Some employees know exactly how to stay one step ahead of workplace rules, making it nearly impossible to fire them.

So, what would you do if HR asked for proof to justify letting someone go, only to uncover more than they bargained for? Would you stick to the plan? Or would you go ahead and risk exposing the entire team?

In the following story, one company finds itself in this exact situation, and it does not end how it was supposed to. Here’s what happened.

We need an excuse to fire him, check his internet usage…

In the UK, it’s not like in the US, and you can’t just fire someone because you feel like it and with no warning.

About 15 years ago, in an old office of mine, there was a guy who was pretty useless, but he was union and knew all the workarounds (e.g., “You’re not good at your job,” “Yeah, well, you need to give me proper training,” etc.).

Anyway, he was useless and lazy, so management and HR went through all the different ways to terminate his contract, but it took ages.

Eventually, a new policy was introduced about abusing workplace internet usage for non-work related stuff (and it was a sackable offense). Usage was unlimited at the time, but they were able to track time spent on non-work sites.

Here’s where they tried to get him.

It was known that this guy used the internet for personal stuff, so HR said that to be fair and ensure he couldn’t counter the argument, 10 other random people in the dept needed to be checked over the same time period.

So, over the space of about a month, the internet was monitored. From him plus the 10 random, although he used the internet a lot, he was by far the lowest user out of everyone they checked.

Needless to say, HR soon backed down on that approach, otherwise they’d have had to sack the entire dept!

I think he finally got sacked for operating his own business using work resources, but it took a long time!

Wow! That’s ironic!

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this situation.

It’s also exactly why their plan didn’t work.

This person had the same thing happen.

According to this comment, you can fire someone in the UK.

In the US, it pretty much depends on management.

This guy definitely knew how to work the system and keep his job.

It’s actually funny that everyone else was using the internet for personal stuff even more than he was.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.