Ending your time at a job can either be very good or very bad, depending on whose choice it is. From epic rage-quits to the chilling behavior that gets people fired, read on to discover why each of these people didn't bother clocking in the next day.
1. Getting the Message Across
My boss wouldn't let me go to the bathroom to throw up, so I puked on her, told her I quit, puked next to her, then left.
2. The Burger Incident
I lasted two weeks at Wendy's. I dropped a triple cheeseburger on the floor just as the district manager walked by; he stepped on it, slipped, and fell. It was like a Three Stooges movie. I was only 17 and was so embarrassed that I just went home and never went back.
3. Should Have Focused on Your Own To-Do List
The CEO publicly praised me for completing a task that my boss had struggled with, so my boss retaliated by forwarding all of his tasks to me in an effort to overwhelm me with work. I actually found his job pretty manageable, which the CEO also noticed and fired him, giving me his job and office.
4. Fight You in the Unemployment Line
He grabbed the back of my neck and said, "If you ever say I'm wrong in front of a customer again I will beat your ass." I went to the GM and told him, and my supervisor was relieved of his duties about five minutes later.
5. Cash for the Camera
I took a cell phone video of her taking money from the safe and putting it in her wallet. I knew she was doing it, and I also knew that the moment it came out that money was missing she'd blame it on me. She was so stupid that she didn't realize she should stop doing that while I was standing ten feet away with my phone out and facing her.
6. You’re Tearing Us Apart!
This just happened two weeks ago. I was going out with some friends one evening and I tore my ACL. I told my boss that I couldn’t come in for a while because of this. I’m a chef, so there was no way I would be able to work with a torn ACL. Unfortunately, my boss failed to understand that and said that if I didn’t come in the next day I would be let go. So, I quit on the spot.
7. Running Behind Schedule
I was in university working at a Pizza Hut franchise. The assistant manager was a jerk who was always way too touchy with the girls who were working there. I started dating one of those girls—and then his behavior got even worse. Eventually, I had a talk with him. After that, he hated me and tried to screw me over on scheduling at every possible opportunity he got, so I always had to get the supervising manager to fix the schedules for me.
Skip forward about six months or so and I was the next person to get off one evening, but he was intentionally keeping me for way longer than he was supposed to. I had friends who were going to see the movie Spirited Away in a theater that was about an hour and a half away from where I worked. It was probably the only chance I would have to go.
So, I was just like "Can I go? No? Okay, then I quit. I'll find another minimum wage job tomorrow." Apron drop. I then left and never returned.
8. Bathroom Break
I was working at a grocery store. While kneeling down to stock the lower shelves one day, I suddenly felt something landing on my head. I looked up and discovered that a customer was peeing on my head. That was all it took for me to leave that job and never come back.
9. Not Tickled to Work With You
In college, I worked in a take-out restaurant just off campus, and we were all employed by the school. I was 17-18 years old (back in 2007/2008) and my boss, the manager, was a 40-something creeper. Hitting on me, touching me inappropriately (trying to massage my shoulders, tickling me, putting his hands on/around my waist) despite me asking him to stop.
Then he friended me on Facebook, I declined, and suddenly my work schedule was changed. I was on shift during hours when I had class, and when I explained that problem, I got taken off the schedule altogether. I told the assistant manager what was going on (which I was explicitly told by the manager not to talk to the assistant) and he reported what was going on to upper management—boom, the manager was fired. I worried for a while if he was going to come after me for that.
10. Big Boss is Watching You…for Now
My manager wanted to prove I was slacking off so he could write me up. So, he watched CCTV footage then wrote, printed out, and SIGNED a detailed 17-page Word document covering what I did in the past two days. With timestamps (like, 07:59 arriving, 08:01 speaking with co-worker A and B, 08:07 sitting down to my desk, etc.). He told me that he's not happy with my work ethic, and if I won't improve my efficiency, I'm fired—so I came up with an ingenious plan.
