Remote 'employee' gets fired from a job he didn't even work at: 'Your performance has not met expectations'

A remote worker revealed how he was fired from a company that seemingly forgot he existed and still paid him nearly $20,000. The post, shared by Reddit user u/throwaway, describes how the 23-year-old applied for a remote position last year, only to realize the onboarding process was completely disorganized. Describing the incident, he wrote, "Everything was through email, and they somehow forgot to assign me to a team. I waited, asked around, no response. So I figured I’d chill until someone noticed." Posted on November 12, the story has so far garnered over 1,000 upvotes.

Months went by with no updates. "Three months passed. I was getting paid every two weeks, no tasks, no meetings, no contact. I started treating it like free UBI. I traveled, gamed, lived my best life." Then last week, HR sent him an email saying they are letting him go. "Your performance has not met expectations. I laughed out loud. Performance? I literally hadn’t logged into a company system once. They fired me and sent a severance check. I didn’t even bother replying. They paid me nearly $20k to do nothing. I feel a bit guilty… but also like I beat the system for once," he added.

Stories like this have become more common as remote and hybrid work expand faster than many companies can manage. According to a 2021 study published in Nature Human Behaviour, remote hires had "68% fewer connections within their companies after a year" compared to those who joined in person, a result researchers linked to "ineffective onboarding." Another study on remote engagement titled Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Remote Work noted that poor communication and lack of team integration often lead to disconnection and low accountability, leaving employees adrift in systems that no one seems to monitor closely.

The post struck a chord with many users who said the real issue wasn’t the worker, but the company’s broken structure. "You didn’t get fired for poor performance, you got fired for a chaotic HR department. Enjoy that severance package; you earned the rest!" wrote u/EnchantingBabe2. Others shared similar experiences. u/Doneuter said, "I once got paid unemployment for a whole year without looking for work in any way. Someone filled out some paperwork wrong and nobody ever checked in on me. Got paid $500 a week for a year, which was more than I made from the job I got fired from. This was like 15 years ago when I was 21. Twas an amazing year."

"What company is this? Good for you, man. Corporate America sucks, if they are too stupid to realize their mistake, so be it. Someone posted last week on either this sub or another sub where the same thing happened. In his case, he’s still getting checks six months in," commented u/secondtrades. u/IrreverantBard chimed in, "Don’t feel guilty. This is why they have managers. Sounds like they need to keep firing until they clean up their bloat." u/xPetalDoodle added, "For real, this whole story sounds like a glitch in the matrix. Dude basically lived the dream version of being 'disconnected from the system.' I’d frame that HR email like a badge of honor."

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