The first day on the job can be nerve-wracking, with all that built-up anticipation after interviewing, training, and uncertainty. You show up, perhaps ignorant, but ready to learn what this job has in store for you.
But one netizen really wanted to hear others' stories of realizing that the only thing their new job had to offer was pain and misery, so they asked the internet to describe the least time people had spent working at a specific position and why. So read through some tales from horrible workplaces and be sure to upvote your favorites and if you have a story that is similar, don’t hesitate to share in the comments section below.
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I'm a vet tech. I quit a clinic after about 3 weeks when the doctor told me to start reusing needles. He wanted me to pull up a vaccine, administer it, ,the pull the next vaccine up into the same syringe with the same needle and repeat.
That was the final straw.
The first straw was finding out that we (it was a small practice with 2 other techs and 1 receptionist) were required to bring our own toilet paper to work :)
Report that.Vet to professional organization for unethical practices.
15 minutes. Applied for and accepted a job that was advertised as solely data entry, evening shifts. Got there, did the quick intro/meet and greet thing and was handed a mobile phone.
No word of a lie, supervisor goes "It's actually a cold calling role, no-one would apply if we said that so we tell people it's data entry."
I went sorry, what?
He goes yeah, we cold call people for this idea my friend has asking for investors! You'll get a commission if you do well!
At that point in time I was a salty, snarky young lady so I told him to shove it, that this was probably illegal in so many, many, ways, I applied for data entry not cold calling and swindling people, etc etc. Called my dad to come pick me up and never looked back - took a legit data entry offer the next day.
So. Yeah. Uh... 15 minutes. Found out many years later that dude and the friend with the great idea both got done on some serious fraud charges shortly after my run in with them.
That sounds very familiar but I lasted three days before walking out (also filthy office and equipment, I felt like I needed a tetanus shot after I left)
About 5 minutes after being hired. Enough time to be shown around by the director of nursing and meet the admin. I introduced myself and he said "Why should I care?" I just went f**k this and walked out.
While the time-frames in this story truly do range from months to minutes, the average job tenure has been steadily declining in recent years, as in the US it now stands at just two years. While younger workers might see this as completely reasonable, remember that in the “recent past,” real or imagined, people might spend a decade working the exact same job, without a thought of switching it up or getting a promotion.
Indeed, these workplaces do appear to be the worst of the worst, and kudos to these people for understanding the sunk cost fallacy and leaving before any permanent damage was done. While employees of the past may have been more skeptical about simply leaving, in this day and age, now up to one-third of workers have stated a willingness to quit, if needed, without another job lined up.
One week. Worked as a delivery driver for a national pizza chain in high school. Got my first paycheck at the end of the week and it was stupidly low. I reported my tips. They deducted them from my hourly wage. Took off my shirt right in front of my manager, and literally walked across the parking lot to the Chinese place with a “drivers wanted” sign in the window. I started driving for them the next day.
Babysitting job as a 6th grader for a baby/toddler and the dad came home during lunch and tried to get me in the bedroom with a nudie magazine. I was terrified.
AS a 6th grader? meaning, you were around 11 or 12 years old? I would call the f*cking police!
While I was a studying to be a nurse I worked as a nursing assistant.
I got employed by this aged care facility - this wasn't my first job in this role and I was almost finished nursing so I had experience and knowledge.
The conditions were absolutely horrific.
They had a woman laying in her urine constantly - only changing the pad twice a day. She had developed a fungal infection and they were only treating it with steroids for the redness and not the actual fungal infection.
There was 2 person assist we were doing with a resident and she had to hold on to bars to help stand herself up and it had wheels to move her. I assessed she didn't have the strength and refused to do it. The other aid did it by herself and the woman got a skin tear from not being able to hold herself up.
There was a woman there with a broken wrist from being dressed that morning.
There's a heap of other stuff that happened on that one shift but holy s**t.
I've never quit after one shift and reported a facility so fast.
Terrible how many facilities like this are around. Glad you reported it.
While certain jobs do rely on horrible conditions to cut costs, this is ultimately a losing strategy in the long run. The average cost of replacing a worker is around $16’000, factoring in the time the position stays open, the need to train them (or the lack of productivity from an untrained worker) as well as the extra time and work for the hiring manager. Common sense would dictate that in most high-turnover jobs, this is not going to be the case, but all the more reason for workers to stay away.
