"I quit!"
Pretty much everyone who has ever had to work a single day in their life has wanted to utter this phrase, or shout it at the top of their lungs for their coworkers, bosses, and the whole world to hear.
We almost never go through with it, though. Having a job, even one you hate, is simply a necessary evil. Sure, we may leave eventually when a better prospect comes along, but very few of us get to rage quit in the middle of a workday.
The people in these stories did almost exactly that, making them the heroes of the working class. Hopefully, they found a much better job soon after they quit.
45. No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
I busted my butt keeping the office running and looked the other way when I came across all the empty bottles in my boss's office (total partier). One day, he told me he wanted to take me out to lunch. I thought, "Oh, that's nice! A free meal at a fancy restaurant!"
As soon as we sat down, he started to rattle off every single thing I'd done that he didn't like. He ended by saying I was a terrible employee. I gave him my notice right then and walked out of the restaurant. And I didn't even get my free lunch.
44. Can't Answer Nature's Call Here
I quit after working for four hours at a sushi restaurant. I asked where the bathroom was and was told, "We don't really get bathroom breaks." I left right then and never came back. The manager said he understood and wasn't mad at all.
43. 7 Chances
I got hired at K-mart to work in sporting goods. I was told to wear the traditional black pants and red polo.
Day 1: "Sorry, we can't train you for sporting goods today, we need you to help unload trucks."
It's summer in South Carolina. It's 100 degrees and 80% humidity. I'm wearing black pants and a thick polo. No change of clothes.
End of day: "Sorry about today. We'll start training you tomorrow. Come to work in uniform again."
It was the same thing for 6 days. On the 7th day, I came in on my day off to quit.
If I wasn't dumb and 17 I probably would have just wised up and brought a change of clothes. I didn't mind unloading the truck, although the sweat-drenched clothes weren't ideal. The real reason I quit was the obvious lack of planning and management.
42. Wrong, Wrong, And Wrong
Worked retail at a mall in college for a couple of years. When I was just a lowly peasant, the manager was great to work for. Once I became a key-holder, things changed. The manager would make rash decisions that would then be blamed on everyone but her...
The last straw was when the evening shift didn't change out some signage. I got in the next morning having no idea there was new signage to put out. The manager came in and berated me about the signage not being updated. I walked in the back, dropped my keys off, told her I quit, and went to walk out. She grabbed me and told me I need to give a written notice and fax it to corporate.
"To whom it may concern: I hereby terminate my employment effective immediately due to manager's inability to properly treat staff."
I faxed it and walked out. She read it after I had already sent it and chased me out berating me more, claiming I would never get another retail job in this mall... Three weeks later I started at another store in that mall and always made it a point to smile and wave at her when I saw her.
41. Here To Care, Not Hurt
My job got a VIP contract to vaccinate a bunch of elite clients. They rushed, they brought on some extra nurses, barely vetted them, and began. Virtually no breaks, and piles of paperwork. They didn’t finish ordering and setting up the computers and there was only one computer to chart on like >100 patients a day. Not all the nurses got their clearance for the computer yet either.
The scariest part was I had to stop someone from reusing a needle that she didn't realize she had used on a previous patient. She told me she only primed it (pushed the air out) but I told her without alarming the patient that it was not “suitable.”
I told her to go away and cleaned up her area, vaccinated the patient and never went back. I was already sick of them only thinking about the bottom line.
40. That's Where The Money Went
I was working at a company for only a few months when things started to get bad. I had direct deposit set up and I was away on vacation when payday came around. My paycheck didn't drop in my bank account. Okay, interesting. I texted a co-worker and the boss said that the new assistant forgot to "approve it."
This happened for the next three pay periods. I had to go to my boss every payday to try and get her to cut my check. Some days she would leave early and tell us she totally forgot. That following Monday, she came in and was showing off a new car she bought over the weekend. Right there I told her I would not be coming back into work and I would like my final pay.
39. Excused Absence Unexcused
I asked a month in advance for time off on a Friday. I was approved. The fateful Friday came around and everybody I worked with (four of us) were also approved for time off (we all had the same event to attend). The manager called me the night before and told me that I needed to come in. I told him I had already made the plans and that I was approved months ago with emails to prove it. He responded by telling me if I didn't show I'd be fired. I just never went back.
