‘People Who Quit Their Jobs On The First Day, What Was Your “I’m Outta Here” Moment?’: 30 People Respond
The first day at work basically means little sleep, dressing in your nicest shirt, and pulling off your very best self that often overpromises and underdelivers when looking at it in retrospective. When all eyes are on you and your eyes are trying to figure out what you just got yourself into, the first day comes and goes like it never happened and fast forward to today, you got yourself stuck in one place for almost a decade (yep, my fellow millennials, we’re getting old.)
Unless you just got yourself into big trouble. And we all know very well that some jobs are exactly that. So when someone asked “What was your 'I’m outta here' moment?” on r/AskReddit, people who quit their job on the very first day at work had a lot to say. Take notes, kids, ‘cause you may be thankful for these red flags later in life.
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‘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.
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.
My very first job was at a little drive in restaurant close to my high school. I showed up to work the first day, the lady said I had to pay her $50 for training. She showed me around the place and said that my pay would be $4.50/hour as a carhop(this was in 2010), and all the tips I made went into a bucket with all the other girls’ tips. At the end of the night, she counted up tips, kept 20% for herself and split the rest up evenly among EVERY employee. Also, part of our job was one day a week we had to spend 4 hours cleaning her house. It seemed super shady.
I literally left after listening to her go over all these rules. My dad was pissed until I explained, and another girl confirmed and my dad agreed I did the right thing.
Pay her for training, and all the rest? Sounds like she learned from ABC Baking Company.
When the microwave in the lunch room was coin activated.
This is gonna get buried, but walking into an Alzheimer's assisted living facility, and seeing my college philosophy professor (who was an inspiring individual for me and changed how l viewed things), sitting in a chair in the Day Room, drooling on himself. I checked with the Head on Duty, and yeah... It was him.
I avoided him as much as I could for the whole day, but when leaving, I told him that he inspired me and I probably wouldn't ever see him again. He was far gone and asked about his slippers.
I left, sat in my car, had a smoke and cried. I didn't go back and found another job.
I went into orientation for a new job as truck driver. Obviously you know you will be away from home but this was shi*ty.
Out on the road 30 days at a time, then only 36 hours, or 1.5 days at home.
You only work 6 out of 7 days. So 4 of those days you just sit at the truck stop unable to move. And not getting paid.
Can't bring a pet of any type.
So I would only be home 18 days a year. On the road for 347 days a year, and unpaid for 52 of them. The no pets rule was the final straw for me. I will not be out 30 days alone with no little friend to keep me sane.
I noped out of there.
Worked in a hotel for a day.
No one told me where anything was. Got chewed out for it.
Guests enjoying their meals told me to pay no mind/I was doing a good job and that my boss is a c**t.
I told the manager that I was quitting and wouldn't be doing the next shift.
I arrived the next day, returning a work uniform and my supervisor approached me and yelled at me for being late. I told her I already quit but if i was working, technically I was 5 hours early for my shift.
Absolute nutcases.
I was hired at a chain restaurant to be a hostess. I was so excited because my last job was washing dishes and because of my eczema, I had to quit. It was too painful to do that job. So, I arrived at my new job dressed up to be a hostess and those mfers took me back to the kitchen to do dishes because the dishwasher just quit. I noped out of there real fast!
I was a cashier at this cafeteria for a large company in my town. The people that worked at the company would put their tips in a bucket and the people made a lot of money so there was like 10s and 20s. The manager of the cafe wouldn’t let me have any of tips because she said that cashiers couldn’t be trusted so she would ship the tip money to a church in El Paso. I immediately knew that this was a load of bullsh*t and I just never went back. It’s also illegal (I think) to collect money for one thing but do something else with it without disclosing who/what it is for.
There was a scam going on here in the UK where tips were collected but the managers kept it. This went viral on the news.
Gas station. The manager gave me a weird vibe. I made it through the first day but didn't go back.. Found out later he cornered another girl in the back of the store and she had to fight her way out. Trust your gut.
Fkn w**nker. Pour petrol over him and set fire. But then no smoking in the gas station.
A long time ago, not long after getting my papers as a chef I had an interview at a hotel for a position in the kitchen. The Executive Chef and I chatted in his office for about 20 mins, at the time I remember him coming off as very arrogant which is quite common in this field, I didn't think much of it at the time as the pay was decent and the shift was what I wanted. As I was leaving his office I turned to leave through the dining room (the way I had come in) which was closed at the time it was another hour or so before service started and he says to me "No not that way, go through the kitchen, you're not good enough to go through the dining room." I was so surprised by what he said, I just did what he asked without a word. Later on after I had got home I phoned him up and said that after having a close look I decided that his menu wasn't good enough and that I wouldn't be accepting his offer.
There used to be ( and are still), too many arrogant c**t chefs out there - Chef with 37 years before the stove here .....
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 there dishwasher doesnt show up, so the kitchen manager asks me to stay one for their lunch rush, saya I'll get paid for the hours. I do, 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 wouldnt be back, he understands and thanks me for the help.
Fast forward a couple 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**k off over text. Tells me it was "staging" and that she told me i wouldnt 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 weeks later I got my 40 bucks, never went back to that restaurant.
Firstly, "petty" is not how I see it two years later. Im 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 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 didnt fit in anymore (total bullsh*t, they were ALWAYS popular. Most people theorized the terrible mismanagement and employee abuse had caught up to her).
1- its not about pettiness its about principle. 2- if she/he didn't pay up then i would of ordered 40 bucks of goods then just walk out without paying.
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**k that noise. She called pissed off that I wouldn't show up to such a opportunity.
They hired me to work full time. I had interviewed to work full time. I was trying to quit a horrible job, and this job was on the other end of town. I needed enough money for the bus pass, and to make up the difference and more of quitting my old job. They hired me and showed me my schedule. I showed up for my first day, things are going good, then my manager called me in, sat me down, and explained that they'd have to cut me down to 15 hours a week because they'd hired too many f**king people. I explained, painfully, that I had to take a bus an hour each way and wouldn't be able to pay rent or food after that. He said I could always hold out and hope people quit. I told him he could start with me, took off my apron and stormed out in tears.
Sounds like a bait and switch. He never intended for any new hires to be full time, so he could get out of paying benefits.
It was a waitress gig for a local restaurant. I finished my first day, then was told that training would continue for six weeks. While I was in training, all of the tips I got had to be given to my trainer. I was being paid less than $2 an hour.
I called the next day and said it wasn't gonna work out.
I was a waitress, the only waitress, at a just opened diner. The boss didn't have me sign any paperwork. Everything was under the table. But that wasn't what made me quit at the end of the night. In order to get me where he wanted me to go, he would pinch my skirt at my upper thigh, not quite the butt but very close, and pull me around like it was a leash. Needed me in the kitchen? Rather than call me. He would come out, pinch my skirt and pull to the kitchen. Needed me at the cash machine? Again, come over to where ever I was, didn't matter if I was serving a customer, and would grab my skirt to pull me. That act in itself, made some customers uncomfortable. Mind you, one couple left an almost 50% tip in the end. But I think it was more out of pity and embarrassment on my behalf. I was supposed to come in the next day but I called that night and said the job wasn't for me. I came in a couple days later to turn in my apron and he just took a wad of cash out of his pocket and paid me then and there. God, he was creepy. I think it was a smart move to quit.
