At some point in our lives, there’s bound to come a point when you seriously consider quitting your job. You’ve tried everything—talking to your manager, your local HR rep, shifting your perspective with some positivity, and maybe even meditation—but nothing seems to take away the dread, anxiety, and anger that you feel at work. So you decide to quit.
You see, everyone has a breaking point, and once you reach it, you really don’t care anymore. You have a, “Fire me, I don’t care” attitude. Redditor 12345burrito asked their fellow site users to share the moments that they were so disappointed with their working conditions, they no longer wanted to remain in their position.
Have a read through some of them below and share your own experiences with the very worst jobs you’ve ever been in dear Pandas. What’s your breaking point? Oh, and fear not—there’s always another job out there. Though landing it means we have to approach job interviews with plenty of confidence and avoid shyness.
#1
My wife was attacked, was in surgery when I got called about it. I was less than 10 miles away. Got told: Finish the run (9 hours), then go see her, you can't help her anyway.Parked a Semi/trailer in the back lot of the hospital, told them to page me for the keys.
Image credits: PeanutyButter
#2
I was a teacher. I had confided in the school principal that I was struggling with depression but getting treatment. This a-hole (who also happened to be a deacon at my church) proceeds to tell me that depression is a spiritual problem that I needed to solve. I was too shocked and upset to say much of anything then, but I wrote him a letter telling him what I thought of his actions and his “Christianity.” Ultimately cost me my job, but damn it was satisfying and I don’t regret it in the least.
Image credits: Blytheanne
#3
I was 16 and my Step-Dad was in hospital around 5hrs away dying from cancer. I got a phone call at work for about the third time in a couple of months that I needed to get down there ASAP to say my goodbyes, as this could be it. My bosses were all well aware of the situation, one of them was even friends with my Step-Dad. When I rushed out the back to tell them I had to go, this bloke looks at me, a crying, frightened,16yr old girl, and told me I had to stop doing this, and get my priorities right. In a rare showing of assertiveness I looked that d***snap in the eye and told him he was right, and quit on the spot.
Image credits: AcidRainDawn
Earlier, I’d reached out to career coach Jermaine Murray from JupiterHR to have a chat about what to do and what to avoid at your next job interview if you’ve decided that a change in your career is drastically needed. Jermaine said that we should be willing to highlight our accomplishments and boast about them. It doesn’t help us if we’re being overly humble.
"They humble themselves when they need to be boasting. If you understand why the work that you were doing was important and how it impacts your org (project) then you should be explaining that to the interviewer without holding back. How did you go above and beyond to make sure things worked? What creative ways did you come up with?" Jermaine told Bored Panda earlier. "Show off."
#4
My boss tried to tell me I couldn't get a surgery I'd been effectively waiting 5 or 6 years for. She was like "sorry - I've already got 3 people on annual leave for those weeks". I basically said to her "prepare for a 4th - cause I'm either on annual leave or not coming back at all".Funniest part was - she was in the middle of being replaced by someone else - so I went to her replacement (who would be in charge about 3/4 days before my surgery) and she was aghast and was like "Of course you can have your surgery - we'll make it work!" and that was it.
Image credits: CopperTodd17
#5
They refused to honor a restraining order.I chose my safety over my job.
Image credits: am_riley
#6
When after 20 years working my a** off. They started timing our bathroom breaks. I have never been completely and totally done with anything that much before
Image credits: Callmepanda83744
According to Jermaine, our body language and tone of voice are “super important” and we need to aim for behavior and a way to present ourselves that tell our future employers that we’re both “confident and capable.”
"If your body language or tone says otherwise, you destroy the perception of your skills. Once that's gone so are your chances of landing the job," he said that how we’re perceived is essential to landing the job in the first place, as well as for long-term success.
#7
Had a boss who told me I had three days to get a project done. Said project consisted of building 180 displays on pallets. Each display took 40 minutes to build. Doing the math it would have taken five days if I didn’t take any breaks or sleep or eat.So I told him and explained it was impossible and he responded that I was making excuses. At that moment I didn’t care if he fired me or not.
