Not everyone is cut out to work a certain job, but most can usually make it past the first week, at the very least. These poor saps just didn't make the cut, much to their embarrassment, shame, or fury. Whether it was because of something they did or just bad luck, they all got fired within their first week on the job.
(Content has been edited for clarity.)
He Didn’t Realize Playing Tennis Would Land Him In Hot Water
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“I used to do tennis court maintenance on an island at a resort in Florida. On my first day, the shop pro was late and I was just sitting on a golf cart after brushing the clay courts while Monica Seles was just standing around, waiting. She said, ‘Want to hit a few balls?’ I was down, how awesome is this? If you’ve never played with a professional tennis player before, you have no idea how fast that ball comes flying at you. It was like she was just practicing serving at me and I may have, being generous, tipped a couple maybe. Well, the shop pro showed up 15 minutes later and they did their thing. They came up to me afterward and told me I was fired because policy said the court maintenance could not interact with the pros. Best thing I’ve ever gotten fired for!”
Everyone Thought The Stranger In The Lunchroom Just Worked There
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“A coworker of mine had to fire a new employee on his team on day four.
The new hire brought her girlfriend to work (who was not employed with us). The girlfriend sat in the lunchroom on her laptop, working on God knows what. This occurred for two days before anyone realized she didn’t work here. We told the new hire to tell her to leave. She said, ‘If she goes, then I go.’
They both left.”
They Wore High Visibility Vests For A Reason
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“It was this girl’s first day working in a specialty Alzheimer’s ward. The patients wore high visibility vests to make them easily identifiable to staff. One patient asked the new girl to open the exit for them, and she assumed they were some kind of contractor and allowed six high visibility vest wearing Alzheimer’s patients out of the building. Apparently, it took all afternoon and the help of the police to track them all down.
She was let go after that.”
They Made Her Cry In The “Happiest Place On Earth”
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“They told me I started at 8 a.m. on the 14th. I said okay and submitted all the paperwork for background checks. It wasn’t a formal type job with an offer letter or anything, so of course, I didn’t have a start date in writing, other than me writing it in my date planner right there at the end of the interview after verifying with them. This would be ‘my’ big mistake.
I got a call at 8:15 a.m. on the 7th, asking where I was. I said, ‘Disney World, why?’ They said I was supposed to be at work. I said, ‘I understood my start date to be the 14th. We verified this in my interview.’ They told me I was mistaken and told me I had 15 minutes to get to work or I was going to be let go. I told them I couldn’t get from Florida to Wisconsin in 15 minutes and my family vacation was set to last until the 13th when I would be coming back a day prior to my official start date. I could beg my parents to get me a flight later that day or tomorrow if that would suffice? They said no, that’s not good enough. Apparently, they didn’t believe I was actually in Florida and was now offering to cancel my biannual family vacation (and spend $300 to change my flight) to come home early for them. They thought I was lazing about in bed in Wisconsin, just refusing to come in for whatever reason.
I was now in tears in the middle of Fantasyland, in the ‘happiest place on Earth’ at the fear of losing my job. My uncle and my father noticed me crying on the phone and asked what was going on. I was crying too hard to answer, so they grabbed the phone and asked who it was. The boss/manager explained the situation, they told him some very un-Disney words and hung up on him. When I caught my breath, I told them I had to get home right away, and they told me that I didn’t because I didn’t have to work that job. I started panicking again because now I didn’t have a summer job. My uncle said not to worry, I could work for him this summer. And then we went on Peter Pan’s Flight and 15 year-old-me was happy once again.
A week later, I got another call, this time from the person who interviewed me. They asked where I was, again. I said, “[Manager from last week] fired me.’
They said, ‘What? You haven’t even been in. How could you be fired? You haven’t had a shift with him?’
I said, ‘I know. He called last week and said I was supposed to be in and if I didn’t come in within 15 minutes, I was fired, but I was in Florida, so I couldn’t. So, he fired me.’
They said, ‘But you weren’t supposed to start until the 14th.’
I said, ‘I know. I tried to tell him but he insisted and fired me for ‘no-call, no-show’ on the first day.’ The guy who interviewed me apologized and asked me to come back. He said he’d talk to the manager who fired me and messed up the schedule. Hah! As if I’d want to work for someone who already hated me! I thanked him for the offer but said I had already accepted another position.”
