The worst thing in the world is waking up every morning and having to give yourself a pep talk just to go to a job you dread. Whether it's having to deal with difficult patrons and clients or having to work under a demanding boss, some jobs just aren't worth the trouble! Luckily for these folks, they knew when it was time to dip. Of course, it's always a courtesy to give your employers notice when you decide to move on. However, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and say, "Forget this, I'm out!"
Content has been edited for clarity.
Thousands And Thousands Of Crickets
“I was doing a home cable installation and this particular customer had a basement I needed to go in. Absolutely had to or I would have to rewire the entire house on the outside which is trashy and the customer definitely didn’t want.
Anyway, this basement was infested with literally thousands and thousands of crickets. But they were like cave crickets or spider crickets or something. Each one was terrifying and I had never and still haven’t seen anything like them. I didn’t even know they were crickets. They were jumping and flying everywhere. They lined the walls and the ceilings and the floor. And I had to get through three rooms of them, as well as make 3 separate trips and then spend about 5 minutes trying to work on the wiring next to a hive. The basement had no lights either.
I first opened the door down there and saw them all and said forget that, but when I knew I had to do it, I came back with like 4 entire cans of hornet spray. Emptied them. Barely phased the crickets.
I hated that.”
Not The Next Starbucks
“I worked for a tiny coffee shop owned by like 9-10 people and managed by this crazy woman named Alice who thought this place would be the next Starbucks.
I was hired with the promise that I’d be working the front counter as I had experience as a barista, but they kept me in the kitchen doing anything from slicing meats to washing dishes and baking all of the cookies and muffins this place sold. I was being worked harder than anyone there and the kitchen manager was a raging hag.
One day I voiced my concerns to Alice who turned it around to say that they weren’t happy with me and they’d give me another chance and put me on a week probation.
The next day all the investors/owners were going to meet at the shop to see how the place was doing. I was supposed to bake all the cookies, muffins, slice meats and cheese for the next few days, deep clean the kitchen, prep…None of it got done. I had reached my limit so instead, I sat on my butt all afternoon and wrote a note to the owner telling her I quit and calling her out for hiring me under false pretenses, and working me too many hours without a break. I said if they didn’t mail me my last check, I’d report them to all the appropriate agencies.”
It Went From 0 To 100 Real Quick
“I worked for an international shipping company as a temp. We were hired as a team of 20 people and were told that we were hired to accommodate the busy Christmas season that was approaching.
On the first day, we were told that we have seven days of training. We come in day one and the instructor is all chill as we have ‘so much time.’
By lunch, training had been cut to five days instead of seven. The chill attitude faded a little and we begin to actually start training and move past icebreakers and that sort of crap.
It’s a few hours until we go home on our first day when a woman enters the training room and whispers to the trainer. She leaves and our instructor tells us we now have to be ready to be on the phones by TOMORROW. We all freak out as we have learned next to nothing. This woman desperately tries to get us caught up to no avail.
The next day we come in and are told we will not be given computer access and that if we need something on a computer to ask a supervisor for help and transfer your customer to them instead.
It was stressful enough, but then we were told the next day that we can no longer transfer and we have to deal with the calls ourselves…with no logins…and no training…for an international shipping company.
90% of our calls were from people concerned that their Christmas shipments were missing and people were mad for good reason.
It was revealed on day four that due to human error there was a destroy order to put on an entire section in our warehouse that resulted in thousands of people missing their shipments. The reason we were ACTUALLY hired was to accommodate the influx of calls they were expecting from angry customers.
I was then reprimanded for not being fast enough with customers (using paper and pens instead of their database). I just went out for a smoke and never came back.”
The Job Wasn’t Worth The Pay
“Yeah, I quit a $100K+ job.
Back in 2005, I was working for a company that produced healthcare conferences. All of the sales and business development responsibilities for a couple of their events were mine, and my team included a conference producer, a marketing manager and we shared some lower level employees with other groups.
The producer resigned to take another position at a different company so the CEO asked me to handle her job ‘until they could find a replacement.’ No problem, I added that role onto my already ridiculous calendar. So now I’m working with all of our sponsors, finding new ones and putting together the conference program. A month goes by and no replacement. Then the marketing guy quits. It’s the same story and I’m asked to handle his job as well. Now I’m doing the work of three fairly high-level people and still killing my sales numbers, but I’m getting worn down. Working 8-6 or so in the office, going home, eating dinner and then working to 9:00 or 10:00 most nights.