Image credits: Papabearto2
#8
Worked at a cancer nonprofit.Hired a lady who knew about us because her kid had cancer.
Boss wanted me to fire her because she had to come in late or leave early to take her kid to chemo.
I refused. Boss said she'd fire me if I didn't. I told her she could go right ahead. Our CEO said no way.
Image credits: SplendidTit
#9
I was 17 and working part-time at a fast food restaurant. Someone wrecked the men’s restroom. S**t in the urinal, rubbed s**t all over the wall. The manager came out and told me to clean it. I refused. She threatened to fire me, to which I laughed in her face and told her “you can clean it yourself or you can lose an employee and still clean it yourself. I don’t need this job.”Needless to say, I wasn’t fired and I didn’t clean that up. I still laugh thinking about it.
Image credits: GrannyGoodness79
"You can teach someone to be a better coder but it's near impossible to teach them how to be a better person. Recruiters will always value personality first, but technical skills are a very close second," Jermaine told Bored Panda.
"Hiring managers keep that in mind and try to make sure candidates they like can perform competently. Different things contribute to this bar that aren't based on the candidate but the organization's internal ability to support and develop someone. Once those two elements are present a hire will happen.”
#10
We had a manager that was a prick. It was a sales role and he had no empathy when our sales were flat. He’s get very abusive and threatening.One day, he was shouting at us and my colleague got pissed off. He was explaining it was one bad week off the back of seven good weeks. You got to expect ups and downs with sales.
The manager just yells louder claiming my colleague is a ‘quitter’ and doesn’t have a winners mindset.
Colleague tells him ‘I’ve had enough of this sh**. I’m done’
Manager screams ‘I want your resignation in writing.
Colleague scribbles a note and gives it to him. Manager had a [bad] reputation and couldn’t recruit. Our sales were even lower with one less person on the team. It ruined his career.
But funnier than that was the short, but sweet resignation note from my colleague. It read…
“Dear Bob. I’m off. F**k you”.
Image credits: Smiler_Sal
#11
I was working at NTW (National Tire warehouse) before it was national tire and battery, and my first day I was scheduled for a 14 hour shift for some reason. About 6 hours into it, I asked my manager when out break time was. He said “what do you mean by break?” I said “a half hour break as mandated by law, and two 15 minute breaks required on top of that, also required by law.” His response was “most people don’t take those here, we have costumers to take care of”After that, I clocked out and went to Wendy’s to get lunch. I figured f**k these a-holes, go ahead and fire me.
After lunch, I was doing a tire rotation and balance, the manager came out and told me not to balance the back tires if the costumer isn’t watching me. That was the nail in the coffin for me. They paid for that.
I got to talking with some of the longtime employees and they informed me that the sales counter guys (our managers) made commission from every sale and got bonuses every month while we got our minimum wage and raises were rare. I finished my shift and clocked out. Went looking for a new job the next day. Any company like that can go piss off.
So when you go get your tires balanced, watch them.
Image credits: Thephilosopherkmh
#12
All at the same hotel, all different bosses.When I refused to put caffeinated coffee beans in the decaf hopper for a "loyalty member" and my new boss insisted I do it because "you will do as the men (meaning he and the guest) have told you, girl".
When I refused to forge signatures of other people on tax documents.
When a boss insisted I deliver a guests room service, because the guest insisted a female deliver it despite knowing the man had previously tried to drag a housekeeper into his room.
When my chefs insisted I serve a meat dish as "vegetarian" because they accidentally cooked the wrong thing and didn't want to fix something else.
A child, probably 12-14, called down to ask for Tylenol for her headache. Her mom wasn't in the room but confirmed it was okay. I had met the kid earlier and noticed several self harm scars. then later I noticed the kid was wearing a heavy long sleeve jacket in the middle of 103° weather and she just seemed off. I went to deliver the medicine. The lights in the room were dark but I thought her sweater sleeves were either stained or magically dip dyed so I held the packet out far enough she had to reach into the hall and her sleeves were wet with blood. My entire leadership team insisted I not "get involved", that no one in the hotel would do anything, and even insisted I leave the hotel with full pay so I couldn't. I left, realized I still had the mom's number from asking about the Tylenol, called the police and gave them the room and mom's number and spent the rest of my shift terrified for the poor girl.
