He Had A General Concern For His Safety
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“When I was in between jobs, I applied to work a construction job that needed harness trained people. I was just coming off working as a solar installer, so I figured I’d give it a shot. The first day on the job, they took me up to the top of their scaffolding section to clamp down beams. No biggie. I asked where their walk boards or scaffolding walks were for this floor because all the other floors had walkways but this one was just a 1-inch beam, 3-foot gap, 1-inch beam all the way across, 100+ feet in the air. They told me they don’t have any.
Ok… I’ll deal.
After a few hours of grueling work, I depleted my gallon jug of water and was getting dizzy. I called down to the elevator operator to bring me down. Without missing a beat, he shouted, ‘Climb,’ and walked off to smoke. I climbed down all 14 or so stories on angled beams with no harness while bordering on heat exhaustion. I walked up to the foreman, told him he was going to kill someone and it wasn’t going to be me, and left.”
He Was Done With His Co-Worker’s Attitude
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“I used to work in Research and Development in laser eye surgery and we hired a third guy onto our team.
This kid thought he was some kind of genius, was super arrogant, and completely inappropriate to female members of staff. Over the course of a year or so, he managed to break multiple pieces of expensive medical equipment (some costing nearly £500,000), get caught almost doing the dirty with a colleague in a consulting room during an ‘after work drinks’ event, and almost ruined our relationship with our laser supplier (our boss has been the lead consultant with them for about 20 years).
Every time he messed something up, my teammate or I had to fix it, with this guy trying to find a way for the news not to reach management. They spoke about getting rid of him for a while but just never did.
When he broke the laser for the third time, the exact same way, I snapped. I gave him the death stare, went to my office and emailed my manager, ‘Can we meet?’ Then I told her I quit.
They fired him the month after I left. I came to visit and my colleague was drowning in work with a trainee.
Idiots.”
Too Much Clowning Around
“When I was in high school, I worked as a flower shop clown. Standing at the side of the road, holding a fifteen-pound sign, waving at traffic, to entice them to buy flowers. My second weekend, four bros in a red Chevette kept driving by every 10 minutes or so, honking and flipping me off. Fine, whatever. They disappeared for about 45 minutes. They came back and hucked a Wendy’s frosty at me. Thankfully, it missed. They went around the block and came at me again. I threw the sign Frisbee style at their car. It smashed the passenger door and broke the window. The driver slammed the brakes and came to a screeching halt, and the four buffoons got out, obviously wanting to fight me.
Keep in mind, I’m wearing a clown suit.
They chased me across the parking lot of the mall and I ran past the two security idiots at the entrance. I ran inside and into the flower shop and into the back. I got changed, took my wig off, told the manager I quit, and I left. As I was walking out the door, the four bros were still screaming at the security guards and the cops had shown up. I got a call that afternoon saying that my paycheque was being held up because of the damage to the Chevette, and I was banned from the mall.
No regrets.”
Thankfully He Saw This Coming
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“My aunt got me a job as a tech in a chemical plant. As I was young and stupid, I told the guy who was supposed to train me that I got the job through my aunt.
He decided to ‘haze’ me. After the first shift, I was almost already to deck him because he would ‘forget’ to tell me things and would berate and belittle me all the time.
The second shift, it continued. He was supposed to close a pipe that I was working on, but he didn’t. If I hadn’t been aware of the rumbling and rolled away, I could have been blasted by a jet of boiling steam.
I went to the team leader, he said I was overreacting but he proposed to move me to another shift.
I quit. My aunt was pretty upset with me until she heard, through the rumor mill, that the guy had done what I said he did.”
Her Dying Father Needed Her More Than Her Job Did
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“It was a Wednesday. I got a call from my mom when I was at work to tell me that my dad took a turn for the worse and maybe had a day or two left to live. I immediately went to the company owner (small business) and told her the situation and that I really needed to leave right away since he lived a few hundred miles away. She told me she understood but, since I was working on some ‘important projects,’ I should just come in on Saturday since ‘he should be dead by then.‘
I said okay, turned around, walked to my desk, deleted all my personal files from the computer, left my badge and keys on my keyboard, and walked out. Dad passed on Friday and I turned off my phone that night until the following Wednesday or Thursday while I spent time with my family. I already hated the job and the owner for other reasons and found a new job a few weeks later, so I can’t say I regret anything.”
