Workers From Around The World Share 'I Dare You To Fire Me' Moments

There's nothing sweeter than a righteous comeuppance. Even better if it happens to that overbearing boss or manager who just told you off for no reason. The workers in these stories had more than their share of unfair working conditions, but they knew just when to throw it back in their employer's face. If you've ever been unhappy at work, you'll get a vicarious thrill from reading these stories of people who told their boss, "I dare you to fire me."

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31. Triumphant refusal.

I was 17 and working part-time at a fast food restaurant. Someone wrecked the men’s restroom. You can imagine. The manager came out and told me to clean it. I refused. She threatened to fire me, to which I laughed in her face and told her, “You can clean it yourself or you can lose an employee and still clean it yourself. I don’t need this job.”

Needless to say, I wasn’t fired and I didn’t clean that up. I still laugh thinking about it.

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30. Charities are supposed to be charitable.

I worked at a cancer nonprofit. Hired a lady who knew about us because her kid had cancer. Boss wanted me to fire her because she had to come in late or leave early to take her kid to chemo.

I refused. Boss said she'd fire me if I didn't. I told her she could go right ahead. Our CEO said no way.

This was like 10 years ago. Unfortunately, my boss still works there - the same woman that told me not to hire some people because she thought their "ethnic" names would mean they didn't fit in with our "office culture."

Yeah, she's actually been investigated both by HR and I think the state.

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29. Fix it yourself.

I was elbows deep in an AT&T Unix machine that should've been replaced a decade before, parts strewn all over a desk, when the client came in to see what was taking me so long.

Me: You've got three dead fans, one of the power supplies has failed, there's a bad CMOS battery and the video card is glitchy and refusing to allow the machine to POST sometimes.

Client: So how long is that going to take? Fifteen minutes?

Me, laughing: I can patch things up in a couple hours, but I'm going to have to come back in a few days with new parts.

Client: If you can't fix it in the next half hour you're fired. I'll find someone that knows what they're doing.

I stood up, grabbed my tools, and started walking.

Client: Where are you going?

Me: I told'ya how long it would take, and that's longer than a half hour, so I guess I'm fired.

My firing lasted about three more steps towards the door.

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

28. Catering to nincompoops.

I was delivering catering to an office one day and the receptionist started freaking out because she had messed up the order she placed. She was yelling at me in front of her boss, saying that I was late (I was early) and that the order was wrong when it wasn't. She was making such a big issue of it and then said she was going to report me to my manager and get me fired.

So I said see if I care and gave her the number. She called and I picked up on my cell phone because I own the catering business. Everyone in that room was laughing at her.

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27. Work as a team, leave as a team.

Owner of the company was avoiding the meeting where I was to get my raise. I waited over two weeks. Finally told my Supervisor, I'm walking out the door if they don't fix this. They told me to go talk to him. I told them they were the Supervisors and it was their job to do that, not mine. They did, and I got my raise by the end of the day. Why? Because I'm in an understaffed position at a job that is very difficult to fill. If I left then the rest would have gone too. They knew that.

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26. Calling in the tribunal means business.

When I was 17 I worked a summer holiday job at Pizza Hut. I had transferred to my home town restaurant from my University town restaurant.

I was there for 5 weeks and hadn’t been paid yet. The boss claimed it was because I gave him the wrong employee number. I hadn’t.

Anyway after 5 weeks of no pay I rang him on New Years’ Eve (ie busiest night of the summer) and said I wasn’t coming to work because I wasn’t a volunteer and I wasn’t going to work for free. He told me if I didn’t go to work I may as well not come back as I would be fired.

I didn’t go to work and had a fun New Years instead.

Then a few days later I called the Employment Tribunal (I’m in New Zealand) and told them what had happened. They called my boss. He then called me, offered me my job back and was nice as pie for the rest of the summer.

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25. See you later, unequal payer.

Over the first year I worked there, I essentially took over most of the tasks in my department which were previously held by other departments and were done badly because of it.

This led to a massive increase in productivity. I then found out I was paid significantly less than what others were making and others in my position across the industry were making.

So I go to my boss and tell them I had done all this work increasing productivity and I would like to discuss a raise. They said no.

