Hello UK, tell me about the day you quit your job on the spot. Why?

29 comments

1. My Step Dad was a salesman. He was very good at his job. But the way he did it just went against all my ethics.

   When I turned 18, he’d gone from selling conservatories/roofing, to a car salesman. And he was that d*ckhead that deliberately prayed on the weak. Chatting complete sh*t. Targeting the elderly. Selling unnecessary add ons that the person clearly didn’t need or want.

   I worked with him for 2 months, I sold a good amount of cars in that time, but I just hated it. The things he was telling me to do/say, I didn’t need to be an expert to know that you shouldn’t be doing/saying those things and shouldn’t be so blatantly Targeting the vulnerable. I got a job elsewhere and said I’m not working for him again.

2. I quit one job in my life after just being shown around, it was some kind of radiator factory. The reason was this place had rule to wear a uniform while at work – so they opened some locker and gave me stinky, used, really dry and stiff one and probably unwashed for long time. And I’m not fussy or anything but that was just disrespectful.

3. Assistant manager shouted at me when he thought I hadn’t been working hard enough. I felt I had been but still that’s not how you deal with low productivity. Being shouted at is not ok so I left.

4. I was forced into a team leader position for a team of chefs as most people had already left for better jobs, it was a kitchen at a military barracks that fed 300 people 3 times a day.
   I am a fully trained chef, we made 12 different options from scratch every day for each meal of the day.

   I had to train agency chefs every day as the work place was so bad they refused to come back for another.
   The head chef was a bully and everyone kept getting mad at me for not being able to manage an understaffed team even though it wasn’t my job, it all started to get to me and a had major depression. They let me have afew weeks off to sort myself out and when I came back I was still depressed obviously, they told me to snap out of it and held an investigation against me to scare me into working harder, I just snapped.
   The next day I just went in and told them I quit, they went mad at me and told me I would regret it and threatened to not give me a reference, I just laughed at them and they all started to panic as I was the only one who could actually cook everything and run the kitchen properly.

   I was doing 5am till 10pm, 10 days on 4 days off, pay was bad, I only stayed because I thought I thought I believed some.of them to be my friends, but I just realised they were just being friendly to take advantage of me to work harder and for longer.

   I was so happy when I quit, I literally took a year off work and lived of my savings.
   Got bored and just got a job at KFC for more money, better hours, easy and I have nothing to worry about.

5. Not technically a job but I was doing an NVQ when I was 17 in admin and got a work placement at a motorcycle shop to work in their office however most of the work they had me doing was not admin work, its was mostly packaging bike gear to send out, tidying up and occasionally dealing with customers, it wasn’t bad but not want I wanted.

   On my 5th day I went in rather hungover having been up to 3am drinking which probably wasn’t wise but that day at work they had me scraping paint off a wall to ready it to be repainted, it wasn’t just me doing it as all staff had to but between being hungover, it being a shitty task and having nothing to do with admin or my NVQ I told them I wasn’t here for this and walked out telling them I won’t be back.

6. Because I tried handing my notice in and they wouldn’t accept it… Bang I’m gone

7. [deleted]

8. Promoted to assistant manager of a large retail store (flagship one actually)
   Told to sort out the stocktake staffing and procedures and run it.
   Got no support or guidance (not been long in the role) and it was a shambles.
   Next day walked into the dept mgmnt meeting and handed my notice in with no notice.

   Had a visit from the manager to my home a few days later for an exit interview, and apparently my previous manager who was I another store had heard what happened and I was offered the deputy managers job in his store.
   Damn sure it was arranged as the manager I was working for was a dick and was worried that actually I had a solid case for constructive dismissal.
   Loved working with my old manager again and confidence restored quickly as he mentored me.

9. Expected to do overtime and not getting paid for it, even though it was fine the previous year. Was told I know where the door was by one of the higher ups during a unexpected quick meeting if I didn’t like it.

   Turns out I had a week booked holiday and then took another week sick working somewhere else as a “trial” and got the job. So first day back handed in my letter with “effective immediately following our meeting with X, Y and Z”. The look on their faces was priceless. Got asked “what are you going to do?” to which I replied ‘ah nothing, going to take some time off, got enough in the bank for a good few months’ was coming into summer which was our busiest period. Got to rub a bit of salt in the wound.

10. The day before a Regional Manager visit. I was the supervisor in charge of the shop floor merchandising and warehouse. There had recently been a re-shuffle of managers and so my awesome manager was replaced by a micromanaging arsehole who had it our for me.

    Basically he had been shop floor manager and hated the fact I didn’t listen to him (why should I, he wasn’t my direct manager), I wouldn’t bend to his will and let my lads work on the tills because he once again hadn’t done the rota properly and he was just an all round twat. He was the type to get spat on by customers on two separate occasions.

    I walked in knowing that the regional manager praised my store on the last visit and it was even better this time. I had no worries.

    I spotted my manager and the general manager walking around the shop floor. With a clipboard each. A long list of absolute bollocks was clearly visible on each piece of paper.