He Figured Out How To Use Their Bad Policies Against Them
“I worked for a ‘landscaping company’ that operated more like a pyramid scheme. I only worked for them for like a week. They mostly targeted students and immigrants who needed work in the summertime and would take anything, with promises like, ‘Make your own schedule,’ ‘Make $X-Y an hour!’ and ‘Work outside!’ They target desperate people, those without proper documentation even, and they paid cash so everything was under the table and I’m 100% certain they were not paying taxes.
I was stupid enough to go for it when I was 18. I went to the info seminar and instantly got terrible vibes, but I figured, eh, I don’t have anything else going on, so why not.
They picked us up in a cube van – like 15 people crammed in without seatbelts – and drove us to a location. Then they gave us aeration machines and we went around trying to sell plans and aerating lawns. Basically, whatever you sold, you would get to keep 10% of the money and the company kept the other 90%. You also had to work like a 15 hour day in the hot summer sun, no supervision all day, no bathroom breaks or anything unless you happened to find a bathroom to use.
Anyway, I did this for a few days and the pay was miserable. Let’s say you collect $1,200 – well, you get to keep $120. $120 / 15 hours is $8/hr and at the time, the minimum wage was higher than that. Well, sometimes I got a little higher than that, but much of the time it was around minimum wage or lower.
The second day, they drove us to another city an hour away. It was pouring rain all day, nobody wanted to buy anything (I don’t blame them) and nobody wanted their lawn aerated in the pouring rain, so I ended up with like nothing at the end of the day and it was miserable.
The next time I came back, we drove out to some suburb, and the guy gave me this talk about how last time I didn’t make enough money and I needed to pick up the slack this time because these machines are expensive, I’m clearly not trying hard enough, etc. Well, that set me right off.
So that day, I took the aeration machine out and busted my whole butt. Did my best to sell, did the aerations where I could, worked up a sweat. I’d collected $1,800 by the end of the day. At the end of the day, you would wait at a certain spot and they’d pick you up with the machine and bring you back to the station so you could deliver the money and get your cut.
So, instead of going to the pickup spot, I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of sugar and poured it in the gas tank of the aeration machine and left it by the side of the road. Then I took the bus home and pocketed all the money. I ignored all their phone calls, and eventually, they stopped calling. They never took identification or social insurance numbers or anything, so they had no real proof I even worked for them in the first place.
This was about 10 years ago now and my only regret is that I didn’t do that the first day.”
No One Should Have Been Breathing That In
“I worked in entry-level pipe services. At first, they had me rolling pipe and unscrewing thread protectors, which wasn’t so bad. After about a month, they told me I was going to get trained on scrubbing the threads clean for inspection, which involves something they called ‘solvent.’ I asked for the MSDS sheet since they didn’t give me a respirator and nobody else wore them ever. Straight out of the sheet: ‘Must use a respirator when working with any amount of this chemical.’
It’s a carcinogen; I was shocked.
I asked for a respirator and they said that, ‘they ventilate that chemical properly since it’s done outside and I don’t need one.’ Ok, cool. I went to Lowes after work and got a $30 one out of pocket because I’m not gonna sit over a bucket of solvent that’s evaporating in the sun, getting all over me and in my lungs without one.
I showed up to work the next day and just wore it constantly while I was getting trained on cleaning threads with solvent. I was immediately called up into the office of the big boss. I was asked why I was wearing it and I said, ‘It’s because the MSDS sheet says I am required to use a respirator when working with this chemical in any capacity.’
They told me I couldn’t wear it, and I kid you not, this is what he said: ‘If you wear one of those respirators, the other workers will wonder why they’re not wearing them, and in order to work in this warehouse with a respirator, we have to train every employee and test them to make sure that their lungs are good enough to breathe properly with a respirator on while exerting themselves.’
I walked out, grabbed my stuff, and just left. The warehouse was blasting mariachi music constantly and a good two-thirds of the workers were Latino guys who spoke pretty poor English. I was a white dude who had a high school diploma at the time, so I was fortunate enough that I could just walk away and find a different job. I feel bad for those guys sometimes.”
