Reading these stories from Reddit might just make you feel better about yourself. At least you've never been fired for throwing frozen doughnuts at people, right? (Or maybe you have.) When one Reddit user asked, "Managers of Reddit, what is the stupidest thing an employee did that forced you to fire them?" people unleashed the truth. Check out all of the stories ahead, and try not to cringe.
Gift-Card Thief
"Every year during the holiday season, I'd warn the new hires, 'Listen, no matter how tempting it is, don't steal a customer's gift card. We can track it, I will track it and if I catch you, you will get fired. Every year people try it; every year people get fired. Don't do it.' They do it anyway." — @lestermason Serial Reseller
"Girl decides to start stealing some of our products from the warehouse and sell them on eBay...as brand-new, with factory warranty. It only took a couple of weeks before we started getting calls for tech support for products with serial numbers we did not have registered as 'sold' in the system. Brief investigation leads straight to her. "She is fired (of course), and legal action pursued, but the sad angle to the story is that her father worked there, too, and we were forced to make him stay at home with no pay until it could be determined beyond any doubt that he wasn't involved." — @beeps-n-boops Stroke Of Stupidity
"New guy, around 20 years old or so, called in sick saying he thinks he had a stroke. Since he lived across the street from the store where we worked, we all then stood and watched through the store's glass door as he packed up his truck with beach gear and drove off with his girlfriend. Fired the next day." — @MachineGunTeacher Tip Faker
"Forging a tip on a receipt. Like adding $20 wasn't going to get caught." — @pawvel_catsyuk Taco Trouble
"I had an assistant manager who would short the till every single day $3.64; it was always the same amount and we could never prove it was him...even though it clearly lined up with only his shifts. Day or night. Until one day, he came back from lunch at Taco Bell in our parking lot, and my other assistant saw his lunch and thought to herself, That looks good! And walked across the street on her break and ordered the same thing. Her total? $3.64! She immediately came back and told me; I pulled all the drawers and sure enough one was short that exact amount! "The kicker... When he was sat down by our DM to be terminated, all they told him was, 'We know what you've been stealing!' And his response was, 'Oh! You finally figured out I was stealing all those Skechers Shape-Ups?!' (For those that don't remember...those shoes were $130 a pair!)" — @pratorian Table 420
"I was 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 go check on table 42. I turn the corner and there is the 'sick' busser stoned out of his mind with two buddies eating." — @Half_Past_Five Bagel Tantrum
"Boss had to fire a lady in our office because she lost her 'marbles' when someone ate her bagel from the fridge. She literally had a tantrum, like a toddler. Also, the girl who ate it, ate it by mistake. She thought it was a bagel from the office breakfast we had earlier that same morning (it was in the same packaging as the office stuff). Now, I absolutely hate it when people eat my lunch, but the girl who ate the bagel profusely apologized. Even stated she would go and buy her a new one right on the spot. But tantrum lady couldn't let it go. So, that ended up being her last night." — @kt20871936
Pink Drink
"I had a server tell a customer he was 'a pussy' for ordering white Zinfandel." — @knotclever1 Doughnut Launcher
"I used to work at a popular coffee chain and we had this supervisor who was an actor in all these local community-theater things and wanted to get into standup 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 really funny and supervisor was always being a dick to him, giving him the shittiest jobs and picking on him. One night, supervisor is being a complete asshole and a bunch of us pipe up to tell him to chill out and he's being a dick. Something snapped. Supervisor absolutely lost it, went in the back room, and grabbed a bunch of frozen doughnuts and just came out and was throwing them at funny guy angrily and just swearing at him and berating him. Then, he just 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 a cigarette and came back 10 minutes later. By that point, someone called the manager and she came in and canned him on the spot, and he broke down crying in what had to be the most pathetic, snot-ridden scene I've ever witnessed. Awesome." — @toconn Naked Chef
"I knew someone at Subway who did NOT get fired for going to the washroom and taking off his pants and underwear. "He was making sandwiches wearing only an apron and shirt. "The manager laughed at him. I think the entire store must have been on drugs." — @CharmanderMeanderer Camera Creep
"Not a manager, but someone was recently fired from my job for something so stupid it probably inspired a few dozen face-palms. I work at a retail store of a very well-known technology company. Customers very often trade in their old smartphones for a credit when they buy a new one. Protocol is to erase the old phone in the customer's presence. One employee didn't erase the phone, went through the camera roll, found some pictures he liked (the customer was female), and emailed them to himself, using the customer's email account that was logged into the phone. The customer found the emails in her Sent box and complained to management. He was several levels of fired." — @NJtoTheBay Hamburger Not-Helper