Anyone pinch me like that would soon be with broken fingers. That’s awful
Went into an Italian restaurant for my first day of work and I got 3 red flags on the very first day.
1- The manager said he had lots of hours for me and getting shifts would be no problem. Every single other employee told me that they were struggling for hours and that they had no idea why they hired me.
2- Everyone said the manager was an assh*le. Even the customers.
3- It was my first day there, and I actually had to teach the woman training me how to do one or two things.
Had an orientation for an alarm company. Next day manager calls and says don't worry about going into the office and to meet at "Planet Hollywood" they like to get to know the employees better over lunch.
Next day I go into the office and another employee whom I had not met says "You must be "Scandal929." I was like "ha"?
They responded "Light skinned, pretty boy” is how the manager described me.
In same conversation I found out no one else had ever been invited for a "get to know you" lunch.
I'm out!
Not my first day, but my second. Fellow coworker touched me and I said "please don't touch me, it makes me uncomfortable" and he proceeded to step closer and said to our manager "hey, Joey, touch her she doesn't like it" Managers eyes got so big and he told the idiot that he could be fired and sued for sexual harassment. I didn't go back. It was my first job, I was 15.
Elbow to the face. BAM!!! To say that to the manager too he must of been a right muppet!
I met a landscaping crew at a 50 acre cemetery at 8:00am. The pay was just $5/hr cash (in 2001), but my hours at Pizza Hut had been cut and I wanted to make a little money before going off to college.
After 3 hours straight of weedeating I couldn’t feel my hands. I was filthy and hot af. It was miserable. I was 18 and headed to a prestigious school in 2 months, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, as they say.
At lunch I told the guy “Hey man, I’m just gonna go home and I’m not coming back.” And he had a totally awesome response “No problem, I wouldn’t want to do this sh*t at your age either, I’ll pay you for the time you worked and drop it off at your house.” $20 showed up about a week later.
I hope life is going good Mr. Sterly.
$5/hr was still not very much in 2001. It’s probably like $7.50/hr now.
At least he had the decency to address you properly but in your shoes i would be dying to get out of there too. Sounded like a dead end job.
I interviewed for a “professional marketing assistant” and got the job straight away. I was under the impression that I would be an assistant to the man I was interviewed by. When I showed up for my first day, the same waiting room I was in the previous day was FULL of people. I quickly learned that we were all hired, and that I would be a door to door salesperson selling some pretty useless s**t.
I spent my entire day inside a Starbucks applying for other jobs and went home, got paid, but never went back.
Fast food chain: I was 17.
I found out during training that the place had been robbed 3 times in the past month and 1 employee was seriously injured.
Not worth the $5/hr.
Unless it was Fatburger, please do not use Fatburger in the photo. It is a sacred institution. Fat Fries Forever! Extra extra crisp!
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.
Started a new job unloading shipping containers and was told they had to be empty by midday, this was imperative because a new one was going to arrive in the early afternoon
It was a two man job if we both worked our asses off to get it done
Boss says 'uh also your offsider is off work today, you will need to get this cleared'
I just walked out.
I got a job at a Build A Bear knockoff at the end of a mall that wasn't very busy. My interview with the owners was interesting. They were an older couple who said that they had wanted to open a Chick Fil A, but you need about a million dollars to do that. My first day, one other girl was working, and she didn't really talk to me. I had basically no training and she disappeared into the back. I was standing at the register area, which was underneath a giant storybook mushroom. A mother and her young son walk in and start to look at the bear skin options. I greeted them and left them to look around. They ended up leaving after a couple minutes and my coworker reappeared from the back with the cordless phone and handed it to me. It was my boss. He told me that when a customer walks in, he wants me to come out from under the mushroom to them ("come OUT! from the mushroom!"). After he finished speaking to me, I hung up and went to my coworker and asked about the phone call. She said the place has cameras set up and the owners watch them from their house and call in a lot. I did not come back to work after that day.
If they have the time to be watching you on camera, they have time to train you properly…
It was a petrol station and the manager wanted me to work for free until I had learned their computer systems to what he deemed a satisfactory extent. I agreed to do it, because I needed a job, and he brought me in at 7am on my first day, however he was not present to go through the training with me, so I was just standing around kind of helping out on the forecourt but not really knowing what I should be doing. Not learning anything. After about an hour and a half without the manager showing up or anyone training me on anything, I decided that I wasn't going to continue to be taken advantage of and told the cashier to pass on the message to the manager that I had quit.
I think that was the plan. You go in do a bit of work for free then leave. How many other people has he done this to?
Not me but I was training a new lifeguard. After our shift was mandatory staff training for our entire crew, where we practice rescues. Once she found out we actually had to practice and go in the water, she just...walked out. Not really sure what kind of job she thought she had signed up for.
Evidently she just thought she’d sit on the lifeguard stand and get paid for sunbathing, not rescuing people who were drowning.
Young and naïve right out of college took a “marketing” job. My interview was great, nothing shady seemed to be going on and no immediate red flags. After 4 hours of training, my first day consisted of going door to door in a suburban town trying to sell cable to older people. We were told to dress for business, so I’m hiking around for miles in my best skirt, suit jacket and heels. Hours were from “9-5” but we didn’t get back to the business until well after 10pm. Not to mention, the person I was shadowing was able to make a sale to an older gentleman who seemed to have memory issues. I noped the f**k right out of there.
Damn right. Good for you! Its amazing if people break company rules they are punished. If the company breaks the rules you don't even get an apology.
It was my first day at five guys, it was around 10:30 PM and they told me it was time to clock out, despite not having finished closing. I then worked until almost midnight. I did not return.
It’s called time theft, and many employers have ended up having to reimburse their employees for every unpaid second—-all the way back to the first time it happened, no matter how long ago it was.
Took a summer job at a textile plant and the trainer said, "Forget about taking a break if you want to stay caught up."
" I will be sending you a TEXT I'LL be leaving so forget about paying me if i'm not here. BYE"
Restaurant line chef. Worked a 12 hour shift, was given 2 breaks of about 10-15 min each. Burned my hand numerous times because they gave me plates that came right from the oven and never said a word. End of the shift I told the head chef I was done. He called me soft and Said I was the third person to quit on him after a day. I said “maybe it’s the way you treat people”.
Day 2 I quit. I got hired at a restaurant in New Jersey as a server but on the first day they had me working as a bus person ( the server's assistant) and I was not completely happy but it was a job and I needed it Second day, same thing. That day was September 11, 2001. I remember standing there looking at the TV in the bar area in complete horror and asked if I could leave to see if my family and friends were ok. They said no. I walked out the door and never went back.
Worked at McDonald’s years ago in their Assistant Manager training program. Had gotten hired right out of the Army. First day I met with the Store Manager where I’d be working and training and noted that she spent majority of the time doing entry level work and then working OT to do store manager work. She told me this was pretty common because of the type of people they’d hire. Her “office” was a counter and she told me she had bought a chair but corporate made her remove it. She was really nice, worked her ass off and was intelligent and told me she’d been at McDonald’s for 10 years. I imagined working my ass off only to be told I couldn’t have a chair and decided that night I wasn’t going to work for a company like that.
