Marine canned for being the loose cannon

When I got back from the Marine Corps, I found a job at a big lumber and home supply store. I thought I’d like working overnight— no customers.

It was a local shop, but was something on the scale of a Home Depot or Lowe’s— to give you a frame of reference.

I worked every night after close with a crew that restocked the shelves, drove the forklifts around to sort lumber, and moved items down from the high-up racks you see in those stores where they keep extra inventory.

Our job was simple: have the store loaded-up and ready to go for customers by 6am.

One evening, middle of the night, about halfway through our shift, a team member kept dozing off. While all of us worked, he snuck over to the forklift, climbed up in the seat, and slept.

This had been a pattern with him for a few shifts, and I was fed up.

“Get up!” I said, tapping him on the shoulder. “We’ve gotta get this done.”

He got back to work for about 20 minutes…

… only to repeat the problem.

“They’re not paying us to take a nap. They’re paying us to prep the store!”

Now, he wasn’t a subordinate. He was a peer. We had the same role. But, I couldn’t believe he would be so lax and expect everyone else to just pick up his slack.

I went into the Corps after high school, and I had been there— thus far— all of my adult life. No one I had EVER worked with EVER had that poor of a work ethic in the Marines— especially when others depended on them.

Fifth or sixth time this happened that night, I dressed him down with my words. I cussed him out. I had been carrying his workload most of the night and was done.

The next day, when the store manager arrived, he filled out an incident report…

… on me.

I was the one who got written up for verbally assaulting another employee.

They told me not to come in the following night, to just take the night off. Then, the next day, they fired me.

“I’m sorry,” they said. “You’re a good worker. One of our best, actually. But we can’t have a loose cannon around here.”