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Starting a new job can be stressful. In the midst of trying to juggle all of your new responsibilities, remember your colleague’s names and impress your new boss, it’s hard to even find a moment to breathe. But if you stop and realize that you absolutely hate what you’re doing, it’s never too soon to hit the road.

Redditors have recently been sharing stories of employees who quit just as quickly as they started new jobs, so we’ve gathered some of the most entertaining tales below. Enjoy scrolling through these examples of extremely quick quitting, and keep reading to find a conversation with career coach Twanna Carter, PhD!

#1

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back My mom lasted about 3 hours as a waitress. Some guy kept snapping his fingers and my mom assumed he was just snapping so she ignored it. The woman training her said, “He wants coffee. That’s why he’s snapping.” My mom said, “Then he can ask for it like a grown up.” It was loud enough for the guy to hear and he called my mom a b***h. She took of her apron and walked out. She was around 17. When she walked in the door my grandmom said, “Wow, you lasted longer than I thought you would.”.

Johannes_Chimp , Ketut Subiyanto / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#2

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back In our warehouse we had a trans guy who ran it better than anyone I have ever seen. New guy starts, sees him and says " I can't work with that. It goes against what god created" Left, never to be seen again. Good riddance.

carsmartbutdumb , Tiger Lily / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#3

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Me. I was hired as a dishwasher at a restaurant downtown. Buses stopped at midnight, but I was guaranteed I'd be off in time for the last bus


I was scheduled to start on a Friday night, starting at 6, I was told the first shift was a training shift and shorter than usual. 


I get there and they tell me "hey there's supposed to be 3 dishwashers, but one guy was at 2 months but didn't show up, and the other guy got pulled to prep chef tonight."


Im busting a*s, the head chef comes by during lunch, I ask what's the plan for when I'm gone at 12 "what do you mean? The shift is 6pm-2am?". He strings me along most of the night saying he'll get me a ride home with someone that lives on my side of town. "one way or another we'll get you home" 


At 1130 I go to him "hey so who's driving me home", "oh I couldn't find anyone that lives on your side of town. You'll have to cab or something", "cool". 


And I walked out and never came back. Lol.

-retaliation- , Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Mad Dragon
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I'm not taking a ride home with someone I don't know. I will be leaving at 11:45 to catch the bus as was agreed when I was hired."

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To learn more about this topic, we got in touch with career coach Twanna Carter, PhD. Dr. Carter was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and discuss some of the common reasons why employees abruptly quit.

"One reason is previous work trauma. Sometimes, people are highly sensitive to the possibility of getting stuck in a job that seems to be going in the wrong direction," the expert noted.

"Another reason is dissatisfaction with certain job roles. They may have been miserable in a similar role before and it took a long time to leave that job," Dr. Carter says. "If a company engages in a bait and switch after onboarding, the new hire may immediately quit to preserve their mental health. It’s all about self-preservation and protecting your well-being."

#4

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back A coworker was sitting with our three bosses and 4 employees in a conference room meeting, she said: “This is the most disorganized and toxic work environment that I have been in, thanks for nothing because you should be thanking me for tolerating this job, and to you three”, (the employees including me) she said, “I feel sorry if you stay but you should leave too, they are not paying us that well anyway “, she got up and left, I left a week and half later and she is one of my best friends to this day.

Respect ACC! 🫡.

CrowFriendlyHuman , fauxels / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#5

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back A woman I was training for a supervisor role at my previous job quit before lunch the first day.

I began the supervisor training and she said “I wasn’t hired as a supervisor, I was hired as an account manager”. I contacted my boss asking if there was a mixup with the training schedule, but there was not. Apparently they hired her as an account manager then downgraded her without letting her know. When she met with HR they said “strategic moves” had to be made for optimization. She quit on the spot.

I quit shortly after that because the company was up to other shady stuff.

showe1lj , Yan Krukau / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#6

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back At the door before he even got clocked in. He parked in front of the building in customer parking and in a handicapped spot. When he was asked to park around back in employee parking, which was actually closer to where his job was, he lost his s**t, went on a rant about his freedoms and that he wasn't working anywhere that made employees use the servants entrance. Pretty sure he heard the laughter erupt when he stormed out.

bluecheetos , Nothing Ahead / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Karina
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I worked in a butcher-shop with only one entrance. When Christmas came and people started to que up before opening hours, it became a ridiculous experience with people trying their best to block me from reaching the door so I could actually get the shop opened

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We also asked the career coach what companies can do to ensure that new employees are satisfied. "An effective onboarding process is crucial for ensuring that employees feel cared for and valued," Dr. Carter says. "We've all experienced jobs where the onboarding process immediately raised doubts about our decision to join."

