Getting fired is no joke, but management's reasoning for firing these employees certainly is. While some of these food industry workers definitely deserved to get the ax, the reasons why are totally ridiculous.
She Gave Up So Much For Them To Treat Her So Poorly
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“I was working at a Hibachi place. When I was hired, I told them I had a ballet performance a couple months from then. They agreed that I would have that night off. When the time came, I requested it off, and it was approved. Then I was scheduled that night, and when brought it up again, they said, ‘Ok, find someone to cover for you.’ So I paid someone to cover my shift. That night they called me to say that person couldn’t work that night, and that if I didn’t come in, I would be fired. So I came in, missed my first solo that I had worked months on, and the understudy got to do my performance. It sucked. The worst part though was that at the end of the night they fired me ANYWAY. For ‘bringing a table their sherbet too early.'”
It Was Something They Got To Do All The Time, But She Was Still Punished
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“When I worked in a cafe, we were allowed to make ourselves hot drinks whenever we wanted on shift. A guy I worked with came in 20 minutes before his shift and asked the girl working the coffee machine to make him a coffee so he could sit and enjoy it before his shift started. The girl did so and then got chewed out by management and eventually fired for ‘stealing.’ Apparently, making this guy a coffee before his shift was a fireable offense, but if she waited until he started, it would have been okay. Pretty sure she sued them for it.”
She Couldn’t Even Name The Most Common Fruits And Vegetables
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“I worked at a grocery store and they hired this girl on a whim after she submitted an application that was written in colored pencils, complete with a drawing of some palm trees. On her first day, I was walking her around with the manager, showing her the produce section. She kept asking, ‘What’s this thing, what are these called?’ I get it, leeks and fennel bulbs aren’t available in every neighborhood, but she was pointing to totally common fruits and vegetables that I know she had in her house. She was born and raised in that town, has internet access and knows what a potato looks like. Clearly, she was messing with us. Then she went, ‘So these are?’
And the manager said, ‘Girl, that’s a flipping lime! You know what a lime is.’ She went on lunch break and didn’t come back. She tried to come in the next day to get paid and the store manager had to explain that you don’t get paid every day, you can’t just leave and not come back, and she’s fired.”
His Crazy Manager Actually Followed Him To His Second Job
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“I had my first real job the summer I turned 18. I was saving money so that I didn’t have to work during the fall semester at college. I had gone around town and put in applications everywhere. I ended up getting hired two places on the same day, an Albertson’s grocery store and the Applebee’s the next block over. I didn’t have any plans that summer, so I decided to work both jobs. Told the manager at Albertson’s I could only work mornings, and the Applebee’s manager I could only work nights. Problem solved, right? I’d have plenty of money for school.
What I failed to account for was the degree of crazy the Albertson’s manager had going on. She liked to write the schedule out by hand, without taking into account anyone’s availability. So you constantly had to remind her what your availability was. She also didn’t like to redo the schedule once she had written it out, so she was constantly amending it with little scribbles here and there. The weekly schedule would morph on a daily basis, so I got in the habit of taking a picture of it on my phone when I was on my way out, just to be sure I knew when I worked.
A few weeks into the summer, I was at Applebee’s working my dinner shift as a waiter when my Albertson’s manager walked in holding a piece of paper. She waved me over and when I wrapped up what I was doing, I went over to see why she had come to see me.
Crazy Manager: ‘This is a write up for being late for your shift tonight.’
Me: ‘What shift? I was there this morning. I’m not scheduled again until tomorrow morning. Are you expecting me to be late?’
CM: ‘You should have noticed that I changed the schedule, you are working tonight. It’s your job to keep track of when you are supposed to be working.’
Me: ‘You are joking right? I took a picture of the schedule on my way out when I left at 3 p.m. Did you change the schedule again?’
CM: ‘Yes. Maria is sick and will be out for a few days, so I made some changes this afternoon. You are working now, so I’ll see you there in 15 minutes or you are fired.’