When He Saw His High School Bully In The Kitchen, He Should Have Known Things Weren’t Going His Way
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“I was fired within the first hour of being hired.
I was looking for a job. I came into a local chain restaurant, met the manager, shook his hand, and asked for a job. We had great chemistry, and after a brief chat session, he told me I was hired and to come back on a certain date about a week from that day.
I waited a week, then came in on the date I was told. I was in a great mood and ready to work, especially because I was broke after going another week without work.
I met my trainer and she brought me new hire paperwork and a T-shirt. I put on the tee and started filling out paperwork. While filling in the spaces, I looked up and behind the kitchen line (it had a big open wall that showed into the kitchen from the dining room), I saw a bully from high school. He snuck punched me more than once, would call me out in the hallways and at lunch, challenging me to a fight, and just generally smack talked me.
Being that this was almost five years after high school, I couldn’t care less. I waved at him and smiled, thinking we were about to start working together. Honestly, I was excited to have someone I recognized there, even if he was a jerk in high school. In response to my wave, he just scowled at me and walked away out of sight.
I didn’t think much of it and just kept working on my new-hire paperwork. Not even a minute or two later, my trainer walked up and said, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, but actually we just aren’t looking for new people right now.’
My mouth was agape in shock, ‘But, I have been waiting for this job for a week now.’
She just kind of shrugged, ‘Sorry,’ but she did not sound sincere. ‘I am going to need that T-shirt back.’
I became furious at this point. I looked up and the bully from high school had appeared again behind the line and was just smirking with his arms folded. I couldn’t help but think this was his doing.
I began grabbing my things, ‘Haha, heck no I am not giving it back. I am taking it since you dingbats made me wait a week for this,’ I told my now ex-trainer.
‘Dude, you can’t keep it,’ She said with growing aggression.
‘TAKE IT FROM ME, BIMBO!’ I shouted at the top of my lungs and left, accidentally knocking over my chair in the process.
I ended up making the decision to move away from that town a week later, so it was probably for the best. But seriously, screw people that live their lives still in high school.
I still have that shirt. The whole thing, including my reaction, was embarrassing.”
Her Trainer Taught Her Absolutely Nothing
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“I was working for a British health insurance company and the woman training me was bad. She’d turn up late, smelling of a hard night of drinking, and didn’t explain anything well. She forgot to request my access to the computer system, and I was struggling to pick up anything of my role. When I spoke to someone about this, they said thanks we’ll look into this. Then the next day, Friday, I got pulled in at 9:30 a.m. and told I’d failed to pass my probation phase. They told me it was because one day I’d had a bra strap showing (I’d worn an off the shoulder jumper with a vest top under it, but nobody told me this wasn’t allowed and there was nothing in the staff handbook) and I hadn’t shown effort or willing during my training. The feedback from my trainer was written up and it was all crap. She’d turned around all my comments about her behavior on me, screw her.”
It Was The Boss’s Mistake, But She Had To Pay
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“I was working as a bookkeeper for a local middleman construction supply company. They bought things like toilets, fixtures, and would sell them to construction companies. My job relied solely on the incoming vendor invoices of the day, so I could record them, do their markup, and send out invoices to their clients.
I started on a Monday, and the following Monday was a US federal holiday with no mail, so they told me on Friday that since there was no mail, it didn’t make much sense for me to come in because there wasn’t much to do and I was new. Ok. Cool. Monday afternoon, there was a message from them on our answering machine (this was years ago) asking if I could call them back. After doing so, I got reprimanded for not showing up to work by the same guy who told me to take the day off, and he told me not to bother coming in again.”
His Addiction Brought Him Down
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“I was 29, and just relapsed after a nine-month break from smack. I got a job doing data entry with a group of 20 people. I kept having to go to the bathroom to smoke more smack. I didn’t want to start back on the needle. Eventually, after three days of this, I got called into HR and they were nice and asked if I had stomach issues and what could they do to help. I was so flipping high off the smack I had just smoked, I responded with, ‘Don’t worry! I’ll start taking my stomach meds and you’ll see a complete 360 in my behavior.’ I meant to say 180. I realized my error and just started snorting and laughing at the stupidity. The HR dude asked if I was high, point blank, and I told them yes and agreed to just screw off. That was about four years ago. It started another run for a few years. Good times, bad times, etc.
