Longtime worker let go for being late for the first time ever, co-workers stand up to boss

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 15, 2022. It has since been updated.

It's never nice to be fired, but it can be downright heartbreaking when you're fired for no valid reason. One employee was horrified after being fired for coming late to the office for the very first time. It was a huge red flag as far as the other employees were concerned. One co-worker took to Reddit and shared the story. "Co-worker who has never been late in 7+ years gets fired for the first time being late," they titled the post. "This happened last week and today Monday we just found out he was fired for being 20 minutes late FOR HIS FIRST TIME EVER," they wrote before adding that they planned to protest the management's actions. "Tomorrow me, and ALL my coworkers will be late and will continue to come in late until they rehire him," they added.

"We came in late. I was 22 min late and our manager was not happy, he asked if everyone was stuck in traffic or something and one of the workers with the most experience (5yrs in the company) said 'unfair treatment for being late is not something we want,'" they wrote. "We just said we wanna be appreciated and want job security especially now. We expressed how we are concerned to get our painter back."

The pressure from the employees resulted in the management trying to undo their mistakes. "The manager said he 'contacted' our painter to come back but he said in the group chat that he was not coming back unless sh*t changes," they said. "He said he appreciated us coming in late but we didn’t have to do that. I think our end goal was just legit proved and set in stone that we're not disposable." They also highlighted it was a poor managerial decision as well. "What’s crazy is that he is THE only painter that we have… like there’s no one to replace him LMFAOOO. Like no one’s ever used high-grade ceramic paint for our motors but him… We can’t do it because we don’t know how," they wrote.

Many in the Reddit community lauded the workers for rallying around their co-workers while some shared their personal stories from work. "The 'being late the first time' was the excuse, it wasn't the reason. Maybe he was one of the higher-paid workers, and they want to replace him with someone who makes $1 less an hour. Maybe they want to get rid of people who will be drawing a pension. I don't know why..," wrote one user. "In my last job, I was late one time in 6 years. It was a massive snowstorm. I left for work at 5:00 and was at my desk at 9:05," one person wrote. "I didn't get fired, but I got a stern talking to that day and the [boss] actually wrote it into my annual review. That being on time was a performance goal for the next year because I was five minutes late one time in a day that took more than four hours to get to work."