Maybe a couple weeks later we’re in a meeting with all of the company managers from the various event teams and the CEO asks why I haven’t confirmed a speaker recommended by one of our top tier sponsors. I tell him I reached out two days prior, but haven’t heard back. He freaking goes off on me about how I’m not doing the job I’m being paid for and I need to be more proactive and all this other crap. During his tirade, every manager in corporate is staring in shock because they knew how much I had been doing in addition to my job.
I don’t say a word, the meeting ends and I go back to my office where I fire up my computer and email my resignation to my VP. I told her I couldn’t give notice and it was my last day. She calls the CEO and the two of them come into my office and ask why I’m leaving and I say that I’m doing the job of three people for one salary and him yelling was the last freaking straw. He apologizes, asks me to please stay because the event is about 90 days away and they’ll be out of luck if I leave. Nope, I’m leaving. I finished packing my desk, stopped by HR to say goodbye and let them know I expect to be paid my commissions owed and I left.”
The Great Chili Fiasco
“I’ve had many ‘forget this crap, I’m outta here’ moments but one of the most memorable was working for Wendy’s back in the day. It was my first real job and I was there for a couple of years.
My store had been training a bunch of employees from a Roy Roger’s store that had just closed. One of the employees was a manager named Dave Thomas, yes, his name was actually Dave Thomas, just like Wendy’s founder.
Anyway, one day I’m carrying a gigantic pot of chili from the back kitchen to the front line when I suddenly trip over a mop bucket that Dave Thomas had remarkably left in the middle of the floor. While falling I tossed the pot as far away from me as I possibly could as to not scold myself with the piping hot, freshly made chili.
When I returned to my feet I had realized that I threw the 30lb pot of chili behind a pair of ovens and the entire contents of the pot had spilled down the wall and on to the floor.
Without hesitation, Dave Thomas doesn’t ask me if I am alright. Instead, he immediately instructs me to clean it up. I reminded him that leaving the mop bucket in the way is the reason this happened to begin with and he’s lucky I wasn’t hurt. I finished by telling him to get bent. I punched my time clock and left never to return. A pretty nice way to quit, but I still don’t know who ended up cleaning the chili.”
No Amount Of Money Could Make Her Hurt A Little Kid
“I used to work for a place called Club Libby Lu. It was an offshoot of Limited Too, and they did little girls’ birthday parties and ‘makeovers.’ We did their hair and makeup and did birthday dances with them. Kinda cute, kinda creepy.
My final straw was when a mother came in with her three-year-old daughter. She wanted her kid’s super thin, wispy toddler hair in one of our popular styles – tight twists and braids with lots of glitter and hair balls tied to the ponytails. I told her I’d do what I could, but it would be hard since her hair was so thin. It was clearly hurting the little girl so I started going a little looser, but the mother insisted on tighter. The girl started crying when I put the glittery blue eyeshadow on, and I told the mom I didn’t think I should finish since she was upset and I wouldn’t charge for the makeup.
Mom insisted I keep going, and I told my boss she could find someone else to do it. I’m not taking any amount of money to hurt a little kid. I was so mad.”
Always Do The Right Thing
“It was my first design job. I was a fresh noob with no real experience. I started working in a small corporate kitchen and bath hardware provider creating ads. It was dry and boring while wearing a suit and tie.
The moment came a few weeks in. My boss wanted me to photoshop fake new invoices for billing third-party suppliers (we would bill them that their product ran in an ad that was nonexistent). I felt nervous and uneasy. Being new and only a few weeks in, I hesitantly began. About 5 minutes go by and I’m on my 7th or 8th one. I stopped, told the other designer to leave the room so I could talk to my boss. I asked him for an explanation.
He nervously spouted nonspecific cliches about the industry operating like this and said he would take me off and have someone else do it.
I stopped him and quit right there. I walked out. Forget that. I was so nervous at first, but it turned into anger and disgust.
God paid me back by landing me an amazing first job soon after. I told this story in my interview, which helped put me over the top. I was at that new job for a decade.
Always do what is right.”