"Went on Facebook and recorded themselves, live, licking a burger patty and putting it in a bun, then putting it together and sending it down the line. "We're friends on Facebook. "I watched it live. "I went in on my day off to fire them." — @ChromePunch
"Every year during the holiday season, I'd warn the new hires, 'Listen, no matter how tempting it is, don't steal a customer's gift card. We can track it, I will track it and if I catch you, you will get fired. Every year people try it; every year people get fired. Don't do it.' They do it anyway." — @lestermason Serial Reseller
"Girl decides to start stealing some of our products from the warehouse and sell them on eBay...as brand-new, with factory warranty. It only took a couple of weeks before we started getting calls for tech support for products with serial numbers we did not have registered as 'sold' in the system. Brief investigation leads straight to her. "She is fired (of course), and legal action pursued, but the sad angle to the story is that her father worked there, too, and we were forced to make him stay at home with no pay until it could be determined beyond any doubt that he wasn't involved." — @beeps-n-boops Stroke Of Stupidity
"New guy, around 20 years old or so, called in sick saying he thinks he had a stroke. Since he lived across the street from the store where we worked, we all then stood and watched through the store's glass door as he packed up his truck with beach gear and drove off with his girlfriend. Fired the next day." — @MachineGunTeacher Tip Faker
"Forging a tip on a receipt. Like adding $20 wasn't going to get caught." — @pawvel_catsyuk Taco Trouble
"I had an assistant manager who would short the till every single day $3.64; it was always the same amount and we could never prove it was him...even though it clearly lined up with only his shifts. Day or night. Until one day, he came back from lunch at Taco Bell in our parking lot, and my other assistant saw his lunch and thought to herself, That looks good! And walked across the street on her break and ordered the same thing. Her total? $3.64! She immediately came back and told me; I pulled all the drawers and sure enough one was short that exact amount! "The kicker... When he was sat down by our DM to be terminated, all they told him was, 'We know what you've been stealing!' And his response was, 'Oh! You finally figured out I was stealing all those Skechers Shape-Ups?!' (For those that don't remember...those shoes were $130 a pair!)" — @pratorian Table 420
"I was 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 go check on table 42. I turn the corner and there is the 'sick' busser stoned out of his mind with two buddies eating." — @Half_Past_Five Bagel Tantrum
"Boss had to fire a lady in our office because she lost her 'marbles' when someone ate her bagel from the fridge. She literally had a tantrum, like a toddler. Also, the girl who ate it, ate it by mistake. She thought it was a bagel from the office breakfast we had earlier that same morning (it was in the same packaging as the office stuff). Now, I absolutely hate it when people eat my lunch, but the girl who ate the bagel profusely apologized. Even stated she would go and buy her a new one right on the spot. But tantrum lady couldn't let it go. So, that ended up being her last night." — @kt20871936
Pink Drink
"I had a server tell a customer he was 'a pussy' for ordering white Zinfandel." — @knotclever1 Doughnut Launcher
"I used to work at a popular coffee chain and we had this supervisor who was an actor in all these local community-theater things and wanted to get into standup 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 really funny and supervisor was always being a dick to him, giving him the shittiest jobs and picking on him. One night, supervisor is being a complete asshole and a bunch of us pipe up to tell him to chill out and he's being a dick. Something snapped. Supervisor absolutely lost it, went in the back room, and grabbed a bunch of frozen doughnuts and just came out and was throwing them at funny guy angrily and just swearing at him and berating him. Then, he just 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 a cigarette and came back 10 minutes later. By that point, someone called the manager and she came in and canned him on the spot, and he broke down crying in what had to be the most pathetic, snot-ridden scene I've ever witnessed. Awesome." — @toconn Naked Chef
"I knew someone at Subway who did NOT get fired for going to the washroom and taking off his pants and underwear. "He was making sandwiches wearing only an apron and shirt. "The manager laughed at him. I think the entire store must have been on drugs." — @CharmanderMeanderer Camera Creep
"Not a manager, but someone was recently fired from my job for something so stupid it probably inspired a few dozen face-palms. I work at a retail store of a very well-known technology company. Customers very often trade in their old smartphones for a credit when they buy a new one. Protocol is to erase the old phone in the customer's presence. One employee didn't erase the phone, went through the camera roll, found some pictures he liked (the customer was female), and emailed them to himself, using the customer's email account that was logged into the phone. The customer found the emails in her Sent box and complained to management. He was several levels of fired." — @NJtoTheBay Hamburger Not-Helper
"Went on Facebook and recorded themselves, live, licking a burger patty and putting it in a bun, then putting it together and sending it down the line. "We're friends on Facebook. "I watched it live. "I went in on my day off to fire them." — @ChromePunch