ADVERTISEMENT

Employees dramatically quitting their jobs is something we cover often here at Bored Panda, as there are many different ways that situation can go down and the internet certainly has no shortage of fascinating tales. The police might be calledaggressive text messages might be sent, and the company might even miss out on millions of dollars. But sometimes, one particularly traumatic incident can lead to a herd of employees all jumping ship at once.

Earlier this month, Reddit user RealSlicy reached out asking fellow workers of the world what happened at their former places of employment that caused everyone to quit at once, and boy, did people come through with some crazy stories. We’ve compiled some of the most shocking and disturbing incidents that caused people to decide that their mental health, safety, and morals were much more important than a job.

Below, you'll also find interviews we were lucky enough to receive from Penelope Trunk, career counselor and blogger, Craig Ancel, career coach and host of the Career Growth Made Easy podcast, and the person who started this conversation in the first place, RealSlicy on Reddit. Be sure to upvote the stories that get you riled up, and then let us know in the comments if you have ever quit a job under similar circumstances. We would love to hear your personal stories, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring accounts from people who are glad they quit on the spot, check out this story next.

#1

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Long, long time ago at a coffee shop. Me and a co-worker were effectively teamed up as openers and had a regular schedule. One day a very annoying manager was there, who had a history of being a real d**k to female employees.

He made a sexist *and* racist remark to my co-worker in front of the massive line of customers we saw every morning and knew by name. I could see her begin welling up. The people in the front heard, for sure, and I saw them react in surprise. My partner took off her apron and left.

The manager turned to me, looking for some f****d up white bro solidarity, and made another racist remark about finding good help. I went from stunned to walking immediately.

My last act there was to hold the door for the huge crowd of customers who walked out when we did.

patricksaurus , Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas Report

Deciding whether or not to quit a job can be a long and arduous process. We usually have to weigh the pros and cons before making the final jump, and we must ensure that we’ll be able to pay rent and buy groceries if we lose our income suddenly. We want to be sure that we can find another job in a short amount of time, and we might even try to find a new position that won’t make us want to rip our hair out before leaving our old job. But starting a new job is risky because it can be difficult to predict if the devil we know is worse than the devil we don’t know.

ADVERTISEMENT

On the other hand, however, sometimes one incident is enough to push us right over the edge. No contemplation, no time to consult our therapist, and no two-week’s notice. I’m quitting today. As much as I hope you pandas have never been in a situation where you and your fellow employees all decided to walk away together, these experiences sure do make for great stories. So enjoy reading through this shocking list, and keep these stories in mind if anything traumatic ever happens to you at work. Remember that you can always walk away at any moment. 

#2

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories My mum worked at a primary school where there was a tree planted on the field for a student who had died about a decade ago. The headmaster (who people had many problems with already) decided the tree was "in the way" of the massive field and had it demolished without the family's permission. A lot of staff were already considering quitting for other reasons, but that was the final straw for a lot of them. Seven teachers and nine other members of staff quit that year.

molwalk , Pieter Benjamin Nijs Report

We reached out to RealSlicy on Reddit to hear what inspired him to start this conversation in the first place. "I’ve heard several stories related to this topic, and I got curious and posted the question," he told Bored Panda. "Never expected it to blow up like this." We also asked if he thinks it's common for there to be incidents at work causing large numbers of people to quit. "I’d say whatever causes this to happen would be unlikely. The post proved me wrong though, so I guess so," he said.

ADVERTISEMENT

We also asked what he thinks the best way is for a company to respond to a dramatic or traumatic situation that causes many employees to quit. "They would have to provide more for their employees and maybe replace the manager of wherever it took place if they were what caused it," he says. "If they lie about it, it would only screw them up even more."

#3

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories For the Xmas holidays about a decade ago after a very successful year coming out of the recession the boss showed up in a new 400k motorhome to show everyone his new toy. It had the hydraulic slide outs for the living room; all the bells and whistles.

Everyone got envelopes for bonuses. We were stoked. $5 Walmart gift cards. People just started walking out.

CherryManhattan , Hanson Lu Report

To get some insight on why employees often hit a breaking point and decide to quit all at once, we also reached out to career counselor and blogger Penelope Trunk. "There are a few quitting trends that pop up in the media -- the Great Resignation, quiet quitting, and quitting in teams. The Great Resignation turns out to be not anything great at all, but rather just a continuation of the 30-year trend of college-educated women participating in the workforce at lower and lower rates," Penelope told Bored Panda. "Similarly, quiet quitting and quitting in teams are tactics people have used in the workplace for a long time, so I think what we are seeing, really, is a trend in personal transparency." 

ADVERTISEMENT

"In 2008, I was talking about  how twenty-something millennials were quitting in teams because they did everything in teams - they went to prom in teams, they did class projects in teams," Penelope explained. "This was shocking to gen x'ers since we did everything alone when we were in our twenties - the natural result of living as latchkey kids. But I wasn't the first to notice how people quit in teams. Danny Sarch was a top finance recruiter known for being able to place a whole team at a new job. in the past he had to keep his specialty under peoples' radar, but now I think it's out in the open."

#4

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories I worked at a petrol station when I was 16. One time we were robbed and a colleague was forced to empty the cash register at gunpoint.
They took bout 3000€ cash and about 5000€ worth in cigarettes and tobacco.
Our boss expected the heavily traumatized colleague to pay back the whole value that was stolen, because "he could have just refused to give them anything". He obviously couldn't do that and refused to work for free for 4 months, so he was fired. He was a single dad with 6 months old twins.
All of us 7 colleagues quit our jobs there immediately.

Limp-Sundae5177 , sergio souza Report

"The reason quitting in teams is not new is that quitting is rarely about the money," Penelope says. "It's usually about a combination of lack of appreciation, lack of commitment to coworkers or shared vision. The extreme version of these feelings is moral outrage, which is collective. So it makes sense that extremely bad behavior in the workplace is met with groups of people that quit together."

ADVERTISEMENT

"For example, it's clear that the story on reddit about the company ignoring that a guy's arm got cut off is moral outrage," Penelope said in reference to one of the stories featured on this list. "Everyone quit that moment because one wants to be in the room with someone who is telling them to ignore blood pooled on the floor. We also set standards for an obligation to quit. We don't blame people when they are not whistleblowers because we assume they can't see what the whistleblower sees. But when a huge group of people can see moral turpitude, like in Nazi Germany, and they do nothing, we prosecute them for being an accessory, even if it was their job to follow orders."

#5

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Back around 2000 SQL server was a hot skill to have, and "big data" was a license to write your own salary. Despite this a new CEO came in to the company I was at and decided to show that he was boss by immediately firing the server team manager. The manager had a new job with our main competitor the same day and immediately got the entire server team positions and a significant pay rise. The entire team handed in their resignation the very next day.

Fenrir101 , Caspar Camille Rubin Report

"Death of a Salesman is famous because it reminds us what happens if we put aside our communal morality when we go to work," Penelope told Bored Panda. "Arthur Miller wrote it at a time when men were trained in the military and then went to the workforce, so it was natural to follow orders no matter what. My son couldn't believe how pathetic the salesmen were. He said, 'If I want to read a classic about people who are insane from war, I think Slaughterhouse 5 is better.' It's refreshing to me that my son can't imagine a world where the 1950s workplace exists because it was definitely still there when I graduated from college in 1990."

ADVERTISEMENT

"As people depend less and less on their jobs for their identity, people are more willing to speak publicly and truthfully about quitting their jobs," Penelope explained. "For the general population this means we can make more realistic decisions about how we can make a living and what is possible. This trend in transparency will also mean the normalizing of the life that people who read Bored Panda probably already know: that our identity has to come from what engages and excites us and most of us will do what excites us for free. Most people in the Bored Panda community can quit their jobs and see little shift in their personal identity. Now they can feel like other people understand that."

If you'd like to hear more words of wisdom from Penelope, be sure to check out her blog right here.

#6

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Worked at a chain pizza place. The manager didn't approve of how well we cleaned and prepped for the next day. So we all came in to a note saying something to the effect of "you are all replaceable" so we all said ok, took off the uniform and left. We didn't even lock up or close up shop. Just walked off. Phones were ringing for orders, there were people coming in to the dining area but nobody was there working. Once she realized nobody was there she was calling everyone going nuts telling us to come to work or we're fired. One person went back and tried to save it. I just reminded her that I was replaceable, and so was the person who signed my check, then hung up. They had to close for about a week or two to replace the staff. The location completely closed and filed bankruptcy less than a year later at least partly due to her leadership. The location is a Verizon store now.