38. Broken Word
The HR dude called me on Friday at 6 PM: "Hey, I'm really sorry, the insurance company won't cover you until you're an employee for 60 days."
Me: "That's... a shame. Since you promised that you'd cover me and my children right away, that you'd arrange the 60 days so it wouldn't apply to me, and I told you that was a condition for me accepting this job. Also, my son's surgery is literally on Monday, in two days."
And he was shocked, shocked, that I quit the next week, just totally livid that I only gave a week's notice.
37. Two, One, None
I got hired in a custom fabrication shop as one of their two welders. The boss promised to have me learn a bit of everything (machining, water jet, design) but barely even had me do any welding, on top of being a massive jerk to everyone. Talked crap about us to customers while we were working right next to him. Got hired at a different company Thursday evening, other welder quit Friday morning, I quit Friday at lunch. Felt real good leaving them up poo creek.
36. Not Paid To Be On-Call
I was the IT department for a small company. A few times I would go to the owners' houses and work on their computers there (setup VPNs back to the office, etc).
It didn't take long for that to morph into: "Come over tonight, my teenage daughter has an essay due and the printer isn't working," or, "Little Johnny got his computer loaded with viruses again. Come fix it." I didn't get paid extra for the house calls.
When I finally said "screw it, I quit," they wouldn't accept my resignation (as though they had a choice) so I wrote a bridge burning letter detailing why I was leaving. Me complaining about the house calls was the only part of the letter that they took issue with.
35. No Dinner, No Manager For You
I used to work nights as a cashier at a deli/convenience store. Pretty chill job. The day manager quit, so my boss asked me to switch and handle the manager's responsibilities. I said sure, but asked for a pay raise. He assured me it would only be for a week, so I agreed to do it as a favor. For a few days, I would work 6 AM to 4 PM during the week and 6 AM to 11:30 p.m. during the weekends.
Well, that week turned into a month. I went back into his office to discuss a pay raise and he asked to take me out to dinner to discuss it. I said no and informed him he had another week to find someone. The week goes by and it's Friday. I go up to him and ask him to either give me a raise or some sort of bonus for all that I've done. He asks about dinner again and I say no. He then says no to the raise or bonus.
So I told him I quit. He can show up tomorrow and Sunday 6 AM to 11:30 PM because I won't be there. I'm telling this to the man who doesn't know how to open the register.
He comes up to me 10 minutes later, opens his wallet, and pulls out a $100 bill and gives it to me as my "bonus." I take it, put it in my purse and say, "Thank you! I'm still quitting though." The look on his face was amazing. An hour later, I paid myself for the week and left.
34. One Stupid Night Too Many
I used to work at a restaurant as a server. Our manager was wildly incompetent. She was spiteful and stupid, a deadly combination.
I was poor, and only had a raggedy pair of the non-slip shoes you’re supposed to wear in food service. I sometimes wouldn't wear them because they were literally falling apart. But the manager made a big stink about me not wearing the correct shoes. I explained they were on their last leg, and that even though my other shoes were technically not regulation, they fit the criteria. She threatened to fire me unless I wore the raggedy pair, so I caved.
One Saturday night, we were packed to the gills. Halfway into this nightmare shift, as I was carrying a sampler and a tray of drinks to a table, the sole ripped from the bottom of my crappy shoe and I slipped, spilling the whole sampler on the table. I freaked out and apologize to the customers, explaining that I’d comp their food as soon as I could find the manager.
Guess who went home with that almighty card you need to void checks or discount them? I call her. She’s at home -- 15 minutes away, and she refuses to come back to help me. I told her not to bother, berated her for going home with the card for the 10,000th time, screamed about the shoes, and told her to die in a fire. Then I left and never went back.
33. Principle Of The Thing
I got skipped on a guaranteed bonus even though I fell well within the requirements. It wasn't a ton of money, but I felt slighted. It felt like they owned me.
Little did they know my clients had been scouting me as an employee, so I already had jobs lined up with better pay. I quit and took the job with my client, effectively killing the contract renewal with my old company. My boss pleaded with me to stay, and offered an even higher salary. I told him, "If I was worth that before I quit, how come you didn't offer it to me then? I'm quitting on principle, not for the money. This job offer existed BEFORE your slight."
