25 People Share What Led To Them Quitting A Job On The First Day Itself

After securing a new job, it would seem prudent to try and hang on to the offer of work and money but sometimes the situation may be untenable enough to warrant an immediate walkout. 

#1

Image source: ITstaph, freepik

The owners daughter showed up to open 1.5 hours late. Said she thought her mom had given me keys. Proceeded to tell me to unload her car before I could come in and clock in. I locked her keys in her car and left.

#2

Image source: too_many_shoes14, katemangostar

I was between jobs and got a temp job helping with payroll and they told me I would have to hold paychecks for people who did not return their uniform and when I pointed out this was illegal (and showed them the law) they said to do it anyway so I quit and went back on unemployment until I found a real job 3 weeks later. Quitting a job because they want you to break the law gets you unemployment in most States.

#3

Image source: gouwbadgers, tsyhun

I got a summer job as an HR/Office Assistant while in college.

They told me on my first day that they had to fire some people later in the week and they needed me to do it because they didn’t want to.

I didn’t come back the next day. Not only did I of course not want to do it, but I was shocked at the callous disrespect they had for the employees that they wanted to fire. If you want to destroy someone’s lively hood, have the balls to f*****g do it yourself.

#4

Image source: Happy5Day, teksomolika

The oh ‘By the way we never mentioned it at the interview but you will get 50 percent pay for 6 months till your trial period is over’. I was half way into my first shift when they sprang that on me. I turned around and walked out. No discussion. Didn’t say a word. Just left.

#5

Image source: -Echo-Echo-, Dell

When I found out their timeclock system didn’t track hours worked, but the minutes spent typing or moving your mouse. And it’d take random screenshots too (if you’re in a video meeting, I guess they get to take pictures of you too?). All that and they wanted this installed on my personal computer. That and a few other reasons made me back out after one day.

#6

Image source: Sarge1387, freepik

I remember starting a job at a call centre for a particular company that has such a bad reputation, they need to change their name every so often.

They were telling us how we have 7 minutes alotted for “personal time” like bathroom breaks. There was one bathroom in the building, WAY down at the other end of the building…so on our first fifteen minute break, I walked to it..Took 4.5 minutes to get there. So when we came back from break I asked “so what happens if you go over the alotted time?” And the trainer goes “well then the mintues are tracked and deducted from your pay”…I got up and walked towards the door and the guy goes “see that’s an example of complete unprofessionalism, and that’s ok this type of job isn’t for quitters”…I spun around and went “I can handle the job, chucklef**k. What I won’t do is degrade myself by working for a place that monitors how long it takes you to s**t”.

#7

Image source: schwarzmalerin, pch.vector

Desk job. All male staff. Male boss made a joke that I can feel free to use the kitchen to make food for everyone because “finally we have a woman on the team”. Walked out.

#8

Image source: Hour_Equal_9588, poyoky

When I saw that the microwave was coin operated.

#9

Image source: Tambi_B2, Racool_studio

Line job in a factory that assembled magazines. Because of all the paper sliding along the tracks, little bits would gum up the gears and they wanted us to reach inside and pull out all the wads of paper scrap about once an hour while someone MANUALLY held down a button that paused the machine from moving. Refused, clocked out for lunch and left.

#10

Image source: Thinks_22_Much, showtimeag

It was a telemarketing company selling timeshares around the US. My first call was an old lady who told me the story of how her husband fell down the stairs two weeks ago and died right in front of her. My manager was over my shoulder listening in and said something like “OK, now pitch the package.” I left immediately.

#11

Image source: Embarrassed_Half8427, freepik

I was a GM car salesman half a day. Family of 5 come in and settle on a Pontiac Catalina. Sales manager told me to squeeze another $275.00 from them. I went to family, cut $500 from the contract, turned it in and sent them home in a new ride. Told sales mgr I was done and left..

