Employees reveal their best 'Got fired, but it was totally worth it' stories

"The Great Resignation" has seen thousands of workers quit their jobs over the past year due to low wages, poor working conditions or toxic work environments, among other things. It's no surprise that workers are demanding fair wages when living costs are spiking and minimum wages haven't increased in more than a decade. Employers are beginning to realize they need to increase wages, improve their work environment and treat employees with respect if they want to retain the workforce. One Reddit user asked the community about those who enjoyed quitting their jobs and received a host of replies that shed light on the job market. User NamelessDaedra asked, "What's your "got fired, but was totally worth it" story?" receiving more than 1700 responses.

Here are some of the best replies we came across: 

1. 

Was working one full-time job and one part-time job on the weekends for a little extra money. I would do 11 pm to 8 am at job A, 10 am to 6 pm at job B, and go home, and sleep from 6:30 pm to 10 pm. Rinse and repeat for three days. It was harrowing. A month after starting at the part-time gig, I got pulled into the office and let go because I "wasn't a good fit." The boss was super sweet about it and gave me a good reference. I honestly think she just saw how much of a burnt-out husk of humanity I was by that third day every week. u/RhiannonSaranton

2.

Reported coworker for sexually harassing a minor. The manager fired me for making the accusation against her friend. She got fired, the district manager got fired, and he got fired after he was caught in a bathroom with a minor. u/try_altf4

3.

I worked at a place in Grand Bend Ontario. I was the chef. On a July evening, someone stuck a hot, dirty, sautee pan into my stack of cool clean pans. I wrapped my hand around it and...man. That was an intense level of pain. Literally had to peel the pan from my hand. The crazy owner wouldn't let me call an ambulance because it would be bad for business. Insisted I run service from the other side of the line. I took a few days of medical leave after that, all the while fielding harassing phone calls saying how I was letting them down. This place was awful and I'd had no staff for weeks because, again, ownership ran them off. I handed in my notice and was promptly escorted off the property. It was gratifying to watch their reviews sink after that. Food going out cold. Moldy mushroom burgers. Etc. u/Reddit

4.

Worked at a "big" supermarket chain. Worked as a  cashier. One day I get called to the back. It was the regional manager. He said my deficit after my shifts as the cashier was getting out of control, about 10-50 bucks every shift. Threatened me with cops saying that they had surveillance videos showing me stealing the money. I said sure, get the cops here, I'll just wait. After 30 minutes, cops arrived. When we started watching the footage there was nothing showing that I stole the money. Cops said there is no evidence against me, and took off. I still got fired on the spot and they even banned me from entering their stores all over the country. A few weeks later, I get a call from the girl that was working there with me. Teared up, choking from crying. It was her stealing the money all the time while I used my breaks. Got charges pressed against her, did 120 hours of community service and paid a huge fine. A few days after that I get a call from the regional manager apologizing for the inconvenience and asking me if I want to return. Told him to f*ck off and hung up. u/padjapoiss

5.

Went into a business meeting for the ice cream shop, I managed Bold Stone. I was told that the girl that was 7-months pregnant needed to be written up as much as possible so they could have a legal reason to fire her. Told them it wasn’t going to happen and they suggested that I put in my two weeks and find other work. So I did, then I was told that I was going to be gone in two weeks and might as well just fire her. Was no way in hell I would do that. I walked into that meeting with a 50-hour-a-week decent-paying job and left with nothing but my integrity. I then preceded to drive to my store and pull the girl aside and let her know what was going on. Last I checked, I believe she manages the store now. u/savemoney2121

6.

Was working at Little Caesars at the time, was probably my 2nd month or so. About an hour before my shift starts, my mom calls and says my grandma fell down the stairs and is at the hospital, and I need to go right away since she works further away and I can get to her first. I call LC to tell them I can't come in, and my boss said if I don't come in, I'll be fired. I say ok and hang up. A few hours later I get a voicemail saying I've been let go from LC. Totally worth it to make it to my grandma to check on her. u/thatonegirlwhosme

7.

I worked in a bar with an awful boss. He would always flirt with the young female bar staff making us all uncomfortable, even though he was 50 y/o. We all knew his wife and two young children but about 6 months into me working there he began to ‘date’ a 22-year-old customer. By date, I mean he used to go downstairs to his office and sleep with her ...while he was on shift. No one was allowed to talk about it but we all knew. Quite quickly he knocked her up and ended up breaking up with his wife. So anyway, he always used to break health and safety rules if he could get out of doing a task he didn’t want to. He was prolific for asking bar staff to clean human waste (vomit/poop customers had done on the floor) even though legally anyone cleaning that stuff needed to have passed a certain health and safety qualification. I spoke to my assistant manager about this and she confirmed that only management can do it, and I should refuse next time.

