Firing people is no fun...unless they have it coming. These food workers had some of the stupidest, clueless, idiotic people working with them, until, that is, those stupid, clueless, idiots finally got what was coming to them and were shown the door.
(Content has been edited for clarity)
How Did He Not Feel That?!
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“He ate a bunch of illegal substances, came into work stoned as one can be and still be standing, then chased a pair of tongs into the deep fryer with his bare hands.
Not just hand. Hands.
He got mad when we told him he had to go to the hospital, so he ‘quit,’ and walked out to go down the street to Taco Bell, where he got a job application and a taco box.
Then he came back to our restaurant and asked to borrow a pen, offering me a taco in exchange for it.
I took the taco and called the ambulance. It was a weird day.”
She Swore It “Wasn’t A Problem”
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“When I managed a small local coffee shop, the new girl in the break room shook her container of pills and said she pops them whenever she feels anxious but it’s not a problem.
It became a problem when her boyfriend came storming into the shop one day and started screaming about his pill stash that went missing, and she began screaming back and threatened to take the entire bottle in front of all of the customers.
Yeah, see ya.”
That’s One Way To Treat A Piping Hot Pizza
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“I worked at a pizza place for a few years in high school. I had only been working there for a few weeks as a dishwasher, and my manager, out of his mind on substances, took a pizza fresh out of the oven and threw it onto a new cook. He had done similar things before I got hired, but was the last straw for the owners. Addiction is almost a requirement in food service.”
“He Was Perhaps The Densest Sucker I Have Ever Seen”
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“I had a kid who worked the front counter of my shop who was perhaps the densest sucker I have ever seen. I had to speak to him several times because his default position was to stand behind the register and stare into space. Even when there were customers waiting to order.
One day, while opening, I asked him to go over the opening checklist and make sure everything was done.
I went about my business, but five minutes later I look over at him, and he was still staring at the checklist. He looked up at me, nodded and said, ‘Looks good to me!’
When I asked if he was sure everything was done, he pointed to the list and showed me where things were checked off.
I sat and explained to him that those check marks had been made weeks before, and didn’t mean those tasks had been completed today. I had to hand hold him through the whole list.
Later on that day, I asked him to check on the drink cooler to make sure it was stocked. He leaned out from the counter, looked at the cooler, then back at me and nodded. ‘Looks good!'”
It Was Like Something Out Of Ocean’s 11, If Everything Went Wrong
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“While managing a Subway, I came in one Wednesday morning with my assistant manager to do weekly inventory and our twice a week safe deposit. Everyone at the store is well aware of this date.
When we counted the safe drawers and deposits, it was $600 short. I immediately called the closer but got no answer. We reviewed the cameras and saw her prop the back door open and then closed up for the night.
Thirty minutes later, two people entered the back door, grabbed the safe keys, and took a decent amount of cash. They were smart and avoided parking in our lot but I talked to the neighboring business ask for their camera feed, and sure enough, the closer and a former employee pulled into that lot, put masks on and walked over.
I called the cops, told them she’d be in for a shift in a bit. She showed up, was arrested and fired. Her claim: she needed rent money, and she was going to put it back on Friday when she got paid. I had to remind her she worked less than 20 hours a week and didn’t make enough to pay us back, which made her ball her eyes out.
I saw her a year later at another Subway. I talked to the manager; he too was missing money weekly from the safe. I still get angry messages on Facebook from her through mutual friends eight years later.”
She Thought The First Day Was A Good Time To Share That Information
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“I hired a girl to work in a bagel store, who on her first day told me she couldn’t touch any of the meats because she was vegan.
I had another guy show up for work his first day. He was doing just fine, seemed to be good with the job. I went to the office to get some paperwork for him to fill out, and he was just gone. Never came back, didn’t steal anything, no explanation at all.
The bad one was had to fire a girl for not showing up for several days in a row; then I saw in a newspaper the next week that she had been in jail the whole time because she had locked her kids in a closet while she was buying substances.”
