheck. It was stamped "TERM CHECK". He went to his manager and asked about it. She said "Oh. About that. You were fired..."
16.
Ex Public Accountant Here - In '09 one of the firms in my city laid off about 30 percent of its staff without warning a week after busy season (IE these poor accountants just worked 80-100 hour weeks with no days off for the last 2-3 months for an annual 50k salary). I would have literally taken off my bosses high heel and tried to stab her in the jugular, Happy Gilmore style, if she would have pulled that s**t on me.
17.
Told my boss I had a 2 week mandatory training block coming up with my reserves unit. Got told there's no way I'm not working during that 2 weeks. Told him it's not like I have a choice. Got fired.
18.
It's a long story, but I was early in my career. I wasn't fired for a good reason and I hadn't really stood up for myself yet. I just took abuse from management and did the best I could It was my GM's birthday, and we all had to pick names out of a hat, and we had to buy them a cake etc for their birthday. Well I had the GM, who wanted to do his birthday in the morning with bagels. So I picked up 30+ bagels, cream cheese, giant thing of coffee, and we had this stupid bagel birthday thing or whatever Half hour later I get back to my desk, I'm called to HR and I was fired. Oh and thanks for the bagels
19.
This one resonates to me as I was let go three weeks ago. So story time: I was hired at a company back in October by a woman whom I consider the ebst boss I ever had. Awesome person, kick as marketer, we are still friends to this day. Anyway, at the end of December before we go on a New Year Break, she tells us she is leaving for a much better company. I don't blame her, the company is awesome. Now when we get back, I instantly inherit all of her work and basically become a Director of Marketing without the title. I proceed to bust my a*s to pick up all the new duties, make sure everything is attended to, and try to make a case for being the replacement. Well the VP goes ahead and does interviews, we meet with some candidates, ultimately they hire the one who was my last choice of the four. I didn't like her. She was just off...anyway, I take it in stride and just go back to doing my job well. For the next three weeks I proceed to continue doing all of the work I was doing before she arrived, and then some, while teaching her the business and how we did things. Well three weeks ago today I come into the office, go about my routine, and then get pulled into an office where I see HR. I instantly feel sick to my stomach. She then proceeds to terminate my position due to "budget" and I am let go. No severance, no real explanation, nothing. So basically I manned a department for nearly four months, trained the new Director, and was then laid off by her three weeks into her tenure. Oh, and I found out she quickly replaced me with a friend she had worked with at four other companies. Needless to say it sucked and I was livid.
20.
My mom worked for a small medical practice that was fast on its way to bankruptcy. Her boss gave her a promotion without raise and over the course of the next year, made her fire her coworkers one by one. She came to realize the reason she was "promoted" was so her boss could make her do the firing while he avoided everyone. Her coworkers saw what was happening, but still drifted away from their friendships with my mom as they saw her as an accomplice with the boss. The stress of firing her peers and feeling completely isolated at work was really eating away at my mom right up until the day her boss fired her, too. I'm sure there's worse ways to get canned, but my mom is a sweet woman who hadn't yet learned to speak up for herself and I'm disgusted at the lack of character and integrity her boss had.
21.
Friend of mine helped secure a BIG contract for the company he was working for. An incentive for getting contracts is you get a percentage of the profit. He *Just* started working there about 2 months prior and went out own his own several states away to talk to a potential customer from a lead he got at a convention (Basically, "Oh yeah I have a buddy who's looking into that. You should meet him") in person out of his own pocket. He secured the deal, called his supervisor to tell him, was congratulated, then drove 12 hours back home. His payout would have come out to around $40,000 over 5 years Went into work the next day and was fired for "suspicion of theft" and the boss of the division (not the supervisor, that guy is lower) would be taking over all his current stuff. He lawyerd up immediately but since he was still on his probationary period and they could fire him without cause nothing but the finders fee (around $3000) was to be paid to him. Basically his boss tossed him to get some free money.
22.
Once when I worked in an office, they told us that we had to visit "corporate" for a presentation about sexual harassment in the office. We were broken in to groups to go on different days. Monday - Thursday, the groups got a video on harassment. The Friday group got fired en mass. The whole thing was a set up.
23.
I was in a wreck on New Year's Day of 2009. A drunk driver hit me, injuring my leg up really badly. The driver didn't have insurance, their tags were fake, and their license was suspended at the time of the accident, so I was f****d. I couldn't walk and my job was being a soda merchandiser, so I was on my feet all day long. After reporting this to my employer, they told me to concentrate on getting well and to report back to management after seeing the doctor after a week or two of rehab. My doctor stated I may have to have surgery and wanted to run some tests, so I called my boss after an appointment. While I was being rolled out of the waiting room in a wheelchair, my boss fired me over the phone.
24.
