
Showed Up, Noped Out: 40 First-Day Quitters Spill The Tea On What Happened
Interview With ExpertYour first day at a new job can be extremely nerve-racking. It’s your only opportunity to make a good first impression on colleagues, and your brain will be moving a million miles an hour trying to take in tons of new information. But something that’s important to remember is that your employer should be trying to make a great impression on you too. Otherwise, you might just be inspired to say “sayonara” before your first payday!
Redditors have recently been sharing stories of employees who quit their jobs before even working a week, so we’ve gathered the juiciest ones down below. Enjoy reading through these tales that might inspire you to quit your own job, and keep reading to find a conversation with Ben Stocken, Founder and CEO of West Peak!
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The owners daughter showed up to open 1.5 hours late. Said she thought her mom had given me keys. Proceeded to tell me to unload her car before I could come in and clock in. I locked her keys in her car and left.
The oh 'By the way we never mentioned it at the interview but you will get 50 percent pay for 6 months till your trial period is over'. I was half way into my first shift when they sprang that on me. I turned around and walked out. No discussion. Didn't say a word. Just left.
Desk job. All male staff. Male boss made a joke that I can feel free to use the kitchen to make food for everyone because "finally we have a woman on the team". Walked out.
To learn more about what pushes people to quit their jobs early on, we reached out to Ben Stocken, Founder and CEO of West Peak, who was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda.
"When people quit jobs right after starting them, it’s often one of two main things: Either the job has been mis-sold to them in terms of scope, opportunity and often culture, which destroys that initial trust in their leader who hired them and the organization," Ben shared.
"The second reason is that they have a terrible or non-existent onboarding experience. Onboarding is the first real opportunity you have as a business and a leader to set the working relationship off on the right foot, and getting this wrong leads to scope for miscommunication and conflict from the get-go," the expert explained.
When I found out their timeclock system didn't track hours worked, but the minutes spent typing or moving your mouse. And it'd take random screenshots too (if you're in a video meeting, I guess they get to take pictures of you too?). All that and they wanted this installed on my personal computer. That and a few other reasons made me back out after one day.
I always wonder which managers are so far out of touch with reality that they think this is a good idea..
I was between jobs and got a temp job helping with payroll and they told me I would have to hold paychecks for people who did not return their uniform and when I pointed out this was illegal (and showed them the law) they said to do it anyway so I quit and went back on unemployment until I found a real job 3 weeks later. Quitting a job because they want you to break the law gets you unemployment in most States.
Yup! Very first (temporary) job after grad school asked me to do several things that violated state & federal labor laws, two of which were also criminal. I lasted 10 months, left with the evidence & filed for unemployment. They contested and there was a hearing. They sent an HR manager & I was represented by a DFEH case worker who explained to EDD mediator that I walked out on the job because I refused to enforce or implement illegal practices of which some were also criminal behavior. I got my full unemployment insurance and they dealt with several agencies coming after them.
When i saw that the microwave was coin operated.
We also asked Ben how employees know whether their new job will just take a while to get used to or if they should run as soon as they spot red flags.
"Early red flags are often a rushed interview process and repeated clashes of values. Our values underpin how we perceive the world and therefore how we interact with it," he noted. "Fundamentally, if you find yourself in the first few weeks of a new role and business, and what you observe from behaviors and actions doesn’t align to your values, it’s never going to lead to an environment where you can do your best work."
I remember starting a job at a call centre for a particular company that has such a bad reputation, they need to change their name every so often.
They were telling us how we have 7 minutes alotted for "personal time" like bathroom breaks. There was one bathroom in the building, WAY down at the other end of the building...so on our first fifteen minute break, I walked to it..Took 4.5 minutes to get there. So when we came back from break I asked "so what happens if you go over the alotted time?" And the trainer goes "well then the mintues are tracked and deducted from your pay"...I got up and walked towards the door and the guy goes "see that's an example of complete unprofessionalism, and that's ok this type of job isn't for quitters"...I spun around and went "I can handle the job, chucklef**k. What I won't do is degrade myself by working for a place that monitors how long it takes you to s**t".