Her Boss Set Her Up For A No-Win Situation
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“So, the building my job was in closed down at 9 pm, everybody except security had to get out so they could shut everything down. One of my supervisors (I had eight of them, yes it was like ‘Office Space’) kept scheduling me until 9:30 pm. I repeatedly brought this up at the end of the night, and was always told: ‘No, that’s just a mistake, you need to leave.’
Fast forward three months, I got called into a disciplinary meeting. The reason? I kept ‘leaving early.’ I had eight attendance points from ‘leaving early’ because one of my idiot bosses (who worked in the SAME BUILDING and definitely should have known when it closed) couldn’t figure out how to schedule.
I explained my side (which is pretty, almost hilariously, obvious) and they say they’ll hold off on any disciplinary action while they looked into it. A couple days later, they told me they weren’t going to remove those attendance points. I told them to shove it up their butts, walked out, and went to a concert with some of my (now former) coworkers.”
She Finally Got Tired Of Being Berated By Customers
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“I was desperate to pay my rent so I picked up a cashiering job at Rite-Aid.
My dislike started when we changed our ID policy: cashiers must ask for an ID from everyone for drinks, smokes, lighters, and cough syrup, no matter how old they were. A couple came in late one night after drinking. I asked for their ID and their demeanor instantly changed from fun and giggly to ice cold. The husband said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I explained the policy, said that I don’t agree with it but I’m required to ask or I can’t make the sale. He immediately started in on me how he’s old enough to be my dad, they have kids older than me, etc.
‘Okay. So, can I please see your ID?’ They ask me to call a manager. Fine. I can’t hate myself anymore already so whatever.
The manager came up and was as straightforward as I was, and asked to see their ID even though he’s technically allowed to override the transaction if he chose. He did not choose. The couple then started in on him as they walked out, but their final line stung: ‘That girl needs to go to school so she can get a real job instead of harassing paying customers.’ I have a four year STEM degree with a major and a minor. I was just struggling to find a job like every other person my age.
But the final straw was an extreme couponer a couple days after this.
We were a ‘super’ store and had everything from cheap clothing to home storage, so we attracted a lot of extreme couponers. I was told I was not allowed to make any exceptions to our coupon policy whatsoever. This was hammered in at every single morning huddle meeting: NO exceptions to our coupon policy. Fine. It’s not my job to ask questions.
A lady came through my line with her binder full of coupons and a full cart. I got everything scanned in and she started passing over her coupons. I passed one back and explain she couldn’t use it on this purchase for x reason (It’s been a few years but I believe she was trying to stack manufacturer coupons on one item). She passed it back and told me I’m wrong. I re-explained what I just told her and handed her coupon back again.
She pulled out her cell-phone and pulled up our coupon policy and said, ‘I want you to read this so you understand your policy.’
I pushed her phone back to her and said, ‘I already understand our policy.’
She had the audacity to talk to me like a child and said, ‘Read it.’
‘No.’
Of course, she raged with her ,’I demand a manager’ attitude, the whole time as we wait for the manager she was belittling and berating me.
The manager came up, rang the coupon through, told the customer she’s right, and looked at me and said, ‘It’s only $0.13 so I’ll just give it to her because it’s not worth arguing.’
I looked at my manager and said, ‘The reason she treats our staff like this is that she knows you’ll give in. If you didn’t break your own policy, you wouldn’t be giving her permission to abuse your staff.’
I called out sick forever the next day.”
He Was Too Good At His Job
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“One story comes to mind, this is what really broke me. There was a single mother just getting back on her feet. She had spent the last two years fixing her credit to get a reliable car for her and her son. She came in for an advertised lease deal: new 2014 Honda CR-V for $239 a month plus tax, only about $500 due at signing.
The thing is that about those advertised lease deals is you need to have the credit to get approved for that payment. Lease approvals are different than regular finance deals, approvals come in tiers. So if you didn’t get the approved tier for the $239 deal, the next tier would make the payment $306 or something like that.