I got notice while on holiday. The day before I was supposed to fly back. I ended up just not getting the plane back and living in holiday city with a new job
25.
I was a teacher at a Christian private school in Jakarta for about a year before I was removed. Going into the job I fibbed a bit saying that I was a practicing Christian as the pay was pretty solid and had a buddy working there who did the same. Anyhow, the year goes by relatively smoothly aside from constant headbutting with the head of English, Jimmy. I was teaching grades 10 and 11 IGCSE and AS English Language, and after the initial transition phase, my students really took a liking to my teaching methodologies. Mr. Jimmy was a very strict, by-the-book, examinations every two weeks type of teacher, and I wasn't. I went in and figured for the kids to do well, they first needed to enjoy it, and so I spent the good part of my first few weeks getting the kids interested in various readings, neat ways of looking at writing etc. Anyhow, this didn't sit well with Mr. Jimmy, and so we would have constant debates in staff meetings over the way I was teaching my courses. He was the head of English, I was new, I get it. But my kids were eating it up, and they were doing better than ever! Anyhow, between our clashes, and my lack of enthusiasm for going to chapel every Friday afternoon, my time at the school came to a head towards the end of the school year. As the grade 10s missed chapel one Friday to sit a test, Mr. Jimmy decided that he would give his own to the grade 10s. So one Wednesday morning, myself and the other grade 10 homeroom teacher took our classes to Jimmy's sermon, and boy oh boy was it something. Now, just to give you an idea of Jimmy, this dude is an ultra-conservative Christian from the sticks of West Virginia. Heavyset, short, and slow-speaking with a thick drawl. He constantly reminded students that "humans couldn't have evolved from monkeys." I'm not much for Abrahamic religion, but it's never really bothered me either, and I find it's more the wingnut members of the religion that tarnish the name--and Jimmy was definitely one of these. Anyhow, we get to the little session and Jimmy says that this session would be about "defending you faith," which didn't bode well. He started the shindig by talking about being "assaulted, insulted and mocked" by all of the Muslims "running around Indonesia hating Christians." Oh boy. I had been in Jakarta for two years by that time, and despite the recent unfortunate elections in the city, it's a very moderate place (and country in general). Not once had I heard anyone mock any religion, nor do you see people proselytizing or pushing their faith on others. Sorry, I take that back, everywhere except this Christian school. Anyhow, I kind of reach my boiling point (I'm against religions of any kind being in schools) and raise my hand, and ask, "Mr. Jimmy, don't you think that we should just do what Jesus did, and turn the other cheek?" He looks in my direction, keen to my discontent, and responds that "No, we need to give our children of god ammunition with which to fight the people that insult our religion." I mean, that's pretty heavy stuff for 15-year-olds. After my question, a few other students who had talked to me in private about their lack of faith, questioning of faith, atheism etc began to raise their hands. Jimmy goes nuts. He starts rattling off bible passages, shouting, telling the students that it was no place for questioning (it is a school isn't it?) and generally throwing a temper tantrum. I had had enough. I got up quietly, and left the room. Two weeks later while my grade 11 students were sitting their AS exams, and whilst I was invigilating, I was asked by the vice principle to head downstairs to meet the head of the school. I was told that I "didn't present a uniform front for the school, called into question my own religiosity, caused students to begin questioning religion, and undermined my senior." I presented my case, explained that had Jimmy heard this same sermon, but in an Islamic school, he'd likely label them terrorists as the subject matter was just too extreme. They didn't hear me out, and gave me two options: 1. Resign with a payout for the rest of my contract (about 2 months) 2. Or be fired and get nothing. Realizing that it wasn't worth the time and effort, I "resigned." A few days later all of the teachers and students wore purple ribbons to school as a show of solidarity for me, parents called the school upset, the head of the school ended up resigning and moving countries. Later, I also found out that 90% of my students ended up with A* and A marks--the rest earned Bs, and they were the highest ranked classes in the past few years at that school. I still keep in contact with some of my students from the school, and life only got better after leaving, so, whilst it makes a fun story, it only impacted my life for the better!
26.
We were having a departmental meeting, and the head of engineering, Myron, was giving a speech about how all of our customers are happy - and how all of his ideas are f*****g awesome. Both of these were very false, so he was either lying or is disillusion. Next his boss is giving her presentation, and the little email message popped up at the bottom corner of the screen saying "You need to fire Myron" . Myron was soon fired... and good riddance.
27.
My first job ever was for Baskin Robbins when I was 15. I went in for my first day of training excited to finally be making pocket money! The owner made me try to memorize the ice cream flavours in the first 30 seconds of being there. When I was unable to recite them perfectly in their order he did this big hand motion and screamed "training over!" I laugh now but man that was crushing for a nervous teenager.