I took the papers and showed to his boss and told her that I'm not happy with my manager’s work ethic and his efficiency might be better if he wouldn't watch 17 hours of CCTV footage to spy on an employee. She was terrified (it would've been a rock-solid lawsuit for me, but I love my job) and we had to search for a new manager. Also, I got a raise.
11. Freelancer’s Choice
I took a phone call on my cell when at my desk. Middle manager came up and screamed at me. Yelling about how I was not allowed to take calls for clients while at that office. I was a contractor and made it perfectly clear that I did work for multiple clients prior to doing work for this company. The CTO’s office was 10 feet from mine. He came out and stood in his doorway listening to the rant.
When the middle manager was done, I just looked over at the CTO and said: “It’s him or me and at the moment I don’t give a damn which you pick.” CTO walked the middle manager out right then. Funny thing: I didn’t hang up throughout the incident. And it was my wife on the other end. I was spending about 70 hours a week at their site digging their staff out of a hole they had dug themselves in.
12. Skimming Off the Top
Not me, but my GF at the time. We were both working at a small burrito chain, she was front of house manager and I was kitchen manager. Above us was one senior manager and then the owner. We did tip pooling based on hours, and the senior manager always told my GF not to count the tips every night, as he divided it up at the end of the week.
Well. Of course, she counted them every night. Turns out the senior manager was stealing almost $500 a week from employees in tips, and because his previous FOH manager never questioned him it had likely been going on for years. She told the owners and he was gone the next day. A week later his wife left him.
13. The Fall of an Empire
A public agency hires someone out of the private industry at the vice president level. She immediately begins hiring all her cronies and butt-kissers from her old job at very nice salaries for jobs that didn't previously exist. That's the sort of corruption we're used to in North Carolina, so no biggie so far. But she runs out of slots she can just create with a little paperwork so she starts to bully people in order to get them to quit so she can fill their jobs with her friends.
One job was that of an executive assistant, and she was pretty harsh on the woman who had that job. I witnessed some of this and told the assistant to take it to HR—which she did, and HR just told her to document everything. So, she did and one day the VP caught her recording a yell-fest on her phone. The VP wanted to know what was up, so the exec assistant told her that HR wanted documentation and that I had told her how to record conversations on a cell phone (which was legal, BTW, I checked).
This is when she truly lost it. She yells at the exec assistant, yells at me, and then gets on the phone to HR, yelling at them that they were a bunch of incompetent fools, and that she wanted to know what kinda Mickey Mouse outfit she was working for if she couldn't fire whoever the heck she wanted to fire. Sure enough, HR initiates an investigation that took 300 hours (!!) of interviews with everyone in the department and a board of inquiry headed up by a Senior VP.
She was called to the Senior VP’s office at 4:30 in the afternoon and when we came to work at 8 the next morning, her office was cleared out. Most of the cronies she hired were gone with a couple of months; no one wanted to work with them so with no projects on their docket, they knew the writing was on the wall. When the last of the cronies left, her job was eliminated, and her staff transferred elsewhere. It was like the evil VP and her mob never existed.
14. Don’t Wake Sleeping Beauty
It was the night shift, and for years this freaking guy had been either locking himself in the office and playing video games all night, or going home and freaking sleeping on the clock…and no, I'm not making that up. Finally, one night, the regional manager showed up for a surprise visit at like 3 AM...it was a group effort, the night crew took great pleasure in telling the RM exactly where his night manager was.
15. I Walk the Line
I was 18 years old and working at a movie theater concession stand on an extra busy day. My coworkers made themselves busy doing things that didn’t need to be done (like checking toilet paper or organizing candy) instead of helping me with a long line of customers that wrapped itself around the entire stand. One lady got extremely nasty with me because I didn’t butter the middle of her popcorn the way she had wanted me to. She was literally screaming at me for it.
I looked around and saw one of my coworkers just watching me and laughing as they pretended to clean the ticket booth window—and I snapped. I logged out of the computer system, closed the cash register, walked out of the concession stand, slammed the door behind me, told the customer she was a fat jerk who didn’t need more butter, told my coworker to go screw himself, and walked right out of the theater—leaving the long and very confused line of customers completely unattended.
