I’m not going to lie: working is hard. And I probably didn’t need to lie. We all know this is true.
But I don’t just mean the act of working is hard. I mean the concept of working is hard.
There are some jobs that are a joy. I currently work at a job where the office is beautiful, my managers are understanding, my co-workers are friendly, and my actual daily tasks are enjoyable. There are also some jobs that aren’t as much of a joy, but they help you pay the bills and put food on your table, and they’re not so terrible that you can’t endure it (read: my previous job).
However, there are some jobs that are so ridiculous, or even downright harmful, that you know on your very first day, you can’t ever go back. So you quit on the spot.
We know how tough the job market is and how, sometimes, it takes months for a person to find a job. For a person to quit on their first day, the situation they were put in has to be unbearable.
Curious just how unbearable, Redditor redmambo_no6 asked:
"People who quit their jobs on the first day, what was your “I’m outta here” moment?"
As Fast As You Can
"When I was 20 or so I got hired to be a temporary floor member for Forever21 during the holiday season."
"My training started a week before Black Friday so the store was already kind of in chaos. On my first day of training, I walked in and the floor manager gave all the new hires a tour showing us the facility and layout of the store. After this I was assigned to a veteran floor member to shadow and get an idea of what my job was and what my duties would be. As soon as I was assigned the manager dipped never to be seen again."
"An hour and a half into my shift my shadowee got an emergency family call and had to take off for a week. When this happened I found some other floor manager and explained the situation and asked them who else I should shadow. The manager's response was “just do what you can by yourself you’ll be fine, everyone else is busy.” Figured we’ll ok I’ll try…"
"I don’t know if any of you have shopped in the women’s section of forever21 but during seasonal sales they will have multiple articles of clothing that all look almost exactly the same but with slight differences (ex. A white cardigan with 4 buttons that looked literally the same as a white cardigan with 5 buttons). The best part was these different items were often placed in completely separate parts of the store and it was the job of the dressing room to return the unpurchased items to the correct section so the employees could put them back on the shelves. Well, these employees sucked and I didn’t know if they were a part of my section or not so I’d spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find where they go before realizing “wait this isn’t even my section I’ve checked literally every rack” so I’d put it back on the sorting rack and move to the next item. More than 50% of the stuff I was told to reshelve wasn’t my section. I just did as best as I could and got ready for my next miserable day."
"The next day I come in and the store manager pulls me to her office and tells me how slow I was the day before and if I want to keep working here I need to be very fast. I explained my lack of training and unfamiliarity with the store and she told me if I didn’t know where the clothes were in sections I should come in my free time and memorize where stuff was at. I spent the rest of my shift putting clothes in random places then never came back for a third shift."
"F*ck that place and their management."
– ZacharyRS94
Everything Is On Sale!
"I used to work at a craft store as a cashier, but quit when I moved. Ended up going back a couple years later to make some extra cash, but this time in the framing department. During the interview they swore up and down I would only ever be a backup cashier because I said I refused to have full cashier shifts. First shift after interview is listed as framing, but I’m put on cash and told that actually most of my shifts would be cash since they’d found someone else for framing. I spent the next six hours giving everyone who came to my register 20% off of everything and then never went back."
– Katy-L-Wood
"A hero to us all."
– themajorfall
Vermin Infested
"It was a rather popular cafe chain in my country. I was hired to work in the kitchen as a cook along with another, senior cook."
"Let's put aside the fact that I had zero cooking knowledge whatsoever, the senior cook was leaving the kitchen every five minutes to smoke. So there I am, alone in the kitchen, orders are printing FAST, and I'm standing there not sure what to do first, and the waitress comes over yelling at me to cook stuff I don't have any business cooking, definitely not on my own."
"Later on the senior cook told me they had at least two rats running around the kitchen. Showed me they pooped on a plate."
"I never came back and I'm glad the place got shut down."
– zackit
No Hospital For You
"My first ever job."
"I was thirteen and I would be delivering phone books from the back of a van through peoples letterboxes."
"So I'd be in the back of the van with the phone books and there was an older guy driving slowly while I went back and forth to the van/houses with the books."
"At one point the van was getting quite empty so there was more space to move around and we had finished the delivery in the street we were paid to deliver to and he drove to another."
"While driving there he drove lets say aggressively and I fell inside the back where the books were. I wasn't sitting in a seat as the van had no seats in the back. As I put my hand out to steady myself I accidentally laid it across a portable radio that had its antenna extended but the antenna was also broken half-way and razer sharp."
"It sliced the palm of my hand clean open 3-4 inches. I can only describe what I saw as gruesome. I said to him to pull the van over and I needed help. He saw my hand and just threw me a plastic bag, the kind you'd get at a supermarket and told me to wrap my hand in it."
"Then .. he continued with the deliveries, at-least he delivered the remaining books himself."
"I should have been taken to a hospital or at-least home to my parents. I quit after that and never showed up again. As you can imagine my parents were quite angry at him."
– i_mormon_stuff
2.5 Minutes
"On the first day of working at Amazon warehouse the managers broke down to Everyone how a 15 minute break works there. Walking to the break room is 2 1/2 minutes. 10 minutes of actual break and then 2 1/2 minutes to go back to your stations. It took me 2 1/2 minutes to walk to my car and I took a forever break."
