People Who've Quit Their Job Without Lining Up Another Reveal What Happened

Quitting a job can be a liberating feeling, but it can also be scary as hell... especially if you don't have another job waiting for you on the horizon.
Thanks to Redditor BurningDruid13, we have some answers to the following question: "Have you ever quit a job, without another lined up, for your mental health? How did it turn out?"
"Yes."
Yes. I had a job that I loved. Had coworkers I loved (I'm still friends with some). Ownership changed. My job that was a M-F, 9-5, somehow turned into on call all the time. My workload was always heavy, got added onto. I would say no to additional workload. It somehow still ended up on my plate. Somewhere around a year after the ownership change, I found myself googling heart attack, and mental breakdown symptoms because I knew something wasn't right. I finally walked into work one day and handed in my notice.
No job lined up. Didn't think it through. I wrote up my notice 5min before I left for work that day. Due to bills, I ended up taking a job I was overqualified for, and made crap for pay. But after a few months I got hired to where I am now. I do the same type of job as the one I walked away from. Did it work out for me, I'd like to say yes. But only time will tell. I will say both myself and my family are much happier right now. And I haven't wondered if I'm having a mental breakdown or possible heart attack since I left. That's a win.
"It was great at first."
Yes! I quit a very high-paying job, in fact. I was a software engineer.
It was great at first. I liked my coworkers, and the company was one of those startups that had a ping pong table and cold brew coffee on tap and all that jazz. It was my first job out of college and I was dazzled by the cool community feel and all the "amenities."
However, they had no system in place to train me. I was basically expected to just read the codebase and just instantly know exactly what to do. My team leader couldn't answer my questions, and I quickly started drowning in work.
My once-recreational drug use turned habitual. Once I finally started performing well, that only reinforced my terrible habits. I thought that if I stopped "self-medicating", I would fall behind and they would fire me.
I cried every day. I was also the only female employee on the software team, and I got these paranoid thoughts in my head that my male coworkers didn't really like me (in retrospect, I'm sure my alienation was totally my fault and a result of my anxiety). I didn't even like the programming anymore. When I was in college, I interned with people who were using software to help charities, uncover bogus statistics, and generally lift up communities. My job was nothing like that. The people there acted like they were curing cancer, but the majority of what we did boiled down to helping huge companies build training platforms that were more "hip" and "cool."
So I quit. Not just that job, but the whole field. I had started abusing harder as well, and I knew I was going to end up killing myself. I went to rehab, and then I went back to school and got my Master's degree in Education with a focus in mathematics.
I'm a private tutor and a substitute teacher now. I hope to get my PhD one day, but for now I am happy helping young people realize their dreams. I set my own schedule so that I'm able to pursue my passions: volunteering at a children's hospital tutoring sick kids that need to miss school, and helping young women from local battered women's shelters and homeless shelters learn graphic design and programming so that they can have valuable marketable job skills.
I'm two years clean from drugs and I have the most wonderful friends and a purrfect kitty! I am so, so happy I quit my job. Even though people thought I was insane for leaving the tech field (and I'm sure my mom's friends talked trash about me behind her back), I'm glad I didn't pay them any mind.
"Got burnt out..."
Got burnt out and quit after management changes. Luckily I saved up a good amount of money to do whatever I wanted for about 4 months until I finally felt the need to better myself and move on with my life. Got another job that was safer than my last and went back to school to further my degree! It was a much needed break, don't regret it one bit.
"I quit..."
I quit my job of a year and a half out of anger and spite for my manager, and because of my quickly declining mental health. While it helped at first the anxiety of not having a steady source of income took a much larger toll on me than anticipated and I really didn't get to focus on my recovery/ therapy for my mental health until I had secured a new job to quell my anxieties.
"Left my job..."
Left my job of 15 years with nothing lined up because it was gaining me nothing any more aside from being overused for my job knowledge with no reward. Took a month off, found another job that pays me more per hour than my last after I got promoted to supervisor after putting in 5 months. Couldn't be happier.
"Yeah, I had been overworked..."
Yeah, I had been overworked and underpaid (and under appreciated) at a small resort for months. Tempers flared and I was given an ultimatum, I chose to walk out the door in the middle of the busy season.