They still get excited when I call for a referral thinking I'm coming back. Nope, sorry.
32. One After Another
I was five minutes late and was chewed out because of this, but they were so keen to forget that I filled in for them the previous day because someone quit on the spot. I too quit on the spot.
31. Not Worth It At All
I once worked as an air quality monitor. We would primarily get involved with sewage contractors. One day, we were on a job, and there are these huge cylindrical "digestion" tanks with tons and tons of human poo inside of them. They were each around 30 feet tall.
One of the contractors had to perform work on the roof of one of these tanks. I was to be harnessed and standing beside the guy, monitoring for any concerns. There were worries that the roof would collapse, and even though I was harnessed, I would literally fall into a huge pile of bubbling poo. I said, "Screw this, I quit."
Jeffrey Parkinson/Hurlburt Field
30. The Order That Broke The Cook's Back
I worked at a family friend's bar as the kitchen manager. It wasn’t very big and usually it wasn’t overly packed. But on the day in question, I was on my sixth week straight with no days off and no paid overtime because both our chefs had been fired.
I was closing and the kitchen closed, which shut down a few hours before the bar did. The kitchen had been closed for over 40 minutes when I heard the printer spit out an order. I went out to the bartender and asked what that was about.
“Ahhh," said the bartender, "he’s a regular and I didn’t think you would mind.” Furious, I go turn everything on and start his order. After about two minutes of cooking, I realize this is madness.
I walked straight inside to the manager and simply said, “I’m done.” He goes, “What do you mean you’re done.” I repeat, “I’m done,” turn around and walk out the back and get in my car. He comes running up and was like really? “Yeah, I’m out of here, this isn’t worth it.” And I drove home.
29. Leaving Over Newbie Pay Rates
I was working 70-hour weeks alongside two other people at a video game gig in California.
The other two people quit because of the work hours. I was working 90 hours a week for several months to keep things going. I was told there was a hiring freeze, which was why they couldn't backfill my two coworkers.
Eventually, they moved two junior people in under me, and gave me a promotion on paper only (no raise) to manage them.
I quit when I found out that each of them was making $20,000 more than I was.
28. My Personality Is Just Fine
Manager wouldn't give me a 20 minute break despite having worked the past 13 hours with no break. Her superior swore at me when I asked to take the time, so I called her a naughty word and walked out. I was 23 and they said, "Good luck finding a new job with that personality." Well, I already had one and I got a new one real quick.
27. This Turtle Is Going Home
I worked at a steakhouse for two years. We were a busy restaurant, but we were short-staffed after corporate cut down on the number of employees. In their opinion, we could do less with more.
I always had a partner with me when I was dishwashing, but after the cutbacks it was a solo mission. One day, the dishes piled up so high and there was nothing I could do because the dish machine was broken and I was by myself.
My boss asked me, "What the heck is going on back here, kid? Why are you being such a turtle?"
I waited until my boss finished his cussing rampage and went back into his office. I took my apron off and put it on the dish counter. Then I walked out of that place and never went back.
26. Knowing Exactly How Much I'm Valued
The last straw was being told that after a year and a half of doing everything for the company (I was the admin assistant, organized all the sales and purchasing, did all of their accounting, and everything in between) I was a piece of crap and I wasn’t worth my pay, and that the girl they just hired was worth more than me.
I resigned that day and never looked back.
25. Sabotaged And Gone
I worked as a lead machinist for a shop. When a supervisor position opened up, they hired a 20-something kid, the son of the general manager's friend. The general manager constantly covered up his incompetence. The kid knew next to nothing about machining, but was given the job of writing the code, doing set-ups, etc. I often spent more of my time rewriting the code and fixing his sloppy than getting any production done.
One day, the kid substituted a smaller drill on a lathe and offset the location from center to drill a hole, rather than use the proper drill size. This was a time-critical job, and he had failed to pre-order the right tools. But rather than admit he had screwed up and go get the right drill from a local supplier real quick, just kludged it, knowing that he would never be blamed. He then left for the day, knowing that it was going to fail. The drill blew right on schedule, and the general manager started screaming at me, as usual.
The look on his face when I just calmly told him where to go and started packing up my tools was priceless.
