20+ People Who Decided It Is Better to Be Without Money Than to Spend Even One Day at an Awful Job

The first day at a new job can be exciting, but that can quickly change when you realize the job is not at all what you expected. In those moments, it’s best to run away before it’s too late, and people online know this all too well. So they decided to share the red flags that led them to submit their resignation in record time.

• Everyone has had plenty of bosses who have discouraged any desire to work.
• This happened about 5 years ago during my senior year in high school. I used to work at a restaurant washing dishes. This one Saturday (my day off), they called me in for an afternoon shift because the PM dishwasher called off. So I go in around 4:30 p.m., and to my horror, I walk into the kitchen and see that everything is dirty. Almost nothing is clean. I don’t know how that’s possible. I ask the owner, and he says the AM dishwasher had also called off. They decided they didn’t need anyone until the afternoon shift. I start trying to catch up, and the manager comes in and starts yelling at me to hurry up and asks why there are so many dirty dishes, pots, and pans. I try to explain, but he keeps yelling, so I ignore him. Not even 30 minutes later, he comes back and starts ranting again. After that, I just walked out. © WhalePeople / Reddit
• I was hired at a shoe store to take over after the current manager left. The day started, and the district manager came in to talk to me. He said I was “too young” and he wouldn’t even consider hiring me as manager, but I could stay as a minimum wage salesperson. I had left a good job as manager of a sprint store for this and had only left because I was hired to be the store manager.
  I told him that wasn’t okay, that I’d been hired as the manager, and if he wouldn’t consider me, then I was going to look elsewhere. He said, “This is what I mean. That immature attitude of ’if I’m not getting my way, I quit’ is why I won’t consider someone so young.” And called me childish for leaving. © TooLazyToBeClever / Reddit
• My first outbound market research call center job was in an oversized janitor closet that stank. It had one long folding table with about ten phones and chairs and 3-4 staff walking about. I made a couple of calls, and people were like, “I don’t wanna talk to you,” and I was like, “Oh, okay, bye then.” So the staff was like, “No, no, no, you have to convince them if they say they don’t wanna talk to you.” Then the next call, the housewife just hung up on me, and the staff guy was like, “Call her back, keep calling them back until they say they don’t want to talk to you.” I told them I had to go to the bathroom, then I just left. © johnwalkersbeard / Reddit
• Got a job at a cell phone dealer around 2005. I had been working at a supermarket, and a few coworkers had gone on to work at the cell phone stand in-store and were making excellent money. On my first day, I was being trained in one of their stores and found out the way everyone made money was by selling customers these wildly upgraded insurance packages that were optional, but we were supposed to make it sound like they HAD to purchase them to complete their service contract. I couldn’t get down with a job where I would only make decent money if I swindled customers, so I told the guy it wasn’t for me and walked out. © TheSassieCass / Reddit

• Sometimes, in situations like the ones above, good guidance is needed. Therefore, we have prepared for you a collection of tips for whatever life throws your way.
• My girlfriend got a job at an office where there were maybe five minutes of work an hour, but due to the nature of the work, bags had to be left at the door, phones weren’t allowed, and the computers had no internet access. She was apparently told, “you get used to doing nothing.” After a full day of being around people who just stared into space for 7.5 hours a day, she refused to go back. © Nephrited / Reddit
• The fast food restaurant I worked at for one overnight shift had terrible management. I was young, and it was like my second job. Got there at 10 or 11, and the manager had no idea who I was or that anyone new was supposed to even be starting. He had me sit in the back watching training videos and then wash trays. At about 4 a.m., one of the other staff members told me I could make myself a coffee, so I did. Then the morning manager came in, with no idea who I was either, and made me dump out the coffee I had made because “you can’t do that.” Shift ended. I sat outside on the curb waiting for my ride and quit that day. © AstralLamia / Reddit
• I worked at a theater years ago and told them over a month in advance that I couldn’t work March break because, as a college student, I got Spring break then. They scheduled me for 4/5 days that week, and when I showed them the book-off book and reminded them that I had already asked for the days off, I was told it wasn’t their problem and that I should trade/give away the shifts I couldn’t work. I managed to trade two away and straight up told them I wasn’t coming in for the other two because school took priority over a minimum wage job, and nobody wanted the other two shifts. © Stef-fa-fa / Reddit
• I had a coworker who was trying to be a good worker, and that day was not a good day—understaffed, busy all over the place, and all that. When we finally got a breather, he ensured the kitchen was cleaned up and went to get some food. The manager got annoyed and asked him what on Earth he was doing, to which he responded, “Taking my lunch, I had permission. I got pretty hungry after that rush.” The manager told him to come to the kitchen real quick and then said, “So you mopped, huh?” Then she proceeded to take a big measuring cup loaded with hot oil and slowly dump it and spread it all over the kitchen floor he had just scrubbed and mopped, and said, “Don’t tell me again what you did and did not do, and you go to me when I’m on shift for breaks, don’t go over my head again! You copy?” He stood in shock for a second, and as she was trying to round up her little coworker clique, he just said, “Yeah, no, that ain’t gonna fly with me. I quit.” And he walked out and filed a complaint against her. She doesn’t work there anymore. © BansheeTK / Reddit

