“You’re still fired and good luck”: HR gives new hire the wrong start date—then fires her for not showing up

A Redditor was recently left stumped after being fired for not showing up to her first day of work. The catch? HR had given her the wrong start date.

Featured Video

Locking down a job is a really big deal. It often comes after numerous rounds of interviews and could involve hundreds of applications being sent out, or even leaving your existing job for the opportunity.

So it’s no surprise that u/Alice14_VS turned to the internet for advice after she discovered the job she had managed to land fired her without warning after claiming she didn’t show up on her first day.

“This email is to inform you that your employment has been terminated from [redacted] effective 09/02/2025 due to not reporting to work on the first day,” reads a screenshot of an email she shared to the r/jobs subreddit last week. “If you have any questions, please [reply] to this email or contact me with the information below. Thanks.”

According to the Redditor, she had received no warning or communication on that day asking why she hadn’t shown up to her job. And, in fact, she didn’t think she had any reason to.

The next screenshot she shared was one from HR saying that her offer was final and welcoming her to their team. They also explicitly said that her start date would be Monday, September 22nd—in bold and underlined—and that someone would be in touch with more information.

“Congratulations!” the email began. “I am happy to notify you that your pre-employment screenings have been completed successfully, so you may now consider your offer final.”

In another post, u/Alice14_VS admitted that her initial offer letter listed “9/2/2025” as the start date, but the follow-up a few days later, fully laying her start date out as “Monday, September 22, 2025” made her assume the first had been a mistake.

Some people felt that the blame was entirely on her for declining to confirm, while others said they understood why she made the assumption that she did.

“I admit my mistake that I didn’t double check with her about the discrepancy and just decided to go with the latest informed start date and not the on the offer letter,” she wrote. “But if she didn’t send the wrong info in the first place there wouldn’t have been any confusions that led to termination.”

The HR person didn’t seem particularly sympathetic either, responding only that giving the would-be employee the wrong date “was my mistake,” and that they would “ask the hiring manager what they would like to do.”

Who wants to work there anyway?

Despite the discrepancy, plenty of people were incensed on u/Alice14_VS’s behalf, pointing out that, in addition to being unfair, it just doesn’t make sense from the company’s perspective to fire someone based on an internal mistake like this.

Some even went so far as to suggest that the redditor would be better off not working for a company that pulls a stunt like this.

What happened with the job?

The Redditor’s last update wasn’t long after she made the initial post, but things weren’t looking so hot at the time. Although she mentioned being in contact with a former and current employee who she hoped could help get her sorted out, she also noted that the HR person alleged that “they cannot allow me to start on the 22nd.”

“They just said i apologize for my mistakes but it’s your mistake too but you’re still fired and good luck,” she wrote.

And people say businesses don’t care about their employees anymore!