#13
My Dad just had a heart attack the night before so I came in that morning to tell my Boss what happened. (I had something to give back to a colleague that's why I didn't do it on the phone) This was inventory day at Costco, the day that everyone had to work. All Directors, assistant directors, Supervisors... had to be there too.The Assistant Director told me he would see what he could do for me. This is when I told him: "I'm not asking for permission, I'm telling you I'm leaving." And I left.
I worked there for a couple of miserable years after that.
#14
I was arguing with a customer about them not wearing a mask. Manager came, not knowing the story, and started screaming at me (yes, the manager is a Karen). Just because she's so used to doing that every day. I didn't even care at that moment, I just said f**k this, threw my work ID card at her feet and left right then. No regrets.#15
My brother and sister in law just lost their son. At birth. They lived down south and I live on west coast. HR said FMLA doesn’t cover sibling emergencies. Just parents and grandparents. I was also two weeks from being off my new hire probation period. I had pto but because I was still in probation period, I couldn’t access it. I told my supervisor I’m leaving for such amount of days and will accept whatever consequences when I get home. I can’t care about that right now.And I left to be with family . . . Fortunately my supervisor went to bat for me and I got to keep my job
#16
My job was micromanaging the hell out of everyone. They had 3 different softwares that tracked where you were, speed, how much time you were on 1 job for, etc. On my way to get supplies for a job I came across an accident. No one had arrived yet so I pulled over and helped a trapped woman out of her car and tried to calm her and take care of stuff until Medics arrive. I text my boss very quickly that I'm at the scene of a major accident rendering aid and that's why I'm stopped. I was told by boss A to not spend too much time there, as I am on the clock. I ignore him. After medics take over, I take a video of the scene as I leave to prove that there was a bad accident. I was fired for taking the video because it was taken from in the company truck. When they fired me, I smiled. There are 8 people that company in the position I was in. The 2 most experienced quit after that. The others are applying for new jobs.#17
My boss once told me that I have to come in to the office the next day, which was a PUBLIC HOLIDAY, because we needed to clear out the office storage unit. He said that we can't afford to take time out of work days for that task.So I begrudgingly agreed and showed up the next day. When I opened the storage unit it was crammed full of stuff... full of the boss's PERSONAL STUFF. I'm talking boxes full of his old clothes, childhood toys, school projects and textbooks, gardening tools, furniture, sport and gym equipment, construction materials, paintings, etc. TVs.
I was so mad that I quit on the spot.
#18
When I was ordered to carry a 250kg kitchen board into a house.We had special carts for that but due to lack of maintenance ours had 2 flat tires, we called the boss about it and he ordered us to lift it ourselves, 250kg, 2 people, he even acted surprised that we called first and didn't just carry it immediately.
#19
I was working as a software developer and providing second line support, in the hospitality/conferencing industry. I had overheard a colleague trying to provide support for something that was clearly the client IT team’s fault. Later got a call from the client’s MD’s secretary wanting to set up a call with our founder to complain that the problem wasn’t being dealt with. I said “I can’t call him, I’m really sorry, please don’t ask me why. I know our support people are working on it.” Why couldn’t I call the founder? Because his wife had, that day, lost a full term baby - which I obviously couldn’t disclose. Soon after I got a furious call from the client MD himself. His IT team was obviously lying to him about our not returning calls - I had heard the calls being returned. And he just wouldn’t accept that I couldn’t call the founder and couldn’t tell him why. So eventually I just hung up on him.I told the most senior person around, expecting to be fired on the spot for hanging up on a client. Her reaction: “Oh yeah, he’s not a nice guy: he’s physically attacked me in the past.” Not the outcome I was expecting!