"For instance, I once onboarded at an organization where the process lasted from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with no lunch provided and no scheduled break to go and get lunch," the expert shared. "Meetings were literally planned all day long. It was a negative experience that set the tone for my time there. Companies need to show basic care and concern for new employees, which are really easy fixes."

#7

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I quit the day before i started. Accepted a job at x amount of pay. The day before I was to start they called me and said "we didn't know you went to nursing school with some of our workers and we told them what you'd be making hourly and they threatened to quit unless we pay you $3hr less than what was agreed upon"

I beg your pardon? F**k riiiight off.

ifyoubugher , Karolina Kaboompics / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#8

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Had the new older guy introduced right before the morning shop meeting. The supervisor started in on his normal "Do what I say or you'll be sorry" b******t he does every morning. My hero (new guy) stood up and walked out. I never saw him again.

External_Durian9472 , Airam Dato-on / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sue Denham
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Someone with principles . . . or the financial security to have principles.

Dick Fint
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, being able to walk is a big card in your favor. I've. worked" for many places where I never met my immediate supervisor until I started my first day. Which turned out to be my last day when I found out my job was not as described by the person that hired me. I didn't have large amounts of cash on hand, but kept enough of a cushion that I could wait for the for the right job.

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#9

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I had an interview and was told the salary was X. I was offered the job but I was informed a mistake had been made and the salary was a fair chunk less than I'd been told at the interview. I replied "No problem, when do I start? Tomorrow at 8am? Great, see you then".

I put their number on silent, didn't show up and those time wasting muppets kept calling me for far longer than I ever would have imagined well into the following week..

Amphibian_Upbeat , Sora Shimazaki / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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John Mosley
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What's up with the picture? The creepy finger up the sensitive skin on the inside of the wrist would gross me out.

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"Companies that engage in bait and switch tactics risk disappointing and alienating employees," Dr. Carter continued. "They assume people need the job so badly they’ll stay despite the issues. However, savvy employees, based on past experiences, will leave quickly. Two weeks into the job referenced above, and I was already searching for another one!"

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#10

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Didn’t quit but walked out and waited for the aftermath.
I was hired as a Production manager for a winery. Bottling, warehouse, maintenance. The first day of work was the first day of shelter in place due to Covid. Hr rep did my induction from her home. I was on site. Provided her with scanned copies of my documentation and she asked me to sign paperwork. It showed 15K less than my agreed to salary. I forwarded my signed offer letter and she said it was incorrect. I told her I would not sign.
The estate manager was offsite in Paris, was not a US citizen, and was stuck there due to Covid protocols.
I informed the HR rep that I was leaving and would not be returning. Within a couple of hours I received a call from the Estate Manager apologizing for the mistake and asking me to return the next day. I explained that I was reluctant to return to a company that tried to change terms after agreement. He ended up offering me an additional 10k and I returned. The HR Rep the next day was not the same person as before.

Napaandy , RDNE Stock project / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Karina
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Im sure they had the foresight to realize what "shelter in place" would do for wine sales

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#11

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Met a dude at a call center like 5 years ago in New Braunfels, Tx

On the surface he looked like a punk kid. Long blonde bangs, arm and hand tattoos, young looking, wore a hoodie most of the time, could be very bouncy at times if excited about s**t. We went through training together and this occurred less than a week after training finished.

Looking at him closer though I noticed he was closer to my age (I was 27 at the time and he was 25) and he was actually pretty astute, dude was a fast learner and knew his s**t. Turns out dude was a bit of a wild child(one of his tattoo sleeves ended in a skull showing on his hand) before he had a kid some years prior, and that kid settled his a*s right the f**k down. He was employed before, but this was his second "serious job" as he put it. Out desks were next to each other after training and I heard him do very well on the phones.

Now there's a reason I'm focusing on his appearance so much; dude was real respectable but some office staff were put off purely by his look. One of them being HR's manager. When showing off a Doctors note showing he missed day 2 of on-floor work cuz of his baby being pretty sick, he came back to his desk looking mega anxious. I didn't wanna pry and also I was focusing on work, so thankfully he opened up the convo (pretty gregarious dude) asking me if he should do something after he was just treated

Turns out HR manager didn't accept the note and, on top of that, began to:
1. Berate him for not showing up for work
2. Imply that he's making trouble with his simple request
3. Began speaking in a manner I can only describe as 'overlord dressing-down'. Just kept speaking in absolutes, "You're gonna go back to your desk and work." "You don't need to be here anymore. Even so far as to openly tell him to shut up at one point.

So naturally I say yes to the question he's been trying to pose; you really do need to file a complaint, man.