So I work there for another year, asking for a raise every now and again until I was offered a job that paid double. It didn't start for a couple months so I held on to that job until I was set to submit my two weeks. I asked for a raise again, thinking why not.

My boss goes off on me, tells me I wont get a raise and says some.....very colorful things about it.

It culminated with her telling me, "If you don't like your pay, maybe we should evaluate your future at this company," to which I replied "Already have, I took another job and this was your last chance to offer me what I deserve. I quit." and walked out of that office.

Friends told me that my sudden departure caused a massive backup of work that ended with my manager being fired for it.

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24. Time off for stress leave.

I told my boss 2 weeks in advance that I was taking time off on Monday and Tuesday. She approved it no problem. I take the days off and went out of town for a school thing.

I come back into the office on Wednesday and I'm locked out of my account. I talk to the operations manager (my boss's boss) who was the person who interviewed and hired me to see what's going on. He told me that my boss said I disappeared and didn't contact anybody for 2 days. I explained it to him and he said no problem. I talk to my boss later in the afternoon and she is furious. Starts saying how I didn't tell anybody that I was taking time off and thought I just suddenly quit. I don't know what she was talking about because I told her 2 weeks ago that I was going to be out those two days and I have the emails to prove it. At this point I was the only person left on my team of 4 people who were there when I was hired. I was already planning on quitting in next month as I had to move for school. Then she had the audacity to threaten to fire me. I said, "If you feel like you need to let me go for your mistake, go ahead." Ended up working there for another 7 weeks before leaving on my terms. Even got to use the operations manager as a reference for another job.

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23. Early escape.

I put in my two weeks notice at my wildly understaffed job. 6 days later got sick. I called around and see if anyone can take my shift. No one is available.

Tried to call out that morning. My manager tries to persuade me to come in even though I am barfing everywhere. I non-commitally agree to call in later in the day to see if I am feeling up to coming in anyway.

Call back, say I am still sick and will not be coming in. Manager blows up at me in front of customers, being rude and demeaning. Eventually asks what I expect to do about the shift needing to be covered. I say I have done everything I am required to and it sounds like a management problem to me, and she could fire me if she wanted to, as I was gone in five days anyway. Then I hung up and turned my phone off.

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22. I do... not want this job anymore.

I was working at a shoe store in a mall and I requested a week in August off for my wedding. My manager told me her boss wasn’t happy about that and all I said was, “My wedding is more important than back to school sales.” They didn’t “fire” me, per se, they just stopped scheduling me and eventually my access to the employee website went away.

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21. Don't sick leave!

My husband was having his gallbladder taken out and was having complications before surgery. I needed to leave early from work for about two hours and my boss threw a fit stating I couldn't leave. I told her I had 300 hours of sick time I could use for myself and my husband and if she wanted to push me, I'd take all of it at once. That would have left no one but her to do my job. She said she'd fire me if I tried. I just looked at her and said I have to go I'll send you my Dr.'s note.

I wasn't fired. I was actually awarded that year for job performance.

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20. No better reason to walk out.

I worked at Burger King as a teenager. One day, the assistant manager, who illegally brought her teenage daughter to work to help her out, asked me to clean the restrooms. It wasn’t my normal job but I didn’t mind. I had a good attitude about it and prepared to go clean the bathrooms.

I walked into the men’s room and discovered that the reason she asked me to do it was because someone pooped all over the bathroom. Smeared fecal matter on the walls, the sink, the floor, the outside of the toilet. The toilet was clogged and had wet, used toilet paper inside of at and all over the room. It was a complete disaster.

I walked out of the bathroom, went back to the kitchen and told the assistant manager “I’m not cleaning that. You can fire me but I’m not cleaning it.” She sighed heavily and went and got a mop.

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19. Taking a break to be with a friend.

My dog became very ill quite suddenly and he needed to be put down, I was at work and I asked to leave half an hour early so I could be there for him. I asked my manager and she got annoyed and said there was "no way" and that I should have told her earlier. I said "I'm sorry, I didn't realize my dog was going to die" in the most sarcastic way possible then walked away knowing she'd follow me, I then stood at my desk and started to type my resignation up in front of her.

She gave me the time off. No one was going to stop me from being there for my boy.

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18. Breaking news: I quit.

