Dumbest reasons for being fired

[d'Bwobsling]

I know some people who's bosses have fired them for really dumb reasons. Anyone here get fired for something really dumb?

yes, I know I spelled it wrong

[Proven_Paradox]

My first actual job. My first actual, non-training day of deployment. It was at a somewhat high-class movie theater for the summer.

Some background on this. During the job interview, they had given us a math test. Basic arithmetic about counting change and such. I was nervous because of the interview, but the test was still grade school stuff. Afterwards, I talked to a few of the people who were hired. They said they had FAILED this test. Missed EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. This means that they, quite literally, did not know that $20.00 minus $12.75 = $7.25. These were people that, at their youngest, were Seniors in high school.

This fact absolutely TERRIFIES me.

The first day of deployment, I'm working floor. I'm just now getting off my break (which I had timed during a slow period. I could have been mean and taken my break DURING the 5-6:00 rush, but I didn't). Two managers say they need to talk to me and take me to one of the supply rooms.

Further background. I'm a rather nerdy looking man. I'm one of those people you can place as a nerd on sight, and I actually take great pride in this fact. During training, several people who'd been there for a while said that they figured they'd be putting me in the box room. This would mean increased pay and less physical work (though it would require more training). So, I figured this supply room meeting was a reassignment, and I was quite eager to hear it and start training.

Instead, (Paraphrased, not quoted)
<Manager> It's not working out. We're gonna let you go.
Awkward pause.
<Me> What.
<Manager> Yeah. You're just not fitting in.
<Me> What do you mean?
<Manager> You just don't fit the group dynamic.
Another awkward pause.
<Me> What the hell does that mean? ((I've lost my job by this point, so my attempts at politeness rapidly disintegrate.)) What is the group dynamic?
<Manager> Well... ah... we're... ((Obviously making stuff up now)) Well, we're... Loud! And silly! And sometimes outright obnoxious!

Some more background. I am a loud person. I had BSed with all the other employees and thought I'd been fitting in pretty well. There were a few individuals who had been outright obnoxious, but no one liked them.

<Me> So to be clear. I'm being fired... because I'm not loud and obnoxious enough?
<Manager> Uh... yeah?
<Me> ... Okay! Thanks for nothing!

I walk out of the supply room before she can say anything else. When I get back to the locker room I make sure to let everyone know that I've been fired. Everyone--EVERYONE who hears this goes "Wait, what?" I tell them the story. Everyone replies the same way, and I quote, "That's bull****." I made sure to drive the point home that to keep their jobs, all the new employees need to be loud and obnoxious.

I figure the ACTUAL reason I was fired was that they hired everyone who came through the friggin' door and they knew that once summer was over, I was out of there and back to college. They were looking for longer term employees and they knew they wouldn't get it from me.

I wouldn't have been nearly as angry if they had just said that though.

[Rare Pink Leech]

My cousin worked at a gym, where he manned the front desk. He was working to help put himself through school, and one night he knew was going to be slow he brought in his laptop to work on an assignment when there were no customers. He put the laptop where it was hidden from customers, and immediately stopped when someone walked in. Sometime during his shift his manager saw the laptop, and told him she'd talk with him about it later. The next day they fired him without letting him explain himself.

I can understand why they wouldn't want him working on a school assignment (even though they knew he needs a job to help put him through school), but firing him just like that seems a little harsh.

[Raider]

I've never been fired but then again I've only had one summer job.

Eh one of these days I will and I will return to the store and just sit in front of it on a bench and stare at the store. Paranoia FTW

[Zombie pixe]

wow, that is a very unfair reason to be fired!! :smallannoyed:

i look forward to hearing others... :smallamused:

[SDF]

There was an evil manager at the place my friend worked at. One guy worked really hard for the company and got them a MULTI MILLION DOLLAR DEAL with another company. He was due a 30,000 USD bonus at the end of the year for that. Well the manager fired him so the company wouldn't have to give him the $30,000 bonus.

[Pwenet]

I got laid off from a job because they spent too much trying to buy a bunch of wireless frequencies from the FCC, which really gave the area I was working for a major headache since I was the person doing all the legwork!

I got laid off from a job...... and never got a answer why I was suddenly having to look for new work.

