People Reveal Why They Quit Their Jobs Without Notice

The ultimate reason people quite their job is because they are unhappy, but what causes that unhappiness is what we are interested in. What pushes someone over their limit and encourages them to quit because they just can't take it? It could be the workload for the amount of pay, but it could also get personal.

sirferrell asks:

People who've quit their jobs on short notice out of spite. What was the final nail in the coffin?

That's no way to treat your workers

I walked straight out of my job at DQ when I was 17.

Basically it was lunch rush and since it was a Sunday we had a skeleton crew since lunch was the only busy time of day. I had 11 orders on the screen with more coming in, absolutely flying around the kitchen making stuff.

Manager was standing in the doorway, literally just leaning up against the wall, talking s*** like "Wow you're kinda slow today" or "I thought you were faster than this". I was still getting orders out in <6 minutes and she wasn't even offering to help. I was already sick of working there but this pushed me over the edge. I asked if she was going to help and she said no. I asked if she thought she could do better than me and she said "of course". I told her "Okay then, have fun" and dropped my hat/nametag on the counter and walked out.

Felt so good. I got a job two weeks later in a department store making more per hour, with no grease/heat and coworkers who weren't s***** people.

No fun on the clock!

So, I got a job at a packaging plant. Our goal that day was to assemble brooms. You would get a pallet of handles, and a pallet of brush heads, and you were supposed to screw them together, and then put them on an empty pallet.

I struck up a conversation with a guy at the same table as me. We were enjoying ourselves and assembling brooms at a very fast rate--we had already done a few pallets while everyone else had only done one. It's amazing what how just having a good time can make you work harder, and make the time go by faster.

So, we took a break around 10, and when we came back, the floor manager sent us to different tables. As in: the furthest two tables that anyone could possibly inhabit. I asked him if we were doing things wrong or something.

He said, literally: no, you're having too much fun and talking while you work.

I excused myself to go to the bathroom a few minutes later and simply drove away.

Manager changes can be rough

I worked at this pizza chain for about a year in high school and managed to become the assistant manager. I had a really good relationship with the customers who were mostly regulars.

We were one of those pizza chains that did 2 for 1 deals. In other words, you couldn't technically buy one pizza. However, some of my customers were older single people who didn't want two pizzas but would pay full price for just one.

So one day we get this new manager cause the old one quit. This cranky as hell old lady who was just generally pissed off at the world.

One of our regular customers comes in, asks for his one pizza and so I make it for him. I'm ringing him up and I hand him his one pizza and she comes flying out of the back of the store screeching at me "Why are you trying to rip this customer off!?! Where is his other pizza??"

We both are explaining to her that he only wants and needs one pizza, but she continues ranting and raving. At one point he tells her she should be happy because she's saving money by him only taking half the order, but she's just determined to have a good rant.

So I took my apron off, threw it at her feet and said, "Good luck with the store" and walked out with the customer.

Six months later they had to shut that location down. I'm pretty sure she ran off every customer they had.

Strong leaders are very important

Was hired to do facility maintenance, set up machines for different operations, qa operators work, do basic machine programming and train new operators on any machine in the facility.

Ended up being promised a raise for 9 months straight, was ultimately told "it wasnt in the budget" when I inquired about when my pay bump would be coming, but was shown a signed employment contract a temp to hire had signed that day promising the pay rate I had been asking for (I also trained that guy so major kick in the teeth for me). That combined with being put on the most brain dead machine possible for 4 months straight due to insane turnover rate caused by the most incompetent and unprofessional operations manager I've ever met is what ultimately led to me sending an immediately effective resignation notice at 5pm on a Friday.

I was never late, never written up, and regularly pulled weekend overtime to fix down machines to keep production intact. Overall I found out I was only being paid about 60% of what I was worth at best.

Flexibility is hard to find

I had 5 exams in a row (tuesday-saturday). I had requested 3 months in advance for 1 week off, so I had atleast 2 days of studying and nothing else + the 5 days where I'm writing my exams.

They denied it. I went to talk to my departmant manager, who said Itd be fine and he'd clear it up. The next month, I hear that they still couldn't approve it. But they approved my exam days off.

I figured that's fine and I could find someone to take the shifts or call in sick if they're inconvenient.

I get to exam time and I'm scheduled 8 hours a day for the whole week.

I quit on the first day scheduled for that week. Have fun trying to get your other part time university students to skip their exams.

Only he can have his hair down...

Back in my rocker days, I used to have really long hair like almost down to my waist (I'm a dude). I worked in the kitchen for a hospital. I was a good employee, I was a hard worker, did my work without complaining and did it right. I was never late and I followed all the rules as expected. The manager always made it a point to remind to me to net my hair, or pick it up and under my hat (kitchen staff wore hats). His reminders were perfectly fine and expected, after all it was his job to oversee and enforce food safety rules. Then his, also a rocker, son was hired.

His son and I did not work the same shift. In two weeks time, He was late, stole food, and rarely netted his hair much less pick it up. One day we end up on the same shift. Like clock work, boss man comes over and remind me about my hair, fine no problem. Work begins and I see his son with his hair out. I asked the boss man what the deal was, why can that dude have his hair down, boss man said "stop complaining. Other employees are not your concern"

I clocked out that very second and never went back. I was off to basic training in a month's time. Best decision ever.

Some bosses could use some advice

I worked for a large insurance company. Husband and I were adopting our son from China. I told my boss that I would only be given about 3 weeks notice from the adoption agency of when I'd be traveling to China. Boss grumbled about it and daily would ask me, "Do you know when yet?" Sometimes he'd ask me multiple times a day.

