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Ten Weird Ways to Get Fired

By Dennis McCafferty on 2011-10-12


There are many conventional ways that people find to get themselves fired (e.g., dishonesty, harassment, and such; see our previous report here). And then there are more unique ways to get a pink slip. You could get sacked for showing support for the wrong sports team, failing to restock the office refrigerator, or even showing up for work looking too attractive. Those are among the strange but true termination stories we uncovered. In some cases, an outright job dismissal seems rather harsh, given that the offenses amount to - at worst - lapses in professional judgment. In other instances, the departed seems to have been courting trouble. Naturally, a number of these incidents ended up as lawsuit fodder, or otherwise prompted news coverage. We’ve compiled our list below via websites such as What's That Smell?, Fail Blog and Newstrick. One thing’s for sure: In a time of shaky job security, it’s best to err on the side of caution on the job.
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No Cheese Heads
A Chicago salesman was fired for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work.

Switch to Decaf
An exec threatened to fire staffers if they didn’t replace skim milk in the office fridge for his coffee.

Overly School Spirited
Two Canadian teachers were fired during a pep rally for giving each other a lap dance.

True Confessions
A teacher was dismissed from a Catholic school for posting on Facebook that she didn’t believe in God.

Don’t Have It Your Way
A Burger King worker was fired for taking a bath in the restaurant sink.

No Comics Zone
A worker was canned for posting a Dilbert cartoon on the bulletin board.

Bad Santa
A Macy’s Santa Claus lost his job after telling naughty jokes to an elderly couple who sat on his knee.

That’s Not Logistics
A UPS delivery guy got terminated for failing to deliver a package that turned out to contain marijuana.

Fatal Distraction
A Citibank worker was canned after being told that her attractiveness and wardrobe were “too distracting” for male colleagues to bear.

Pole Position
A business ethics professor was suspended for hiring strippers to help him teach a class.

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