Employee fired for putting ‘stop crying' sticker in office bathroom: ‘Had approval from HR'
A harmless April Fools' prank led to unexpected job loss for a Canadian employee, who says they were fired after placing a 'stop crying' sticker on the mirror in a staff washroom. The employee shared a Reddit post to narrate their story and claimed that the prank had approval from the HR department.
The former employee said that they were in disbelief that just a day after the prank, they were informed by their boss that they were fired.
They said that the sticker which read "employees must stop crying before returning to work' was intended as a lighthearted joke to lift spirits of their coworkers. 'Everyone besides the boss knew what I was doing because I had joked about doing it as an April fools joke and HR said to do it and even told me what washroom to put it in," they wrote.
However, the next day when the employee returned to work, their belongings had been moved. The employee immediately went to their boss's office and took full responsibility for the prank. 'I knew immediately I was getting suspended for it. I had full intentions of admitting it and speaking with him about it so that's what I continued to do that morning. I didn't want anyone getting blamed. As soon as I went in his office I explained to him that as a leader I shouldn't have done that. And said sorry. He then told me we have to let you go," they recounted.
The worker claimed they had no prior write-ups or disciplinary actions in their record over their 10-month tenure.
The ex-employee believes the sticker was the last straw after they had a disagreement with their boss four months earlier about currency handling.
'My heart is broken because a lot of the staff believed in me as a leader. My ex-boss cried too after everything was said. Which I thought was weird. Should I go to the labour board or is it a bad case of he said she said?' they asked Reddit.
Reddit users were divided over the prank as some believed it was in bad taste while others agreed that the employee was let go because of other disagreements.
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