I never went back despite the fact that they were apparently willing to forgive me because this “wasn’t my usual behavior.”
16. Sounds Like You Quit Two Jobs!
My old boss was a jerk who liked to rip off old ladies and low-income families. I got in trouble for doing my job right because it made him look bad. He expected me to do my job and his. So, one day, while he was yelling at me for some nonsense, I abruptly removed my work shirt, threw it in his face, and walked off the job.
The fallout was that I now had no job in a city I had just moved to a few months earlier, but knowing that I had just screwed this guy over made it all worth it. I ended up moving back to my hometown a few weeks later—and that turned out to be for the better.
17. Cooking Up a Storm
First job ever. McDonald's inside a Walmart. It was a busy Saturday afternoon with a line going all the way out the door. The manager starts yelling at me to stop taking orders because she can't keep up with my pace. I was 15 years old at the time and therefore not old enough to work the grill, so I asked what I should do instead.
She rudely told me that if I was too dumb to figure that out, then she didn't need me there. So I was like, "Yeah, I guess you've got this covered then," clocked out, tossed my hat on the ground, and strolled out the front door as she pleaded for me to come back—leaving her to deal with that long lineup on her own. I wish 31-year-old me had the nerve that 15-year-old me had!
18. Green with Envy
I had a job in a salad plant that produces those bags of salad mix that a lot of restaurants use. I was there for two weeks coring lettuce in front of a conveyor belt for eight hours a day. I would pick up a head, slam it, pull the core, put it down, and then move on to the next one. At a job like this, you basically have two options in order to pass the time—you either talk to your co-workers or you plot the downfall of Western civilization.
One really sweet lady had been there for 10 years—10 years on the lettuce line! She got called into the office one day and was gone for about half an hour. She then came back and said "I won't be here tomorrow. I got promoted!" I asked what she'd be doing. "Cabbage!" I wished her well, dropped my stuff, and walked out.
I feel bad about not telling anyone I was quitting, but I was young and disturbed by the idea of doing this for ten years only to move on to cabbage! That was 29 years ago. Had I stayed, I might be up to carrots by now. I sometimes wonder how my life might be different had I stayed, and in those moments I celebrate every decision I've ever made.
19. Up Close and Personal
I quit my job the minute my boss started rubbing my thigh and asking if I’d ever slept with a married man before.
20. A Slice of Chaos
My wife's cousin and her husband opened a pizza shop in our small town. I had never met them, so we went in to say hi one evening. Turns out, the husband was a complete jerk. They appeared to be very busy, and he was running around with a very angry look on his face and had nothing nice to say to anyone. He only acknowledged us with a rude grunt in our general direction.
While we were waiting, he began berating one of his three employees and, one by one, they all simply took off their smocks, threw them right in his face, and walked out the door with their middle fingers extended in his direction. I couldn't help but be impressed. They ended up closing within the following couple of weeks once word got out.
21. The Bully Means Business
I worked in a coffee and food place. One of the managers bullied people on the job and would blatantly bash them when they were at work and within hearing distance. Everyone knew about it, but no one wanted to say anything until one day, someone spoke up to our boss and quit. Once people saw that she could do that, six more people came forward and quit—yet they never fired that manager.
22. It’s a Dirty Job, But Someone Had to Do It
I rage quit my minimum wage job a few months ago and about a month after I quit, 80% of the employees walked out on one night, leaving everything for the mean new night manager to handle. From what I heard through the grapevine, she responded by stealing a bunch of money from the cash register, getting fired, and then starring in a sex movie to pay her rent. And then the business started "borrowing" money from other franchises to stay afloat. Guess I made the right decision in quitting when I did lol.
Also, yes, I've seen the movie. It was TERRIBLE.
