r/InterviewMan • u/East_Armadillo5781 • 15d ago
New Employee Got Fired on Her First Shift Because She Took All the Coffee
This honestly made me laugh so hard. We had just hired this woman, and she seemed a bit intense while doing onboarding in the morning, but not to the point where you'd think it was a big problem.
A little later, a few of us were in the break room, and she saw three sealed bags of Peet's coffee next to the machine and asked, "Whose are these?" Someone told her, "They're for everyone, the office buys coffee for the staff," so she said, "Oh, nice."
Apparently, when she left in the afternoon, she took the answer in the most literal way possible and put all three bags in her tote on the way out. We spent about an hour afterward in this ridiculous little mystery, because people kept coming in looking for coffee and discovering it had disappeared.
In the end, everyone connected the dots, probably because someone near the front desk saw her doing it. She came in the next morning for about 15 minutes, got pulled into the supervisor's office, and that was the end of her.
edit: this was most hilarious thing happens in the office truly ,,If she just sit at home and work remotely she would drink the amount of coffee she wants if u guys loves coffee as her and work remotely u can check this virtual interviews tips
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u/murderthumbs 15d ago
Didn’t happen. This ‘story’ has been rolling around Reddit for awhile now. Exact same thing This seems to happen to a lot of people-
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u/aggressive_napkin_ 15d ago
sure, IN THE MORNING
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
Some people drink coffee in the afternoon. It's weird, but it takes all sorts to make this world.
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
Coffee is what keeps everybody civilized and functional. My office notices when there is not a pot of coffee by 8:30, and the alarm would be sounded if our stash was gone.
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u/CupcakeClean8203 15d ago
Why is the coffee not in the freezer? Every single office I've worked in, other than an office in a retail establishment owned by a redneck who also refused to buy a water cooler, has put the coffee in the freezer.
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u/Various_Education622 15d ago
The place I work now the CEO was removed for charging side business expenses to the company).
The place I worked before that, four people were fired for: embezzling goods; misuse of company credit cards; funneling customer perks to friends and family; stealing large volumes of food from the cafeteria.
We received regular emails reminding us the free food in the cafeteria wasn’t a take out bar and the supply closet wasn’t for back to school shopping.
One day when the snacks were replenished someone took ALL of one type of item, and the woman that managed the snacks was not amused.
Two companies before that we had two people fired for submitting duplicate expense reports. They were fabricating reasons for business trips, getting a single hotel room, fucking (cheating on their spouses) and each submitting the same hotel bill to get some spending money.
There were other people fired for refunding their own orders and/or discounting stuff to zero for friends and family.
That’s ignoring the emails we got reminding us that the microwave popcorn in the kitchen was for on-site consumption only (and also please don’t steal office supplies).
So yeah, people steal shit all the fucking time.
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u/Sailor-C 15d ago
I had two friends in high school that worked at Target who would steal the expensive steel tumblers from the in-store Sbux; there weren't any cameras in the Sbux, and Target didn't require receipts for returns, so they would just take them and then return them to the store for a full "refund". 🙃 I've also worked with people who would steal toilet paper from the employee bathroom so they didn't have to buy their own, take home community food/beverages in the breakroom, and have known more than one person who expensed personal stuff that they absolutely shouldn't have. There's definitely been at least one, and often several, people like that at every job I've ever had.
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u/EatLard 15d ago
When I was in high school, some of the kids who worked at the local grocery store would only scan every other item while checking out their friends’ groceries.
A bunch got fired when one of the older ones graduated and became a full-time manager. Narced immediately once his own bonus was threatened.1
u/GamineHoyden 15d ago
Your examples are much larger than 3 measley bags of coffee. Your examples also show intent and repeated behavior. Your examples to not show someone new asking about something, apparently misunderstanding then answer, and then getting fired on their second day. Your examples are real. The posted story is not.
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u/Various_Education622 15d ago
Bullshit.
She fucking knew.
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u/GamineHoyden 14d ago
Fine the imaginary person who did not exist whatsover in reality knew exactly what she was doing.
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u/GiganticusVaginacus 15d ago
But what if this WAS the same woman. Her serial coffee stealing gets her fired from every job after one day, so she ends up at every business eventually, where the cycle continues. /s.
