‘What’s the dumbest reason you’ve been disciplined at work?’ – 21 people who definitely did not deserve to be written up

Work. We can’t avoid it (unless we happen to be incredibly rich) so we must tolerate it, at the very least. But what if you’re doing your best – or at least, good enough – and you get in trouble anyway, for a completely stupid reason?

It seems this has happened to lots of people, which came to light after Potential_Duck2553 posed this question of the AskUK subreddit:

What’s the dumbest reason you’ve been disciplined at work? I’ll go first. I worked at a call centre over Covid just to make ends meet. It was an awful place to work and such a toxic environment.

One time I got pulled into a disciplinary meeting with the senior manager for using ‘inappropriate language’ in an internal email. Turns out that the management team didn’t understand some of the words I used in the email, notably the word ’empirical’. It was all I could do to discreetly pick my jaw up off the floor and carry on with work that day because I couldn’t afford to say what I thought and risk losing my job!’

And there were plenty of people who had ended up in similarly surprising scenarios, like these…

1.

‘Was pulled into a meeting with HR for speeding in the parking area. I didn’t have a car or a license. Had to show them my provisional to get them to believe me. Turns out the person who reported me had seen an Asian lady speeding and assumed it was me.’
–Nameisnotmine

2.

‘I got invited to a disciplinary hearing after I handed in my notice .’
–throwaw4ygiffy

3.

‘I have only ever had one. I was one minute late, to the dot, for a shift and I was given a verbal warning. However, I had called 15 minutes prior as I was stuck in traffic due to a burst canal embankment. It was a miracle I even managed to get in when I did. All she said was ‘You should have left earlier’. Left earlier for an unforeseen circumstance? … OKAY.

They refused to remove the verbal so I handed in my two week notice. I heard, a few months later, that the assistant manager was found to have been abusing their position and had given many staff members verbal warnings over the silliest of things. She was fired not long after!’
–BusyBeeBridgette

4.

‘My tyre exploded on the way the work and they told me the same thing, always baffled me how shit retail jobs would act like the world would end if someone was late.’
–Bonar_Ballsington

5.

‘When I was at uni, I was coming up to my final exams so I asked for unpaid time off so I could properly prepare. Boss refused, so I quit. He was shocked and said ‘Well, we know where your loyalties lie then’. To this day – 30 years later – I can’t believe he seriously thought I should put my weekend and evening job over my entire future. Perhaps that explained why he spent his career as an underpaid manager in a really shit shop.’
–hhfugrr3

6.

‘I was stopped by police. Got a record of the search and was told ‘don’t let it happen again’ when I got to work and explained. OK. Next time I’ll run away so I can be on time.’
–Harry_monk

7.

‘I was always in the office early at an old job, usually the first one in and always before the manager. I lived quite far away from the office so set off early in case there were hold ups. I was well known for always being early. One day, I was stuck on the motorway and got to work five minutes late. Boss pulled me in and said if my time keeping continued to be an issue I would have to be referred for disciplinary! Nuts.’
–I_really_love_pugs

8.

‘Someone had been stabbed outside of the office I saw it happen and ran to the person’s aid. I had yelled at our security guard to call an ambulance and the police he completely ignored me. I yelled again ‘Homer, call the police!’. He complained saying he name is not Homer. I got a telling off but explained I didn’t know his name and it’s not my fault he looks like Homer Simpson and didn’t act during a security emergency.’
–Hopper-1986

9.

‘Got given a verbal warning for swearing in a conversation. Even though it was noted I hadn’t sworn at anyone in an aggressive manner. I just said ‘fuck’ in a sentence, basically. The guy who gave me the verbal warning had called me a ‘fucking c**t’ the week before. I handed in my notice the week after.’
–BobBobBobBobBobDave

10.

‘Worked at a call centre (was only there about a month and a half). Told the manager that I’m suffering with cystitis and will probably need to go to the toilet a few times between calls but I am well enough to still work. After going on a third comfort break in five hours the manager pulled me to one side and said I was behaving inappropriately by going to the toilet so often. Told her I’ll just piss in my seat then shall I? And promptly handed in my notice and didn’t bother working my notice period.’
–N9037

11.

‘I worked for the local council in a non-clieent facing role. The disciplinary was for not wearing a bra at work (small boobs/hot weather/all female colleagues). I got sent home. The following day I couldn’t be bothered going to work because of the stupid reason for a disciplinary.

My manager phoned me: ‘Why are you not at work yet?’ I just told him: ‘I can’t come in’. ‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘I haven’t got a bra on’. Got a second disciplinary.’
–Trumps-Left-Bollock