Corporate took that s**t seriously. Cuz homie made the complaint and literally the next day we get warned by higher ups that corporate is coming by. And those suits went straight to the HR office. Judging by that suits face (we were sat close enough to see the front entrance) and HR lady leaving and never coming back, pretty sure other HR staff present corroborated homies story and either they fired her a*s or she quit on the spot.

Homie unfortunately had a bad taste in his mouth afterward and quit that week.

Red hood, bro, idk if you're out there but hope you and your kid are well.
Sincerely,
-Long-haired native bro.

Arceedos , Ralph Rabago / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Rayne OfSalt
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Corporate Assassin Suits are terrifying creatures. I saw a couple of them once during my short stint in the corporate world. They went into some day-trader's office, everyone in there except that office's manager scurried out looking paler than snow. Never saw the dude again. While I'm pretty sure they allowed him to pack his stuff and escorted him out, in the banking world you're never sure - they most certainly could have escorted him into a woodchipper down in one of the sub-basements and we'd never know.

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#12

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I quit literally five minutes into a job. The interviewer made it pretty clear it was a delivery job, *not* a sales job.

I go into work the first day and the manager tells us we need to load up the trucks and start selling.

No.

john_snape_ , Artem Podrez / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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ColdSteelRonin
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sounds like Omega Meats, did the same thing to me and they were angry at me when I walked out after being lied to

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Dr. Carter also provided some advice for jobseekers who want to find a position they'll actually be happy with. "Thoroughly research potential employers. Look at employee ratings and evaluations online. While some reviews might be from disgruntled employees, consistently poor ratings are a red flag," she told Bored Panda.

It's also wise to talk to former employees if you have the chance. "This is where leveraging your network becomes valuable. Use your connections to set up informational interviews and talk to current employees to get a better understanding of the company culture and working conditions," the expert shared.

#13

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Me. Arrived 10 minutes early as I always do only to walk on site with an tirade of abuse being thrown at two workers by the director of the company who hired me. He looked me in the eye and try to impose his will and started barking orders. I laughed, did a 180 and started to walk of site. He ran up and ask where your going I said I don't work for d**kheads.

Particular-Tap1211 , Jonathon Burton / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#14

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Seen some quit on the first day before.

Funniest story is someone getting fired on the first day. Worked in retail. Before we open we have our daily meeting to go over the plan for the day. The store manager asked another manager to address the team while he stood there and watched.

We had a new guy. It was his first day. While the manager (let's call him Brian) was addressing the crew the new guy kept making fun of him. Like you might make fun of a buddy where you tell inside jokes to each other. The thing is, it was his first day and nobody knew him. He also went way over the line saying things like "Brian is gay" and "that's what she said." Just really cringey stuff.

The store manager noticed. When Brian finished, he called all the managers into the office. He didn't tell any of us what was going on. We just assumed we were making final preparations before opening. He called the new guy into the office (let's call him Glen). "Glen, please come to the sales office."

We are all getting ready for the day. Organizing paper work etc and Glen walks in.

Store Manager: Let's talk about your short time working here NOW THAT IT HAS COME TO AN END.....

All the managers froze and just watched

Glen kept trying to justify his inappropriate behavior during the meeting in the office and he kept getting more and more pissed as none of us had his back (why would we?). He was ready to barge out of the store (the door was locked because it is retail and we weren't open yet). Instead he ran into the door. Now we all f*****g laughed. One of the managers unlocked the door and let him out. He peeled out of the parking lot pissed. Never to be heard from again....

atx620 , Ivan Samkov / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Beak Hookage
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ah, yes, I remember the days when "he's gay!" was a cheap punchline. I don't miss them. The ending to this one made me giggle.

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#15

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I had a guy from Nigeria start nightshift. We warned him there might be some racism from locals. He said he's used to it from working in kebab shops.

Even I wasn't prepared for the amount of abuse he got. He called the next day to say he can't handle it.

The_Pixel_Knight , Samson Okeniyi / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is something culturally wrong with that workplace, that poor man should be kept on and the people responsible for the racism should be dismissed

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#16

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Working at an ER vet, it became so common for people to go to lunch and never return that I began only learning new people’s names if they made it past their 90 days. S**t is not playing with puppies and kitties all day and a lot of people cannot hack it.

meowpal33 , Tima Miroshnichenko / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sand Ers
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am extremely grateful for the people who do those jobs, and I wouldn’t last a week.

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#17

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I guess me. 


A college retail job, I showed up the first day and they said there was a mixup about how much they were able to pay me vs. what they had told me on the phone. 


It ended up being slightly less per hour than I was making at my current job, instead of slightly more. Luckily I hadn't quit the current job yet. 


I said I was only staying on if they could give me the rate agreed upon...they called or pretended to call somebody, came back and said there's nothing they could do. 


Welp, sorry it didn't work out. I think I got a paycheck for the exactly 1 hour of standing around talking about it that we did. .