I had an interview that was unlike any other interview I’ve ever had. It was a room full of other applicants and the “interviewer.” The interviewer was telling us about the job, asked if anyone had any questions, then said we were all hired. I didn’t fill any paperwork out thank goodness. After he said we were all hired, half the people including myself walked out. The job was to go door to door selling knives, and we would have to pay $2k for our demo set of knives. Nope! No thanks!
I've read about this MLM and how they target college students/ recent grads. Any job that requires you to buy anything that is needed to do the job is likely either an MLM or a scam (or both!)!
4 hours. Took a job working as a computer operator at a casino only to be told after orientation that I would be working a split shift twice a day, every holiday, and every weekend. I went home called back and quit. They threw a fit and asked who would cover that weekend as they all had vacation and I said I didn’t know because I didn’t work there anymore. Years later someone I worked with at another job and who had worked at the casino found out I had worked there and said “YOURE THE GUY!!! THEY HAAAAATE YOU THERE.” lol
1 day thru a temp agency. They had me 15+ feet high, up on a cherry picker with no harness loading 60 pound pales of reflective roofing paint onto the picker. I would have refused but I was broke and needed gas money to keep looking for another job 😆. Anxiety was thru the roof even after I had ended the day. I reported them to OSHA.
Good for reporting. You did what you could to prevent these people from exploiting another poor employee
While there still are a lot of old-fashioned ideas about working environments, where toxic managers will see unpaid overtime and safety-rules-violating policies as a “feature, not a bug.” But many studies do indicate that most managers are aware of how poor working conditions directly lead to burnout. This means that some subset of them simply choose to ignore it and let people burn out anyway.
i started dishwashing at a hotel. morning shift 6am to 3pm. partway through my shift they said the night guy called in and asked if i could cover it. partway through that shift they said the night security guy called in. told me it would be super easy i’d just need to carry some keys and a radio and they would let me stay in a room. i made it through the night and managed to show up for my 6am shift in the kitchen. the manager walks in and starts with “the other dishwasher just called in. can you—“ at that point i f*****g lost it and threw whatever i had in my hands across the room and walked out. twenty six hours on the clock
In Denmark it is illegal to work more than 13 hours, a day, for an employer. We have something called the 11 hour rule. It's states that you must have at least 11 hour free time between shifts. On top of that you may only work for 6 days in a row, and then have a day off.
I quit Tim's because I had no idea where to go. I went to my first day, and they told me I was at the wrong location, so I walked to the one they sent me to, and I was told that there were no new people starting. Then I tried calling the person who hired me, so they gave me a number to call to find out the right Tim's. I get to the one I'm told to go to, but they don't have anyone starting that day either. I get a call from the Tim's I'm "supposed" to be at, asking where I am, I ask them their address, and then I get back to the first one I was at! I went in and explained my situation and was told that they aren't the one either. I'm just standing there with a stupid look on my face, so I left to go to the park and sit on my phone, calling, texting, emailing for a couple hours, just to be told to go to the one that sent me away twice already.
My shortest time "working" was the four hours I spent playing hide and go seek with Tim Hortons.
Within 30 min of finishing/filing all the HR paperwork. I sat down at my new desk, opened my backpack and started organizing all the books I brought when my new boss came over and made a comment that didn't sit well with me. He expressed his disappointment in me for not filling out the paperwork with a "sense of urgency" and said he hopes this isn't a habit. When he left to go back to his office, I opened up my email and wrote a brief paragraph to the effect of "I can see you run a tight ship here. I don't believe this is a good fit for either of us." I packed up my books and walked out the front door. Again, literally 30 min. Turns out, this was the best decision I could have made, as I almost immediately found a new job that paid 40% more. The job I walked out on paid $58k as an IT Field Engineer. I went on to work as an Infrastructure Engineer, my job until this day. $81K start, 100% WFH.
Lots of managers out there lose good employees because they can’t help but be power-hungry jerks, eager to show you who’s boss. Glad you found something that paid better and was a good fit for you.