Titan_Uranus_69 , Louis Hansel Report

Add photo comments
POST
blacke4dawn avatar
BlackestDawn
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only a complete idiot or a greedy f****r complains that their staff are too efficient.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu

We also reached out to career coach and host of the Career Growth Made Easy podcast, Craig Ancel, to hear his thoughts on the topic. Craig is an accelerated career growth coach and podcast host. He also speaks professionally and provides customized content according to business’ coaching needs. He has spoken at public and private schools and churches, and recently, he has supported the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranch and spoken at the Foster Youth of America Annual Elevation Conference.

“In today's dynamic job world, companies need to be responsive when it comes to their customers' needs,” Craig told Bored Panda. “However, at the same time, we’re asking our employees to do more with less. That means less money, less time, and fewer resources. The message seems to be, ‘Get more done and get it done faster.’”

#7

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Exposure to crystalline silica, the company I worked for was supplied materials labelled as non hazardous, when we found out they actually contained silica dust (well over the safe levels) we all had to get tested for silicosis and lung scarring, a few of us got nice payouts at the expense of about 40 years of life span. Everyone at my company was told lies and had information withheld from us, for about 3 months we continued to use that material when the directors knew the dangers but hadn’t told us, when everyone found out there were only 2 people left at that company; the directors.

refinedflour , Kier In Sight Report

“Coupled with ongoing supply chain disruptions from Covid and recently the Ukraine war, work time stress can be at an all-time high,” Craig explained. “This stress is only amplified with sudden changes in workplace policies. Enough time has settled that employees have become comfortable with policies such as AWL & WFH or Alternate Work Locations and Work From Home. Today, many employers are shifting back to face-to-face meetings and requesting employees to return to the office. Some companies cite reasons for returning to the office such as better collaboration and improved customer support. Regardless, if employees are asked to make the trek back to the office building only part or full time, many are choosing to not honor the request.”

“One career growth coaching student told me: ‘We’ve become comfortable with working remotely. I for one, know I kept up my productivity. This is easily proven by the fact I am logged in and online during the time I’d normally be in bumper-to-bumper traffic going to and from work.’ My student went on to say, 'I routinely cut my breaks short and sometimes miss lunches as I power through my day, strongly performing.’ Some companies try to listen to their employees’ voices and honor their requests to improve the work environment. However, this debate on effective work from remote locations is still a hot topic.”

#8

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher at a local steakhouse which was always really busy as it overlooked the waterfalls of the the local river. My 3rd or 4th day working the whole kitchen staff just didn't show up. Except for me. Boss grabbed me and taught me how to cook as we went. Not only had I never cooked before, this was a Friday night and I was missing a concert, so I was kind of angry about that. Probably not the culinary experience some of the customers expected that night, but I tried my best. Then, after we closed I had to stick around for another 4 hours to wash dishes. Turns out everybody went to the concert. This was almost 40 years ago. Still mad.

MadonnaBinLaden , Boris Dunand Report

ADVERTISEMENT

When it comes to the stories featured on this list, Craig says, “I am sure that some groups of workers that left companies ‘all at once’ were dialed into office politics. If companies don’t have a finger on the pulse of their employees and their work environments, they can unknowingly make changes that negatively affect their teams. The results, as seen, can be the mass exodus of numerous employees – triggered by an ‘I’m fed up!’ attitude.” 

“Counter to that point, yet still being disconnected from your employees' feelings and aspirations can yield identical results. As the old saying goes, ‘It’s the last straw that broke the camel’s back.’ Sometimes team leads, supervisors, or group managers are oblivious to the simple fact that there is more to business than the end paying customer.”

“It’s true, as businesses, we need to keep the end customer satisfied,” Craig says. “I coach on delighting our customers. Yet, I take it a step further, such as in my Career Growth Made Easy podcast episode #021: Level Up Your Customer Service. Every business and those employees that want to excel in their roles, regardless of position, could benefit from recognizing we all have upstream and downstream customers. Only when you begin to treat everyone on your team as a customer you will truly win.”

#9

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories I worked at a KFC in the 80s. We had a really cool manager. I was assistant manager along with another, and lots of other great young people worked there. Our manager was hired to turn around the store and he was given a budget to buy new equipment. He also saved money on paper products and got the store really clean with our help. At the end of the year, he was fired by the upper management for "spending too much". They then brought in a new manager who immediately set about giving us all a hard time. Everyone walked. The store had to shut down for several days and the new guy brought in his family to help run it.

They store shut down permanently a few years later. The district manager offered me a job in management but I just didn't trust them at that point.

EurassesDragon , Jonathan Leppan Report

“Being sympathetic to employee needs comes first,” Craig told Bored Panda. “I’m going to state the obvious here, without employees, businesses will cease to exist. However, business owners may struggle to retain employees long-term. The economic and performance impact on business can be huge when it comes to short-term employee turnover. This is validated by a recent post on LinkedIn where a company’s sign read, ‘Now hiring anyone that shows up.’” 

“I suggest, as a fellow business owner, fostering an environment of growth, both personally and professionally. Genuinely doing so will likely help businesses retain top talent,” Craig explains. “As business owners, we shouldn’t wait for our employees to come to us with needs or requests. Communication should be open and a two-way street. When genuine conversations can be held in a trusting, supportive environment you’re more likely to retain employees. That conversation should result in actions that develop and grow the individual.  As we all know, actions speak louder than words.”

If you’d like to get in contact with Craig to book a coaching session or gain additional insight, be sure to check out his website right here

#10

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Company did a survey of employee happiness. It had super limited answers. We filled it out and tried to explain that, internally, our team was doing well and we were happy but just about everyone had problems with two other employees outside the team who were bullies in important positions.

The company asked us instead what -we- could do better so the bullies don't bully...
Over half the team quit within a month which is unheard of at that company and our team was/is a corner stone of the entire buisness.

Butterbubblebutt , Annie Spratt Report

While it seems like there is no shortage of toxic employers out there, one good thing that has come from fed-up employees sharing their stories online is the empowerment that comes along with it. The more workers open up about how they deserve better treatment and unions, the more people are willing to walk away from their unhealthy work environments. This shared experience of demanding better working conditions has led to the Great Resignation of 2022, that is currently still taking place. 

The term ‘The Great Resignation’ was coined in May 2021 due to the record numbers of employees leaving their jobs since the onset of the pandemic. According to one survey, one fifth of the world’s workers planned or are still planning to quit their jobs before the end of 2022. And while there are a variety of reasons motivating these employees to seek new positions, 71% of the people planning to quit cited finding higher wages as one of their top priorities. Companies cannot pretend to be surprised by this though, as inflation has increased rapidly over the past year, and housing costs are skyrocketing around the globe. It was only a matter of time until The Great Resignation began.

#11

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories I was working as a chef in a mall in Espoo, Finland back in 2009, when there was a shootout with six casualties and the owner of the restaurant told everyone to continue working in spite of this. Eventually we were forced outside by security. I was literally doing mise en place when security stormed in and told us to get the f**k out. Yeah, I quit that job.

Current-Ad-2698 , Magda Ehlers Report

Add photo comments
POST
madeleineseverin avatar
Madeleine
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All the workers were more afraid of the owner than of being injured in the shooting? That is pretty extreme.

View more commentsArrow down menu

Money is far from the only concern employees have though. As I’m sure many of the people featured on this list will tell you, satisfaction is a very important factor at work as well. If you feel unsafe, disrespected or unappreciated at your place of work, there is no reason to stay, even if you are compensated well. After receiving fair wages, finding a job fulfilling falls close behind as the second most important factor to the majority of workers. And the third most important factor, also very closely behind, is that employees feel like they can truly be themselves at work.

We are human beings who deserve to be treated that way 100% of the time. We are not robots who are capable of shutting off our emotions or pausing our personalities just because we’re on the clock. While ignorant employers might assume that productivity and profits are the only things workers should be concerned about, that’s simply not the reality. Workers want to feel valued and cared for at work, and when they don’t, they will find somewhere else where they do.   

#12

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Covid hit the fedex supply chain. Broke the entire system and exposed bad management. The pressure fell on top of the drivers. We quit one after another.