Orange_Kid , Pavel Danilyuk / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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R.C.
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't know where OP is from, but I know in Canada it doesn't matter if you're there for only 30 minutes. They have to pay you for 3 hours.

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#18

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I was training a lady on the register for her first today, she went for her lunch and never came back. She came through drive thru about a month later and I ask her wtf because my manager had thought I'd explained lunches incorrectly or had done something to make her leave. She said that she saw the customers I dealt with and decided she would rather be unemployed.

2baverage , ALINA MATVEYCHEVA / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Niki A
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The district I resigned from recently had five days of onboarding and training in about a hundred things. It was boring, and honestly, we didn't use 90 percent of what they showed us as teachers. I knew this was the norm, as I was returning to the district at the time, but one lady got up during a break, packed her stuff, said, "This is ridiculous. At what point can we actually set up our classes and plan?" and she left. Legend.

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#19

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I once saw my new coworker quit during their lunch break on their first day. They went out for lunch and just never came back. Turns out, they ran into an old friend who offered them a job on the spot, doing something they actually loved. We all laughed about it later, saying they must've had the shortest commute from new hire to ex-employee ever!

XLustyGirlX , MART PRODUCTION / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#20

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back When I worked at Nabisco, at about 10 AM on his first day, another contractor turned to me and asked “Is Nabisco owned by a tobacco company?” I said, yes, but that we really had nothing to do with them. He got up and walked out.

JustSomeGuy_56 , Lisa Fotios / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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bbfa
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I temped in an office once and helped the ladies on the shipping dock when I ran out of things to do, just being friendly. It took a while to warm up to me and trust I was not spying on them. They told me about being taken advantage of in the work place. One said she had worked for Nabisco and they had to wear diapers because they weren't allowed bathroom breaks. Said she got a bad infection from standing in her own urine. She wanted me to know how immigrants are treated, because they can't complain. It left me thoroughly and permanently disgusted with Nabisco.and the companies who take advantage of immigrants, because they have no legal rights.

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#21

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I started as food prep for a steakhouse while on a semester off from college. Got there a few minutes before my scheduled start at 7. Manager showed up at 7:40 to open the doors.

Worked 10 hours, no break, because when ai was supposed to go on break they needed help washing dishes, and my break was "delayed".

Saw one coworker dump a bunch of cut lettuce into an unwashed sink that had just had raw meat in it. Dropped a carrot on the floor while shredding them for salads and the MANAGER picked it up and tossed it straight into the shredder.

Finished my day, went across the street to the Wendy's where I used to work, was hired immediately, and started there the next day.

The steakhouse closed a year later.

Jef_Wheaton , Creative Vix / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#22

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Our previous timekeeper was going to resign so they hired a new guy. Guy comes in for his first day, realized how big the company is and without proper training or handover he was just expected to do it immediately. Dude never came back the next day. Everyone panicked coz there was no timekeeper and pay day is 2 days away.

prettyisabellaxoxo , Christina Morillo / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Alexandra
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that....never mind....that's what you get when you don't have proper training procedures in place.

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#23

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back 45 minutes into her first Dunkin donuts shift. I was showing her what buttons to press on the cream and sugar dispenser when she suddenly said, "I can't do this." And she walked out and started walking 5 miles home. The local bus passed by ten minutes later.

Yeah, I don't know. She had something going on with her personal life for sure.

Chazkuangshi , Andres Ayrton / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

#24

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I was a trainer ("Learning Ambassador") at an Amazon fulfillment center when COVID hit. Nearly half of my coworkers quit before my next week began. Until I transferred to a different facility 3 months later, every week involved training dozens of new hires, and most of them would quit sometime between day 1 lunch and the end of their first week. It was nuts.

voopa , Thom Gonzalez / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sand Ers
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bezos is on record as believing that a workplace has to be abusive to motivate workers. Sub-atomic micromanagement has taken all the rewards out of warehouse/inventory management work.

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#25

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I worked at a golf course and we hired a guy and sent him out to rake leaves all day. We just found his rake up against a tree. Never saw him again.

kphill325 , khaled damlakhi / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#26

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back When I was in a really bad place with anxiety and depression, I got three jobs in a 2-3 week period. I quit two after the first day, and quit the third job after two days. I’m doing a lot better now though.

Sheesh284 , Mikhail Nilov / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Squiffle Noses
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

LOL - I just posted the same thing, near enough, on post 24! "Once while recovering from a major depressive episode i burned through 5 or 6 jobs in a year. Just kept trying to maintain my mental health in a work situation and kept failing. Kept dissapearing, spending a few more weeks banging my head against the wall/sleeping... and trying again. Eventually I healed enough to stay the course."