24. Too Many Closing Nights
I became a sales lead at a pretty popular store for young adults and teens. Despite it being directly against company rules, I was then forced by the store manager to close every single night of the week so the she could get off early to be with her kid. Company policy said that no manager could close more than two nights in a row.
I did it for a month and a half and peaced out the moment I got a job offer that offered 36-45 hours a week with a regular schedule and days off.
23. Chicken Cooking And Safety
I worked at a big retail grocery store, in the deli with the rotisserie-cooked chickens.
If the food is below a certain temperature, we have to take it off and prep it for the "frozen" stuff. If it's past a LOWER threshold, it is no longer food-safe and is garbage. Also, the deli part closed at 9 PM, and all food was to be taken out at that point and either cut for the pre-wraps, or thrown out.
Anyway, it's about 15 minutes to 9. I check the temperatures, and all of them are below the threshold, so as per my training, I prep the ones still safe for pre-wrap, and throw out the one that was too cold. Now it's around 8:50-ish, and the store manager comes by and demands to know why there aren't any chickens out. I tell him I just finished doing a temp check and they were below the threshold, so I took them off. He asks why I didn't make any to replace it, even though it's a 15+ minute cook time, and we CLOSED in 15 minutes.
He threatened to write me up for not having any chicken. I didn't show up the next shift.
22. When I Should Have, When I Did
Worked behind a bar in a pub. Should have quit the night a guy threw a punch at the heavily pregnant landlady and it descended into a massive fight, but the police couldn't be called because it was a lock-in (illegally serving after hours). Instead, I quit the night the bosses decided not to bother turning up for their shift but sent a friend instead, who just wanted to go to bed at the end of the evening and hurried me through clearing up. I got an irate call from the landlord the next day about a broken glass in a part of the pub I knew I'd left spotless.
21. A Drink Too Far
I got my first job as a cashier at a trashy convenience store next to a shady bar. I had to deal with smokers having breakdowns because I didn’t have their brand, annoying gambling addicts clogging up the line at peak hours to validate and re-buy 20+ tickets a day, and partiers coming in and eating things before paying. In general, I was also expected to stay 45 minutes after my shift to sort recycled bottles.
One day, when I was about three months in, I was kept FIVE extra hours without prior notice because a coworker had an accident and my manager didn't want to call someone else in. So I finished in the middle of the night and was set to start again at 5 AM on Saturday. I was just about to finish my soul-sucking shift when a kid threw up on the floor. I just didn’t bother to show up the next day.
20. Bruised Under The Table
HR wouldn't deal with a woman who started to hit me at work. It was a call center, and this one woman just took issue with me because I had social anxiety and would kick me under our workstation. My leg was bruised pretty badly. HR did nothing and didn't take me seriously. They thought I was being "emotional." I walked out and was told never to come back.
19. Quit That Hot Mess
I worked at a fast food place while I was in high school. It was absolutely terrible. Every summer the air condition would go out and it was hellish working in that cramped kitchen in between a 400°F fryer and grill. The cooks in the kitchen made at most $8.50 an hour while the car hops averaged around $18 an hour after tips. One day, in the middle of my shift, I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to come work with him detailing cars starting at $10 an hour. I asked him if I could start tomorrow and he said yes. I immediately went to the manager and said screw this, I quit.
18. Sorry, Managers Only!
The company promised a retreat in Banff because we hit our sales targets. Two weeks before the trip, they said it had been cancelled, with no plans to pay us out for the pooled bonus that would have gone toward that trip. On the weekend of the trip, a manager posts a photo of her and other managers in Banff. But, oh no, it wasn't work related! They said it was for a manager's birthday. I couldn't work for those thieves a moment longer.
17. No More Deli In Town
I got yelled at for something I forgot to do. I can't remember what it was, but it was a very minor thing. Excuse me for being the sole reason why this department is still open -- working 10-13 hour days, not getting help during rushes, and being cast off to the side. I was the only person working in a deli at a grocery store in a town of 1,500 people. After the yelling, I just walked out. The deli was closed for at least a few months after I quit. I clocked out about 15 minutes into my shift with no one else who knew how to work in the deli.