23. Let’s Go to the Movies
Was part of a mass-quitting at a movie theater in 1997. The manager started berating people one by one by whispering in their ears. One girl started to cry and left the popcorn stand and walked into a movie, then everyone working the concessions followed her. The ticket salespeople saw this and knew what was going on, so they went into the theater to watch the movie too.
Eventually, all the ushers migrated in there too and every employee was watching the flick.
24. When a Bonus Becomes a Minus (to Your Staff)
We were promised bonuses at the end of the year. Then, they suddenly told everyone they will not be giving out bonuses due to low company performance. When I realized the reason why, my blood ran cold. The company had a successful year, but the boss was in the middle of building a multimillion-dollar home, and his brother-in-law manager just bought a nice home that year. I quit on the spot. Many others quit soon after.
25. A Domestic Dispute
They called everyone into a major company meeting and informed us we were all (except for sales and managers) being offshored to India and the Philippines. They had a plan for us training our replacements that, strangely, didn't account for pre-schedule turnover. People started finding jobs literally the next week and the hemorrhaging never stopped.
26. A Good Boss Is in Low Supply
I worked as the head secretary for a contractor and was in a small office with a few other girls. He paid us under the table (when he felt like it), did poor work, was consistently nasty and mean, and was all-around a terrible, terrible boss. One day, when he yelled at me for eating regularly (I'm a type 1 diabetic and snack on occasion to keep my sugar up), that was the last straw, and I quit.
The next day, the other girls left too. Last I heard, the on-site employees also left, and now he is trying to manage everything alone. Because he also burnt his bridges with his suppliers, he has next to no business and is going to lose his house. Karma.
27. The Family That Fails Together
He canceled all raises and bonuses for everyone in the whole company...except himself (the CEO), his wife (financial and human resources), and his son (an utterly useless IT tech) in a year where we had record profits brought in almost double the clients...on top of announcing they aren't looking to hire more people when we were already overwhelmed.
Good part about it was when the majority of us quit, they lost almost every single client shortly afterward to their competitors and the company is now defunct.
28. Three Strikes, We’re All Out
When I was 16, I worked in the concessions stand at a minor league baseball stadium. Minimum wage at the time was $5.15/hr, this job paid $8, and it was always in the evenings, so it was perfect work for a high school student. The only bad thing was our management was TERRIBLE. The main manager would throw toddler tantrums about once a shift over stupid stuff like not ordering enough of a specific beer (she did the ordering) or running out of pre-cut lemons for tea.
One night, the stadium was running a promotion and it was incredibly busy—easily 2-3x the normal volume of customers. We were all working our butts off handling multiple roles each with absolutely no downtime. Although we all cleaned as we worked, nobody had a chance to do thorough cleaning for the whole shift because of the never-ending horde of hungry baseball fans.
The manager showed up three or four hours late, as per usual, and throws the biggest freaking tantrum I've ever seen in my entire life, all over the unswept floor. Finally, she announces "Listen up you, lazy peons! Minimal work gets minimal pay. Everybody is being paid minimum wage tonight because you slobs won't clean up anything."
It backfired on her so bad, so fast. Both of our bartenders and the bar back quit on the spot, which caused a chain reaction. We all took off our aprons and hats to leave. She blocked the exit and was red in the face from screaming, so one of the cooks climbed out of one of the big serving windows where we served customers, so I did the same and most of the staff followed.
Bear in mind that this all happened in front of like 200+ customers. Of course, my final paycheck "got lost" so I had to file a wage theft complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission.
29. Abusing His Position
When I was being fired, I told management the manager had said he wanted to murder his ex-wife and her new boyfriend to orphan their child. He was fired shortly after and the police showed up to escort him out.
30. The Fall of a Drama Queen
A tenured faculty member was controlling of the personal lives of members on her "drama team," She made them simulate sex acts onstage and filmed it. I told the Dean. She was terminated. Saw her around town the other day and safe to say...11 years later...she still HATES me.