It was a telemarketing company selling timeshares around the US. My first call was an old lady who told me the story of how her husband fell down the stairs two weeks ago and died right in front of her. My manager was over my shoulder listening in and said something like "OK, now pitch the package." I left immediately.
To the old lady: "I am so sorry. I wish you and your family the best." To the manager: "Goodbye."
Line job in a factory that assembled magazines. Because of all the paper sliding along the tracks, little bits would gum up the gears and they wanted us to reach inside and pull out all the wads of paper scrap about once an hour while someone MANUALLY held down a button that paused the machine from moving. Refused, clocked out for lunch and left.
Finally, we asked the expert how companies can ensure that their new employees have a smooth onboarding process.
"Do one in the first place!" Ben says. "Plan it out by reverse-engineering exactly what you want the person to be able to understand and achieve in their first 90 days and create an onboarding process that delivers this. Constantly seek feedback from your newest joiners on their experience of the process, so you can refine and iterate it. Make it accessible for all, really think and seek out expert support on how you onboard different areas of diversity."
I got a summer job as an HR/Office Assistant while in college.
They told me on my first day that they had to fire some people later in the week and they needed me to do it because they didn’t want to.
I didn’t come back the next day. Not only did I of course not want to do it, but I was shocked at the callous disrespect they had for the employees that they wanted to fire. If you want to destroy someone’s lively hood, have the balls to f*****g do it yourself.
I was a GM car salesman half a day. Family of 5 come in and settle on a Pontiac Catalina. Sales manager told me to squeeze another $275.00 from them. I went to family, cut $500 from the contract, turned it in and sent them home in a new ride. Told sales mgr I was done and left..
The boss hid the bathroom key and had everyone ask him for permission to use it.
I have IBS and I got the runs the first day (of course).
When I asked for the key the second time after 30min of using it the first time, he asked me: "again???"
The third time he started chewing me out.
I literally turned around on my heel and got to the locker room to take my stuff and go.
He then tried to block my way out when I sat on my motorcycle to drive away.
Work in IT and got a new job as a SysAdmin and on the first day found support tickets where the guy before me was required to track every second of his time through it. Several tickets that read something like "Cleaned office - 15 minutes".
No thanks. I'm not a child that needs supervision.
Luckily my old job let me come back like I never left.
Started a sales job just after graduating which I was happy to do because I'd done what I thought was a similar job while studying. Morning was as expected, induction stuff, a few odd characters, manager seemed ok. After lunch, they said ok now we need to get in a car and go do some door to door sales.... this was supposed to be an office based on the phone type of job so I was already thinking, nope.
After about 45 minutes of chatter and slight panic because the person who usually took people around had gone off somewhere, someone asked if a car with a specific reg plate belonged to anyone. It was my car. Manager asked me to drive the team to an area of town for the door to door. They said they'd give me a separate payment for fuel. I said my insurance wouldn't cover them so I can't take the risk. They said to call my insurance and confirm. I said I'd go outside to do that while having a cigarette.
I did not smoke. I got in my car and went home.
I got a job in town X. One the first day they told me tomorrow I needed to show up to a different office in San Francisco (which is a 90 minute commute there and a 2-3 hour commute home). Not what I signed up for, they legit could not understand why I was leaving.
I came in to be one of 4 retail managers for a museum with 4 stores. While training me I overheard multiple associates (who I would be managing) swearing and yelling at customers. Then one of the other managers training me to log the safe yelled and screamed at me that I didn’t know how to count cause the safe was $1 short (we later found the dollar on the floor behind the desk she had been counting at) then the district manager above me spent the entire day sitting at the cameras listing reasons to write up associates which included: seeing the outline of a girls phone through her back pocket even tho she never took it out, an associate going to the bathroom twice during his shift (they were only permitted one break apparently), and an associate not asking literal children to donate to the museum.
Great first day. Even better last day.