I’m sitting at 10 months clean, working and living at a rehab center in California. I’m hopeful that I’ll pull it off this time, as I’ve allowed myself to be surrounded by people who want me to succeed.”
They Just Couldn’t Seem To Get On The Same Page
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“I was 18 and moving to a new town to go to college. I wanted a part-time job for extra money, so a couple weeks beforehand, I applied, interviewed, and was hired by a telemarketing company. Evening and weekend hours, exactly what I was looking for.
A week before I was to move, I showed up on a Saturday and did the training program. The manager said I did great; she seemed to like me and told me my first day was the next Saturday. I said I couldn’t start then because that was the day I was moving and if we could push it back one day. She said it wouldn’t be a problem.
I got a call from the same manager on Wednesday, reminding me my first day was that Saturday. I said no, it’s not, it’s Sunday. I’m moving on Saturday, remember? ‘That’s right, my mistake. See you on Sunday.’
Moving day arrived. It was the end of the day. I went out and grabbed some fast food for dinner. When I got back, there was a message on my answering machine. It was the first message I had gotten in my own place (I was living with my parents before this). Who could it be?
‘This is Jane with Blah Telemarketing. I don’t appreciate having my time wasted by someone who’s not responsible enough to show up for their first day of work. This is your official notice that your employment with us is terminated.’
Jane was the person I spoke to a week earlier, and on Wednesday, that said my first day was Sunday.”
His Supervisor Showed Him More Than Was Wise
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“I got fired from a landscaping job after two days. My supervisor told me my work was fine, but that I didn’t chat enough. Maybe I would have been more willing to chat with him if he hadn’t been hanging out on his porch naked when I showed up at his house on the second day to carpool to the work site.”
She Couldn’t Figure Out Why Her Register Was Always Short
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“When I was 16, I got my first job at a small discount grocery store. It wasn’t a great job, but my parents had just bought me a car and the deal was that I had to pay the insurance, so I didn’t care either way.
I was a responsible kid and had some experience running a cash register at a relative’s store, so I figured it would be easy money. I went in for my first shift and it was uneventful, so was the next one.
We didn’t count our own drawers at the end of our shifts there. The manager on duty did, and we weren’t allowed in the room. The third day, my drawer came up short $40. Mistakes can happen to anyone, but I felt stupid and was upset with myself. The manager on duty was mean about it but just told me to be back the next night.
On day four, my drawer was short over $100, and I knew I hadn’t messed up that bad, especially since I had been sure to be careful and count everyone’s change back to them.
The same manager counted my drawer that night and informed me I would have to pay that money back by the end of the week or they would press charges. She still didn’t fire me.
When I told my dad what happened, he put two and two together and told me I was being conned. He took me to work the next day and spoke to the store manager, who said there were no cameras in the counting room, so they had to take the manager’s word.
I worked my shift with the same manager that night and sure enough, my drawer was short again. This time I called my dad and he came and called the police, who watched me willingly turn out my pockets and purse in front of the manager.
She refused to do the same and told the police I was lying and that I was mad she had fired me earlier during my shift for not being at my register. She said I had been stealing from day one and I was lucky she didn’t press charges.
I never went back to even try to speak to the store manager. That was my first time dealing with an adult ‘authority’ figure who blatantly lied about me, so it messed with me for a while.”
His Little Accident Caused Quite The Stir
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“It was my job to valet park cars at a casino. On day four, I was driving a couple other valet guys in our extended golf cart shuttle to the back parking lot where all the valet customer’s cars were stored. After dropping off the last guy at the car he was looking for, I decided to cut through a long row of cars with a gap big enough for me to fit through instead of having to drive all the way down and around to the end of the row. Well, when I went to turn the cart coming out of the two empty spaces, I turned it too soon because I wasn’t used to the length of this golf cart. I caught the corner of a brand new Cadillac Deville that an elderly couple had valet parked earlier that day.