Thats CRAPdonalds for you. In any job when you work too hard managers expect it all the time without recognition but if you slow down then that is when they notice.
My S/O worked at Subway for one day. They had just started training him when he walked into the back, looked up, and saw a dozen or so knives hanging from the ceiling. As his trainer was explaining the hilarious game they played of making the knives stick in the ceiling tiles, another employee walked through the doorway and “WOOSH” - a knife fell down and pierced straight through the bill of their hat.
My first day working at EB games. I was super excited to be there!
The first half of my shift was basically "tidy up the shelves" It was a high traffic location so the shelves ALWAYS need tidying.
After 5 hours of following kids around and putting things away I go on break.
When I come back my Manager is standing in his strangely empty store absolutely aghast. Staring at a HUGE steaming pile of sh*t on the carpeted floor. Apparently a homeless person had walked in. Without saying a single word he Dropped trou and emptied his bowls.
My boss at me and says. "Oh good, you're back. Just in time. Clean that up, I'm going for lunch." I laughed at him and told him you can't be serious. I'm not going near that. He responds with. "it's your job, I'm taking a break. I want it gone before I get back." I told he's going to have to deal with it on his own because I Don't need this job that bad. So I quit. I grabbed my coat and went home.
1 week later the district manager calls me up to apologize and offer me my job back.
FFS, that’s biological waste! The manager should’ve closed the store, made sure you got paid for a full shift, then called in professionals to properly clean it. No wonder the district manager was so apologetic.
I applied to be a seasonal package handler at ups years ago. I go in for the orientation thing and I'm immediately put off by the manager(?) Who just seemed really rude to begin with. The other 40 people and I were about 30 minutes into it when someone SNEEZED and the manager went off "that is the kind of f**king bullsh*t im talking about.." I stood up before it seemed like she was finished and just said"not for me" and I walked out. I was surprised when I got in the car and about half of the remaining people walked out too.
UPS? sounds more like the fkn army. Glad most of them followed suit. Good for you.
Restaurant. Swept under my station when we were closing. Giant brown pile came out with broom from under low-boy fridge. Pile began to scatter. It was hundreds of roaches. Never returned
I had a job for one day selling home security equipment door to door. The whole idea was basically to make it seem like you're doing them a service and then lock the customer into 5 year contracts.
My supervisor and I were in this one home of a family that hardly some English. The father said they had been struggling with finances but my supervisor kept pushing it on them, and the customer seemed like he didn't fully understand what was going on. I couldn't in good conscience take these people that were already struggling and put them in a worse position.
Good on you for maintaining your composure and listening to your conscience!
My very first job was at a buffet restaurant that was popular with senior citizens and known for their desserts. I was asked to get another coconut cream pie from the back and as I was getting it out of the fridge, another employee bumped into me and I dropped it on the floor, pie side down. This employee’s (someone who’d worked there for years) solution was to just scrape off all the whipped topping and replace it. I was horrified they served pie that had been on the extremely dirty floor and never went back.
Hope you made sure they stayed well known for their desserts—-just in a VERY different way.
Got what was supposed to be a prestigious political internship that came with a security clearance and everything. Found out at orientation that the “part time” internship was really 40-60 hours, unpaid and that no intern had gone on to work with the organization and weren’t really given a leg up for other federal posts. We were supposed to facilitate meetings with heads of state, coordinate conferences and assist the actual employees with composing published research papers for which we would not be credited.
They were definitely drinking their own koolaid so I bounced right on out of there.
Well done. That is BS and those kinds of jobs, especially where you're 'assisting' research, are total f@#$ing scams, and the person who gets their name on the paper is the scammer.
Got a job as a cashier at a grocery store in FL, which I had just moved to from out of state a few days before. Was specifically told that I wouldn’t have to bag, stock shelves, etc. First day it gets slow, manager asks me to collect carts. Ok. Remember being told I wouldn’t have to do carts, but I wanted to show initiative. I get outside and it’s raining sideways. Like monsooning sideways. I’d never seen it rain that hard in my life. I walk back inside and ask if I can wait until the rain lets up, so I don’t freeze to death when I come back inside and work another 6 hours in the air conditioning. Was told if I didn’t collect carts immediately I would be fired. I dropped my smock and walked out the door, never to return again.
Hired me as a cashier, told me I'd be training for it and only working registers. Had me cleaning toilets and cart collecting in a thunder storm, with basically no heads up. Just handed them my badge and walked out.
Second day actually but the person who was training me at a McDonald's during the summer in college was so inconsistent and would like forget about me...second day she asked me what time it is, I pointed out the wall clock and said the time. She goes "Oh, I can't read them fancy clocks."
Made me sad more than anything, I grew up in a very rural-poor area... but also I realized that she wasn't having an "off day" with her sh**ty training and would be my supervisor. Didn't go back my third day.
It is not poor vs rich... It is lack of education and general knowledge. A rather wealthy suburb of Chicago, Illinois usa Replaced all of the schools clocks because " the kids could not read them". This was in the 1990's ( I was furious BTW) My little "darling" could read the time to the second... and when he asked for the time... he wanted the real time... 6:54 not the lazy 6:55... LOL
I had a week long labor job. I was told I would be carrying decking lumber up a few stairs. What they didn’t say was that the lumber was 6x6 treated lumber so each load we were carrying was 150 lbs. And those couple of steps were 88 up from a lakeside property. I managed to survive 8 hours but there was no way possible I could carry a few more tons of lumber up those stairs. I had to go to physio after to fix my knees
Im sure that is against health and safety regulations. Hope they paid for the physio.
It was a sandwich shop in college. I got the flu before my first day, told them I was sick, they said come in anyway it's just training. Then they had me making sandwiches, no gloves, runny nose, coughing and everything. I left in under an hour and didn't eat there again.
Unfortunately, there's no being sick in the restaurant biz. They never believe you first of all, they threaten you if you don't come in, and if they DO let you stay home then you have to get a Dr.s not if you're sick more than two days. So just so everyone knows, restaurant employees work sick all. The. Time
Ended up being a scam to try and get free labor. I went for a job interview as a security guard, a man and a woman asked me my name, asked me how strong I was then hired me and asked me to start immediately. That started alarm bells ringing, 2 questions in a interview and I am employed and working with no discussion about anything else.
They took me down to their warehouse (office interview was above it) and told me to start moving boxes from a shelf into a truck. I said hang on, the job is security not manual labor and then they started getting really sh*tty with me and saying if you want the job then you need to do this as part of it. I was like yeah nah I am out and walked out, total scam, there was no job and it really pissed me off because I could've gone to another interview at that time but choose to go there instead.
No ac in the delivery truck in West Texas...
I didn’t quit, but it was an interview many years ago. The position was for an admin assistant. I got to the place and it was in the back of a strip mall kind of, just a small parking lot and a forest. I go in to interview and the guy tells me it is in fact not an admin position but an alarm system cold calling position. I immediately knew he was wasting my time and his but finished it out. He told me there would be a lot of evenings just him and I working. Ummm I don’t think so. He also said that he loves to reward his team for good sales and always takes them to Mexico. I walked out and told my husband (bf at the time) there was no way I was taking that. I got a call for a second interview but never picked up the phone. So sketch.