So the crazy lady left to cross the parking lot back to Albertsons with every expectation that I would quit my other job to work a shift that I hadn’t been scheduled for as recently as two hours before. All of my Applebee’s coworkers, who hadn’t believed my stories about just how out of touch with reality this lady was, died laughing when I went into the kitchen and retold the events of the last couple of minutes. I finished my shift and went home.
The next day, I went to work at Albertson’s, not knowing what to expect, clocked in, got called into the office and fired for a no call no show. I briefly attempted to argue that it isn’t a no call no show if you can’t be reasonably expected to know the schedule has changed in the two hours since you last saw it. You can’t argue with crazy.”
The Accident Was His Fault, But His Co-Worker Still Caught The Heat
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“Years ago, I was a pizza delivery driver. I was on-time, conscientious, friendly, and thus well-liked by the manager.
One day, I was pulling out (with a pie in my car) and got distracted checking the address, and nearly ran over a lady pedestrian. It was totally my fault, I could’ve killed her. But I only recognized what had gone on as I was driving away, i.e. no chance to stop and apologize.
I saw her (in the rearview mirror) storming furiously into the pizza place to complain.
I got back from my run, and there’s a huge kerfuffle. Turns out, my manager had fired a new guy–a bit of whiny, annoying guy, so we’ll call him Whiner–because a customer had complained that Whiner, who had the same color car as I did, had almost run her over.
So I said to Whiner, ‘Hey, that sucks; that was me. My car is white too. Mistaken identity.’
Whiner said, ‘It was you?! You gotta come with me and tell the manager!’ And I was like, sure, only fair.
So I went to the manager and fessed up, ‘Yes, Whiner is right, it was not him that almost mowed down that old lady, it was me. I take full responsibility. Fire me if you have to.’
Manager looked pained like he just had a migraine. He looked at Whiner and said, ‘Look, it’s not just this one time, we’ve had a LOT of complaints about you. You’re still fired.’ Whiner was outraged and furious.
Clearly, this manager couldn’t admit he was wrong! What an outrage!
The altercation continues, with Whiner stomping out. To this day, he’s convinced that the manager screwed him over.
A few minutes later, the manager said to me, ‘I appreciate and respect your honesty, but your timing sucks. That guy has been nothing but trouble, and I’ve been looking for a reason to get rid of him for weeks. But I do appreciate you telling the truth.’
The manager was a great manager, by the way. Nice guy, good to us all.”
Something About His Manager’s Reasoning Seemed A Little Off
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“That someone was me. It was my first job at 16 and was the only time I’ve ever been let go.
I was, and still am, a shy person. I worked at Cold Stone for about two weeks. At this creamery, when you receive a tip in the jar, all of the employees are supposed to burst into song and sing one of several rehashed nursery rhymes who’s lyrics revolve around HOW AMAZING the place is.
Did I mention I was shy? This didn’t go over well with me, exactly. Okay, that’s fine, you have a company policy that I’m too socially inept to follow. You have to let me go, I understand. But you’d think any good manager anywhere would have the balls to be HONEST about why they were firing you. Not good ole Ravinder. He was such a coward that he actually invented a reason to fire me. Not just a reason, this guy invented an entire story to fire me.
So he called me into the sitting area, not his office. This guy decided to fire me where the customers sit. So he explained he received a message on ‘the complaint voice-mail line,’ (doesn’t exist) that I had been forward with a lone female customer and had attempted to ask her out on a date, and it made her uncomfortable. Now, at that point in time, I had never asked a girl out in my life. He alleged I somehow managed to manifest the confidence to ask a complete stranger out.
I laughed right in the guy’s face, got every customer in that place’s attention, gave him the finger, and left.
If you’re going to fire me, do it professionally, and don’t be a coward and lie about it.”
