People Break Down The Fastest They Ever Quit A Job
Reddit user thedamned234 asked: 'What’s the fastest you ever quit a job and why?'
Anyone who has held more than one job in their work histories can agree that some jobs are better suited for us than others.
But some jobs have turned out to be such a bad match, people have quit at an impressively fast rate.
Redditor thed**ned234 asked:
"What's the fastest you ever quit a job and why?"
Not Meant for Telemarketing
"It took me about two hours in telemarketing to realize what an a**hole I felt like, and then I left."
- Bumpa**
Not What They Signed Up For
"I was hired by a temp agency to file documents in a Paint Factory office, but when I showed up, I was put on the assembly line with zero training or instruction and the cans came down the conveyor belt at 10,000 miles per hour."
"I don't even know what I was supposed to do. I just let each can whiz by. I quit at the end of the first day."
- JamesKPolk130
Saw an Opportunity
"At one of those quick-lube oil change places when I was about 18, they had me down in the pit (under the vehicles) draining the oil, and I kept getting burned by hot oil and by hot exhaust pipes."
"On the second day, I said I had to use the bathroom, and when I walked around to the side of the building, I took off running and didn't come back."
- _Shape-Shifter
Not Wasting Their Time
"15 minutes."
"I applied for and accepted a job that was advertised as solely data entry, evening shifts. I got there, did the quick intro and meet-and-greet thing, and was handed a mobile phone."
"The supervisor goes, 'It's actually a cold-calling role. No one would apply if we said that, so we tell people it's data entry.'"
"I went, 'Sorry, what?'"
"He said, 'Yeah, we cold-call people for this idea my friend has, asking for investors! You'll get a commission if you do well!'"
"At that point in time, I was a salty, snarky young lady, so I told him to shove it, that this was probably illegal in so many, many, ways, I applied for data entry job and not cold calling and swindling people, etc etc."
"I called my dad to come pick me up and never looked back. I took a legit data entry offer the next day."
"So. Yeah. Uh... 15 minutes. Found out many years later that dude and the friend with the great idea both got done on some serious fraud charges shortly after my run-in with them."
- silvanmorte
Immediately No
"In college, I got a summer job at SeaRay boats through a temp agency. I showed up first-thing, and they had me sit in the break room, which was on the second floor, overlooking the entire plant."
"I waited an hour for someone to come to get me and heard a commotion. I looked out and three or four people were running out, because a dude cut off his middle and ring fingers with a Sawzall. The dude behind him had his fingers in a towel."
"At the time, I wasn’t what you might call tool handy. So I noped right the f**k out."
- tech405
A Negative Amount of Time at the Job
"I quit 15 minutes before I got there."
"I had a weird feeling about the job and how vague the hiring manager was being."
"Halfway through the drive on my first day, I put the clues together, and it dawned on me that it was some traveling door-to-door sales s**t. The kind where they pack you in a van and drive you to some neighborhood to sell coupon books or whatever."
- Suougibma
Strike Three
"I'm a vet tech. I quit a clinic after about three weeks when the doctor told me to start reusing needles. He wanted me to pull up a vaccine, administer it, and then pull the next vaccine up into the same syringe with the same needle and repeat."
"That was the final straw."
"The first straw was finding out that we (it was a small practice with two other techs and one receptionist) were required to bring our own toilet paper to work."
- xonacrackr
A Whole New Level of Cross-Contamination
"Sandwich shop. The health inspector showed up. They found mop cleaning solution in the tub they were keeping the utensils they used to make sandwiches with (get meatballs out for subs, spread tuna on sandwiches, etc)."
"That explained the very odd, burning chemical smell from that area. The mop cleaner was mixing with the meatballs and sauce and just cooking all day in that pot."
"The owner argued that it was safe to use it that way. The health inspector made him dump it out in front of them."
"The second they left, he filled it back up and put all the utensils back in it."
- cheyonreddit
The Scapegoat
"Six weeks. I got blamed for another delivery driver leaving the tank close to empty and not parked where it needed to be."
"I was like, 'Huh?'"
"Then a week after I left, they found out it was another driver and they were fired right after."
- BoosterRead78
No Time Off
"I worked at 24-Hour Fitness when I was 17. I wanted to go skiing for a week and was told no it was impossible to schedule."
"So I just walked out. The manager was fuming and yelling about marking me as a no rehire or some bulls**t."
"I found a job at an LA Fitness center down the street that paid more after my ski trip. Good times."