#27

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I was trading gas at a shop that had a reputation for treating their middle office folks very poorly, worked them hard, but paid them well. Met the new risk guy, nice dude, he was happy to come off what’s called a ‘real time trading desk’ (shift work) and back to a normal schedule, little did he know the risk team he was put on worked like f****n’ dogs.

His second day, he gets up at lunch, doesn’t come back, HR comes over to his manager “Hey, (blank) sent over a resignation email stating it was ‘effective immediately’.”

What a legend, made the right move IMO.

OlyVirg , cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#28

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back When I worked at the nursing home, the maintenance/housekeeping supervisor quit without notice. Two weeks later they hired this guy who supposed managed the maintenance department at a 400 bed facility. We had a two hours long meeting with this guy where he was telling us how he was going to whip the place into shape and how he was going to do this, that, and the other. Had us voicing all of our grievances, he was taking notes, etc.. He really seemed like a gung-ho type of dude. He left the facility on his lunch break that day and never came back.

rosesforthemonsters , Yan Krukau / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Kira Okah
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Either didn't match the job description he was given, or he was not being paid enough for all he was having to do?

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#29

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back About 20 mins.

Used to work at a furniture warehouse back in the day. Offloading trucks was brutal.

His first truck, we open the trailer… It’s our +300 lbs tables. Even I was like FML, I hate these, these are the absolute worse.

They truly were the worst of it.. And that was his introduction.

He offloads 2 tables. Went to the “washroom”. We never saw him again.

MckittenMan , Elrino Prihartono / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Mike F
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Totally fair. If you want people to want to come to work you need to provide equipment to facilitate the job.

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#30

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I was working at a book publisher and we hired a graphic designer. She came in at 9, worked till lunchtime, then announced that she was having carpet delivered that afternoon and had to go home early. We never saw her again.

joannetheauthor , cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#31

Didn’t even make it to the start of the first day. Was stopped by security on his drive in before clock in, we work at a federally protected facility, and he wouldn’t give them permission to search his car. The funniest thing is 95% of the time, security just wants you to comply and say yes. They won’t even search.

tdunc1994 Report

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ColdSteelRonin
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I work on infrastructure at facilities that fall under MARSEC, Homeland Security, etc. At many of the facilities (especially anything involving radioactive or explosive materials) searches (and usually d**g testing) are mandatory and refusal will get you denied access and permanently banned from that site and possibly from all their sites

#32

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back I started a job at 9am. Walked around with supervisor to all departments. Saw an old boyfriend who didn’t see me. At 10am took coffee break and never went back.

Rosanna44 , Marc Mueller / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#33

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Within the first 10-15 mins of their first day. She put her stuff down in her office and after maybe 5 minutes came into my office crying and saying she had made a mistake.

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#34

I got a job at a call center soliciting political donations. In our first day training, I was told to keep asking for money even if the guy told me he had cancer. That exact scenario was discussed. Never went back.

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#35

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back Sent a lady out on her first solo delivery at Dominos (this was around 2013). After she’s been gone for over an hour on a delivery that should’ve taken 30 minutes max, I give her a call. She said she’s on her way back to the store.

She shows up, turns in her uniform and says she had to run home because she got nervous and pooped herself. She doesn’t think this job is for her and she quits.

Edit: To answer some questions: The uniform is a shirt and hat, employees provided their own pants. Yes, we still threw the shirt and hat away lol. No, she did not deliver the pizza, we remade it and sent it with someone else.

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#36

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back 2 hours at a BK. I was supposed to be trained, they had short staff / all busy. Initially they made me wait 30 minutes for my interview, so I was already not looking positively on them, so coming in to half training "do this and this" .. "ok.. I think I did that, what now?" .. "hold on" 3m later "Do this"... I'm not going to "bother" someone every 5 minutes for direction at a new job. I need to just be actually trained once, not half a*sed and thrown into the fire.

BarryBro , Vitaly Gariev / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Sand Ers
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wouldn’t mind that one as long as I’m not subsequently held responsible for not being very productive.

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#37

Worked at a type 2 treatment facility for kids with emotional and behavioral disorders. New hire walked in while one of the clients was having an episode. Books being thrown, feces being tossed. She left after 17min.

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#38

They showed up, and a homeless person was sleeping in the donations and had dumped a huge jug of orange tempera paint all over the place. When the cops came to take the guy, they said to be careful cleaning up as the guy was 'an intervenous d**g user.' There were no gloves, just a shovel. They quit on the spot. It was me. I was the coworker.

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#39

I worked at a long term care nursing home. The maintenance men were required to wheel the recently deceased residents on a gurney to the refrigerated temporary morgue to wait for the funeral home to come pick up the body.

