Reddit user u/DankGamer135 recently came to Reddit to ask, "What one mistake ended your career?" and people reallllly dished the office goss.
1. "Being diagnosed with cancer. I still worked full time, but three years into aggressive treatment, I was told I 'absorb others' energy' and they 'couldn't have [me] around with [my] cancer stuff.' They said this while pantomiming fanning (for hot flashes) and opening and closing their hands (for neuropathy) and fired me."
"I sued, settled, and then could not find a job in the same career path (applying across the nation), so I took a huge pay cut to work in medical and moved to a different state. 😁 BTW: five years of treatment and cancer-free!"
2. "Called the HR woman the 'angel of death' to a coworker on chat. HR was in a different state, so anytime they came to town, we all knew it was most likely to lay off people. The angel of death came to get me shortly after. 😂"
"I once worked in a company as the help desk tech who would come collect tech while people were in with HR getting fired. Got the nickname 'Grim Reaper' because if I showed up with my cart and nobody in that department had called, then they knew one of their colleagues wouldn't be coming back from their meeting with HR."
3. "I remember a coworker of mine getting fired because he put laxatives in his own lunch bag. Some dickhead kept stealing parts of our lunches. Turned out it was our supervisor."
4. "I sent a scathing email about my boss directly to my boss. It wasn't meant for him. To this day I still have no idea what possessed me to put his name in the address bar. I noticed his name the exact moment I hit send. I've never felt that much panic."
5. "Kind of the opposite. I worked at a secondhand electronics store, and a dude came in with a PS2 to sell. I noticed the serial number was scratched off and thought that was a concern, but processed it anyway. It went through testing, came back green-lit, and I assumed that meant that it was OK."
"Assumed wrong — management sacked my ass an hour later. I went home, reevaluated my life choices, and that year went back to college. Got my A levels, then my degree, and I've been a software engineer for almost 10 years."
6. "I was kicked out of the US military for accidental ingestion of molly. Don't drink from the wrong cup if you have a federal job."
"I had witness statements, testimonies, etc., to prove it was accidental. Had the charges dropped by my command at court-martial due to what my lawyer and I believed to be a lack of hard evidence of maliciously doing molly. Then I was taken to an admin separation board by my command because less evidence is required to prove someone is guilty when it’s not in court, and I was found 51% likely to have committed the crime.
"I was 'separated under honorable discharge.' Now I’m a 100% disabled, stay-at-home dad, and we live pretty comfortably as a family. It all worked out, fortunately for us."
7. "I took a half day off for a doctor's appointment. It ran longer than I thought. I texted my boss that I'd be a bit later than expected."
"I got home one hour past the allotted time for a half day and missed a meeting, and I was fired the next day. I'd been at the company for six years. It took me six months to find a new job in a different field, but I'm much happier with the work I'm doing now."
8. "I sold myself beer before I turned 21 at a gas station I was working at. I got caught because my coworker was giving himself lots of discounts on all kinds of shit, so they checked the system. I had been ripping off barcodes from the beer in the back so I could swipe and pay at the counter without the cameras seeing the beer. Then I would take the beer from the cooler at the end of my shift under the trash cart I was taking out."
"The best part was that after I got caught and fired, my manager called me in a week later to give me a check for several hundred dollars for all the beer I had bought over the past several months. That way, the store could say it hadn't sold beer to a minor. I don't know how that would stand up legally, but that's what they did, and I found it hilarious."
9. "Browsing for another job while at the job."
10. "I was the assistant director at a summer camp. Two of the counselors were caught drinking beer, and in an attempt to weasel his way out, one of them told the head of the camp that I gave him permission to do so, even though I most definitely had not."
"While I didn’t get fired on the spot or have my year-end bonus withheld like the other two, I was told I wouldn’t be asked back again for next year, when there had already been talks of me being a full director in the future."
11. "My best friend found a stash of porn on a network computer that belonged to the boss, then showed it to everyone. Ended up working in a supermarket after that."
12. "I told the truth about a workplace accident. They told me if I lied, I would still have a job. Basically, they wanted to be lied to and not hear the truth or have it brought up. So you would rather employ someone who lies than someone who is honest?"
13. "A guy I worked with was caught stealing two cigarettes from a colleague's bag. Was on a six-figure salary. Not anymore!"
14. "Went to the next town with my boss to buy trucks, but we didn't find one. A week later, the pay for that 14-hour day was not in my check. I asked the boss's wife (aka the bookkeeper) why I was not paid for that day, and she gave me a funny look, asked for my pay stubs, and left. The following Sunday, she came to my house; we don't work Sundays. She asked if I was sleeping with her husband."
"Turns out she was supposed to go with him and he told her a male coworker was going — 15 years of a career ended with a man's lie. I moved on, but surprise! I got fired for sexual harassment. I'm a woman working in road construction, and I was not the one doing the harassing!!! It's a small industry where everyone has worked with everyone at some point."
15. "I was a part-time intern making $9 an hour, and my boss asked if I had any plans for the weekend. I had said I was going to buy a car, and he asked if I was buying it brand new. My response was that my budget wasn't big enough for a new car."
"A couple of weeks later during my one-year review, my manager said that they didn't have the work for me and that I was disrespectful for telling the boss I didn't make enough money. At the time, I was living comfortably as a college student — just needed different transportation. I tried not to be disrespectful, but apparently I was."
16. "Had a job where the VP of operations told me they were letting me go because of how 'annoying' I was being with asking for a living wage."
"The phone call was recorded, and when I applied for unemployment, the representative I talked to had to take a minute to really believe what I was saying."
17. "Talking about my drinking habits with a coworker."
"In retrospect, it was a good thing I got fired. It was a shit job, but I had never been fired before, and getting fired finally made me start to rethink how I was living. I drank up my whole last paycheck and went to my first AA meeting the next day. Been sober almost 10 years now; life is better."
18. "Roasted a CEO in an 'anonymous' survey."
19. "I told the CEO's wife what I thought. I didn’t make it to the next Christmas party."
"I told her what I thought of the decision to cut bonuses dramatically so she could have a big Christmas party.
"She loved company Christmas parties and convinced her husband to slash bonuses by over 50% so we could do a big, expensive, ridiculous party. She actually fucking said employees would enjoy the party more.
"Figure the company was about 100 people and the cost must have been close to $100,000. The rental for the property was over $10,000 alone for that one night. There were ridiculously expensive door prizes that were mostly won by management, food that was all catered to be like a Top Chef tasting experience, outrageous giant decorations, and live entertainment.
"Oh, and it wasn’t an open bar. So she rolled up to the bar and stole one of the drinks I was in the process of paying for like it was her right while bragging about how much she loved this time of year."
Alright...if you've ever made a mistake that you feel changed your entire career — even if it's not as dramatic as some of these — let us know in the comments. We swear we won't judge.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.