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Recently, a Twitter user who goes by the handle @Itkeekz shared a post telling how his boss screwed up big time. “My boss deactivated my coworker’s email who just quit too quickly and didn't realize it controls our company calendar,” he wrote, adding that “now all of those events for the next 3 years are gone.”

As you try to picture the sheer regret on this boss's face, I have to tell you this happens more often than you’d think. Blame it on rash light-headedness or plain impulsiveness, but the truth is that employers are not immune to messing up.

The story was reshared by one Redditor on the Antiwork subreddit, an online community with 1.8m members, where it quickly blew up. More people chimed in to share their own experiences, telling how their bosses blew things after their worker got fired or decided to quit. Scroll down below for some of the most interesting and telling stories.

Image credits: itkeekz

Bored Panda reached out to Dawn Moss, the founder of “Your Interview Coach” set up in 2013 to help both candidates and hiring managers through the complexities of the recruitment and selection process. Throughout her career, Dawn has screened about 1 million CVs and interviewed over 10k candidates, and she was happy to share some insights into the procedure of firing an employee and what happens afterwards.

“It’s a less than easy process to fire someone in the U.K., both legally and ethically,” Dawn said. “In terms of the process, there are lots of factors to take into consideration; reason for dismissal, performance, capability, gross misconduct, and length of service, etc.” Although Dawn reminded us that she’s not an employment lawyer, she said that these situations can get complex.

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NsG
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wonder how many regulatory bodies base a proportion of their revenue budgets on fines payable by idiot bosses like this.

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“For a manager, it’s tough as they were the person to hire them in the first place and I can imagine there are a number of emotions attached to letting someone go. In my experience, most managers didn’t like getting to the point of firing someone and most have probably supported the person to get up to speed prior to starting the dismissal process,” Dawn explained and added that this is why the hiring process is absolutely essential to get right the first time. She also noted that the amount of management and HR time it takes managing a poor performer is draining.

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rspanther
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Big Bosses and upper management always think that they run things, until they fire the people who actually do all the work.

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Poultry Geist
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’m starting to feel like these are about the same person just from the perspective of different people in the company

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Ace Girl
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm surprised Google doesn't have an "are you sure you want to deactivate this email - it is tied to XYZ google sheets." Gmail warns you if you forget to attach something, why shouldn't it warn you about something as permanent as this?

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Having said that, it’s important to note that there’s definitely a right and a wrong way to fire an employee. “There are companies that don’t follow any process and unfortunately, if an employee has served less than 24 months they cannot usually file for unfair dismissal. There are some exceptions, if an employee feels they are being dismissed because of a protected characteristic, for example,” Dawn explained.

“However, if it’s performance-related or a personality clash, it can be fairly easy to dismiss someone without any warning. Most reputable companies will want to follow a structured process. As mentioned previously, most managers I’ve worked with want to support the individual first and dismissal is a last resort,” the career coach concluded.

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Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I did a proper handover when I resigned from my first job, but I was walked out of the building on my last day - makes me chuckle now - what did think I was going to do? Walk out with a Sun workstation under my arm?

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Leesquee
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They gave you all that responsibility in the first 90 days of your employment? Pretty stupid from the start.

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Paul Davis
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What kind of "computing security group" gives no thought to information retention and continuity?

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Felice Coles
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was nice of you to try to explain to the coworker, but my petty ass would have been out the door with no words at all except, "BYEEE!"

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Anna Banana
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't even get it, what is these companies' obsession with deleting email accounts immediatelly? What for?

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Id row
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is how managers and bosses justify their position and paycheck. "So-and-so left, which caused major chaos. But don't worry! I'm working diligently to fix the problems they caused!" Then when the workers eventually fix the problem, they take the credit for it. It's a smokescreen that's worked since the dawn of managers.

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Paul Davis
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But when they're deciding whether to re-carpet their offices for the third time this year, or to buy infrastructure for critical data, the carpet always wins.

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Francisco Manuel Teruel Gutiérrez
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hummm... sorry, but I totally disagree. One thing is when the company cancels accounts and destroy your previous work... a different thing is when you hide important information and documents that your company is asking for and that was part of your job.

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Moosy Girl
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Since the company bought the devices, they have the serial numbers and information necessary to have them reset even if their IT department are complete idiots. This is either just not true or absolutely ridiculous. You should NEVER need someone’s passcode or passwords to reset or access a company owned device in the first place.

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Jerry Mathers
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope you told them no. Or at least hit em with a 5 figure consultings fee

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Paul Davis
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But the uptick is somebody proved themselves to be this toxic, unethical, incompetent and dangerous to the company but still gets to work there...!

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James016
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My company has office 365 and after we delicence someone their files are available for 30 days before being deleted.

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Norma
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fool me once, shame on you...fool me twice, ah! I'm a dipstick!!

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ZAPanda
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I prefer to take backups of stuff, and pretend I didn't .When the dumpster fire starts, I then shrug and say oops, you should have backed up. I wait a day or two then say hmm maybe I have backups, but I dunno... $$$

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Felice Coles
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is what happens when you institute a "very complicated" system and only one person is willing to wrangle it.

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Felice Coles
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As if: "How do we know it's you? What if you're her--sneaking in to work some more?"

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Felice Coles
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Of course, NOW the manager wants a productive civil discourse.

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Homer Jay
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You must live in a hell of a country, here, in order to begin the new work at another company we assess a testing period of "account deactivation" and social security/taxes transfer to your new job so you can pay taxes and go to hospitals. There companyes must really hate one another and fire people out of the blue.

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Felice Coles
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Director needs to sit his lazy, callous ass in the classroom with the poor kids to see how well he does.

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Andie Day
Community Member
2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bio hazards? A work in OSHA's ear for the sake of former cow erkers.

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Felice Coles
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But probably not dumb enough to suffer any lasting consequences.

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