[KuReshtin]

I've only ever been let go from one job. That was because of a decline in work load, and I was one of the last to be hired, so it was just a case of 'last in - first out'.
Of course, they called me up on a Thursday afternon about a month later and asked me to come back to work on the following Monday.

[Syka]

Not mine (I've quit but never been fired), but a local story. A pretty good local rock station fired all their staff a few weeks back. All of them (DJ's, etc). Just came in and told everyone to look for a new job. Now it's some crappy music station, but they never really gave an explanantion, or warning. I'd be pissed.

My boyfriend was also told by his managers (from corporate offices) that the employees were not allowed to wear khaki cargo shorts. For some reason, they didn't like the pocket on the side (what are they going to steal? Cold cuts? Lettuce? It's a sandwhich/salad shop...). So he had to find a pair of non-cargo khaki shorts...which left him with those golf short type things...and it actually ended up looking worse than before. --' I have no doubt he would have been fired if he didn't wear them.

Cheers,
Syka

[Jagg]

There was an evil manager at the place my friend worked at. One guy worked really hard for the company and got them a MULTI MILLION DOLLAR DEAL with another company. He was due a 30,000 USD bonus at the end of the year for that. Well the manager fired him so the company wouldn't have to give him the $30,000 bonus.

Thats just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Doesn't your friend know what he can get for unfair dismissal?

[Proven_Paradox]

Thats just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Doesn't your friend know what he can get for unfair dismissal?

The company just sealed a multi-million dollar deal. I'm willing to bet they could hire a lawyer good enough to make sure he'd never get any money out of a lawsuit.

[Hell Puppi]

I had a friend that got fired because she didn't wear a belt.

Basically they told her that 'if she didn't take the time to properly put on a uniform, it showed that she didn't care enough to want the job'. Despite the fact she was IN uniform aside from the belt, and had never called in sick or even been late to work.

I got fired, kinda, sorta. I'm really not sure. I got in a fight with a manager because he gave my hours to another employee whom he liked better. I asked if I could go home because this was really upsetting to me (I had just gotten an apartment at the time, and desperately needed the cash). He said to think it over and let him know my decision (if I wanted to keep the job or not).
I got home and my friend and co-worker came over to tell me I was fired (thing is, as I found out later, he wasn't a very good 'friend', so there's the question of whether I was actually fired or not or if he (the co-worker/'friend') just wanted more hours).
One month later the manager who 'fired' me was also fired, mostly because the person who ran the company liked me and was pissed when he found out I had been let go without being talked to and without his approval.

Convoluted, eh?

[Jagg]

The company just sealed a multi-million dollar deal. I'm willing to bet they could hire a lawyer good enough to make sure he'd never get any money out of a lawsuit.

:smallconfused: (That's not the confused smiley. It's the one eyebrow raised in disdain smiley in disguise). Also I'm feeling whimiscal so my response from here on will be "street".

Yo Yo Paradox, you think that corporate company is all that? Like it so big and bad that no one be willing to take it on? Big Daddy you just be trippin'. You jus' need some fly lawyer, whose styling with the no win no pay, you get me?

An those corporate suits are like cockroaches man, they fear the light, you know what I'm saying, you word up with Sixty Minutes, and give them some doc's on the sly and watch those suit mo-fo's run for cover. Heads will roll when the mikes rolls up under the C-E-O's chin my man.

Plus there's like this list man, it's like the unwritten code that if you gonna go hunting, you go hunting for bear and use all the big guns you can. So you pony up with tha' unfair dismissal, unsafe working conditions (because of the stress of working for such a manager), Pain and suffering (from like the unlawful ter-min-ation), damages for loss of income in perpetuity, Sex-ual harrassment, discrimination. What-ever.

end street.

I know someone who worked for a boss who was described in the press as the worst manager in Australia. The poor woman had post traumatic stress disorder from working for this nutjob, putting up with his cr@p, and then getting fired. 2 years later she got a $500,000 payout. (not bad for someone whose job only paid them $45K a year).