I finally got my travel dates. My boss arranged for a temp to take over my files while I was gone. I gave my boss and the temp my work email so that they could access my stuff (the company was paperless so all the reports came in through email).

I return home from China with my son and take a few more weeks off to bond with him. A few days before I'm due to return to the office, I check my work email from home and discover that I had over 1,000 emails in my inbox, all unread! My boss and the temp said they "forgot" to check my emails. It took weeks to get all my work caught up, some of which involved me working until midnight or later from home. My boss also griped about having me be gone for a total of 6 weeks, even though women on maternity leave take 6 weeks off. Apparently since my son wasn't biologically mine, I had no right to miss so much work.

Yep, I quit about two months after I returned to work.

Bye!

I was on contract and the boss asked me to "put in more effort," which took some explaining. What he really meant was, "I want you to put in more hours for free."

Respecting workers time is crucial

I normally worked a 5-1. This wasn't a, "I worked there a month and quit." Kinda deal. This was a, I've been there for several years, kinda deal. I worked up from a server, to a cook. Pretty big deal for a 20 year old kid. I would always stick around when needed, this led to a LOT, like, a LOT of overworking. At least 2 or 3 days id work 5a-7p. Wasn't always cooking, I sometimes filled in, sometimes just watched over things.

The worst of it, was when I needed a day off, they approved it, but then said I needed to come in a few days before the day. Or, when they just started scheduling me for 80 hour weeks, just assuming that I would have stayed anyway. But, the worst part was that they changed how their pay works. Let's say minimum wage was 7$, servers would make .25$ more, for each year they've been a server. So, I was a server for 5 years (the cap was 5 years) meaning, when I was a server, I made 8.25$. Cook starting pay was 7.75$, i had only been a cook for 1 year. So, when I was a cook, I actually made LESS than when I was a server.

I left there after I told them that I'm not going to be expected to work 14-15 hours shifts, just because they can't keep staff around. They threw that I got a cook position, and should expect to pick up more slack of others. I got a job at McDonald's, they started me at more than I was making there, and have gotten raises and already am a manager in training not even a year after switching.

If you aren't happy at a job, look for something else. Being happy is important, it's so important I can't stress it enough.

That is crossing the line by miles

I posted about this before, but my boss actually came to my house, demanded to see me to my roommates (who inexplicably let him in and pointed to my room), my boss went into my bedroom where I was in bed reading (and thank god, dressed), and he proceeded to yell at me for 15 minutes about the status of the calendar display. It was Christmas season, I managed a bookstore, and the calendar display was probably a mess because they were so hard to keep neat. Stunned that my boss came into my private bedroom on my time off, I simply did nothing. I didn't know that was even a thing someone would consider doing. My boss demanded I come in early the next morning, along with someone from corporate would would be there, and I would get lectured on my calendar display and given lessons on how to set it up right. Then he left, slamming my door behind him.

your health is not in your bosses hands

I had a boss ask me to change how I took my bipolar medication so I could trigger permanent mania as I got more done that way.

Uhhh.. no.

Somethings are too much to deal with

Being passed over for a change of shifts after 2 years, and 6 months of requesting it. Graveyard will really mess with your life, and seeing multiple new hires get day and swing pissed me off to no end. So I grabbed a case of beer, wrote a really sarcastic note about not being dracula and how I deserve to see the sun, taped it to the door, and shoved the key through the crack after locking up. So be kind to your local convenience store cashier, because while you sleep, they stand there under the florescent lights all night, dealing with weirdos.

You're too slow!

Being treated like s***, not respecting quitting time, and allowing last minute trucks to arrive way past the allowed drop off time.

Worked for a last mile cross dock operation. Since I was new I was always getting yelled at for not moving quickly enough. Having to stay till 1pm on Saturday's (we started shift at 10pm Friday) to lock up the warehouse bay doors. When day shift could have done so. So I worked for three months and quit, and my supervisor and HR dude didn't know why. I laid it down for them.

My buddy still works there. A year later nothing has changed.

Preach!

When problems at work cost you sleep it's time to go.

Ouch!

i asked for a raise because I'd been there a while. boss called me in to his office a few days later to discuss it. proceeds to tell me what a horrible worker i am and how i was lucky to not have been fired yet so a raise was out of the question. that cut. i didn't think i was doing exemplary work, but there's only so much you can do in a warehouse.

Sometimes a long cold walk can make you realize some important things

I'd been feeling depressed and miserable. One early morning I just snapped. I got sent home to shave at 6am, despite having shaved the day before. No car, freezing December morning. While I walked I realized "This sucks. I can do better than this." So I turned in my uniform when I got back, found a job with nearly double the pay, with more hours, requiring half the effort.

Overworking is a thing people!

They wanted me to work 6, 10 hour days. I told them I'd only do 5. It was a car wash for minimum wage + tips, but it was an hour away cause of traffic. It was good money for me at the time, but the owner was psychotic. I called in the 6th day they wanted me to work. Next day I come in, the manager and everyone else isn't talking to me. I handed him my keys and walked out.

Walmart is more important than your education.....lol!

I used to work at Walmart while I was in college, and they refused to schedule my shifts around my classes. When I confronted my manager about this he basically told me tough s*** and that working at Walmart was more important than my education.

Show them who's boss

I was working as a cashier in a grocery store. One night after I counted down my drawer and did the deposit, the manager pulled me aside and claimed that my drawer had been short a few times in the last few weeks. They straight up accused me of stealing $20 on a few occasions, and threatened to fire me. Quite literally they said to shape up because there are several people out there looking for (my) job - so I took off my apron and threw it at my manager, told them to get on the phone and start calling all those people because the job is now open.