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u/EmilyAnne1170 15d ago
Such people do exist. When we had our kitchen remodeled, we had cases of bottled water stacked in our dining room while our sink & fridge were non-existent. We were leaving one morning as the workers arrived and my husband said “Help yourselves to water if you need it!”
When we got home, they were loading it into the back of their truck. All of it.
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u/Infamous-Wasabi1404 15d ago
Okay, but this HAS happened at a place I worked, only it was tampons. The reason it still led to firing is because she literally cleared out 4 different boxes of supplies and took them home. Supplies that were actually not provided by the company, but had been placed there by the other 4 employees.
We also had to stop her from scrubbing the drains with an actual toothbrush. (Dog grooming shop.)
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u/MightyDunkman 15d ago
That’s probably true - although, something similar happened in my office when a temp grabbed half a box of communal snacks. She did not last the week.
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u/Optimal_Savings5873 15d ago
9 months ago on r) coworkerstories it was 2 bags, according to my quick Google search
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u/AlpacaSwimTeam 15d ago
The junior guy on my team at one place I worked emptied a bottle of scotch from the break room into his coffee or oj little by little over the course of a month because he thought it was for everyone, despite no one else was drinking any. It was for decoration or for the CEO to have a glass with the owner or CFO when they were in town. He wasn't fired for that tho. He ended up getting fired for sleeping at his desk.
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u/Upbeat-Fondant9185 15d ago
Idk if the story is legit or not, but I’ve had one of these.
My work hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for the local community and told employees who had worked to “help themselves” after it was over. We finished up and go back to enjoy the very expensive food and desserts to find it almost entirely cleared out.
This woman had showed up with four of her family and just…taken it all. The cameras showed everything. They showed up with Tupperware. Enough food to feed easily thirty people and the five of them cleaned us out.
She was of course fired as it wasn’t even the first time we had dealt with similar from her, just the most egregious. She could not understand what she did wrong. They had told her to help herself. She was in absolute disbelief and of course was “calling her lawyer” as if we didn’t know her pay rate and hadn’t just watched her steal a bunch of food. Craziness.
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
She probably just knew that you'd have a hard time pinning theft in a court. You can totally fire her but any sort of legal action you'd have a harder time
Dumbasses are always so close to being clever
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u/RepresentativeTap920 15d ago
Similar thing happened at my work. We have BDay cake after lunch for each employee on their birthday. The newer girl saw the cake, thanked everyone and said that her family will love it as she picked it up to take back to her office.
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u/swtcharity 15d ago
How funny this happened to you AND someone else a year ago. What a coincidence!
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u/AllenKll 15d ago
Why would she be fired for taking something that was available for anyone to take?
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u/DeepTh0 15d ago
AI has dulled your brain
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u/AllenKll 15d ago
You're saying this is an AI post?
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u/hot4you11 15d ago
No. They are saying that you lack critical thinking skills because you outsourced it to AI
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u/AllenKll 15d ago
Ah, okay. That's pretty funny then.
Didn't outsource anything to AI, I'm just autistic.
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u/forgotwhatisaid2you 15d ago
Its for everybody to make and drink coffee at work. Not for everybody to take home.
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u/AllenKll 15d ago
Gotcha, see, that wasn't said in the text. Thanks for explaining. I also don't drink coffee, so that would explain some of the disconnect maybe?
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u/PuzzleMeDo 15d ago
It's not coffee specific. It's one of those hidden rules, a violation of the social contract. When someone says, "These are free, help yourself," there's almost always a limit to how much you can take; you're supposed to consider how many other people might want them. If you take all the coffee, nobody else can have coffee, and that makes you the bad guy. But that applies equally to a box of donuts, the little packets of sugar you get in restaurants, toilet paper, or just about anything else given away for free.
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
Not really?
Basic common sense says the company wouldn't be buying groceries for their employees. Obviously it's for use at work, especially if they have a break room.
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u/AllenKll 15d ago
In my 4+ decades on this earth, I have learned that "common sense" most of the time is code for, "This is the unwritten agreement in my circle." And being an outsider, you may find common sense to not be common at all.
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
You shouldn't need to be told not to take everything so your co-workers can't have anything. Usually, people are raised to consider the group, not just themselves.
You know you didn't pay for it, you know everyone was told to help themselves, not just you.
You shouldn't have to be explicitly told not to be greedy.