I was hired as a cook in a country club in Miami Florida back in 2002, it was the grossest kitchen I have worked in in the US, I have been through worse in the US and around the world.
Most of the food in the coolers was rotting, there were ants on the cutting board they had me work at, the guy training me picked up a towel off of the floor to push the ants out of the way so I could work. Many of the food that should have been refrigerated was left out. The walk in freezer door would not close because there was so much ice build up.
I felt like I was going to vomit the whole time I was there. I made it through the day then did not come back for my 2nd day, the chef called me and I told him that I would not come back, he threaten to call the culinary school I went to and tell them I walked out on him, I told him that was fine and called the health department and reported their practices, they called me a year later to follow on the claim and had time to go check it out(what a joke.)
I stand by my choice to quit with no notice and reporting them.
You probably saved their diners a lot of medical bills, and maybe even a couple lives, by calling the Health Department on them.
A 3 hour presentation and you need to commit $100 to start your “life changing” journey to make money and be your own boss.
No thank you!
Always be wary of any job that requires you to pay money to get started working there, even if it’s for uniforms. If they can’t provide that, and ask someone who hasn’t even gotten a paycheck yet to put money up front, then you are guaranteed to either not make any money there (commission), or do way too much for the tiny amount they’ll pay you—-after they deduct any other charges they can come up with out of it.
Got a job at a saw/lumber mill. My first shift started at midnight. My boss met me at the entrance, lead me through the mill and out a back door. He told me stand next to this little opening in the wall, and when a piece of wood comes out, place it neatly in the stack on this big pallet. He left. Pieces of wood (1” x 2” x 10 feet) started shooting out every few seconds. It was all I could do to keep up. It started to rain, then poured. A fork truck driver went past and I ask him to tell my boss that I needed a rain coat. He just laughed. I stayed about an hour then just walked around the building and out the front gate.
Doug's wife came in at 11am to do the "books". Set her giant 7-11 soda pop down in the work area. Computer repair area. I picked it up and moved it to the desk she was using. Just went off like a deranged demon. I felt so sorry for Doug. At that time in that area I was a sought after tech. Started at competitor at 2pm.
Answered an ad in the paper (this was the mid 90s) what seemed to be an office job making sales calls when I was in college. Did a phone interview and was called back for an in person interview. When I go to the interview I'm led into a room with about 50 other people and a small stage at the front of the room. We're all somewhat confused as to what is going on. Finally a guy gets on the stage and informs us that we've been selected for the opportunity to sell Cutco. Me and 2/3rds of the rest stood up and walked out.
I got an entry level job as an “arborist” at a local tree management service. I was early 20s, fresh out of college, love trees. So I was pumped to learn more about trees and learn how to trim / cut them down, etc. My first day I was put on a crew with two other dudes who were supposed to be my trainers. These two were pretty much knuckleheads. We only had the front seat of our truck to sit in as we drove to the jobs, and I has to sit in between the both of the. They were laughing and playing jokes, and f**king around the whole day. So we get to an orchard where we were supposed to trim a few trees, and it just so happened that in one of the trees is a massive hornets nest. The lead guy I was with thought it would be funny to vigorously shake the branch that the nest was hanging from. As you can imagine he was immediately attacked by hornets and started running towards the truck. However me and the other guy were between the lead guy and the truck, and once we saw the swarm, we bolted. I remember running through the orchard and thinking, “this is too bad. I quit.”
My first internship was at a brazilian teen detention center (it's akin to a prison, but Brazilian law has some distinctions between crimes committed while as an adult or as a teenager - teens go through socio-educational measures).
I was walking through a courtyard with my supervisor when some doctors came running flailing their arms and screaming while officers came running from the opposite direction. I get pulled by my supervisor who just tells me to run back to our office. These teens as young as 12 had escaped their block. A few minutes later an officer comes knocking on the doors of the offices and yelling for everyone to run outside because a fire had broken out. Some of the teens had set mattresses on fire in their cells.
I didn't really nope out. My teacher did (she hadn't even been there that day). So i was forced by the university to choose another place to intern at. Oh well.
When I burned my hands all night on the too hot plates as a food runner. They wouldn't let me use towels to carry them and said I just had to get used to it. Nope.
That’s such risky behavior, and a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Hope you at least reported them to OSHA.
First day at burger King, I had to clean the men's bathroom, I go in there and there was poop everywhere, next to the toilet, on the ceiling, the walls and even the sink. I quickly walked out the bathroom, didn't even clock out, and just left the store and went home. I wasn't going to to clean that,was awful
Not the first day - but the first week.
Took a job at a coffee stand in a mall. Had worked at coffee places before, and this one was super high traffic which boded well for tips.
At the end of my third shift person who closed the till had come up short, and was like oh damn, guess the two of us will be docked from our tips. I was like, uhhh absolutely not, that’s not how that works.
Owner/manager comes over and says the same and I was like pretty sure that’s illegal. She insisted, so I was like ok well it’s for sure illegal, and I’m not coming back. She got very flustered and upset and started talking about how’s she’s a business owner and people should be more responsible. It was like ten bucks short, and I didn’t have the patience for a predatory manager.
If it was a busy coffee stand then im sure it done very well on sales. Im sure $10 is not that missed.
I wasn’t the person but I was training a new guy at a movie theater. A customer asked for extra butter. She was nice and normal. Not a mean or rude customer. The kind I would pay to handle all day long.
He puts the popcorn tub down, says I’m going to the bathroom, takes off his apron and walks out the front door and never came back.
I noped out of an interview one time. Thanked them at the end and said it wasn't for me.
Those interviewing, management level folks, started arguing with each other in front of me during the interview.
I figured, if this is the vibe at the management level then I sure as hell don't want to be your employee.
Wasn't exactly the first day but I didn't show up after the second shift. 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 sh*t 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 shutdown.
Warehouse job, putting stickers on file folders or some such garbage. Seemed pointless and the floor was just a mass of these same stickers, so they were either falling off constantly or people were shirking work by emptying their quota onto the floor.
Went to ask the boss a question, found him asleep in an empty office. He’d taken off a sock and had draped it over his eyes to block out the light.
On my way out the door, the other girl who had started that day said “please come back, don’t leave me alone here.” I couldn’t stop laughing.
To the girl " here's how to solve your problem, do what im doing and just leave"
Had two interviews to work housekeeping at a hospital. Got a call the night of the second interview at around midnight from the guy saying, 'I was just so excited I wanted to call and tell you I'm gonna call you to offer you the job tomorrow.' Should have taken that as the first red flag, but I needed the job. I go in for my first day of training and he has printouts of my Facebook wall and my boyfriends. He started asking me how long we had been together and made it clear he knew everything, so not to lie to him. It was so uncomfortable. After my first session of training, we break for lunch, and he sits with me in the cafeteria asking how it's been going so far, etc. Then, tells me he expects to see me at his church Sunday. I haven't gone to church in like 10 years at this point.
Sushi restaurant who was being run by a 18 year old entitled son. The other employees were hard working Hispanics in the kitchen and old asian ladies. Since I was close to his age(21 at this time) he immediately decided it be cool for him to confide in me.