[Prophaniti]

Not my story but a friend. Worked at an in-bound call center (tech support stuff, incidentaly where I'm currently employed). He had been there for about half a year when he was pulled aside by a manager. They said he was no longer going to be employed there and remained extremely vague as to why, using a lot of corporate-speak and such. The strangest thing about it was that they refused to admit that he was fired. When he asked, they denied it, also denying that it was a lay-off (as in when a company can't afford to keep you employed), instead he was simply no longer expected to show up to work. Oh, and they're not going to pay him anymore, either. He still doesn't know why exactly they dropped him. (ok, not so much a dumb reason as a dumb way of firing, but still)

[SilentNight]

Never happened to me or anyone I know but dumbest reason has to be failing a drug test by eating a poppy-seed bagel.

[kirbsys]

Does that really work? I thought they showed that on myth busters and it would take something like 10000 seeds... at least that what my friend who saw it said.

[Tengu]

Setting my office box on fire and trying to murder a co-worker with a stapler. What, not dumb? It is dumb when compared to the other reasons I was fired from the jobs I had!

[Serpentine]

Does that really work? I thought they showed that on myth busters and it would take something like 10000 seeds... at least that what my friend who saw it said.Huh? :smallconfused: I saw that episode, and it was definitely possible.
Um... I've never been fired... But technically I'm still employed by the Gold Coast City Council, even though I haven't worked there for about 3 years. Does that count?

[Icewalker]

Does that really work? I thought they showed that on myth busters and it would take something like 10000 seeds... at least that what my friend who saw it said.

Mythbusters showed that it is indeed possible for that to happen to someone without reaching extremes. If you had a hearty breakfast consisting only of poppyseed bagels, you show up positive. So, if you are having a drug test, don't eat only poppyseed bagels.

It may even be 10000 seeds...you know how many seeds would be on a bagel? Probably a thousand at least.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

@ Proven_Paradox

I find your experience with the movie theater very strange. I worked at the busiest/highest grossing theater in Minnesota for two summers (and two winter breaks) while in college. In my experience, and others I've know who have worked at other theaters, it is a very high turnover job. While there I mainly worked concessions (in which the concessionists had to clean everything ourselves every night), and did a little ushering from time to time. I happen to love going to movies so it was a pretty good job for me, since I got to see a lot for free those summers. I actually think they were disappointed when I had to leave for school because I was actually their best seller for those two summers.

[Narmoth]

One month later the manager who 'fired' me was also fired, mostly because the person who ran the company liked me and was pissed when he found out I had been let go without being talked to and without his approval.

You could try to get the job back then.

I was in a avantgarde-metal project once. I was supposed to write the guitar parts on finished synth-recrodings.
I was fired after completing the first song, as the band leader had recruited another guitarist that he had played with earlier. The other guitarist never played with them, and now they have spent the last year without guitar and any new recordings.

[Satyrquaze]

I was a good employee for this bookstore company, I had worked there for 5 years and received numerous (4) promotions over the course of my time there. I was one of maybe 3 employees that was trained in every department. I rarely heard any complaints about me, but one complaint I did receive was concerning tardiness.

I travelled from one side of the Twin Cities to the other on the daily basis for this job. During my tenure there, I would (for example) live in St. Paul and bus to Edina(a southern suburb of Minneapolis), this trip often took an hour to 2 hours one-way. So, once in a while, I'd show up for work 10-20 minutes late, we're not talking weekly, but like once every few months. Then I transferred stores so that I worked more nearby and and for the better part of a year I was very rarely tardy.

Then, my father found out that he had lung cancer. I made the effort to be with him in the hospital as often as I could... and he passed away only a week or so later, and the funeral was on his birthday, 4 days later. I took that week off for bereavment reasons.

I came back after the weekend of the funeral; about 2 days later everything hit me. One day I broke down and cried in my manager's office for several minutes, but after that I brushed myself off and wiped my tears and went back to work.

However, I was 15 minutes late for work a couple of days after that and that Friday I was called into my manager's office and they passed me a a formal letter that said my repeated tardiness had resulted in my termination.

I was (among other things) in shock. I even brought up that I was less than a full week removed from my father's funeral and I would think that maybe they could show a smidge of consideration given my situation... but no, apparently they couldn't.

[SDF]

Thats just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Doesn't your friend know what he can get for unfair dismissal?

Nope, Idaho is a right to work state. As such pretty much anyone can fire you for no reason.

[Mordokai]

"You're not needed anymore. Sorry."

