They say that if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. This is a saying that should not be taken lightly. It makes a world of difference to have a job that benefits you psychologically as well as financially. Remember what happened to Jack Torrance in The Shining when he had "all work and no play"?
These people came pretty close a similar fate. All it took was one moment for all that disdain and fury to conjure the right motivation to pack up their things and search for more hopeful prospects. Courtesy of potential hirees of Reddit, these are their "I got to get outta this job!" stories.
He Would Have Rather Worked Fast Food
“I was in New Orleans interviewing for a job that required driving a company vehicle 10 hours a day that had valuable specialty equipment. The interview was going great. Then, we got to the part about pay.
‘We can offer you $10 an hour,’ the guy said.
A big smile came over my face and I leaned over to shake his hand. He thought I was agreeing. I was telling him bye. Popeyes pays around $15 an hour here.”
His Career Was Cooked
“I worked in a factory that made large plastic items via filling molds with powder and sending it into a giant industrial oven that heated to 550º F. At the end of the week, I was cleaning said oven. My boss, not knowing I was inside, turned it on.
At the sound of hydraulic doors closing, I dove out of the oven just as they closed and avoided free cremation. I got the heck out of that oven and that company pretty quick. At least they did implement up-to-date safety features because of what happened.”
Not Too Cool For School
“When my former sales director found out I was thinking about going to school, he called me in his office to give me his employee retention speech. This included looking at me in the eyes and blatantly telling me, ‘Going to college is a mistake.’
I quit that Friday. The first day of school for me was the following week!”
“She Was Sent To Me At A Time I Needed It Most”
“I had been working the same job for years. I never knew how unhappy it made me. I lost weight, stopped enjoying life, became toxic, and lost people I loved close to me. I was oblivious to this all.
One particularly down day when answering the phone, I opened with, ‘Hello, how can I help?’ A lady answered. English was her second language and, instead of saying ‘How are you?’ she interpreted it as, ‘Are you happy?’ I promptly replied with. ‘No.’
I felt like she was sent to me at a time I needed it most. The universe gave me the ability to self reflect and I did. I passed the call on to my colleague and left for the day. I got home and set things in order to leave my job and go traveling. I had savings due to living with my parents after a relationship fell apart. I toured Australia, New Zealand, and the US on my own. I was not trying to get back to who I was, but to find who I needed to be.
On an interesting side note, I met someone who had an amazing way about them whom I bumped into again three months later on down the line. Once again, at the right time when I needed it most. I’m now healthy and have a joy for life I forgot existed and I love a woman who I better myself for everyday to give something back to others, just like the anonymous lady did for me over the phone. That was my ‘I got to get out of here’ moment. I’ll remember it on my death bed.”
His Boss Was Probably Not The Only One Concerned For His Mental Health
“I told a prior boss that I was leaving because I had an opportunity elsewhere. Boss looked at me and said, ‘I think you need to talk to your therapist to see if you’re making rational decisions right now.’
Well, that was the most rational, best decision I had made in years. GET STUFFED, DUDE.”
They Were Not Very Laid Back For The Kind Of Business They Were In
“Honestly, I absolutely loved part of my last job. The part that I was hired for and actually wanted to do was helping medicinal weed patients find the best medicine to help them live a more comfortable life. I would also take the time to educate patients and, on top of that, worked on behalf of the company on our social media platforms answering questions and all that fun stuff.
Really, I should have stepped away once I started getting more duties and my pay was staying the same, but I was dumb and got excited because I had gotten a $2 raise before my first 6 months of being there. I thought I was doing amazing and this was a reflection of my work and what I could look forward to. About 10 months in, I was not only working the social media and managing the shop, but I was getting asked to work in the gardens.
Cool! It’s a switch up, a break from people and getting to play with plants! Fun!
Except, I was getting asked to do it weekly, with mornings that started at 6 am. Then I worked in the shop until 9 pm.
‘This is valuable experience you’re earning!’ they would tell me. ‘Take an extra hour for your lunch.’