28.
I worked at a place that was sold to investors, they brought in a hotshot CEO to bump up the numbers, then sold to our major competitor. During the transition, about 20 people were let go in one day. The head of HR (M) and the other HR employee (F) spent all day at it. It wasn't easy, since a lot of the employees had been there since the early days, 15+ years. There were tears, some shouting, the awkward "Hey Imma just stand here casually while I make sure you don't get weird while you clean out your desk also I'm so sorry this is happening" thing... After a whole day of that, the head of HR turns to the other HR employee and tells her, "Oh BTW we're gonna have to let you go too." You may ask, how did I know there were tears, shouting, etc.? Because that skeezy b******e head of HR shared all the gory details with my coworker the next day, in our open office workspace. She didn't ask, but he needed to tell someone. To this day I get mad thinking about it.
29.
Headed out with family to celebrate at a Christmas Eve service, phone dinged because I inadvertently got copied on an email from my boss to an office assistant, directing her to draft up a letter terminating me "for cause", starting with the "unsatisfactory" job I did painting the entire new office on my own time when I started the job as an associate attorney one year prior. I immediately called him to ask "WTF?", He responded that he couldn't talk because he was in a church service with his family.
30.
My buddy moved across the country for a job. At the end of his second week he was informed they were going to let him go as part of a large reduction in force. He had moved all of his stuff and signed a year lease of an apartment. When he complained that this really screwed him over and the company had to know this was coming well before he started and should have just told him to not come his now former boss patted him on the back, chuckled, and told him something like "life's not fair." My buddy ended up getting the last laugh. His dad's best friend was an attorney with all the right connections in that state. His old company settled with him when they were served with a lawsuit, claiming something like fraud and deception. He ended up settling for something that was over double his yearly salary.
31.
On night shift a coworker comes in and tries to log into the computer system. It doesn't work. She's locked out of everything. She'd also had trouble clocking in. The night shift supervisor is off that night. This lady starts freaking out and crying. She says she knew they were looking for a reason to fire her. When were they planning on telling her? What is she suppose to do now? Despite multiple people reassuring her that if they were going to fire her, this is not the way they would do it and suggesting there might just be a mistake, she is still determined that she's been fired and they forgot to tell her before they cut her access. She goes home and doesn't come in the next night either. She won't answer calls, and is out for the rest of the next week. Turn's out they hadn't fired her, but they had been looking for a reason to fire her. Not calling and not showing up for work was enough of a reason, so then she really was fired.
32.
I found out today when I got an email from a client stating. " was suppossed to be here today and won't answer his phone". I make a couple calls only to find out EmployeeX was asked to resign and nobody bothered to inform his accounts. I flew out of state to smooth things over (I'm in the hotel lobby right now, as this happened today).
33.
Summoned 17 people (~20% of the entire workforce) to the operations manager's office 8 am Friday. The day before the Company Christmas party, where bonuses are handed out. Usually to the tune of $2k each. Two weeks before Christmas, no job, no bonus, needing to cancel a date night with their SOs. Morale wasn't too good. Two months later another wave of firings occurred, one of the guys was partying in LA the night before and called in sick. They forced his supervisor to call him repeatedly at home, telling him it was mandatory he showed up. He lived 35-40 minutes away. HR was waiting in the parking lot. Parked, they handed him a packet and check, turned around and drove 40 minutes back home.
34.
I made the horrifically naive mistake of telling a co-worker (I thought was a decent person) I was putting out feelers after the clinic I was on probationary period at extended my probationary period for a third time instead of hiring me on. The very next day I was called into the administrators office and was ordered to explain why I would be so disloyal. I explained that I had become concerned when they extended my probationary period for a third time and I was only putting out feelers. The administrator claimed that they had invested a lot of time and money into me and that I had nothing to worry about - I wasn't going anywhere. So, the next day when I was scheduled to have my weekly meeting with the very same administrator I was feeling quite relaxed and confident. I sat casually in the office and smiled at her when she came in looking all tense. She then proceeded to tell me that I was being let go. When I asked "Why? You said I had nothing to worry about yesterday." She just sighed and said "You just don't seem confident that you're going to get the job." There was a brief moment of me silence and I said "You mean you're firing me because I don't seem confident you're not going to fire me?" That's when she got flustered - like visible upset, smacked her hands on the table and said while shuffling papers nervously "You know this is a Right To Work State, right?" "Yes?" "That means I don't have to give you a reason, they are just letting you go." Then she offered to call security because I guess she thought I was going to be as upset about losing that s**tastic job as she was about having to fire me in such a s****y way. I assured her that security was unnecessary and that I would leave quietly. It was embarrassing, bewildering, and obviously quite unethical, but that's living in a Right To Work State for ya, o and working in a hospital.
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