Got hired as a farmhand for a potato farmer as a summer job from college; minimum wage through the local job office where I was told, “this guy has gone through a lot of workers”
First thing he told me to do was change the oil in the tractor and pointed to where things were. Now I had changed the oil in my car, but that hardly compared… I managed
Next, I was given a “s***ide jack” and told to walk out to the field where a 40” tire on one of those huge sprinkler systems had slipped off the railroad tie going over the ditch and use the jack to get it lifted out of the ditch and somehow use my 130 lb frame to move it back onto the railroad tie…I managed
Lunch time came and I had trudged back from the field with the jack. The farmer sees me and says, “I’m going to the house for lunch, please eat in your car.” Luckily I had brought my own lunch, but it was 90 degrees out and I was a sweaty filthy mess from what I had done so far and had no way to clean up… I managed
For the afternoon, the farmer had me perch on the back of the potato planter while he drove it down the field and I had to hop back and forth between the planter bins and manually make sure the potatoes were dropping into the feeder tubes… I managed
Got a call shortly after getting home asking if I’d like an assembly line job in an air conditioned factory, never went back to the potato farm.
I was a Cold caller trying to solicit donations for an organization. Called a guy. His widow answered the phone saying he had recently passed. Supervisor said I should try and get the widow to make a donation. I was done.
I was in high school, working 3 part time jobs. I had gotten hired as a cashier at a supermarket. I really just wanted to be a stock boy, but oh well.
I show up to work and the manager isn't there. So I just start asking people like, hey I'm new how do I clock in? What do I do?
Eventually someone clocks me in like an hour late. They put me on a register, show me the produce code sheet like once, then left me alone. No clue how to do a sale, no idea how to do coupons, etc. The manager shows up halfway through and yells at me, in front of a customer, for not knowing produce codes. Even the customer was like, "hey, it's his first day. Calm down."
Time for my lunch break. Nobody has shown me where the staff room is, so I just buy lunch from the store and eat it in the cafe area. Manager storms in, takes my tray, throws the rest of my food away, and goes off that I CANNOT eat where customers are, that I'm stupid, etc. I just got up, threw the apron at her, and walked out. Absolutely ridiculous. I did, however, go back and demand my check for hours worked. Because f**k that.
I was assigned to a middle school grade 6 as a student teacher. I was supposed to be under the guidance of the classroom teacher. She was all too willing to let me be in complete charge and told me I could just do “whatever.” I called my faculty advisor and requested to be reassigned. The next day I was at a different school with a teacher who knew what she was doing.
That happens a lot. You’re there to learn from the classroom teacher, not for the teacher to have you do everything. You’re not getting paid either so that’s unfair for a variety of reasons
I was laid off from my first job back when I was in high school due to the housing crisis in the 00s. I was a dishwasher at a restaurant. When new management took over, they offered everyone their old jobs back, and I accepted.
I tried to take my CD player that I had left there before the layoff home with me, and I was told that I was stealing as it was company property since it was there when they took over. Everyone in the kitchen attested that it was my CD player, but the new manager wouldn't hear of it, so I just walked out with it. I was called later that night by HR telling me I was fired for stealing company property. I guess I didn't quit, but I was going to do it anyway.
I was injured and they told me to keep working. I was loading trucks at RPS by the way. Went to the boss and said "Who do I tell if I want to quit?" He responded "Me." I said "Ah OK, I quit." He asked my to finish my shift but I laughed in his face.
I had a broken ankle (in a cast) and they expected me to carry a coffin into chapel…nope
Not me but a friend. This friend is a very good looking woman. It was to be her first job out of college working as a research tech in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner. She thought it was weird that at her interview he told her she needed to wear a skirt to work since he wanted people to look professional - but in a lab? Since he was older from a more formal time she thought "Oh well okay."
At the first lab meeting he sits next to her at the table while one of the students/post-docs is making a presentation. As soon as the lights went down she feels a hand on her thigh and it's the Nobel laureate and he is working his hand up her thigh. She squirms but doesn't do anything and quit that day. I asked her why she didn't go to HR and she said she didn't think it would matter since he was Mr. Big Shot. Later turns out she's heard stories about him from multiple female employees. He died before he could get Me-Too'ed.
Unfortunately, we rather teach girls in school to cover than shoulders than that in such situation they should loudly say "This is not your leg, Sir, it's mine. Please stop touching me". Will it get you forward in that job? No. But do you want to be raped for promotions? No, I guess, either. And then everyone is warned. And if we all do it, if the does it a second time and the victim speaks up, the rest of the people know for sure.
