These workers put up with shoddy work environments, crazy coworkers, and belligerent bosses for long enough and decided, all of a sudden, to just up and quit their job. When something makes you this miserable, why bother sticking around?
(Content has been edited for clarity)
She Wasn’t Missing Her Best Friend’s Wedding, Even If It Meant Ruining Someone Else’s Marriage
Bogdan Sonjachnyj/Shutterstock
“My boss would not let me have a weekend off for my best friend’s wedding because a co-worker wanted a dirty weekend away with the married guy she was having an affair with. The married guy was my boss, by the way.
I was a bridesmaid and had booked the weekend off 10 months in advance. I quit on the spot and told my boss’s wife he was cheating on her. My best friend’s wedding was lovely.
About a month after I told her, my boss’s wife sent me a message on Facebook. She was divorcing my boss, had kicked him out the house, and cleared their joint bank account. My boss had been fired for having relations with an employee and my co-worker had dumped him because he was jobless and broke.”
The Boss Thought He Could Scam His Way To Paying Less, But His Bluff Was Called
stockyimages/Shutterstock
“I was hired to make a piece of software for an NYC based business. The business owner/CEO was the most ridiculous remnant of the ’80s coke and money New York City scene. I spent three months building the back end and finally connected all the dots. Then the guy called me into his office and told me he wanted to renegotiate our contract based on the second quote he got. I told him that’s not how contracts work. He leaned back and said, ‘This is New York, we have our own rules. Take it or leave it.’
He’d already paid for a portion of it by that point but had been dragging out the payments more and more. So I asked him if he was aware of the contractual repercussions for the party that backs out. ‘I don’t have time to read that crap, I pay people to do it for me,’ he said.
So I told him I’d consider it if he is serious, but I needed it in writing to send it up the pipeline (the pipeline is me, btw). He said, ‘You want me to spell it out for you?! Here,’ and started typing as he spoke, ‘Your deal is no good and I don’t want any part of it unless you go back and sharpen your pencil before coming back to me with a proper number,’ and sent it. I got a ‘Ping’ on my phone after a second or two.
I took my phone out, ‘OK Google, read my last email.’ The email was recited for 10-15 seconds. Then I said, ‘OK Google, what is the biggest company in New York?’ Once my phone brought up that information, I had my phone dial the number up. ‘Hello! I am looking to offload some software that was ordered but does not have enough funds to complete the project. You might find the structure useful. The back end is functional and paid for already.’ As soon as I mentioned the name of the present contractor (they are their biggest competitors), the voice on the other end patched me through to a legal team, who told me to head over right away if I so desire.
I hung up and started packing my stuff. The owner was stunned for a moment, but remained cool, probably assuming I was faking it. I packed my laptop and the rest of the material. Then his secretary opened the door and said, ‘We’ve got a legal advisor on the phone for you, sir.’ Silence. I zipped my bag and the sound of it ripped through the office. For the first time in the months, the Wolf of Wall Street wannabe was still as a statue. I just walked out.”
Her Love For Animals Drove Her Out Of That Job
David Tadevosian/Shutterstock
“I worked at an animal shelter for about a year. Unfortunately, it was a kill shelter but when I first started, I was under the impression that we only euthanized those who would not have the quality of life they deserved.
My favorite dog Scooby (a great Dane/pitty mix) was marked to be put down because he didn’t ‘settle down long enough’ for them to test his behavior before being put on the adoption floor. They scheduled me for euthanasia that day and added him to the list at last second.
After I helped him pass away peacefully, I adopted a kitten that was marked to be put down for being ‘too aggressive’ and basically told them to go eff themselves. Eight months later, I’m employed at a fantastic animal clinic and that ‘aggressive’ kitten is the sweetest boy I’ve ever had!”
The Next Day, He Just Sat In His Car, Debating Whether Or Not To Even Go In
Lopolo/Shutterstock
“I got a temp job at a credit card company. The training was almost non-existent. We were enrolling cardholders in the ‘payment protection’ plan. Essentially, you pay a monthly rate then if you lose your job down the line, it allows you to miss some payments and not accrue interest, etc. Most people never use it so they don’t want it on there.