This single mother agreed to the $239 payment but was only approved for the $306 tier. That sucks for her but that’s the nature of the beast. Her credit, her problem, and there’s nothing I can do. So I got to break the news to her, she was understandably upset but I went through her credit report and explained why that may be the case and assured her that at the end of this lease she will definitely be on the top tier so long as she paid her bills on time. I closed her, she was still happy and it’s all good. I went back to my office to get the paperwork ready and let the Finance Director know I’m rolling the car. A few minutes later, the finance director called me over
I saw that he had a crap eating grin on his face. He informed me that he made a couple of calls and actually got her bumped to the $239 rate. I was happy because we got this lady a way better deal until reality set in. I knew what he was about to tell me to do, something I actually hate, but I wouldn’t have a choice.
The Lease Bump.
Basically, since this lady already agreed to a $306 payment, but after the agreement we got her approved for $239; to a piece of human crap Finance Director, that means that $77 a month to play with to pack in more product. $77 over 36 months is over $2500 worth of product. I was expected to then give her a menu presentation (the sheet with all the products) and sell her on products first and tell her that all of it would only cost her $9 a month and her total payment would be $315.
I gave her the worst menu presentation in my entire career, hoping that she would just push the menu back to me like every other lease customer. She didn’t…in fact, she basically bought it all.
Why?
Because she liked me…she trusted me…she believed I had her best interests at heart, and she was wrong. She took the car home and likely never used any of that overpriced crap she got outside of the maintenance package.
There’s a lot of mental gymnastics guys in the car business tell themselves to be able to justify the things some of them do. Yeah, that was still a decent lease payment for a great car. Yeah, based on her debt to income ratio, she could afford it. Yeah, a lot of those products will eventually come in handy.
But let’s be realistic. I misled that person, I lied to that person, I stole money from that person. I didn’t sleep that night. I did what most car guys do on a Saturday night; I went out and got hammered to dull the shame I had. That hangover the next morning was one the most illuminating moments in my life. That’s when I knew I had to get out and never look back.”
“The Salesmen Were Idiots”
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“Earlier in my career in residential HVAC, I thought it’d be a good idea to branch out a little, to ‘add some tools to my toolbag,’ so-to-speak, so I took a position as a lead installer at a smaller company. It wasn’t particularly bad, it just wasn’t in my wheelhouse and I grew to dislike installing and tried to shift back over to the service department. My manager knew I wanted to transfer, but wouldn’t let me despite my prior experience and instead hired another tech.
Now, part of the reason I didn’t want to do install anymore was due to the salesmen. They. Were. Idiots. The concept of a tape measure was completely lost on them and there were times they’d overpromise at the expense of me and my assistant. One day, in particular, the residential salesman had us install the wrong type of evaporator coil (makes the cold happen) in an attic without taking any measurements beforehand. It didn’t fit between the joists and when I asked for someone to come help, I was told to ‘use your imagination.’ We managed to get it done, sort of, but at 5:30, it literally fell apart. I was apoplectic, called the salesman and unloaded on him. We hacked it together just enough, and we left.
The next morning at the shop, the salesman tried talking to me and I quit on the spot. He said that we had a meeting with a Lennox rep and to ‘Reconsider, please just think about it!’ He must’ve thought I agreed because when I went to turn in my time sheet in the meeting room, he began to introduce me as the ‘lead installer and a service tech when it’s slow.’
So I looked at him and replied, ‘Psh, I was!’ Then I walked out.”
They Already Undervalued Him, So He Showed Them His True Worth
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“I’m an IT manager. I was working for a company that didn’t consider us a real department. Lots of things led up to this, but the last straw was an announcement that a satellite office was being shut down, and any employees that could relocate to our office. We (the IT department) found out about this at the same time as the rest of the company, which was MONTHS after the decision had been made. Nobody told us anything, and this would involve obscene amounts of extra travel, hours, and stress as we accommodate the moves, the infrastructure, and everything else involved with such a move.
I left in the middle of the announcement.
My boss (CFO) threatens me to fire me if I don’t do the work. You can’t fire someone who’s already quit (taps temple).
Then the CEO called me and asked me back to negotiate. I agreed to come back for six months if I got a 25% raise for myself and my entire team. After six months, I left and they laid off everyone else.”