Spinoff, co-workers did NOT get away with that

[Kathryn Merteuil]

In the spirit of the theme, what did they not get away with?

I remember a school guidance counselor who got fired over AP testing. That AP test is pretty serious stuff.

She administered the wrong tests to the kids. I guess she ordered the wrong ones to begin with. She messed it up like the courses like giving the wrong kind of math tests, she gave literature instead of language tests for the foreign language tests, she gave the wrong math tests, it was a complete disaster. She knew it was wrong before she gave them, because the kids were trying to argue with her about the date to put on the test. She told them "you put the date I tell you"! Of course the kids didn't know what they were doing on the test so some of them just drew pictures all over stuff and didn't even attempt to do it. She went on the offensive about it and said that the teachers were totally incompetent and the reason for the pictures and non-effort on the kids' part. She tried to get the teachers in trouble for this. The administration called in the teachers, students, and interviewed them. The teachers were like "we don't know". The kids were like, we did this because we had the wrong test. The parents were outraged because they had to pay for this. It just took a little investigating, and they could see clearly it was the wrong test, given on the wrong date, with a falsified date to match.

Yea, she got fired.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

In the spirit of the theme, what did they not get away with?

I remember a school guidance counselor who got fired over AP testing. That AP test is pretty serious stuff.

She administered the wrong tests to the kids. I guess she ordered the wrong ones to begin with. She messed it up like the courses like giving the wrong kind of math tests, she gave literature instead of language tests for the foreign language tests, she gave the wrong math tests, it was a complete disaster. She knew it was wrong before she gave them, because the kids were trying to argue with her about the date to put on the test. She told them "you put the date I tell you"! Of course the kids didn't know what they were doing on the test so some of them just drew pictures all over stuff and didn't even attempt to do it. She went on the offensive about it and said that the teachers were totally incompetent and the reason for the pictures and non-effort on the kids' part. She tried to get the teachers in trouble for this. The administration called in the teachers, students, and interviewed them. The teachers were like "we don't know". The kids were like, we did this because we had the wrong test. The parents were outraged because they had to pay for this. It just took a little investigating, and they could see clearly it was the wrong test, given on the wrong date, with a falsified date to match.

Yea, she got fired.

Obviously my sample size is small and I realize it may not be typical. But in my student days and now that my children are in school, I have yet to meet a school counselor that was competent.

 

[ronandannette]

We had a Construction Site Supervisor that was caught drinking on the job while driving a company vehicle no less (beer in his travel mug). He was terminated on the spot for that. We had a Field Technician in my department (years ago; before I was the manager) who falsified customer signatures on documents (ones that were used to determine his production bonuses) - that was also an immediate termination.

Mostly though, at my (very) flexible workplace, the only thing that will get somebody fired is failing to deliver satisfactory results based on our production benchmarks. There's practically NO excuse that will cover that and very little latitude for "2nd chances".

 

[mommysaurus]

I had a coworker who complained constantly about everything and tried to recruit people into complaining/hating our workplace along with her. She was so negative to be around.

She held a "secret meeting" one weekend where she and some people she'd recruited got together and drafted a letter about things that were wrong with our workplace and demanded a bunch of changes...some of which didn't make any sense. She and her group gave it to our manager.

A few weeks later the board was meeting (this was at a small rehabilitation home) and she crashed their meeting with a whole bunch of her complaints and weird demands.

She was fired the next day.

I never understood what all her fuss was about. I really liked that job

 

[Disneylover99]

I used to work in a lumber store back in the mid 80's. I remember a few guys showing up for work drunk. They were fired.

 

[okeydokey]

Obviously my sample size is small and I realize it may not be typical. But in my student days and now that my children are in school, I have yet to meet a school counselor that was competent.

We have some great ones at my kids' school.

 

[okeydokey]

A woman at a University I worked at was in office administration. She hired her husband as a ghost employee and was paying him for a fictitious job. She was caught, fired and arrested. Not sure what ever happened with the criminal case.

 

[Missy1961]

Many years ago, I worked with a very unpleasant person. Once when the company replaced all of our computers with updated ones, she and her boyfriend planned to take them. (the company was getting money to recycle them, so they didn't want us to take them.) He tried to get into the back of the building where the computers were and got caught. She came and went however she pleased, did the bare minimum of work, never worked Saturdays (when the rest of us were required to - maybe 3 or 4 a year), and on and on. We all couldn't stand her, but we thought nothing would happen.

What we didn't know was TPTB were gathering evidence and they fired her. They called her up to HR and wouldn't even let her back on the floor - our manager went to her desk to get her bag. Another manager packed up her desk. (usually they let people back on the floor to pack up their stuff) I'm not usually one that likes to see people get fired, but that woman deserved it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I remember at Walmart a co-manager did a voided transaction on like a $600 transaction, and pocketed the money. He got caught and was fired, but didn't face criminal charges. Just have to wonder if he had been doing that for a long time and finally got caught, or that was the first time he did it and got caught. He popped up later about 40 miles away as a manager at a Dollar General.