We were told we were expected to add it unless the customer explicitly said no. Maybe? Add it. I’ll think about it? Add it. I don’t think so? Add it. I think they hoped people wouldn’t notice and they could blame the rep if a customer did notice it.
I drove out there on day two and just sat in the parking lot. I couldn’t get out of my car. After sitting there for a while, I went home, called the temp agency and told them to find me something else.
I was young and naïve so while I felt it was wrong, I didn’t realize it was probably illegal until many years later.”
She’d Been Over That Job For A While, That Mean Old Lady Was Just The Final Straw
Pop Paul-Catalin/Shutterstock
“I had put in my two weeks notice and was training for my new job after work. I had been working a set schedule for eight months, one that did not work with my education OR my volunteer time with the animal shelter, and that was part of why I was leaving. Suddenly, my set schedule was changed to split shifts. Every day of my two weeks was now a four-hour split shift with two hours in between so that I couldn’t train at my new job.
And you know, that wasn’t even the FINAL straw. No, that would be the closing crew the night before. I had left them an urgent order and said, ‘Listen, I don’t care what else you do or don’t do, you MUST get this order complete.’ This order was for a customer who was verbally abusive but my manager was too much of a wimp to tell her to leave.
They didn’t finish it. The customer was waiting in the parking lot when I pulled up 30 minutes before the store opened. The order wasn’t done. Nothing was done.
My final words to that mean old woman were, ‘I just wanted to tell you thank you.’
She snarled, ‘FOR WHAT?!’
I said, ‘For making me hate my job enough to finally quit.’ She boggled and asked if her order was done, and I said, ‘Nope. The night crew didn’t finish the order. You can talk to them about that. I don’t work here anymore.’
She asked nervously, ‘Well…who’s going to frame my picture?’
I handed her my apron, gloves, and safety glasses and said, ‘Guess you are. Bye.’
I have no regrets. That job was terrible.”
He Realized There Was Something Terribly Wrong With His Pay
pathdoc/Shutterstock
“Many years ago, I was a key manager for a Dollar General. I transferred to another location because I moved and started running this store in a small town. I was making a lot less money than what they legally should have been paying me. One day, I overheard a cashier openly talking about their hourly pay and holy crap, he was making more than me! I thought, how in the world am I managing this whole freaking store and supervising several employees who get paid more than me? That was the final straw for me. So I waited for our busy day to come along, a few people called out as well. I called the store manager around noon and told her I quit. She flipped out and was like, ‘You better not! You can’t leave!’ And I said ok, then hung up and started walking out the front door. The girl on the cash register looked at me and I told her I quit with a blank face.”
After Working Eight Hours Straight With No Break, He Was DONE
Pop Paul-Catalin/Shutterstock
“I worked at Walmart for years. I was the only person in my department one day and had to take my lunch in 15 minutes or I would get written up. I told the front that I needed cover for my lunch hour.
They told me they were too busy to send anyone back. I told them I’d be in violation and would get written up if I didn’t go for lunch in 15 minutes. They told me I should have let them know sooner, and I’d have to wait until they had someone. Ok, whatever.
Fast forward four hours and I still hadn’t been relieved. I called them up again and told them I was leaving because I’d already worked a full eight hours without any breaks or lunch. They got huffy and told me I wasn’t allowed to leave. I hung the phone up and walked my happy self up to the front, took off my vest, and dropped my keys off at the money office which is right by the customer service. Then I said, ‘Yeah…I’m going home. Is there a problem with that?’
‘Yeah, I have a problem with that.’
‘Good, because you’re going to have it from now on because I quit.’
The look on their faces was freaking priceless.”
Who Blows Up At A Teenage Cashier Like That?!
Ollyy/Shutterstock
“I worked at Circuit City for a week, specifically the week of Black Friday. On my last day, which was (you guessed it) Black Friday, I was put on the register with no training. This would’ve been ok if the register was easy to operate (I had worked many registers in previous jobs), but that thing was the absolute worst to operate; it ran on specific commands I was not taught.