I worked for a newspaper, editing and actually putting the paper together. Arranging it all, placing stories and pictures where they need to be. Titling, quoting and sourcing everything. I was a one-man team and used an overly complicated system that I figured out how to use really effectively. They treated me like crap, set impossible deadlines and berated me for not meeting them. One day the boss tells me to fully put a paper done by the end of the day, gave me no warning, I had no articles from the journalists and no photos from photographers. It was my job to collect it all from everyone and he wants me to do it in a single day? I told him no, if he wants it done, he has to give me more time. He tells me if I don’t have it done by the end of the day I’m fired, I tell him that this paper can’t function without me. He tells me I need to “take the day off and cool my temper,” and that he’ll do my job for me. Get a call an hour after I get home that he needs me to come in and do it and I can have as much time as I need. Too little, too late; I quit and the paper did not come out for weeks.

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17. Cherry-glazed workers right compensation act.

For the past few years I’ve worked at one of the “nicer” restaurants in my small beach town. I’m one of the only servers there who cares about doing a good and I’m the only one who doesn’t take a smoke break every 15 minutes. This past summer a new, very illegal, rule was implemented that if we messed up an order in anyway we would be liable to pay for that messed-up food. I usually didn’t have a problem with mess ups so I didn’t bring up the legality of this matter since I make good money and don’t want to start fires in places that don’t concern me. That is until I rang in a ‘Cherry-Glazed Burger’ instead of a ‘Cherry-Glazed Steak’ (each stylized CGB and CGS in our cheap computer system.) I fixed this with the kitchen, but not before they had already started the burger. I told my manager and she just gave me a disappointed and told me that the rules are the rules. I then dived into both federal and state workers rights code and told her she would never see me again if I found any money out of my tips at the end of the night. Never had a problem fixing an order again.

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16. Invest in the best.

I used to work at a liquor store with two extremely unreliable people who loved drama. Both of them got into a stupid fight the manager and quit on the spot, leaving me and a skeleton crew to manage the rest of the crazy summer season. The rest of the crew spent a good portion of their shifts sitting on pallets, making out in the bathroom and/or drinking on the job, so I was the go-to employee suddenly.

Comparatively to the two drama queens, I was a very well-behaved employee, but I would sometimes take my tips and pop over to the coffee shop next door while on the clock. One time I stepped back into the store right as the manager came into the other entrance. I just stood there and looked at her, she kind of shrugged helplessly, and let me do it for the rest of the summer because she knew if she fired me, that place would fall apart.

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15. That's a start.

I was working at an important political building. Been there for about a year. Other employees have been there for decades. 99% of the staff is black, including myself. None of us have ever been written up. New manager shows up. A older white lady with a complex, and starts berating people for not doing their jobs, when they are very clearly doing their jobs as the job is defined. She berates people until they backtalk, then fires them for insubordination. She fires ten out of 13 people, all black, and replaces them with white workers. She approaches me and begins berating me. I am onto what she is doing. I do not react. My lack of reaction leads her to tell me I'm being insubordinate, and I'm fired. That was my "I dare you" moment, although I did not say it. She fired me.

Six months later, she's been fired, her supervisor is fired, and his supervisor has been demoted to the worst position a supervisor can have. A lawsuit has been filed that resulted in about $100,000 in damages to the victims.

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14. He's the best in show.

Worked for Radioshack and always butted heads with the District Manager. He wanted me to use these ridiculous sales techniques that might work in a big city but were really pushy for a small town. The year he became our DM I won a contest for best salesman in the whole company, out of about 14,000 employees, and I did it without being pushy and forcing stuff on people. He still tried to get me to use these ridiculous techniques each month when he would visit, but after I won the contest I stopped sugar-coating it and would flat out tell him, "That's stupid, I'm not going to do it that way." He threatened to get me fired every time, but nothing ever came of it, wonder why.

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13. Know what you're worth.

First kitchen I worked in, they told me the more jobs I learned, the more I'd get paid (came in basically knowing all of it anyway). 6 months later I had learned every job there except 1 spot. They told me if I learned that spot, I'd get a raise. I told them I could find a new kitchen as I was easily one of the best employees there, and that I was told the more I learned the more id get paid, and I still hadn't been given a raise. Head Chef cracked and gave me a raise. I told him 50 cents wasn't enough. He was forced to give me another.