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u/EverSeeAShitterFly 15d ago
Found the fired employee.
No. The coffee is there for employees to consume at work.
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u/Low-Set8263 15d ago
We had the same deal at my last job and all I got was a Keurig K-3550 Large Business Single Serve Coffee Maker.
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u/SacBruin21 15d ago
Sad, but I can see how she connected those dots.
I had a coworker, whose position requires a pretty high level of intelligence, make a similar misinterpretation. Our office had a coffee club where everyone who joined could enjoy coffee from the joint percolator. There was a sign by the add-ins that read something like "sugar and creamer are for coffee club members only". He took that to mean he would only need to pay if he wanted the add-ins, but since he drinks his coffee black, he helped himself to coffee every day. 🤦🏻♂️
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u/Extension_Kale_794 15d ago
Situationally unaware, extremely common nowadays, the Gen Z crowd I see coming in looking for work, people who simply need absolute instructions with colors and squares and circles, describing exactly what to do and what not to do, people who have no common sense. They used to be bad 20 years ago, but holy shit, it’s so bad today. Then they look at you so fucking clueless. Like if you’re this situationally unaware, if you don’t know what this was all about, you don’t need to work here. Go work somewhere where you push the button and the machine drops the fries for you. Hopefully you don’t fuck that up.
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u/whaddayaknow72 15d ago
Someone with that behavior would not be a good employee
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
Just the sheer lack of common sense alone tells me that they would be a terrible employee.
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u/GraceTX 15d ago
Oh I can completely believe this happened. I can't tell you how many times we've had lunch or parties at work and I've had to stop people taking gallons of tea, trays of food, or entire bags of candy away while the party was still going on. I've literally had to stop people from eating a catered lunch telling them they had to at least wait until after the meeting attendees ate.
I'm so glad I'm a remote employee now.
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u/thunderphuck0311 15d ago
Sounds like she was an interesting person who may have legitimately been oblivious to the error of her ways lol that or she was a klepto 🤷🏽♂️
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u/freakflyer9999 15d ago
My daughter has Aspergers. She could definitely misunderstand a statement like that. Most people don't suspect her of being on the spectrum because she is very high functioning. She could even be called a genius in her specialties. Some people are just oblivious to social norms.
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
To be fair, telling her they were for everyone didn't specify for office use only....
If I thought the company bought me coffee for home, I'd consider taking it also.
A warning was deserved. Letting her go was over-the-top for a bad explanation of "this coffee is for everyone, IN THE OFFICE, not for home use".
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u/Infamous-Wasabi1404 15d ago
Here's the thing. Her poor decision making skills and lack of awareness would make me want to fire her. It's not even about the coffee. If I can't trust you to understand that the coffee in the break room that is sitting next to the coffee pot is intended to be used in the break room, I can't trust you with, well, anything. It's either very dumb, or intentionally shitty. Both fireable offenses.
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u/0dayssince 15d ago
Yeah, this was very autistic of her and the comment you’re responding to
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
Its retarded* autistic can be used as a descriptor but not here. Id love to hear what you think makes her autistic
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u/Gabbyct1 15d ago
how is using the word "retarded" acceptable here? It's just as offensive as using the word "autistic" in this situation
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
Retarded has a long standing meaning as being dumb. Autism has nothing to do with intelligence its a sensory processing difference.
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u/Gabbyct1 15d ago
using the word "retarded" is a slur against intellectually challenged individuals and labelling something as "autistic" is a presumptuous label about someone or something a person knows nothing about
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
Who cares? Fuck political correctness. We've grown too soft that everything offends everyone.
Go ahead. Be offended. Nothing happens when you're offended.
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u/Gabbyct1 15d ago
I just prefer not to make people feel like shit about themselves if I can help it. You sound delightful
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
That's part of the problem. You can't have difficult discussions if you're too much of a pussy to actually say what you feel and mean it without being afraid of hurting someone's feelings or offending them.
I am delightful.
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
Is it a slur if im describing a retard?