31. A Sticky Situation
Two hours. Temp job. Minimum wage. Showed up at zero-dark-thirty at a damn industrial glue factory. Yes, this was already looking good. I was the only employee there in the whole place. I meet my supervisor, and he takes me to the big boss' office to find out my assignment. "Have him clean strainer #5," says big boss.
"Ohhh. You're a harsh man," says supervisor. Wow. things are really looking up. Strainer #5 is a steel tube about 3.5' across and 5' long, closed on one end. The interior is caked with about 1/4" of dried yellow industrial glue, like hard plastic. I'm given a small pneumatic jackhammer and a pair of gloves, and into the tube I go.
Hammering one spot of the glue for about 30 seconds will flake off about 1-inch of glue. After an hour, my right hand is constantly tingling from the vibration of the jackhammer, like it has fallen asleep. After two, I felt like someone has dropped a cinderblock on my arm, and then plunged it into a nest of fire ants. I crawled out of the tube, grabbed my time card, punched out.
My supervisor saw me as I walked toward the door and said, "Heeyyyy...uh...where you going?" "Home,” I said, without so much as a glance backward.
32. Facing the Music
I rage quit my job this past March. The new director of the orchestra that I’ve played in for 11 years decided that she was going to reaudition to replace around a third of the group, most of whom had been playing with the ensemble even longer than me and had never caused any issues or done anything wrong in all that time.
When she announced that, I walked out of the rehearsal, dropped my sheet music with the librarian, and left that jerk without a principal violinist for the last concert of her inaugural season. Take that!
33. It Takes Four to Screw Something Up That Bad!
I once told three out of four managers (as the last one wasn’t there that day) that my grandma had passed away and that I therefore wouldn’t be able to make it to work the day after tomorrow. I had to go to the funeral. I also left a note for the fourth manager and asked everyone to let him know. In the middle of the funeral, I got a call from the fourth manager asking where I was. I called him back to explain, and he said ok.
I went back to work the next day and they immediately handed me a paper saying I’d been written up for doing an improper call out. I handed the paper back and just walked away.
34. Not Moved by His Excuse
Our executive director was moving and took my practicum student and a low-level employee to his house to help him move furniture. I told him that was unacceptable, both from a respect and a liability perspective. His response to me was, “You know since I hired you, I can fire you, right?” I told him to go ahead and try it, then promptly called our board, who dismissed him that week.
35. Bad Grief
I phoned him to tell him I won't be at work for the rest of the week as my mum is terminally ill in hospital. The next day (about an hour after she passed away), he phoned and asked why I wasn't at work. I just hung up on him so I wouldn't say anything that would get me in trouble. Plus, I knew I had the ammo to ruin his life.
The next day I sent the area-manager a WhatsApp message explaining what he'd be done and attached a video of him breaking the freezer door while having a tantrum which cost the store nearly £5000 in lost stock and the repair costs (which he'd told the AM had broke on its own). He got fired that day and I got two weeks off with full pay.
36. I’ll Take That As a No...
Worked at a big supermarket chain. Did cashier job, placed out products and did some behind the scenes management. One day I get called to the back. It was the regional manager, who said the deficit after my shifts as cashier is getting out of control—about $10 to $50 every shift. They threatened me with calling the cops, saying that they had surveillance videos showing me stealing the money.
I said sure, get the cops here, I'll just wait. After 30 minutes, the cops arrived. When we started watching the footage there was nothing showing that I stole the money, and the cops said there is no evidence against me and took off. I still got fired on the spot and they even banned me from entering their stores all over the country.
A few weeks later, I get a call from the girl that was working there with me, and who had to cover me for smoke breaks when I was cashier. Teared up and choking from crying, she confesses that it was her stealing the money all the time while I was on my breaks. She got charges pressed against her, she did 120 hours of community service and paid a huge fine.
A few days after that, I get a call from the store’s regional manager apologizing for the inconvenience and asking me if I want to return to my old job. I told him to screw off and hung up.
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37. If You Don’t Have Your Principles, What Do You Have?
