I once thought I might sell steak knives. The orientation was five hours. For steak knives. I wanted to stab myself with my product.
Negative Much?
Bored Season 3 GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Three of four people who interviewed me spent the entire time talking about how bad the company was and why I really don't want the job. The fourth was the CEO. His story was different. I didn't take the job."
IAmDotorg
I still felt terrible...
"I tried getting a job as a telemarketer once. The interviewer had me go into another room and call her, and she would pretend to be a person I'm trying to get money from. I started into the script, and she said, 'Oh, but I'm just a poor college student with no money!' Even though I knew she was just pretending, I still felt terrible. I knew that I could never do that work in real life. I told her that my coming there was a bad idea and I had to leave."
CapnFang
The Resume
"Back when I was unemployed long term, I was applying for roles anywhere I could find really. Got an interview for a retail position, not great but better than nothing. First interview is a group one, I get through that fine. Second interview is with the manager of the store. He spends like 10 minutes telling me how sh*t my resume is."
godzillastailor
Pants on Fire
"The amount of lies discovered during the interview itself. They tell you one thing online and in emails, only to see something different when you show up and go through the interview. If there was already that much lying and falsehoods seen during the interview, no telling how much worse it actually can be. Could understand why the person left."
Lostarchitorture
Pass
Bye Bye Goodbye GIF by Mickey MouseGiphy"They called me back for a… 5th interview… after that I had enough and told them it was getting a bit much and I’ll take a pass."
kyle71473
Seriously. How many interviews do you really need? Nothing is changing from meeting to meeting.
Smarter than the Average Turnip...
epic fail falling GIFGiphy"When she started explaining that my 'role' in handling payments would involve depositing 'client payments' into my own personal account before transferring it to 'the company'. I may be a dumba**, but I didn't fall off the turnip-truck yesterday."
asstyrant
Excuse me, what?
"Asked me if I would be willing to take a three month deferment while under a 'Probationary' period. If after 3 months, they didn't like me, they'd let me go and give me a check for $0.10 on the dollar for every dollar/hr worked. If they kept me, I'd get a check for all my hours, plus a bonus of $500 for office supplies, but I could only buy out of their selected catalogue. I almost laughed in her face."
FreeSpeechMatter1776
Always trust your gut...
"After 2 panel interviews, was invited for a lunch with the team - I pretty much knew I had the job, the offer was just a formality by that point. Went to a random buffet restaurant at a forgettable hotel miles from the job site (which was really odd). Carpooled with the team and it was a very weird vibe during the ride and getting to the table - everyone was walking on eggshells around the manager, laughing too loudly at her jokes etc."
"As soon as we sat down, the manager went up to get her food, and the rest of the team stayed at the table - when her phone started ringing (she'd left it on the table), they were panicking to be the first one to get it before the 2nd ring. They were so deferential (almost comically so), and so worried about what might happen if the manager got upset, I just couldn't see myself working there. I turned down the offer when it did come in the next day. Saw the job advertised again a few months later, wasn't surprised. Always trust your gut."
bassgirl23
20%
"This was a grad school interview, so slightly different, but still fully convinced me to divert my focus to other programs and interviews completely. I was asked to prepare a five minute presentation that I would give via zoom at the start of the interview."
"About a minute into the presentation, the interviewer got up and walked away from her laptop before returning about a minute later. She missed 20% of my presentation. I kept giving my presentation because there was also a student representative on the call, but the faculty interviewer neither apologized nor acknowledged leaving during my presentation."
"If I am not worth five minutes of your attention as a prospective student, then your program is not worth my tens of thousands of dollars. Lucky for me, I was accepted into my first choice program that same day."
JimboSliceCAVA
Sorry 3rd Lady...
Nicki Minaj No GIFGiphy"I was told the person I would be supporting as an Executive Assistant was on his third wife, he has 6 kids and that I should include the wife in certain decisions so that she doesn't feel insecure (being the 3rd wife and all). Ain't nobody got time for 3rd wife insecurity drama."
SSOJ16
3x times a charm...
"I remember making it to the third interview round for this organisation only for them to tell me that I don't have the particular background in the sector that they're looking for. This is after a general recruitment test, a case study assignment and two interviews. Needless to say, it was super frustrating."
PM_ME_YOUR___ISSUES
"taster session"
"It wasn't an interview but a 'taster session' where I had to work there for 3 hours then make my decision. A lot of the hardware didn't work, the guy training me was away and had to train me over a video call so whenever anything went wrong I was fucked and he would loudly sigh every time I needed something explaining. Because how dare someone need something explained to them on their first job."
TheNameless00
"no excuses"
"I interviewed at a "no excuses" charter school. They gave a scenario where a student comes in to class and doesn't have his homework done. He says it's because he spent the previous night in the ER because his brother was shot. School policy is that unfinished homework is a mandatory detention. I could not, in good conscience, answer that question the way they wanted."
fxcassell
Game Time
"Stupid interview games. The d**kheads put me at a low table with a low chair, placed water in a carafe with an empty glass - all just out of reach so that I'd have to stand and reach for it, and then interviewed me as a panel of six employees sitting at a tall table with tall chairs."
