For those who hated your jobs, what finally made you quit and how long did it take to find something better?

12 comments

1. I was constantly micromanaged for three years. I had an opportunity to do something without input from my superiors. I crushed it with a 97% success rate. That’s when I knew I could be successful on my own. A month later I quit.

2. Quit after 6 months but started hating after 3. Found a job, went through 2 interviews and it took them bloody 3 torturous months to get back to me. I’m still there now at my ‘new’ job 3 years later. Shame it took them 3 months to offer it to me. Those 3 extra months at previous job was awful.

3. Quit my food service job a week before Thanksgiving after being yelled at one too many times. Currently looking for a job, bu obviously, no one’s really going to be hiring untitl the new year.

4. Poor management and owners meeting people trying to sell the whole business. It was tanking. They’re still around barely breaking even. It took me like 6 months to find something better. In the meantime I took a bullshit job to not be broke. I’m happy where I ended up.

5. I quit two jobs without notice and without having something else lined up. Both were in my younger days.

   The first was house painting. The guy running the business had problems managing his money. First it started with him leaving us completely unsupervised on jobs. Then late paychecks. The last straw was a paycheck bouncing. Told him to pay me before I would go back to work. He paid me. I didn’t go back to work. He didn’t deserve a second chance.

   The second was a job I actually liked most of the time. It was a driving job where we delivered to medical patients and the day I quit, I was just getting ready to leave for the longest route of the rotation where the first customer/patient would always complain if we weren’t early or at least on time. However, another driver who was a junior employee was on the phone with a new patient. While I’m standing there getting the last of my stuff together, he tells the patient that I will be leaving to set him up right now and would be there in 30 minutes. In the opposite direction from where I had to go. And a new setup would have taken an hour or more. I looked at him while he was still on the phone, said out loud “I’m driving the north route today and that means I have to be to [feisty patient] by 10:00am. That’s an hour from now and it takes an hour to get there. I can’t do the new setup.”

   Boss looks at me and says “We have [junior] doing something else today so you have to do it.” Now, I had just spent the better part of 6 months adjusting the routes and equipment that patients had so that we went from driving 500+ miles to see 200+ patients every week to a two week schedule with 100ish patients a week and the other 100ish the second week. Less time on the road, more time for drivers to be available for new patients, less overtime, lowered vehicle costs, etc. And for all this effort, at my annual review the week before this incident, they said “you’re slacking on some of your paperwork so no raise”.

   You combine no raise and a junior employee delegating me and my instant response to boss was “Actually, he’s going to have to. He’s also going to have to drive the north route. I quit. Here are the company provided items I can give you now. I’ll go home and get the rest and be back in 30 minutes.” and walked out. I did exactly that.

   Took me about a week to get a job working retail. Worked 3 different retail jobs before I got an office job. Eventually got into programming where I’ve been for the last couple of decades.

6. I’ve had bad work experiences but given the nature of work and potential opportunities, not just going to quit without something lined up.

   I can say my current role – first as a manager, I planned I would be here a handful of years, if not longer. However, coming into it, how they function (lack of functioning), planning, etc. it will be less than 2 years when everything gets finalized with paperwork and all and starting a new gig sometime in the winter/spring.

   I have applied and interviewed to a few items since the summer and am fortunate to have gotten something fairly quick (long hiring process after initial nomination though).

7. I change jobs every 3 years or so. Best way to make more money

8. Pure chance. Saw an ad on Facebook, applied, and for the first time in years (ever?) I have a job that doesn’t make me want to blow my brains out

9. Medical issues. Couldn’t do the work anymore. Didn’t put in my 2 weeks because screw them for screwing me time and time again. Still don’t have anything better, but somehow making it work.

10. I actually quit my job recently.

    I was a District Manager for [insert big box retail vendor for cellular sales], and I quit because it was easier being an NCO in the Marine Corps (at least there if someone was refusing to do their job, they could get some “corrective training” and start doing it right unless they wanted some wall to wall counseling). I can handle pressure pretty well when it comes to the line, but having to deal with a dozen locations, incompetent staff, staff that didn’t give a shit about making money and corporate overlords shouting at me every morning for 7 months was just enough.

    It became a hostile work environment, and I had enough shit happening in my personal life that I just said screw it.

11. Never hated my actual job. But the way it’s run at every level and the infighting, laziness and number of staff who think they know better how to run a store than the ones who actually run the business has really gotten to me in the last couple years. Added onto this is I don’t get paid what I think I’m worth and my hours are shit for me and my partner has led me to look around. I also think retail as a whole where I live is about to go to absolute shit at the same time this company is about to really hit a speed bump. They won’t go under because it’s a big company but I predict everything is going to get a lot worse soon.

    Found a job filling in potholes that can pay upto an additional 30-40k a year more than I do now and is within a “normal” window of hours. Plus I get to work almost completely by myself. I’m meant to start next month.

12. I had an absolute scumbag for a boss at factory run by a bunch of absolute scumbags.

    Here’s an example, a coworker, who was born in America, both parents were Malaysian. He had an aunt he was close to pass away. In Malaysia.

    My boss expected him to take his work phone and work computer to Malaysia. Answer email, be available by phone, and even call into meetings remotely.

    This would have been in the middle of the night in Malaysia. My boss even expected him to bring his laptop and phone to the funeral in case second or third shift needed him…. during the funeral.

    We all were, by default, on call 24/7 when they randomly started second and third shifts. Going from a first shift job, to being at work for the first shift and on call all night. You couldn’t drink or leave town without notifying the boss that you wouldn’t be available, and he rarely ever gave “permission”.

    And by first shift I mean 5AM-5PM, five days a week and 7-2 in Saturdays. It used to be 7-3 monday-friday. But they demanded those subsequent hours. Salary. No raises when the “new” hours were implemented. I was an engineer that, once you factored hourly pay for number of hours worked, we were making less than new-hire, unskilled floor workers.

    Took me a year to find a new job as I was in a city with a major university so I was competiting against green, new graduates asking for a lot less. I actually, unfortunately had to leave the area to find the job. This was just before the pandemic.