- 89fruits89
Not in the Job Description
"I worked at Party City and was closing. Someone s**t in the bathrooms but not in the toilets. It was on the floor, the walls, the stall doors, in the sinks, in the SOAP DISPENSERS… and for an added effect, they had smashed the dispense button a few times. Vile."
"I was NOT on bathroom duty that evening but for whatever reason, my Manager told me to clean it up."
"H**l to the no. I told her I wasn’t cleaning that biohazard and that my 7.25 an hour wasn’t worth it. PLUS there was no way in h**l I could clean all of that up in the 30 minutes before I had to clock out (or get written up for being over)."
"My manager, the living embodiment of Shrek, said she’d write me up for failing to complete my closing checklist (again, I wasn’t on bathrooms that evening)."
"So, in my best judgment, I went and clocked out and left. Never came back. I was scheduled to open the next morning but nope."
"My General Manager sent me an email confirming my termination and said, 'You’ll always be welcome back, should you choose to come in.'"
- Kili-Starlight
The Coworkers' Advice
"First day. I got out of the Marines and got a job doing hardwood floors for 10 dollars per hour."
"They didn't tell me I had the job and then called me and asked where I was. I used a whole tank of gas driving from job to job."
"The first thing the boss asked me was, 'Are you messed up from the war?' (Of course I am)."
"Every employee told me how much they hate the job and to run. I finished the day and quit."
- Irondaddy_29
A Pyramid Scheme
"I had an interview that was unlike any other interview I’ve ever had. It was a room full of other applicants and the 'interviewer.'"
"The interviewer was telling us about the job, asked if anyone had any questions, and then said we were all hired."
"I didn’t fill any paperwork out thank goodness. After he said we were all hired, half the people including myself walked out."
"The job was to go door to door selling knives, and we would have to pay $2k for our demo set of knives. Nope! No thanks!"
- bzsbal
Just Not a Match
"I was a dishwasher and I lasted one shift."
"I was 19. The owner/chef was a nice guy but I knew this wasn’t the job for me maybe one hour into my shift."
"I finished the shift, told him I wasn’t coming back, and asked for $40 cash to call it even. He obliged. He even gave me a bowl of risotto."
- PewdyDewdy
More Self-Respect Than That
"I was a waitress and I didn't even last out the shift."
"I had a job and it was my day off. An acquaintance begged me to help out waitressing for the night because his work was really short-staffed. I was traveling and staying in a backpacker's, so I didn't really have the right gear and had to pull something together really last minute."
"I got there and the manager gave me a hard time about my black pants and gave me a bit of a dressing down in front of the rest of the staff about my lack of professionalism because my pants were men's suit pants."
"I started work feeling pretty down and then the penny dropped. This guy isn't my boss, I'm only helping them out of a jam. I took my apron off and walked out without saying anything to anyone. Best feeling ever."
- sometimessnowing
We've likely all had at least one job that we didn't enjoy or that we didn't feel like was a good fit for us, but so many of us tried to stick it out, either waiting for something better to come along or sticking around for the paycheck.
These stories of people walking out with more self-respect than the job showed were almost cathartic in a way!
I've always dreamed about exiting a crappy job.
I want to do it Angela Bassett 'Waiting to Exhale' style.
There is nothing worse than being undervalued when you know you've given 110%.
But so many bosses and corporations just don't care.
This is why so many places in shock over the loss of personnel thanks to the pandemic.
People refuse to be treated like crap.
Hopefully, a lesson can be learned from this.
Treat people like people, and they'll work hard.
Otherwise, they'll leave... and they all may leave at once.
Redditor PegBundysBonBons wanted to hear about any job mass exodus people have been involved in. So they asked ex-employees:
"What happened at your work which caused multiple people to all quit at once?"
I once worked at a restaurant where one night the entire back of the house staff just peaced out.
Needless to say, the rest of the shift did not go very smoothly.
Whoops
"They decided after 6 years it was time to do a drug test. Even lost the CEO in that great idea."
Korvokare
No Show
"The boss went off on a tirade on me for something that wasn’t my fault and I got him to scream 'people like you are expendable pieces in this company and I can replace you tomorrow if I wanted to.'"
"80% of the engineers quit the next day. Simply didn’t show up. Including me."
"From what I know, the entire project folded because my now ex boss couldn’t find people to replace us because no one wanted to do the kind of work he was looking for at the salary he was paying."
richardkim_nyc
Hours Down
"I had worked at a grocery store for about 3 years before moving from Courtesy Clerk (basically bagger + custodian) to Helper Clerk (stocker). The grocery department wanted to save costs on personnel, but couldn't fire anyone or lay anyone off due to the union."