RandomBloke2021 , Bannon Morrissy Report

Add photo comments
POST
leoninusfate avatar
Leoninus Fate
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i know this first hand, it hit all the workers hard, the boxers where hit hard, my bro was almost working 23/7 for 3 months

View more commentsArrow down menu

Although many of the stories on this list took place long before the pandemic began, the shift in the world’s focus since the first few months of 2020 has been drastic. Many of us have been forced to reevaluate our priorities and decide what is truly important to us. While we were required to isolate ourselves in our homes and adjust to a new quality of life, many workers realized that working remotely is actually the best possible option for them. And while it’s been proven that it can be done without sacrificing productivity or profits, many employees have decided that they no longer want to put up with long commutes, uncomfortable offices and the drama that can come along with seeing colleagues every day. 

Unfortunately, about half of the workforce cannot be employed remotely. And according to the World Economic Forum, these individuals are “far less likely than others to say they find their job fulfilling, believe that their team cares about their well-being, think that they’re fairly rewarded financially, or feel they can be creative in their work”. So if a worker has to be on the job in-person, they certainly deserve to find a place they enjoy going to and agree with ethically.

#13

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories There was a staff of 10. At the beginning of last year it was agreed if more than 50% were out sick with covid we close the place down for 1 week and then reasses. 9 of us were out with covid at the same time including the boss. He threatened to fire the last person if they didn't go in and cover for 9 people including the boss! We all quit within the next month like hell did any of us want to be in that position especially when the 'plan' we co-constructed wasn't honoured. F**k profits over people.

ohno_spaghetti_o , energepic.com Report

There has also been a major shift in perspective for many workers in recent years that might be inspiring them to say goodbye to jobs they previously thought they needed. Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global, told Harvard Business Review, “People aren’t just quitting their jobs, they’re rejecting the idea that burnout is the price they have to pay for success.” Keith Ferrazzi and Mike Clementi, writers for Harvard Business Review, explain that rather than viewing the recent change in the workforce as a “Great Resignation”, perhaps we should be considering it a “Great Exploration” instead. People are not just walking away from their jobs; they are calling for changes in the whole system. They want to address the root causes of why employees are unhappy.

#14

I worked at a bread manufacturing plant. This happened in the bagging area. A worker tripped and somehow the way he landed his hand slipped underneath the machine guard and into a chain. Cut off his arm just below the elbow. The supervisor insisted we just wipe off the machine with a towel and continue running the rest of the already baked product. Twelve out of sixteen including myself quit. I found out later the manager fired that supervisor that day.

Bignona Report

#15

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories The management declined to raise waiges and canceled remote right when second covid wave hit. Our whole department started looking for a new job when that happened.

h7hh77 , Nick Morrison Report

Add photo comments
POST
fuhleeheece avatar
Felice Coles
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The karmic dream would be to hope that the management had to do the jobs by themselves to see what REAL WORK is like.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu

Ferrazzi recommends that while workers take some time to reevaluate their situations or search for new employment, they should also start asking themselves some questions. “Why do I do what I do? What am I good at? How can I thrive?” He explains that employees who feel they have discovered their purpose are 49% more likely to experience intrinsic motivation, 33% more likely to report higher job satisfaction, and 25% more likely to go above and beyond at work. “The irony is that if you ask most CHROs what the number-one reason people are leaving is, the answer won’t be purpose — because we don’t ask,” says Marlon Sullivan, Johnson Controls’ CHRO, who explains that exit surveys usually cover the topics of management, culture, wages, and other factors. “But…is purpose a key factor? Absolutely.”

#16

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Worked with a small team that had two managers. One of the managers was great, loved by all, amazing at her job. The other manager stole, showed up late, and verbally abused an employee that identified as trans.

Our good manager contacted the store owner about all the issues. She told the manager along with us staff that we had to do this “by the book” if we wanted her to be able to fire him. We all wrote reports, documented EVERYTHING, found video proof of the thefts. We turn it all over to the owner and what does she do? Fire the food manager for not focusing on her work.

The entire staff walked out and the store was closed for over a month. Place is a joke now and I’m expecting to see them shut down by the end of the year.

majestyyy_ , Craig Adderley Report

Add photo comments
POST
avantikacholleti avatar
Pumpkin Spice
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope that 1. The trans employee is OK. 2. The bad manager falls into a cacti pit and then needs to swim out through a pool of hand sanitizer.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#17

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Smallish company with a very necessary programming team of 5 people.

CEO spent several hundred thousand dollars repainting and refurbishing the building, deciding he didn't like the colour, and got it redone in the same month.

Then lockdown hit and the company was suddenly struggling for money, CEO decided to retrench two of our team members, at first we thought that he picked those two because they were less familiar with the systems.

But then the other 3 of us were told by the CEO that those two were in the most rough positions financially, and one was expecting another kid in a few weeks. And that this meant that they could hire them back as contractors for cheap because they'd be desperate.

In the next week the three of us chatted among ourselves, all resigned, and they had to keep the other two devs on with their standard paycheck for longer, all while looking for new places to work

1112212111122112 , Malte Luk Report

Add photo comments
POST
fuhleeheece avatar
Felice Coles
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

CEO thought he could exploit the desperation of the team. Found out that team members had more compassion than he did.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#18

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Not everyone, but a big chunk of the good people including managers.

This was McDonald's, after COVID hit. We were already slammed on the daily with ridiculous demands from our franchise owner and his cronies, but when COVID hit they used that as an opportunity to add on more and more stuff to make even more money. They wanted more jobs done when we were already understaffed, wearing masks AND face shields that THEY got (we weren't allowed to use our own even if they were more effective and clean).

The list of additional demands from our owner and his cronies were:

Upsell EVERYTHING from pies to cookies to bagels to donuts on every order and if you didn't you'd get written up.

Talk in a specific way without any changes in the script (I'm not joking, they wrote out scripts for us) and if even one word was wrong, written up.

If you interrupt the automatic greeter (which customers thought was a real person cause the ones in that area were a really special kind of stupid) even by accident, written up.

If you didn't get payment done at the window fast enough, even if it's the customer being slow, it's your fault.

If you don't constantly sound happy and/or cheery, clearly that's your fault and not the fact that you're going through 8 hours almost every day of mental abuse while also physically pushing yourself to do the jobs of 3 people cause they don't want to schedule the right amount of people for shifts.

All while we're living in a pandemic barely making ends meet on 40 hours a week.

Not to mention all the abuse from the incompetent managers who wouldn't give us our breaks, and later on breaking health services regulations because surprise surprise, some workers got COVID and came into work cause calling in sick was still frowned upon...

This caused a whole bunch of people to leave, not even giving notice most of the times because the work environment was and still is extremely toxic. And because it was most of the good managers and workers who left, that made things even worse. And yet the owner and his cronies still had the gall to ask "wHy'D eVeRyOnE lEaVe?"

Howler452 , Carlos Macías Report

#19

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories We had a tiny team, just three people, and really didn't need a manager. Still, a manager was hired. She was a micromanager, nothing was too small for her to notice. Forgot to put a double space at the start of a sentence? She would literally sit next to you for half an hour, prompting you to double space. The boss was impressed because she always seemed very busy - and she was, but only because she spent so much time supervising us and not enough time on her own work. She never listened to explanations of why things were done a certain way (to conform to government requirements on medical records...) and would just start talking over the top of whoever was speaking to remind us that we just didn't know how to do things and we needed to follow her instructions.

Things started going especially badly when she took a major dislike to one of the team because she believed this person wasn't working efficiently (ie, the way the manager wanted). She started piling work on top of this person, taking it away from the other two of us, until all I was doing was sitting at my desk waiting for the day to end. When our overwhelmed coworker asked for help from us, we happily agreed. We all got a dressing-down and official warnings because our coworker was supposed to do everything by herself.

Then the manager went on maternity leave. The person acting in her position had been there forever, knew we were perfectly capable of doing our jobs without oversight, and left us to it. For a year we all had meaningful work to do, we cooperated and relaxed, we could laugh and talk to each other, and we started getting compliments on how fast and well we had completed tasks.

Then our manager called to say she would be coming back. We went to her boss, pleading for help, as we had done countless times before. Boss said sorry not sorry, she's a great manager, we should be looking forward to her return.

Within the next 24 hours two of us had quit; the third one stuck it out until the manager actually returned and then quit. At that point, the manager's role was changed so she didn't have any underlings to manage. So at least she can't drive anyone else out, I guess.

thirdonebetween , Andrea Piacquadio Report

Add photo comments
POST
jameskramer avatar
James016
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If the direct reports of a manager are pleading not to bring them back. LISTEN!!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#20

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Last year there was a public hospital in Portugal, in the city of Setúbal, where 87 doctors, all the chiefs of staff of their respective departments, quit at once because of poor working conditions related to lack of medical staff.

guilhugas , Erkan Utu Report

#21

Not my story but my cousin's. They found out that their boss is a child predator who tries to catfish children from roblox during work often. He was reported to the authorities on the same day they quit.

bejcbjejs Report

Add photo comments
POST
fuhleeheece avatar
Felice Coles
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Please, please, say that the end of the is that the company is bankrupt and the boss is in jail!