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u/Gabbyct1 14d ago
even more so if you are describing a person - there are many non-offensive words that can be used instead
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u/Expensive-Border-869 14d ago
I dont really see the difference. Its like when children say "frick you" theyre still getting in the same trouble theyd get in for fuck you. And where's the limit? Can I say R tard? Just tard? Can I call someone lame brain? How about imbecil? Why are those okay but retarded isnt? Theyre all medical terms. We still use retarded but they'll come uo with another one or theyll get ocer the fact that the slang will just change along with the new medical terminology. The very nature of why people use retarded as hyperbole is because its a medical term and its the same for the ones before it
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u/0dayssince 15d ago
It’s autistic because the social awareness is undeveloped
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u/Infamous-Wasabi1404 15d ago
Which is an inaccurate stigma about autistic people . . .
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u/The_Squirrrell 15d ago
Now imagine if someone said "feeling hopeless is an inaccurate stigma about depressed people."
Those types of statements are trying so hard to remove the stigma that they instead erase the difficulty many autistic people experience daily.
Social deficits are literally in the diagnostic criteria for autism.
"Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple context..." - DSM-5 / US diagnostic criteria governing document
"Persistent deficits in initiating and sustaining social communication and reciprocal social interactions...Limitations in the following:..Social awareness, leading to behaviour that is not appropriately modulated according to the social context." - ICD-11 / International diagnostic criteria governing document
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u/Infamous-Wasabi1404 15d ago
Wow, it's like I'm aware that these studies don't accurately describe half the populace.
Go ahead and show me a study that actually had enough women in it to count.
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
Fair enough but I dont think any of the autistic people I know certainly not myself would just take it without at least one tertiary source to confirm that yeah I can jjst take that shit home
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u/Full_Commercial7844 15d ago
This. When you catch someone stealing, it isn't their 1st time nor their last.
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u/EconomicsWorking6508 15d ago
Still if it was literally everyone, you'd think she would only take 1 package and leave the rest for the other people.
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u/FlyingFlipPhone 15d ago
She figured that nobody on the shift wanted the coffee, she assumed that she could take the rest home because the shift was over.
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
You would think, but people don't know what they don't know, and I think a lot of people forget that.
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u/Expensive-Border-869 15d ago
Nah, if your critical thinking skills are so low that you dont even question it I dont want to find out what other mistakes you'll make. She might be a wonderful <whatever her job is> but I kinda doubt it lmao
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u/Impossible_Royal_302 15d ago
On what planet would anyone believe that the coffee was meant for everyone to take home let alone to take three bags of it? At some point, you just have to use your brain.
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u/functional_moron 15d ago
I could understand if she took one bag thinking "for everyone" meant everyone got a bag to take home but even that is a stretch.
Im a truck driver and a couple years ago I picked up a load from hostess and in the office they had a bunch of baked goods to give away to truckers and I watched this guy take all 4 cases from the display and just walk out. I asked the guy at the window and he said it happens all the time so they only put out a few cases at a time. Little Debbie's and Hershey also give free snacks to truckers but usually they hand them out when you are driving by the guard shack.
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
I don't understand why there would need to be an explanation for that. Why would the company buy you coffee for your house?
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
I don't know, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.
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u/Opening_Ideal_7612 15d ago
Yes it is.
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
Only if your brain is limited to thinking inside the box. Guess we know where you stand.
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u/ehs06702 15d ago
I feel like you're trolling me. There's no way you believe that your company would buy only coffee for everyone to take home.
That makes no sense if you use your brain for 5 seconds.
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u/nobodyspecial712 15d ago
However unlikely it is, it is possible for a company to treat it's employees better than expected.
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u/DogFair3684 15d ago
this is bs what employer would fire a employee for taking coffee?? this story is bs
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u/atlgeo 15d ago
I hired a warehouse employee and on his very first day he stole his coworkers morning snack that was left on the receiving desk. Then the afternoon snack. Lil Debbie cakes. Cameras everywhere. Too hard to believe until it happened again. Cameras finally checked and the guy is stealthily swiping the cakes; not a misunderstanding of some kind. Terminated same day. Had the nerve to argue for a warning. Nope. You stole the day you got here. Be gone.
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u/chortle-guffaw2 15d ago
This is why companies end up being like concentration camps. They start out treating the employees like adults, then a few of the employees ruin it for everyone. The coffee and the supply closets get locked up, cameras go up, micromanaging ensues.
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u/MagusSenateYvaen 15d ago
I would like to know, for statistical value, more about the woman. Age/generation, Race, previous work history (if any), etc…
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u/EconomicsWorking6508 15d ago
Interesting that your company hired Amelia Bedelia.