    I wasn’t being paid fairly (saw my job advertised afterwards and the pay was nearly double what I had been getting). I had nothing tying me down. No responsibilities to family, only myself to take care of. So fuck it. Asked to see big manager and new manager in the office. Told them if they were intending to bend me over like I suspected they could stick their job up their arse. They tried to backtrack. I asked to see the job list. They wouldn’t show it to me. Point proved. Walked straight out.

    The lads on my team told me the regional manager visit went well and he couldn’t understand why I would leave when my store is absolutely fine. They also had a nightmare replacing me as my team weren’t exactly highly motivated anymore as all the good things I introduced such as extra breaks and warehouse football tournaments had ended. They went through three people in six months. All because a midget bully-victim wanted a dick measuring contest with me.

11. I worked as a tree surgeon for a larger company for the best part of a decade. One Friday we were sent to a job in Wimbledon and I was expected to climb a thirty foot tall hedge to take the height down. Without any ropes/ harness. I did so begrudgingly and then took a job with another firm the following Monday. I gave about 12 hours notice via text message. Was pretty cathartic

12. told a customer at a call centre to get fucked and ran away before I even finished putting the phone down

13. When I was a student my manager tried to convince me that my job at Woolworths was more important and to spend all of my half term working for minimum wage instead of working on my qualifications. I told her I valued my education and that I would only work my Saturday shifts as scheduled. She tried to bully me and said that I wasn’t a team player and needed to put the company first. I explained I didn’t want to spend my life putting stickers onto cds for minimum wage and quit on the spot.

    My colleagues cheered for me when I left the shop as they were also all miserable working for that cretin.

14. Call centre (enough said there really…).

    Got picked up on for taking over 5 mins to go to the loo. Bearing in mind the loos were shut on my floor so I had to find another loo on a different floor and wait as it was busy.

    I was always on time, worked hard etc – but got a telling off like a naughty school kid as I entered the room!

    Wrote my resignation on the back of the training manual and left at lunch. If I could bottle that feeling and sell it, I’d be a millionaire.

15. Worked doing a summer job at a meat processing plant, went outside for lunch and just sat there for the rest of the day until the van came to drop us off home.

16. Worked in a call centre for a shit outsourcing company and the place was filled with arsehole managers. The only thing good about the place was that the client (a retailer) were very good with their customer service and afforded us a lot of discretion over refunds, goodwill gestures etc. to keep customers on side.

    Anyway, despite not liking it I lasted nine months until one day I had a horrendous call where a middle-aged husband and wife took it in turns to literally berate me over the phone over something pretty minor. After the call was done I immediately put my phone onto ‘toilet mode’, walked outside and phoned to ask my previous employer (a shortbread factory) for a job – they immediately said yes so I went back into the building and handed in my notice.

17. Manager accused me of stealing, called me an idiot then asked if I wanted to fight outside – I agreed. He backed down, I fecked off.

18. Manager said it was “suspicious” that I had a foot injury after having a week off with an illness. The hours were not good for me anyway. So I just quit.

19. Horrible narcissistic manager. I got signed off with stress due to him, so he made up a bullshit reason to put me on disciplinary suspension in retaliation. I responded by quitting immediately.

20. Worked as a bartender at a pub, overworked, didn’t get the breaks I was supposed to get. On top of that, I felt I was being subtly undermined by my boss and customers often at times, leaving me wondering if it was because of my race. Overall just a kinda shitty experience, one day I just never went back.

21. I am from the US but this was the first of two times I quit a job on the spot. I was at Uni and got a job at McDonalds to help pay some bills. The manager had a serious case of short man syndrome ( vertical, but most likely Horizontal as well) and one day during my first week was giving me absolute hell over something I didn’t even get near that another coworker had done.

    I was in the process of hanging game day decorations on one of the walls for an upcoming Football match. I broke instantly and grabbed him by the collar and stapled his shirt to the wall, dropped my equipment where it was and walked out. Apparently it was 30 minutes before anyone helped him.

22. I was in a team of four and they gradually let people go and have me take over their roles, until I was the only one left with my skill set. They said to help me, I’d get an apprentice. The apprentice was both deaf and blind and had no relevant experience. They were being paid to take them and I just saw it as extra work for me.

    They didn’t let me take annual leave and I was getting seriously burned out after two years where I worked weekends and sometimes did 16 hour days. I went to my doctor, who was furious and said I should demand annual leave. So I arranged a meeting and said I’d have to take leave on my doctor’s advice. They accused me of using the doctor to blackmail them into giving me leave, but eventually they agreed to a week off (which wasn’t enough).

    Later in the day, the boss called me back and said they couldn’t spare me for a week, but I could have five mornings off, as long as I was answering the phone to customers while I was off. An hour later, he revised it to one morning off (with the phone). He phoned me at 4:45pm that same day and said they couldn’t spare me for a morning but I could go home 15 minutes early. He knew I got a lift at 5pm, so couldn’t leave early even if I wanted to. It was my first job and I suspected they were taking the piss, but I wasn’t 100% sure.

    I had no social life because of my working hours and money was piling up in the bank. The following Wednesday at 10:30am, I got up from my desk, said goodbye the receptionist, and walked out of the front door. People talk about having a weight lifted off their shoulders. That’s exactly what it felt like. It was incredible.