Went into a business meeting for the ice cream shop I managed. I was told that the girl who was seven months pregnant needed to be written up as much as possible so they could have a legal reason to fire her. I told them it wasn’t going to happen and they suggested that I put in my two weeks and find other work. So I did.
Then I was told that I was going to be gone in two weeks and might as well just fire her. There was no way in hell I would do that. I walked into that meeting with a 50 hour a week, decent paying job, and left with nothing but my integrity. I then proceeded to drive to my store, pull the girl aside and let her know what was going on. Last I checked I believe she manages the store now.
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38. Wrong Place For A Fire Extinguisher Fight
Years ago, I worked for a government contractor in a torpedo manufacturing plant. The electronics were assembled in a cleanroom, which is a pressurized room that keeps dust out, and employees had to wear special suits and masks so as not to contaminate the goods.
Two dudes in their 20s worked in there, and one day decided, for reasons only they could explain, that it would be fun to have a fire extinguisher fight. They blasted the extinguisher material all over the cleanroom, including the precious torpedo electronics and associated million-dollar pick-and-place robot.
Management was displeased.
39. Setting the Trap
I had a boss who ate everybody's lunch out of the fridge. When I quit, I devised an ingenious plan. Watching everything fall perfectly into place was one of the best moments of my career. I brought in a beautiful cheesecake, professionally sliced. Took out one slice, brought it to his boss, expressed my gratitude for the opportunities that I had there, and that I was leaving. I said that out of appreciation, I was giving her (the big boss) a full cheesecake, and just brought in a slice so she could enjoy it, the rest was in the employee fridge, waiting for her to take home.
Long story short, she caught my boss eating HER cheesecake. I doubt that he ever stole lunch again.
40. An Eight-Month Distraction
The fastest was the one who was a no-show their first day. It's all good, about eight months later they contacted us to say they were ready to come to work.
41. Can’t Tie
I lasted 10 minutes. As I was walking in for my first day, the manager yells at me to put on my tie, that I should be prepared to work when I walk in. I walk back to the bathroom to put on my tie but as I'm struggling in the mirror trying to figure out how to tie it, I decide forget this. If the manager is going to be this much of a jerk from the start, I don't need the job that bad. As I walk out of the store, I tell the manager, "I quit." The stunned look on his face is still with me to this day, 30 years later.
42. Dump Bears? No Thank You
I got a job at a garbage dump sorting stuff. I don't know why I never thought about it, but there are bears. Lots of bears. I am way too scared of bears. I didn't come back after my first day.
43. Not Very Slick
My first job, I worked at a grocery store. I don't remember much, but I do remember one day when the store got crazy busy, and they had to pull people like me from other departments to work checkouts. They have me as a bagger, and the guy at the scanner is another guy that I worked with in produce.
Now, when this guy gave change, he'd "accidentally" pull out an extra fiver, and pretend to put it back in the register when counting out change, then he'd slip it into his pocket once the customer turned around. I noticed this pretty quickly because he's doing it with literally every customer. Even if they weren't getting change, he'd pull one out and act like he forgot they paid with a card.
After I noticed it, I saw him do it a couple more times and thought, "Wow. Wonder how long he can get away with that." Not two seconds pass between me thinking that and me turning to see that night's manager with a police officer walking towards our checkout counter. Fired on the spot and arrested.
44. Going Out Like A Shark
Worked at the Tempe Improv for two years. We had pre-shift meetings about 30 min before each show. One day, during shark week, my buddy showed up 20 mins late (on one of only a few days where the owner was actually there) scotch drunk, wearing a full-on shark costume, wielding his Keytar.
He proceeded to get on stage and perform a rap about sharks accompanied by his Keytar and then sat down next to the owner like nothing had happened. It was so legendary, even for a comedy club.
45. Promising To Do Better
I worked at a restaurant that was having a meeting with everyone present, including the higher-ups. It was a pretty normal meeting and everyone was discussing changes they’d like to see or changes they’d appreciate, etc. At one point, the head manager asks if anyone else has something to share. This one dishwasher raises his hand.
