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20 Times New Hires Were So Dumbfounded On Their First Day, They Immediately Quit
Article created by: Justinas Keturka
Starting a job is often (a little) nerve-wracking. With so much information to absorb, faces to meet, and the pressure to make a good impression, new hires can easily start feeling overwhelmed. Colleagues and managers can and should help, but sometimes they're part of the problem.
Recently, Reddit user Head_Somewhere3770 posted a question on the platform, asking everyone, "What was the tipping point that made you leave your job on the first day?" Immediately, people started sharing their experiences and turned the thread into a hilarious support group for anyone who knows what it's like to be abandoned by your HR.
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#1
Started at a daycare and they were hitting children. Like full-on slapping them in the mouth. Shoving their heads down on the table when they wouldn’t eat lunch. TWO YEAR OLDS. I started hysterically crying and told the owner, she said “Maybe this job isn’t for you” and I walked out. I only worked there for 4 hours. Called corporate and everyone else I could think of. Heinous place.
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#3
Interviewed for a barista position. Showed up the first day, and they asked if I was ok with a few days of “unpaid training”, which I know that they knew was illegal. I said no.
#4
Not quite the first day, but I’d been promised a quite generous pension scheme as part of the overall package.
Induction day comes along and the pension scheme is described. And it’s not generous at all - in fact, it’s the legal minimum.
I made every effort to address this, but they were quite clear: that’s the rules, sorry you were misinformed, take it or leave it.
They were astonished when I chose “leave it”.
#5
Went to the first day of training and realized it was a MLM. Stayed for the lunch they provided and then dipped.
#6
I worked for a bread factory that put me on the first shift, within the first 10 minutes of being there an employee asked me if HR had told me they have been forced to work 17-hour days. Most of the employees were single moms, one employee told me about her struggles with child care. She wanted to leave so badly but it was the first time she had health insurance. She lifted up her shirt and showed me a big hernia she needed to get taken care of. It felt like prison, I left and never came back at lunch.
#7
First day as waitress at a sports bar in Fayetteville, NC. Large, actually huge guy from the kitchen corners me and tells me that any “xtra jobs” I get he will be taking half. I guess he was trying to be my pimp. I left.
#8
Taco Bell told me I'd have to take out all of my piercings and let them close up. For minimum wage? Lol no.
#10
Got hired at Diamond Mazda of Baton Rouge a while back in their used cars team. I explained in the interview process that I wasn't a "car guy" but had incredible sales numbers in every sales job I had. The manager assured me day one I would get a brief on car info to get me started.
Day one, I show up and he tells me no, I am not getting a brief on car data and I can forget about that. The rest of the sales team spends the days creating fake calls and pages for me that 4 times send me walking across the lots and properties to people and buildings that don't exist, each time to come back and find the contents of my desk and my chair in the ditch out behind the offices.
They wouldn't tell me how to read the numeric code on the windshield that had the price on it. Finally when a customer asked me to tell them about a car I explained "it's purple" we both laughed hard, I quit about 7 hours into day 1 right then and there.
#11
I was a carnie for a single day.
Responded to a Craigslist ad for a traveling carnival in my area looking for help immediately. At the time, I was actually a fairly talented street performer already just looking for a more stable gig during the week.
The thing I didn't know about traveling carnivals is that some of the employees aren't really traveling with the carnival but more like.... enslaved by the carnival.
All the other employees were from far-off states, broke, optionless, earning $1 per customer of whatever attraction they operated. They just lived with the carnival and that was their life.
Maybe 50 people total came through the entire carnival during time there. I earned $1 for a days work (this was in like 2011)
I took my carnival shirt off at the end of my shift, handed it to the guy who hired me and quit on the spot.
#12
I got hired on at a Bob Evans. They were complaining how nobody works and nobody stays for longer than a few weeks. The plan was to do a good job, maybe advance in the career path some here and see where things went from there.
First day-
The main kitchen head walks around critiquing everything that anyone does, sprinkling in personal insults.
Kitchen head refuses to clean saying she is paid too much to clean
Half of the equipment needs major repair or is so dirty it has an odor, nearly all are unsafe
Head Refuses to wash hands after smoking or using the bathroom, “just wastes water” she says
During one successful effort to get her to talk to me some she admits that her religion makes her hate former friends and her daughter (theyre gay)
Shift manager sits in office staring at video screens of staff and customers “because you cant trust anyone these days”
Two wait staff get into verbal altercation and none of the manager staff do anything to stop it. It goes on for 20 minutes before a customer gets them to stop
-
I finished my shift and left, didnt go back. Not worth it.
#13
I went to orientation for a call center job and it became quite apparent to me that their process was to scam older people. Got up started to walk out and the instructor asked me what I was doing. 'leaving' I said. 'oh why? We're about to get to the good stuff'. 'I'm leaving because I have ethics particularly in business' and walked out.
#14
I took a job doing warranty support for computers bought at Best Buy. My first day of training I was gone 12 hours and at least half of that time was driving. I was expected to drive my own car and no benefits. I didn’t go back the next day .
#15
I was 24 and just started a working holiday visa. I did a shift at a cocktail bar and after the third unprompted comment on my appearance by my female manager about 1- not wearing a dress; 2- not wearing enough makeup; 3- not appearing interested enough in male patrons, I hightailed it out of there so quickly.
#16
After college, I got a job at a small tech startup. They prided themselves on a "dynamic work environment" but that was code for no formal breaks and an expectation of 24/7 availability. The kicker? They paid in "stock options" they assured would be worth thousands when the company took off. Two weeks of sleeping with my phone under my pillow and watching my social life disappear, I realized my mental health was worth more than speculative stocks. Handed in my two-week notice the next day.
#17
When I walked into the office and immediately felt an overwhelming sense of negativity in the environment.
The manager seemed disorganized and dismissive, the team members barely acknowledged my presence, and I overheard complaints about long hours and lack of support.
The final straw was when I was handed a massive stack of work with no clear instructions or training and told to figure it out on my own. Realizing that this was not the kind of work culture I wanted to be a part of, I decided to walk away before getting too invested.
#18
My main job was in banking. All kinds of responsibilities around keeping your cash drawer closed and locked at all times. Terminable offense if you're out of balance over a certain amount or often.
Took a part time job at a theater and was responsible for the cash drawer. Except, it didn't lock and they wouldn't give me a key. When I questioned it, I was told, indeed I am solely responsible for the integrity of the cash drawer, yet had to frequently leave it to get popcorn, snacks and soda for guests.
Noped out within half an hour.
#19
The person who was training me got arrested for shoplifting during work, and I almost got arrested too on suspicion of being his accomplice.
#20
The bad vibe of your coworkers that you could sense right from the first day.
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