Did you ever get almost fired from a job?

I’ve been “fired” four times from my current job because my boss is a short fused maladjusted inhuman. What’s stopped me from being fired is that I ignored him.
- The reverse George Costanza.

I got almost fired 4 times for not meeting documentation deadlines, but I was otherwise great at my job, so my boss kept moving the goal posts, but that was obviously unsustainable so I ended up getting actually fired
- Can relate

I suck at not being fired from jobs. Saying sober and having a schedule isn't my thing. Luckily I found a part time job as a waitress in a casino in Las Vagas. It is one of those kinda classy places where we all have to dress in black/red leotards similar to playboy bunnies. The reason I like the job is also my biggest weakness. The hours are loose and I can drink for free on the job but I become insane when I drink.
This one time I slapped a coworkers butt. She leaned over the bar to put something down and I just slapped it. In my defence it was a pretty nice butt. In all seriousness I don't even know why I did it. I'm not even attracted to women. I was tipsy at the time but still.
A few days later my boss called me into his office and told me I had a sexual harassment complaint put out against me. I remember how embarrassing and awkward it was. I've experienced similar things in the past so I understand. I ended up having to watch a few anti-sexual herassment videos and that was it. By the grace of god I didn't get fired.
- You should 100% stay away from alcohol.
  
  Easier said then done.

I was on a PIP. Often that means firing is inevitable, but my company has generally had a pretty good culture and I (perhaps foolishly) thought I had a chance of surviving it. While I had a pretty good history of kicking ass at work and have a borderline celebrity reputation with our customer, I was put on a new project that had been going poorly plus I had a newborn with lots of additional needs (born super early - doing fine now) so I wasn't as focused as I had been before. But it did blindside me - I checked in with my direct (and relatively new) manager weekly and she never mentioned any issues.
I was able to show my bosses that the old me was still there. It was 2 months of hell and stress, and even after I was released from the PIP I questioned if I should still be there. Then that manager left not-so-voluntarily (so I've been told) and I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders.
That was almost 2 years ago, 6 years total. Still at that company and stronger than ever with them!
- What is a PIP?
  
  If I remember correctly:
  Personal improvement plan
  Or
  Performance improvement plan
  Basically, it's a one on one meeting with a manager, who lays out what you're doing wrong or not doing. They talk with you about it or goals or whatever, and make a timeline that both of you agree of is fair.
  The idea is that nobody is blindsided and expectations are communicated all around. It's actually great for everybody involved, but is also generally the first step to being fired, since a lot of shitty managers just see it as something they have to check off before pulling the trigger in firing you. Like a paper trail of why you suck.
  So, "having a pip", or be "on (a) pip" just means managers are looking at you closely and recording your performance, and you're in danger. Not always resulting in being let go, but.... You know how these things go.

My boss didn't like me for some reason. Everybody else did. He tried to fire me, but the day after, he transferred, and both managers above him and those left below him were like "nah, we actually need you and I only ever see you work your ass off and help literally everybody and everybody relies on you".
Story is much more dramatic and deep, but this is the short public version. Also, when I quit, the manager that trained me threw me a low key pizza party on the clock out of pocket, and I found out months later that several people I worked with, all quit after I left.
I Loved so much about that job. The people were all amazing. So was operating forklift and being able to actually help people.
When my boss pulled me into the manager office and told me I wasn't the right fit for the job, I asked why. When he didn't have any good reason, and the reasons he gave were either outright false (he seemed to think at some point I cussed out a manager - I did not, and actually it was that manager that did that to me for no good reason) or were groundless (I occasionally disagreed with decisions, but did what was asked anyway), I remember seeing red and just saying "that's unacceptable". His face was dumbstruck, and the witness manager (who liked me) just made a 😳 face. He had nothing. And then it turns out he was just trying to shit on me before leaving the next day.
To this day, I still don't actually know why that guy didn't like me. If I did, I honestly probably would have tried to fix it. But because that was either unrelated to me or he failed to communicate, I'll forever just think the guy was an egotistical asshole who used me to get fat bonuses and then tried to ruin my life (I was barely scraping by, and if I lost that job, I'd be immediately homeless again).
What stopped me from being fired?
Having friends all over, including in high places. Having a reputation for working my ass off. Standing up for myself and others. Basically, trying my best to be a good person to everybody and have a spine. Being critical to daily operations helped a lot, too - I did a lot of stuff nobody else wanted to do because my previous jobs were wayyyy worse and so the work there was like a cakewalk.

lol, yeah, I stopped it from happening with this magical thing called “lying.”
- Wow, very curious about this story. Want to share?
  
  Back in the day when I was a teen, I was cooking the time clock at work. Got asked about it on one of the occasions I had and corrected it before they could check it. The time clock we used didn’t log adjustments and everyone had a password that had the ability to adjust the time clock. I’m almost certain I wasn’t the only one doing the same thing. I was more surprised they couldn’t figure out access levels for the thing. Tbf it was a pretty old POS system.

Almost got fired once when a close colleague spread rumors to put her failures on me. I never got to know precisely what she said but it was "extremely bad" and in the realm of harassment (not sexual, but still...).
The management was not sure and did not involve HR to make it formal. I felt under scrutiny for a while, so I kept all the communication to a minimum, strictly professional, not even an emoji or a joke about the weather, all in writing when possible and including other people every time it was possible. It was horrible and stressful. I considered to quit or to ask to be moved since interacting with her was part of a daily routine, but I feared that it could be seen as an admission of guilt.
Eventually she was fired in a round of layoffs and that was the end of it. Later I discovered from some colleagues that they never believed that shit, but nobody stepped in to say anything.

I’ve been almost fired for being late at retail jobs, because they’re suuuuper fussy about being a couple minutes late. Luckily my current job doesn’t give a fuck because they just want the job to get done. I’m never late when I work from home, though!
I was fired before when I worked retail for being drunk at a work meeting after the store closed. I was part of a group of about five people who went to a restaurant. I was the only one who fought it. I had to have a conference call with a manager and a judge. The judge asked “did you have any reason to suspect Rai was drunk” and the manager said “Nope!” I got free money to do nothing for a year.
I absolutely was not drunk. Bless that manager for defending me.

Kinda. Twice, depending on how you look at it. I did one of those "you can't fire me, I already quit" things. The boss was just clueless and didn't comprehend that when someone walks out at end of shift and says they're not coming back, that's quitting.
The other time was due to a switch in managers at a fast food joint when I was a kid.
One manager took a vacation, the fill in didn't like long haired guys and looked for any excuse. He kinda got one, when I was late for a shift. Took the opportunity to say i was fired. Didn't actually have the authority to do it, so it wouldn't have counted even if the actual manager hadn't come back and reversed it, though I didn't know that at the time.