Getting a job requires hard work and perseverance, but losing one can be as easy as making a single mistake. A user took it to the forum, and asked “What’s the one mistake that ended your career?”, and here are the top responses.
LACK OF SELF CARE
“14 years of arboriculture, coming to an end now. Not sure of the next job.”, said one user.
“20 years as a contractor. My knees can’t carry me up a flight of stairs anymore, let alone bring up tools or materials. Time for something new I guess”, said another user.
ONE HUMAN ERROR COST ME MY JOB
“Worked retail pharmacy for 10(ish) years. One day in the drive-thru we had a belligerent patient. Guy’s doc sent his script to our other chain about 1.5 miles down the road.
We were on the same street, addresses got mixed up all the time. No biggie, give me 10 minutes and I’ll have it ready…
The dude just starts laying into me for no reason. Calls me an idiot, incompetent, etc. Says he knows where his doctor sent it and that I am lazy.
After a few MINUTES going back and forth, with this guy yelling loud enough in my drive-through that other staff inside the store can hear him, I tell him he needs to leave and find a new pharmacy.
The guy lays into me again. Refuses to leave. I tell him “Get lost or I’m calling the police.”
Apparently, that was over the line for my company. No interview with HR. No discipline. No suspension. Just straight up fired me about 3 weeks later after an “internal investigation”.”, said one user.
STANDING UP FOR WHAT IS RIGHT
“I led and recruited a sales team. One of the female sellers admitted that our CEO was sexually harassing her.
Got her to confess to our Sales Manager. Found out that more of our female staff had similar experiences so I rallied them as I needed evidence before proceeding.
The CEO got an ear full from HR. Proceeds to pressure all his female victims until one of them drops my name. I get fired.”, said another user.
DOING SOMETHING SILLY FOR FUN
“I got fired for building a castle out of Christmas chocolate biscuit boxes in the warehouse of a major retailer on a night shift and for falling asleep in it for a few hours.”, said one user.
“I was a baker at Tim Horton’s. The other baker was a little weird. I used straws, napkins, fondant, and a couple dropped Timbits to create a pretty accurate version of him. Even made him a ball cap out of a bottle cap.”, said another user.
PUNCTUATING BACK
“One of the Directors wasn’t happy with some work I’d done, started poking me hard with his finger to punctuate his comments. I punctuated back considerably more forcefully.”, said another user.
FALSE ACCUSATION
“I was the assistant director at a summer camp. One of the very last nights was a sleepover night where all of the campers were there, but not all of the regular day staff.
Two of the counselors were caught drinking beer, and in an attempt to weasel his way out, one of them told the head of the camp that I gave him permission to do so (I most definitely had not).
While I didn’t get fired on the spot or have my year-end bonus withheld like the other two, I was told I wouldn’t be asked back again for next year when there had already been talks of me being a full director in the future.”, said one user.
BAD MOUTHING THE COMPANY
“I talked to other employees about the company. They told the manager about it. I Got fired. The good part is it’s illegal and the idiot created a paper trail around it.”, said one user.
BROWSING THINGS USING THE COMPANY’S WIFI
“I got fired for browsing for another job while at the job.”, said one user.
“I did exactly this and am at a much better job for the last 4 months.”, said another user.
LACK OF POLITICAL ACUMEN
“Got security responsibilities added to my duties as a sysadmin at a small university.
Was asked by my boss’s boss, the IT director, to do a security audit. He asked me to report on the audit at a department meeting.
I asked if I could present my results to him privately instead and have him present at the meeting, but he insisted I could take care of it.
My report showed major security holes, demonstrations of tests of said holes, and recommendations for patching the holes.
Many of the patches were at the level of “change the administrator password from ‘password’ to something less obvious”.
As my political acumen was near zero at the time I didn’t realize how the report on major security problems made the IT Director look completely incompetent in front of the entire department – he had built and configured the campus computer system pretty much on his own, at least in his mind, and was quite proud of his accomplishment.
He suspended me on the spot, demoted me and tried to convince the university to fire me and tried to press criminal charges on me for hacking into the university’s computer systems.”, said one user.
MISDIRECTED EMAIL
“I sent a scathing email about my boss directly to my boss. It wasn’t meant for him. To this day I still have no idea what possessed me to put his name in the address bar. I noticed his name the exact moment I hit send. I have never felt that much panic.”, said one user.
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The article was originally published on Mrs Daaku Studio.