Most workers have been late at least once — maybe traffic hit, maybe the elevator stalled, maybe the coffee line was too long. But one poster on the Adulting subreddit says they were fired over being one minute late. Three times.
In their post, the employee explained they had always shown up on time and started work right away. On the day they were fired, they clocked in at 8:01 a.m. and went about their shift as usual. Two hours later, their manager called them into the office.
"I'm thinking maybe they need me to cover someone's shift, maybe they're finally giving me that raise I was promised six months ago," the worker wrote. "Nope."
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Instead, the manager pulled up their time records and pointed to the timestamp: 8:01 a.m. This, the employee was told, was their third "late" arrival by exactly one minute. The other two? Also 8:01 a.m.
"I laugh a little, thinking he's joking. But this man is dead serious," they said. They explained that maybe the time clock lagged or they pressed the button a second late, but the manager stuck to policy: three strikes and you're out.
They were terminated on the spot. Adding insult to injury, the employee claimed they'd seen "other employees show up 20 minutes late, multiple times, with zero consequences."
The subreddit lit up with responses, many doubting the official reason. "He didn't fire you over clocking in," one commenter said. "He used it as a pretext for some other reason." Another wrote, "No one fires great employees for being a minute late. You had a bullseye on your back already."
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Some suspected the worker had clashed with management earlier. "Sounds personal to me," one said. "He wanted to fire you."
Even those in supervisory roles thought the firing was excessive. "I'm a supervisor now and I don't care about 1 minute," one person said. "He definitely had something against you." Others shared similar experiences, where attendance rules were applied selectively — with some employees skating by despite repeated, much later arrivals.
So, can an employer actually do this? In most U.S. states, employment is "at-will," meaning employers can terminate employees for almost any reason — or no reason at all — as long as it doesn't violate specific laws such as discrimination or retaliation protections. That means firing someone for repeated one-minute tardies is generally legal, even if it feels petty or unfair.
Employers often use clear-cut policy violations like timekeeping to avoid messy disputes over performance or personality conflicts. Proving that the real reason was personal — and not the lateness itself — can be difficult without direct evidence.
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Still, as many commenters noted, firing a reliable worker over three minutes total sends a strong message about company culture — and not a good one. "If they want you gone, they'll find a reason," one commenter warned.
The worker said what stung most wasn't the policy, or even the fact that the firing was legal — it was that he really enjoyed the job. He'd been proud of his work, had a routine, and thought he was valued. "This is why I don't trust jobs, man," he wrote. "You can be the hardest worker in the building and they'll still replace you like you're yesterday's garbage."
It's a blunt truth about at-will employment: the company doesn't have to keep you, even if you've been reliable, productive, and committed. One day you're part of the team; the next, your paycheck stops and your security vanishes. For this worker, the loss wasn't just financial — it was realizing that in the ledger of corporate priorities, loyalty and effort often matter less than an unforgiving timestamp.
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