Right from the beginning of the lunch run he is cussing out the Hispanic cooks in the kitchen for food that is taking a minute too long as well as yelling at the small asian ladies scrambling around trying to do their best. I knew this kid didn't have what it takes to be a manager or to be even a decent human being.
Instead of taking my apron home with me, I put the apron in a locker and never came back.
Parents who own businesses often fail to show their kids the ropes, have them work up from the bottom, and/or go to college to learn how to properly run a business. Sometimes it’s a matter of choosing the eldest—-often eldest male—-child who is a totally clueless fuckup, and passing over a younger, or female, child who is more suited to running it. Other times they let all the kids have a portion, even if they were always fighting when they were growing up, and proceed to create such an incredibly toxic atmosphere that everyone quits. Once mom and dad retire and pass the keys to the healthy, profitable business, their unqualified kid(s), either the parents end up forced to come out of retirement (then hire management by interview instead of birth), or the business gets totally run into the ground and has to close down—- and not long after the kids took over. Even if the parents had it running beautifully for decades.
I was hired to be a waitress, which has a lower hourly wage due to tips. The entire shift they had me wash dishes in the sink, but paid me waitress wages. A few months later the restaurant was investigated for a number of fraud activity.
Electronics store. My first day we had to attend a class where they teach people how to upsell folks. Basically walked you through ignoring what they ask you for and using their ignorance of the equipment against them. I thought that was really scuzzy.
Then they went on to tell us about a commission style bonus program that basically forced employees to upsell everyone.
When we took the break for lunch that first day I peaced out and went home. Never got paid for those four hours, but I never regretted bouncing on that.
Told me on day 1 I’d be making 10$ an hour instead of 13, only one other employee working there and he was about 40-50. He said Hi then asked if he could get $5 for a pack of cigarettes. Then I was told I would be making deliveries with my own car, when I was working the kitchen, and I’d have to work open-close every day, and was openly told I’d have no chance of a raise Becuase the store didn’t make enough money. Boss lady turned around and I noped right out of there faster than a pig in a slaughterhouse.
Didn’t get a lunch break. Nothing comes between a guy and his food
*except my old boss, evidently
Dishwasher at a restaurant chain. Imagine being extremely overworked, undervalued, no breaks, constantly moving, dishes came so quick the main guy was hardly washing and plates went out with old dried food, slippery floors, dirty ass water, everyone being angry. Noped out of there
I worked on as a cashier on a parking lot of a big shopping mall. I got a orientation of 2 hours and then my boss let me alone, the first customer wanted to pay me $300 with $20.000 (Chilean pesos) and got mad cuz i didn't had change, the next one asked something similar and the next and the next. When my boss came back i just quit
A smoothie joint when I was 17.
I agreed to a pay of $10 per hour. I walked in the first day and my boss goes, “About your pay... instead of $10 per hour, it’s going to be $8.50 per hour. Sorry.”
I was the only one working my whole first shift. My coworkers sat in the back while I did literally everything and suffered through three rush hours... completely untrained because according to my boss - “my coworkers would train me.”
I was graduating high school and community college the week after I started and told my boss in advance (before he even offered me the job) that I would need that week off due to final exams and the graduation ceremony, but that I could work whenever needed after that week. On my first day, he released the schedule for the next week and what do you know, I’m scheduled to work double shifts every day the whole next week.
I worked the minimum I could (3 shifts) and never went back. I never got paid.
Fast food. Manager was literally whining at people, yelled at me for questioning him demanding I stand in a puddle and plug in a frayed extension cord, and 3 of the 4 people in the kitchen told me they were quitting next week
How about if i throw a bucket of water at you and tell you to hold a frayed wire? Hope they did and fkd him up.
It was a small independent insurance agency in 2006. My first day there the owner (a true fossil) said email and fax were strictly forbidden as he only ‘believed in’ communication in person, by phone, or through mail. Left for lunch and never went back. I couldn’t imagine the inefficiency I’d have dealt with had I stayed.
They ultimately closed their doors so it was definitely the right decision.
I took a job at a lock down residential treatment center as I was desperate for a job. The interviewer said most of the kids were court ordered, and were a step away from juvie. The interview didn’t go well so I was honestly surprised when they called me offer me the job. The morning of training was going over all of the state and federal laws that governed the place, like resident rights and staff to resident ratios and the like. The afternoon was a tour of the facility where it became readily apparent that exact none of the laws we’d just covered were being followed.
I left at the end of the day and never came back. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen at that place. A few months later they got shut down after a riot that results in several serious injuries to both residents and staff. Glad I wasn’t around for that.
This kind of stuff is not rare in social services fields. Lots of government regulations and mandates, not enough government money for anything, government oversight that hinders way more than helps, and high turnover from worker and supervisior burnout from job stress. Then there's special interests whose involvement is really about improving their bottom line by providing the government with "solutions" to non-existent problems. Ex: Electronic Visit Verification or EVV for short. It's caused some social workers to leave and parents to pull disabled family members from programs. It's Orwellian. Federal government mandated (via a last minute addition to the CURES Act after intense lobbying) but without funding. It was left to the individual States... who simply required service providers to foot the bill.
When at the daily meeting a manger said if they found out who put a paper bag with human excrement in a employees locker....
LOL! Shame it wasn't in the managers desk draw. Well my managers anyway
Two times.
Once I applied for and got a telemarketing job. I didn’t know what it entailed. After an hour I knew it was a terrible fit...auto dialing people during their dinners, trying to sell them stuff they didn’t want, reading a horrible script while sitting in a soulless grey cubicle. I got up, went to the manager, apologized and said it wasn’t a good fit for me. He seemed understanding.
Another time I attended a “make easy money at this job” seminar and it turns out it was selling knives door to door. Idk if I technically “quit” or just noped out at the end of it.
The job listing said good pay but was very vague about what i would actually be doing. the interview was the same. On morning the first day we were told to practice this script on selling solar panels. Then at around 10:30, we were broken into groups of 4 and we drove 2 hours out to country Victoria (Australia) to rural towns where we would go door-to-door trying to sell solar panels.
Side note, the driver of the car was on his phone, watching netflix whilst DRIVING.
Got home at 6pm, rang up the bloke, quit immediately, told him not to worry about paying me for that day of work.
from netflix to car flips? No way. Drop me off here i will walk back.
I thought I was in shape so took a second job loading trucks at FedEx. Boxes come at you so fast, it’s hot, some are heavy af. Never came back after one shift.
Was hired as a server sure no problem. Got there they were like nope you’re doing dishes. After 8 hours of dishes I went home. I’m not a dishwasher and I was told I’d be serving. Never went back never got paid. Didn’t care the couple running it were a bunch of jerks anyway.
Not the smartest person. Why work 8 hours for free when you can walk out in under 2 minutes?
I took a part-time job at Bath & Body Works during the holidays years ago. I made it through the videos and tried one shift. The store was freezing for some reason and the manager kept berating me for having my arms crossed. She also didn’t like my posture
I showed up. Was 15 minutes into Orientation and Paperwork. Regional Corporate came in and sacked everyone (sans me..I was still the new hire). The Regional came up to me and said this never happens, we'd love for you to stay. 2 hours later the Regional has to leave for another location. The trainee from another branch that had come to run the branch I was at says...they're about to sack everyone there too. I was like ok...this isn't for me at all and left. The Regiona
Lost my job as a waitress when the pandemic hit, so I took a role in horse breeding. I'd ridden horses in high school, so sounds like a fun job, right?