"The questions were all more about my character than my skills. The whole thing was so obviously staged to make me feel uncomfortable. An interview is a conversation, not an interrogation. Treat it like an interrogation, and I'm freaking out. It's a clear sign of a toxic workplace - I've yet to see an exception to this rule."
fargmania
2 of us...
job interviews GIFGiphy"It was a low paying retail job, but I’ve been interviewed at the same time as someone else. The issue I had with this is that it pits two people against each other and it becomes incredibly awkward. I was interviewing against a woman who had lost her job and was talking about supporting her kids."
"I felt like I had to make a stronger case saying that I didn’t know how I’d afford college without the job. If an interviewer doesn’t have time for 2 separate interviews then just walk out because things will only get worse."
Future_Classic_
Someone better...
"After the job interview they said they will call me in one week. A month has passed and I still didn't get a call so I decided to call them myself. They said 'oh yea.. we remember you.. yea.. Um sorry about that we completely forgot to call you back. We already found someone (better).' Turns out That that someone then turned the job down and so they contacted me again to see if I was still interested after two months. I said 'No thanks. I already got a job.'"
Redittoranian
It was a full time job...
"I went to interview for an entry level marketing position in the film industry. Two hours in the boss slipped in that I wouldn't be paid for the first few months while they trained me. It was a full time job. He also wanted me to start immediately that day using my personal laptop. I made up an excuse and left shortly after."
thecylonstrikesback
1997
"This was during a phone screen rather than an interview. Time frame was 1997, during the height of the .com boom. I'm a programmer. The screener told me that they were a 'fast-paced company' and I asked for some clarification on what exactly that meant. After some evasive answers, I asked more directly what kind of hours people worked and found out that many people were working 60+ hours a week. I politely declined."
"The company did have an IPO in early 1999 that could have been lucrative for me, but I had an 18 month old daughter and another on the way - I was changing jobs to be able to spend more time with them, not less. I feel very good about that decision."
stevedonie
It's a Cult
Dance Flowers GIF by A24Giphy"Wasn't the interview per se, but I caught a glimpse of a whiteboard in HR that had a bullet point list that seemed to be things to talk about to convince people to join the company, and one of the items was, 'Not a cult.'"
poe_todd
Damn You John!
"My brother once had an interview for a cooking position at a local restaurant. He walked in and immediately ran into a female employee who was crying and yelling 'F**k you John!' John was the guy who interviewed him."
Arcinbiblo12
Again... just get up and run.
There will be other opportunities.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
One of the worst places where double standards are constant is in the hospitality industry.
Take my time...
email GIFGiphy"My principal taking days to read and reply to my emails, if ever, VS me being told at 8 in the morning that I should have known something because he sent me an email at 10 in the evening the night before."
- mljb81
"bend"
"Politicians who come up with dumb to asinine laws, and vigorously enforce them upon all of the regular citizens, but somehow find ways to exempt themselves from being subject to the same obligations to keep and follow them, as we are."
"Easy. Big corporations and the rich, using legal bribing through lobbying to "bend" the rules in their favor more and more as time passes."
Bullies
"Defending yourself. The fact that someone can punished for defending themselves when no one else would, in my experience worse, is bullsh*t to me. Example a former bullied kid that punched back and got screwed."
"In my case, I got beaten up, didn't retaliate at all. Bully had rich parents who supported the school. So I was the one who got in trouble as I allegedly swore and instigated it, meaning him beating the crap out of me was apparently self-defense."
Speed Racer
"Speed limit laws bother me the most on this. You're telling me, on a road on which there are no cyclists or pedestrians, that I have to drive 25mph, but the mayor can drive 40mph to a press conference that he's late to and abuse the privilege of a police escort. See: NYC Vision Zero.
"They also use this law to increase red light cameras. For further context: in NYC a yellow light means "slam your brakes now"/"stop now" more than it does "slow down"/prepare to stop as it does in other parts of the country. Meanwhile a counter study (I will try to find he source later) showed that increasing the length of a yellow light by something absurd like one or two seconds would decrease the amount of red light violations significantly more effectively because people would have adequate time to stop while still allowing for a flow of traffic."
"Obviously, it's all a money grab. Meanwhile the mayor regularly is caught on camera flaunting this traffic regulation when he finds it inconvenient. It's infuriating. NYC has enough congestion as it is, so knee-capping people when they can finally move is just insulting."
Finding the Best
Job GIFGiphy"Entry level jobs" that require experience."
- Arctinii
"They think it weeds out the ones with no experience, but it just gives them candidates who are prepared to exaggerate or lie."
How does one acquire experience without being given a chance to earn it? Quite the conundrum.
Check the Clock
Seth Meyers Time GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphy"Your boss getting angry if you're a couple minutes late but then expects you to have no problem regularly staying on 2+ hours after your shift is meant to end."