The dirty not-so-little secret is that many bosses are aware that what they are doing is wrong, if not illegal. But once one makes the decision that the bottom line is all that matters, then it doesn’t matter how unhappy the average worker is. This is why most of the people in these stories did the right thing, as in most cases it will not “get better” and it’s not worth getting used to.
10 minutes. Walmart. Shoe Department.
Shift trainer: (gestures vaguely at a shoe department where there were HUNDREDS of shoes thrown haphazardly onto the floor by some goofball kids running wild up and down every aisle) Clean this. All of this. Put it all away. And if you don’t finish before you leave, I’m clocking you out and you’re staying until it’s done.
“Sounds good.” As soon as the shift trainer went down a different aisle, I took off the vest/lanyard and speed-walked right out the door to my car.
I worked for Buc-ees in Texas for 2 days. During the interview they told me that if I had exposed tattoos I would have to wear compression sleeves to cover them or wear a long sleeve. On my first day of training I showed up in compression sleeves. Everytime I would reach across the counter to check someone out the compression sleeve would come down on my arm a little revealing a portion of the tattoo I had on my elbow. Eventually the manager noticed this and gave me a verbal warning for it, then on my break that day I took my compression sleeves off while I had my lunch, and the manager came through the break room, saw that I had my sleeves off and gave me a written warning.
The next day I came in in a long sleeve shirt, hoping to avoid the same issues. I reached across the counter and the tattoo on my wrist poked out. The manager then told me that she thinks I’m an idiot for getting tattoos on my arms and that if I couldn’t manage to keep them covered 100% during my duties she would fire me. I left that night and never went back.
This whole hidden tattoos thing is utter bullcråp. As long as they don't get in the way of doing your job well and it's nothing offensive/racist/etc what's the big deal?
In college, I got a summer job at SeaRay boats through a temp agency. Showed up first thing and they had me sit in the break room which was on the 2nd floor, overlooking the entire plant. Waited an hour for someone to come get me and heard a commotion. Looked out and 3-4 people were running out, because a dude cut off his middle and ring fingers with a sawzall. The dude behind him had his fingers in a towel. At the time, I wasn’t what you might call tool handy. So I noped right the f**k out.
When I left school (16) got a job with a painter and decorator. First day he had me up the top of double extending ladder, probably 25/30 ft, cleaning out gutters. One of the rungs broke about three quarters of the way up and my foot fell down to the next rung. Luckily for me it had a reinforced bar under it, otherwise I doubt I would be typing this now! Got a job as a carpet fitting apprentice a week or two later. Terra firma felt good.
In some cases, the netizens that responded to the initial question probably avoided actual physical harm. High-risk environments are acceptable if the worker is cognizant of the dangers and consents to them. Underwater welders and telecommunications technicians are well-paid jobs for a reason, however, they tend to involve intensive training. Sending a kid from a temp agency to do a similar job is a recipe for disaster.
I worked at a hotel for a matter of 3 hours because I listened to the hotel manager talk on the phone about wanting to strangle and murder a staff member. I was taking a training course on the computer, immediately got up and did not return. He seemed off before that and that did it in for me.
Late 80s. Dishwasher for a big chain restaurant. Super busy, at the end of the night, we mop the whole kitchen area. Then the chef comes around with a giant flashlight looking under everything. If he finds a single thing he doesn't like, I have to mop the whole floor again. Well, he keeps finding stuff. After the 3rd time, I told him to stick it. Was making $3.35 an hour.
8 hours/1 shift. I was working for a temp agency and they were very specific about what we could and couldn't do for light industrial work. The big one was ladders; we were not to go higher than 8 feet. The agency also set our hours for us, and any changes would need to go through them.
So they send me to a warehouse that makes plastic frames for windows. It's August in the south, and the place has no AC. The entire space reeks from the furnace that melts the plastic and extrudes it into the various molds. My job was to do an updated inventory count. I was contracted to do first shift (7 am-3 pm). My supervisor starts off by saying that starting tomorrow, I should come in at 2 am to start that day's count because it is so much easier to do when it is cool. I told him that he'd have to clear that change with the temp agency. He replied "No, it's fine, we do it all the time." I then asked if I would be getting a pay bump because that's technically 3rd shift, and those workers get paid more. He immediately changed the subject.