This Driver Was A Nightmare On Wheels
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“When I managed a pizza chain store out of high school, one of the drivers was having a bad time of it and was ‘taking it out’ on the road while on delivery. On his first delivery, he ran over a customer’s dog. On the next delivery, he did a burnout in front of the customer’s house. On the third delivery, he ran a red light and got pulled over.
I pulled him aside, asked him if there was anything we (the company) could do to help, maybe some time off, etc. He told me to eff off.
I gave him a warning to keep his behavior in check, or there would be repercussions.
On his fourth, and final delivery for the night, he did a burnout while leaving the store, hit a police car, and went on a 20-minute police chase. During the chase, I texted him, ‘I hope the customer pays for that pizza, because it’s your severance, don’t come back.’ I got no reply, but then again, he spent the night in jail and wound up going to prison for a couple of years for some outstanding domestic violence warrants.
He never delivered, the customer called after 30 minutes with no delivery, so we gave him a couple of free pizzas and profuse apologies. I would hate to imagine the state of the pizza in his car right now because we have impound laws for hooning in Australia, so if he went to jail on top of that, it was likely in his car for at least three years in the impound.”
It Was Her First And Last Day, Thanks To Her Mother
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“We had a young girl start in the deli counter of the supermarket where I worked. Her family was Lebanese, and the very first day, the girl’s mother was just hanging around the counter, watching everything. After a while, the deli manager asked if she’s okay.
She said that she was just there to make sure her daughter was okay. The deli manager politely told her that she’d be fine and she could go home, but the mother refused. After a little while longer, the deli manager insisted that she leave because she didn’t appreciate being watched as she did her job and interacted with the new girl. The woman still refused.
The deli manager then gave her an ultimatum, ‘Go home now or you can take your daughter with you.’ That was the girl’s first and last day at the supermarket.”
“I Didn’t Know How Badly He Was Addicted Before That Day”
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“He got out of jail after being in the work-release program for a few months. I didn’t know how badly he was addicted before that day. I walked into the kitchen, and there was blood everywhere. He was nearly passed out, and I could see about eight morphine patches, a few on each arm. He had cut a huge chunk out of his finger trying to slice a block of cheese. Being the manager, I had to take him to the hospital to get him out of my restaurant. Obviously, when he showed up to work the next day, I let him go. He seemed surprised that he’d get fired for such a thing. He’s dead now. He overdosed last year.”
Why Bananas?
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“He stole a bunch of bananas. Seriously. It was a college dining hall. He was an employee of the dining hall and got free meals while on-shift. He was not working that day, but he walked into the serving area, hid a bunch of bananas in his bag, and tried to pass the cashier only paying for what was on his tray. When confronted and asked if he ‘had forgotten anything, maybe in his bag,’ he denied having anything else. He was fired on the spot. The worst part, he was on a meal plan (a kind of debit system, except you never get the money back at the end of the semester if you don’t spend it). He had plenty of money for the semester. I have no idea why he felt the need to steal bananas.”
That “Short, Irish, Leprechaun-Looking Idiot” Thought He Could Mix Business With Pleasure
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“My college town hamburger joint gets busy as all get out on the weekends. We had a five-man crew on a Saturday night and about an hour and a half into service, I noticed my fry boy was taking a seriously long time bringing back frozen appetizers from the cooler. I left expo in a huff and stomped to the back to yell at him. I threw open the walk-in door. This short, Irish, leprechaun-looking idiot was getting blown by the new dish girl (the owner’s friend’s barely legal daughter).
I fired him after the dinner rush.”
The Workplace Isn’t The Best Place To Deal
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“I worked at this Japanese restaurant that had a new cashier every week because people would quit because they couldn’t handle one of the owners or they got fired. These are the stupidest and most memorable:
One guy got fired for selling illegal substances. The stupidest part of that is he did it in this one hallway that was away from the customers but had a camera pointed directly in the area, so there was video evidence of what he was doing.