The next night I went to a bar and saw another resort owner (and friend) saying goodbye to his only employee (he typically had 2-3). I walked up after and the conversation went like this:
Me: that sucks, do you have anything else lined up?
Him: nope, I've got nothing
Me: do you need somebody to help?
Him: do you need a job?
Me: yup, as of yesterday.
Him: show up tomorrow whenever you want and you've got the job.
The rest of the summer I ran his cafe/ shop (I had 7 years of cooking and 2 years retail management experience) and he ran the outfitter.
The first day after showing me around the kitchen he had to go attend to something, when he came back I had 20 people already eating and I was chatting them up and cleaning. He looked around and goes "well, you're getting a raise." The rest of the summer was great.
"I got bored..."
I got bored of my life in the UK and sick of my job. So I quit and got a one-way ticket to Australia to start a new life.
"Quit my job..."
Quit my job at a call centre without anything lined up. I used to cry in my car before a shift, used up all my sick days, and it worsened my suicidal thoughts so I got myself out of there when I couldn't take it anymore. I quietly stood up from my desk and quit on the spot. I had never walked out on a job before.
Took me a month to find another job with just slightly less hours (so a little less money) but it was worth it because I'm a lot better mentally and physically, and I like the job. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
"Worked..."
Worked a call center job after one week of training and two days of actual work.
During the training you're shown how it's not possible to order a free trial of these expensive products without seeing the clearly marked (in multiple locations) terms and conditions.
But then I got to the floor and these people were old people who were offered a free gift when they bought something on amazon. They never went to a website and ordered a free trial. They were lied to and then charged $80+ three weeks later.
It was a scam built to prey on old people.
I had a panic attack on the way to work and quit when I arrived.
"Hell yes."
Hell yes. I worked in a retail store that was farming-based, but had the political atmosphere of Game of Thrones. Everyone hated each other and constantly tried to undermine one another. If you were talking to someone that someone else didn't like, it was known across the store, and suddenly, people would stop talking to you. As in, you would stand there and ask a question, and they would turn their back on you.
I got zero training, got promoted to "zone manager," (more work with no extra pay), and then injured my foot falling off of one of their rickety wooden ladders.
This caused everyone to turn on me because the store had to file a workman's comp claim, so they missed out on the annual reward: a visit to the Golden Corral buffet in January.
Anyway, after about two weeks of mind-numbing boredom and having everyone staring daggers at me while I tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to be doing, I just quit. Didn't give notice. Just left my badge and vest there and went to lunch and never came back.
It took me a few months to find another job, but at least I was no longer alternating between openly weeping and feeling physically nauseous.
It's hard to imagine for someone who didn't live it, but not everyone grew up with a kind and loving childhood home.
So much so, Redditors were able to fill a whole Reddit thread with examples of bad parenting, some of which are startling.
Redditor FiForYourAttention asked:
"What screams 'I'm a bad parent'?"
Confidentiality Who?
"I don't know if this really screams it, but I absolutely hate when adults tell other adults their children’s shameful secrets for no reason. Even strangers! It tells me those children probably don’t feel like they can trust their parents."
- 50637
Trust Issues
"I had a pretty horrible thing happen to me during my senior year of high school. I called my mom sobbing, and the next day I found out she told her two best friends and multiple teacher friends of hers. I also found out she and my older sister were laughing about it with each other."
"I never tell her anything anymore. At least anything important."
- Training-Ad171
What Kid?
"Zero interest in the kid. Doesn’t care what they do or what happens to them as long as they don’t inconvenience them."
- JustinChristoph
Lack of Accountability
"Never saying sorry to the kid when the parents make a mistake."
- SuvenPan
Break into Teams
"Triangulation. After the divorce, one of our parents immediately weaponized our relationship against the other. I’m 32 and still unweaving all of the details in my brain."
- BugzFromZpace
Breaking Decibels
"My mother used to get up in my face and yell at me for trivial things. She would also spit on me while yelling."
"Yelling at a kid is traumatic for the kid. Don’t do it. There are better ways to communicate than yelling."
- rainbowblack79
Physically Abusive
"I volunteer at and have had student placements at a children’s hospital and we’ve had patients with serious brain injuries due to abuse (shaking, attempted drowning, etc.). So yeah I’d say those parents are pretty bad."
- Tapestry-of-Life
Desiring Fear
"Your own children being afraid of you, no child should be afraid of the person that looks after them nearly 24/7."