As the shift goes on, I'm partnered with a veteran, and we have to count everything on the shelves. The shelves go up to @ 20 feet, so he drives over a scissor lift. No straps, no safety harness. I look at him and tell him that the temp agency only lets me go up on ladders no taller than 8 feet. He told me to get on and just not tell them. He wants me to lean waaaaay out over the edge of the lift to count frames.
I finished the shift, drove home, and called the temp agency. I told them about the unauthorized change in schedule and the unsafe working conditions and told them I would not be returning.
The f**k? I wouldn't have finished the shift. I hope you reported them!
“You’re a girl, you can sweep.” F**k you Frank. I walked off and never went back. I was in my early twenties working for a big box store.
Walmart. Around 10 days in there was a psycho who broke into the gun case resulting in an active shooter alarm. Hid in the freezer and quit on the spot once it was over.
I worked in the call center for the university I attended. The job was to basically call alumni and get them to donate money to the school. There was a computer that would automatically call people for you. Most people simply did not answer the call because they had caller ID or didn’t recognize the number. So most time was spent staring at a computer listening to a phone ringing with nobody answering it.
If somebody did answer the phone, there was a script we had to go by to try and get them to donate. We were required to ask at least 4 times and lower the amount each time before we could hang up. For example, maybe starting by asking for $200 and working down to $50. We couldn’t take no for an answer no matter what the response was until we asked for money 4 times. If somebody said, “sorry I can’t afford to donate my husband has cancer.” We would be required to use the script and say, “I’m so sorry to hear you are dealing with medical bills, but did you know the school is building a new football stadium! Can I get you to donate $50?”
Needless to say between the boredom of nobody answering and the terrible and awkward feeling of asking for somebody’s else’s money over and over if they did answer, I quit after my first 2 hours there. Just got up and told the supervisor it wasn’t for me and left.
It took me about 2 hours in telemarketing to realize what an a*****e I felt like, and then I left.
I had a telemarketing job that I worked for about 10 minutes. I couldn't take cold calling old ladies on a fixed income to try to sell them something they didn't need.
Sandwich shop. Health inspector showed up. Found mop cleaning solution in the tub they were keeping the utensils they used make sandwiches with (get meatballs out for subs, spread tuna on sandwiches, etc). That explained the very odd, burning chemical smell from that area. The mop cleaner was mixing with the meatballs and sauce and just cooking all day in that pot. Owner argued that it was safe to use it that way. He made he dump it out in front of him. The second he left, she filled it back up and put all the utensils back in it.
1 day of training. It wasn’t a bad job - serving old folks in a retirement community. But I asked for the schedule to see when I worked next and the boss chuckled knowingly. “That’s not how we do it here, son.” He explained that he would give me a call when I was needed and I would need to be to work half an hour after the call. “So no regular shifts? Just… whenever? I can’t do that. I’m working two other jobs. I would need to schedule around those other jobs or change my schedule there to fit around this job. I’m sorry, but I can’t work for you.” He said he understood and was sorry I couldn’t be more flexible. We parted amicably though I was flummoxed about how that man could possibly run a place with that method of staffing. Three weeks later he called me at five am to see if I could work the breakfast shift. I was less friendly as I reminded him I had quit. I was a little surly at my other jobs that day.
My son was “hired” for a job with this exact method of scheduling. He’s never worked a day for them. I can practically guarantee the owner says things like, “Nobody wants to work!” Gee, I wonder why?
I did uber once. I needed a money and the positions I applied for at my college took forever to hear back from.
Picked up a guy at a bar who tried to convince me to go inside his apartment with him. I told him no and he called me a bunch of names before he angrily got out. Decided then and there that this was a mistake and quit.
I got a job at Jimmy Johns as a driver and made more there then I did at the job I got a month later at my college.
And that's why I hate Ubers. You never know who's care your getting into.
I was hired by a temp agency to file documents in a Paint Factory office - and when i showed up I was put on the assembly line with zero training or instruction and the cans came down the conveyor belt at 10,000 mph. i dont even know what i was supposed to do - i just let every can whiz by. i quit end of day 1.