I stopped, got out, and assessed the damage, then looked around for any cameras that might have spotted me. I didn’t see any cameras in sight, so I hopped back on the cart and acted like nothing happened. Later that day, the elderly couple came out to retrieve their car and freaked out when the valet guy pulled it up front. My manager confronted all of the valet staff asking for info on what happened. No one knew anything. He came back out three hours later and asked again. No one said anything again. On my way out the back of the casino that night, I saw a woman in a suit with a radio. She saw me coming and asked someone on her radio if she should bring me in. She asked me to follow her and took me to a small room with a folding table and two folding chairs where there were three men waiting. One, who was sitting down, pushed a piece of paper at me and told me to read it and sign it if it is accurate. Turns out, they knew I had done it after they went back and looked at the cameras. My manager had come out a second time to just to see if I would confess to it. If I had just been honest, he wouldn’t have fired me. Lesson learned!”
Her Boss Really Didn’t Understand Vaping
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“I started at a popular used clothes store in the university area of Seattle. The second day, the manager saw my vape pen sticking out of my back pocket when I went to grab an item off a high shelf. It had been covered by my sweater until then. She asked me what it was, I showed and told her it was a vape pen I used because I didn’t like to smoke on the job. She asked me if I could put it in my purse instead of having it on my person. I complied and finished my shift without incident.
On the third day, they called me into the back office before I even clocked in. They had the paperwork filled out. I was fired for using illegal substances ‘on the job.’ I was taken aback and then I asked if nicotine counted as an illegal substance. The manager looked confused, then sneered and said no, but that I was fired anyway. I asked her if she was firing me because she didn’t know what a vape pen was and assumed it had pot in it? She didn’t answer me, but looked angry and just sat there glaring.”
He Was An Excellent Salesman, But He Was Missing Something
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“At age 18, I got a job as a car salesman despite the fact I didn’t have a driver’s license at the time. I worked right through the first day, sold three cars, and by all reports, I was doing fantastically well. I was asked to move a car at the end of the day, and I responded to the manager that I didn’t drive. He looked at me with complete bewilderment and was stunned for maybe 20 seconds, apparently trying to process this information. He then walked over to the till, pulled out two hundred bucks, thanked me for the day’s work, forced the cash into my hand, and marched me out of the premises.”
They Put Her In 22 Different Positions, But Nothing “Fit”
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“In college, I tried picking up a summer job at a furniture factory. I lasted one week. Over the 40-hour week, I was put into 22 different jobs. After finishing up on Friday, they let me go because ‘I wasn’t fitting in anywhere.’
They also weren’t happy with me because I didn’t show up on Thursday for the weekly, off-the-clock staff meeting that took place a half an hour before the shift started. The one I didn’t hear about until they were chewing me out for not showing up to it.”
This Model Was Going To Get Her Pay, One Way Or Another
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“I worked for Playboy Clothing for a four-day runway show. We were told we could have a number of clothing items in addition to our pay once we were done. I had my eye on one shirt in particular. I wasn’t too fond of most of the other clothing. After the second day, they told a few of us they didn’t need us the last two days, which meant we were out of a lot of money. It was now too late to work for another company for the same show, so we were ticked. They still said we could choose ONE article of clothing before leaving. They had our options on a small rack and it was the ugliest crap I’d ever seen. I saw another rack that said ‘DO NOT TOUCH.’ The original shirt I wanted was there, so I walked up, took it off the hanger, and put it in my bag. As we were waiting around backstage, there was a girl who wouldn’t stop bragging about these three tank tops she won from one of the designers. They were nothing special, just plain colored tanks, but she must have mentioned them 20 times that day and how special she was because they said she was the only one who would look good in them, so I took those, too.”
She Had To Research Herself To Dispel Their Mistake
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“I was hired as a tech for a private investigator. They mostly investigated cheating spouses or insurance fraud.
On my second day, I walked in to get started in my new office. I was told I was being let go, but they wouldn’t disclose why; they just said it was something about my background report and a ‘state police matter.’
I’d never been in trouble and never been arrested. I was so confused, so I pulled my own records. Nothing.
My last name is common in Portuguese/Brazilian areas. They had mistaken me for another woman, who had the same name as me and of similar age, who had quite a lot of bad behavior.
I wonder how reputable they are if they didn’t think to not only cross check the ages or go by last four of the social but at least the state police weren’t investigating me, which would explain why they were confused when I called them asking if they needed me to come in for questioning.”