#20
My dog became very ill quite suddenly and he needed to be put down, I was at work and I asked to leave half an hour early so I could be there for him. I asked my manager and she got annoyed and said there was "no way" and that I should have told her earlier. I said "I'm sorry I didn't realize my dog was going to die" in the most sarcastic way possible then walked away knowing she'd follow me, I then stood at my desk and typed my resignation up infront of her.She gave me the time off.
No one was going to stop me from being there for my boy.
#21
Worked at a job for over eight years. Was promised a promotion if I stayed when I was about ready to look for something else. Was called into the office down the road a bit to be informed they were bringing in an ex employee who had quit a year or two before for the job I was promised. I had heard a rumor of this and had already made my decision. The boss looked shocked when I said I quit. I punched out and left. Simple but sweet.#22
I worked a Burger King as a teenager. One day, the assistant manager, who illegally brought her teenage daughter to work to help her out, asked me to clean the restrooms. It wasn’t my normal job but I didn’t mind. I had a good attitude about it and prepared to go clean the bathrooms.I walked into the men’s room and discovered that the reason she asked me to do it was because someone [feces] all over the bathroom. Smeared fecal matter on the walls, the sink, the floor, the outside of the toilet. The toilet was clogged and hand wet, used toilet paper inside of at and all over the room. It was a complete disaster.
I walked out of the bathroom, went back to the kitchen and told the assistant manager “I’m not cleaning that. You can fire me but I’m not cleaning it.” She sighed heavily and went and got a mop.
#23
Husband was having his gallbladder taken out and was having complications before surgery. I needed to leave early from work for about two hours and my boss threw a fit stating I couldn't leave. I told her I had 300 hours of sick time I can use for myself and my husband and if she wanted to push I'd take all of it at once.. Leaving no one but her to do my job. She said she'd fire me if I tried.. I just looked at her and said I have to go ill send you my Dr's note.I wasn't fired. I was actually awarded that year for job performance.
Edit: I didn't take all 300 hours. I just threatened to since I was protected by FmLA. I only took the day off..
#24
I used to work in fast food when I was 18. We would be rostered alone, no lunch breaks or bathroom breaks because we couldn’t leave the store. No training. School kids would have to work closes until 12am on school nights. He made us serve expired seafood and deli meat. The last straw for me was when I got a call on a Monday screaming at me because the store wasn’t clean and it was obviously my fault even though my last shift was on the Thursday (and I left the store spotless). Multiple people and shifts had occurred since I had even worked but I somehow got the blame. After that call I emailed him saying I quit and blocked his phone number. His store closed down now a few years ago too.#25
Serving customers non stop for 6 hours straight as work was caught out by demand, finally had someone cover me but my manager couldn't understand why I hadn't taken my lunch already and accused me of lying about needing one grrr#26
Was head cook at the restaurant I worked for. My manager had me come in on Super Bowl Sunday by myself, with a broken foot. Didn't even try helping me but insisted I pick up the pace on grilling corn, frying chips, making all of the hot foods such as beans/meats, etc. She would get mad and yell at me for walking slow to each of the stations. I looked at my coworker and said "if she keeps b****ing, I'm going home." She ran around the corner saying she heard me call her a b***h and told me to leave, so I said bet, dont bother calling me in or scheduling me.[Screw] Freebirds, idgaf lmao.
#27
I work in IT Security. We have a client who I have a very close relationship with. My relationship with them was close enough that I had full permissions to everything. No one else at our company did. We received indications that their network was in the midst of an attack. Someone was moving within the network in a way they should never be.I immediately called the Sr. IT Manager (on public holiday) and said words you never want to hear in IT. "You're about to be hit by ransomware." There was a mutual understanding that I would take any actions necessary, including taking out a core firewalls/switches to stop the spread of an attack. After all my other attempts to stop the attack failed, I resorted to doing exactly that. I took an entire local government network out, sparing the segregated public safety network.
