Should have been so many times....but only once
and that was deliberate.

Job 1. McDonalds. Always worked drive through, and had a rather lovely little scam going involving the till functions for various discount vouchers, a 'broken' receipt printer, and one of the plastic stirrers crudely bitten into roughly the same shape as a managers key. Earned me a pleasant couple of hundred quid a week extra. Got caught when a manager found my little bag of cash down the side of my till. Cash confiscated, "Don't let me catch you again". Never did let him either.

2: A certain multinational IT company which sounds like ju-jitsu. Managed to wing myself control of a nice quiet contract, and relocate my desk into the server room because "it's easier to monitor everything from in there". Nothing to do with the fact that the server room is totally enclosed, very restricted access, and nowhere near the line of sight of any management. 9-5 soon became 11-3 or so, for about 6 months, until I got bored. Left with a glowing reference, and took my last month off with full pay so they could see how my replacement coped without me while I was still on the payroll. This meant they forgot when I actually left and kept paying me for a few months. Ignored their letters asking for the couple of grand overpayments back.

3. Only one I actually got sacked from, and that was by design. A one month helldesk contract while the client sold out their helpdesk to move it down south. Two weeks in, got offered something better, permanent, and twice the pay, but the agency had contracted in a £500 early termination penalty. Interview friday, explained to new boss that I could start tuesday but it would result in a very poor reference from my current contract. Turned up to work pissed as a fart monday morning and was promptly escorted off the premises. Agency were most upset to discover that the wording of their contract meant that they couldn't impose the penalty since I had been fired and not chosen to leave.
(bblgoose, Sat 25 Feb 2006, 1:09, Reply)