• In cafes and restaurants, there are enough stories not only from employees but also from customers.
• Since I knew I probably wouldn’t stay in town long, I deliberately applied for a job in fast food places. Found out they had open interviews on Tuesdays starting at 4, so I got down there 10 minutes early and waited. At 4:30, HALF AN HOUR after the opening interview time, the hiring manager FINALLY walks in. I got hired, so I showed up on the first day 10 minutes early, and they said the hiring manager will come out in a minute. So I sit and wait. An HOUR LATER, the hiring manager came out and told me there was a pothole in the parking lot, and she needed to get gravel to fill it in. An HOUR AFTER THAT, TWO HOURS after the time I was supposed to start, she still wasn’t back, so I walked out. It’s been 2 weeks since then, and they literally called me like 10 times trying to get me back, so, eventually, I just blocked the number. © MustangLover22 / Reddit
• It was just a sales-type role, but the management was so bad. My boss would come out while we were all talking to customers on the phone and full-on shriek, “Who ate my chicken from the fridge? That’s MY chicken!” And if anyone made a mistake, she would storm out of her office and be like, “Why did you do that? What were you thinking. You CANNOT make mistakes! If you can’t cope, you need to leave”. Never known anything like it. So the job itself wasn’t the issue really, more the environment. © alising / Reddit
• I worked as a dishwasher and stopped after a day because they didn’t have a slider mechanic to move dishes from the industrial washing machine to the dryer section. The motion I had to make to get the dishes to their proper spot was terrible for my back, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to bear it for long. © OrangeKings / Reddit
• I was working in a grocery store’s fruit and veggies section. There was a student strike, so one of my exams was reported when the strike was over. I asked for a day off the first time, it was ok. When I knew there wouldn’t be an exam, I went in, and they were happy I could be there.
  A few weeks later, the strike ends, and I told my boss I would need a day off. He told me something along the lines of: “Well, you’re asking too many days off (only asked for that one exam), so you’re gonna have to decide now between your career here and your education.” I went “HA!” and quit on the spot. © WaGLaG / Reddit

• Put yourself in the place of the client if he found out about that kind of service. And such cases, when the expectations of customers diverge from reality, are enough for a whole article.
• I worked checking beach tags on the beach. There were people at the entrances selling them, but I was one of the people who walked around on the beach during the day and checked that everyone had tags. It was physically exhausting, I was sunburned, and people were rude. I remember one chick went off on me because I came up to them, and they didn’t have their tags. One of their group had left the beach to use the bathroom and had taken all the tags with them (which you’re not supposed to do!) and said how I was rude and how I could ask them when they had already got checked at the entrance. I quit after that. © jmtomato / Reddit
• I should have left the first day, but the pay was too good. No running water, no AC, patio heater inside the office, and the owner burned trash out the back door. He also stole water from the business next door to keep a bucket in the bathroom for his needs. He was sleeping on the couch in his office while bragging about his 450k house. This was an office job, and Friday was my last day. © CircuitZombie / Reddit
• The Director of Food Services at a hospital interviewed me in an office that looked like a re-purposed storage closet that was absolutely filthy. What stood out to me was this mass of what looked like hair sitting in a box with dirty wires (this closet was right outside the kitchen too). As he went to take a quick call, I decided that if the hospital was treating someone at the director level like this guy and where an HR representative has a better office in an actual office building, then I’m sure I would be treated far worse. When he came back, I told him about my school schedule, and he told me that my schedule wouldn’t fit and saved me from having to say no. © Dried_Squid_ / Reddit
• Picked up a part-time job at a fast food restaurant because I was newly single and anxious about bills. Several shakes were in the window to go out, and there was some confusion about the flavors of two of them. The Assistant Manager “solved it” by putting her fingers deep into one shake, stirring it around a little, and then tasting it. And then it went out to the customer.
  She had just come from her smoke break and hadn’t washed her hands. Also... straws. And spoons. Everybody just continued as if it was a thing that you do. NOPE. © sarabird / Reddit

• Every job has its own characteristics. And the heroes of our article wanted to talk about their professions.
• Took a waitressing/serving job in high school, back when I was still regularly burning boxed mac and cheese. Showed up for my first day, and was informed that the majority of the kitchen staff had quit that morning, so I’d be the “lead cook” going forward. When I reiterated I’d been hired for serving, they just said, “Well, we need you to do this now.” I said I needed to grab something from my car and promptly drove home. © mintysoup / Reddit
• I was working as a temporary receptionist for some manufacturing company. They told me I had to ask for permission if I wanted to go to the bathroom and I couldn’t leave my desk. I lasted until lunchtime, then I told them I felt sick and left. © mplsgal20 / Reddit