16. Called In, Walked Off
I got called in on my day off. The boss yelled at me over the phone: "Why aren't you here?" I told her because I wasn't scheduled that day. Looking at the schedule and seeing that I was correct, she nonetheless continued screaming at me: "Well, I need someone in here!"
I let her know that I would come help her out, but that I lived 15 minutes away. I left immediately and was steps away from entering the front door 10 minutes later when my cellphone rang.
Boss: "You [bleeping] idiot! Where the [bleep] are you?!"
I walked in with the phone still stuck to the side of my face, looked her dead in the eye and said, "Not here. Not ever again." And I walked right back out.
15. Safety Over Employment
I used to be a food microbiologist. I was asked to change positive Listeria results to negative. Listeria can cause spontaneous miscarriage during pregnancy, it's not a nice bacteria. I refused, and quit on the spot.
14. I Already Asked, I'm Gone
When I was in school, I got a summer job working in a factory that made car windshields. My job was to wipe them down with hexane while my co-worker applied a material to the outside of the glass.
I wore gloves when dealing with the hexane, but after a few days, I started getting hives on my body and having nosebleeds. I asked my boss if I could switch workstations because I was having issues. He refused and said it must be the dry air in the factory.
I ended up passing out in the cafeteria at lunch. When I came to, I gave them crap. They offered to let me work somewhere else but I told them to screw off, I was leaving.
13. Common Call Center Complaint
I worked in an outgoing call centre for one day and one hour. The job was ringing up small business owners trying to get them to do a survey. I spent several hours being told (understandably) to screw off. If you weren't dialling a new number as soon as you'd ended a call, the management were on your back. In our opening script, we told them the survey was 10-15 minutes. The one time I got someone to do it, he was asking how long was left at about 20-25 mins. It was miserable. The second day, I came in, spent and hour being told to screw off (justified), then just stood up and walked out.
12. School Over Work
I worked at a tool shop in high school, specifically my senior year. The one I worked for is known for their tent sales. The tent sale weekend happened to line up with my high school graduation. If you call in during a tent sale/don't work, it was automatic termination. They wanted me to skip my high school graduation so I quit instead.
11. Taking The Time Off One Way Or Another
I was told I’d get time off the weekend before 4th of July. Manager makes a last-minute schedule change the day of and tells me it’s mandatory to come in. After arguing about how I’d told them two months ahead of time, I told her I wouldn’t come in ever again and to bite me. Then I hung up the phone.
10. No Help Where Help Was Needed
I was still in high school and I was working my first job at a fast food place. I was about a year into my employment, doing a Sunday shift.
The place was packed. There were roughly 10 people working, most of them cleaning for a big inspection that coming up. There were another four people in the front, one person on drive-through, and the other three just standing around, socializing. I was the only one making the orders. I had a dozen orders, all ridiculously huge and detailed. Panicking, I called for help multiple times. No one came.
The manager knew I was struggling and never once sent someone to help or came to lend a hand herself. Not too long into this, I took off my hat, walked up to the group of employees laughing and talking in the front, and calmly told them I was quitting. Everyone just looked at me shocked as I walked out of the store, never to return.
9. Work Smarter Or Quit
Day one at a BBQ restaurant. They gave me 50 lbs of potatoes to peel, so I grabbed a bucket, flipped it over, sat down and got to work. Five minutes later, the boss said I had to stand, though it had literally zero effect on the outcome. She was just a bully. Deuces, boss!
8. Out Of The Freezer, Out Of The Job
I'm an electrician, but I used to work at a meat factory. They took butchered meat and processed it into consumer and commercial products.
The maintenance manager was a complete jerk. I was unjamming equipment, repairing the leaking roof and snaking drains filled with rotting meat -- not electrician's work. After about eight months of this, the maintenance manager told me I would be installing racking in the blast freezer (-25c) -- alone. After three days of working in alternately -25 and +30 as I moved racking in and out, he came into the lunch room and told me that I was "taking too long and should have this done by the end of the day."
I lost it on him and quit on the spot.
U.S. Department Of Agriculture/Flickr
7. Out Of Pay, Out Of Work
Years ago, I worked in a restaurant around Christmastime. This place was supposed to function with four waitresses, a busboy, a dishwasher, the manager, and two cooks.
