The Dumbest Reasons for Getting Fired

Bizarre, Money, NakedLaw

Nobody likes getting fired, especially in a terrible economy, but when you get fired for a stupid reason, it just adds insult to injury.

Sure, there are laws that protect people from wrongful termination, but people get fired for ridiculous reasons more often than you would think, and employers get away with it. It’s sometimes hard to tell the underlying reason for the firing—whether the employer is trying to get away with discrimination, or is just an irrational jerk.

Either way, these cases will either make you grateful for your reasonable boss, or serve as a warning of the kinds of things that could get you fired as well.

Being too fat…at 5’ 10” and 120 lbs

Model Filippa Hamilton, who had worked for Ralph Lauren since 2002, was fired in 2009, allegedly for being too fat to fit into their clothes. The poor girl had become so chubby at a whopping 120 lbs. on a 5’ 10” frame that they were forced to digitally remove half of her body in an advertisement before firing her.

Ralph Lauren issued a statement that said that Hamilton was fired “as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.” While it’s her word against theirs as to whether the obligation she didn’t meet was to be grossly underweight, the altered ad speaks volumes.

Not wearing a Speedo

Long Island lifeguard, Roy Lester, was fired this month for refusing to wear a Speedo during his annual swimming test. The 61-year-old had been a lifeguard at Jones Beach for 40 years prior to losing his job over his refusal to wear state-issued swimwear.

While he was given the option of wearing looser board shorts, he felt they would slow him down, and he requested to take the test in bike shorts as he had in the past. His boss told him he would have to wear the Speedo style for the test, and he refused, understandably stating that an older man in a banana hammock is “not an attractive look.”

Lester claims the dispute is actually about his age, and that the swimwear restriction is an excuse to get rid of older lifeguards. He is suing the New York state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for age discrimination.

Shaving her head for charity

Ontario waitress Stacey Fearnall raised over $2,700 for the charity Cops for Cancer by shaving her head in 2008, a good deed if there ever was one. But when she went to work the next day, her bald head got her fired. Her employer, Nathaniels restaurant, told her not to bother coming back if she wasn’t willing to wear a wig. The restaurant claims that customers would have been disturbed by her appearance and a bald waitress was in opposition to their employee standards.

The Ontario Labour Relations Board informed Fearnall that she had few legal options, other than to file a human rights complaint, and Fearnall eventually let the matter drop. Perhaps she will be avenged by karma.

Caps lock abuse

If you’ve ever known someone who feels the need to send emails with their caps lock on, you may sympathize with ProCare Health of Auckland, New Zealand who fired accountant Vicki Walker for causing “disharmony in the workplace by using block capitals, bold typeface, and red text in her emails.”

It’s obnoxious, to be sure, but apparently not a fireable offense—Walker went on to win a suit against ProCare through the Employment Relations Authority, who ruled that she was unfairly terminated. Walker was awarded $6,000 in lost wages and $11,500 for harm caused by her firing.

While caps lock abuse is a stupid reason to be fired, perhaps Walker should have been required to compensate the recipients of her emails for the harm caused by her text-style screaming.

Posting a Dilbert comic

In 2007, Catfish Bend Casino announced that up to 170 layoffs were forthcoming, which understandably killed morale among employees. Hoping to lighten the mood, security supervisor David Steward posted a Dilbert comic strip on an office bulletin board. Unfortunately for Steward, his bosses took it personally, and he was fired for implying they were a pack of “drunken lemurs.” Oops!

An Administrative Law judge ruled in Steward’s favor at the unemployment benefits hearing, but the story should serve as a lesson to us all: when in doubt, assume your boss has absolutely no sense of humor. It just might save your job.