2 weeks after that, they fired the banquet chef's assistant (we had a lot of 300+ people events) and told him to pick his new assistant, he immediately requested me. I told them I needed another raise, I was told no again, again I said I'll find a new job, came in the next day and put my 2 weeks in (yup, found a job that quick) Wound up making more money in that kitchen than anyone beside the banquet chef and the head chef.

That's how I wound up getting 3 raises in a month.

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12. No good job goes unpunished.

I worked for an online marketing firm doing SEO reports and optimization. This was my first job so I didn't understand the concept of start working slow so you have room to improve. Well, I was working at 100% and doing well. One week, my girlfriend of 4 years broke up with me and I was taking it roughly. I was kinda scatterbrained and slowed down a little bit. I told my boss this and he was like, "Okay, but try not to stay like this for long."

So 3 days go by and I'm better and working 100% again. So like a week later he calls me in and says "I need you to do almost all of your co-worker's work because you're better at it than he is and he's gonna do something else now." I say, "Sure, I'll do my best but I can't make any promises I'll get it all done."

So I am now working two people's jobs in the time of one. I finish 1 and 3/4 of the work m, and then get called into his office. He's claiming I "screwed him over" and I "slowed down for too long." So I say "Fire me then. I'm tired of doing all this extra work and I promise you need me."

Well, I got fired.

Two weeks later, he calls me up and asks me to come back. Says he can't do all of the work. I tell him "good, maybe you won't treat your employees like this next time."

Place went out of business like a month later.

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11. Now that's a classy action.

I worked at a terrible retail boutique in college. Worked my way up to management. Their pay policies were illegal, and the inept district director they hired staffed terribly. I worked open to close by myself multiple times. I finally locked up in the middle of the day to go take a break once. Got caught. Told if I did it again I'd be fired. I told them to stop understaffing and it wouldn't happen again.

They did it again. I locked up again and a customer called corporate. I was fired. Last laugh was on them because I threatened to sue them for violating employment law. Sure did. Class action. Multi-million dollar settlement getting back lost wages for 1000+ employees across multiple states. Plus unemployment for me.

Actually what led to a compete life change for me and I wouldn't be as successful now had I just let them continue to abuse me. Short term financial pain and scary when you don't know how you will afford food or how to pay bills. Made it through and definitely worth it. Not only for me but a lot of people benefitted.

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10. Mistake in your favor.

I've been at the company a long time, therefore I know both day and nightshift duties in and out, I'm well-liked by our clients and in charge of training the new recruits. Most work for us up to 6-12 months before growing tired of the workload or finding that they can't handle the job or just wanted cash enough to study up for something else.

Anyway, they are heavily dependent on me. My closest boss threatened to fire me for being home one day and drinking beer when I was supposed to be at work. 2 weeks prior I had agreed to do overtime but I wanted a new schedule so I would not miss it. I got a new schedule, but she had forgotten to fill in that day on it. She blamed me for it anyway and said it was grounds for terminating my contract. I dared her to do it and see how long we could stay in business. She did not accept the challenge.

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9. Hot tip: be irreplaceable.

I worked a job where I was the only one who knows how to take apart, clean, fix, and put all the equipment back together and do the weekly and monthly maintenance.

Had a boss tell me one day that I was doing a poor job and not doing enough and that anyone could do it. If I didn't step up I would be fired or else as they had manuals for each piece of equipment.

So that night I took apart all the equipment (weekly and monthly stuff too), cleaned them, and then just left it apart for them to figure out that morning. Then I turned off my phone after getting home for the entire day as I had the day off.

When I turned it back on the next day I saw that I had initially received angry texts ordering me to return and put everything back together. This lasted an hour. Then texts saying I risked being fired. Then texts begging me to return. Then more texts trying to compromise with overtime. Then an apology before nothing else for the rest of the day other than that the head boss wanted to see me as soon as I came in the next day.

Came in the next day and over half the stuff was still not put together and what had been put together was put together haphazardly and would need to be taken out again then put back in correctly. Was immediately asked to be seen by my boss and their boss to explain myself the moment I was seen entering.

Once in the office I told them that if they weren't there to apologise then just fire me then and there or drop it and let me put all the stuff back together. They looked at each other and then told me that I could get back to work.