"I really don't think it clicks till adolescence either when you look back and realize that you really were terrified of your father 24/7 as a child."
"Or it's weird when you realize that not all children hate their fathers."
- LimitlessTVShows
The Blame Game
"Blaming your own mistakes and regrets on your kids."
"Or living vicariously through your children because of your own mistakes and regrets."
- LilKaySigs
Broken Record
"Saying the same things over and over again like, 'You're such a disappointment' and 'I wish I had a daughter instead' and 'You ruined my and you're mother's sex life.' This is stuff I heard for years."
- FERRARI308GTSI
Disregarding Mental Health
"Saying 'You're too young to be depressed' and ignoring red flags from mental illnesses."
- EclecticMermaid
Invalidation Tactics
"Invalidating your child's feelings, struggles, and/or mental illness in favor of 'you don't know what struggling really is' or some form of 'back in my day' or 'you kids are so weak.'"
"You have just robbed your child of support, told them their feelings do not matter and informed them that you are not a safe person to confide in."
- Acetamnophen
Punishing Adult Children
"Punishing adult children when they don't do everything you say by silent treatment or nasty texts... and days later acting like nothing happened and saying , 'You never let go of things.'"
- kabive2044
Never Going Home Again
"Your kids never visiting once they move out or go to college."
- ashton_yaste123
Hindsight 0/20
"Ironically, never thinking you're a bad parent."
- RandomHeretic
These examples will bring back dark memories for some.
Hopefully there will be another Reddit post where people describe what positive parenting looks like.
As much as we think we can get along with everyone, that's not always the case.
There are certain types of people you gravitate toward and making a connection with them is easy. But there are also those with specific personality traits you know very well to steer clear from.
Try as we might, we can't be friends with everyone. The best we can do is be the best version of ourselves and stay within a community of people who you vibe with.
Curious to hear from the types of people strangers online prefer keeping a distance from, Redditor KnownNormie asked:
"What type of person could you never be friends with?"

Some people like in the following examples should be put in their place.
Too Many Theatrics
"Someone who constantly makes everything dramatic."
– Anxiety_Ridden_Camel
Space Hoggers
"Someone who obviously doesn't care about anyone's boundaries."
– Jay4025
Embracing The Dark
"Guilt Trippers"
"Those who think its cool and edgy to be negative about everything."
– Stormflier
How can people who think the world revolves around them expect to maintain or gain friendships?
All About Me
"Self centered people."
–needtofreemyself
The One-Upper
"Yeah, that gets old really fast. I am a reformed one upper. I would also interrupt people. I was hard to take when I was younger. I didn’t learn to STFU until I was forced to take a sales job and discovered just how crap I was socially. The last twenty years I’ve gotten a lot better and now enjoy listening to other people’s stories more than telling my own."
– MobileAccountBecause
Not My Problem
"The one who always blame others."
– Reasonable-mcArdles
We could all benefit from personal growth.
They Wait For Life To Happen
"Someone who doesn’t want to learn more about life and its intricacies. I only want friends who think deeply about things and can have varied conversations on religion, politics, the world, and all of life. This life is too vast and insane not to seek depth in it.
– Glass-Philosopher302
Don't Take Life Too Seriously
"Someone who is always serious and can't take a joke. As well as someone who gets offended on the behalf of others."
– HoarderOfPaper
These are hard "no's."
You Can Bet Your Life On It
"a serial killer."
– LongjumpingReturn555
All Creatures Great And Small
"Someone who doesn't like animals."
– InterestingMall8958
It's complicated to categorize exactly the kind of person I would prefer to not to be friends with, but I know that one of my biggest pet peeves that can jeopardize how much effort I put into all kinds of relationships is a person's lack of punctuality.
It says a lot about an individual who is perpetually late outside of an acceptable window between 5 and 15 mins–with a heads up about their tardiness.
If they're always punctual in regards to work obligations and business meetings but very late to meeting up with you for a coffee date, you're clearly not important enough for them to make an effort to avoid keeping you waiting.
And I got no time for that.
There are numerous advantages to being bilingual.
Knowing the language of the country you may be traveling to, being able to translate for those who need help, not to mention, knowing what some people might be saying as they are literally talking behind your back.
Indeed, many people wish they could be fluent in at least one other language.