Ugh, nope. Quit the first day. I'll live under a bridge if I have to, but I'm not spending 50 hours a week surrounded by insanely horny 1000-pound beasts in a breeding stall and cleaning up after them
To the young folk here in the USA: know that you have rights as an employee, no matter your age or the job. The Department of Labor (DOL) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are there to protect you, and in most cases they will if there's a legitimate concern. DO NOT let the employer decide what's legitimate, contact OSHA or the DOL and ask them when you experience a problem. If your employer is pooling and splitting tips, unfortunately this is legal in many places, but double check. If your employer is taking a cut of the tips for themselves, or outright taking the tips, this is ILLEGAL in all areas (to the best of my knowledge). If you're paid Alternate Minimum Wage, and your tips do not make up the difference to get you to full minimum wage, then your employer is legally REQUIRED to make up the difference. If your employer expects you to do work off the clock, this is ILLEGAL. DEFEND YOURSELVES, BECAUSE IT HELPS EVERYONE
A few years ago, I got a side job restocking the shelves at a large grocery store nearby. About two weeks in, my boss informed me that a different store was low on employees and asked if I'd mind helping out over there. Sure, no problem. So we made a schedule for me: I'd work at the other store from 10 to 2, then return to my regular one and stay there till 11. I agreed and turned at on the other store at 10 o'clock. I worked until about 1:30, then informed the guy in charge that I'd have to leave soon. Since there was still a lot of work to do, he decided to call my boss and asked if I could stay a little longer. Sure enough, he comes back and informs me that I can stay in the other store and work there until 11. I did, and after my work was over, I fetched my stuff, looked at my phone... and found a bunch of angry messages from my boss. There hadn't been a phone call. The guy literally pretended to call my boss and lied to me so I'd finish his work for him.
I didn't quit but took my complaint to my union. I was 22 and working for the Dept. of Labor in DC and was a data entry clerk. Our office had those low cubicles, just a computer on your desk, not even a phone, one phone was in the middle of the room for us all to share. Bosses decided that Nate was abusing the phone to call his girlfriend so put a lock on it where you had to ask for a key to use it. This felt juvenile and disrespectful. Took it to the union and that and many other abusive behaviors (timing our bathroom usage) were stopped. Bosses didn't like me after that, what did I care? I was 22 and didn't give a f.
I enjoyed this one. Well done to all those that walked out and well done for sharing your experiences. I'm sure this has inspired others that are in their s***ty little jobs. Some managers bang on as though it is the only company in the world and that you should be grateful for it. Remember this - Your sanity is more important than money!
Took a job in a soap factory. Was told to wait in the "lunch room" which was an old storage cupboard with one table and one chair. Went out onto the factory floor and the first thing I saw was a fork-lift truck wheel spinning in the two inches of soap that covered the floor. Worked for a couple of hours and then needed the bathroom. The bathroom door was buried behind a giant pile of boxes that I had to move to get in. There was no soap in the bathroom of a soap factory. When my first break came I called another temp agency and took the first job they offered me. Then I walked up to my supervisor and told him I quit. He shouted abuse at me as I walked out. When I got home my agency rep for that job was on the phone screaming blue murder at me because the supervisor had fired all the other temps after I walked out. Said he was going to blacklist me and I'd never get another agency job. The next day he called me back to apologise after doing a surprise inspection at the factory.
It was the first day on the job after training. It was door to door subscription sales (not the type of sales/retail I had ever done before ) but I was in that weird age bracket of too young for this position too old for that, so took anything I could get. Day one knocked on a door and a young lady with Down Syndrome came to the screen door (it was summer the main door was open) she said hi to me, and I said hi back but in seconds her parents (elderly, so I have no real knowledge of the ladies exact age) came to the door yanked her away and slammed the door. I would not have speeled her, I was just returning her own greeting at that point. However on walking away I hear her being yelled at by her parents, and my heart broke, the idea that I had caused such a thing to happen because of a dumb job was a huge no, I called the supervisor that drove us out to locations and said I quit, he tried so hard to get me to stay as I had so much sales experience but I would never forget that feeling
I accepted a job as Manager at fast fashion store. The first day, the district manager and the company's ceo were introducing me to the store and staff, some of whom were lgbtq+, and during the course of the day started using slurs against gay men. I left and didn't return, wrote and let them know why. I was disgusted.
Back on the 90s I got a job at a TV VCR repair shop. A friend recommended me and I spoke with the owner, a woman over the phone. When I turned up the first day, the women, in her 40s, was dressed like a wh***. Short skirt, a tight blouse that hid nothing. She was quite podgy so all of her was everyway. Anyway after the initial shock I got stuck in with the TVs. An hour in she came a sat next to me and asked me to explain what I was doing leaning over, touching me on the leg as she spoke. She explained that she had just got devorced because her husband, who used to fix the TVs had left her for a younger woman. By this time I could clearly see she was not wearing underwear, she also made it very clear that she was part of the benefits of the job. In the end I felt sorry for her, she obviously had very low self esteem after her husband left her and had no idea how to run the business.
I am nearly 80 and have had a lot of jobs over the years. This article shows that some things never change.
I took a job at a day care where the owner's daughter also worked, and had an infant son. The kid was in the room I was hired for, but he was generally always out of the room with his mom. Mom covered me for my break, and when I came back to the room, she was sitting on the floor with her kid, while a pair of twins were sitting on the other side of the room playing in a dirty diaper. I noped TF out of there.
I worked at a Ricky's restaurant in murrayville. The owner was a real pos. Promised me that after I was a hostess for a while he would promote me to a waitress. Well fast forward 6 months a waitress position opened and the creep hired someone else from a resume pile them told me I was too good of a hostess to promote. Not to mention once he took my lunch and hid it on me so I'd have to buy from his restaurant among other things. A busy long weekend was about to happen so I waited for my Friday shift showed up 2 hours late and slammed my uniform on the counter and said loudly "I quit! You're absolutely terrible to work for! My manager stood there with bug eyes and stammered "you can't quit it's rush hour!!!". And I said "watch me" and walked out. As I did the customers clapped lol
I worked for a company that hired engineers for managers. They were told on their first day by the non-engineers that they would only have to work half-days on their job for regular 40 hours per week pay rate. It took most of them over a week on the job to figure out that the hiring team meant 12 hour days, six days a week when they said "half-days". After all, there are 24 hours in a day, aren't there? So a half-day is legitimately 12 hours. They were told that they were salaried engineers, so they company was not required to pay for their overtime. Fun job!
In the 90s, I had just earned my college degree and went for a job at a local office looking to hire an office manager. The place was bizarre. There were two rooms, the large front room with rows of open-front desks facing at an odd angle and an office where the man who owned the place worked. Women looking like something out of the 50s were typing away at the desks. I went into his office for the interview and immediately felt like I wanted to just run away. He was seriously creepy. After the interview, as I exited his office, I realized why the open-front desks were angled oddly - it was so they faced his office door. He only hired women and they were required to wear short skirts and heels. He said, "See you Monday" and I said, "No, thank you."