I had a legal temp job at Pfizer. It came out just from doing data entry that they tested a really bad heart drug in Africa that resulted in a lot of deaths. I not only found out then they had it built into their budget to deal with lawsuits, but was coming across settlement emails that said “not bad considering.” Not bad was them paying a family who sued $10k and the considering was because whoever took the drug had had a heart attack. This was pretty soon after 9/11 and it just wasn’t right. I was broke, had nothing to look forward to after, but quit after a miserable week of trying not to.
Did one 12-hour shift at a printing press. They weren't going to give us breaks. Like.. ANY breaks. Me and this other dude were temps, first time we ever worked there. The lady at the temp agency begged me to do a week over there. 12 hours, just picking up printed magazines off a press and putting them on palettes. They basically had this adittude of ''if the press doesn't break down, or misprint, we don't take breaks, lunch, nothing.'' Also, for the level of work, it was s****y pay. Right after the shift, I called and said no, I'm not doing another shift. And asked if they knew they were pressuring temps to break labor laws, she sheepishly admitted it was a constant problem with them.
I was going to say... That sounds extremely illegal. Maybe you should change that as it seems to be a large problem and not just brush it under the rug?
Two weeks. I was basically left to run an entire laboratory by myself with half a days training, and the lab manager was leaving for an overseas trip the next day. Would wake up with anxiety attacks after dreaming my bedroom was full of lab equipment.
2 days. I worked at Walmart before and quit to start a gig in trucking. Got about a year into the trucking before I decided maybe I wanted to be home more. So I quit my job and got hired at Walmart within a week. Which was perfect, it was for a deli position which was cool, never worked deli before, I was always an overnight stocker. First day was mostly computer work, second day was partial computer work followed by a half day on the job. I s**t you not, the first hour I was in the deli I get an older lady (65+) requesting ham sliced as thin as possible, so I asked the chick training me for some help and she got it to the lowest setting. And when I shaved a practice piece off I asked if it was good. She says "no, I've gotten it thinner before" so I asked my training chick and she says "ma'am that's as thin as we go." The woman didn't like this answer. She proceeds to say, "that might be thin enough for you lard a**es but I need my thinner". At this point I was already debating on throwing this ham at her and quitting and tmher statement about sent me over the edge. While I didn't launch the ham slice at her I did throw it on the counter and told the old woman where she could shove that ham. Walked into the backroom, clocked out, threw the assistant manager my best and told them today was my last day. And that some old hag needs help in deli. I called my trucking company the next days and within two weeks they had me in a truck and down the road. I'll NEVER do customer service again. Kudos to everyone whose stuck it out this long. I did it for 10+ years and once I got out, I'll never go back.
When I was in college, I got hired at a popular company that sells knives. I worked the first day/orientation and quit immediately after lunch, as I realized it was rather sketch. You only got paid when you sold, and it was dependent on you selling first to family and friends by going to their homes and then asking them for referrals.
I worked at party city and was closing. Someone s**t in the bathrooms but not in the toilets. It was on the floor, the walls, the stall doors, in the sinks, in the SOAP DISPENSERS… and for an added effect, they had smashed the dispense button a few times. Vile. I was NOT on bathroom duty that evening but for whatever reason, my MOD told me to clean it up. Hell to the no. I told her I wasn’t cleaning that biohazard and that my 7.25 an hour wasn’t worth it PLUS there was no way in hell I could clean all of that up in the 30 minutes before I had to clock out (or get written up for being over). My manager, the living embodiment of shrek, said she’d write me up for failing to complete my closing checklist (again, wasn’t on bathrooms that evening). So, in my best judgment, I went and clocked out and left. Never came back. I was scheduled to open the next morning but nope. My GM sent me an email confirming my termination and said, “you’ll always be welcome back, should you choose to come in.”
It was a small gas station owned by one person. During the interview, she told me that if I came into the gas station not on my shift and I saw it was busy, I should help behind the register.
Hotel. Went to the interview which was super short. Told to come back for my first shift that night. Showed up, and despite it being in a decent part of town discovered it was basically a crack den/brothel. The guy I was supposed to shadow walked me around and introduced me to the “guests”, showed me the numbers for who I was to call in an emergency (none of them were police/fire/medical) and how to active the bulletproof panic room type glass. I acted like I was going to my car to get something and just drove off.