People Describe Their Best Chance Encounters | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Are chance encounters really serendipitous or is it part of some grand master plan? While we may never have an answer for why we come to meet certain people ...Liars
"To borrow from Matt Haig: people being ok with mental illness until someone shows symptoms of one."
"100%. People like to talk about being cool with it, act all understanding, and then get super hostile if someone with untreated mental illness shows up. They don't mind it when they can't see it, but can't handle it when they actually see it in action."
All out Assault
"Customers being able to verbally and sometimes physically assault workers while the worker just has to stand there and take it or they'll be fired."
- lydiaj02
Nurse here. Almost every single one of my colleagues has been physically assaulted at some point in their career. We are often discouraged by upper management not to press charges or contact the police. We're also often asked what we could have done differently."
- tbaymama
In my Mouth
"Why is dental insurance different from "health insurance" aren't teeth part of my overall health wth!!"
- talwen69
"The dentist lobby game is strong. They've pushed for decades to not be considered part of the health industry and they've banked because of it. Sure I understand it's a specialty, but my teeth are attached to my skull."
The Bad Dipper
"My boss dipping out on a Thursday afternoon to go get messed up at the golf course, but I ask for one Friday off every few months and he's like AAHHH CMON MAN I NEED YOU TO BE A TEAM PLAYER!!"
Just Wait
"I have to be exactly on time for an appointment or risk a fine and no appointment. Yet a doctor can make you wait hours sometimes without even a "thank you for waiting" or "sorry about the wait." ~ cutiegirl88
"I can't stand that. Then, they only spend maybe five minutes with you tops. I have asked to do video or phone check ups, and was given a big no, but it's not like they even look at you these days. Why can't we do that on vid chat?" ~ Rightfoot27
Against the Norms
"Some people I know who are strongly against gender norms told me that I shouldn't have a say in my wedding since I'm a man… and that my fiancé alone makes the decisions It was pretty freaking confusing." ~ vajapocalypse
"This sounds a lot like my husband and me. I've always been a planner and my husband is very laid back, but we planned everything together. People always say it's the bride's day, but that's such BS. Our wedding was done on a low budget, but it was themed to Star Trek vs Star Wars and in a planetarium. So it really felt like we were planning a costume party more than anything lol." ~ Tiki108
Swipe Never
"The tinder attitude of "impress me," and "I have standards," "Be funny," "Don't be boring." "Meanwhile person is boring." ~ solvent_causis04
"All. The damned. Time. There's also "I just want someone to travel with and get lost on trips with." Yeah, I wish I had a lot of money too. Oh wait, you don't have a job?" ~ OPossumHamburger
Lawless
Donald Trump Water GIF by Election 2016Giphy"Politicians being able to openly violate the law and nobody does anything." ~ TheGrandExquisitor
The Star Effect
"Star student athletes are nearly untouchable. If they make the school look good the school will almost never take action against them." ~ HonoraryCanadian
"As evidenced by the fact that at my college, several of the football "stars" would literally just park wherever they wanted and never get towed/ticketed. I'm not talking about things like parking in the faculty lot, or where you don't have a pass. I'm talking things like parking on the sidewalk in front of the student union, after driving over a curb and 20ft of grass to get there." ~ ender4171
Calling HR
"How it's perfectly okay for a potential employer to ask your salary expectations even before an interview, but a candidate asking what the job pays is somehow a red flag for HR and a big no-no. Like, if all the employer cares about is what I will cost them (before learning anything else about me), then I should be able to freaking ask too. But no, I'm branded as only caring about money. And you don't you corporate prick?" ~ CrieDeCoeur
For the children...
"When company's say they are family friendly but don't want you to work from home or help with child care." ~ Pewcachan
"Mine's championing "work-life balance for everyone in the country" while also dragging us back into the office for no freaking reason. Working from home saves me an entire work day worth of commute each week. Leave me be!" ~ obscureferences
Plastics
"Consumers are expected to curb the use of their plastic waste and carbon by corporations and regulatory bodies alike while Nestlé will destroy a natural habitat to make bottled water in plastic bottles and dump the waste into your grandma's urn if its affordable." ~ Aledeyis
Being Me
Confused Excuse Me GIF by GIPHY NewsGiphy"Struggled with social interactions growing up. Half of my life was people telling me not to take things so personally. The other half was being told to conduct myself a certain way so I don't upset people." ~ Cuesport77
Learn about it...
"People that say 'don't worry about what other people think, be yourself' but make judgments about people based on behavior they don't understand. If you don't understand something, ask about it. Learn about it. Talk about it to gain an understanding. I wish more value was placed on learning/understanding people's intentions vs what you see on the surface. And don't say things unless you really mean them." ~ wheresmywang710
Nows we know better. I hope. Be a better boss and a better person. So we can be a better society.
Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
One Reddit user wanted to talk to folks who've gotten to live the dream, so they asked:
What's your "Fck this, I quit!" story?
Come, let the heroes tell their tales.