On one maintenance mans first day, he was told to pick up a body in room 38. As hes wheeling the body down a quiet hallway, the body, covered in a white sheet (who is the other maintenance guy working that evening) , slowly starts to rise up like a mummy from the grave. The man screams, literally s**ts his pants, turns in his employee badge, and leaves, never to return again.

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#40

I was working for an insurance company. A new hire was told she wouldn’t be allowed to enter the call center floor to ask her mom, who worked there questions. The new hire was being trained and kept leaving training to ask her mom the answers for the tests they were taking. When she was caught and had the rules explained to her she threw a tantrum and walked out. She’d been there about three hours.

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Show Thyself
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They got quizzed after just 3h of training? I train at a call center - not once in our onboarding program/training the new colleagues where tested anything after 3h. No matter which object. The first detailed tests are carried out on the third day at the earliest. The tested on objects: details about the client, data security, CoC, how to act in emergencies, etc pp

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#41

One girl joined the sales team
HR told her to submit the phone or lock it in the locker as the sales team is not allowed to have personal phone with them in working hours
She asked him why he didnt tell her when she was shortlisted
Took her bag and left
Thanks to her she motivated me so much that next day I quit the same way from the engineering department.

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Alexandra
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What is this insanity? An employer does not have the right to do that unless there's a really good reason and judging from this post, there is none.

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#42

New hire for a graduate position at the corporate office of a mining company. Bit of a computer nerd and sees a high end workstation sitting on someone's desk powered up but no keyboard or monitor. Decides without asking to remove the cover to check out the components which on that machine operates some contacts, causing it to shut down.

Machine was on the network running a complex and time sensitive 3D modelling job for they survey team that had been running for many hours. It didnt have a keyboard because they didnt want it disturbed. Having to redo the whole thing had a production impact potentially of tens of thousands of dollars.

Denied doing it despite other people in the open plan office seeing him. Resigned because job wasn't a good fit. Total time employed <4 hours.

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#43

Working at a steak house 25 years ago and was training a new server. About 2 hours in a 8 top (table for 8) clears out so I started stacking all the left over glasses and some dishes on the trey. He came over and grabbed the trey to place it on his shoulder. Then did this awkward face plant with the trey of everything in the ground. Entire dinning room went silent off the loud crash and his face looked a little smashed up. I calmly said get yourself cleaned up and don't worry about it. Well he went to the back and just bolted. After the shift everyone was asking where did face plant go. Anyway about 2 years after that I see the same guy running down the street full speed. I have no idea what he was running after or where he was going, but as I passed him in my car he did another face plant in the ground. I can still see him looking at me driving by while face planting.

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#44

Not a coworker but my childhood friend

In highschool he landed a job at K-Mart. This is mid 90s, we're in high school. He blabs about landing this job and how he's all employed and works for the "big K" now, bragging about all the perks like discount slushies and little Caesars or whatever.

On the big day he shows up, does his intro paperwork, gets his uniform, does a half hour of training and is immediately put to work on the floor. He's shadowing some other part time employee tasked with showing him the ropes.

He's immediately put to work in some clothing section and his mentor is showing him the process for folding errant clothes and keeping the department area tidy.

Mid afternoon, he shows up to hang out as normal - myself and our friends are puzzled: "bro, it's 5pm... Isn't this your first day at work?"

*Dumba*s friend*: "nah f**k that, they tried to make me fold clothes and s**t. I walked out when they weren't looking"

He quit after 90 minutes of employment. The next payday he proceeds to stroll in and demand his paycheck for his partial shift, and proceeds to spend the ~$7 on splitting a nickel bag and the remainder on the dollar menu at Checkers.

I actually just saw him again for the first time in.. a decade last week, he hasn't changed a bit.

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#45

Uh, well, it was me. I was trying to switch jobs and saw that a chain grocery near me was hiring. I didn't have a car at the time, and it was close enough to walk! I applied online, filled in all the parameters. 


Willingness to travel? No. Do you have a car? No.


Scored an 'interview' but if you passed a d**g test and had a pulse, you were a shoe-in. Made it perfectly and painfully clear that I would PREFER to work within walking distance but if I was needed elsewhere it had to be within the *albeit s****y* local bus schedule. Couldn't afford to Uber back-and-forth and they weren't willing to pay. I get hired! 


Schedule comes out late at night, the night before my First Day. For a 4am bakery shift two towns over. The bus didn't start until 6. I had applied for and been hired on as a cashier. I had no experience or desire to work in the bakery department. The store was already closed for the night by the time the schedule was posted so I couldn't contact anyone. So I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and went to sleep. I had MANY missed calls, for a good few hours when I finally woke up. .