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#22

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories We worked at a startup with amazing co-founders. Our CEO and COO were the coolest people I've met. Our company was doing well, we were some 6-8 months away from break-even and cash burn was so low, we hadn't needed funding in almost 5 years.

The startup was funded by foreign VCs who had no understanding of local market. They wanted insane growth when the industry we were in just didn't have that kind of growth potential. So the VCs got the co-founders fired.

5 of 8 departmental heads and at least 15% of total employees of the company quit within the next 3 months.

magestooge , Marten Bjork Report

#23

Worked at a board game cafe, poor management amongst other things was pushing all the staff to quit but we didn't because we liked working together.

Next to the coffee machine we had a couple of sticky notes with doodles we had all drawn, they were very cute and gave a personal touch that made us feel part of the business.

The final straw was when out of the blue our bosses tore these down and chucked them in the bin.

In the next following days every single staff member quit including ones like myself who had been with the business since inception.

lloydieG1 Report

Add photo comments
POST
qialhe avatar
Riani Kivela
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm sure the bosses felt that they had bossed very bossily, as bossy bosses would.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#24

I worked at a restaurant for a few years. The manager was cruel, hot tempered, and did nothing but stand in the small isles between rows of tables with his hands on his waist and elbows out so that effectively couldn’t walk past home carrying food (and had to weave around). It was normal and expected that we work double shifts on the weekend, starting at 6am we’d set up the patio, do dishes, set tables, and deal with whatever the chef “locally foraged” like picking berries off the stems. We’d work 6-3pm, get an hour off, come back from 4pm-11pm.

One day, I was completely slammed and was trying to bus and set up a table that had left. I missed a bit of ketchup that the customer had left on the outside of the bottle when they poured it. He grabbed my arm and said, “what is this f*****g mess? You are a despicable human being.”

Fast forward several months, and they hire a new server who ends up sexually assaulting me. I then hear from his ex that he tried to kill her and he has a felony on his record for this. I approach management and ask that they check his background (because they wouldn’t have hired someone with a felony) and at least for the time being don’t schedule us together. They promptly ignore my request and schedule us to work a wedding together. I left that day.

bag_of_goldfish Report

#25

worked at a fast food place. poorly managed on a good day, black mold growing on the walls, manager was a pedophile that made me take my break in his office every shift, was only working there because my family was poor & i needed the job. one shift one of my coworkers came in showing us videos of a rap concert she had attended the night before, and my manager called the rapper a series of racial slurs. his whole closing staff walked out right after that, leaving him to close by himself.

samfan98 Report

Add photo comments
POST
destinythornton avatar
Destiny Thornton
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

...and until the end of his life he thought everyone else was the problem and took no accountability for his own actions. The end.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#26

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories The guy everyone hated became the manager because the lousy CEO played favorites.

V4Vendota , Hunters Race Report

Add photo comments
POST
ortaduchess avatar
Stephanie Did It
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My former boss in the IT support team had a wife in upper management. Lo and behold, he was nepotised into my department. As a manager he knew nothing about IT or end user support. As a team lead, I ended up fielding all the executive-level complaints and technical questions. The position he was promoted from? Parking lot security guard.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#27

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Business largely worked because the owner trusted his employees to do a good job. So the employees did a good job. The business was doing really well and the owner assumed it was all because of him so he started micromanaging everyone's job. People started dropping off like flies because the working conditions became intolerable. The company didn't last very long after that

polywha , Scott Graham Report

#28

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Three of us, the engineers, quit the same week and without any discussion between ourselves. Man in charge was an insufferable, insulting twat. This led to the head office losing faith and the whole subsidiary being sold off.

PicardTangoAlpha , ThisisEngineering RAEng Report

Add photo comments
POST
jacobs_vic avatar
FakeOptimist
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Sold off".... At a price reflecting the performance befóre everything went to s**t I bet.

#29

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories They issued phone lockers. All the lube techs quit except for one but he got high at lunch the next day and got fired. Mind you this was one day after the boss just got back from his dads funeral.

jond200 , Autumn_ schroe Report

#30

People Share What Happened At Their Jobs That Caused Everyone To Quit At Once, Here Are 30 Of Their Wildest Stories Manager kept pitching a way to us on breaks and then cut hours of those that didn't sign up under him. We worked in retail at the mall.

rayrayrayray , Andrea Piacquadio Report

#31

The boss got a raise and a bonus while everyone else got a pizza party and mandatory overtime.

prof_dynamite Report

Add photo comments
POST
ortaduchess avatar
Stephanie Did It
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My boss handed me a letter of commendation from our CEO (A rare honor) and in the same conversation, cancelled my end of year bonus that would have been around $2000. Apparently I upstaged him.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#32

A guy with lofty ambitions (read: brown nosing skills) managed to work his way up to become a technician. A more clueless guy doesn't exist on this planet.

He was first posted to a department in our factory to improve productivity and fine tune the machines therein. Didn't work. He was making things worse. Everywhere he went he made things worse to the point where some machines were almost destroyed through his ineptitude.

Then he used more of his ambition (brown nosing) to become head of the technicians. That's when the entire technician workforce just up and quit. Every. Single. One. We're talking at least some 30 people.

Management realises they s**t the bed and beg the techs to come back. The techs tell management that either he goes or they go and management can find a new technician workforce.

Cue mad scramble to figure out what to do with the situation. The techs have basically quit and have collectively gone home. Someone suggests they find the brown noser another position somewhere else, another city, as far away as possible from here.

The management tell the brown noser he can't be head of the technicians here as someone more qualified got it, so they find him another position. A position 1600 km away. In another country away.

Brown noser took the job and that was the last we saw of him.

Cue collective sigh of relief.

beardedgamerdad Report

Add photo comments
POST
#33

My employer went bankrupt. Boss came by and informed us and said we could continue working but as of that moment we where not going to be paid. We all shook the mans hand and left. The boss was a good man who got shafted by a couple of clients and the economic climate was not the best at that time.

jcm242 Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If lack of payment from a couple of clients can out you under then you should've already closed the doors. No business can survive that close to the edge.

#34

Boss used to have a “company lunch” once a month. He would ask for separate checks, collect the individual checks and the money from each of us, then go pay the bill. All was good until someone found out he was pocketing our money and paying the bill with his corporate card. M**********r was stealing from his employees. When it was reported Corporate did nothing so all ten of his technical staff quit. We all have serious technical skills and got new jobs within days. Don’t know what happened to “Bob” and don’t really care.

Whayne_Kerr Report

Add photo comments
POST
maxrobitzsch avatar
Max Robitzsch
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The fact that you had to pay for your "company" lunch was a bad start.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#35

I work for a government contractor. Essentially, they don't like paying a competitive wage ever since everything shot up in price. Can't afford to live in the city where you work? Or even the county? Tough luck, not their problem. So everyone's quitting and going to other employers that will.

Bromelia_and_Bismuth Report

Add photo comments
POST
naschi avatar
Na Schi
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, government contractor says a lot... In Europe we have similar issues, at least in my country. Because all government related "facilities" are forced to hire the cheapest contractor. On paper this sounds good, as this means not to waste tax payers money. But in reality it means that cheap is often not high quality and that those contractors often cut corners to such an extent that very expensive rework will become necessary. Additionally the government has to announce the job all over Europe, and it can't be denied that there is still a large difference in income over the whole EU. So it's often South-Estern companies who win the bidding, while the countries own companies suffer, as they cannot compete with the low prices.

#36

Bosses son took over.

3rd generation syndrome - Granddad starts his own company and works hard. Dad sees his dad working hard and takes over with the understanding of what it took and who helped. The. The son is born into money and wants to feel important.

Nightmarex13 Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've seen this in reverse as well. Guy opened a pizza/sub place. He'd worked for other places and saw all the ways they made mistakes. His food was the best in town. Hired family, no problem until dad gets in the picture. Starts wanting to order cheaper ingredients, brings in a chef to get his input. Chef turns out picture perfect food, emphasis on picture because that's about the flavor it all had, paper. Son finally told his dad one of them was going. Son walked and dad was out of business in less than 6 weeks.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#37

There was only two of us working at a local bar. It was the second New Year’s Eve in a row that the landlady tried to get us to work through our 5 minute midnight break and yelled at me for giving my bf a kiss (not behind the bar, we were on the floor celebrating with friends for that 5 minutes). Two NYE’s of her making me cry, plus plenty of occasions of being disrespected and not paid on time. We left at 12:15 AM and they never got any more perm staff and sadly closed.