Boss never called me lazy again.

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8. Nothing we won't do for mom.

Day before my mom had been feeling bad, calling me at work and giving me updates. I finally convince her she needs to go to the ER, and I tell her to stay put and that I will be there soon to take her. Of course, she insisted that I stay at work but whatever that’s my mom. I’m taking her to the ER. (Btw mom has history of bad health and issues and what not) I tell my direct manager I’m leaving, and she’s like fine whatever. Make up the hours...fine.

Next day and my mom is still not great but it’s fine. I got her meds, but they still need to run other tests. So I decide to stay home with her and take care of her and run errands (medical related stuff) for her. I call out leaving a message with our customer service desk, but soon after I get a call from a manager of a different department asking why I called out. I tell her I need to take care of my mom. The manager says, "Oh, what’s wrong with her? I’m sure she’ll be fine at home." Me: "No? I left early yesterday to take her to the er, and she’s still weak." The manager continues to try and convince me my mom is fine, and I need to come in. I give in and tell her all the gory medical details. The manager is unrelenting and finally finished with the cherry on top of, “I’m sure your mom would rather you have a job to come back to.”

I answered her with, “See but I can go out and get another job. I can’t go out and get another mom. I’m staying home today to take care of my mom.”

She said something about seeing me the next day in an attempt to end the convo and say bye so I said yeah we’ll see how she’s doing said goodbye and hung up. Felt great ‘cause I’m normally a push over... but not when it comes to my mom.

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7. Who's the boss?

A "manager" threatened to fire me because I wouldn't make some system changes that would have led the company very open to a cyber attack. I had recorded a phone call between the manager and I where I explained the risk and that we needed someone more senior to sign off on that risk before I would make the change. He swore at me and told me just to do it which was all captured on the recording.

He didn't know I was recording.

At the HR meeting where he was going to effectively fire me, I insisted on bringing representation and at the time the policy said I could bring whoever I wanted. So I chose his boss.

The meeting starts, the "manager" cites insubordination etc., and I just sat there. When they eventually said we are giving you formal notice, I just asked "are you sure? " He replied yes. My representative (his boss) at this point had said nothing.

It was at this point I played the recording.

I was asked to leave the room. I was called back 15 mins later, apologised to, given a pay rise and informed that the "manager" will no longer be working on this client site. Or any client site we supported.

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6. Top quality quality inspector.

I was in the military and was trying to take my vacation time before I lost the days. They denied my requests 4 different times and I hadn't had a day off in 3 months and I was working 12-16 hours shifts most days. I was beyond done.

I was teaching some new guys part of the tasks for one job. Everything was fine, I went somewhere else in the hangar to do something else on the plane. This Quality Assurance guy that everyone knew was a pain came in. I did my stuff good and he never bothered me so I didn't pay him any attention. He started talking to one of the new dudes.

He then asked to talk to me and pulled me aside. He then asked my I hadn't told the new guy about some super obscure caution about water under a grate in the hanger floor. Something that had nothing to do with our job so it didn't matter, he was just being a pain.

I was over the job and him so I told him, " Listen Sergent QA, Ive been denied my leave 4 separate times and I've been working for 3 months straight, so if you have a problem with the way I taught them write me up and stuff it up your butt too. Tell my boss I said that."

It was a little extreme but I was pushed to the point. When I went back in I knew I was in deep because the guy walked out of my shop head's office and I got called right in. When I went in there, the shop head said, "I heard what happened out there, submit the days you want to take leave right now and I'll approve it for you. " Then told me I could leave. That's all I heard about it I was shocked.

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5. Scheduling nightmare.

Important note: My usual job was 3am-noon and I was sleeping from 5pm-1am. A split shift meant working 4:30am-8am and coming back to 7pm-11:30pm. (If I remember right.)

I had been working a series of split shifts and the wacky sleep schedule was really getting to me. I was told I would only need to do it three days in a row, but then it became four days...and then finally I went to sleep after the 4th shift, got woken up to my boss calling me and telling me I would have to work one more split shift. I told him "No" and that I would come in for my usual schedule. He started to argue with me and asking me why it was a big deal especially since I had worked it almost every day this week, so why not work one more? When I explained I was having issues with sleep and that I wouldn't come in he was like, "But it's your job! I am scheduling you for another split shift." And I just yelled at him, "Then I don't need this job!"

