20 Times Bosses Didn't Think Things Through Before Firing Someone

Ashley Hunte
Scrabble tiles put together to make the words, "get over it."
Unsplash | Brett Jordan

Losing your job isn't easy. Whether you decide to walk away from a toxic environment, or that toxic job decides to give you the boot, it's not going to be fun. Mostly for the employer, though.

After one tweet about an ex-coworker whose email was tied to the company event calendar went viral, people began sharing their own stories of how their former employers royally screwed themselves by firing them.

The original tweet is right here:

I don't know about you, but I think this is one wild story. The amazing thing about it, though, is the fact that so many other people had such similar experiences.

Sometimes you have to get petty.

The fact that they fired this person through a fake meeting is petty enough, but they then went and upped the ante by being even pettier. I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty impressed.

When they have the nerve to try and call you after:

Ah yes, because there's nothing better than firing someone, and then thinking they'd give you the time of day when you want to reach out to ask them questions. Real classy.

You'd think they'd know better than to do this.

This person's partner was probably right to leave his job if this is how they treat employee information. You'd think IT of all people would check data to make sure there was nothing they needed before deleting it all.

They never realize what they have until it's gone.

If you're doing an entire department's worth of work, then you don't deserve double your pay. You deserve a controlling share in the company.

Then, whose is it?

To be honest, codes for certain (and important) things in an office shouldn't be left to one person. And if they are, you should probably treat that person well, unless you want to be locked out of your whole system.

If they want your help, they better put their money where their mouth is.

That's the employer's fault for deleting that email too soon. But at least they weren't sitting there expecting their former employee to give them all that info for free.

Just listen to the people who are still there!

If somebody tells you not to do something, and you do it anyway, that's on you. The bosses were literally told not to deactivate the accounts, didn't listen, and now think the info they lost can be recovered?

It's like adding insult to injury.

I can't get over the sense of entitlement some bosses have. You can't just let somebody go, and then think they'll drop everything to help you for free!

You should probably double check whose info you have...

When you have thousands of employees in one company, chances are a few of them will have the same name. You should probably double check which one of them you're letting go...

A little gratitude will help, too.

Telling a hardworking employee that they don't work hard enough is a recipe for disaster. Respect the people who work for you, or else you might end up regretting the fact that you ever took them for granted.

This kind of stuff affects more people than you think!

You should definitely have more than one teacher with admin access to online class stuff. In fact, shouldn't the school secretaries and vice principals have admin access, too?

Always. Back. Up. Important. Data.

If you know you need things that are in email exchanges, you should back those up. Probably before that employee leaves. I guess some things are learned the hard way.

Also, make sure that person doesn't work there anymore before you mess with their stuff.

Employment records are a thing, right? Like, companies will keep records of the people on leave, right?

How did IT mess up this badly?

Yup. Very professional.

I guess employers are afraid former employees are going to use their email access to sabotage the company? They're thinking too highly of themselves, if that's the case.

How hard is it for multiple people to know the passwords to things?

Or at the very least, get the passwords from them before they leave. But of course, no one thinks that far ahead, apparently.

Some employers are treading on very thin ice.

If you don't want a former employee to sue you, you probably shouldn't do anything that could land you in legal trouble. You'd think employers would know that.

This is just plain rude.

Like, have a little tact, people! If you're going to lay people off, at least let them know.

Give them a little time to breathe.

This almost seems like something you could take your former employer to court for, but it probably isn't. Either way, it really sucks.

The same thing goes for demotions, too!

I think the moral of the story is to have more than one person have access to/know how to do certain things, so that there's always someone else who can do the work.

And, you know, treat your employees right. It shouldn't be that hard.