Good. I would have ran so fast it would have left my imprint through the door.
4 hours. It was a telemarketing job and my trainer was a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen.
Worked at one of those amazon factory jobs graveyard shift. First day saw how depressed everyone was and decided that would be my first and last shift.
Clocked out and never looked back.
15 minutes before I got there. I had a weird feeling about the job and how vague the hiring manager was being. Halfway to my first day, it dawned on me that it was some traveling door-to-door sales s**t. The kind where they pack you in a van and drive you to some neighborhood to sell coupon books or whatever.
You can check out this predatory field in the 2016 film “American Honey.”
I worked as a maid at a hotel on Oahu. The first day, I had to hand pick some Bozo's toenails out of the astroturf on the balcony. No gloves available. The bedspreads were made of velvet and very heavy. I Quit that day and worked for the post office.
In 2007, I got hired to work at a Hungry Howie’s pizza location in Saginaw, Michigan. I did the three hour training/orientation shift and then get told I would get called the next week to be told what my regular schedule would be.
I finish the shift, and come home and turn on the local news. One of the top stories was about how a pizza delivery driver somewhere in the city had to shoot someone who was trying to rob him while he was making a delivery. I drove back to the location and handed them my hat and shirt the same night.
Call center for a propane company. Was told it would pretty much be 'scheduling propane fill-ups', and was trained as such. Sadly, we would not sell propane accessories or propane products. Training was two weeks.
NOPE. It was a lie.
Turns out the night shift was poor-man's 911 for gas emergencies.
For some f*****g reason, when smelling leaking gas people called their gas company instead of local emergency services? And emergency services would call us too. The first night I had to wake up a district manager to tell him one of his drivers drove off the edge of an icy road and died. Oh and county hazmat was on the other line so could... he do something? (I had no backup, no supervisors on the floor to ask what to do so I muddled through the best I could.)
I made it 4 days, took a sick day on the 5th, and never came back. F**k that.
Where I live you’re supposed to call the gas company if you smell a leak. Makes sense you call the people actually trained to handle it.
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Got a "night job" during college at a 24 hour CVS (drug store). When asked, I was told they could not "set" my hours around my college classes and also surprisingly was given day shifts along with the expected night shifts. One week I might have 2 graveyard shifts and 3 day shifts, then totally different days/hours the next week. It made sleeping a nightmare since there was no pattern. I lasted one month alternating between insomnia, being a zombie, and beginning to fall asleep in my college classes.
I worked 2 days at McDonald's back in highschool. 1st day was rough as it was my very first job and with very little training, 2nd day I showed up at 5 because I told the manager I can't work any earlier than that because I have to take care of my brother until my mom gets home. He ok'd this but apparently still put me on the schedule for 4/430 (can't remember specific time it was so long ago) but I get there and get yelled at for being "late". Again no training, and around 930ish the manager told me to clock out and finish cleaning the back. Silly ol me didn't realize that was wrong. I didn't get home until after 11 so my then-step dad called my supervisor and cussed her out for having me work off the clock, stay so late, and told her I won't be coming back
Got a "night job" during college at a 24 hour CVS (drug store). When asked, I was told they could not "set" my hours around my college classes and also surprisingly was given day shifts along with the expected night shifts. One week I might have 2 graveyard shifts and 3 day shifts, then totally different days/hours the next week. It made sleeping a nightmare since there was no pattern. I lasted one month alternating between insomnia, being a zombie, and beginning to fall asleep in my college classes.
I worked 2 days at McDonald's back in highschool. 1st day was rough as it was my very first job and with very little training, 2nd day I showed up at 5 because I told the manager I can't work any earlier than that because I have to take care of my brother until my mom gets home. He ok'd this but apparently still put me on the schedule for 4/430 (can't remember specific time it was so long ago) but I get there and get yelled at for being "late". Again no training, and around 930ish the manager told me to clock out and finish cleaning the back. Silly ol me didn't realize that was wrong. I didn't get home until after 11 so my then-step dad called my supervisor and cussed her out for having me work off the clock, stay so late, and told her I won't be coming back