In highschool a friend of mine talked up this warehouse job he had for an online surplus store. They gave him a bunch of free electronics and sports equipment. As a highschool student that seemed pretty cool, so I decided to try working there for the summer. Now I realize that was a red flag. On my first day they asked me to package a commercial range hood that had to be shipped to Alaska. They had no packing material or boxes and refused to buy any. I created a box by piecing together scraps of cardboard and covered them in a ton of tape, then I filled the box with crumpled printer paper from the office. The manager saw me doing this and proceeded to yell at me for 10 minutes, because I wasted their printer paper. I laughed at him and walked out of there. Of course, my friend later told me the range hood was destroyed in shipping and the manager was livid. A year later the business was busted for selling stolen gps units.
Two hours into my first shift at a glassware shop, I'd broken £175 worth of stuff by accident - while dusting the shelves, while wrapping items that a customer had just bought, and some things I swear broke just because I existed too closely to them. The owner, who was the artist/glassblower, to his infinite credit didn't want to charge me or take it out of my pay - he actually said I did a great job with the customers and wanted me to stay - but my nerves couldn't take it so I walked out. Carefully.
Talk about a bull in a china shop situation, sounds like OP was more akin to a bulldozer in a glass factory. Still, at least the ex-boss was understanding enough, but dang... Good boss, bad fortune -_-"
Not quite the first day (I have a mortgage), but:
Been through the entire interview process: small payrise plus quite a generous company pension. All confirmed in writing.
"Cool!" thinks I. Leave my existing job and start at the new place.
A week or two in, HR does their induction. And the "generous" company pension doesn't exist. It's statutory minimum.
Obviously I raise this, because that's not what I signed up for. The answer comes back: "Tough, that's the pension". Er... excuse me, but we agreed in writing that it wasn't. "Don't care; that's the pension".
They were astonished when I put in my resignation about a month later.
After 3 interviews, negotiations and tests, they agreed on my salary and we started on Monday. I come in, do all the paperwork and get assigned a pc, desk etc. Before coming in, I saw the red flag that they had a high turnover but they agreed on a really good salary for me. All of a sudden I get an email from CEO that he wants to “test me” again and gave me 3 complex tasks from his side business totally unrelated to my skills and position in the company, like asking a doctor to write a code. He told me just do it cause you’re working for me from now on. I stood up and went through the door. Half an hour later the HR calls me and asks to come back, I told her to have a good day and never contact me again.
At my new job, I have a colleague who worked there for one year. She started telling me crazy stories about the boss and the company. I didn’t dodge a bullet, but rather a rocket strike.
Only time I've EVER just walked off a job site. I was homeless and answered a Craigslist ad for a roofing job (I'd never done roofing before). I was working for a pair of tweakers from NYC. After spending most of the day doing standard labor (bringing materials up a ladder, putting down roofing material and stomping down on it after they hit it with a blowtorch, etc) they wanted me to stand on a 2-inch-wide beam that was rotten and slick from rain- VISIBLY unstable- WITH NO RESTRAINTS OR SAFETY EQUIPMENT WHATSOEVER- and they wanted me to stand on it and use a sledgehammer to smash out as much decaying roof as I could, until I hit a point where the roof was solid again.
I told the guy I wasn't cut out for that type of work. He told me to quit being an upstate v*gina. I told him to find a downstate p*nis because someone is going to die under their tutelage and I'm not going to let it be me.
He refused to pay me for the 6 hours of intense physical labor I'd already worked and I had to panhandle to get bus fare back... but I didn't die...
Have you seen the kind of heavy duty work a vāgina can withstand? Let's see a pénis pass and 8lb human being out while the testicles get brutally beaten for hours beforehand. Being called a vay jay is a compliment.
When the manager said, ‘We’re like a family here.’ Bro, my family doesn’t make me clean a bathroom for $12 an hour.
Basic restaurant server job, I was in college. The drive was kinda long, and as a college student that matters a lot. I was mostly getting a job due to feeling like I was inadequate if I didn't have one.