Though these same people likely also wonder, how exactly does the brain of a bilingual person work?
How easy is it to jump between multiple languages?
Is it really as easy as it looks to jump between languages?
"Bilingual people, what is a thing that non-bilingual will never understand?"
They All Blend Together
"The fact that I no longer 'translate' in my head when I use my second language."
"The fact that I can be unaware which language I am reading."
"I have a bit of a stutter in one language but not the other."
"Jokes that work in both languages are the funniest."- Mortlach78
"Speaking two languages at the same time."
"Usually because you forget certain words in one language but remember it in the other or because a word is easier to say."
"'Je n’ai aucune idée what the f*ck you’re talking about'.”- ctwheels
There's Not A Word For Everything
"Literal translations rarely work."
"A lot of monolingual people seem to think other languages are like their language but with other words, and every word as an equivalent."- TheAmazingKoki
Knowing The Language Doesn't Mean They'll Understand You
"Having an 'accent' regardless of which language you're speaking."
"Learning a language allows you to feel better understood as we interact and build connections with others."
"So it's frustrating when you feel as though you're not communicating as clearly as you would like to express yourself. It's been great to feel understood!"
"I've enjoyed reading through the comments and learning that there's a lot of people that are actively becoming multicultural."- Silv3r_lite
Less Gets Lost In Translation Than You Think...
"Translating is a whole different skill than speaking another language."
"When I first learnt English, I would translate things in my head to understand them."
"As I became fluent, I stopped doing that because I didn't need to."
"When someone speaks to me in English, I don't translate stuff in my head back to french to understand them, I just automatically understand it."
"Cue to if someone speaks English, and another person doesn't, and ask me 'hey, can you translate what he said ?'"
"I completely suck at it, I can ultimately do it but it means I need to take what was said in English, and reprocess it in French and find the most adequate words for translation and it's honestly not that easy to do."- Matrozi
Words, Words, Words
"How near-impossible it is to translate words when there is only one word for something in one language but multiple variants of it in another."
"For instance, the word 'cousin' in English is just 'cousin', but there are eight different words for cousin in Chinese, all extremely specific."
'Older male on maternal side, older female on maternal side, younger male on maternal side, younger female on maternal side, older male on paternal side, older female on paternal side, younger male on paternal side, and younger female on paternal side."
"There is no general cover-all term for 'cousin'."
"So when an English speaker says, 'I was having dinner with my cousin last week', how do you translate that into Chinese, for a Chinese audience, without knowing which of the 8 cousin categories it falls into?"
"It creates a '404 Error: Cannot Compute' in the interpreter's brain."
"If you are ever giving a speech in English to a Chinese audience and want to see a look of crazed terror on your interpreter's face, just use the word 'cousin' and watch the panic and despair unfold."
"Was an interpreter."- SteadfastEnd
There's No Simple One And Done
"That the way language is constructed is not straightforward."
"It's not just a different set of words and rules of grammar, it's kind of a whole different way of processing thoughts into speech."- Peanut_Butter_32
It Ain't As Easy As It Looks
"Real-time translation takes a LOT of mental energy."- selfawarescreen
What's The Word?
"Brain fog, when asked to translate, at a critical vocabulary moment."
"You need that one word to make the perfect translation."
"But it is not there."- toyoung
Forgetting Your Native Tongue
"Forgetting words from your native language if you are using the second language too much."
"I have lost count of how many times I knew what I wanted to say in any other language, yet I forgot how to say it on my own native language."
"I end up remembering them later on anyways, but it is such an embarrassing feeling."
" Also, another little thing."
"Accidentally switching languages in the middle of a conversation."
"I may be talking to someone in English, and when I didn't understand something, I would be like 'Qué?'(What? In Spanish), all without even thinking about what I did until I realize that I spoke in Spanish by mistake."
"It's not really common for it to happen, but I do remember each and every single time it does."- AruPeachy
"When some word only comes to mind in another language, and you just can't remember what that word is in your native tongue."- Acceptable-Damage43
Not All Sayings Are Universal
"The struggle of explaining / understanding sayings."
"Americans use a lot of sayings like “'et’s play it by ear', and in Spanish we also have sayings that don’t quite translate."
