Starting a new job is not easy. It takes a lot of adjusting for both the employee and employer. But it's a relief to stop the job hunt. So, it would take a lot for someone to decide to quit, especially quit on the first day.
Former Employees Reveal Why They Quit Their Jobs On The First Day
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Sometimes you land in the perfect job with the perfect people and perfect company and sometimes... you land in the 7th circle of Hell! More often than not it's the latter. Sometimes you know within five minutes it's time to run like you're on fire out of the building! You won't even need red flags, the situation is a Crimson scene.
Redditor J-Bradley1 asked for everyone's best stories about the first job nightmares that led to an instant "Peace Out!"
ALWAYS COUNT FINGERS FIRST!
It was a shop that refurbished train suspension hydraulics. 40% of the guys were missing at least part of a finger, maintainence guy was missing 4 on one hand and 1.5 on another. The guy training me stormed out half way through the second day.
I was like yeeaaah, I'm just going to dip out now...
NOT GONNA HAPPEN! NEXT!
Many years ago I worked at a popular sports bar as a line cook. First day they had me train with a guy who didn't speak English for 2 hours. Not a huge deal. Mostly you observe people in a kitchen and that's how you learn. Owner came back and said she was scheduling me to be alone the next day.... which was super bowl Sunday.
Noped out of there so fast. Left right then and there.
YOU CAN'T HAVE MY SOUL SATAN!
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One week. It was 1985, and a collections agency was looking for an IT guy. It was basically desktop support on some IBM PCs. It took me a week to realize what a soul-deadening place that was and I bolted. It was mutual, actually -- they saw how I was reacting to some of the techniques the collectors used. The targets were mostly old people who were encouraged to sell family heirlooms and the like to pay off debts.
DOOR TO DOOR? WHAT IS THIS 1950?
I left halfway through the orientation when I found out it was a job selling those expensive vacuum cleaners door to door.
WHO IS THIS? STOP CALLING ME?!
Three days after my two week training. I was supposed to be a seasonal temp worker for a national propane company. The job distribution and training consisted of taking calls off-hours for people who wanted refills and acting as a messenger service, referring their contact info their local "store" when they opened the next day. Easy-Peasey.
When I got out onto the floor, I found I was actually expected to be a dispatcher for drivers AND ALSO FIRST POINT OF CONTACT FOR ALL EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. Things I had never been so much as briefed on in training. My first shift I had to field a call from a local police officer who was on site to a horrific propane truck crash. I got to wake the guy's district manager in the dead of night, tell him his worker was dead, and the overturned truck was blocking a few lines of the freeway and the police were trying to get a hold of him.
That was just the start: A customer got the smell of garlic and eggs in the house? I got the call. (What do I do next, Miss Dispatcher? "Fuck if I know. Get out of the house ASAP?") CO detector is going off? I got the call. (Instead of 911 for some reason?!) I had ZERO interest in being a underpaid, not-trained emergency dispatcher. It's the only job I took off on without giving a 2 week notice. I was nice enough to finish out my shift on the third day, but that was it.
NEVER GET IN THE VAN!
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I went in to an office for an interview. They said they had several positions available and I wanted to do some admin stuff... Welp, after the interview they told me to get in a van to do the next part of the process. Turns out we drove an hour away so I could shadow one of their door to door sales people. They would ask residents to go into their basement to check their hot water heaters to see if they were eligible to replace them with their companies own... I felt pretty uncomfortable about this and pretty mad my whole day was gone doing this. The worst part was the girl I was shadowing spent half the day sitting around in the truck reading magazines and waiting for people to come home from work... I was sort of asking questions about the job and she got defensive and said, well I decide if you get this job or not, to which I replied, yeah I don't know if I want to do this.. But she kept insisting that it was her who decided if I worked... Don't think she understood I meant that I didn't want to do this crap... Waste of a day.
NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENED AT BLOCKBUSTER.
Mine had to be when I was 18 and working at Blockbuster. I was helping the manager during the before open shift getting new items stocked on the shelves that came in that morning. My mom called me and told me that my dad was having a heart attack and she was panicking while waiting for the ambulance. Why did she call me at work to tell me this? The Blockbuster I worked at was in a strip mall type area behind my cul-de-sac, my house and the Blockbuster was separated by a small alley and a 3 min walk. I told my manager what was happening and asked if I could leave to help my mom while they waited for the ambulance. She said no. I just stood there looking at her thinking she couldn't be serious I would be gone for all of 10 mins and back helping her if needed. She stressed how important it was to get the things done that needed to be done and I could only leave if I called around to the other workers and found someone to come in and cover for me while I was gone. I took off my name tag slammed it on the counter and walked out. I never went back for any reason. For any who might wonder; my dad came out fine was in the hospital for a few days.
HOW ABOUT I JUST BE A MIND READER?
I worked for a newspaper for most of a week. I was expected to use my own laptop and software, no IT and I'd have to share logins and passwords with 3 other people and guess when they would need them.
I SEE YOU SHADY! DON'T TRY ME!
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Found out that the educational assistance they touted in their advertisement applied only to full time employees and that they both defined full time as no fewer than 40 hours and kept anyone who would apply for that assistance from ever being qualified for it. None of this was advertised and the people I interviewed with assured me, a college student, that working 21 hours a week would get me the benefits. Too bad I read my contract before signing it and called them out. Don't lie to your employees, especially during an interview on something that can be easily and swiftly disproven. If you're willing to lie to me about this, what else are you willing to lie to me about?