"So they started cutting back hours and literally told us 'when someone quits, everyone else will get more hours.'"
"We were supposed to be 40-hour employees and they had us at 32 hours. 2 people quit and we were down to 24 hours. A third person quit, down to 16 hours. I don't know what their plan was, but they didn't give us more hours as people left."
skribsbb
Bye Felicia...
"Word slipped out that the whole accounting department was being replaced so they all resigned all at once."
Armyofducks94
"My mom's company did that. Decided to outsource all the accounting staff, then was surprised that all the accountants quit, even the ones they wanted to keep on to help transition the books. She was one of the ones they asked to stay, and she refused lol."
Mechfan666
Deep Cuts
"We just had a company wide (except the Directors of course) pay cut of 20% AND a 4 day work week instead of 5. Everyone one including myself are currently looking for work and they will lose their work force oh so quickly."
DkChauncy
Don't mess with people's $$$!!
Liars
"Promised a bonus at the end of the year. Told everyone they will not be giving out bonuses due to the low company performance."
"Company had a successful year. (Boss was in the middle of building a multi million dollar home, brother in law manager just bought a nice home that year)."
"I quit on the spot. Many others quit soon after."
mariobeans
You're canceled!!
"Canceled all raises and bonuses for everyone except the CEO, his wife (financial and HR), and his son (utterly useless IT) in a year where we have record profits and brought in almost double the clients on top of announcing they aren't looking to hire more people when we were already overwhelmed."
"Good part about it was when the majority of us quit they lost almost every single client shortly afterwards to their competitors and the company is now defunct."
CaptainJudaism
Seattle
"We stopped providing free coffee, and we're so cheap that we sold our coffee maker. This was in Seattle, so a couple of people bought their own coffee makers to put in their cubes. That tripped the breakers several times so it was very disruptive since our computers would shut down. Management then said no coffee allowed in the office at all. We lost four very good engineers."
has-space
Revamp...
"Tattoo shop owner (who lived in another state) hired some a-hole to come ‘revamp’ the shop. I had been managing for three years at this point, and he just expected me to teach him how to do my job so he could replace me."
"That guy had no clue how to run a shop. Plus the owner had been embezzling money for her drug habit and had blamed the longest-standing artist at the shop for lost revenue."
"Accused him of stealing. I did the books. No one was stealing. She was nuts."
"Anyway, all the artists and I mutinied and left at the same time. F**ked them over good. With that idiot at the helm the shop didn’t last a year after we all left."
ScumBunny
Gross Behavior
"They laid off half the company with no warning. This included a gentleman who was less than a year from retirement and had been there for 35+ years. The company was shocked when half the remaining people abandoned ship shortly thereafter."
Aloretta_Dethly
Some of these companies will never learn.
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
People Who Quit Their Job On The First Day Describe Their Experiences
I’m not going to lie: working is hard. And I probably didn’t need to lie. We all know this is true.
But I don’t just mean the act of working is hard. I mean the concept of working is hard.
There are some jobs that are a joy. I currently work at a job where the office is beautiful, my managers are understanding, my co-workers are friendly, and my actual daily tasks are enjoyable. There are also some jobs that aren’t as much of a joy, but they help you pay the bills and put food on your table, and they’re not so terrible that you can’t endure it (read: my previous job).
However, there are some jobs that are so ridiculous, or even downright harmful, that you know on your very first day, you can’t ever go back. So you quit on the spot.
We know how tough the job market is and how, sometimes, it takes months for a person to find a job. For a person to quit on their first day, the situation they were put in has to be unbearable.
Curious just how unbearable, Redditor redmambo_no6 asked:
"People who quit their jobs on the first day, what was your “I’m outta here” moment?"
As Fast As You Can
"When I was 20 or so I got hired to be a temporary floor member for Forever21 during the holiday season."
"My training started a week before Black Friday so the store was already kind of in chaos. On my first day of training, I walked in and the floor manager gave all the new hires a tour showing us the facility and layout of the store. After this I was assigned to a veteran floor member to shadow and get an idea of what my job was and what my duties would be. As soon as I was assigned the manager dipped never to be seen again."
