Baltimore woman says her Gen Z coworker claimed she left her last job over bullying, then got fired for taking personal calls during work hours

A millennial woman from Baltimore shared on Threads that a young coworker at her medical billing office was fired after reportedly spending most of her work hours on her phone instead of doing her job. The post, shared by a user who goes by @gold.dust.woman on June 15, 2026, quickly gained attention online. The woman, identified only as Marci, said the experience made her rethink her previously positive view of Gen Z workers.

According to Marci’s Thread posts, the new hire had told the team she left her previous job at a hospital because she was being bullied. Marci said she was open to believing that at first, but her impression changed within days of the woman starting. The new employee, who appeared to be in her early twenties, reportedly showed little engagement during training and barely used the notes she had taken on sticky notes.

Marci claimed the woman was on her phone almost constantly throughout the workday, including spending 15 to 20 minutes in the bathroom with her phone, reportedly four to five times each morning. According to Marci, the new hire appeared to complete no more than 30 minutes of actual work during an eight-hour shift and would reportedly leave certain tasks unfinished because she said she did not like doing them.

Coworkers reported the new hire after she allegedly made inappropriate personal calls when managers were away

The situation reportedly came to a head one evening when no managers were present in the office. According to Marci, the employee used that time to make personal phone calls on her cell phone. Marci claimed that during one call, the woman appeared to be trying to convince a man to break up with his girlfriend, and that a second call with a different man involved conversation that Marci described as “entirely inappropriate for the workplace.” 

Marci and her coworkers said they reported the behavior to management the following Monday. Marci claimed  the owner of the office sat the employee down and made the expectations clear, specifically regarding phone use. Marci wrote that the owner told her, “If you take your phone into the bathroom for that long, multiple times in the morning, you will be let go.” The employee reportedly agreed to the terms and was quiet for the rest of that day.

However, Marci claimed the same behavior continued the very next day. According to her update post, the owner reportedly caught the employee coming out of the bathroom with her phone four times that morning. 

On the fifth time, the owner called her into the office and let her go. Marci wrote that the employee asked why she was being fired and reportedly begged to keep her job. A similar dispute involved a fast food owner who told a new worker to learn on instinct then fired them three hours in.

What followed, according to Marci, was a drawn-out exit. She said she was assigned to watch the employee pack up her desk, during which the woman allegedly took time to apply lip gloss, lotion, and hand sanitizer, and appeared to count her headphones. The employee then returned twice, once for her charger and once to retrieve food from the kitchen. Marci said the woman allegedly left someone else’s lunch bag on the floor and left the refrigerator open before leaving.

According to Marci, the situation escalated further when the former employee called the office asking about her final paycheck. When told it would be mailed because the owner was not in to sign it, she allegedly asked why the owner could not come in just to sign her check. Marci said the woman then showed up at the office in her pajamas, accompanied by her mother, who allegedly yelled at the manager, used profanity, and threatened to sue.

The manager reportedly told the mother that she would only speak with the former employee directly, as she was an adult. The mother allegedly continued, so the manager went to contact the owner. According to Marci, the former employee and her mother then called the police themselves. The manager was eventually permitted to hand over the signed check at the door, after which the pair left.

Several commenters on the thread said the behavior described was more a reflection of the individual than of an entire generation. “It’s less Gen Z and more that person,” one commenter wrote, adding that most of the Gen Z coworkers they had worked with were not lazy or entitled. Another commenter said the same pattern of poor work ethic existed across all generations, noting that they had worked with “lazy boomers and wildly enthusiastic Gen Zers.”

A third suggested that some Gen Z workers may not have received proper preparation for workplace expectations, saying, “I remember having classes in high school on workforce expectations and getting work experience in offices. They haven’t had that.” In another case, a viral TikTok explains why Gen Z keeps getting fired but one comment reveals a more uncomfortable truth.