 

[cijay]

Mostly, from working at the store my co-workers who get fired are for theft. Two when I worked at the office showed up drunk though one got fired for threatening the boss because they wouldn't give him Canada Day off. (He had it in his head that it was against the law to make us work on Canada day. When they asked him to provide this evidence, he got flustered and threatened to beat Maria up LOL)

 

[teller80]

Not my coworkers but still a story I would like to share.

All of the water department employees in our city were stamping each others water bills as paid, we got a new mayor and they were all terminated. They weren't very nice to deal with either, when I'd go in to pay my bill they would act like it was a big inconvenience.

Later it was determined that this had been going on for years, so I don't know if other mayors looked the other way or were just oblivious. The average water bill is $50/month, I just can't imagine risking my job for $600/year.

 

[barkley]

VERY rare in my civil service job but my FAVORITE-

employee with a very arrogant attitude-rude to the public/rude to co-workers/horrendous to d.a. investigations staff who dealt w/our welfare fraud cases. she was always telling people she's just short-timing her job until she gets into the prestigious law school she's applied to-then it's 'bye-bye, i'll wave to you from my porsche when I drive by the parking lot and you're still driving your sorry clunkers'. she gets accepted into the prestigious law school, is horrendously rude and condescending at the unit party that she was lucky anyone was willing to throw together.

a year later miss priss is sitting in one of those huge raked classrooms of a couple of hundred people at her prestigious law school when in the middle of the professor's lecture 3 men in suits enter w/an administrator and whisper something in his ear. the professor points to a row of students and says 'go ahead'.........one of the men in the suits LOUDLY announces 'miss priss, you are under arrest for________________' and reads off dozens and dozens of counts of welfare fraud as the other 2 suits go to the row the professor indicated and put miss priss in handcuffs.

yup-miss priss had been done employee fraud (which we discovered after she left) to subsidize her prestigious law school education. there was the potential prior to her arrest to maybe negotiate her turning herself in but the d.a. and the investigators remembered how she treated them so they opted to pick her up themselves (and apparently there was allot of back and forth between the d.a. staff on who would get to go to the arrest).

 

[RedAngie]

I mentioned in the "Worst Excuse" thread a young woman who took an unauthorized week off to go skiing, without any kind of notice other than posting photos on Facebook. She thought that would be sufficient and was astounded when she was terminated upon her return.

Over the years, more than a few store managers were terminated for financial sleigh of hand which propped up their numbers and made themselves temporarily look better than what they really were. Didn't they realize that such padding would eventually collapse?

 

[GaryDis]

Didn't they realize that such padding would eventually collapse?

Of course not. That would take foresight and long range thinking, which would have disqualified them from being promoted into management.

 

[ashley0139]

I guess my company doesn't take sexual harassment too lightly (which we all appreciate), because someone at my work was recently terminated for that. He was known around the office and the guy that hit on all the women (and made most of them uncomfortable) and I guess he went too far.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Customer Service rep accepted a free trip from one of our customers. Not sure if the guy paid for it himself (they were very friendly), or if his company did. At least she got the trip, but she was promptly fired.

 

[GaryDis]

One of my managers was fired quickly for "inappropriate behavior". We weren't given any more details, but expect it was either sexual harassment or outright crass behavior at an executive meeting.

It was a shame in a way, because in terms of pure software management skills, he was very good. Perhaps he let that go to his head.

 

[Mokat76]

An employee abused her business credit card in a big way. Often. Bailed a family member out of jail one time and another time called in sick, which wasn't a huge deal in and of itself until...
She was late paying off her biz card and a notice got sent to the boss who then saw the bail charge AND saw she was in Los Angeles when she called in sick. We're on the east coast. Oops.

 

[clori]

When I was in high school I worked in a nursing home kitchen. Usually by 6:15pm only part time high school employees were left to finish up the work in the kitchen. It never happened a night I worked but 1 person used to bring trash outside and start fires in a trash can. He was caught and fired.

I had another part time job later on working as a cashier supervisor, and service desk/cash office of a grocery store. Anyone who worked in the cash office knew cameras were always on. Fortunately they had security because I was always surprised to walk up the stairs to the time clock and see a fellow cashier being lead out in handcuffs. One was the sweetest girls who worked in the cash office was arrested for stealing money in the cash office. Another time a boy was stealing credit card numbers somehow and buying things online. When he was arrested he had a pair of sneakers from the place with the price tag still on it. Another time a cashier supervisor who had a key to put a register in training for a new cashier to practice was ringing up groceries, taking money from family and friends, putting it in her apron pocket, then giving out the groceries for family and friends to take.

For a short time I worked at a drugstore and the grocery store. I met a girl at the drugstore who got caught stealing money. She would tell a supervisor I have a $20 bill can you make change for it then pocket some of the money before putting the rest in her register. After she was fired she went to the grocery store and told them she knew me. They hired her without asking me. She was fired within a few days for getting caught making a plate from the salad bar then eating it without paying.

 

[Jaya]

I had a boss's wife AND girlfriend calling me at home asking questions about each other. He had told the girlfriend that I was his emergency contact and God knows what he had told his wife about me. After a couple of calls from both of them, I went to HR; I didn't want to deal with him. Apparently, it was the last straw for him and he was out the door.

Afterwards, we found out that he had been fired from another company for just about the same thing.