He started apologizing and that he would let me get some sleep. I hung up.

I went to work the next morning for my usual split and everyone there was surprised to see me. My boss had told everyone he thought I might not show up at all and wasn't sure if I had quit. I worked my usual shift, my boss came in at 8am, and began apologizing right away when he saw me. Then he said, "If working a split was so hard on you, you could have told me no!" I just turned and went to lunch.

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4. Stick it to the foreman.

I had a big staff meeting to plan for the upcoming year about holidays and such so we could have the appropriately trained people on site to cover the guys that would be away. In the meeting I say to the owner, “so do you want us to email you or the scheduler about this directly?" He says both, so I say ok I’ll email it in but I will be gone for 2 weeks, and I tell him the date. He says that it’s approved but to email it In. So I email it to him, the scheduler, and my foreman at the time.

My holidays come and on the last day I send my foreman a message, the usual, where are we, how has it gone, where’s my company truck, who do I need to pick up tomorrow, the whole 9 yards.

He fires back with, you didn’t tell me you were taking days off, I’m gonna suspend you without pay for 2 weeks.

Well as you imagine that didn’t go well, I politely told him that I had the emails and he was in the room when we discussed the exact dates I would be gone, and that his lack of planning wasn’t my fault at all. So I phoned the owner, who I had happened to work for for 7 years at this point, being the second-longest employed person there, and told him that the 3 of us would be having a meeting in the morning to sort it out.

So I write up my resignation and take it with me, along with my company phone, credit card and keys to the meeting where the owner proceeds to fire the foreman after about 5 miniutes, and gives me the job as foreman for the crews. Thanked me for bring it to his attention as it had happened before and as being the most knowledgeable person about our product and equipment he gave me the job which I had for the next 5 years till I destroyed my back and had to move on.

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3. Misplacing bad training blame.

Recently, I was working a concert. The management at this site was trash and never actually gave us any orders. They just expected people who rarely worked there to inherently know when to stop letting people in, when to kick people out, who was allowed in and who wasn't, etc etc.

Well, another guard and I let one girl in who said she was with her boyfriend who worked with the people who set up the concert.

Supervisor was there with a couple of other supervisors and they laughed and called us lemons. The other guard working with me didn't know what it meant. Before the supervisor could say anything, I said "A lemon is a car that doesn't work. He's saying that we're bad at our jobs. He's saying that because blaming us for him being a bad leader is easier than admitting he didn't do his job correctly and helping us be better."

Oh, things got real quiet after that.

I'm 5'2 and the supervisor had at least four or five inches on me. He got really close to my face and said "I didn't quite hear what you said. Could you repeat it?" So, I craned my head up at him, and cleared my throat.

"I SAID,"A LEMON IS A CAR THAT DOESN'T WORK. HE'S SAYING THAT WE'RE BAD AT OUR JOBS. HE'S SAYING THAT BECAUSE BLAMING US FOR HIM BEING A BAD LEADER IS EASIER THAN ADMITTING HE DIDN'T DO HIS JOB CORRECTLY AND HELPING US BE BETTER"."

He said he'd tell the home office that I was fired. I said "Yeah, ok, see you tomorrow".

See, what he didn't know is that home office loves me. I'm the single most reliable guy they have. I show up hours early to a job, always willing to stay late if needed, and usually pick up last minute shifts. On top of that, they've never had a single complaint about me. Until that night.

Don't know if he ever did call the office, because no one ever said a thing to me about it. He scowled when he saw me the next day and didn't say a word to me. So I'm gonna assume that the office didn't believe him when he called in.

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2. He needs his tunes.

I used to work at a small, family owned grocery store for a few years. We got our load in on Mondays and Thursdays, and we got passed over one Monday and the distributer said we'd get the missing load in on Thursday. So, what essentially happened was a double load that day and my two receiving partners were out sick. I was the only person in the warehouse/receiving at the time, and got to take on 15+ pallets of groceries that needed to hit the shelves immediately.