Well, it sounded pretty lame to me :smallannoyed:

[EloquentRune]

NOT SMILING I wasn't fired but I was written up and if it happened again I would have been fired... Just cuse the store director answered the phone and a woman complained I almost lost my job where if anyone else had answered the phone they would have laughed at the woman and told me a funny story.

[d'Bwobsling]

My uncle worked at Dunken Donuts about five years ago, and he said to a customer who was buying one of the big expensive drinks they have "You know there are starving people in Africa and you're spending six dollars on a drink". He was reported to his boss, but wasn't fired for it

[Raiser Blade]

My uncle worked at Dunken Donuts about five years ago, and he said to a customer who was buying one of the big expensive drinks they have "You know there are starving people in Africa and you're spending six dollars on a drink". He was reported to his boss, but wasn't fired for it

I would have reported your uncle. Seriously if I was buying a drink and someone said that to me I would be pretty annoyed. :smallsigh:

[SDF]

I would have reported your uncle. Seriously if I was buying a drink and someone said that to me I would pretty annoyed. :smallsigh:

I probably would too, or at least give him a piece of my mind about it. I mean, social commentary, whatever, but if he said it seriously I would not be happy.

[Raider]

I probably would too, or at least give him a piece of my mind about it. I mean, social commentary, whatever, but if he said it seriously I would not be happy.
Yeah I came for donuts and a drink, don't impose your beliefs on others (even if they are right) when you are voluntarily providing the service for the product which you are criticizing people for partaking in.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

I was (among other things) in shock. I even brought up that I was less than a full week removed from my father's funeral and I would think that maybe they could show a smidge of consideration given my situation... but no, apparently they couldn't.
Guess my dad was lucky. His boss only wanted him to come back to work right after funeral services for his father. But he didn't get into trouble when he used a vacation day to take the whole day off anyway.

:yuk:

Just wish he had the tenacity to get a new job elsewhere. He still has to put up with the jerk.

...Then again, maybe getting fired would have been the luckier thing. Would have forced the new job issue. :smallsigh:
[hr]
Anyway, I've never been fired, but I've been informally suspended for a stupid reason.

I worked as a dishwasher and busboy at a restaraunt. Mostly weekend evenings. I rarely saw my "supervisor" because she never worked the closing shift. But I made a good impression on the kitchen staff. They regularly let me know they thought I was the best dishwasher they had. And given the number of horrible messes I had to clean up from the previous shift when I got in, I readily agreed.

Now, I won't begrudge the possibility that my supervisor wasn't entirely aware of this aspect of my work. I doubt the kitchen staff had much opportunity to talk with her. She didn't supervise them, just the wait and bus staff. However, she was in charge of scheduling, so she damn well knew how often I came in when other dishwashers neglected to show up. Especially on short notice.

However, there was the one time I didn't come in. I had just graduated high school. I was having a graduation party. I had requested the day off that day a full month in advance in order to accomodate the occasion. As it turns out, whoever was supposed to be working that day did not show up, and my supervisor called me to request that I come into work. Even after being informed why I requested the day off to begin with, she insisted that I, the guest of honor at this graduation party, must be the one to come in and act as substitute. I told her I couldn't. She replies, "Well, you'd better think about how badly you want to work here, then." The conversation ends.

Coincidentally enough, I was not scheduled for any work over the next four weeks.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Not so much a dumb firing as a dumb story.

My very first job was as an employee at the new Culver's in town. I had a job that basically amounted to cleaning tables and doing whatever odd jobs were needed. Now, I'm the kind of guy who needs a thorough explanation to do something right, and sometimes I'm pretty sure I botched it. Also, as a busy high school student involved in plays and choir concerts and orchestra concerts etc, etc, etc, I had to keep asking for time off. Eventually, I noticed my upcoming shift was only for a few minutes, so if figured they were going to let me go (And I don't blame them. They'd overhired when they opened, the building wasn't even finished when I applied!). Thing is, there was an important dinner that I had to attend that evening, and as with many other school events it conflicted with my shift, even as short as it was. So I just didn't show up. Looking back on it, I think it was a win-win situation. I got to have a fancy French dinner at a hotel in the Twin Cities and they didn't have to awkwardly explain that they were firing me.:smalltongue:

[Eldritch Knight]

However, there was the one time I didn't come in. I had just graduated high school. I was having a graduation party. I had requested the day off that day a full month in advance in order to accomodate the occasion. As it turns out, whoever was supposed to be working that day did not show up, and my supervisor called me to request that I come into work. Even after being informed why I requested the day off to begin with, she insisted that I, the guest of honor at this graduation party, must be the one to come in and act as substitute. I told her I couldn't. She replies, "Well, you'd better think about how badly you want to work here, then." The conversation ends.

