Losing a job is challenging enough. To make it worse, sometimes people are fired for unfair reasons. While these experiences may be traumatic to experience, they can turn into humorous anecdotes over time. The following five stories are some of the most unusual, funny reasons for which an employee was ever fired.
1. A Cardboard Dime
Believe it or not, a man was fired for making a dime out of cardboard. Richard Eggers was past retirement age when he was working at a branch of Wells Fargo in Des Moines. One day, the company fired him for money laundering and dishonesty. While this may seem like a straightforward reason, there is much more to the store. Apparently, Eggers used a cardboard cutout of a dime to use at a Laundromat when he was a teenager in 1963. While it was an old crime that is far less serious than most teenage indiscretions, news of his cardboard dime was technically a crime involving dishonesty, money laundering or breach of trust. Bank employees cannot be hired if they have violated one of these banking violations, so Eggers was let go.
2. The All Caps Lady
While it is annoying to read a message in just capitalized letters, it normally is not a reason to fire someone. In the case of Vicki Walker, it turns out that a capitalization problem was an issue. She had a habit of using all caps and red font, and it led to her dismissal. Vicki attempted to challenge the wrongful termination, and her employer was only able to produce one example of these e-mails.
3. Orange Is Not the New Black
A Florida law firm had a tradition of orange on Fridays. As the color of the University of Florida Gators, it was a sign of employee unity before their Friday night happy hour. Unfortunately, new executives at the law firm thought that the orange shirts were a type of protest or insult. Ultimately, 14 people were laid off for wearing orange at the firm.
4. Heroes Go Unrecognized
In Fort Lauderdale, Juan Canales was employed as a waiter at a local Thai restaurant. The father of three noticed a woman being carjacked while he was working one day. Instead of calling the police, Canales confronted the knife-wielding car jacker. In the process, he saved her life and prevented her vehicle from being stolen. While most employers would love the free, positive publicity, Canales was fired for generating attention for the company.
5. It Hurts to Win Too Much
Micah Grimes was coaching a girl’s high school basketball team at the Covenant School in 2009. During the season, his team played against an academy that focused primarily on students with disabilities. By the end of the game, Micah’s team reached an impressive point score of 100-0. Unfortunately, the Covenant School decided that allowing the points to run up was not “Christ-like,” so Grimes was let go. Although it may have been unsportsmanlike to allow such a high score, the audience cheered the girls on for the entire game. Apparently, it takes more to be a basketball coach than just winning games.
Fortunately, most employees do not get fired for these reasons. While they are humorous to read, it demonstrates the sheer simplicity of being fired from a job. Hopefully, these employees learned to choose better bosses and companies at their next positions.
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