    There is guilt, though, because my skill set was key to a large area of the business, and the company limped along for six months, and then the boss realised it was going to fail, so sold it, in exchange for a directorship of a large well-known company, who bought it, and sacked every employee. I know it’s management’s fault, rather than mine, but it is a burden.

23. I swapped shifts with someone who not only didn’t turn up for the shift but didn’t document it on the system like they said they would. When I was next in the line manager blamed me and said I’d have to work a day for free “to make up for it” so I said OK I’ll just quit then and walked out as I hated the place anyway.

    I also rage quit a different job. I went to return a building key at the end of the day and as I was approaching the office the person inside was locking up to go on a lunch break. I asked if they could open the office so I could put the key back and they said no it was their break. I said it’d literally take 10 seconds and they still said no and that I should know what their working hours are (how I don’t know). I then told them in the time we’ve been talking I could’ve returned the key and left and that they were being ridiculous. I then had to wait outside for 30 minutes while they had their break just so I could return this key. After this they complained to their mate who was a manager about me for calling them ridiculous. They called me into the office to have have a go and I told them I was quitting. They said they’ll never give me a reference and I told them I couldn’t care less and just walked out. They waited just as I was through the door to shout PRAT lol.

    Now I have too much to pay for to rage quit but it was a satisfying feeling to know they have no power over you.

24. Was asked to do overtime. Told pay (or time off in lieu, whichever I preferred) wouldn’t be an issue.

    When I enquired about it later on, was told that overtime pay wasn’t an option and that I “get enough holiday” (ie the amount in my contract). They were really surprised when I quit.

25. Because my manager was a knobhead.. no better reason is needed

26. Oh I love this story. I wasn’t SUPER happy at my company anyway, then one night a colleague and I took a client out for dinner. We were two women in our early 20s. They were two men in their 40s. Not really relevant but increases the grossness I think. They turned up an hour late, already drunk. All night they told stories about wanking. At one point one nudged the other and said “tell them how you made all your money” and basically it was with bestiality websites (at the time and location it was apparently legal, but to me, obviously still revolting and wildly inappropriate work dinner topic). I excused myself, ran home and just cried. The next day at work I was on a call with my manager and I don’t remember what the call was about but he said “if you don’t like it, leave” so I did just that. Felt AMAZING!

27. I’m a joiner but when I finished my apprenticeship in 2007 we were in the middle of a recession and there were no joinery jobs anywhere. I took a job in a call centre selling phone contracts for a company called Unicom (now gone bust), basically it was a rip off charging £30 per month for around 500 mins and 500 texts and no data (smartphones weren’t a thing)

    Anyway, the day started fine with a 1 hour training session with a few other people who started that day, then we went out into the office and had a go on the phones ourselves. The first 3 customers hung up on me, the 4th customer was asking me questions that I couldnt answer and I realised how shit the deal was so I got up and walked out.

    For some reason nobody really noticed and they paid me full pay every friday for 7 weeks, the payments stopped eventually but they never rang or sent a letter or anything it was great.

28. Apprentice electrician 10 years ago, was 16 at the time, was on 3.50 an hour, got bullied throughout, wouldn’t give me a lift home so had to walk 2 miles a day with my tools, 10 hour shifts with 10 minute lunch breaks, couldn’t afford lunch was so bleak. One day I got asked to put up 5 sockets and attach the cables etc. Almost finished them in 45 minutes (first time doing it) and the guy shouted at me so I threw a hammer through his van window and never saw him again

29. Got a job through a mate working for a start up signage company. The owner was very young (19) and had recently bought the business off an old dude.

    I was taken on to work as a purchasing manager and marketing manager (dual role, because small company). I had experience in both of these roles but had been unemployed for about 4 months so this role seemed like a godsend.

    I was told it was a professional outfit so to where business attire. I bought some new trousers, shirts and ties for the job.

    When I arrived for work, the owner had forgotten who I was, didn’t seem to care that I was there to work for him and asked me to go and collect him a coffee from Costa.

    When I returned, the owner was asking me what I wanted and why I am bothering him. I told him that well, it’s my first day, you’ve hired me as a marketing manager and a purchasing manager and you’re the only one with a work station. Where do you want me to sit? What software do you use etc etc.

    I was told to go speak to Larry in the warehouse, who was the warehouse manager.

    Larry said that he doesn’t know what I’m doing so I can just help him in the warehouse.

    I was then effectively tasked with cutting out signs and sweeping etc.

    I worked the whole day and just bit my tongue but at the end of the day. I ruined my new clothes whilst in the warehouse because of the type of work I was doing.

    On leaving, the owner said “I’ll see you tomorrow, please don’t forget my coffee this time and you’ll be in the warehouse with Larry again”.

    I told him that I won’t. Because I quit and to shove his job up his ass.

    When my mate came into work a few days later and found I wasn’t working there it allegedly transpired that the owner didn’t understand what my job was, had forgotten I was due to start on that day and basically didn’t give a shit.

    I could tell just in my one day there it was a toxic work environment.