He Was Certainly Old Enough To Know Better
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“55-year-old slovenly pervert (imagine the stereotypical neckbeard with a few more under his gut covered belt) walked up to a 17-year-old female co-worker, grabbed her face in both his hands and told her, ‘I want to teach you how to please a man.’ Security escorted him out of the building 20 minutes later.”
He Was Left Alone And Had No Clue What To Do
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“I got fired from a meat market/deli for cutting cheese wrong. I rotated positions to learn them all and had done the meat section, cash register, and backroom stocking stuff. My first day in the deli, while I was being taught, my trainer had to go do something, and there was no one else to cover, so I was stuck in it alone with almost no experience. The first customer wanted sliced provolone. I tried my best with the deli cutter, and while it wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t terrible. He complained anyway. I told my trainer what happened and she said, ‘Oh, it shouldn’t be a big deal, I’ll cover for you since I shouldn’t have left you alone.’ Well, she didn’t. The next day when I came in, my boss stopped me and tried to berate me for not perfectly cutting the stupid cheese, and promptly fired me. Nothing else negative, just one customer upset about cheese.
They went out of business not too long after.”
What He Did With The Orange Was Deemed “Harassment”
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“My friend and I work at a casino as bartenders in the back, and one of our duties is to make sure our bars are stocked with fruit for garnishes for our cocktails. One night, he was cutting up oranges and he came across a moldy one. To show the surveillance cameras that it was, in fact, moldy and he wasn’t just throwing away a perfectly good orange and wasting company food, he stuck a finger in it to show, ‘Hey, this orange is too soft.’ About a week later, he was fired for ‘harassment’ even though no one was in the bar to be ‘harassed’ by the act and he didn’t even do anything to make it vaguely inappropriate.
With the help of the union, he’s fighting back and getting a great big sum of money against the casino.”
They Threatened To Take The Difference From Her Check, And That’s When Things Got Nasty
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“I worked at Subway when I was 19 years old. The dressings and sauces come in these big plastic bags, which you cut a small hole in and pour into the bottles. When you’re done, you put the bag and its remnants in the fridge for the next fill up. One day, before my shift, the owner brought me in the office where he and his brother had three half-full bags of dressing. They asked me if I threw them away instead of putting them back in the fridge. I said no; I had no clue who it could be, to be honest. They kept accusing me of it and said we could watch the tapes to find out, so I said fine, watch the tapes. They had no tapes. They kept persisting that I did it and when I finally just said I don’t know who it was, but my shift was starting, they said they needed to know if any more bags were thrown away because they were going to take it out of my check.
I told them, ‘You’re not doing that.’ They told me to leave my shirt and apron, I was being terminated. I went home and told my dad, and his first response was, ‘They fished through the trash for these bags and are going to serve it to the customers?’ So he called them and threatened to contact the board of health, they apologized profusely, and I went the next day and got my last check.
I’m sure in Massachusetts to terminate someone, you have to hand them their final paycheck at the moment of termination. Either way, screw Subway.”
The Owners Would Fire Someone At The Drop Of A Hat
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“I worked at a local family-owned restaurant during college. The place was run by fascists with no common sense, but I was averaging about $20 an hour. Everyone sucked it up because a breakfast shift was worth $200 and you’d be done by noon.
GM fired people for:
Calling a towel a rag (‘It shows you disrespect the industry!’).
Tapping a host on the shoulder to get her attention (‘Look people in the eye when you talk to them!’).
Not showing up to a shift they weren’t assigned (a server didn’t show up to a shift, and said ‘ I texted John to take it, but he didn’t respond.’ They fired John.).
Not knowing about secret items not on the menu. (‘Oh, you have to modify the [basic item] as the [secret item] and the kitchen knows how to make it.’)
I am happy to report that after 30 years and three locations, the company is now out of business after being ‘killed by millennials’ (not even kidding).”
He Was One Of Their Best Servers, But They Still Fired Him Over Some Nonsense
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“As a waiter, I was good and typically took home more than any other server. One night, a table from out of town left me a $100 bill as a tip. I rushed out and told them they made a mistake, but they said, ‘No mistake. Thanks for the service.’