RizziJoy Report

Add photo comments
POST
jacobs_vic avatar
FakeOptimist
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Treating your bar staff badly ? I call thet butchering the goose that lays the golden eggs.

#38

Worked at a Hardee's for 9 months. The first half we had a GM that was one of those old dudes that almost to retirement and didn't care we were smoking dope right on the line. The AGM was awesome. A really motherly type that could ask you to work a double shift and you would thank her for it. She took really good care of us and it was a great place to work as a 20 year old. When GM retired we were all expecting the AGM to slide right into the role. Nope they brought in this tight assed, fresh from college (if you've ever worked fast food there's a contempt for schoolies) girl that just had no idea how to deal with people. I think she wowed corporate with number stuff. Everybody hated her. For example I remember one of the few times she worked the counter I had to step in because she needlessly escalated a customer just wanting extra sauce. So AGM and new GM get into an inevitable argument and cool AGM quits. All but 2 people quit within an hour. I heard later she spun it to corporate that AGM had launched a coup because she was lesbian (we had no clue) and just fired the 2 that stayed once they trained a new crew. I remember when I came in to drop off my uniforms, she begged me to stay, and I just said, "I won't work for someone who spent $50,000 dollars just to work fast food so they can treat people like s**t."

StarTrekChildActor Report

#39

I work in a veterinary clinic as a technician. We hired a new “experienced” girl in January who

1.) had a dog euthanized when she didn’t follow alerts on the poor thing and cornered it. It bit her and since it was a pittie it had the 1 strike you’re out policy.

2.) 2 months into her employment she gets a huge pay raise and is then asked to make the schedule. Found out she was best friends with the head doctor outside of work. She has no experience scheduling and everyone suffered for it. One would work 10 days in a row and the next person who wasn’t senior to them got 2 on 2 off. The schedule also came out not even a week in advance and it would only be 5-6 days at a time. She also scheduled herself to only work with the doc she was friends with, so she wasn’t in much.

3.) she would reorganize our pharmaceutical drugs BY COLOR. They were alphabetical. She’d move oral meds to the drawer that had eye meds cause “the boxes looked similar”.

4.) She will not take criticism. When we tell her our concerns, she’d throw around how she has more time in the field than us. And continue doing things the doctors don’t approve of. And fight the doctors on their way of doing things!

5.) we all went to the hiring manager as well as head honcho, and their response was we needed to handle it ourselves. An employee of 15 years said they’d leave if they continued to enable this, at the very least don’t let her make the schedule anymore. They did nothing. She left, and 6(about to be 7) followed suite.

Clinic is now understaffed and overworked. They won’t adjust hours, or how much they allow in one day (surgeries, drop offs, etc). Instead they pushed our shifts from 8hr(everyone worked extra couple hours) to 10hr shifts, where we’ve been working 12hr shifts with no break. There’s bout to be another wave of us leaving. The new lady was just the straw that broke the camels back and now everything is falling apart .-.

Neat-Crab Report

Add photo comments
POST
trinitychristie avatar
Trinity Christie
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hate that dogs like pit bulls are given the "1 strike you're out" rule. Like, the owner needs to understand how to take care of a dog that is that high energy, and the dog didn't decide to be a breed that's hated by many. Like, if a pomeranian or something bites its owner multiple times, there's a 99% chance that people aren't gonna go "put the dog down" they're more likely gonna tolerate it or put the dog in a shelter. It's just so stupid! Sorry for ranting everyone, I just love pitbulls😅

View more commentsArrow down menu
#40

The boss tried to force us to cheat/be dishonest/go against both our personal and professional integrity.

Fit_General7058 Report

Add photo comments
POST
michaellargey avatar
Michael Largey
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like your boss already had all that stuff covered already.

#41

When the managers said they could train monkeys to do the job... so all the staff retired... And they had to halt operations until they hired two staff to be on call ALL the time. Guess how long that lasted?

chiubacca82 Report

Add photo comments
POST
jacobs_vic avatar
FakeOptimist
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hear lots of stories about there being a shortage of workers, but none about a shortage of managers.....

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#42

I worked at the largest apartment complex in my area (~800 units) with maintenance. The office crew had about 10 people and maintenance had 9. Had a great group with an amazing property manager and maintenance supervisor. The property manager took an offer managing a beautiful resort property. In comes the new property manager who had next to no experience, and she starts to try to change things even though it ran fine like it was. She also became a mouthpiece for corporate. Everything they suggested she put straight back out to us. Within a month 7 of 9 maintenance employees put in their 2 weeks notice including the maintenance supervisor. The next month 5 office workers had their 2 weeks in. A few months later I heard that the new property manager shut down the entire office and maintenance department to take them all to some golf tournament and got herself fired for it.

The_Windbreaker Report

See Also on Bored Panda
#43

My department is potentially facing this.

We're underperforming due to staff retention issues (loads of factors leading to this.)

Had a department wide meeting where senior management announce that they're pulling back remote working days effective immediately. Everybody has to be in the office an extra day and they'll cut things further if our performance as a department doesn't improve.

No mention of payrises. No answer for how to address the staffing shortfall.

Given that the cost of living is insanely high and people joined with the expectation of flexible working, many aren't happy.

Clbull Report

#44

I worked at 7-11 for 2 years. We are the busiest gas station in the area because we were the first one off of the highway and a block from the hockey arena.

When I started, the task list we had was manageable. If things were really busy, we'd miss a couple but the next shift was able to pick it up. By the time I quit, we were lucky to finish 1/3 of the list (the area manager kept making it longer because she thought we could do more). But that's not what made me quit.

I handed in my 2 week notice when we were told that we'd no longer have a cook. You know, the one who would bread & cook the chicken, wedges, and wings and fry the corn dogs. Instead they were bringing in pre-breaded garbage that the **CASHIERS** would have to throw the cook ontop of all the normal stuff (which we struggled to do already).

A good chunk of us quit because of that. Found out about 2 months later that the idea only lasted a month because chicken sales were only 1/3 of what they normally were. A few months after this, another good chunk left because the woman who had been working there for around 20 years left.

Edit: Oh damn, was not expecting to get this many upvotes. Thanks to all of you

Chapter97 Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sad thing is no corporation ever comprehends that the customer service workers are the ones that make money for the company. NOT 1 single person above store level makes money for the company. Even when facing chapter 13, companies continue paying these non-essential people while cutting the SCR staff.

#45

Had a solid team of 20 or so people, got amazing scores on all our reports and a high level of customer appreciation. Then they started cutting down, taking people away, to see how few people they can operate with. Layoffs left and right until it was eventually just the top 3 employees myself and two others. The work wasn't reduced though, so we came in everyday with 100+ tasks on our computers and it was impossible to keep up. Our metrics dropped, people complained and it was all around a s**t show. We told management what the issue was and they didn't do anything, just blamed us. We ended up moving to different jobs or positions at the same time and that entire department got outsourced.

Apparently everybody hates the new outsource, and I went by there once and met the guys and they all looked like they hated their lives. Their Office had no working A/C too in summer heat.

KGhaleon Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Funny how the staff above store level never gets cut. I can only imagine board meetings at most (US) corporations. "How can our revenue keep declining, we've cut payroll in our stores by 60%?"

#46

Worked in a call centre offering free public transport brochures to people living in a city. The place was poorly managed, it was contracted out by the local government and only cared about numbers.

Early during one shift a spate of bombings on public transport killed a load of people around the city. After a few calls of getting abuse from people aghast we were trying to get their details to send them bus/train timetables etc, we collectively stopped making calls. We assumed management would pause the project for that week at least, maybe longer, out of respect for what had happened.

Our manager put her foot down and told us we must continue calling that morning, and as we were only on temporary contracts anyone who refused may face being replaced, then she stormed off. The entire team quit on the spot, we just got up and left without speaking to her again.

We called up the work agency to let them know and they did not blame us. We were all replaced but the local government office heard what had happened and pulled the plug on the contract with that call centre within a month.

Husper Report

Add photo comments
POST
jacobs_vic avatar
FakeOptimist
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm not saying the customer us always right, but in this case... What WAS that st***d manager thinking...

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#47

The restaurant shut down.

Now that sounds like a "duh" moment, but here's the thing. They told everyone (mostly working for minimum wage) that we'd still be required to work for another month, and then assist in packing up and tearing everything down afterwards. If we didn't, we were told that the owners would do their best to ensure we couldn't get jobs anywhere else.