So I go buy the black clothes required and show up. But the clothes weren't black enough, due to having a gray lining around the button-up shirt's collar and cuffs on the *inside* of the shirt. It barely peeked through under certain angles. They told me to leave and come back when the clothes fit their requirements.
So I drove back to campus, called them up, and quit on the phone. It was just way too much BS to deal with and did not bode well.
I quit a job before I even started because they said they wouldn't give me any allowance towards buying my own safety boots because they provided their own. I said, just pay me whatever you spend on your boots and that's fine, I'll pay the difference, but they said no. Clear sign that they're petty ars3h0les.
It was supposed to be a B2B sales job. First day I get paired with a "highly successful, veteran salesman," and we go downtown. Next thing I know, we're walking into a Jiffy Lube waiting area, and the guy I'm with busts out a box of makeup samples and starts trying to sell makeup to the people waiting for their oil to get changed. We leave and I'm like yo WTF, I thought this was B2B sales? He's like "well, I do go from business to business doing sales." I'm like mother f****r that's door to door, not business to business lol. I asked to be brought back to my car and never called those fools back.
Wasn't told I'd be on the operations floor on my first day, didn't bring my PPE. Got handed company issue steel toe boots (cheap and nasty) which promptly began to tear my feet to shreds. I show my supervisor my bleeding feet and tell him I can be back in an hour with my own boots and could then finish my shift. He told me if I leave to get them don't bother coming back.
Easiest walk out ever.
It was a hotel. Not a crappy one but not a fancy one either.
I was hired as housekeeping, I love cleaning and it paid decent so I was excited.
First room had a pile of toe nails on the beside table, gross but whatever, I've got gloves.
Second room someone p*ssed on THE PHONE! I asked where the replacements were and my trainer told me to just wipe it. It was a landline, there was p**s inside of it! WTF
Third room had c*m in the window sill. Another WTF. I noticed the window faced a playground across the street. I quit right there.
Worked in an amazon warehouse. I had just finished grad school and was applying for jobs. This was May 2020. The place was unbelievably hot, especially while wearing a mask. The guy training us kept screaming at us "COME ON! LETS GET THIS MONEY! LETS GO! YEAH!". S**t like that. It was a 12 hour shift of back-breaking wok. By the end I thought I was gonna die. I left that day, went home, went to sleep, got up at 5am and redoubled my efforts to find a job. Got a job 1 month later working from home.
I took a job as a residential maintenance tech for a 500 unit apartment complex, the company that owned the complex owned about 2000 units all over the city. I've been doing maintenance for 10 years at this point and I know my s**t. Anyway they send me out with this m*th head looking dude to "train" me. We do a few work orders and I watch him ghetto rig stuff instead of actually fixing it. I kept my mouth shut until he decided to duct tape a clearly busted sewer stack, I was like "bro i saw furncos is the shop, let's just get a furnco" he litteraly tore into me about him having "seniority" and he won't be told what to do by some guy who just started. Whatever, I bit my tongue cause I had bills to pay. The next work order after that, we go into this womans apartment while she was at work to fix her sink, he tells me the tenant is "hot as f**k" and goes into her laundry basket and pulls out a pair of panties to sniff.
That was it for me, I walked out, went to the leasing office, explained what my last 4 hours were like and I would be contacting the authorities and the news about what I witnessed.
They offered me 3k to keep my mouth shut. Unfortunately I needed the money so I took it. .
Got hired to be a machinist, which I had years of experience, show up first day and did usual paperwork stuff, then expected to be sent to shop and run Hass machines, instead they said well we’re fully staffed in machine shop and we’re transferring you to fiberglass dept which I had no experience. Walked into shop and it was a total nightmare with no ppe devices or a torret booth and told you’ll be fine. Stood around till lunch then just left.. idiots called me everyday for a week wondering where I was. That job has now been posted on indeed for 3 straight years lol.
I started the day at 7am at a little technical workshop where we repaired electronics.
At 8am, I had learned that all 3 co-workers where there for 1 month max, and the teamlead resigned yesterday and I was to follow her up.