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#46

Got hired by a large local farm to prune peach trees, starting in February. They had a whole bunch of folks show up on the same day to do an on-site d**g test. I'm pretty sure they called back everyone that passed, because within a day or two we had an orientation with about 40 new hires. The HR lady was explaining the way piece-rate pay works... basically when you get to the field, the crew leader will tell you how many trees per hour you are expected to prune and how much they are worth each. So you have a "base" hourly rate for which you are expected to prune X amount of trees, and anything over that is extra pay.


Anyway, it's supposed to be like, 18⁰F the next morning when we're scheduled to show up. Now we're down to 10 new hires, including the one that had talked the most smack about how much money he was going to make per hour because he was going to bust a*s. We get to the field by 7 AM, and by 9 AM I overhear him asking the crew foreman when he could take a cigarette break. Foreman says, "No cigarette breaks until lunch." By 9:30, he walks past me and says, "I can't do it, babygirl. I'm out." We had already lost 6 of the 10 people who showed up by that time, but it was extra funny when he left after how much s**t talking he had done.

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#47

Not my coworker, but rather my mom.

When a department store opened nearby in the 70s, my mom thought it would make a cute hobby job to work at the jewelry counter. Worked there three hours and couldn't take the stress.

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#48

Co-worker? Me. I got a contracting gig to work as an analyst to document a new software project. By 10am I was in a meeting with the lead consultant telling the client that I would be the lead architect on a $40+ million project that had already failed once. No one talked to me about that position. It wasn't the role or the pay scale I negotiated. When I got back to my desk, I called my consulting company and explained what had happened. They were not amused because they had negotiated their rate based on being an analyst, not a lead architect. My lead came to the client's office and we talked to the client. I left around 1pm.

The consulting company people knew me from a previous gig. They knew my education and simply decided I would play along. Nope.

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#49

Worked at a computer retailer a long while back. The position had dead periods and super busy periods. Just the nature of working at the sales counter.

New guy started during a quiet period. Stood around for a while and noped out after 45 min from boredom. Didn't tell anyone he was going, he just discreetly vanished. Couldn't really blame him for wanting to stay busy.

We thought it was funny walking around the store, looking under boxes and behind shelves for new guy.

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#50

I do industrial painting. We hired a local and I guess he was a house painter cause when I handed him the grinder he said I ain't doing that s**t and just left.

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#51

Most of my career I've worked in manufacturing so I've seen a lot. For instance, I managed a large commercial bakery and we had a new delivery driver tell the driver that was training him that the job wasn't for him after a couple hours on his first day and took a cab back to the bakery to get his car and leave.

As far as I can recall, the quickest I've seen someone quit (not counting the people that didn't bother to show up on their first day), was someone who clocked in and when his supervisor took him to what was to be his work area on the shop floor said "No dog, its too hot for me" and turned around and clocked out and left.

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#52

New developer at a bank (won’t say which bank or where.) He had been promised during the job interview that he’d be working with cutting-edge technology. On day one he was introduced to the team, sat down at his desk and given a laptop and login. He saw the out-of-date, out-of-support technology stack he would actually be working with, left a note on his workstation that this wasn’t going to work out, and walked out before lunch. He was never heard from again.

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#53

Two hours. "Alan" was hired into a little consultancy where I did data entry as a teen, he was the first adult hire. As it happens, it landed on a day when the only other adults were out doing field work.

An hour after lunch we noticed that Alan hadn't come back. We went to his desk and found his resignation note! He had spent the entire morning sweating bullets, feeling as if his job was entirely independent and without instruction from anyone. He confessed he was not up to the challenge and had left his key and quit in a handwritten note. If only he had started on a different day or just stuck it out for 8 hours of mine sweeper, he would have had a totally different experience.

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#54

During orientation a new hire got up and ran away like someone or something was chasing him. He slipped out while we were making copies for him in another room. We had to check the cameras to see where he went. You just see him sprinting across the parking lot LOL. I guess he really didn’t want to work.

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#55

One new coworker quit after he stole a customer credit card information after working there for like 2 weeks.

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Just-4-2day
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope he was given free food and board at the gray bar hotel.

#56

He quit involuntarily from heat stroke on Day 2. Western U.S Heat Wave of last year July 5-8 and the 10th. (Hottest on record)

The ambient temp is near 111°F.

He worked at an outdoor car wash with me. This man was about 30 ish, and said he had jobs like it before. He: asked me how to tie the TRASHBAG, asked me for permission to do anything and everything **including water breaks**.

Day 2 that proved to be his involuntary pink slip. We all kept telling him to drink water, handing him the cups of water from the 5 gallon tank but anytime we looked over it was like he was forcing himself to drink it like "finish your dinner"

9pm I was showing him how to close. Coughed twice, puke and foam spit from his mouth and he hit the floor. Iirc he was in the hospital for 3 days from heat stroke.