So sure enough, almost everyone quit within the next day or two, and got new jobs. The owners stayed open to the last day, but would complain to guests about their terrible lazy staff who had abandoned them.

Yeah, I'm glad I got out.

jimmy_costigan Report

#48

Not quite everyone but 3 of us handed our notice in within a few days of each other in response to having our wages cut by 20% for 18 months previously to help the business which was really struggling only for the Managing Director to roll up to work one morning in a shiny new jaguar. We had already overlooked the extension on his house that was being built. Financial director was no better and spent every waking minute telling us about his skiing holiday he was so looking forward to.

They waved goodbye to the IT manager, production manager and head designer all because the company directors got greedy

hutchzillious Report

Add photo comments
POST
#49

Worked at a teen drug rehab center doing overnights while in college. Assistant manager stuck his hand in a girl's pants "to see if they were too tight for school." They kept him on without investigation. Everyone bailed.

paracog Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And she didn't call the cops? A lot of girls I know, have friends that would "take care of him" themselves.

#50

I worked at a bakery a while back, and while enjoyable at times it was generally a nightmare. There was one highlight though, and that was our second manager. We had three managers and the first and third were okay, but they never really motivated people and at times could be very rude. Our second manager however was amazing. She was always encouraging, kind, understanding, and I never heard her get angry. She was the type of person who was meant to be a leader, and she did her job well. Too well. Corporate decided to transfer her to another location since that one was failing, and pretty much everyone quit the moment we found out she was leaving. She was the glue that held us together and I still remember her as one of the best bosses I’ve ever had.

qyurryuz Report

#51

Worked at a company as a Software Engineer. We were a group of employees under an org but with no reporting manager. We just worked in our projects with our project managers and functioned well. We were happy. Then comes in new mgmt, they decided we needed a reporting manager and the guy assigned was toxic as f. After a few complaints from the whole team and no action from upper mgmt, most of quit within months. I think we went from being 20 or so to 8 when I left, and I heard that the rest followed shortly after. THEN when everyone left, upper mgmt thought it was a good time to reevaluate the reporting manager and they relieved him of his role and moved him to a different one (they couldn’t even have the guts to fire him) but by then it was too little, too late.

FeelTheFuture Report

Add photo comments
POST
#52

Boss fired our Operation Manager when he didn't have another ready to take her place. The reason she was fired was because she raised concerns about us, the employees, not being paid for two weeks of work.

This caused his company to collapse after a month and supposedly he is in court now for fraud.

JesusMuhammadMoses Report

See Also on Bored Panda
#53

Worked at a cheap clothing retail store while I was in college. 15-20 hrs/week for the first several months, as was most of the staff. Then we got a new manager who decided that the state-mandated paid breaks (15min after 4 hours) were a waste of money. So he changed everyone’s shifts to 3hr 45mins or less so no one would get a paid break. Then people complained, so he hired a bunch of new people and reduced the old staff to about one shift a week. Lost pretty much everyone who actually knew what they were doing in less than a month. I heard most of the new people also quit pretty quickly, once they figured out how dumbly the place was run.

functionalsock Report

Add photo comments
POST
#54

Manager got caught stealing from employees

bearded_charmander Report

Add photo comments
POST
#55

Manager was an a*s hole who was banging one of his employees. After a whole lot of drama he was fired and replaced with a woman who's whole attitude was to "fix us". Everyone did their jobs well, despite bad management, and when she came in people just had enough.

OddDogWarrior Report

Add photo comments
POST
michaellargey avatar
Michael Largey
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sometimes when management says it's going to "fix" their employees, they mean it in the canine sense.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#56

Hasn't happened yet

But I can already envision it

Morning shift is REAL short at my job. There's a lot of overnight staff.

Schools about to start.

Coincidentally, we have a general staff meeting this upcoming Friday (3 days before school starts)

I have a feeling these assholes (our admin) are gonna basically tell us they're short staffed in the mornings, and we're gonna be forced work 16 hours a day for 3-5 days during our work week.

I'll get with the staff prior to the meeting and tell them to all walkout at the same time

A few people might not make a difference, but a whole entire shift will. F**k my job!

Tech_SavvyTex97 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#57

At a high-volume restaurant in Maryland, there opened a new Korean chicken restaurant by a Chinese man. He hired Chinese workers who were paid under the table. The working conditions for them were inhumane; I mean, they literally didn't have one of their ventilators not working in the back. They worked 70hrs a week for 6 months in that fried chicken place and were dying in there. Eventually, they got fed up and asked for a raise.

The boss fired them all.


To this day the boss is still opening chicken restaurants like "Bon Chon" and running shady business practices.

dashinny Report

#58

I quit.

Our work was s**t, our boss was s**t. I left.

Bumped into a colleague a few months later. Most of the team, all of whom had been there for multiple years, decided to quit just after me.

PloppyTheSpaceship Report

Add photo comments
POST
#59

It was a combination of lots of different things. But the real turning point is when they completely restructured the company and only told us it would be happening on our diversity training day. Even middle management didn’t know what was going on. All questions were met with shitty remarks from the CEO. “Well I guess we’ll just have to get used to it”!

So a coworker puts in his required 30 day notice. They expedite his departure after a week and don’t let him properly transition his caseload. And we worked with kids so at this point the kids had all gone home. He wasn’t able to say goodbye. We were told “business is business”. The kicker was that the new model completely sucked a*s. After 2 months or so pretty much half the staff had quit with no notice. The shitters told the parents it was due to covid.

Khleevi_hive_mind Report

Add photo comments
POST
#60

Boss changed with another person, this person treated everyone like dogs, to the point where he fired two managers bases on vibes, which made the most working manager that we had decide to leave and since he was friends with everyone and did all posts with near perfection while being the fastest, helping around and doing his own work as a manager, that was that was the turning point where 75% of the employees left, even though they were there for years and in the remaining a lot are still planning to leave

Wolvos_707 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#61

My first job at a fast food chain when I was a teen was where I met one of the most important people in my life. I started as a cashier and somehow got promoted as an assistant store manager skipping a few steps. I was a child at that time, so I basically said yes without knowing what I’d have to do. The job itself was stressful, as anyone who worked foh any place would know—but majority of that stress doubles when the management is incompetent. The spot you get after assistant BM is the BM, but I got offered a job at head office as Supervisor. This meant that I would be doing a 9-6 salary clocking in at a different area, not seeing my coworkers and not being able to steal food every day but I took it thinking that if I step my foot in the door, I’ll be able to make some serious changes for my coworkers. As foolish as I was, it was way worse than I expected. I didn’t have ANY financial/marketing outlook so I had to learn from the ground up beginning with how to use a printer. Everyone pretty much hated me because I was in my late teens working alongside people who could be my parents. Slowly, I started to realize that the internal problems that only reflect heavily on the people who actually work on foot of the store are rooted within the President/CEOs and everything seemed so far and I honestly didn’t want to be here for the rest of my life. During this time, I still kept in touch with my old coworkers as I was still managing their store, s**t was still unresolved, so when my doctor gave me an ultimatum to quit for my health, I found a job for 23 of my staff/beloved old coworkers. 3 weeks after I submitted my resignation, my staff quit on the spot effective immediately. I believe we were on the news in the town for the next day. Good times

folieavan Report

#62

Worked at Dairy Queen; someone was stealing money regularly during the closing shift. Many of us had a suspicion of who it was and I’m pretty sure most of us told our manager for fear of being blamed ourselves (we were certain it was the assistant manager who was with us on those closing shifts). Instead, our manager started randomly firing younger staff members for any minor discretion and blaming the missing money on them. When they fired me, it was the last straw and several of my co-workers walked out in solidarity. News flash: it was the assistant manager all along. I ended up threatening to go to the labour board and they kind of.. paid me off?

Edit- this was about 15 years ago, I’m very much over it, it was my first real job in high school and i was there for almost 2 years. I’m Canadian, it was an DQ in Ontario and my boss knew she was in for a world of trouble if I disclosed some of their practices. I did not sign an NDA, I think my manager was afraid to let anything get to a higher level. They added like 1k to my final paycheque that had no real explanation why it was there (in all honesty it could have been that I was young and didn’t quite understand how loose ends get tied up after someone is fired. Maybe their version of “severance” I really don’t know. That’s just how my 17 year old brain made sense of it at the time)

Anyways I see that assistant manager out and about all the time and after all this time she still can’t look in my direction.