Industrial Drilling
I fractured my orbital socket in an industrial drilling accident. Another employee lost focus at the wrong time was supposed to wait for a hand signal and didn't. We had been working over 90 days straight of 13-14 hour shifts and living in crappy motel a 45 min drive from out work site. We were supposed to be on a rotation were we didn't work more than 3 weeks at a time. It was a close call and could have been a lot worse. I'm glad I "saw it coming" and had time to at least try and get out of the way.
I got sent away after a night in the ER while the rest of that crew continued to work. After spending 2 or 3 days at home the boss called to say that he "needed me in Alaska" in 2 days and that my flight was already booked. Told him I quit right on the spot.
Plot Twist
Was getting screamed at in a meeting by some marketing jerk that was literally demanding my technical group perform magic on a completely unrealistic time schedule with almost no resources. Literally screaming at me in front of about 8 of my peers, calling me incompetent, "just do your job"....all of that.
I stood up, said I refuse to be talked to like that, and left the meeting. Normally if you just get up and leave these types of meetings, you're fired. Boss scheduled a meeting with me later in the afternoon after hearing about it. Figured I'd be walked out and was absolutely ready .. was told they fired the marketing guy.
That was going to be my "eff it, I quit" moment - but the company kept me on and fired the other guy. Pretty happy, it's been a solid place to work ever since.
Thanks, Mom
GiphyMy mom had an 'I quit' moment so she could see me. I was studying overseas and my parents booked a trip to come out at the end of the school term, bringing along my 2 siblings - 1 who lived away from home, the other about to start college.
It was a month long trip, with lots of pre-paid flights, trains, hotels plus it would likely be the last big trip we all took together. Obviously, both my parents requested and secured approved PTO months in advance. It was the month of June - typical summer vacation.
A couple days before the trip was to happen, my mom's boss hands her an assignment. Mom hands it back, saying she can't take it on as she has a month long vacation about to start. (My folks don't believe in hyperbole, but trip of a lifetime would be a fair description). Boss says, oh yea, sorry, you can't take vacation anymore. Mom says if you cancel my PTO, I quit. Boss, blank stare.
Mom handed in her notice and left. We had an amazing trip. She got a new job on return.
Better Than Falling Asleep At The Wheel
I was a truck driver working a regional route that required me working nights. So basically I would drive all through the night, deliver a load, sleep through the day, and take a load back to my original place the next night.
The thing is, sleeping during the day at a warehouse where yard dogs (the guys that move trailers around the lot of the warehouse with little tractor deals) were constantly moving stuff around, knocking into my truck, and often times literally waking me up to move my truck.
I was barely getting any sleep and the only time I had to ever get a good nights rest was during the weekend.
So driving to my first delivery, I told my manager I'm taking an extra day off because I'm exhausted and I have to get a few days of sleep. I was literally getting maybe 3-4 hours of solid sleep a day and energy drinks were worthless at this point. They gave me the go ahead, I dropped my delivery, slept as best as I could at the warehouse and picked up the load to take back with a message from my managers telling me to have a good weekend and rest up.
When I was about an hour and half away from my destination, after driving all night for about 8 hours reaching pure exhaustion, I get a message saying "never mind We need you to work this weekend"
Mind you, I know this stuff happens and you sometimes have to pick up the slack of other employees at times. Things happen, I get it and 99% of the time I'm all for helping out other employees and my managers if they need it.
But this was about the third time this happened. I haven't had a good nights sleep in 3 weeks at this point and I kept trying to call my managers or anyone who would answer me, but it was the weekend and no one would respond to their messages or phone calls. I was literally being ignored and I just snapped.
Luckily, the demand for truckers is massive. I mean I get texts non stop asking if I'm in the market because a company needs drivers. I haven't even been in the industry for two years currently and my phone still gets blown up with calls and texts asking if I want to drive again.
So literally all I did was call one of the numbers that would contact me constantly and immediately was hired after 5 minutes of talking on the phone. Sent in a message saying I quit and good luck.
Funny enough THEN they started responding to my messages and tried calling me.
I know it was probably a dick move and I normally would never do that, but I just broke and could not take it anymore.
"Mandatory Non-Paid Vacation"
My first job... I was assigned to a specific area, and I thought I was doing my job well. One Monday, I was pulled in to the office and asked why (whatever thing it was, I don't remember) hasn't been done for the last two weeks. I replied i wasn't aware it was part of my duties. My supervisor said he was putting me on a "mandatory non-paid vacation" for two weeks. No warning, no explanation on why I all of a sudden had to do work for a different department. So I said "don't worry about it, I quit."
It was a lousy job anyway, I was only getting paid 18 hours a week but was doing more than that! Sixteen and stupid, I guess!
Forced
I worked for a group home. We had a difficult group of residents, but the company made things so much worse.
Every resident was 14-22 years old. They had moderate mental development delays (65-75 IQ range), they all had a psychiatric disorder (from severe ADHD to schizophrenia), and they had also all been convicted of a violent sexual crime.
I worked 3rd shift. My normal hours were 10:30pm to 9am. Four days a week.
About six months into working there, they did a massive layoff.