Allergies Are Not Something To Mess Around With
“I got a job a small local bakery. I was hired, along with another girl, under the expectation that we would be running the kitchens and the owner would move into more of a management role. We got started and helped develop a new menu and took over all the cooking needs for the shop. The owner was in talks to open a second location but we started to notice some iffy practices taking place. The kitchen we were in was actually built inside an old house, and it was tiny. So small that one person had a rough time moving around so the other baker and I would split our shifts. We would keep in touch through texts and one day she messages me asking about our gluten-free products. Apparently, there was a selection of gluten-free cupcakes in a small case at the front counter of the shop. I was confused because during my training I never heard mention of anything being gluten free. I also never noticed any gluten-free ingredients. The other baker noticed this as well.
We confronted the owner about it and she shrugged us off stating that she made the gluten-free products when we weren’t around. We grew instantly suspicious since we split shifts, one of us was almost always there and there was no sign of any gluten friendly flours around the shop. After a few more confrontations we concluded that the owner was full of it and was just selling the regular cupcakes as gluten-free. The other baker and I quit on the spot and on my way out I found out one of the ladies who worked the front counter had been bringing these cupcakes home to her daughter with the celiac disease under the assumption that these were gluten-free products. People in food service are awful sometimes.”
“Once I Realized What I Had Done, I NOPED Out Of There”
“In high school, I bussed for a brand new brewery/restaurant. It was maybe my second week, and I had been with the place since it opened it’s doors, so everything was brand new, and everyone was figuring out their lay of the land.
Anyway, I get called in to cover a holiday shift and we get absolutely annihilated by patrons. The floor manager asked me to bus an area of tables, and while I’m doing so, the head chef, who was basically also the owner, asked me to serve a table their food.
As I served the last dish, one of the ladies at the table began to ask me something, and all of a sudden, I get pulled from behind by my shirt collar. I all but fall over and it’s the freaking floor manager who begins to yell at me in front of the whole room full of patrons for not finishing the bussing he asked me to do.
I hauled off and smashed him in the nose with all of my 17-year-old might, and his face blew up like the death star as he went to sleep on the table of food and drinks behind him. Once I realized what I had done, I NOPED right out of there straight to my car and basically waited for the cops to come get me at home.
A week went by and they never did. Finally, the head chef called me and was like ‘Hey, you know you’re fired, right?’ I told him I did, and he said ‘Okay cool, come get your last paycheck.’
Forget that place.”
The General Manager Is Truly A Hero’s Role
“I was promoted from server to General Manager of a family-owned restaurant because the owners were shooting a pilot for their own Food Network TV show. They simply didn’t have the time due to filming to make sure things were running smoothly. Despite having no training whatsoever, I managed to keep the wheels on while they continued to film for well over a month. The owner refused to accept the new hires I attempted to bring in based on things like, ‘She had crazy eyes,’ or ‘Oh, she’s friends with so and so, no way,’ and then proceeded to hire a busted diner waitress, who an addict who rarely showed up on time, if at all, as well as a couple of other unfit idiots who also rarely showed up on time. I worked open to close, twelve hours a day, for a month, with but one day off.
As one would expect, we found ourselves short-staffed quite a bit, which I was regularly blamed for (‘They don’t respect you,’ etc.). One day, we once again found ourselves short staffed, so I was covering phones, preparing food, waiting on six or seven tables, and, as it began to slow down, even started taking deliveries. This is why they call GM the ‘hero role.’ I did everything in my power to ensure things were running smoothly.
Once I felt comfortable leaving the waitress and the kitchen staff to handle the restaurant, I went upstairs to the storage unit where we kept the refrigerators and began removing chicken juice from the bottom of a barely functioning refrigerator, and then began to wipe it down with sanitizer. Then my phone rang.
Me: ‘Hey, what’s up?’
Owner: ‘Listen, I know you’re trying as hard as you can, it just comes off like you don’t really care about this place. I’m going to have to demote you to server. Sorry it didn’t work out.’
I worked another month before she threatened to stab me for asking a third time about a table’s orders. Finished out the rest of the week and never looked back. She even texted me when she opened another restaurant and told me she’d love to have me if I wanted some hours. Absolute insanity.”