Dense_Society_2873 Report

Add photo comments
POST
See Also on Bored Panda
#63

We found out that once one of our fellow employees passed away at home. It was really sad. Her daughter came in to pick up her final cheque and the owners didn't give her the cash tips she had accumulated when she came in. They pocketed them and spent them on whatever..


On top of lying about the staff to the staff, asking very inappropriate questions, giving their high school son more hours than the full time adult employees while he was still in school and just overall very shady business practices, myself and three others just had enough. Three of us walked out before our shift started and the guy who was already working walked out on his lunch (we went to high school together so I sent him a message apologizing for abandoning him) we had a celebration party that night.
Two of us that walked out had been with the company since it opened. So we had already been there for just over a year. After we left, the business didn't last an additional year. They didn't pay their building rent and just abandoned it.

I own a food business myself and they are an excellent example of what I will NEVER do.

Trystanik Report

Add photo comments
POST
madeleineseverin avatar
Madeleine
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

“Her daughter came in to pick up her final cheque and the owners didn't give her the cash tips she had accumulated when she came in.” How would her daughter have known her mother had tips coming to her if no one was willing to tell her that? Clearly the owners were bad people, but it seems none of the employees were willing to communicate anything to the daughter about tips being owed to her mother. It wouldn’t be self-evident to someone who doesn’t work there that the owners are thieves.

#64

I worked at a trucking company and the terminal manager would send the same group of guys for a “random p**s test”. I had 8 in one year. One day the owner of company decided to pay this location a visit. He walked in clapped his hands and said “lock the doors every single one of ya”ll gonna go up the street and take a drug test. 3 quit on the spot. 2 failed. Out of six shop employees only 1 took the test and passed.

bloodsoed Report

Add photo comments
POST
#65

Not exactly an "everyone quit" story, but close. So, my current workplace has a whole bunch of problems, starting first with a top-heavy setup (too many middle management, not enough people doing actual work), then the delayed pay raises (while the top heads bought themselves a nice Maybach each *during the 2020 pandemic*), lack of contractually promised bonuses and more. They cut off employee benefits this year, then cried about how sales were down, so "people should be glad to keep their jobs".

The last straw was when they tried to kick out an admin who's been with the company for 13-14 years. He was a popular, chill guy who got the work done and wasn't about the politics, so he got on well with everyone. He braved a 4-5 hour commute each day for this shithole and the management became salty that his company anniversary speech got a better response than theirs. They just demanded he quit without giving him a severance package or even sending him a formal mail.

The last straw for me was when my manager (also a dude who's worked 7-8 years and knows a bunch of minutiae which no one else does) put in his papers and there was no talk of his replacement. No talk with me about promoting me and giving me a raise... no, they just expected me to do his job. Which is ridiculous, because I have 3-4 years of experience in this particular field, while he has 15+. I explicitly informed his manager that I wouldn't do his job, but no dice.

So, well, I'm quitting, but so have 5 others before me. As I'm serving out my notice period, 2 more have quit, leaving our team of 16 down to about 6 people. Others have interviews lined up because there has been no talk of hiring replacements or even promoting the existing people.

I'm hoping that the rest get out too because the one good thing here I had was my team. The company can suck my non-existent d**k tbh.

LordessMeep Report

Add photo comments
POST
madeleineseverin avatar
Madeleine
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

“He braved a 4-5 hour commute each day for this shithole . . .” I think working in this environment has maybe warped people’s perspectives a bit because it’s not brave to put yourself through such a ridiculous commute! It’s more self-defeating than brave to sacrifice so much time for such a long commute, unless the job pays ridiculously well or is a hugely important opportunity for the employee in some other way. Even then, if someone is being well paid they can afford to move closer, unless they have some sort of martyr fantasy and want to be seen as making big sacrifices daily.

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#66

The company decided to enforce a non-compete and used their influence to block someone being hired at the company we are partnered with. Over the course of a month, the majority of our senior staff left for a different competing firm. Hasn't been the same since.

DarkHelmet Report

Add photo comments
POST
#67

My ex-bf and I worked at a mortgage company together. His team was responsible for building and running most of the daily reports other teams worked off of, and any interruption in their work caused big downstream headaches. The group was very tight-knit.

There were some managerial changes that brought in a new AVP over their team, and he decided to completely change the systems that all the reports were housed on to something he had used at his previous job. It was something that our company didn't use and might not be compatible with what what was already in place. The team's manager fought them tooth and nail on the changes. One day, she was called into the AVP's office and just fired because they were tired of her butting heads with them. She fortunately had some good connections at one of our competitors, and they hired her immediately to begin putting together a new team there. She hired every person on the original team, and they all put in their notice on the same day. One of the fun things about working at a place that deals with so much sensitive information is that they don't let you work your notice (you're sent home and paid for the time), so that department was completely empty for weeks.

It caused a huge mess at work. Almost 10 years later, that team is (mostly) still together at the new company, loving their jobs. Oh, and after all that, they were not allowed to switch to the new system because it was too costly and the programs already used were just fine.

lightningusagi Report

Add photo comments
POST
#68

I worked at a private university that was having major money problems. After a leadership change and all middle management being laid off, it was clear that they were looking for any way to save money they could. I worked in the IT and there was a point where a couple “friends” of the leadership came in to take a look at things. Our finance department already had other “friends” come in and take their jobs at this point. It was when these IT “friends” were asking for Active Directory accounts with Domain Admin rights that we know there was a good chance they were either going to lay us off or outsource the department after getting rid of us. For anyone that doesn’t understand AD permissions, a domain admin account has full power to do anything with any user account, including disabling ours. All but one of us found new jobs within a couple months of this happening.

Dasca6789 Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And if those "friends" don't really know what they're doing, they can do a lot of damage real quick. Expensive damage. Admin rights are restricted for a reason.

#69

Manager being racist towards an African employee
(Btw im a teen, this happened at my uncle’s office)

Efficient_Stay_369 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#70

I wonder if this’ll be buried in the comments, but as I’m reading this comments I realized oh wait I can be included in this. This story isn’t as crazy as the others though.

I worked at a bar arcade with a pretty incompetent general manager and owner. The owners would never spend money to improve the place and the general manager was never at the store and when he was he would barely do any work and just be on his phone. If he was “working”, it would be just him spewing his homophobic and antivax beliefs.

This place was small though so at the time there were only 3 kitchen staff, 3 front end staff including me, two assistant managers, and the general manager. So I hate using this term but we were quite literally a “family” since we all worked the same shifts Wednesday through Sunday. (Closed on Monday and Tuesday.)

I graduated college and started applying to jobs. When I finally got a job post grad, I started telling my coworkers. We all kinda only suffered through the job because we liked each other, so after I quit, 2 kitchen staff and one other front end staff put their two weeks in as well shortly afterwards. The two assistant managers then started applying for other jobs and soon afterwards left as well.

One assistant manager told me the owner was begging her to stay and even offered a pay increase. But it was too late, as she always kept asking for a pay increase before but was always put on hold. The owners were pieces of s**t too anyway. During pride month they kept calling the pride flag the “f** flag” and they hated anyone that wasn’t white that walked into the store.

But anyway glad I’m out of there cause apparently the place isn’t doing well financially. Which sucks cause from the customer viewpoint I love going there. But the owners just refuse to spend any money on the place so it’s slowly but surely breaking down to s**t.

doctdad Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like Chuckee Cheese. Everyone I've ever seen looks like a dump inside, like it hasn't been cleaned in 10 years.

#71

I was a student in school at the time. A teacher giving a private tuition to a student they teach in the school is a massive no no by local education regulations. A girl with cancer was struggling with her studies and her exams were coming up. 3 teachers were giving her private tuition FOR FREE (they didn't take one dirham and nobody just gives you free tuition). School administration found out and fired the 3 teachers on the spot. About 60-80% students left the school because of the s**t show that was and like 60% of teachers changed schools and then later like the next year another 20% left.

R_sadreality_24-365 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#72

Poor pay, for laborious work. Passing highly qualified people up for promotions and giving that spot to someone with no experience or training in the field to someone from outside connected personally in someone in management.

I happened over about a month. Me leaving was the breaking point for most people, i was the one maintenance guy that would actually answer calls and get things done. I left after getting turned down for an R and D position (which I did at my previous job in more technical field) within a week two warehouse guys left, along with three production people which was half of that department, then shortly after that even the HR girl left along with the maintenance manager. Its not a big company, but a very popular one in the RVing and towing products trade. too bad the owners only care about profit and not employees being able to afford housing.

memberzs Report

Add photo comments
POST
See Also on Bored Panda
#73

Several

A doctor I had, she was known for hiking up her prices and was a c**t to her employees. What made them quit was when she misdiagnosed a patient so he'd pay her more. Her lawyer daddy couldn't help her, her and his offices were closed down and became 7/11.

