No one likes to get fired. It’s never the best of your day – at least, until it is.

OP had a couple of long days, so when he pulled into work on third day ten minutes late he figured he was well within his rights.

One morning I roll into the office about 7:25, and get a dirty look from the boss as I head to the dispatcher’s office to collect my day’s work (supposed to be there for 7:15).

I’d actually been working until about 1:30 (c. 18 hour day) the night before, and was thinking that only being 10 minutes late wasn’t bad.

His boss gave him a look, which OP ignored before going to check his work for the day.

When I got my stack of papers for the day, I let out one of those low groans, and said, “you’ve gotta be s#’#'[ng me!”, it was going to be another long day.

The long list made him groan, and his boss immediately hopped on him about his attitude, telling him if he didn’t want to work he was fired.

Boss takes that as his chance to call me out in front of the rest of the office: “Hey, if you’re going to show up late and then complain about work, we don’t need you around here, you’re fired”.

OP thought about it and figured fine; he handed over the clipboard and started to walk away.

Dunno if he thought I would apologise for coming in late and ask to not be fired, but I knew that I could have a new, equally crappy job before the end of the day.

So I called his bluff, and handed over my clipboard and walked away.

Before he could leave, his boss looked over his assignments for the day and realized he would have to do them instead.

He must have looked through my work for the day, and realised that he didn’t have anyone that could do what I could do and with the labour market crunch, he just didn’t have anybody.

On my way out to my car, I stopped and started chatting with my buddy and the dispatcher, having a smoke.

He told OP he wanted to see him in his office to discuss his attitude.

OP said no, I’m fired so I’m leaving.

Boss comes out and tells me to meet him in his office so we can discuss my attitude. I said, I’m not going to your office, I just got fired, my buddy and the dispatch are shocked, buddy says: “you know he pulled 18 hours yesterday, and 15 the day before that”, dispatch says: “why did you fire him, we’ve got no one to do his run today!”.

There was some significant backpedaling, which led to OP having a job and also a raise.

Boss is taken a little aback and says: “I didn’t say you’re fired, I said you’re FiHired”, so here’s your route for the day.

I say “well, if I just got hired, we should talk about my starting wage”, and that’s how I got a $2/hour raise.

Masterful, right?

The top commenter can’t get over the terrible backpedal.

But this person says OP is one smart cookie.

It’s important to know your worth.

They recalled a memorable quote.

This person says it sounds more like the Office.

Either way, this manager should be ashamed of himself.

Actually, it seems like most of them should.