"An hour and a half into my shift my shadowee got an emergency family call and had to take off for a week. When this happened I found some other floor manager and explained the situation and asked them who else I should shadow. The manager's response was “just do what you can by yourself you’ll be fine, everyone else is busy.” Figured we’ll ok I’ll try…"
"I don’t know if any of you have shopped in the women’s section of forever21 but during seasonal sales they will have multiple articles of clothing that all look almost exactly the same but with slight differences (ex. A white cardigan with 4 buttons that looked literally the same as a white cardigan with 5 buttons). The best part was these different items were often placed in completely separate parts of the store and it was the job of the dressing room to return the unpurchased items to the correct section so the employees could put them back on the shelves. Well, these employees sucked and I didn’t know if they were a part of my section or not so I’d spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find where they go before realizing “wait this isn’t even my section I’ve checked literally every rack” so I’d put it back on the sorting rack and move to the next item. More than 50% of the stuff I was told to reshelve wasn’t my section. I just did as best as I could and got ready for my next miserable day."
"The next day I come in and the store manager pulls me to her office and tells me how slow I was the day before and if I want to keep working here I need to be very fast. I explained my lack of training and unfamiliarity with the store and she told me if I didn’t know where the clothes were in sections I should come in my free time and memorize where stuff was at. I spent the rest of my shift putting clothes in random places then never came back for a third shift."
"F*ck that place and their management."
– ZacharyRS94
Everything Is On Sale!
"I used to work at a craft store as a cashier, but quit when I moved. Ended up going back a couple years later to make some extra cash, but this time in the framing department. During the interview they swore up and down I would only ever be a backup cashier because I said I refused to have full cashier shifts. First shift after interview is listed as framing, but I’m put on cash and told that actually most of my shifts would be cash since they’d found someone else for framing. I spent the next six hours giving everyone who came to my register 20% off of everything and then never went back."
– Katy-L-Wood
"A hero to us all."
– themajorfall
Vermin Infested
"It was a rather popular cafe chain in my country. I was hired to work in the kitchen as a cook along with another, senior cook."
"Let's put aside the fact that I had zero cooking knowledge whatsoever, the senior cook was leaving the kitchen every five minutes to smoke. So there I am, alone in the kitchen, orders are printing FAST, and I'm standing there not sure what to do first, and the waitress comes over yelling at me to cook stuff I don't have any business cooking, definitely not on my own."
"Later on the senior cook told me they had at least two rats running around the kitchen. Showed me they pooped on a plate."
"I never came back and I'm glad the place got shut down."
– zackit
No Hospital For You
"My first ever job."
"I was thirteen and I would be delivering phone books from the back of a van through peoples letterboxes."
"So I'd be in the back of the van with the phone books and there was an older guy driving slowly while I went back and forth to the van/houses with the books."
"At one point the van was getting quite empty so there was more space to move around and we had finished the delivery in the street we were paid to deliver to and he drove to another."
"While driving there he drove lets say aggressively and I fell inside the back where the books were. I wasn't sitting in a seat as the van had no seats in the back. As I put my hand out to steady myself I accidentally laid it across a portable radio that had its antenna extended but the antenna was also broken half-way and razer sharp."
"It sliced the palm of my hand clean open 3-4 inches. I can only describe what I saw as gruesome. I said to him to pull the van over and I needed help. He saw my hand and just threw me a plastic bag, the kind you'd get at a supermarket and told me to wrap my hand in it."
"Then .. he continued with the deliveries, at-least he delivered the remaining books himself."
"I should have been taken to a hospital or at-least home to my parents. I quit after that and never showed up again. As you can imagine my parents were quite angry at him."
– i_mormon_stuff
2.5 Minutes
"On the first day of working at Amazon warehouse the managers broke down to Everyone how a 15 minute break works there. Walking to the break room is 2 1/2 minutes. 10 minutes of actual break and then 2 1/2 minutes to go back to your stations. It took me 2 1/2 minutes to walk to my car and I took a forever break."
– teamfaysal
"Also you have 3 minutes to use the bathroom but the nearest bathroom is a 5 minute walk away"
– bravestbats
Illegal Paycheck
"I answered an ad for a baby sitting job. I was already working on a casual basis but it was sporadic so I thought some after hours baby sitting would be welcome extra cash. The couple were both in the military and proceeded to tell me that I would be staying in the spare room and looking after their 6 mth old child around the clock as well as doing the housework. I would have one day off every two weeks. They said it is cash in hand so I could sign onto the dole (unemployment benifit) to make up the rest of the money. I left on the spot. They wanted a live in housemaid and nanny not a baby sitter and they were not able to pay for one. Why they thought it was up to me to illegally collect the dole to subsidise them I don't know."