Long long time ago as a college student I was sent by a temp agency to work in a bank counting bonds. This was precomputer age . I was given a rubber thumb and was seated at a desk covered with stacks of bonds. I may have been young but I looked around and said I am outta here...i wasnt there more than 5 min
I started a job at a cafe. Didn't quit the first day but the first week. All was going fine, I was good, customers liked me. One day my supervisor comes and tells me that the manager wants me to wear makeup. I don't own makeup. She was very angry with him. We discussed it a bit. Next day I wore full makeup. My sister did it for me. Found the manager and told him that women didn't fight for years for their rights so he can ask me to wear makeup in his stupid little cafe. Also mentioned that I can report them and then left. For a month or so they were calling me to go back. I never did. They had 0 benefits and were paying something like €4.50. Found myself a job that pays €7 per hour with two offs, 13th and 14th salary and medical insurance(even though I am fully covered by social insurance). Later I learned that the supervisor left because of this. She just didn't agree with it, they never asked her to wear makeup.
Restaurant managers have always been crappy employers. They are generally shady, mean, petty people who either expect free work or "benefits" out of young naive wait staff.
my husband quit a job at a small engine repair shop. they told him that when people brought in their lawn mowers that were out of gas, NEVER tell them that! tell them it was wiring, compression, or something more costly, and that YOU FIXED IT. he walked out. people disgust me!
got a job at a factory where they made envelopes and applied the glue to the flaps. 15 minutes into my tour of the place and getting to my work station, i was so high from the fumes i couldn't see straight! i told them, you can keep my 15 minutes of wages, i am outta here! walked out and never looked back....smart even as a teen, before OSHA
Does it count if I left during the interview, without being hired? I went for a bar job (both tending bar and waiting on tables), and after getting around a small hurdle of needing to providing my own uniform, I was told I could come in for two hours for a trial run to see how I got on. "We won't throw you into the deep end right away", said the manager. "Great, that's a relief.", I responded. "So how does Saturday between 6 and 8pm sound?", he asked. "No deep end, huh?", I thought before thanking him for suggesting I work the busiest time of the night in a role I'd never done before, and leaving.
When I first graduated high school, I took a job at a steel plant. Steel plants were the main employers in my hometown, but this wasn’t one of the big, unionized companies. There wasn’t any real training. The first job I was assigned was taking industrial washers off an assembly line, making piles of 25, bending a piece of rebar to seal them, and putting the pile on a pallet. It went pretty fast. I really couldn’t keep up. Before long, it resembled that candy episode of I Love Lucy. It sucked, but that’s not why I quit. The guy across from me cut his arm pretty badly on the sheet metal cutter in the morning. The manager literally wrapped his arm in a towel and sent him back to work. Later on, he cut his arm again. This time he went to the hospital. (He had to punch out first. They wouldn’t pay him for the time.) I was asked to take over his station since I wasn’t keeping up at mine. I just walked out the bay doors and went back to school in September.
Started college and got a job. Fast food with a drive thru. Showed up, put on terrible uniform and was told to do the drive thru. Never trained me, showed me nothing. Saturday morning, it was swamped because I had no training. People pissed, everyone pissed. Went in to office to see manager, can I have help? He was sitting with his feet on his desk reading the funnies. I threw my hat at him and said I quit . He was baffled.
My mom saw me and cried. She didn't want me to work.
Load More Replies...Your Colgate ad blocking the article.... Will never buy another Colgate in my life!!!
16 my first ever job as a caissière at the local supermarket. 5 of the staff members were arguing about who would be the one of showing me the ropes. After 40 minutes of them arguing about it I told them not to bother. And went home.
I went to an Aflac group interview where basically if you went and interested you were hired. The job was 100% commission and you had to call up businesses and basically go door to door business to business. I was the only one who was like nope not for me.
To the young folk here in the USA: know that you have rights as an employee, no matter your age or the job. The Department of Labor (DOL) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are there to protect you, and in most cases they will if there's a legitimate concern. DO NOT let the employer decide what's legitimate, contact OSHA or the DOL and ask them when you experience a problem. If your employer is pooling and splitting tips, unfortunately this is legal in many places, but double check. If your employer is taking a cut of the tips for themselves, or outright taking the tips, this is ILLEGAL in all areas (to the best of my knowledge). If you're paid Alternate Minimum Wage, and your tips do not make up the difference to get you to full minimum wage, then your employer is legally REQUIRED to make up the difference. If your employer expects you to do work off the clock, this is ILLEGAL. DEFEND YOURSELVES, BECAUSE IT HELPS EVERYONE
A few years ago, I got a side job restocking the shelves at a large grocery store nearby. About two weeks in, my boss informed me that a different store was low on employees and asked if I'd mind helping out over there. Sure, no problem. So we made a schedule for me: I'd work at the other store from 10 to 2, then return to my regular one and stay there till 11. I agreed and turned at on the other store at 10 o'clock. I worked until about 1:30, then informed the guy in charge that I'd have to leave soon. Since there was still a lot of work to do, he decided to call my boss and asked if I could stay a little longer. Sure enough, he comes back and informs me that I can stay in the other store and work there until 11. I did, and after my work was over, I fetched my stuff, looked at my phone... and found a bunch of angry messages from my boss. There hadn't been a phone call. The guy literally pretended to call my boss and lied to me so I'd finish his work for him.
I didn't quit but took my complaint to my union. I was 22 and working for the Dept. of Labor in DC and was a data entry clerk. Our office had those low cubicles, just a computer on your desk, not even a phone, one phone was in the middle of the room for us all to share. Bosses decided that Nate was abusing the phone to call his girlfriend so put a lock on it where you had to ask for a key to use it. This felt juvenile and disrespectful. Took it to the union and that and many other abusive behaviors (timing our bathroom usage) were stopped. Bosses didn't like me after that, what did I care? I was 22 and didn't give a f.
I enjoyed this one. Well done to all those that walked out and well done for sharing your experiences. I'm sure this has inspired others that are in their s***ty little jobs. Some managers bang on as though it is the only company in the world and that you should be grateful for it. Remember this - Your sanity is more important than money!
Took a job in a soap factory. Was told to wait in the "lunch room" which was an old storage cupboard with one table and one chair. Went out onto the factory floor and the first thing I saw was a fork-lift truck wheel spinning in the two inches of soap that covered the floor. Worked for a couple of hours and then needed the bathroom. The bathroom door was buried behind a giant pile of boxes that I had to move to get in. There was no soap in the bathroom of a soap factory. When my first break came I called another temp agency and took the first job they offered me. Then I walked up to my supervisor and told him I quit. He shouted abuse at me as I walked out. When I got home my agency rep for that job was on the phone screaming blue murder at me because the supervisor had fired all the other temps after I walked out. Said he was going to blacklist me and I'd never get another agency job. The next day he called me back to apologise after doing a surprise inspection at the factory.
