Have a funny / sad or interesting story about getting fired from a job?

[Chrisinmd]

Have a funny / sad or interesting story about getting fired from a job?

I got fired when I was younger working as a security guard. It was overnight shift and I would go off and hide and sleep for a couple hours. Got away with it for quite a while till they caught me. They caught me on video going into a room for a couple hours every night that only had a couch in it. So they were able to figure it out. Dam video surveillance. Should not have done it but they were really unethical slime balls to work for in my defense

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I have a funny story that didn't involve me personally, but it involved a team member of mine.

Many years ago, I was a security guard at a large defense contractor in Denver. Part of our job was to make hourly rounds of the many buildings that made up the complex. We were to walk the floors looking for things like security violations.

One building was made up of engineers, and they had a communal refrigerator that was stocked with cans of soda. It had a nearby can for people to put money into and take a soda, on the honor system.

Apparently, the till was coming up short. Someone was taking several sodas every day and not paying. The engineers suspected that a security guard might be responsible.

Being engineers, they rigged up a camera system that showed a view of the fridge and was triggered when the door was opened. Keep in mind that this was well before the advent of the Internet or wifi or digital cameras. These things simply did not exist. Security cameras at that time were grainy black-and-white TV quality images, and I don't mean 4K either. I mean like lower quality than VHS type video recorders.

So apparently, whomever was stealing sodas saw the camera, which wasn't too well hidden. The person made up a cardboard sign that said HA HA NICE TRY and propped it up in front of the camera and then proceeded to take sodas without paying.

The engineers saw this as a challenge, and drilled a hole for a video camera in the back of the fridge and installed a video camera inside, to take a photo of whomever's face was attached to the late-night thefts.

The security guard saw the wire and held up a new cardboard sign in front of the fridge as they opened it. They then absconded with the usual sodas.

However, the security guard apparently decided to be more creative the next night. When he opened the fridge, he first lowered his trousers, bent over, and presented a full moon to the camera inside the fridge. He reached behind himself to grab a free soda.

Unfortunately for him, the engineers had rigged up a third and final security camera inside the storage cabinet across from the fridge, which got a great photo of the security guard's face as he bent over to present his butt to the fridge camera.

He was fired after a brief discussion with our upper management and his union representative.

I was glad I had never been part of his nightly raids.

 

[Buka]

I don't remember having been fired, which is odd because I probably should have been in some places. But I have a story about NOT getting hired that I'm rather proud of.

 

[Chrisinmd]

I don't remember having been fired, which is odd because I probably should have been in some places. But I have a story about NOT getting hired that I'm rather proud of.

Sure let's hear that story?

 

[hoshin1600]

I got fired 20 years ago from a manufacturing company when I didn't get along with the manager. 5 years ago I re applied for a job there. Many of the same people still work there. I now manage 1/3 of that plant.

 

[Buka]

I got fired 20 years ago from a manufacturing company when I didn't get along with the manager. 5 years ago I re applied for a job there. Many of the same people still work there. I now manage 1/3 of that plant.

Man, I like that!

 

[Chrisinmd]

I got fired 20 years ago from a manufacturing company when I didn't get along with the manager. 5 years ago I re applied for a job there. Many of the same people still work there. I now manage 1/3 of that plant.

I am assuming the manager that fired you isn't still there? That would be sweet if he was and now your his boss

 

[Buka]

Sure let's hear that story?

I forgot about getting back to this, my apology.

So…I’ve lived here several times over my lifetime. One of the times moving back to Boston I was about to look for work when a friend said, “We're looking for Police Officers at Such and such Hospital. (Massive place in Boston), you’d be perfect, come work with us.”

So I called and got an appointment with the Chief for an interview. Handed in my resume and sat outside in the waiting area. She had told me she’d be about twenty minutes.

She had me wait three and a half hours. Normally, I would have left, but my curiosity got the best of me.

I’m finally called into a meeting room adjacent to her office. She has an entire wall covered with framed certificates of courses she’s taken. Not degrees, just completed course certificates. And I’m thinking, "Uh oh, one of those people.”

There’s her and I, my buddy who had me apply, and two of her assistants.

She looks at me and asks, “So, Mister Buka, what do you want to be when you grow up?” (I’m in my forties at the time)

I see my friend wince, and her two assistants stifle laughs. I politely say, “Sorry I wasted your time. Have a nice day.” And politely left.

As I get to my car I take a deep breath and exhale. I can’t remember feeling so low. And there’s a ticket on my windshield, from her department…..because I was kept waiting for three and a half hours. Oh, woe is me.

Flash forward seven or eight years. I’m back in Federal Law Enforcement again. Our building does a lot of conferences and classes for a lot of people. Guess who comes waltzing in to take a course? Good old Chief "What do you want to be when you Grow Up.” And she needs to sign in with me.

She doesn’t remember me, but I sure as hell remember her. I had seen her name on the visitors log of the day. So I had been waiting with a song in my heart. I deny her access because I can. She demanded to see my boss….who I had told all about this. When I told him, he laughed and said, "Did she really say that?" I said, "Yup."

So anyway....he comes down and speaks to her. He points to me and says, “Oh, Buka’s in charge today, it’s his turn. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, ma'am.”

She was embarrassed and red faced. And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it because my department answered to nobody. Especially not to a hospital cop, not even a chief.

The next day my boss comes up to me and says, "We were off our game yesterday. Know what we should have done?" I say, "What, no?"

He said "We should have had a framed certificate to hand her that said, "I was thrown out of such and such."

Damn, I wish we had thought of that. That would have been really funny.

It was one of the most fun things I can remember in my career.