Yeah I lost a job as cook because I served a French dip without au jus. This was during a transition period between owners, so the menu and stock was in chaos constantly. For some unknown reason we started making our au jus with beef base instead of a dedicated au jus mix like we’d been doing for over a year at that point. Nobody informed me about the change, so I just assumed we were out and pushed the French dips out. Next thing I know, I’m sitting with the owner’s husband ‘explaining myself’ about how I could make such a colossal mistake with a ‘high profile’ customer.

Nobody ever informed me about the recipe change, Nobody told me that this specific customer was ‘important’. I explained this to him, but he still said “we’ll find something else for you to do” and proceeded to never schedule me for anything else. So I took a job working at a competitor down the street (who is wildly more successful for reasons you can probably imagine) and I’m much happier not having that boss anymore.

Best part is that apparently my old boss is SUPER salty that I found a job elsewhere so quickly, I guess they thought they had me by the balls since I live in the trailer park out back.

I’ve lost 2 due to the businesses closing both times.

Refused unemployment insurance because my state requires you to register with a 3rd party id checker, id.me. For my state they required a full scans of my face and fingerprints…no way I was giving biometric data to a private company for 200 a week.

I got a few headhunters and I let them find me positions. Since programming, networking, and security are always in demand, it wasn’t too long. Although I was on bread and peanut butter for the last few days

Went and got another.

The main field of work I was in needed big, strong men. If they were also experienced, even better. If they were also good at the job, you wouldn’t have to go a week without employment unless you wanted to, or had really fucked up at your last job.

Plus, side gigs help bridge gaps.

My little 18-year old foreign ass worked front of house at Phantom of the Opera. I ended up chatting with the guy who had just started playing Firmin and he asked me how I liked his performance. I told him I thought it was quite good, he went to the manager and I got sacked for insulting an actor. That’s when I learned “quite” doesn’t really mean “very”.

Anyhoo, he was gone himself 2 weeks later because “he didn’t get along with the cast.”

Yes, I mentioned that I will be going back to school in 3 months to someone. Then they had problems with a customer and were looking for a scapegoat. We worked in pairs, so they figured that they can blame two different pairs where I was part of for not cleaning properly after the shift. And because the other guys only got one warning and me two they selectively could blame it on me and fire me while we cleaned exactly like always and with different people, etc.

This way they could tell the customer they took responsibility and fired someone, while only letting go someone who would have been gone in two months anyway. The guys with the families and difficulties finding new jobs were able to stay.

I had to find a new job for those two months because I needed still to save some money. All in all probably a humane way of getting the customer off their back.

Yeah, I have. One time, a client booked me for a weekend. When I showed up, he was already really drunk and clearly on something else too. His behavior was unpredictable and made me uncomfortable, so I decided to leave. My agency refunded him and blacklisted him from booking again.

… I must have put it down here somewhere…