So the line was about seven people deep and I took three people with no problem at all. Number four was a return. I got most of it done, but it needed manager approval. I called for the manager and the dude just didn’t show up. For like 15 minutes, I just stood there because I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. This line started erupting like they were malnourished children and I’d just shown up with the bread truck. The lady next in line was screaming, ‘THIS IS WHY I SHOULD’VE GONE TO BEST BUY! WHAT IS THIS GUY, EFFING STUPID!?’ And the people in the line were actually siding with her and, I am not lying, they collectively all started berating me. There were like five grown adults all hurling insults at a teenager. I’d been patient, I’d tried to explain I was new. They didn’t give a single care. I had enough at that point. I took off my Circuit City shirt, tossed it to the manager as he finally came to my aid, and told him I quit.
Retail wasn’t my gig. People are animals.”
“Man To Man, Never Talk To Me Like That Again”
imtmphoto/Shutterstock
“This was a good corporate job I was in for 10 years and a new manager came in who had a serious issue with not being able to remain professional. He would make fun of people, mock, mimic and be insanely disgusting towards others
One day, after a series of personal attacks towards myself, I looked him in the eye and said, ‘We are done here. Man to man, if you ever talk to me again with anything other than respect, you will have an effing speech impediment and issues walking under your own power.’
He sat there in silence, then he attempted to explain that he has anger issues. I told him he can go eff himself and anytime he thinks he’s man enough to make a move, do it. Then I walked out and founded my own company. I’m doing very well and now I am their number one competitor.”
Though That Couple Ran A Bookstore, They Weren’t Very Book Smart
“I worked at a used bookstore that was run by a wife of a not that wealthy banker. They thought they were rich but were actually just upper-middle-class folks who went into a ton of debt to have nice things.
The bookstore was basically to keep the man’s wife busy. She had no experience in running a business and no clue what she was doing. The store had one profitable day in the almost two years I worked there. Several times we would bring in less than $100 when we needed $600+ to break even for the day. She didn’t even know a lot about books. One time she told someone on our Facebook page to come in and get a David Sedaris book and that they could find it in our fiction section. I corrected it to tell them the proper section. Twenty minutes later, the husband called me on my cell phone and started yelling at me, telling me I worked for them and I don’t have any right to correct his wife. He was a real piece crap who thought he was super smart and would never listen to anything people said. He just waited to talk and tell you how you were wrong even if he didn’t know anything about the subject.
One day, right after Christmas, we got a huge shipment of new stock in and a ton of trade-ins coming in as well. My boss, the woman, was leaving and told me to get all the new inventory checked in. I told her I was almost done with the trade-ins and would do the new stuff afterward. ‘No. Do what I say and don’t argue with me.’ Okay. So I lost all progress on the trade-ins due to our crappy computer system and started on all the new stuff. I got it all done, put them on the shelves, and then restarted on all the old stuff.
A couple hours later, she showed back up and asked where all the trade-ins were.
‘I got the new stock done, then I did the trade-ins, and now everything is done.’
‘But I told you to do the new ones.’
‘I did and then I did the old ones.’
She started yelling at me about not doing what she said, even though I’d stopped doing what I was, did what she said, and then went back and did everything else. She was going on for about two minutes when I just looked up at her dead in the eyes and said, ‘I’m effing out of here. I can’t work for you or your idiot husband.’
I walked out and never talked to them again. I went in and got my last check while someone else was working. The store went out of business and was closed less than six months later.”
She’d Always Given Her Two Weeks Notice, But This Job Broke That Streak
Tyler Olson/Shutterstock
“I never thought I would do this because my dad always drilled into me that giving your two weeks was the proper thing to do. And then, I worked in a call center.
I just wasn’t emotionally able to handle the job. Getting screamed at, sworn at, hung up on, etc was too much. Having to hit sales goals by the end of the week was very stressful for me. Break times would fly by and you’d get reprimanded for going one second over (because they recorded clock in and out times on your computer) added even more stress to the job. Having no time to even think after taking call after call was just a headache in itself.
