Pay attention to the red flags. That is a motto in life we'd all be wise to abide by.
It's not just referring to relationships between people.
Heed the red flags everywhere. Especially when it comes to work and career. If a situation feels off, it's off.
You know from the second you enter a new job or a new location whether or not it's a fit.
If your gut is telling you to run after the first shift, then that means you probably should've hightailed it out of there on your lunch break.
Bad first days are generally a sign of things to come. I've had them.
Redditor Mr__Roomba wanted to hear about all of the rough "I'm new here!" stories. They asked:
What's the worst "first day" you've had in a job?
I was hired at an upscale, famous sushi restaurant in NYC. On my first day of training I was pushed down the stairs. Then told... "Hey. you gotta keep up!"
"No you better run before I get up from this floor!"
Closed
Season 3 Episode 22 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"When I arrived on the first day, there was an eviction notice on the door and a cop looking for the business owners. Bullets dodged, that day!" ~ Upper-Job5130
The Pizza Shop
"True story. I got mugged on my first night as a pizza delivery guy. It was my second delivery of the night. I parked the car, and had to walk a little bit to get to the apartment building. During that walk, two guys came up, hit me in the head several times, shoved me down, and took the money bag and the pizza and ran."
"I went back to the pizza shop and quit on the spot. The pizza shop owners sent me to the emergency room to get checked out, they paid for the bill, they made sure I got home safe and sound. So they were great." ~ whomp1970
At the Buffet
"My first job was at a new buffet in a small town when I was 14. They mass hired everyone that showed up to the interview. I was supposed to be a dish washer but when I got there for training they handed me a ladder and told me to install the dry wall ceiling tiles in the kitchen."
"I, obviously, had no idea what I was doing and had a tile fall on my back, which caused me to slip off the ladder and fall on the ground. The owner was upset that a 14 year old kid couldn't do the non-dishwashing task correctly and chewed me out and sent me home and to never come back."
"I had to pester them for months to get my ~$6.50 for the hour I was there. Shockingly, they went under in just a few months." ~ DrGingeyy
Hangin' at the Queen...
"Dairy Queen queen I was 17. The layout was such that I had to repeatedly walk past the grill where the floor was so covered in grease that it was like trying to walk across oiled ice...super dangerous because if you slipped, you were likely to hit the grill. I got yelled at for mentioning that the floor needed to be cleaned (I even offered to do it but was told no)."
"I was scheduled for an 8 hour shift, so by law, I got a 20 minute unpaid lunch break, which I was made to take about 45 minutes into my shift. I got yelled at for asking if I could please take my break closer to the middle of my shift. I was left alone as the only cashier and ice cream preparer, even though I hadn't even been told what everything on the menu was yet, let alone how to make it."
"I kept getting yelled at for not knowing when I went to the back (past the slip-n-slide of death) to ask for help. About 3 hours in, I was absolutely certain this would be a horrible place to work, so I told the owner that it was dangerous there, I was being yelled at by the manager for not knowing how to make things I had never even heard of."
"And the job was a bad fit for me so I was quitting and leaving. He told me it was unacceptable that I wasn't giving two weeks notice and yelled at me about it until I cried. It's been over 20 years, and I've never set foot in a Dairy Queen again."
~ Leelluu
Whoops!
homer simpson button GIFGiphy"I work at a gas station and I accidentally hit the button that emergency stops all the gas pumps my first day lmao." ~ rieixee
How are you still hiring people when you can't pay your bills? Good Lord. And don't push buttons.
Charlie Ann's
broadway baking GIF by Waitress The MusicalGiphy"My MIL was buying a restaurant and asked me to go work there for a day and take a look see. She gives me the name, I look it up, then show up at 6 am."
"The ladies working seemed a bit confused but they let me in and put me to work. Two hours later, one of them comes to me and says "We think you're supposed to be at the OTHER Charlie Ann's" There were two unrelated restaurants five miles apart with the same name. Later she tried to hire me, lol." ~ damasu950
Lord of the Flies...
"I was a supervisor in a technical support department for "professional" support, but was one day unceremoniously moved to "personal" support. (The former was expensive and for IT and experienced clients. The latter for regular home users.) When I arrived in my new department, they were short 3 supervisors, so I was assigned all 3 teams, and the place was like Lord of the Flies."
"I was given a printout of schedules and names, with no way to find the people. I started tracking them down to find that nearly 1/3 of them had left the company, but previous supervisors didn't notify HR/payroll, there were no files on what people were trained on, nothing."
"End of the day my new boss asked how things were, and I told him people needed to be fired. He laughed, and said, "We're understaffed already." I replied, "No, I mean the other supervisors who aren't doing any job I can identify, and you for letting it get like this." Things with him were a bit touchy after that." ~ SurlyJason
Oh Kyle...
"I called a construction company about a job listing. The owner told me to show up Monday morning to his shop. When I showed up at the address, there was a sticky note that said something like "Kyle, I'm contacting the police, you have to pay your back rent NOW." I opted to leave but called the guy's number again out of curiosity. It was disconnected. Definitely felt like a bullet dodged lol." ~ apocalypticradish
Keep the broom...
"Not my first day but my second. I had just hired on at a steel fabrication plant. My boss gave me a broom and told me to keep the sidewalks clean, keep my head up, watch what everyone is doing and stay out of their freaking way. Its dangerous working with this heavy steel and we don't want you to get hurt your first week out here. It was about 7am."
"Around 8am a stack of steel fell over trapping another employee and I had to hear him scream bloody murder for about 3hrs while they worked to get the steel beams off of him. He lived. It crushed his pelvis, I worked there for 2 years, he never was able to come back to work." ~ housebird350
Switch Back
Breaking Despicable Me GIF by RegalGiphy"I recently switched careers and now work at a bank. Pressed the silent alarm accidentally almost immediately, didn't even realize it was there & no one thought to tell me. Whoops!" ~ keanusmommy
There are always other jobs out there. Make sure your mental health comes first. Remember... red flags. A first day will tell you everything.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.