They went down to bare minimum staff to student ratio each shift, with nobody extra to call in if needed. That meant if someone called out, a person on the previous shift was forced to stay.
It got to the point, where I was being forced 3 out of 4 shifts per week. And not just a few hours. I was working 10:30 pm to around 4:30 pm the next day, and still having to come in for my following shift. I had an hour commute each way.
So I'd get home at 5:30 pm from a 16 hour shift, and have to leave the house again four hours later.
Managed that for about a month. Then one morning I was told last minute I was being forced. Told them I was done and walked out.
That month took a huge toll on my mental health. Swear it took me like a year to recover.
In Training
GiphyA little Greek Restaurant I worked at early in high school.
Got hired, and spent the first two days cleaning everything the owner and son were to lazy to clean. Years worth of old grease in the deep fryer's interior, mold in the fridges, stains in the bathrooms etc. Just fcking gross.
I asked about payday on the end of the second day and it went something like this:
"So, how does payday work here? Is it weekly, bi-weekly, what?"
"You are on training, if we like the job you do we will hire you with pay".
Confused, I ask "So you're saying that you're not going to pay me for cleaning years worth of mold, grease, and bathroom stains?"
"No, you will be paid for work once your training is done"
"Oh! Ok. F*ck this, I quit"
How Was Your Weekend
After taking a few days off work while my father was having a brain tumor removed (and still checking emails and attending conference calls from the hospital) my boss gave me a new project.
She gave me a Monday morning deadline for a project that would take 6-8 days to complete - on a Thursday afternoon. I worked 16 hours a day to get it done. When we met on Monday she asked how my weekend was: "I worked all weekend." Then she asked if I got to visit my dad in the hospital "No, I didn't get a chance because i worked all weekend."
A couple weeks later she pulled me into a meting and said "I feel like you were resentful because you had to work and I feel like I was really good when your dad was sick, maybe you're just tired. Are you tired?"
She'd also make comments when I would leave the office on time - not early, on time. "It's great that you just get up and go when your day is over, like I have to go because I have a daughter, but you don't have any kids and you still just leave at the end of the day"
um yeah, i don't live here. i don't go home and sit in a dark room counting the hours until i get to come back here. i'm also not curing cancer, nothing we do here matters to anyone outside of here. i give you 100% when i'm here, but when my day is done, it's done.
I no longer work there.
Tire-d
I worked for a big chain tire store in a very rich part of town for a while. I was overqualified for the job, but its what was hiring. One day I get a call saying another tech got fired for failing a pee test.
I get in and our lead tech comes in with a torn bicep and has to be gone for a few months.
So I'm now the most knowledgeable person in the shop, taking on a ton of extra duties and extra hours. So working 60+hrs a week as the only tech with ANY diagnostic abilities I ask for a raise/promotion. That's not what happened.
Instead, the guy that was hired on a week earlier, was an amazing tire buster but couldn't do any mechanical repair past changing an air filter, got a double promotion and a dollar per hour raise.
Put in my notice on the spot.
- xJD88x
Parents Explain Why They Regret The Name They Gave Their Child | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Bait And Switch
Got a summer job while I was in high school at a place that made fibreglass tanks. I was told I'd be doing grounds keeping and yard work. Figured I'd scored an easy gig of bombing around on a ride-on mower and whatnot.
NOPE.
The first day I show up, in a t shirt and jeans, I was told the yard equipment 'wasn't 'ready'. So they had me cut raw fibreglass for 8 hours with an exacto-knife and no ppe. Being a dumb kid who didn't know any better, I didn't immediately quit and did this for three more days. At least after the first day I'd brought my own gloves and long sleeve shirt.
On day three they were doing tank coatings. So about ten feet away from me are two dudes in full PPE. We're talking coveralls, rubber gloves, glasses, face shields, and respirators. Ten feet away from me. In a poorly ventilated room. Spraying the exterior of a tank with presumably fibreglass coating.
I only made it a few hours before having to go to the bathroom to puke. I was told to quit being a p*ssy and go back out on the floor. That's when I, fortunately, had a moment of not being a stupid kid and said "I quit" and walked home.
Both parents were mad when I told them I'd quit. Joke's on them though because a few years later that company killed two dudes. A guy asphyxiated while working inside one of the tanks and the person that tried to rescue him also ended up dying. Whole place got shut down permanently.
Google?
Joined a call center with the obvious shady pay structure. They said the calls are inbound so I thought hey that's not too bad then. Turns out the inbound calls were generated by their robocall system indirectly implying that they were google but never saying so and we were directed to use some dubious answer if someone asked 'Are you google?'
After getting yelled at and cussed out and constantly getting people who had been called many times before and were clearly irate, I just got up and left in the middle of the day.
I also complained to google that these guys were pretending to be google. And these guys were scared of getting complaints like that.
Donut Strep
Had a super s****y job at a donut shop. I was promised a raise, which I never received.
We always worked alone at the shop, so I never got to know anyone else, never got their phone numbers. Yet the non-written policy was that you would find someone to cover your shifts.