– teamfaysal
"Also you have 3 minutes to use the bathroom but the nearest bathroom is a 5 minute walk away"
– bravestbats
Illegal Paycheck
"I answered an ad for a baby sitting job. I was already working on a casual basis but it was sporadic so I thought some after hours baby sitting would be welcome extra cash. The couple were both in the military and proceeded to tell me that I would be staying in the spare room and looking after their 6 mth old child around the clock as well as doing the housework. I would have one day off every two weeks. They said it is cash in hand so I could sign onto the dole (unemployment benifit) to make up the rest of the money. I left on the spot. They wanted a live in housemaid and nanny not a baby sitter and they were not able to pay for one. Why they thought it was up to me to illegally collect the dole to subsidise them I don't know."
– battleangelred
Locked In!
"I took a holiday job at Toys R Us. I was scheduled “until close” for my first shift. I asked when “close” was and they said, “oh we’ll come get you when we’re done.” Ok. Cool. Lock my personal belongings in the locker (including cell phone) and get on the floor. So I’m reshelving Blues Clues toys, Bratz Dolls, Hot Wheels, bike helmets... really getting tons done. And it’s like... I’m getting A LOT done. And my feet hurt. And I’m tired and hungry and woah super tired. So I sneak off for a bathroom break and to check my phone. And the staff door is locked. Weird. But then some dude in a flannel shirt comes over and had a key. Great, thanks mister! I unlock my locker and see my cell phone... 13 missed calls from my mom demanding to know where I was and oh yeah it’s 1:46 AM. WTF? The store had been closed for almost THREE HOURS and oops! Management forgot to come tell me “we’re closing.” Couldn’t get out the front doors because they were locked. So I had to exit the store through the truck loading dock, where the man with the flannel shirt was working to unload the new toys for the crew to set out in the morning. Yup done with that place after that."
– DogNamedLucy
Health Comes First
"I have Type 1 Diabetes."
"Was working at a Wendy's. The manager didn't believe me when I told them my blood sugar was low and that I needed to get a sugary drink from the drink machine to get my blood sugar up because "I'm too skinny to be diabetic." They thought I was a slacker."
"Bye."
– AnimZero
Us And Only Us
"I technically quit before my first day. I got hired at a well known gift store. I was hired with the understanding that I would work Saturdays, Sundays , and a grand total of 8 hours a week (so two 4 hour shifts). Also at minimum wage. Not a problem with me, done that before, I would just pick up a part time job for rest of the week. Nope, apparently that wasn't allowed. The manager thought that was a horrible thing and "disrespectful" to her. I should only work for them and only them and I should have better control over my money if I can't survive on $64 a week before taxes..... Yeah, didn't show up cause f--- that noise. She called pissed off that I wouldn't show up to such an opportunity."
– Hall5885
I Want My Money!
"applied for a job at my longtime favorite restaurant (celebrated my birthday there every year)."
"Owner asks me to come in for basically a try out, as I communicated I was looking at other job possibilities. I come in and they just stick me on dishwashing for an hour, no biggie. Then their dishwasher doesn't show up, so the kitchen manager asks me to stay one for their lunch rush, saying I'll get paid for the hours. I do, the kitchen staff was nice so I was happy to help out even though I figured I'd be taking a different job. I fill out a time card at the end of the shift and tell the manager I probably wouldn't be back, he understands and thanks me for the help."
"Fast forward a couple of weeks and he tells me to email the owner after I ask him if I should pick up my measly paycheck. I do, she basically tells me to f*** off over text. Tells me it was "staging" and that she told me I wouldn't be paid, I respond that I understand that but that I stayed an extra 3 hours which I WAS told I'd be paid for. She stops responding, I decide I want to be petty over the 40 bucks so I get the statw labor department involved, dude goes in there and makes her pay me for the hours including the first "staging" hour. Couple of weeks later I got my 40 bucks, never went back to that restaurant."
"Firstly, "petty" is not how I see it two years later. I'm VERY glad I did this and sharing the story with others in my city I learned this practice was very common with local restaurants. Hopefully, others learned to stand up for their labor too from my small experience."
"Secondly, this restaurant closed down a couple of weeks after I got that paycheck. The owner made a long-winded complaint on the FB page about how the food culture had "changed" in the city and her restaurant didn't fit in anymore (total BS, they were ALWAYS popular. Most people theorized the terrible mismanagement and employee abuse had caught up to her)."
– sleepdyhollow
No Sale
"‘Salesman’ for Kirby vacuums. First sale call was to a single elderly woman who was supporting her son in hospital (they got us in the door by offering a free carpet clean as a demonstration). The supervisor training me pushed and pushed to make the sale until this old woman was in tears. Just as she was about to sign the paperwork I asked if she actually wanted to vacuum and she said it was lovely but she couldn’t afford it. I took the paperwork away from her and said not to worry. Outside I told the supervisor I quit to which he replied I would’ve been fired anyway. No love lost. I hung around for half an hour playing on my phone to make sure the supervisor left because he was a real piece of work."
– Pokestralian
Yeah, these situations would make me quit on the spot too. I’ve never been more thankful to have the job I do!