The client manager was furious. The Senior IT folks took him aside and laid it out. My response was a subdued "what are you going to do, revoke my permissions?" THankfully it didn't get that far. The post-mortem (they lost a couple low priority servers) indicated that my actions saved the rest of their [stuff] from being stolen and encrypted. Sr. IT staff calmed the manager down.
#28
I was on a forklift and two coworkers stopped me to ask where a certain pallet of metal was located. As we were talking one of the shop supervisors came storming up."WHEN YOU ARE PAGED, YOU WILL RETURN THE CALL."
"I didn't hear you page, what do you need?"
"YOU HEARD THE PAGE AND YOU IGNORED IT"
"I did not hear it. I am sitting on a forklift with the engine running, sitting between two metal shears running, a screaming air compressor and two large punch presses, I. did. not. hear. you."
The two guys standing there also said they did not hear a page. So the supervisor turned around and started stomping back to his office. I called after him and said, "What did you need?"
He ignored me and kept walking and I said, "It wasn't that important I guess." That made him stop turn around and walk back to me. "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
By this time, I just didn't care, "If you walked all the way out here to find me, then you won't tell me what you wanted, then I guess it just wasn't THAT F***ING IMPORTANT to begin with..."
He stood there for 5 or so seconds just staring at me and then stormed away. Never heard another word about it.
#29
I was elbows deep in an AT&T Unix machine that should've been replaced a decade before, parts strewn all over a desk, when the client came in to see what was taking me so long.Me: You've got three dead fans, one of the power supplies has failed, there's a bad CMOS battery and the video card is glitchy and refusing to allow the machine to POST sometimes.
Client: So how long is that going to take? Fifteen minutes?
Me, laughing: I can patch things up in a couple hours, but I'm going to have to come back in a few days with new parts.
Client: If you can't fix it in the next half hour you're fired. I'll find someone that knows what they're doing.
I stood up, grabbed my tools, and started walking.
Client: Where are you going?
Me: I told'ya how long it would take, and that's longer than a half hour, so I guess I'm fired.
My firing lasted about three more steps towards the door.
#30
Company was doing badly in the 2008 depression. They hired an expensive new Vice President to lead our division who asked me barely one month in to sack any 2 people from my team of software engineers whoever I felt like because she said so as layoffs were necessary to ensure long term stability or some such. I steadfastly refused and dared her to fire me instead, and the issue really blew up at the time. Before they could fire any of us though a new contract came along which needed more people to execute than we even had on our rolls. They didn’t hire anyone new but we had to slog our assess to deliver the project.The VP got fired a few months later as she was way too expensive and wasn’t adding enough value.
#31
I once called in sick to my part time job at Club Monaco. My manager told me that if I couldn't find anyone to cover my shift, I was going to be fired.So I FaceTimed her from the ER and had the doctor explain to her that I needed an MRI cause they wanted to make sure I didn't have a brain tumor.
#32
Working at an important political building. Been there for about a year. Other employee's have been there for decades. 99% of the staff is black, including myself. None of us have ever been written up. New manager shows up. A older white lady with a complex, and starts berating people for not doing their jobs, when they are very clearly doing their jobs as the job is defined. She berates people until they back talk, then fires them for insubordination. She fires ten out of 13 people, all black, and replaces them with white workers. She approaches me and begins berating me. I am onto what she is doing. I do not react. My lack of reaction leads her to tell me I'm being insubordinate, and I'm fired. That was my "I [freaking] dare you" moment, although I did not say it. She fired me.Six months later, she's been fired, her supervisor is fired, and his supervisor has been demoted to the worst position a supervisor can have. A lawsuit has been filed that resulted in about $100,000 in damages to the victims.
Bet she won't do that [thing] again.