One day, I woke up and knew immediately that I had strep throat. Went to the doctor and he confirmed that it was strep, and it was really bad. Worst I have ever had it. So knowing that I was contagious for at least 2 days, and knowing that I shouldn't be around people or food, and am not even able to speak, I texted my boss.
I didn't have a shift scheduled until the next day. Told her I won't be in for at least a week because of my strep. She told me I will have to find someone to cover my shifts. I told her that's not possible because I don't have anyone's number, I can't speak, and in all honesty was in so much pain I just wanted to pass out. She told me that if I cannot find someone to cover, I will have to come in. And if I don't come in I won't have a job. I replied with "cool, guess I don't have a job then"
I returned my gear 2 weeks later once I had recovered. Never spoke again
- [reddit]
Denial
Office Space GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphyKinda long, sorry. I was a manager at a company where the executives were ineffective. I worked 60 hours a week most of the time and had to do all of my director's duties because he didn't understand our systems. The work environment was also pretty hostile and passive aggressive.
People cried on the job daily in other departments, slightly less in mine. Managers and staff would snap at other departments the same way the executives did because of the stress. I tried to take care of my department and make sure they weren't being abused or taken advantage of.
I had three days leave for a death in the family, but had to work every day from home and the funeral itself. It was especially vexing because it was to re-do the same thing every day that my boss would just forget to complete and need done again the next day. I brought this to his attention, as well as all the other issues, and he said he would try to do better. Months went by and it got worse.
Finally, our team sat down with him and told him things needed to change. I told him that the environment was more hostile and aggressive than ever and the team agreed. He told me that was my perception and we needed an attitude change, then left for a meeting (which I had provided him the data for). I cleared out my desk and left, quit with HR.
For me the kicker is that he kept assigning me tasks and insisted that I was still working there for days. Never been more relieved to quit in my life.
Leaving For School
My old boss had been emotionally/mentally manipulative to the staff. There was a high turnover rate and it always came back to them. It came to the point where we staff members were wondering how they weren't reported (we worked at a daycare). I'd been there for 2.5 years and can honestly say it was like a roller coaster.
What got me to quit was the fact that I was being yelled and told off for things that had nothing to do with my work and had to do with another staff member. By the end of it I had enough and was getting very annoyed by the situation and decided I'll go back to school. I got accepted to a college program and gave in my 2 weeks.
I asked if I could tell the parents that I'll be leaving and they told me that it wouldn't be appropriate.
At that moment I knew that I really didn't care.
So I told the other staff this they said 'Yeh no, this won't do' and proceeded tell everyone that I was leaving for school and the parents and staff members gave me gifts. My boss, on the other hand, ignored my existence and I gave zero fcks about it :)
Nights Crying Over Physics And Algebra
I have struggled for 3 years of my high school getting academic awards and working to attend a recognition event. This semester, I found myself doing great, making A's, and getting that recognition.
Until the pandemic, which made the school discard all the scores since we're "repeating from scratch after the lockdown."
I lost hope. My restless nights crying over physics and algebra were wasted. I feel so unmotivated now and that made me say "Fck this, I quit!"
When Basic Sanitation "Wasn't Important"Â
When I was a young teenager, the only job that would hire kids under 16 was dishwashing and food-prepping at a local restaurant. I started to get irked when I realized they made their pizza sauce from scratch by sticking THEIR ENTIRE BARE ARM into the bin so they could squeeze the tomato chunks away. I had to do this several times, and got grossed out thinking about arm hair and skin cells even though I washed it. First strike.
One busy Friday night, the mostly toothless crackhead-looking chef lost the nicotine gum she had been chewing. We never found it. Could be in someone's colon to this day. Second strike.
Finally, 3 months into the job, one of the workers came over with their big tub of barbecue sauce. It was Sweet Baby Ray's in a container similar to a milk jug, a LOT of barbecue sauce. This woman, I swear on my life, sets it down in front of me and says, "I've been working here for 9 months, and I've never seen anyone wash this. So you probably should." I open it, and there's thick LAYERS of hardened, crusty barbecue coating the inside. I had to use a little tool that resembled a toothbrush, but with wire bristles, to scrape it off. The blokes had been refilling it for months without rinsing it out. Took me almost an hour to fully clean, and I got in trouble for falling behind in dishes by doing something "that wasn't important." Third strike, I was outta there.
I quit after the boss called me into his safe room to lecture me about arguing with my coworkers that it was disgusting and should've been done a long time ago.
Save The Wood, Ignore The Injury
I accepted a job for minimum wage at a sawmill.
Spent the morning there running the timber through the mill without gloves and hearing protection. Neither was offered by the company. During the half hour lunch break I couldn't get my ears to stop ringing.
Went back to work, started working again and injured my hand. I started bleeding (just a little) and got a but of blood on a piece of lumber. The boss was right there and started walking over right away.
I was explaining that I wasn't really hurt, but he walked right past my hand and examined the wood. During the afternoon break I got in my car and went home. Never got paid for that.