Coincidentally enough, I was not scheduled for any work over the next four weeks.


That, right there would not only be illegal where I'm from, (Southeastern Ontario) it would also be incredibly unethical. I'm in much the same situation, (where the previous shift either never showed up or left things in a poor state) but at least my employers aren't that harsh.

[Hell Puppi]

You could try to get the job back then.


Eh, that was quite a while ago, and I had lost interest, although I did really like that job. I could probably try and apply at the store they have here without any problems, I'm sure, but I'm happy with where I'm working now.
The whole situation was just kinda dumb:smalltongue:

[Shhalahr Windrider]

That, right there would not only be illegal where I'm from, (Southeastern Ontario)...
Not sure of the exact legal status of such practices here in Wisconsin. But it definitely would have taken more resources than I would have otherwise made without the suspension to make a good case anyway. Especially without a hard causal link. The whole thing was very passive-agressive on my supervisor's part, and I was even worse at the whole interpersonal communication thing—especially with authority figures—than I am now, so I never really confronted her about it. So she would have been able to make any claims about the situation that she liked without a whole lot to gainsay her.

The good thing was that college was the perfect excuse to quit.


...it would also be incredibly unethical.
That'd have to go for most of the stories that have been told and will be told in this thread, I think. :smallwink:


I'm in much the same situation, (where the previous shift either never showed up or left things in a poor state) but at least my employers aren't that harsh.
Yeah, when my current employers can't find anyone available to cover for emergency absences, they just deal with it. Either they work it themselves or they shut down the kiddie rides early. (Of course, that last part's kinda hard to do with a dishwasher at a restaraunt, but I hope the general idea remains.)

Another key difference is that when employees don't show up at my current job, they usually call with an appropriate excuse—or at least explanation. I think most of the times I substituted at my dishwashing job the person that was supposed to be there just didn't show up. And I'm the one that gets punished...

[Groundhog]

Mentioned before...failing a drug test by eating a poppy seed bagel. Doesn't work, but what does work is eating a poppy seed roll or something else filled with poppy seeds. A friend of mine had that problem after eating poppy seed hamentaschen. (look it up on wikipedia if you don't know what that is) The sad thing was that the place she got fired from was a Jewish company, who should have understood that she had just eaten flippin' hamentaschen, and hadn't been taking drugs.

[KindaChang]

Nope, Idaho is a right to work state. As such pretty much anyone can fire you for no reason.

You can also quit at any time. There is no contract requiring you to give a two week's notice, no contract requiring you to work there for any amount of time. If they start giving you crap and you've made yourself valuable to them you can threaten to walk off the job right then and there and they can not do anything legally.

Heck, they can't even mention it if they put a negative connotation on it when a future company is checking your references/previous jobs.



I haven't been fired from any job, but I do know someone that was recently fired because he was dating his boss's first ex-wife unknowingly.

[Syka]

You can also quit at any time. There is no contract requiring you to give a two week's notice, no contract requiring you to work there for any amount of time. If they start giving you crap and you've made yourself valuable to them you can threaten to walk off the job right then and there and they can not do anything legally.

Heck, they can't even mention it if they put a negative connotation on it when a future company is checking your references/previous jobs.



I haven't been fired from any job, but I do know someone that was recently fired because he was dating his boss's first ex-wife unknowingly.

Yeah, you might not have to give two weeks but the place I worked said if you didn't give notice you wouldn't get hired again by that company anywhere, and you're also risking a negative recommendation. I wouldn't have walked off anyway since I loved my manager to death. Even if the company was being a jerk, I'd still give two weeks since my manager was awesome. :smallsmile:

But yeah, you still risk repercussions. I'm pretty sure no where did it say they couldn't mention you just quitting out of the blue in a recommendation.

Cheers,
Syka

[Irenaeus]

Eh, I live in Norway. I don't think anybody can legaly fire me unless I kill someone or there is a recession going on (which it isn't, oil prices are good). This nation is largely buildt on labor unions.