First job I had, I was 15. The owner believed he could muscle on everyone and they'd listen to him. His son was the manager and would threaten violence every minute. We had a bad snowstorm and when none of us could come in the owner threatened to shoot us all in front of our parents. We quit and called the cops on him, while he got off with a slap his businesses went down. One was even burned and he was accused of doing it himself for insurance. His son tried to find any job he could but he was basically blacklisted.

Had a colleague who was known for her debts and her businesses not lasting. Sh had one business that was doing well because she uninvolved. Until she thought she could increase her profits, it was a restaurant and was also a rest stop so it got a lot of customers.

Then she change the ingredients, went cheaper and it was noticed. After 6 months everyone quit and it became nothing more than a place people shat and peed at.

MUSTARDUNAVAILABLE Report

Add photo comments
POST
#74

Not quite all at once, but within a team of ten, everyone had left within 3 months of me leaving. Terrible terrible manager! I started a new job in November as a number two, knowing I could do the number one job but didn’t want the hassle of management.

Within two months the team was asking me anyway because the actual manager was bad and also blamed others for her incompetence.

I was already over it when a potential new recruit turned the job down because they had heard bad things about the manager, who sat us all down for a “whoever is talking badly about the team is very unprofessional, and lying, this team is great.” Decided I didn’t need this s**t when I knew that “good team” was not this, so I resigned, and was gone by the following September. Everyone else was out or had resigned by December because they’d seen how it could be, and decided when I left that they weren’t going back to what the manager did.

annshine Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, this one really hits close to being me in '96. In the end though, it was the DM that caused everyone to jump ship. Which was what he wanted. We made his other stores look bad.

#75

I worked on a marketing agency. They were close to bankruptcy due to bad management and basically the websites I was making were keeping the ship afloat.

The owners, where a couple who was completely different to each other. The guy (let’s call him John) was friendly and kind, the madam (let’s call her Johanna) was moody, and awkwardly bossy.

Sadly, Johanna’s sister passed away, which increased the tension amongst the agency. She got kinda mad and did all kinds of weird things, like taking a “witch” to the office to clear the “Bad Energies”. John said other things happened but he wasn’t going to talk about it. For weeks she was angry at us for some reason, and even took her computer to our work station to keep an eye on us. She said we weren’t supposed to talk to each other in business hours unless it was strictly work related small talk.

We all felt uncomfortable, plus we were getting tasks from both of them in complete opposite projects and such. We decided to quit all at once and so we did.

moyibanezmx Report

Add photo comments
POST
#76

Wow I can contribute to this

Basically one of the project managers quit. It was fine we actually got a new one. Then the head of department quit and it felt weird as f**k cause everyone didn't know how new head would treat everyone

The second in command went to boss to show some highlights of the project. But somehow Convo went south and the second in command put his two weeks notice but boss fired him.

After that every two weeks a senior would leave. A lot of senior left cause they loved working with the second in command

downtimeredditor Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Quite often a team is like a house of cards with a brick on top. Let the wrong person leave and it all comes crashing down. Been there. Most of the time the boss is the brick instead of being the one holding everything together

#77

Before transitioning to Helper Clerk from Courtesy Clerk (essentially a bagger and custodian), I had been employed at a grocery store for around three years (stocker). The grocery department intended to cut personnel expenditures but was unable to do so because of the union. As a result, they began to reduce our hours while figuratively telling us that "when someone quits, everyone else will get additional hours."

We were only working 32 hours when we were meant to be working 40. After 2 people left, we had only 24 hours left. With 16 hours left, a third person left. Whatever their strategy, they didn't extend our hours as people left.

Sea-Type694 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#78

I worked in childcare (this place is still running but it’s even worse now) and they give ZERO F***S about Covid. Everyone was getting it; teachers, kids, their families, etc. Not only did the office INSIST that the staff come back early (which I refused to do when I had it) they WOULD NOT give us raises or pay us when we were out sick. They wouldn’t follow protocol on families that had Covid. They would let the kids come back way before the quarantine period had passed (it’s such a shock that some of the staff have gotten Covid 2-3 times now). They would let parents drop off kids who were obviously sick and when we would say something, they would throw their hands up and be like “There’s really nothing we can do”. Excuse me- WHAT?! Yes, there is. You have rules from the Health Department. You have emailed protocol to all of the staff and the families.

A bunch of us left at once and the owner was throwing everything at us to get us to stay and we all were like “Yeah, no thank you”. I have no idea how they’re keeping their heads above water. I’m so glad I left that place and left childcare altogether. It’s a s**t show.

G_Ram3 Report

Add photo comments
POST
#79

Currently on going.

New dude gets hired, being aware of our rights we asked how much he makes. He says $16. The shitstorm begins as shift leads don’t make that and he is just wine merchant who just turned 21.

Went to my manager and spoke up. Got the “we don’t talk about wages but this is a fire I’m trying to put out.” Keep on pestering him. “Gotta wait till reviews.” Which is untrue as something similar happen last year and the manger then had it fixed real quick.

Reaches boiling point. One lady quits. Everyone is applying for jobs and trying to get out. Moral is at rock bottom.

Karsa69420 Report

Add photo comments
POST
angelb avatar
angel B
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What should be more upsetting is that even the highest paying guy is only making $16 an hour where the hell are you surviving on $16 an hour you need to be making 81.77 an hour or 166,000 a year just to live Comfortably in Southern California! Where can you live comfortably for $16 an hour?

View More Replies...
View more commentsArrow down menu
#80

I worked at a Safeway deli, along with 3 of my best friends. Along with the deli manager, and a woman that had worked there for like 30yrs.

The deli manager quit, at the beginning of the shift. The woman who had worked there for 30yrs announced her retirement 20min later.

An hour into the shift, friend A was fired. That left just me and friend B for the day shift, and friend C for night shift.

After friend A was fired for theft (caught eating a sausage roll without paying for it in the fridge when the store manager came down to inform us of what was going on) , I quit 10min later and friend B immediately after that because we both hated our jobs anyway and weren't willing to carry the dept. On our own.

I then texted friend C on night shift that none of us worked there anymore and as soon as the store manager texted him to come in early for a double shift he texted back that he quit as well.

So about 1.5hrs into the shift they lost every employee that worked the deli.

From what I heard from coworkers, two bakery employees quit and a third threatened too because the store manager tried to forcibly move them to the deli and nobody wanted to carry the counter solo.

They ended up just leaving the deli closed for about a month until they were able to hire new employees, and it was a s**t show for about 2 months after that because literally nobody knew what to do anymore, and there was nobody there to train them.

-retaliation- Report

Add photo comments
POST
damonhill avatar
Seadog
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Doesn't say much for the DM if he/she didn't at least send the new hires to another store for training.

#81

At kfc, it was my second week there and I noticed a smell coming from the potato wedge warmer. Nobody else noticed it, and I asked if it could be moved to clean. Everyone said jo but the manager kinda looked surprised and said “yeah it does move, has no one cleaned it?” So we moved it maybe a few inches and what seemed like a million maggots crawled out of it.

We closed the store immediately and we were all told to clean it. Eventually every inch of the kitchen floor was covered in maggots, you couldn’t walk without hearing the awful crunch/squish. Most people left, me and one other person stayed. So not every one quit but most did.

Also the store opened the next day. Don’t eat there.

_cherish_ Report

Add photo comments
POST
madeleineseverin avatar
Madeleine
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s disgusting that people would rather pretend not to notice a disgusting smell than keep their own workplace clean.

View more commentsArrow down menu
#82

CEO blamed a couple members of his gambling firm for exploiting marketing’s deposit bonuses (these bonuses are routine in the gambling industry, they drive up playtime and revenue). He was getting less money than he expected to earn from those bonuses. Dragged the entire QA department (60 people) into a room and threatened the whole room that he knew the person who’d exploited him but it was a warning to all of us if anyone else got involved. The first stage of the resulting investigation saw about 25 redundancies and sackings (QA, Dev and Finance) which hugely impacted productivity across the company. A further 40 people quit in the coming 3 months (including myself).
6 months later he dropped the investigation having found no one guilty and the “exploit” was never discovered. He had to amend the “fired” status of most people to “redundancy” after they took him to tribunal and last thing I heard almost his entire marketing department (about 40 people) have quit and since been replaced.

CptAmazing7 Report

Add photo comments
POST
See Also on Bored Panda