3 Weeks
I was working for a landscaping company and had to be there really early every day. Started on a Monday. We were supposed to get paid every week. Thursday morning was supposed to be payday; but not for me because they held the first week.
Thursday morning came around and the supervisor came out to the job site and told the other guys on the crew that they weren't going to get paid again. They complained that they hadn't been paid in 3 weeks.
Before the supervisor even finished his argument I walked over to my car and went home. Didn't even say goodbye. Got a check for that 6 weeks later.
It Changed Overnight
I had a good job with a local theater, but it went under from mismanagement so I grabbed the first job I could find - retail at a pet store. Didn't pay well, but it hired, so it was better than nothing.
I grew up on a farm, had worked retail before, I'm good with register, and I believe in giving my job my best, so I quickly became the store leader's favorite out of a sea of teenagers trying to have a fun part time job.
Worked there for two years with 0 problems. Loved my job, loved my coworkers, still didn't pay much and it was a 30min commute, but I had no other social life in the area aside from my wife, so I had no problem staying.
All of a sudden my store leader was transferred after another store's manager walked out. Normally, another manager I liked would have been promoted - but as this was unexpected he had just been promoted elsewhere, and they had to get the 3rd in command manager to become the store leader.
Third in command is someone who is hyper-dedicated to his job. Hospitals wish their doctors cared as much as this retail monkey.
Everything went from a fun and casual atmosphere to working on a chain gang over night. Everyone hated him, everyone complained, and shit rapidly escalated as we found he had a horrible temper. He wrote up an 80 year old for coming in 5 minutes late after church, broke our only store phone in a rage after someone lost the other one, broke his own watch throwing it at an employee, etc.
Somehow I avoided his wrath for months, until the old manager asked if I could transfer stores to work with him again. I told him I would think about it, but I liked my coworkers and they asked me not to go. Few days later, after I've told my new manager I probably won't take the offer, my wife drops me off at work.
I text her, telling her when to pick me up, and my new manager comes into the BREAK ROOM to yell at me for being on my phone on the clock. I apologize. Hours later I'm responding to my wife saying she'll come for me, in a back room, and he bursts in to yell at me again. Turns out he had spent the entire day following me around to make sure I didn't text again.
Told him mid-scream I would be transferring. He spent the next two weeks begging me to stay, but I stuck it out and went to the new store.
Made new friends at the new store. Got a promotion a YEAR LATER, because it turns out the d-bag manager had written me up without telling me and I couldn't get promoted for a year over it.
Pretty much all of my old coworkers have left now, and he apparently made another manager cry hysterically and quit on the spot so I'm damn glad I transferred.
The worst kind of job is one that has no regard for your health and safety. "State of emergency? You better still make it to your shift!" "In the hospital? Too bad, be here or else you're fired." Everyone deals with an unreasonable and inconsiderate boss at some point in their working career.
Redditor u/clusterpucks asked... "What is the most bonkers thing that happened to you or your work and your employer STILL expected you to continue your work day?" and people responded with ridiculous work horror stories.
20. It was like a hurricane didn't just happen
"Hurricane Katrina was going to make landfall that day, and the owner of the restaurant I was managing at the time got super pissed when I said I wasn't coming in..,
After the storm hit and devastated New Orleans, the owner was calling me because they needed people to open the restaurant. The roof had blown off of my house, and I was asking him where was I going to live while I worked for him. He said to just get a hotel, as if he was paying me enough to afford such a thing. I also think hotels were pretty well full? Not sure."
19. Designer pirates
"Worked for a small graphic design company fresh out of school. They used cracked software, didn't really pay anyone and were generally shady but I didn't really think anything of it, until the FBI showed up.
Apparently they also didn't pay their taxes and so my boss was taken away in handcuffs and the office was closed.
Or so I thought.
Our boss called our creative director from jail and told us to work from this seedy motel room he set up to finish up the assignment or else we wouldn't get paid.
Nobody showed apparently as we all decided now would be a good time to look for new opportunities."
18. It'll be there forever
"Someone spilled (or poured out) a bottle of deer attractant on the floor under the shelves in the sporting goods section of WalMart. Stank of deer piss for...well, actually, it probably still does. They never cleaned it, and we had ammo to sell."
17. Hopefully the managers let it slide
"The bank across the street from my office was robbed. Not only were we expected to keep on working, the CEO sent out an email forbidding employees to discuss it and telling managers to discipline those who did, even if the employee was on break/calling their family to tell them they were ok."
16. Maybe be nice to the person caring for your loved one
"I work home health aid. Nice old lady but the daughter is a wack job. Long story super short, I was called an imcompenent idiot because her mother had an accident IN THE BATHROOM and it got all over the floor. I was so floored I didn't say anything. So I assumed I would be sent home (24 hr overnight care), she then told me to not be mean to her mother and left the house."