Only the manager and I showed up. He did the cooking, I took orders, served, bussed tables, washed dishes, and so on.
During this nightmare shift, I accidentally dropped two bread plates and they broke. The manager then said to me: "I'll have to take those out of your pay." I told him that was funny, thinking he was joking. He wasn't. "This isn't amateur night," he said. "I may as well do this job by myself the way you're doing it." That was the very last straw.
I grabbed a stack of dinner plates, threw them on the floor, and said, "Take those out of my pay too." Then I walked out to leave him with the whole mess.
6. Bring Your Daughter To Work
I worked for a preschool for a short while, and the great thing was that I was allowed to bring my toddler with me. She was a little younger than most of the kids, but no big deal. She sat for story time, got to learn her letters and colors early, and generally did what the other kids did. The older kids loved her and pretty much made her the class mascot.
Unfortunately, my supervising teacher had a problem with me bringing her. Not that I was focusing only on my child, or that she was a distraction. It was just that bringing a child to a workplace, any workplace, was against her principles. She'd insinuate that I was a bad mom for working in the first place, and that I was neglectful for exposing my daughter to my place of employment, which, again, was a preschool.
Finally, after she had had a particularly rough day, she went off on me for what a terrible mother I was and how I should have my child taken from me. She told me she'd be calling CPS, and insisted that I was fired (she didn't have that authority). I simply handed her my keys, told her to never contact me again, and walked out. I called the director that afternoon, filled her in, and thanked her for the opportunity. The supervising teacher got fired the next day.
5. Shady And Way Too Shady
I worked in a small factory bakery. To keep the bread warm, they had a big metal box with two old electric frying pans in it.
One of them exploded. When we looked behind it, there was water all over the floor with the two old frayed extension cords, both soaking wet.
The boss turned to me. "Walk over and unplug those cords," he said.
"The wires could still be live," I said, not wanting to die. "Turn off the power to the building."
"Did you hear what I just said?" the boss demanded. "Just do it or you don't have a job."
I just laughed, walked out, and went home.
Wikimedia
4. Walking Away From Waterboarding
In my first retail job, they started introducing a “punishment” system for when teams didn’t make their sales targets.
One day, a manager posted a video of himself throwing a bucket of water over an employee who didn’t make his target, purely so everyone else could laugh at him. This poor employee had worked there for 10 years. He was a stockroom guy, so he wouldn’t even be on the floor to make the targets set for his team, since all targets for every employee were sales-based (and you would get punished even if you weren’t in sales!).
He had taken off his shoes and placed them to the side so they didn’t get wet, and he did this because he had to get two buses to and from work every day.
That was my official “screw this” moment. I quit after that.
Pexels
3. Student Abuse
I was hired for a college to run an office where students got hands-on work in the field. When I discovered that they were ripping off students' hours, I started providing students copies of their hours and telling them to keep a notebook with the copies for their records.
See, the students were on a contract that said if they didn’t graduate by the date estimated for completion, students were required to pay $200 for every additional week it took. They also asked me to falsify reports of student absences to suspend them even though I had documented proof the student was in class. I decided to leave that job, but not before telling students to report them to the state board and providing statements for the lawyer who the students hired to present their case.
Pixabay
2. Have To Pay What A Person Is Worth
I was lead prep cook for one of the priciest restaurants in town, in the richest part of the whole city.
I ran the entire prep department -- from ordering and deliveries with merchants to training new prep cooks and keeping things moving smoothly.
But I was being paid less than their new dishwashers. I quit the very next morning. Took my food processor that we were using (because the restaurant's broke and they were too cheap to replace it) and left them high and dry on Father's Day weekend.
Pixabay
1. Resigned To Quit
I put in my resignation (after five years there), and on my very last day, they wanted me to train the lead tech on everything I did. I had already done this twice before. At that time, I was making minimum wage, and she was making at least $13/hour so I said no. I was told by the director, "Is this really how you want to leave? It's very unprofessional and I'm disappointed in you." I cry easily, and this was like the third or fourth time they'd made me cry in a year. So I went and packed up my stuff, left my badge, and went home. I started at 10 and was out by like 11:30. It was just the final straw of a screwed up year-and-a-half of stress, hate, and anxiety.
Pixabay
