People who find themselves in an unhappy work situation often fantasize about quitting in a dramatic fashion. Like throwing a rude gesture at the manager who has been riding them or something. But a select few actually follow through.
A few weeks ago, Redditor Firelampan asked other platform users the following question: "People who've quit their job on the spot, what did it for you?" And they answered.
As of today, Firelampan's post has over 500 comments, many of which detail the situations when people chose their dignity over their paycheck. Below are some of the most memorable ones.
#1
Boss told me i was scheduled to work the weekend of my wedding, told him ive had that scheduled and approved for 6 months now. His exact words were "sorry, but i dont care" told him ill go get supplies for the weekend. Packed my [stuff] and turned my phone off. Got married and had a fabulous 5 day weekend before i started a new job in a feild i love.#2
"My boss not letting me have a weekend off for my best friend's wedding because a co-worker wanted a dirty weekend away with the married guy she was having an affair with. The married guy was my boss by the way.""I was a bridesmaid and had booked the weekend off 10 months in advance. I quit on the spot and told my boss' wife he was cheating on her. My best friends wedding was lovely."
#3
Let me go back to bed. I was the only adult who worked at an ice cream store, the rest of the staff, aside from the owner, was high schoolers. The owners lived an hour or so away, I lived right down the street, and I had a newborn child at home.So high school employee forgets his key. Owner calls, I go down to lock up. I am not paid for this time.
So high school employee forgets his key. Owner calls, I go down to lock up. I am, again, not paid for this time.
So high school employee forgets his key. Owner calls, I say that no, I'm not doing this, I have a newborn child, this is my day off, I need to sleep and you need to make the kids you hire be responsible. Owner says that I am not being a responsible employee, they hired me because I was a responsible adult. I say, welp, guess I'm not your responsible employee anymore bye.
#4
3 straight days in the HR manager's office, with both my bosses, where they were trying to force me to agree to lower the ratings on the annual performance reviews for my team, in order to justify paying them smaller bonuses.This was at a AAA game development studio, on a record-breaking title. These people worked enormous amounts of overtime for years, that is only compensated by bonuses, based on sales. I was the only department head that got the annual performance reviews done on schedule, and had already done the one-on-one review with each employee, everything already signed-off.
Also on day 1 of this fiasco, our Executive Producer showed up from a Vegas trip with a brand-new Lamborghini he had just purchased, and apparently this was the reason why the bonuses needed to be adjusted for everybody else.
So, I fought it for 3 days without success, and then quit.
My best artist also quit the following day, and then they wised up and restored the original performance evaluations, and paid the remaining people their rightful bonuses that they worked so hard for.
I guess it worked out in the end, though I pretty much threw away a successful 20-year career as a video game developer to do it.
#5
i worked at subway as a minor and asked for a day off for my cousin’s funeral. they said no. then when i started crying on break they said i could have off for the funeral if i came back to work after. i quit the next day#6
I woke up and realised that if I had to spend one more day there, I’d probably walk into traffic. The stars aligned because I quit on the spot, found a job opportunity the next day and started my next job the following week.#7
Well when your boss yells at you and demeans you in front of customers on your 3rd day of working, while having anxiety and not feeling good enough, that'll do it.#8
In 2002 I worked for a day at Diamond Mazda of Baton Rouge, LA.I got hired to sell used cards, I had done sales before but explained to the hiring team I really knew nothing about cars and was assured I could get a quick lesson before I start.
Day one hits, no lesson. The existing team spends the days taking everything out of desk and throwing it into the ditch behind the office all day. Phone, chair, customer chair, all went into the ditch at least 3 times.
No one would tell me how to decipher the code for how to get the prices off the windshield. By the end of the day, I couldn't sell a car, I just walked into the manager's office and said "If I accidentally made you any money - keep it. I quit."