#12

Image source: GingaNinja906, DJaya

I came in to be one of 4 retail managers for a museum with 4 stores. While training me I overheard multiple associates (who I would be managing) swearing and yelling at customers. Then one of the other managers training me to log the safe yelled and screamed at me that I didn’t know how to count cause the safe was $1 short (we later found the dollar on the floor behind the desk she had been counting at) then the district manager above me spent the entire day sitting at the cameras listing reasons to write up associates which included: seeing the outline of a girls phone through her back pocket even tho she never took it out, an associate going to the bathroom twice during his shift (they were only permitted one break apparently), and an associate not asking literal children to donate to the museum.

Great first day. Even better last day.

#13

Image source: ntmrkd1, Lucky Alamanda

I was laid off from my first job back when I was in high school due to the housing crisis in the 00s. I was a dishwasher at a restaurant. When new management took over, they offered everyone their old jobs back, and I accepted.

I tried to take my CD player that I had left there before the layoff home with me, and I was told that I was stealing as it was company property since it was there when they took over. Everyone in the kitchen attested that it was my CD player, but the new manager wouldn’t hear of it, so I just walked out with it. I was called later that night by HR telling me I was fired for stealing company property. I guess I didn’t quit, but I was going to do it anyway.

#14

Image source: notfromheremydear, vgstockstudio

The boss hid the bathroom key and had everyone ask him for permission to use it.
I have IBS and I got the runs the first day (of course).
When I asked for the key the second time after 30min of using it the first time, he asked me: “again???”
The third time he started chewing me out.
I literally turned around on my heel and got to the locker room to take my stuff and go.
He then tried to block my way out when I sat on my motorcycle to drive away.

#15

Image source: fuckfuturism, diana.grytsku

I was a Cold caller trying to solicit donations for an organization. Called a guy. His widow answered the phone saying he had recently passed. Supervisor said I should try and get the widow to make a donation. I was done.

#16

Image source: CalEPygous, Nagy Arnold

Not me but a friend. This friend is a very good looking woman. It was to be her first job out of college working as a research tech in the lab of a Nobel Prize winner. She thought it was weird that at her interview he told her she needed to wear a skirt to work since he wanted people to look professional – but in a lab? Since he was older from a more formal time she thought “Oh well okay.”

At the first lab meeting he sits next to her at the table while one of the students/post-docs is making a presentation. As soon as the lights went down she feels a hand on her thigh and it’s the Nobel laureate and he is working his hand up her thigh. She squirms but doesn’t do anything and quit that day. I asked her why she didn’t go to HR and she said she didn’t think it would matter since he was Mr. Big Shot. Later turns out she’s heard stories about him from multiple female employees. He died before he could get Me-Too’ed.

#17

Image source: Sir_Atlass, TriangleProd

Work in IT and got a new job as a SysAdmin and on the first day found support tickets where the guy before me was required to track every second of his time through it. Several tickets that read something like “Cleaned office – 15 minutes”.

No thanks. I’m not a child that needs supervision.

Luckily my old job let me come back like I never left.

#18

Image source: pigheartedphil, aleksrybalko

Got hired as a farmhand for a potato farmer as a summer job from college; minimum wage through the local job office where I was told, “this guy has gone through a lot of workers”

First thing he told me to do was change the oil in the tractor and pointed to where things were. Now I had changed the oil in my car, but that hardly compared… I managed

Next, I was given a “s***ide jack” and told to walk out to the field where a 40” tire on one of those huge sprinkler systems had slipped off the railroad tie going over the ditch and use the jack to get it lifted out of the ditch and somehow use my 130 lb frame to move it back onto the railroad tie…I managed

Lunch time came and I had trudged back from the field with the jack. The farmer sees me and says, “I’m going to the house for lunch, please eat in your car.” Luckily I had brought my own lunch, but it was 90 degrees out and I was a sweaty filthy mess from what I had done so far and had no way to clean up… I managed

For the afternoon, the farmer had me perch on the back of the potato planter while he drove it down the field and I had to hop back and forth between the planter bins and manually make sure the potatoes were dropping into the feeder tubes… I managed

Got a call shortly after getting home asking if I’d like an assembly line job in an air conditioned factory, never went back to the potato farm.