Another guy got hired to work as a cook and showed up wasted the first day. I had to pick him up at the bus stop and saw him finishing a tall boy, but I thought maybe it was just one. He’d definitely had more since he almost set fire to the kitchen he was so wasted. I ended up giving him a ride back to the bus station, which was incredibly awkward.
Then there was this delivery driver that tried to change the tip on his delivery. It was so obvious, but we still ended up calling the customer to confirm what they had tipped, and we were right.”
He Couldn’t Stand For Anyone Else To Be The “Funny Guy”
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“I used to work at a popular coffee chain and we had this supervisor who was an actor in all these local community theater productions and wanted to get into stand up comedy. Well, if somebody was funny, he obviously got ticked off that he wasn’t the one in the limelight. A new guy was hired who was funny and the supervisor was always being a prick to him, giving him the crappiest jobs and picking on him. One night, the supervisor was being a complete jerk and a bunch of us piped up to tell him to chill out and that he’s being a prick. Something snapped. The supervisor lost it, went in the backroom and grabbed a bunch of frozen donuts and just came out and threw them at the funny guy angrily. The whole time, he was just swearing at him and berating him. Then he walked out the back door and walked off down the street.
We all thought he quit on the spot, but he just went to smoke and came back 10 minutes later. By that point, someone called the manager, and she came in and canned him on the spot. He broke down crying in what had to be the most pathetic, snot ridden scene I’ve ever witnessed.”
Looking Over The Receipts, Something Just Didn’t Add Up
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“One day at an old job, we got a call from a customer complaining that her credit card statement didn’t match her receipt. It was $5 over. We got another call later that day saying the same thing. Later on, a dude walked in to complain… the same thing. Two more people came in later. Their waiter had added $5 to each of their tips. They were all at the same table. They’d had lunch together for a work meeting and had noticed the discrepancies when the first woman’s itemized receipts didn’t match up to what they said they had spent. Once she asked her colleagues if it was the same for them, the jig was up. Idiot. He was fired on the spot, rightfully. And the customers got a load of gift certificates.”
The Case Of The Missing Busser Was Quickly Solved
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“I was an assistant manager at a restaurant for a while, and one of the newer bussers had called in three times in his first two weeks. He called in on Saturday telling me he was deathly sick and couldn’t even get out of bed.
Around 9 p.m., after the dinner rush, one of my servers asked me to check on table 42. I turned the corner, and there was the ‘sick’ busser, stoned out of his mind with two buddies.”
Tables Were Waiting For Almost An Hour
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“I had an employee apologize to two different tables for forgetting to enter their food order. They had been waiting 45 minutes, and nothing was in the system.
We looked at the camera system because he had been acting weird all day. After he wrote down their order, he proceeded to go outside and fire up a joint. He was apparently too high to remember to put in the order.
It was his first, and last day.”
He Couldn’t Keep His Eyes Off Them
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“A busser kept staring at everyone’s chest. I mean, literally EVERYBODY who was in the restaurant. Especially co-workers, but also customers. And not just attractive females of a similar age. We’re talkin’ frail Grandma Betties with tennis ball walkers. Gaze locked in, stationary. Regardless of age, size, or other deterring factors, if it was a female, his eyes were laser-locked on to Sweater Kitten Town USA. Of course, once I found out, he was fired immediately. That was a pretty awkward conversation.
To this day, I have never encountered someone who admired the female form as much as he.”
She Couldn’t Stand Even A Hint Of Criticism
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“I ran a delivery sub shop and fired people for many crazy reasons. I could go on and on with outrageous stories.
The silliest was when one of my delivery drivers got dropped off at work. When I asked her why she didn’t have a car to take deliveries, she didn’t see why it was even an issue. ‘Okay just go ahead and walk back home then. Bye Felicia.’
Then there was this guy selling a little something extra on his deliveries, like c’mon dude.