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#57

The fastest was when I worked in landscaping. we hired a guy who had never worked in landscaping, and a guy was training him on his first day, and the new guy asked if they could stop for lunch at like 10:30 (he started at like 9:00 am). Training Guy obliged, and they went into Wendy's. New guy excused himself to the bathroom almost as soon as they entered the store, giving the guy his order information. Training Guy sat and waited about 20 minutes. Texted the new guy wondering what was taking him so long. He ended up walking out and having a friend or someone pick him up. Training Guy was the brother of the owner. Lunch deducted from paycheck. Guy ended up getting like $7.

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#58

I had just graduated college and at the end of the summer was moving across the country for grad school, but I got hired at Walmart for the summer as a cashier. They gave me a p**s test kit to bring to the hospital to take and told me I had to take my piercings out. (I had several.) My bf, now husband, picked me up out front and we were like... for $7 an hour, for f*****g s****y Walmart, it's not worth the hassle. I had that p**s test for years... I just ghosted.

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#59

30 Times People Realized Their New Job Was A Mistake And Left Without Looking Back This literally happened last month. A new hire lasted all of two hours. She was assigned a desk right next to the office's notoriously loud printer. After enduring a few noisy print jobs, she stood up, declared, "Life's too short for this," and walked out. We all couldn't believe it and joked that the printer scared her away.

AmaFreaky , Leeloo The First / pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Corwin 02
Community Member
4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"We all couldn't believe it and joked that the printer scared her away." , No you provided a terrible working environment and assume people put up with that kind of s**t.

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#60

I was in working in a grocery store deli and I was the trainer for all the new people. I was teaching them the easiest job in the deli, how to make subs. Not hard at all. I show the guy how to make one sub and he goes “I’m not supposed to be here I’m supposed to be in the produce department.” I wave the Assistant Store Manager over and point him to the new guy. They yell at each other for about 2 minutes and the guy walks out the door. Probably there for a total of 5 minutes, maybe less than. I looked at the ASM and said something about it saving me some hassle, might as well just cut that loss early! He just glairs at me and walks off lol. The rest of the day I had to explain to everyone how Erik made a guy quit in under five minutes 😂.

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#61

Me. I took a job in a law office with a "general practitioner." I was a newby lawyer and thought "Cool, I can learn stuff!". The first day, I asked about filling out the W2s and all of that. The receptionist laughed so hard she almost cried. "Billy, don't take out taxes!"

WTF? I had no idea what she meant. I had never heard of 1099 or any of that. I called my dad who explained that this meant Boss Billy didn't pay my taxes so I had to pay mine AND his (I think, it's been decades) but he said to give it a few days and not just walk out.

The next day, this lawyer comes running in, toupee a'floppin. He gasps to Billy, "He remembered you! He knew I wasn't you!"

WTF? Billy sort of simpers at me and introduces this guy. The guy says something like "Billy lets me practice law without actually practicing law, if you know what I mean."

No, I didn't know what he meant. I learned later that day that this dude was suspended from the practice of law and being sent to court to *say he was Billy*. The small firm had a bunch of ridiculous cases and I guess they banked on the clients not being smart enough to remember what the lawyers looked like.

I went in early the next day, left a resignation note, and never went back.

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#62

About 4 hours into our shift at this feed store where we sold traps to catch and kill rodents, we were rotating our turns at lunch since we had to keep the registers manned. We hired a new lady who seemed nice enough.

She left for lunch and I was supposed to go after her. 45 minutes go by and she had not returned. I was rabidly hungry, so I went to check the time clock to see when she had clocked out and on her time card, she had attached a letter discussing that as a vegan and animal rights activist, she couldn't work in a place that sold torture devices for animals, or poisons, etc.

I was incredibly pissed off because I was waiting on that b***h to come back so I could have my meager meal and get 30 minutes to sit down.

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Serena Myers
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4 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So why didn't this vegan/animal rights activist bother to read the job description before she applied?

#63

Dude quit four hours after he started because someone ate his sandwich. Some fifty f*****g dollar ham sandwich. Dude almost got into a fistfight over that s**t.

Dude ran around the office saying, "Hey, where's my sandwich at? I paid $50 for that s**t." But everyone kept laughing, giving him s**t about how much the sandwich cost.

Dude never did find the sandwich. Dude started melting down right there in the lunch room and said, "*F**k* this place. You're all a bunch of a******s. I'm out."

Never saw him again.

Edit: Hey, notice how my name isn't in the post? Yeah that's because I wasn't involved. I'm just writing about something that went down while I was working.

People need to calm TF down in the comments.

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Phantom Phoenix
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4 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I didn't use my name because I was not involved." That sounds like something the thief of the $50 sandwich would say... /j

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