Fast forward to shift end when I had to claim my tips. I had hidden the $100 bill in my sock because I didn’t want it taxed. When my assistant manager asked if that was all of the tips I wanted to claim, I said no and pulled the bill out of my sock.
I got scolded right then and there, but no actions were taken. The next day when I walked in, I was terminated by the manager for ‘theft,’ even though I was honest and claimed every dollar anyone had ever tipped me in the year I was there.”
“K” Was As Nutty As They Came
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“I worked at a restaurant a few years back. It was a terrible place to work in a shady part of town. Roaches, rats, management sleeping with servers during work hours, deals going down in the bathroom, had to have an off-duty cop work as security; just a complete disaster. I was a hostess and I had the immense displeasure to work with this CRAZY girl I’ll call K.
K was rude. She was unprofessional, unhygienic, lazy, volatile, and had to have had some form of blackmail against the GM because if anyone else had pulled half the stuff she did, they’d have at least been written up, if not fired. She blatantly stole, argued with customers, once pushed an old lady out of her way, disappeared for hours on end, and threatened several co-workers daily. I hated working with her. I would do anything I could to not work the same shifts.
What finally got her fired, though, was when she got into an argument with the DM. He told her to leave the premises, and she lost it. She spat on him, threatened to burn down the building and shoot up the place, and had to be escorted out by security. Last I heard, she was working at the Whataburger nearby. I quit that job shortly after because they were talking about bringing her back.”
By His Second Day, They’d Already Came To A Decision
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“I started working as a waiter at a fairly nice restaurant. I had never waited before. I told them that up front, and they hired me anyway. I came into work the first day and was told I had to have the menu memorized with information about all the dishes. Ok, maybe I should’ve expected that one, but still. My trainer was on my rear about memorizing the lunch menu by the end of the day, constantly asking me what ingredients are for different dishes, regardless of whether or not they’re actually listed. They were also riding me about doing everything I should be doing (again, the first day, what am I doing?) and getting mad when I didn’t know little things or couldn’t keep up with the massive parties we were serving.
Day two was the same crap, except I had the dinner menu pretty much memorized going in, but they had given me an out of date menu, so some things were wrong. The day pretty much went the same, except I was getting a little more comfortable. Apparently, that’s not okay because I tried to do things on my own and got a stern reminder to stay by my trainer (so, which one do I do? Take care of stuff or stay with the trainer?). In general, I was just frazzled the whole day. End of the day came around and the boss called me over after I took the menu test, and said I wasn’t doing well enough and looked too nervous around customers, so they wouldn’t continue training me.
At that point, I was fine with it because, I mean, screw that.”
She Was Trouble From The Moment She Walked In, But When She Killed A Man, That Was It
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“I was the delivery driver captain who trained new drivers.
I was not allowed to train a certain new driver due to her having multiple harassment claims against previous employers. Our general manager and two female drivers trained her instead. The general manager demoted himself to driver, then quit during the next six weeks.
The aforementioned new female driver had been getting complaints from other people in the parking lot for her reckless driving. She was a ditzy space cadet driving a huge SUV. One afternoon, around 5:30 p.m., she was reaching for her phone when she struck a man getting into his truck, then lost control of her vehicle and collided with another truck coming from the other direction. Knocked the man out of his shoes and he died in the hospital soon afterwards. I don’t think it’s ridiculous that she was fired. I think it’s ridiculous that she was hired, that I wasn’t allowed to train her, to sign off on her being qualified to drive (which I wouldn’t have), and that she wasn’t taken off the road after hitting parked cars in our parking lot.
I didn’t follow the court case, I don’t know what she was charged with. I know they found contraband in her car, too. The whole situation made me sick. Still had to deliver down that street, some of the neighbors threw stuff at our other drivers and harassed us for weeks.”