I was specifically told to not go up front, and to do what I could while the front end crew covered the aisles and cash registers. Well, a lot of them were either lazy, untrained, or just putting in their hours so they could pay bills. I put in my earbud, just one, and get to work. I'm halfway through checking in the pallets when I get called up front. So I ignore it and continue. Then I get called again. So I head up there and get yelled at by a new hire with a bad attitude to "do your job and bag for me!" The customer was a regular and we got along very well, and she told me that she was fine and could bag her own groceries.

Between the customer and the fact that I wasn't having it, I walked away. I had 3 years and 2 ranks on her, so I went back to my pallets. Then I get the newest hotshot manager, who replaced the old hotshot manager, who replaced the beloved manager who trained basically the whole store, in my face about having an earbud in on the clock (which is allowed as long as you have on ear free) and said I could be sent home and not come back if I wanted to listen to music, so I gestured to the pallets and said "go for it, these all need to be checked in and broken down. Have fun."

I got to keep my earbud in. So I had that going for me, which was nice.

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1. Sweet, sweet unemployment payouts.

I worked 50+ hours a week, went out of my way to make sure they were set when I went on maternity leave doing a lot of my work in advance and training my replacement for two weeks. I was the director's assistant but essentially I did the entire position (he was often “in the field” and much of this consisted of “observing”).

I broke my back for this company often going in on days off or getting out long after my shift ended. I used my car and gas with no compensation. I took company calls outside of work and off the clock. Well, I went into labor, went into work to wrap things up and finished out a 8 hour day before I went home to get ready for the hospital. I was beyond a team player. A month to the date out on maternity leave, I was contacted by my employer asking me to return from maternity leave (I still had 2 months of leave left and the company doesn’t provide insurance for the time so this time was out of my pocket).

I stated I could not as I had complications and medical procedures coming up. I was told a few days later the amount of work that came up and my declining to return two month early left them no choice but to hire for my position. I knew my rights so I wasn’t worried and took the remainder of my leave. When I returned they gave me only two four hour shifts a week, work was 15 miles outside city limits so I was essentially working for a babysitter and gas.

I complied because I was painfully aware they were trying to get me to quit so they could avoid a unemployment insurance payout. It was time to play check mate and at this point with my rights violated, I had the upper hand. They were a small company and didn’t have a HR department, they often outsourced questions to the company lawyer in California. Because the laws were different by state and his speciality was not employment claims, the lawyer's advising was very limited.

Well, they weren’t aware that by cutting my hours (by 46 hours a week), my employer just handed me the unemployment they were trying to avoid (In New Mexico, if your employer cuts you from full time to part time hours, they are responsible for providing an insurance payout to compensate the difference in wages temporarily). I knew this wasn’t going to sit well with the arrogant director who thought him cutting my hours was going to be the shove I needed to exit the company.

I patiently waited for them to receive my paperwork for my claim. They did and boy did the director let me know he was angry, the state was considering my claim should there be no attesting by the company. The director called me into his office requesting that we discuss my job duties, he emphasized how little work we had coming in and how financially inconvenient it had to be for me. He was so sympathetic to my situation and the anguish as a single mother it must be causing me.

When I stated I didn’t mind, I was more than happy to be there (my conditions of unemployment is I had to comply to my employers work schedule and duties showing that I’m actively trying to be employed). This didn’t sit well with him, his manipulation wasn’t working as he planned. He then turned serious as he casually mentioned my unemployment claim and proceeds to pull out my documents requesting a response.

He tries to convince me that if I proceed with my claim and receive payment, if at any point I am terminated for my performance I would lose all source of income (unemployment and the company). He was trying to threaten me, I knew this not to be true and called his bluff by informing him I wish to proceed. He stated to me that if I resigned right then and there, he would provide me a reference in the future moving forward. (If you're terminated, you can’t use them as a reference depending on the circumstances of termination. But if he fired me, as long as I was complying, I would then receive the full amount of unemployment).

At this point he realized his tactics to intimidate me weren’t working and I wasn’t budging. He tried to level with me and ask what was needed to get me to leave the company and I simply stated, “fire me.” Shocked, he asked me if I’m sure that’s what I want, I reassured him. I walked out that afternoon with all my belongings and a letter of termination from my employer. I started receiving unemployment insurance the following week as he didn’t contest my payouts. I had a new baby I was able to stay home with a year on my employers tab.

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