#9
I worked as a nanny during the day and a waitress at night. I nannied for two kids, a 3 month old and his 5 year old brother who was severely autistic. Needless to say it was very challenging but the 5 year old and I eventually got into a good groove. His parents did not offer any support to me or their child. The dad "worked from home" which meant he played call of duty on the couch all day while I took care of his kids and the mom was at work. Eventually I noticed my paychecks were gradually becoming smaller and smaller so I brought it up. The dad told me he didn't believe I should get paid for the times he was in the room. THEN he asked me to choose between my waitressing job and my nanny job, as they were concerened my waitressing job was making me too tired. I was tired, but I was tired of trying to single handedly handle their son's autism without any support. I immediately handed him his baby and his housekey and quit. The look on his face was priceless.#10
Got food poisoning the night before a shift at a family owned farm/farm stand/plant nursery. The protocol was to call or text the manager who was on duty the next day as early as possible so they had time to find someone to cover. Well what I got back was a tirade from said manager saying that she feels like s**t every day and that it’s no excuse for missing work, even though I was really the only one busting my ass on the daily - there at 4 am to prep for market, staying late to help fix things and care for the animals, etc. The next day I went in to pick up my last paycheck and told the owner that I would not be returning to work because her daughter was way out of line and I refused to be treated like I had been.Apparently I wasn’t the first person to quit because of this
#11
Working at a zoo food court kitchen. It was just carnival food basically, pretzels, chips, ice cream and Bahama Mamas for the moms taking their kids. The chef in charge of the kitchen...he had frustrated ambitions to be one of those Food Network TV Tyrant chefs and was not easy to work with. I got a concussion cleaning cabinets and had to staff a fundraising banquet and the chef made too much chicken picatta then went off ranting at me blaming me even though I had no involvement. My doctor told me to quit and I did.#12
My tasks were to take photos of people in the park and make souvenirs, and after visiting the park, take money for services and give out a magnet / mug with a photo to visitors. I worked for a few days and showed a good result, so I was disbanded in another park, which was closer to home. There I got a new supervisor, who on the first day began to re-instruct me. Based on the conversation, I realized that this girl is a complete b***h. She proudly told how she rudely reprimands employees for the minimum shortage (some consumables are simply difficult to take into account), delays and damage to the company's property (even if the employee is not guilty of this). I still remember the final drop.She: - There are two managers working at this point: me and my colleague. He's too careless about our work! Recently, his employee accidentally broke the lens because he was pushed by a visitor, so the colleague defended his employee and did not even write him a fine of $ 700! This is wrong! I absolutely do not care about the reason why the equipment deteriorates! If it is broken, it is the employee's responsibility to fix this problem!
Then she asked me to show her skills, to which I replied: "I don't think it's necessary. I'm leaving. I do not want to work under the guidance of such a callous and unemphatic person."
I didn't regret my decision a bit. I think I just saved my energy.
#13
I had an insubordination employee at a large coffee chain and complained to PR that I wanted to fire her. They wouldn't let me. About a week later she was on the clock and sitting down having a drink with her friend. She's been warned about this multiple times by me and the shift supervisors. I gave up that day on a [sh****] job. I put my keys in the register, clocked out and just went home. I had a new job a few days later. I couldn't handle that corporate bulls**t. I found out that I couldn't fire her because her father owned the building and was a lawyer. They would have lost a great corner location. Entitled little brat. They just shuffled in a new manager to take my place. He quit because of her too. Then she quit for no reason and they lost the lease anyway. Now an even [worse] big coffee chain is in that spot.#14
I was made to take care of 20 toddlers under 3 with about half an hour of training at a daycare. I quit day 2.#15
My boss in an electronics department told me (and my coworkers) that if my customer was black, don't let them buy the new iPhone with cash and insist that credit is the only option, because that way he can record their names and it prevents them from using "all the stolen drug money", which is what he called cash whenever it was from a black male.I protested, he thought I was joking. My coworkers thought this was run of the mill and just did what he said. Ethics department never raised a finger. I never showed my face there again.