One day he demanded I cleaned up vomit in the male toilets, and I refused, repeating what the assistant manager told me. My boss went absolutely mad (he wasn’t used to people standing up to him) he told me to come downstairs to his office to speak about it. At that moment I knew I wanted to quit, so I told him I won’t be going downstairs with him. He asked me why, and I replied: “The last girl who went down there with you ended up getting pregnant so that’s gonna be a nope from me” Lost my job but worth it. u/bbyrats

8.

I was working in a small accounting firm making less than the minimum wage of $30,000 (the minimum wage in Australia is $38,000). The boss was exploiting the fact that people like me were desperate to get their foot into the door of accounting as it is very competitive in Australia. One day I was stupidly posting on a forum about my situation and looking for advice. The boss found out and fired me on the spot. Feeling pretty spiteful about the whole thing, I reported my situation to the fair work ombudsman Australia. A month later, I got payment for the amount I should have been making at minimum wage for the 6 months I was there. About a month after that, I landed a much better role at a large company making almost double what I was making previously. The icing on the cake is the firm ended up getting investigated by fair work and I can only assume they received a hefty fine because they are no longer in business. u/Twic3

9.

My ex-manager at the cinema got fired over "budgetary reasons", in other words, "We don't like your face because you won't bend over when we tell you to, wage-slave." He got cancer and had to take days off for treatment. Happened right around Christmas, so on January 1, we come in and he's officially off the roster. Thing is, he never really took vacations, or days off even as well as never claiming the extra hours he'd work here (fixing cameras, projectors, computers, databases, etc. Everything here is semi-autonomous) so over the past 30 or so years, he tallied up a fair bag of extra unpaid hours. The thing in Switzerland is, you can only claim the past 5 years as far as policy goes, so he did just that. It damn near bankrupted the company (they owe him around 60k atm), and they still haven't paid up fully because of it. I see him now and then, he looks way better, less stressed out, and happier. Works with helping old people now in his free time and coaching kids to play volleyball. u/clayman8

10.

Was an assistant store manager at Lowe's and decided to go back to school to become a teacher and drop down to an hourly position for three months and then I was going to leave the company after that to study full time. The day before the transfer they fired me which saved them from paying me half of my saved up vacation time which was worth about $300. u/Stroupzilla

11. 

I was livid and already contemplating walking out and while I went to go take a water break I looked at my phone for the time. I'm never the person to sit on my phone at work every chance I get. I like to try and be a good employee. Well, the Manager saw and straight up told me to get out and leave and to call her before my next shift. I wasn't even sh*tty, I got to leave and get drunk with friends instead of working until close. I texted her the next morning and said that there won't be the next shift for me and I'll be there next Friday to pick up my last paycheck.

I ended up getting a nice job with great management and coworkers, they pay me $14.75/hr in Indiana as a college student and they always worked around my schedule. Getting fired was the best thing for me. I'm still there as a senior and I never looked back. u/HallucinatesOtters

12.

I kept avoiding calls at the company I worked at because we sold cable and every single customer that walked in and every single call was someone screaming at me and telling me what a piece of sh!t I was because they were angry about something on their bill. I got told by an old woman she hoped my mom died in a fire over two dollars. So they call me in and tell me I'm fired for call avoidance and I just shrugged, said okay, and left. Didn't feel bad. Didn't wallow in it. Felt a giant weight come off my shoulders. u/chemicalthread

13.

I worked at a place I hated so got myself fired on purpose by being rude to a customer that had abused the sh*t out of every member of staff. I'd got another job lined up first, and enjoyed a week of paid suspension followed by dismissal with two weeks' pay. That with the pay from my new job made a very good payday at the end of the month. u/jackj_94

14.

I got fired from this car wash I used to work at. All my co-workers were scumbags that went to this alternative school or didn't even go to high school but we all smoked daily on the job so I can't complain. The money in the register was constantly off at the end of the day because these morons couldn't count. Then one day my manager said something hinting at the fact that they thought it was me. So for the next two weeks, I didn't even touch the register, all I did was wash cars. After two weeks I got fired. This kid and his friends were stealing money from the register and blaming it on me so I got one of my friends to jump him. Needless to say, it was a bloody mess. u/dkleinman22

15.

I went to the United States with lots of hopes and dreams. I was good in academics and worked hard to enroll in Ivy League (Brown) and then got a good job. Then got fired.
Left the country came back home (India) and was homesick, even though had a visa extension. Now, I make a lot less than what I made in the U.S (started my own company). But I feel so good in my heart. I get to see my parents, sister, and friends a lot more. Losing that job made me the person I am today. I would have been miserable working a 9 to 5 with the immigration breathing down my neck. Trying to fit in with society as an outsider. I am so happy I am not that person. u/Freecommunication