One day, after getting a string of crappy calls, I turned off my computer and left. I never looked back. The feeling of walking out of that place was one of pure happiness and joy that I have seldom felt since. I have no regrets.”
They Soon Realized That This Mediation Wasn’t Going To Work
Photographee.eu/Shutterstock
“I worked in retail in college. A district manager was visiting our shop and trying to resolve a problem between the store manager and the rest of the staff. We were in a group, discussing the issues, and the district manager was defensively shooting down every concern that was brought up.
I made the observation that perhaps we had communication difficulties.
The district manager quickly snapped that I was wrong and we communicated just fine.
It was not a big deal, but that was my moment. It was a moment in which the absurdity of the situation was too much. I nodded, smiled, muttered something like, ‘Sure we do,’ and quit right then.”
His Boss’ Offhand Complaint Just Rubbed Him The Wrong Way
Kokulina/Shutterstock
“An executive bemoaned to me the fact that he was losing sleep over a project we were working on together that was going to lead to a bigger deal.
The guy made six figures and here I was only making $16 per hour and the company refused to acknowledge I was a fulltime employee so they wouldn’t have to pay for my health insurance. Part-time work consisted of being there at 9 and going home when the work is done.
So, to be honest, Mr. Executive Guy, I really don’t care that you can’t sleep when I’m just scraping by.”
He Refused To Take His Medication, Which Only Made Matters Worse
TeddyGraphics/Shutterstock
“My boss was just a total psycho and I couldn’t take it anymore. He has bipolar disorder but refuses to take medication and he’s on steroids to boot. I went through and witnessed SO much at that job that I’m amazed that I stayed as long as I did. One morning I came in and he immediately started laying into me about something that was legitimately not my fault. I told him that I couldn’t handle his constant rages anymore. Never even went back to get my last check.”
The Look On His Boss’s Face Terrified Him, But What Happened Next Made Him Run To The Cops
Denys Kurbatov/Shutterstock
“While I was walking back to my computer from the restroom, my boss gave me a look. I didn’t know why, but it scared me. He pinned me to the wall and started touching my face. I’m a pretty tall guy, so I might have been able to overpower him, but I guess I was so scared in the moment that I couldn’t even move. Luckily he stopped after a bit and went to his office. I grabbed my things, left, and immediately went to the police, but they never did anything about it. They didn’t even go to the office that I know of.”
It Was A Medical Emergency, But The Boss Still Treated Her Like Crap
mikumistock/Shutterstock
“I took a job as a receptionist for a real estate agency with about 30 real estate agents. I had previously been working with at-risk youth and was told by my doctor that I needed a low-stress job that would not be a problem with my high-risk pregnancy. I was supposed to just answer phones and transfer calls. But the woman who owned the agency would come in screaming and yelling at her employees and the agents who worked there. I put up with her verbal abuse so I could keep the job until one day when she had an important meeting that brought in several other agency owners. I told her I thought I was having a miscarriage (I was) and needed to leave to go to the hospital. She threw her keys across the counter at me and told me to go wash her car before I left. I got up, walked out and drove myself to the hospital where the doctor confirmed I’d lost another pregnancy. It was the one and only time I quit without notice.”
She Suddenly Realized That What She Was Doing Didn’t Matter
WAYHOME studio/Shutterstock
“My long-distance boyfriend was in town for a week (we had been together for four years and had spent the last year long distance) and it was the first time we were in the same city for over a year. I was working at a clothing store and couldn’t get time off because it was Christmas season. It wasn’t even busy at work. I was just waiting for someone to mess up a sweater so I could re-fold it. Then the thought came into my head: ‘This is a waste of my life. I can’t do this anymore.’ I asked my boss to come in the back room, said, ‘I quit,’ and took my purse and left.
I think working retail for over four years just finally got to me, coupled with the feeling that I was wasting all this time I could use to spend some quality time with my boyfriend.”