I worked with that company for 5 years and that was my dream job. Still haven't recovered from the whiplash.
#16
Got in trouble working at Walmart one time. Christmas season in the toys dept. Everything was everywhere. Didn't have enough time in the night to put everything away and restock all the shelves. I was given 3 days off without pay (which I probably would have put up with), but then they also wanted me to write an essay on what I did wrong and how I would correct it. I just told them to f**king do it themselves then, and walked out. Best thing, really.#17
I worked in a pet store for one day. The stress of the poor animals (they sold puppies and kittens) and their living conditions gave me some hardcore empathetic fatigue. I just didn't come back after that first day. But right before my shift ended I somehow managed to completely destroy the plumbing in the utility sink so I guess we're even.#18
Boss was throwing a fit because I didn't want to instruct a temp worker to stand inside a robotics setup and interacting with a working robot capable of killing the man where he would have to stand. Business later was forced to close with a mega fine for doing just this. Appearantly other employee didn't mind and it was caught.#19
I worked at a customer support centre for a pretty big company. Employees were just numbers and our manager was a total d**k.An employee's mother had an operation for the removal of a tumor (don't know what kind or where) and it was only a 50% chance she'd survive.
When he asked for 2 days leave, the manager said no because the influx of calls and emails was too high. The man quit on the spot and so did half the team and I.
I work at a better company now with a manager that appreciates good work and tells us to take time off himself if we look like we need a break.
#20
A BBQ joint, they moved me to dish shifts alongside a pay increase. Found out from other dishwashers they were starting them off higher than they were now paying me. Ask boss for a raise to this amount, get told no, quit.#21
My previous job was at a law firm. This was one of those places that had constant turnover, mass layoffs, and eventually just stopped filling vacant positions. The type of place where management bragged about not paying out vacation and marking people as ineligible for rehire even if they put in a months notice. One day my supervisor ordered me to commit what I believed to be fraud, and told them the only way I’ll do it is if they send me an email saying so (basically I’m not committing fraud without a paper trail of my supervisor ordering it). After that point I had a target on my back.One day, management has a meeting with me where they pretty much say they know I have a couple years on my contract, but I need to sign an updated one with effectively double my workload, for no extra pay. I refuse, either compensate me for additional duties or [forget it]. They say fine, no additional duties, but you’re being transferred to a worse department. I make it a point of not signing the new contract unless they explicitly state I won’t be responsible for duties of my former position. Well surprise surprise, they renege on that a month it.
I called my new manager out on that, and she says really condescendingly “oh, so you can’t do a single thing that’s not on your contract? Why don’t we talk to MY boss about that and you can tell her what you just told me”
At that point I reached my breaking point, didn’t tell, didn’t cuss her out, but just calmly said “talk to whoever you need to. I’m done here”. Grabbed my jacket and lunch, walked out, and found a better paying job at a much more functional company less than 2 weeks later. Not as fun as some stories, but damn it felt good.