– battleangelred
Locked In!
"I took a holiday job at Toys R Us. I was scheduled “until close” for my first shift. I asked when “close” was and they said, “oh we’ll come get you when we’re done.” Ok. Cool. Lock my personal belongings in the locker (including cell phone) and get on the floor. So I’m reshelving Blues Clues toys, Bratz Dolls, Hot Wheels, bike helmets... really getting tons done. And it’s like... I’m getting A LOT done. And my feet hurt. And I’m tired and hungry and woah super tired. So I sneak off for a bathroom break and to check my phone. And the staff door is locked. Weird. But then some dude in a flannel shirt comes over and had a key. Great, thanks mister! I unlock my locker and see my cell phone... 13 missed calls from my mom demanding to know where I was and oh yeah it’s 1:46 AM. WTF? The store had been closed for almost THREE HOURS and oops! Management forgot to come tell me “we’re closing.” Couldn’t get out the front doors because they were locked. So I had to exit the store through the truck loading dock, where the man with the flannel shirt was working to unload the new toys for the crew to set out in the morning. Yup done with that place after that."
– DogNamedLucy
Health Comes First
"I have Type 1 Diabetes."
"Was working at a Wendy's. The manager didn't believe me when I told them my blood sugar was low and that I needed to get a sugary drink from the drink machine to get my blood sugar up because "I'm too skinny to be diabetic." They thought I was a slacker."
"Bye."
– AnimZero
Us And Only Us
"I technically quit before my first day. I got hired at a well known gift store. I was hired with the understanding that I would work Saturdays, Sundays , and a grand total of 8 hours a week (so two 4 hour shifts). Also at minimum wage. Not a problem with me, done that before, I would just pick up a part time job for rest of the week. Nope, apparently that wasn't allowed. The manager thought that was a horrible thing and "disrespectful" to her. I should only work for them and only them and I should have better control over my money if I can't survive on $64 a week before taxes..... Yeah, didn't show up cause f--- that noise. She called pissed off that I wouldn't show up to such an opportunity."
– Hall5885
I Want My Money!
"applied for a job at my longtime favorite restaurant (celebrated my birthday there every year)."
"Owner asks me to come in for basically a try out, as I communicated I was looking at other job possibilities. I come in and they just stick me on dishwashing for an hour, no biggie. Then their dishwasher doesn't show up, so the kitchen manager asks me to stay one for their lunch rush, saying I'll get paid for the hours. I do, the kitchen staff was nice so I was happy to help out even though I figured I'd be taking a different job. I fill out a time card at the end of the shift and tell the manager I probably wouldn't be back, he understands and thanks me for the help."
"Fast forward a couple of weeks and he tells me to email the owner after I ask him if I should pick up my measly paycheck. I do, she basically tells me to f*** off over text. Tells me it was "staging" and that she told me I wouldn't be paid, I respond that I understand that but that I stayed an extra 3 hours which I WAS told I'd be paid for. She stops responding, I decide I want to be petty over the 40 bucks so I get the statw labor department involved, dude goes in there and makes her pay me for the hours including the first "staging" hour. Couple of weeks later I got my 40 bucks, never went back to that restaurant."
"Firstly, "petty" is not how I see it two years later. I'm VERY glad I did this and sharing the story with others in my city I learned this practice was very common with local restaurants. Hopefully, others learned to stand up for their labor too from my small experience."
"Secondly, this restaurant closed down a couple of weeks after I got that paycheck. The owner made a long-winded complaint on the FB page about how the food culture had "changed" in the city and her restaurant didn't fit in anymore (total BS, they were ALWAYS popular. Most people theorized the terrible mismanagement and employee abuse had caught up to her)."
– sleepdyhollow
No Sale
"‘Salesman’ for Kirby vacuums. First sale call was to a single elderly woman who was supporting her son in hospital (they got us in the door by offering a free carpet clean as a demonstration). The supervisor training me pushed and pushed to make the sale until this old woman was in tears. Just as she was about to sign the paperwork I asked if she actually wanted to vacuum and she said it was lovely but she couldn’t afford it. I took the paperwork away from her and said not to worry. Outside I told the supervisor I quit to which he replied I would’ve been fired anyway. No love lost. I hung around for half an hour playing on my phone to make sure the supervisor left because he was a real piece of work."
– Pokestralian
Yeah, these situations would make me quit on the spot too. I’ve never been more thankful to have the job I do!