#33
My first quitting story - My boss told me that we were going to spend our breaks doing mandatory Zumba, and I told her I was going home.#34
My job told me since they fired the other supervisor I was just going to have to do his job from now on. My original job was insane now they expected me to double that with no compensation. Well it got old real fast and we had a seriously busy day and I decided I was done, I let $1,000,000+ of shipments sit in a trailer back in the corner and and told all my guys thanks for the hard work our day is done. I quit that day and the next day I got a call with them freaking out about all the money they lost, I just hung up on the boss and never looked back.#35
I was working at a shoe store in a mall and I requested a week in August off for my wedding. My manager told me her boss wasn’t happy about that and all I said was “my wedding is more important than back to school sales.” They didn’t “fire” me, per se, they just stopped scheduling me and eventually my access to the employee website went away.#36
When I was 17 I worked a summer holiday job at Pizza Hutt - I had transferred to my home town restaurant from my University town restaurant.I was there for 5 weeks and hadn’t been paid yet. The dickhead boss claimed it was because I gave him the wrong employee number. I hadn’t.
Anyway after 5 weeks of no pay I rang him on New Years’ Eve (ie busiest night of the summer) and said I wasn’t coming to work because I wasn’t a volunteer and I wasn’t going to work for free. He told me if I didn’t go to work I may as well not come back as I would be fired.
I didn’t go to work and had a fun New Years instead.
Then a few days later I called the Employment Tribunal (I’m in New Zealand) and told them what had happened. They called my dickhead boss. He then called me, offered me my job back and was nice as pie for the rest of the summer.
#37
Owner of the company was avoiding the meeting where I get my raise. I waited over two weeks. Finally told my Supervisors I'm walking out the door if they don't fix this. They told me to go talk to him. I told them they were the Supervisors and it was their job to do that, not mine.I'm in an understaffed position at a job that is very difficult to fill. If I left then the rest would have gone too. They knew that.
#38
Was working 3 jobs one being a full time position but wanted to help the stores through the holidays. Specifically asked one store that I had been working for over a year through three store managers to only schedule me on Thanksgiving if was an emergency. She scheduled me anyways along with enough other people to handle the rush.This came after multiple occasions where I would show up 3 hours before opening to unpack the shipment and had no one to let me or the shipment into the store so I ended up having to waiting in the back hallway (mall store) guarding a few $1000 dollars of merchandise.
Day before Thanksgiving I asked to take my 10 minute break so I could eat something. No customers in the store at the time. Same manager who repeatedly bailed on me refused to let me take it so I decided screw this and said I'm taking it. If I'm done I'm done. Sure enough they said I was done so I cleaned out my locker, carried my things two doors down to my higher paying job and got the go ahead to clock in early. So I worked the same amount of hours I would have for more money.
#39
Worked at a car rental place. It was common practise to put in a special contract number when a middle eastern customer came in so the priced get jacked up to stupid amounts and a special insurance gets put in. I dont earn any commission on that rental, instead some other guy who knows some arabic middlemen and who is a big name in the company gets the commission.So our station did not use the contract a single time, we earned alot of commission and get stupid amounts of tips cause the prices were liel 50% cheaper then everywhere else. So we also took alot of customers away from other stations.
So i had meeting with some higher ups from the company, they wanted to know how much many the customers really paid, why we didnt put in any special contracts, screamed around. They wanted me and everybody involved kicked out but couldnt really do anything because technically we didnt break anything in our work contract, i mean, you cant put in my contract „If you have a arabic customer jack the price up, they have money“, imagine the [hell] and PR disaster if that would come to light.
So i told the big boss (one position under the CEO) that i dont wanna talk to them anymore and im going home now. He then told me that i cant just leave, i still have my shift to do cause im the only one that can work at the counter for the next 3 hours until the night shift comes. I just told them „Ok... i dont care, at least now you have a real reason to fire me“ and went home.
#40
Working at a kids day summer camp. Kid punched me in the crotch and I tried my hardest to have him removed from the program. He was a nuisance to everyone. His dad was a middle school principal and the mom believed he was an angel. They would frequently come in and lecture the employees because it was never their kids fault, and the director of the program was so owned by different people in the school district that she wouldn’t even defend her staff. One of the leads guaranteed that they would protect me but I was so furious I didn’t even care. If they had fired me I would have shrugged and flipped them the bird. I had another job anyway that I worked in the evenings.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3qBZWbL
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