#22
Boss was arrested for murder. Turns out he burnt down one of his buildings for insurance money and someone died. I had been there for only a couple of weeks, he was the most abusive person I've ever worked for by far. I was debating it, so when the police burst in and arrested him, I locked up and left.#23
Being called a N______lover because im white and married to a black man. It was quit or do 25 upstate for shooting my boss so in that moment i chose unemployment. I regret nothing.#24
Our department had a goal of meeting a certain deliverable, it was $5000 for all of us to be divvied out by our boss and he would also get a Rolex or something like that. I ended up getting like half of what the average would be despite being the most prolific worker. A few days later I was just fed up so I said later and left.#25
Oh yes this is my time. So I worked for an 80 something-year-old prick who was a misogynist, unhealthy absolute brute who had the audacity to make multiple comments about my weight and even offer me a bottle of garcinia Cambodia- unsolicited, by the way. Anyway he made me fill up his water every single day that I worked there which was about six months. He did not know how to operate a computer at all, aside from the fact that he’s the owner of an entire marketing company. So I was hired as the junior graphic designer and the work was stupid easy. He had a knack for making particularly asinine comments to his clients once he stopped wanting to do business, or if he just straight up did not like them. One of the worst people I have ever met personally and did a lot of illegal [stuff] and bragged about it and had a gun in his office that he would use to threaten his son who worked in the office next-door. In spite of one of his clients, he told me to put our company’s logo on a flyer they commissioned. The assistant manager/other graphic designer working with me stressed that I explicitly do not put the logo on the flyer because it was for a sports commission and the boss had personal beef with them about this particular subject, and it would just cause drama or something like that- so I left it out. The flyer is sent to the sports people they approve it they use it in the next day I’m asked by my boss to print it out for him and put it in on his desk. So I did and the logo was not there obviously so he was like “why isnt the logo on there, I know I told you to put it there! You can go home.” and he looked at me in the eyes with his grumpy face, like he wanted me to know he had all the power and just wanted to make me feel so small. No way. This was the last straw. I eyed that water that was there on his desk that I had just filled up. I told him I quit angrily because I was just so frustrated at this point and took the opportunity to knock over the cup of water onto his very unorganized and messy desk full of old papers, candy, dog food etc. I never regret it and it gives me the biggest adrenaline rush even just talking about it and thinking about it because he really deserved it.#26
When I tried to talk to a coworker and the supervisor told me there will be no talking to coworkers. Walked away that easy.#27
Company asked me to forge documentation so we don't get in trouble with health and safety. They choose me cause I needed and love the job. When I said no it got worse. Other started bullying me too. I walked out not knowing how will I pay bills next month. on Thursday evening. Even though I am not religious and I haven't been in church for decades for some reason last thing I thought was "be the stone that breaks the waves" from old testament. I am ok now. Got new job and long term contract. Half of the management got fired 6 months after that.#28
I worked at a local crafts store in my town. On the day i quit I ended up not giving my two weeks and straight up telling them that was my last day because they were not giving me enough hours to pay rent and necessities (literally would be lucky if i even got 10 hours a week). Never looked back.#29
Worked at Staples when I was a teen, I had never called in sick before to this job. In fact, I covered other people's shifts when they were sick quite frequently. I would get called in at least once every couple of weeks to work for someone who had called in.So the one time I'm sick and call in, the worst manager was working... total [witch]... she told me I had to come in or bring in a doctor's note. I told her to go f**k herself and quit.
Later that day, the general manager called me to ask me to stay... so I stayed. The [witchy] manager lasted another 2 or 3 months, I lasted about 6 months after that and quit for a better opportunity.
#30
My Grandfather passed away which was sad but it meant that having a job became optional. My boss was a jerk and would send me on wild goose chases and yoyo my position. One day I was a stocker, the next I was a bag boy and then a cashier. Always dangling a better position and then snatching it away. I had worked as a cashier for several days and came in to find I had been moved back to bag boy. I handed him my apron and hat and left. Never looked back.#31
I was working as a janitor at a casino. Someone had clogged a toilet with feces, toilet paper, and a used tampon and my boss radioed me to leave my assigned post to go and clean it up because the person assigned to that bathroom had gone AWOL. (My bosses consistently called on me to do other people’s jobs for them) So I get in there, see the mess, and reluctantly get to work. While plunging the toilet, the automatic flusher engaged. Backsplash. I was covered face to waist with foulness. Some of it got in my mouth. I got angry. I went back to the supply closet to scrub my face and there was the person who was assigned to that bathroom, reeking of liquor. After scrubbing my face I went to the office and reported the derelict and asked if I could clock out early so that I could go home and wash off the filth. By boss looked at me like I was stupid. I bypassed pissed and went full-on insane. The very next morning I turned in my badge and uniforms and left without explanation.#32
Was working a high volume Italian restaurant chain on garmo (salads, appetizers, flatbread pizzas, desserts). Easily over 1000 covers a night. Had been there about a year and the last few weekends I had to solo the station when usually there were 3 of us. One beautiful summer Friday evening I found out I was soloing again, so I asked the chefs if anyone was available to give me a hand. They said they called a guy who’d be in by 6pm. 7pm rolls around and still no one. I was way too burnt out to do another weekend of this alone. I tell the chef right at the window I’m putting in my apron and towel - I’m done. Walked out, waved goodbye to the servers on the patio, and drove home. Best feeling ever.A few weeks later I got a job with a local celebrity chef making more $$$ for less hours.