The best story is actually about a lady (twice my age) who quit because I wrote her up. She missed a shift, and usually, that’s automatic termination, but I decided I’d let her catch a break. Honestly, I just felt bad for her. But the next day when she came in, she started screaming and demanding an apology for disrespecting her, and when I denied my need to apologize, she ripped off her shirt, threw it in my face and stormed out to the bus station to wait for a ride home. Like, what…? She rode the bus to work so she could quit and ride it back home.
Every day was an adventure at that job, that’s for sure.”
“By The Fourth Or Fifth Case, You Could Really Smell And Feel The Difference”
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“I’m not ashamed to admit it, in my last two years of high school and a year afterwards, I worked at KFC.
It wasn’t the traditional job there though; I don’t know how I lucked into it. Evenings were cleaning up, prepping the salads and chicken and what not.
The guy who trained me was teaching me how to prep chicken. I won’t get into details, but it takes 30 minutes to do a case, let’s say. First, you have to wheel it out of the fridge and into the non-refrigerated prep room, prep the chicken, then put it back. This guy thought he was quick, so he would wheel six or more cases out at a time, and by the time you got to fourth or fifth one, you could smell and feel the difference. He was needed, it was a disgusting part of the job, and our manager constantly nagged him for doing this.
He continued until one day the general manager walked in unexpectedly and lost his mind. He flipped out at him, and that was the end of him.”
Who Ordered The Sandwich With Extra Glove?
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“I once worked at a Subway where one of my fellow employees ‘accidentally’ got his entire plastic glove stuck in one of the sandwiches. He had only been working there for about two weeks, but he had already been in trouble before that. He was promptly fired after one of the customers found some plastic in their sandwich. One time before that, he drove to Subway three hours before his shift and smoked some devil’s lettuce, then he sat in the parking lot and passed out and missed his entire shift.”
He Couldn’t Figure Out Why The Door Wouldn’t Open
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“I heard this from a cop. A newbie cop was sent to the cell area to give the prisoners their meal before court. He knocked on the cell door and waited for them to open it… from the inside.
I know he did loads of other stupid stuff, too, but I can’t remember them all.
He resigned after about a month
My hubby’s brother is a head chef, and he had one guy who kept sending out goat’s cheese salad without goat’s cheese. He was asked to make vegetable soup. He was given the recipe. He peeled all the vegetables and kept the peels, and the freshly peeled veggies went in the bin. Then he tried to blend the peels and use them for the soup. Then he disappeared for three hours, and they found him out the back off his face on illegal substances.”
It’s A Wonder This Guy Lasted As Long As He Did
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“I worked at a pizza place. We had a new male server working on a busy night. The manager ran outside for a smoke after being stuck inside for four hours. That’s when the phone rang. The new server answered, and the person complained about their pizza that had just been delivered but was cold. The new server said that he didn’t know what to tell them and that they should just microwave it, then hung up. The manager wasn’t happy when they called back.
That guy didn’t get fired for that though. A week later we had to throw out the entire salad bar because he flipped a switch on it that was labeled ‘DON’T TOUCH’ when taking it down the night before. The openers didn’t realize it the next morning, and the following night, we had a salad bar at room temperature.”
The Boss Saw Something Interesting That Day
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“I wasn’t the one who fired him, but my best friend at Chick-fil-A was terminated for smoking illegal substances.
How did they know he was smoking them? A test? Arrest record?
No, he went on a break out to the first row of the parking lot during the middle of the day and lit up with his windows rolled down. The owner’s son/GM was on the roof doing maintenance work.”
He Gave The Guy One Simple Task
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“I used to manage a pizza chain. My long day at work was coming to an end when I told a new guy to vacuum the dining area. I came back 10 minutes later and heard the vacuum running but couldn’t see it or the new guy. I looked over the bar and saw the new guy vacuuming while laying down. I wanted to give him points for creativity, but he had been horrible all day, so I let him go.”