#19

Image source: -GearZen-, jcomp

I was injured and they told me to keep working. I was loading trucks at RPS by the way. Went to the boss and said “Who do I tell if I want to quit?” He responded “Me.” I said “Ah OK, I quit.” He asked my to finish my shift but I laughed in his face.

#20

Image source: TigerTail113, Lisa Fotios

Started a sales job just after graduating which I was happy to do because I’d done what I thought was a similar job while studying. Morning was as expected, induction stuff, a few odd characters, manager seemed ok. After lunch, they said ok now we need to get in a car and go do some door to door sales…. this was supposed to be an office based on the phone type of job so I was already thinking, nope.

After about 45 minutes of chatter and slight panic because the person who usually took people around had gone off somewhere, someone asked if a car with a specific reg plate belonged to anyone. It was my car. Manager asked me to drive the team to an area of town for the door to door. They said they’d give me a separate payment for fuel. I said my insurance wouldn’t cover them so I can’t take the risk. They said to call my insurance and confirm. I said I’d go outside to do that while having a cigarette.

I did not smoke. I got in my car and went home.

#21

Image source: OPMom21, freepik

I was assigned to a middle school grade 6 as a student teacher. I was supposed to be under the guidance of the classroom teacher. She was all too willing to let me be in complete charge and told me I could just do “whatever.” I called my faculty advisor and requested to be reassigned. The next day I was at a different school with a teacher who knew what she was doing.

#22

Image source: pulse14, Claudio Schwarz

In highschool a friend of mine talked up this warehouse job he had for an online surplus store. They gave him a bunch of free electronics and sports equipment. As a highschool student that seemed pretty cool, so I decided to try working there for the summer. Now I realize that was a red flag. On my first day they asked me to package a commercial range hood that had to be shipped to Alaska. They had no packing material or boxes and refused to buy any. I created a box by piecing together scraps of cardboard and covered them in a ton of tape, then I filled the box with crumpled printer paper from the office. The manager saw me doing this and proceeded to yell at me for 10 minutes, because I wasted their printer paper. I laughed at him and walked out of there. Of course, my friend later told me the range hood was destroyed in shipping and the manager was livid. A year later the business was busted for selling stolen gps units.

#23

Image source: NeighborhoodDude84, freepik

I got a job in town X. One the first day they told me tomorrow I needed to show up to a different office in San Francisco (which is a 90 minute commute there and a 2-3 hour commute home). Not what I signed up for, they legit could not understand why I was leaving.

#24

Image source: Bobbito95, ASphotofamily

I was in high school, working 3 part time jobs. I had gotten hired as a cashier at a supermarket. I really just wanted to be a stock boy, but oh well.

I show up to work and the manager isn’t there. So I just start asking people like, hey I’m new how do I clock in? What do I do?

Eventually someone clocks me in like an hour late. They put me on a register, show me the produce code sheet like once, then left me alone. No clue how to do a sale, no idea how to do coupons, etc. The manager shows up halfway through and yells at me, in front of a customer, for not knowing produce codes. Even the customer was like, “hey, it’s his first day. Calm down.”

Time for my lunch break. Nobody has shown me where the staff room is, so I just buy lunch from the store and eat it in the cafe area. Manager storms in, takes my tray, throws the rest of my food away, and goes off that I CANNOT eat where customers are, that I’m stupid, etc. I just got up, threw the apron at her, and walked out. Absolutely ridiculous. I did, however, go back and demand my check for hours worked. Because f**k that.

#25

Image source: Lickthemoon, Towfiqu Barbhuiya

Two hours into my first shift at a glassware shop, I’d broken £175 worth of stuff by accident – while dusting the shelves, while wrapping items that a customer had just bought, and some things I swear broke just because I existed too closely to them. The owner, who was the artist/glassblower, to his infinite credit didn’t want to charge me or take it out of my pay – he actually said I did a great job with the customers and wanted me to stay – but my nerves couldn’t take it so I walked out. Carefully.