#33
Got called into work on my day off. Drove a half hour to get there. Once there, I was told they didn’t need me that day, and I could go home.#34
I worked in an Italian restaurant where I basically did everything except cook. The manager was a Portuguese guy who was horrible and constantly swore at me in Portuguese (chefs who were also Portuguese would tell me). They underpaid us, but to make up for it we could help ourselves to bottles of wine to take home at the end of every shift (18 year old me loved that). I also worked there with my boyfriend, who was very camp and obviously gay.One shift we both worked together for a large group of people who had just been to a wedding ceromony, I assume it was a meal out before hitting the wedding reception, and this group were the roughest, chavviest arseholes you can imagine. I was already stressed out because my boyfriend and I working alone to cater for their every need was bad enough but after a few drinks the men in the group started being homophobic towards us, so I refused them service at the bar.
The manager came upstairs to us after I assume one guest complained, and completely tore me and my boyfriend apart in front of all the guests. Completely humiliating and the final straw. We both simply went downstairs after the manager left, while the guests were still screaming at us to be served more booze, we packed six bottles of wine and shoved them into our backpacks, and simply walked out for a smoke...and just kept walking until we got to boyfriend's house. Never went back.
#35
I was a steak cook at a Ponderosa (low tier steakhouse chain, like Applebee's with a buffet). We had a new shift supervisor who was terrible and seemed like she wanted to throw weight around before learning any staff dynamics. Someone spilled something by the buffet and, instead of asking the buffet workers, asked me to mop it up. I told her I normally wouldn't mind but I had a lot of steaks on the grill and didn't think the customers wanted overcooked steaks just so that one specific person could mop the floor. She said to do it anyway, so I did.She came back five minutes later and said now the floor is wet and I need to drymop so customers don't fall. I reiterated that I had steaks on the grill and really didn't have time to get the floor perfectly dry. She said that she gave me an order and my job was to follow it. I told her "Well it seems like you have a very specific idea of how you want the floor done, so maybe you should take care of that so that you know it's done correctly." She said if I ever talked to her like that again, she would tell the manager and get me fired. I told her "Don't bother. [Screw]off. Have fun explaining to the customers that they can't have steaks tonight." and left.
The manager called the next day to get my side of things, said he had told her to ease up a bit, and really wanted me to come back. I asked if she was still going to be a supervisor. He said yes, so I told him I'd be in for my last check and thanked him for the opportunity.
#36
Worked at Best Buy years ago. This was my second job, that I worked at for fun and the discount. I only worked weekends because I had a full time job during the week.Back then, when the next weeks schedule was done a manager would hand it to a person on the team and they'd put it in our little media backroom. Well, I didn't have my schedule for next week yet and it was Saturday. There were none to be found which was odd. I asked a manager for a copy so I knew when to come in and she refused, "I'm tired of printing out new copies for people."
Well, I can't come in if I don' t know when I'm supposed to be there. So, I just never showed up again. Best part was that I still got the discount for like 6 months.
#37
Worked in a cafe. New manager fired/cut everyone's hours except for me and one other guy. We had a total of 5 people at work. Only 2 including me worked the kitchen.One day I asked the other kitchen person to cover my shift in the morning and they did. That manager came in and fired her because she got mad and called me and said I needed to come in asap and work literally 8am to close and also work pretty much every single day that week open to close.