[KindaChang]

Yeah, you might not have to give two weeks but the place I worked said if you didn't give notice you wouldn't get hired again by that company anywhere, and you're also risking a negative recommendation. I wouldn't have walked off anyway since I loved my manager to death. Even if the company was being a jerk, I'd still give two weeks since my manager was awesome. :smallsmile:

But yeah, you still risk repercussions. I'm pretty sure no where did it say they couldn't mention you just quitting out of the blue in a recommendation.

Cheers,
Syka

they can say it, they just can't say anything bad about you personally (libel) which is really hard for them to do.

[Narmoth]

Irenaeus, you can be:
downsized - when your company restructures, making you (at least in their minds) obsolete, like the postal service in Norway is doing every toher year.
fired - for any crime against the company, like stealing, or incompatible behavior, like harassing your coworkers.
laid off - if your company has financial problems, like most ship building companies in Norway have.
made resign - by harassment from your covorkers and many other things that can't be proved.

So, living in Norway don't make you safe.
Of course, our low unemployment rate helps a bit, but in the end a lot of people end up on permanent sick leave because of problems with their job enviroment.

[Fin]

I haven't got any being fired stories i'm afraud but am intrigued about this poppyseed thing. Where do you work that does a drug test!? I live in the UK and there si not one job i know of that requires a drugs test, it seems a little pervasive that they seem so regular in america. (I am guessing its america!)

[sapphail]

@ Shhalahr: I work in a kitchen, and I'm sure you don't need to be told that good dishwashers/kitchen hands are hard to come by. Thus I am very surprised that the chef didn't get medieval on your supervisor for messing with his staff.

[BlackStaticWolf]

I haven't got any being fired stories i'm afraud but am intrigued about this poppyseed thing. Where do you work that does a drug test!? I live in the UK and there si not one job i know of that requires a drugs test, it seems a little pervasive that they seem so regular in america. (I am guessing its america!)

The majority of large employers in the US require drug tests prior to hiring you. Quite simply, they don't want drug addicts getting their foot in the door because once that addiction becomes a problem, employment laws make it a huge pain to get rid of the addict (who has become dead-weight most of the time). Likewise, depending on the actual job, the employer doesn't want someone who currently or has recently used drugs working in that position (teachers and law enforcement are notable examples).

Some smaller companies require testing as well, but it seems to be less common.

Conversely, there are very few employers in the US who require drug testing of employees who have already been hired. I know that many athletes have random drug test clauses in their contracts, and I think the military does as well. I've seen other employers on TV shows do it, but to be honest, I've never heard of it happening in real life in organizations other than athletics or the military.

In truth, I wouldn't really describe these tests as pervasive at all... mildy inconvenient, perhaps, but I'd wager that people who don't do drugs don't particularly care about the tests one way or the other. I certainly don't.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

@ Shhalahr: I work in a kitchen, and I'm sure you don't need to be told that good dishwashers/kitchen hands are hard to come by. Thus I am very surprised that the chef didn't get medieval on your supervisor for messing with his staff.
I can't say the place ever struck me as having the traditional codified chain of command. I never really got a good grasp of the inner workings of the place beyond what I was responsible for.

Since I worked closing shifts, most of the kitchen staff that new me were low-ranking. The guy that ran the kitchen stuff was the owner and was usually only there for the breakfast and Sunday lunch rush. The only times I recall him really noticing me was when he was having an after-hours meeting of some sort and asked that I pick up some of the litter in the parking lot and the time he pointed out certain aspects of cleaning the dishwasher itself that the person that trained me failed to mention.

In any case, however the heriarchy was built, I believe my supervisor was responsible for pretty much all the scheduling—even the kitchen staff—so she would have outranked the folks that did take notice of the quality of my work.

[Dullyanna]

This isn't about me, and it technically wasn't a firing, but anyway:

My brother had been working at a small pub/diner for a couple of months as a waiter, and was doing well, too (Especially compared tosome his earlier jobs, where he'd been righteously fired for showing up late... for more than twice). there was one occasion where he couldn't go to work for a while due to a broken shoulder, but the manager had no problems with that. One day, though, he was pulled aside by his boss, and was told that he could either quit voluntarily, or be fired on the spot. My brother asked him if he'd PO'd a coworker and/or a customer (Which he hadn't, to his knowledge), but wasn't given an answer.