They Were Lucky They Had The Option To Bail
“I went in for my first day of training at 7:00 in the morning at a ‘food served fast but not fast food’ style restaurant where I was going to make $7.00 an hour working morning shift as a second job over the summer (this was in 2005, I was 17).
The first thing that happened was the manager got really frustrated with me for not wearing non-slip shoes (he never told me I needed to get them). Then he sat me down in the back room in front of a little TV and started playing a ‘Getting Started’ introductory video for the company. About five minutes into the video, I hear him SCREAMING bloody murder at a middle-aged Hispanic lady who was doing the morning food prep. Like, just going off on her, screaming at the top of his lungs berating her.
I immediately started shaking with anxiety, but after a few minutes I decided… you know what, no. I got up, took my name tag and apron off, walked into the kitchen where he was still muttering and cursing to her angrily. I said his name and he turned around, I handed the items over to him as he stared at me completely stunned and I told him, ‘I don’t think this job is for me,’ and noped the right out of there.
I was lucky that I already had another job and had the option to bail because I really did not want to get screamed at by a bloated, balding, sweaty man all summer for minimum wage. Nope nope nope.
The restaurant was actually a Baja Fresh. I know for sure the one I was at is gone, and I haven’t ever seen anymore in the wild.”
Getting Stiffed
“I was working as a server at a higher end restaurant. This was at Pappadeaux, the average meal price was about $25, but only because of the fried menu dragging it down. The fried menu averaged at $14-16.
I had this 30 top walk in unannounced at the beginning of my shift and, of course, my managers obliged. I was in a not-so-great section and was the one who got it. I ran my butt off for 90% of my shift that night for this one table. Everything went perfectly…until they asked for checks. Every single check was separate. It took me a solid 20 minutes to get it all worked out. Once they paid, I started cleaning up and then looked at the checks. Total, the bill was just over $770.
Three people at the table bounced on the tip. They ate like champs and their combined bill was nearly $150.
In the end, I made $13 in tips. After tip out (giving a share to the kitchen, hostess, bussers, etc), I actually lost $16. I had argued with management before about the restaurant getting an automatic 17% gratuity on parties of 7 or more. The head manager tried to tell me that it was illegal in my state (horribly untrue) so they couldn’t legally do it. I told him he was wrong and provided proof including state law and other restaurants in the area that had it. He said to back off and they weren’t going to do it.
I walked out after that night. I ended up in a completely different industry and now make more than those managers do.”
If You See This Kind Of Job Listing, Don’t Even Waste Your Time
“I applied for a job that was advertised as a marketing position. I got a response asking if I’d like to come in for an interview so I was super pleased with myself. So along I went for this interview where alarm bells instantly started ringing. I was told that there was no base salary and as such, I’d be paid solely on commission. Then they said it was more of a sales job. I was told that part of the interview process involved ‘going out with the team to see the job in action.’ About 5 of us got on a public bus out to a shopping center when realization dawned on me. This ‘marketing’ job was, in actuality, a case of standing at a makeshift stall in a shopping center pestering passers-by asking them if they wanted to buy car insurance. I told them that I was going to the bathroom and just went home instead.
These sort of job listings are total scams and take advantage of a surplus in marketing students who just want to get their foot in the door in a competitive industry. Word to the wise, everyone: if you see a job listing that has an OTE as opposed to a salary, don’t even waste your time applying.”
The Boss Was Using Them For Free Labor
“Right after college, I was looking for internships in film/video to supplement my part-time work. I read about one that seemed like a good fit, editing videos for a local startup YouTube channel business. I get to the first meeting and we’re all sitting around a conference table at the owner’s day-job (he stayed after hours to sneak us into the closed building).
We’re told we’ll each be asked to write, film, edit, and upload a twenty-minute video once per week to create the content of this ‘business’. Oh, and we’ll need to provide our own equipment, actors, software, and bring in at least 50 new subscribers with each video. I was looking around the room at all these other (slightly younger) kids all nodding and taking notes, and apparently my ‘Are you kidding me?’ face was enough to make the boss ask if I had any questions.
I told him this wasn’t an internship, this was unpaid labor, and that he was asking us to freely create his entire business for him from the ground up, and that it was illegal. Everyone got uncomfortable as he sort of danced around my accusation, but he clearly couldn’t refute it. So I got up and left.”