Came in a lost it when I saw the manager. She acted as if nothing had happened when she saw me. Told her to [screw] herself and good luck explaining this to corporate (corporate loved me because I had been with the company for a long time). Went home and sent a long email to the owner about it and he ended up relocating the manager and begged me to come back.
#38
I was training at MoneyMart, a predatory payday loan company in Canada.The company-wide intranet training course spent my second day focusing on how to up-sell people on products they could not possibly pay back. I always knew the company was sleezy, but this was a whole different level than what I expected.
I sat there for four hours, then told my "manager" that this was not the job for me, and never came back.
#39
Not me, but a friend.He worked for a security company doing night rounds in several towns. One day he was told his hours were being cut by 2h every night, which sucked he thought. Next week he was asked to train two new guys, who were going to work night shift. That’s weird he thought.
After his shift back at the central He confronted the boss about it. He learned rather wuickly that he was going to train up people who were essentially going to get him out of the night shift.
He just said ”then I quit, I hand you all the stuff tomorrow”, and left.
#40
Restaurant hosting. Manager called me in on Friday to cover for Saturday. Then he called me in on Saturday to cover for a Sunday. I had plans that weekend, and I was already busy with school, and I already worked throughout that week. I decided no, you're not allowed to just summon me whenever you want. Bye-bye.#41
I was the overnight assistant manager at Walmart a long time ago and was scheduled for 12 hour shifts with only 6-8 associates a night to stock an entire store. It was a pretty high volume store so it would get a GM and grocery truck every night. GM trucks would have about 2000 boxes of merch and the grocery would be about 1300-1500 pieces. You have to prioritize grocery obviously because it expires, so I would put every employee in grocery. Every one of them had their particular aisles and refused to go anywhere else. If someone called in, I did their job on top of managing the entire store. It [freaking] sucked, and I got regularly yelled at by the store manager for not getting everything done. This meant working 2-4 hours past the end of my shift to finish stocking and scanning overstock.One night, I had 4 call ins, this meant I only had 2 employees working and me. I stocked 4 aisles by myself, faced the store, scanned overstock, and still had to run the overnight operations of the store. I messaged my co-managers (the management structure was so convoluted) that I had literally no one and I was doing everything I could. They got the department managers to come in early to help stock their sections, but that meant there wasn’t as much coverage for the day.
The store manager comes in at 7:30 every day to inspect work and give notes to assistant managers for what needs fixed for the day. He came in and saw all the department managers stocking their merch, and flipped his sh** on me. Called me into his office and put me on with our market manager and they both just ripped me apart. I explained the situation and they literally said “that’s not a [freaking] excuse to not do your job. You should have told them to come in and do their job or write them up.” I looked at my store manager and said “nope. I’m done.” Threw my badge and keys on the table and walked out. Said goodbye to my (now former) employees and friends, got in my car, and never looked back.
#42
I was working as an assistant manager for a large Taco Bell franchise. We were required to work 60 hour weeks (5 twelve-hour shifts), on a shifting schedule. Each assistant had a roaring schedule (mine was opening Tue, mid shift Wed & Thurs, closing Fri & Sat). We had no general manager, so I was doing a lot of that work.So, here I am with no real, healthy sleep schedule, newly married and never seeing my wife, working insane hours.
Well, the other assistant (there were only two when there should have been three) was young. Very young. Like, fresh out of high school young. So very immature with a lot to learn.
I came in on one of my closing shifts (we were open until 3am, so shift was 4p-4a). Store was a disaster. Again. Dirty as [hell]. S**t all over the lines and the floor. No food prepped or cooking. Again. As it was every day I came in behind this other guy.
I stood there for like three minutes. Just...in shock. Furious. About to snap.
Instead I carefully took my store key off my key ring, gave it one of our team leads, and asked him to go back to give it the other manager, and walked out.