"Also when I’m too excited/ angry etc my brain switches to my native language and can’t quite express myself correctly the other language."- immigrantme
Humor Isn't Universal
"Some jokes make no sense in other languages."- Dukanduu
The Emotion Behind What You're Saying
"You have different personalities based on the language you’re currently speaking, and your native language has emotional ties that aren’t always present in other spoken languages."- P-Wizzl
One needs a fairly active brain to be successfully bilingual.
Though, one can only imagine that internally worrying about your everyday problems in French would likely make them seem a little more romantic.
"Qui sait?"
People Divulge The Real Reason 'That One Guy' Hasn't Been Fired From Their Job Yet
Much as we might try to deny it, who hasn't found themselves dealing with one of "those colleagues" at work?
The sort of colleague where work gets done in spite of them, who doesn't seem to possess any of the basic qualifications their position requires, who uses up all their paid sick days at the very beginning of the calendar year.
The kind of employee where we're often left wondering, "how did they get that job?"
Then, when we actually do a little digging, we might learn the answer to that very question.
Often resulting in our making a surprising, if not downright humbling, discovery.
"Why hasn’t that “one guy” at your job been fired yet?"
Unfortunate Timing
"He ended up leaving work the day management was going to talk to him about his behavior and got into a severe motorcycle accident."- eatsbrainz
Just Not Possible
"Cuz he’s the boss."- Hotline-Furi
A Little Manipulation Goes A Long Way
"Because his supervisor is in love with him."
"He’s 'charming, charismatic, and everyone loves him'."
"He’s really close to the manager and his mom used to work for the company as well."
"She left a path for him to walk on."
"As my co worker once said, 'he harasses us but gets rewards'.”
"If you were ever to meet him, he makes you feel like you’re the king of the world but he’s really scummy."
"He’ll make you believe you’re incredible and valuable but will talk sh*t about you to other people."
"It’s a shame because he’s taken advantage of a lot people and a lot of things at work."
"I thought he was the coolest guy around until I started observe him and his demeanor around others."- Low_Excitement_5339·
A Sign Of The Times
"We are so short-staffed and ratios need to be met in classrooms."
"A body is better than no body, in the eyes of admin at least."
"Some days I'd rather work short-handed than work around a useless/annoying person."
"I end up doing their job anyway."- quietly_anxious
Just The Way Things Are...
'Office politics."- defensiveminded2020
...Rather Not Answer...
"What if that one guy is you?"- dizzyrazor
Nepotism
"Because he goes to my boss's church."
"My boss has somehow hired at least 8 people from his church."- SparklesLuvsScotch
"She’s the boss's daughter."
"In the past 6 months, they have hired over 100 people, 3 of them are still working there."
"Every one of them quit because of her and very outwardly expressed that but no one will fire her."- Reddit
Do We Really Want Them To Get Fired?
"The one guy at my job just got fired 3 days ago, after years of doing nothing."
"Now I can't use his continued employment as my assurance of job security."- i_make_potholes
Who Knows?
"I legitimately don't know."
"I've been sending my bosses emails about her dropping the ball on many things and even causing several catastrophic failures for our customers."
"They promise me they are documenting everything and to be patient but my boss has his head in the sand and is not really doing anything."
"I think it's catching up to him though because corporate is starting to look at this office more closely."- CamStorm
"IDK, he sits and f*cking texts WHEN PEOPLE ARE IN LINE FOR THE REGISTER."
"Pisses me off."- Public_Living_3344
Charisma Overshadows Many Flaws
"He’s 'nice' and chatty and gets along really well with our customers."
"He will go into an office, not do anything or make something worse than it was before the repair, bill them hundreds of dollars, someone else will have to go in and fix it right and bill them more, and they’ll still request him."
"They’re actually more likely to complain about the guy who went in and fixed it correctly and would have billed them half as much and been done in trip had they started the job."- makenzie71
Fear Of Feelings Getting Hurt
"Because his boss avoids conflict."
"So we get to deal with the sh*t for brains creeper instead of him being thrown out on his a**."- No-Patient1365
Hopefully, Just A Matter Of Time...
"You don’t get fired for being bad at your job, you get fired for making a scene."- sleekandspicy
Everyone deserves a second chance.
But if people are incapable, or worse unwilling, to learn, is there really any chance their work will improve?
When "that employee" is your boss, then the question is ultimately irrelevant.