[Icewalker]

they can say it, they just can't say anything bad about you personally (libel) which is really hard for them to do.

Um, I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure it is only libel if it is both:
1. Not actually true.
2. Hurts you fiscally (which a negative job recommendation would do)

So, if you quit on the spot and they say so, and that loses you a job opportunity, that isn't libel. If they start making up stuff about you to try to stop you from getting a job because you quit, that would be.

I suppose if by personally you mean like personality, and I don't know how that falls into libel, as it is subjective on some level.

[Midnighter1021]

I have a pretty interesting story about how I got fired from my job at a car dealership. *flashback to last summer*

I was hired in early June and started working there as a oil tech and was slowly learning how to fix the cars ( replace brake pads and rotors, fixing turbos, etc) just for some background these were Mercedes, BMWs,and Audis. Now I was just clocking out as my boss drives into the bay and demands that someone change the oil in his car, now seeing that I was already off the clock and was on my way to a date ( my nice clothes) and didn't want to get covered in sludge so I POLITELY said that I can't do it but will take care of it tomorrow. Then he looked at me straight in the face and told me not to bother coming into work tomorrow.

I am now happily employed working at a local tuning shops, modifying cars and working with some awesome people!

[Winter_Wolf]

The thing about quitting or getting fired for something, those have pretty much been jobs that will NEVER under any circumstances find their way onto a job application. Quite simply, they are such insignificant events in my past that they're not worth a memory, let alone a mention. As a result, I've made a point of burning certain bridges just because I can't imagine a situation where I'd be willing to choose going back to that job or anything like it over, say, being homeless.

True story, not a firing, but a quit on my part. Was working at Kmart, became suicidal, and said, "F--- this, my life is worth more than this penny ante crap and S---- co-workers. Kiss my butt, jackass." I'm thinking that when I leave this current factory job I'm at, it will be a similar situation. Because frankly, once people prove their dishonesty to me, then I really don't trust them to give me a recommendation of any worth, or even an honest opinion of my ability. Point of fact, I had to be LIED TO in order to agree to the job that I have now. I wasn't the only one, in fact about half of my co-workers have expressed the exact same sentiment regarding this employer. Provided they don't fire me for time I'm taking off. Which I really don't mind much, since the time I'm taking off is pretty much all due to injuries received while on the job for these ninnies. It's simple, really: working monday-friday and mandatory OT every saturday leaves me with Sunday to go to the doc. I get charged a premium because it's a weekend visit, and I don't have insurance coverage. Keeping in mind the only reason I have these injuries in the first place is because of my current job.

Bitter? You betcha.

[Syka]

The majority of large employers in the US require drug tests prior to hiring you. Quite simply, they don't want drug addicts getting their foot in the door because once that addiction becomes a problem, employment laws make it a huge pain to get rid of the addict (who has become dead-weight most of the time). Likewise, depending on the actual job, the employer doesn't want someone who currently or has recently used drugs working in that position (teachers and law enforcement are notable examples).

Some smaller companies require testing as well, but it seems to be less common.

Conversely, there are very few employers in the US who require drug testing of employees who have already been hired. I know that many athletes have random drug test clauses in their contracts, and I think the military does as well. I've seen other employers on TV shows do it, but to be honest, I've never heard of it happening in real life in organizations other than athletics or the military.

In truth, I wouldn't really describe these tests as pervasive at all... mildy inconvenient, perhaps, but I'd wager that people who don't do drugs don't particularly care about the tests one way or the other. I certainly don't.

My friend is stationed in Texas, I can't remember where. Everyone in her unit has to get tested every...3 or 4 months I think. Why? They're right near the border to Mexico and drugs are very prevalent. I think she said most other bases only require testing once a year, and even then I don't think it's the whole unit. Military personnel, can you answer this?

I had several friends who worked for Walmart (they've all since quit). One was going to, but he got the wrong directions to the drug testing place. He wasn't allowed to reapply for a year. He got a better job. :)

Cheers,
Syka

[Omniplex]

I had to take a drug test for my job, but I work in a pharmacy. I think I would be concerned if I wasn't required to pee in a jar at some point.