I should have ran then, but the job market sucks where I live, so I sucked it up. Mind you, I started at $10 an hour. At this point, I was at $12 an hour and would get screamed at if I went over on my hours. During this time, the sales/delivery person quit for the edible company this company also owns. Guess who was asked if they could spend a couple hours a week helping with sales calls?
Fine. Whatever. More ‘experience.’
One day, I came in and was asked for my license and personal vehicle information. Now, I knew what they charged for delivery fees. I also knew that by making a delivery for this company, I should have been expecting my gas and time compensated. I live in Colorado. Not only that, but all of the deliveries I was sent on were, at the closest to me, two hours north. One of my deliveries was in Aspen, the other being in Steamboat Springs. If you Google Maps these places and add the other deliveries I had, this amounted to a 19-hour day by the time I got back home. Going to the ‘mountain towns’ got a $25 charge per drop.
I guess I did bad math. I was expecting to come back to quite the bonus to my check for all this extra work. Nope. Nothing. I got backtalk about getting the fuel cost even given to me because $65 dollars seemed high to my freaking boss. That was my ‘I gotta get the heck out’ moment. I hate those people.”
This Doctor Almost Ended Up In The Hospital
“I’m an ER doctor. I, unfortunately, have to give the terrible news that someone’s family member has died. It really burdens my soul permanently each time. One time, I was in the room telling a family that their child had died. There was about 15 people in the small room. Understandably, they were in grief and shock.
They were wailing and screaming. Some were punching the wall. I quickly realized I was trapped in the room. This was an inner-city Philadelphia family. One guy grabbed my shirt and was screaming, ‘Whyyy!’ in my face. I saw another guy’s six shooter under his belt as he leaned over crying. I literally couldn’t leave because they were all grabbing me and screaming in anger and grief.
Luckily, my security guard, a giant 6’4″, 309 lb. guy, just reached into the room and pulled me out. I was almost torn apart in there. Later that night, that family got revenge on the shooters. Two victims came in from a drive by.”
Crazy Night In The Crazy House
“I am a mental health nurse. An extremely unwell and huge person broke out of the secure unit and proceeded to destroy the ward. There is no tackling without police present and we are not able to hide with other patients. The police came in 20 minutes. It was the longest 20 minutes ever.
Every window was smashed, the fire extinguishers had been emptied, the doors were destroyed, and the office door frame (as in the wall) was cracked from the hits of a chair against it. We can still see where the plaster cracked in the office. Some patients happened to sleep through it, though.”
If She Couldn’t Trust HR, Who Could She Trust?
“I caught my human relations dude talking crap about the emotional meeting we had literally five minutes prior with another manager in a busy hallway. I stopped when I heard my name and looked around. It was coming from around the corner, 10 feet away. I was shocked. I stood there and listened as he laughed about it and thought I should sack up and get over it (the hostile environment and bullying issue I had brought to them).
I turned around and reported it to my manager who, two weeks later, still hadn’t even talked to the HR dude. I had my doubts about their willingness to solve the issue, and prior issues. That night, I put my notice in. Two days before my last day, my manager and his manager cornered me in the back hallway and tried to make me believe that I didn’t hear what I thought I had heard and offered to move me to another facility.
I know what I heard. There was no mistaking that. I’m not the problem that needs to be shuffled off. I might be unemployed at the moment, but I’m not having daily panic attacks because of their dumb stuff.”
He Was Not With The Right Crowd
“A co-worker invited me to a get-together with his friends. When we showed up, they had chairs facing to a stage. It was only us and a couple of other people there. We sat down in the front row, so I didn’t get to see everyone who showed up after us. After a couple of minutes, a guy walked up to the stage and everyone one started clapping.
I turned around to see that everyone is the the room was bald. That was when I noticed that I was in a white supremacist meeting. I made an excuse so I could leave the room without everyone being suspicious of me because I’m not white. I’m Hispanic. I just happen to look white.”