It was the first day on the job after training. It was door to door subscription sales (not the type of sales/retail I had ever done before ) but I was in that weird age bracket of too young for this position too old for that, so took anything I could get. Day one knocked on a door and a young lady with Down Syndrome came to the screen door (it was summer the main door was open) she said hi to me, and I said hi back but in seconds her parents (elderly, so I have no real knowledge of the ladies exact age) came to the door yanked her away and slammed the door. I would not have speeled her, I was just returning her own greeting at that point. However on walking away I hear her being yelled at by her parents, and my heart broke, the idea that I had caused such a thing to happen because of a dumb job was a huge no, I called the supervisor that drove us out to locations and said I quit, he tried so hard to get me to stay as I had so much sales experience but I would never forget that feeling
I accepted a job as Manager at fast fashion store. The first day, the district manager and the company's ceo were introducing me to the store and staff, some of whom were lgbtq+, and during the course of the day started using slurs against gay men. I left and didn't return, wrote and let them know why. I was disgusted.
Back on the 90s I got a job at a TV VCR repair shop. A friend recommended me and I spoke with the owner, a woman over the phone. When I turned up the first day, the women, in her 40s, was dressed like a wh***. Short skirt, a tight blouse that hid nothing. She was quite podgy so all of her was everyway. Anyway after the initial shock I got stuck in with the TVs. An hour in she came a sat next to me and asked me to explain what I was doing leaning over, touching me on the leg as she spoke. She explained that she had just got devorced because her husband, who used to fix the TVs had left her for a younger woman. By this time I could clearly see she was not wearing underwear, she also made it very clear that she was part of the benefits of the job. In the end I felt sorry for her, she obviously had very low self esteem after her husband left her and had no idea how to run the business.
I am nearly 80 and have had a lot of jobs over the years. This article shows that some things never change.
I took a job at a day care where the owner's daughter also worked, and had an infant son. The kid was in the room I was hired for, but he was generally always out of the room with his mom. Mom covered me for my break, and when I came back to the room, she was sitting on the floor with her kid, while a pair of twins were sitting on the other side of the room playing in a dirty diaper. I noped TF out of there.
I worked at a Ricky's restaurant in murrayville. The owner was a real pos. Promised me that after I was a hostess for a while he would promote me to a waitress. Well fast forward 6 months a waitress position opened and the creep hired someone else from a resume pile them told me I was too good of a hostess to promote. Not to mention once he took my lunch and hid it on me so I'd have to buy from his restaurant among other things. A busy long weekend was about to happen so I waited for my Friday shift showed up 2 hours late and slammed my uniform on the counter and said loudly "I quit! You're absolutely terrible to work for! My manager stood there with bug eyes and stammered "you can't quit it's rush hour!!!". And I said "watch me" and walked out. As I did the customers clapped lol
I worked for a company that hired engineers for managers. They were told on their first day by the non-engineers that they would only have to work half-days on their job for regular 40 hours per week pay rate. It took most of them over a week on the job to figure out that the hiring team meant 12 hour days, six days a week when they said "half-days". After all, there are 24 hours in a day, aren't there? So a half-day is legitimately 12 hours. They were told that they were salaried engineers, so they company was not required to pay for their overtime. Fun job!
In the 90s, I had just earned my college degree and went for a job at a local office looking to hire an office manager. The place was bizarre. There were two rooms, the large front room with rows of open-front desks facing at an odd angle and an office where the man who owned the place worked. Women looking like something out of the 50s were typing away at the desks. I went into his office for the interview and immediately felt like I wanted to just run away. He was seriously creepy. After the interview, as I exited his office, I realized why the open-front desks were angled oddly - it was so they faced his office door. He only hired women and they were required to wear short skirts and heels. He said, "See you Monday" and I said, "No, thank you."
Long long time ago as a college student I was sent by a temp agency to work in a bank counting bonds. This was precomputer age . I was given a rubber thumb and was seated at a desk covered with stacks of bonds. I may have been young but I looked around and said I am outta here...i wasnt there more than 5 min
I started a job at a cafe. Didn't quit the first day but the first week. All was going fine, I was good, customers liked me. One day my supervisor comes and tells me that the manager wants me to wear makeup. I don't own makeup. She was very angry with him. We discussed it a bit. Next day I wore full makeup. My sister did it for me. Found the manager and told him that women didn't fight for years for their rights so he can ask me to wear makeup in his stupid little cafe. Also mentioned that I can report them and then left. For a month or so they were calling me to go back. I never did. They had 0 benefits and were paying something like €4.50. Found myself a job that pays €7 per hour with two offs, 13th and 14th salary and medical insurance(even though I am fully covered by social insurance). Later I learned that the supervisor left because of this. She just didn't agree with it, they never asked her to wear makeup.
Restaurant managers have always been crappy employers. They are generally shady, mean, petty people who either expect free work or "benefits" out of young naive wait staff.
my husband quit a job at a small engine repair shop. they told him that when people brought in their lawn mowers that were out of gas, NEVER tell them that! tell them it was wiring, compression, or something more costly, and that YOU FIXED IT. he walked out. people disgust me!
got a job at a factory where they made envelopes and applied the glue to the flaps. 15 minutes into my tour of the place and getting to my work station, i was so high from the fumes i couldn't see straight! i told them, you can keep my 15 minutes of wages, i am outta here! walked out and never looked back....smart even as a teen, before OSHA
Does it count if I left during the interview, without being hired? I went for a bar job (both tending bar and waiting on tables), and after getting around a small hurdle of needing to providing my own uniform, I was told I could come in for two hours for a trial run to see how I got on. "We won't throw you into the deep end right away", said the manager. "Great, that's a relief.", I responded. "So how does Saturday between 6 and 8pm sound?", he asked. "No deep end, huh?", I thought before thanking him for suggesting I work the busiest time of the night in a role I'd never done before, and leaving.
When I first graduated high school, I took a job at a steel plant. Steel plants were the main employers in my hometown, but this wasn’t one of the big, unionized companies. There wasn’t any real training. The first job I was assigned was taking industrial washers off an assembly line, making piles of 25, bending a piece of rebar to seal them, and putting the pile on a pallet. It went pretty fast. I really couldn’t keep up. Before long, it resembled that candy episode of I Love Lucy. It sucked, but that’s not why I quit. The guy across from me cut his arm pretty badly on the sheet metal cutter in the morning. The manager literally wrapped his arm in a towel and sent him back to work. Later on, he cut his arm again. This time he went to the hospital. (He had to punch out first. They wouldn’t pay him for the time.) I was asked to take over his station since I wasn’t keeping up at mine. I just walked out the bay doors and went back to school in September.
Started college and got a job. Fast food with a drive thru. Showed up, put on terrible uniform and was told to do the drive thru. Never trained me, showed me nothing. Saturday morning, it was swamped because I had no training. People pissed, everyone pissed. Went in to office to see manager, can I have help? He was sitting with his feet on his desk reading the funnies. I threw my hat at him and said I quit . He was baffled.
My mom saw me and cried. She didn't want me to work.
Load More Replies...Your Colgate ad blocking the article.... Will never buy another Colgate in my life!!!
16 my first ever job as a caissière at the local supermarket. 5 of the staff members were arguing about who would be the one of showing me the ropes. After 40 minutes of them arguing about it I told them not to bother. And went home.
I went to an Aflac group interview where basically if you went and interested you were hired. The job was 100% commission and you had to call up businesses and basically go door to door business to business. I was the only one who was like nope not for me.