At around 9am the wife of the big boss waltzes in, verbally assaults the co-worker next to me and tell him if she ever sees him with headphones in again she fires him on the spot.
She doesn't even greet me. I let it sink in.
11am I decide to explore the facility on my own, since no one is showing me around. I learn there is no breakroom, only a shoddy toilet outside. You are supposed to eat your lunch in your car/outside.
And to my absolute horror.. that there is no coffee machine on premise and people who brought one saw them destroyed.
At 12am I walk into the boss's office, I say I have never seen such a s****y workplace and he just has to pay me from 7am tot 11am and I'm out.
Fought for a month with him and had to send a lawyer to get what I was owed because he wouldn't pay me unless I finished my workday. Which I wouldn't have been able to in those conditions.
Funny story is, since that day my first question in any job interview was: do u guys have a coffee machine. It's my, do they care about their people kind of thing. If the answer is no, I walk. I did it twice to flabbergasted recruiters.
(Technically second day) Started working at a car dealership as a lot porter. Me and other brand new coworker were asked (ordered) to straighten a line of cars during what was the worst thunderstorm that year. Turned out multiple tornadoes and tons of lightning. Boss said if we didn’t do it right then to not worry about coming back so we both quit on the spot. (Still waited out the storm though.).
Although I didn't quit on the spot (I should have) I worked for a bank manager that had us tellers doing all his work, including closing loans and doing sales calls. There was a tornado warning at work once, and while we were all huddled in the vault, scared half to death and worried about our families, he insisted on having a meeting so he could brag about it at the next managers meeting. He told me he expected me to collect deposits from the businesses in the town I lived (lots of cash) and then take it to the bank every day. He also sexually harassed us, but knew we wouldn't turn him in because the manager before him was fired for SH and who would believe us? He was right. When we reported the first manager for SH us AND the customers, HR was livid with US. OHHHH how I wish I had lawyered up.
Had a job as one of those people holding a sign on a street for a closeout sale. I sat down to tie my shoe, and got yelled at because I'm not supposed to be just sitting there. I mean she literally yelled at me. So I left the sign there and went home.
I got this job cold calling local businesses to sell them printer toner subscriptions. Weirdest, most awkward job prospect I've ever encountered.
* Came in at around 4pm. Place was an empty room with a desk against one wall, a PC, and a phone. Owner had an office in the back.
* Owner has me put together his office chair for him.
* Watch him try to write an email, he can barely write a coherent sentence.
* Finish the chair. Then instructs me to pull up a program on the PC and call the numbers, ask them if they want to buy toner subscriptions.
* Um, ok.
* Spend the next three hours awkwardly calling places, asking if they want to buy toner. No script, no product descriptions, no printer models, completely flying by the seat of my pants.
* Many ask if I will install it for them. IDK. No one on either side has any idea what's going on.
* I leave, immediately text that I'm not coming back.
* Owner texts back that I'm not qualified for the position.
* Never got paid for the ~four hours.
On my first day waiting tables at a lunch room, I walked out because the manager kept shouting at the other 17 year old new employee. In front of the customers. I knew this girl because we went to the same school. The manager told her she was blind with her stupid brown eyes, lazy as a cow, etcetera. When he was in the office for a while, she was crying, even I had to hide my tears. I told her I was going to leave as soon as he came back and tried to convince her to come with me. So did a customer who overheard everything. But she didn't dare. As soon as the manager returned, I handed over my apron and left, while he shouted I was fired - the hero. Next monday at school this girl told me her mom had called the manager that evening to tell her daughter wouldn't return.
On my first day waiting tables at a lunch room, I walked out because the manager kept shouting at the other 17 year old new employee. In front of the customers. I knew this girl because we went to the same school. The manager told her she was blind with her stupid brown eyes, lazy as a cow, etcetera. When he was in the office for a while, she was crying, even I had to hide my tears. I told her I was going to leave as soon as he came back and tried to convince her to come with me. So did a customer who overheard everything. But she didn't dare. As soon as the manager returned, I handed over my apron and left, while he shouted I was fired - the hero. Next monday at school this girl told me her mom had called the manager that evening to tell her daughter wouldn't return.