15. When management doesn't care about your major accident
"Part of my job at a vitamin company was doing pick-ups and deliveries. One day when I was bringing a load of stuff back for a big run I got t-boned by a lady talking on her phone and running a red light, she scrunched my van into a telephone pole so the fire department had to cut the van apart to get me out. Once I got to the hospital and was able to make a call, I called the company to let them know what had happened. The production manager only wanted to know why it was taking so long and how soon was I going to be back and he didn't want any excuses."
14. Eyes are more important than fried chicken
"During my study I worked at a very well known fried chicken restaurant. When taking the chicken out of the fryer some frying oil came up and landed in my eye. Of course I went straight for the eye shower to clean it out. While I do this the manager walks up to me and asks if I couldn't have put the chicken on the plates and into the elevator first. I quit the next day."
13. The supervisor couldn't even pretend to care
"I was a nurse working in a dialysis clinic and got a call from my grandmother saying she didn't feel well. After doing some telephone triage, it was apparent she was having a heart attack and needed to go to the ER immediately... I left after notifying my supervisor. I hadn't even made it to my car when I got a call from the nurse manager, who verified that I had left. I told her yes, my grandmother is having a heart attack and I'm on my way to meet her at the ER. She then asked me what time I would be reporting for my shift the following day.
I quit on the spot."
12. Sales over everything
"Last year I worked in a small store at a mall and halfway through my shift a guy had a heart attack and died in the back of our store. We had to close the store so the paramedics could try to save him without people in the way. Our district manager told us it was up to my manager if she wanted to stay closed, because it's kind of traumatic to watch a guy die, and my manager said she'd discuss it with my coworker and I. Then, while my coworker was having an existential crisis in the back room, I saw her reopen the store without even talking to us and started ringing out customers on the security cameras (one of which got really pissy with me when I was trying to close the store originally, because I wouldn't open the jewelry case to let her browse our jewelry...). I left, taking my panicked coworker with me. I don't work there anymore."
11. I wouldn't ask to leave
Giphy"If there were tornado sirens, we were supposed to stay seated keep working until the boss said so."
10. A sign on the door would have sufficed
"Right after Hurricane Sandy, the bank I worked for had no power for days, so obviously we couldn't do any banking. Rather than just close, my manager insisted that the entire staff show up for shifts as usual, just so we could sit in our normal seats in our uniforms and winter jackets to tell any customers who wandered in that we didn't have power and couldn't help them with anything at all.
Just about every single person asked us some variation of 'then what the hell are you doing here?' It sucked."
9. They go to take their ties off, how thoughtful
Giphy"The air-conditioning broke down and people started passing out from the heat.
But they let us take our ties off, so that was generous."
8. I'd sneak on home then
"Federal agents with a search warrant shut down all the computers so they could image the drives.
We puttered around for hours before we finally got sent home at the regular time. However, long lunches and gym visits were permitted."
7. Who hasn't sat in a powerless/internetless office "just in case"?
"The power went out at 8 a.m., but we weren't allowed to go home. We sat around doing nothing for nearly eight hours, 'just in case' the power came on. Then our boss said if it didn't come on by 4 p.m., we could go home and the work schedule would be pushed ahead a full day. Power came on at 3:50 p.m. and we had to do our full workload."
6. Blood splatter is bad for business...
Giphy"I was working at a pet store and was used to being bitten by the pets we sold, hamsters, ferrets, birds - no big deal.
This day, however, as I was helping a woman who had brought her dog in, it attacked me. Luckily it was a small-ish/medium sized dog so it didn't get my face, but I had big bleeding holes all up and down one arm. The lady never said sorry, and my manager told me to go to the back, get cleaned up, and come back out and ring on the resister. So I did, with big blood splatters all over my yellow uniform shirt."
5. Some employers just don't listen to their employees
"I told my employer I was moving across country and that my last day was in two weeks
The day came and they called me as I was on the road asking if I was going to come in"
4. When results matter more than safety
"Automotive painting. Been complaining about my mask parts needing replacing for a few weeks. Finally my mask broke and I refused to paint because toxic fumes where coming into my mask. Being the only automotive painter.... work came to a halt. I was told to get in there and paint or else. I pointed at the security camera and asked him to say that again but a little louder. He fired 2 people that day but I wasn't one of them."
3. Don't let employees bleed in a workplace
"After leaving school I had an evening job at the cinema and I was punched by a patron, was still then expected to carry on for another 4 hours despite my bleeding everywhere
Let's just say I didn't come in for another shift after that!"
2. Do your own paperwork!
"I got a call one day from my cousin saying our house had been broken into. I went home to deal with it and file a police report, and it was honestly so stressful. My supervisor then rang me to ask what time I was planning on coming back to work later in the day because she had paperwork for me to finish."
1. Getting hit by a car wasn't a good enough excuse
"I had been in an accident where I was hit by a van when on my bike. I was on my way to the hospital and shot a quick text to my immediate boss to let him know that I might not be in the next day, as I didn't know what the damage was and how long I may be. He told me to take the day off to be sure I recovered properly.
The next day, his boss called me and asked me where the hell I was.
I told him I'd been hit by a van and he said, 'And?'
I didn't work there much longer after that."