(I did their training before being offered my contract, so I count it as having worked there, btw.)
IT'S JUST FOOD! NOBODY'S CURING CANCER WITH AN APPETIZER!
Many years ago I was managing a fast food restaurant for a local franchise. Shortly before lunch, one of my employees got a phone call that their grandmother had been taken to the hospital with a possible heart attack. They lived with their grandmother, from what I understood their parents were not in the picture.
I told him to go to the hospital and I would find coverage. About 15 minutes later my district manager showed up and asked why I was short handed. (Fast food restaurants run on razor thin margins, so one missing body is easily noticed). I told him what happened and that employee was on his way to the hospital. His response was "What is he going to do, save her? He's not a doctor, we have a business to run."
That was the last straw for me with that company. It was part of a larger pattern of that attitude, and I refused to treat employees like that. I gave my notice shortly after and moved to a better job.
ZERO PERCENT OF ZERO IS.... 0? NO THANKS.
I was interviewing for a contract position at a very small game development company, and they told me they were looking for someone to help finish up an existing project.
Literally, the game looked like it was made in MS Paint. As if they had just hired some random guy off the street and asked them to make some art for them. Granted it's a mobile game and sold for the standard 0.99, so maybe that's not the worst, but the game itself doesn't look engaging at all either. But I figure, worst comes to worst I could make some money on the side with some low-effort work.
Then they told me that my pay would be a percentage of the sales. Noped right out of that one.
MAYBE WE SHOULD ALL BE HEALTH INSPECTORS?!
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Worked in a bakery, it was my first day so I get there in the morning to meet everyone. Then they have me grease up baking trays for the others to fill... I lift up the first tray and like 10-15 cockroaches just scatter everywhere from under the tray. I tell the guy showing me the work that there were cockroaches and he just shrugged... This was all in the backstore, customers were about 10 feet away.
So i tell the guy that I'm not feeling too well after about an hour of doing that and i head to the bathroom.
When I came out I told him I couldn't do that job and he told me to get a real job then, so I left and got myself a proper job.
WELL THAT IS SOME INTERESTING ATTIRE.
I had an interview at what I thought was a regular steakhouse in a new town I had just moved to. The interview went well, it was just before the restaurant opened so it was pretty empty. At the end, a waitress starting her shift walked by in chaps and a thong. Turns out that was their uniform. The manager called like 30 mins later saying I got the job. I had to politely decline that one ????
DON'T MESS WITH MY COIN!
Graphic design from home job. Nailed the interview - had absolute confidence I could provide this dude what he was asking for.
Got the job, and the first thing he said was to take a rather large check that would be mailed to me and buy my equipment. It was supposed to be from a special vendor that was to engrave the laptop and provide software. It was a scam. I looked up his business on Google, rather than through the link he sent me. I found the exact same shitty website with dozens of different CEOs.
Told him to not send me a check and that I was not longer interested. The check was going to be fake, and the money I would be sending to the vendor would end up being my own once the bank found out.
IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE....
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Cold calling people about injury claims. "Have you been injured in the past 3 years?" That kind of thing.
The thing that really irked me was that all of the people I called in those 20 minutes were polite, said they're not interested, and they were just sitting down for dinner. I realized it was a horrible job and I was in no way cut out for it. I left after 20 minutes and just walked out the door without a word.
JUST RUN!
I was unemployed for a couple months, and started applying for pretty much any job I could do. This one was a basic small-biz IT support contractor. The employee the interviewer introduced to me mouthed "run" when he turned his back.
THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!
This Quarter you guys have really achieved a lot for the company and surpassed our expectations...Just a reminder, we will be having to lay some more people off soon...
Peace out, I'll find something else before you make me leave
THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING!
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I went to my orientation at a boot factory. They're government contracted and so pay minimum wage, so I figured I'd work there awhile and look for something better.
After we do the usual paperwork signing and such, we're taken as a group onto the factory floor for a tour. It's hot, it's crowded, it stinks, and everyone working looks annoyed by our presence... Okay, i guess not everyone loves their job right? No biggie, I'm sure this won't be so bad.
Then our guide informs us in no uncertain terms that our coworkers quite often give new people bad information to get them in trouble or make them mess up. They'd even be the ones to rat you out. Then we're told that our foreman is the type to yell for no reason, ask people if they're drunk in an accusatory way for no reason, and is generally a giant fool.
I took a few moments to think after these last revelations, said "Nah." And walked out of the building without a word to anyone. Forget that crap, Captain. I'm not putting up with all of that for 8 bucks and some change an hour.
UMMM... OH HELL NO FELICIA!
When I was 16 I had an interview at a local pizza place in a not so good part of town. I was hired and as I was walking out 2 guys came in and robbed the place. The manager gave them the money in the register and they ran out. I looked at him and he said "You get used to it". I never went back.
- People Who Love Their Jobs Describe What They Do - George Takei ›
- People Share Their Craziest 'Everyone Quit In Unison' Experiences - George Takei ›
- People Explain Which Job They Quit The Fastest - George Takei ›
- People Who Quit Their Job On The First Day Describe Their Experiences - George Takei ›
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
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"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
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What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
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Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...