He says “I know I’ve not always been the best, but I’m gonna work on that. From now on I won’t get high in the stairwell by the dumpster. I’ll walk down the street on my break. You won’t even smell it on me anymore, promise.” Dead silence in the room. The manager speaks up, “Did everyone else just hear that?” We all nod.
“Great, so now I have to look like a bad guy and fire you. What were you thinking?” Manager says. The dishwasher is shocked. “But, but I said I was fixing it. You guys won’t even know anymore!!” He was walked out and removed in front of the whole staff.
46. Pulling His Way Out
Pulled down a male coworker's pants in the office, during business hours, while said coworker was talking to two female peers. The poor guy wasn't wearing underwear. The pants-puller was escorted out of the office within that hour. We were all in our 30s and this was at a publicly-traded multinational.
47. Intercom Mistakes
An employee got drunk, called a friend to complain about her boss, and didn't realize she was on the intercom and not on a private phone call. The boss was me. I fired her immediately. Awful day.
48. More Than Just Drinking On The Job
I actually had to fire an employee on the spot after he returned from his lunch break 30 minutes late and was drunk. I suspect he was high as well but the overpowering smell of alcohol really gave it away. He was on a ladder attempting to put up a shelf when an employee brought him to my attention. When I went to confront him about coming back to work late AND showing up drunk, he dropped the very heavy shelf on my head.
FIRED. GET OUT.
49. Got Out Just in Time
I was working in a small accounting firm making less than minimum wage. The boss was exploiting the fact that people like me were desperate to get their foot in the door of accounting, as it is very competitive in Australia. One day I was stupidly posting on a forum about my situation and looking for advice. The boss found out and fired me on the spot.
Feeling pretty spiteful about the whole thing, I reported my situation to fair work ombudsman Australia. A month later, I got payment for the amount I should have been making at minimum wage for the six months I was there. About a month after that, I landed a much better role at a large company making almost double what I was making previously.
But that wasn't even the best part. The firm ended up getting investigated by fair work and I can only assume they received a hefty fine because they are no longer in business.
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50. Wrong Number
I worked as a telemarketer making local calls to subscribers to a service. Boss was abusive as heck, taking out his frustrations on employees by angrily berating them. After he did this to a nice girl that worked there, I was fed up and knew I was gonna quit, so I used the company phone to call my mom who was in Japan at the time and had a long casual conversation with until he stormed out of his office and fired me.
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51. Honesty is the Best Policy
I worked at a local restaurant as a dishwasher. One of the waitresses told our boss that she was going to “Tie him to a chair and burn down his restaurant with him in it.” She was promptly fired, but apparently was eventually hired back because she came back to tell the tale.
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52. You Had Best Not Buy This Cable
I walked out of my job at a big box store because I was being written up for not promoting a $60 company brand cable that had a 100% fail rate. Apparently, I got spied on by an undercover member of management and didn't recommend the cable, which got me written up. During the write-up, I maintained that I knew the cable was faulty and didn't want to ruin my relationship with my regulars by promoting a broken product.
They told me it wasn't my job to decide what was and wasn't a good product, I was just to sell what they told me to sell. I asked if they wanted me to lie to the customers about the quality of the cable. They said no, they can't tell me to do that. So I said, I would be happy to lie for them if that was their instructions. They said no, that isn't what they are saying, but if I didn't promote what they told me to, i.e. the cable, I would be fired.
I told them that wouldn't be necessary as I quit and I walked out of the discipline meeting and out the door of the store.
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53. Just Trying to Help!
I got written up for "gossiping" after a co-worker raised a harassment concern to me and I passed the concern on to management. Some people…
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54. Taking One for the Team
I worked at a tire shop and, just by a fluke of perfect timing, I caught the assistant manager taking an unsolicited picture of a customer who was bent over looking in her trunk for a lug key. I broke his nose. They fired me for fighting and it was absolutely appropriate to do so, but I don't even feel bad or regret anything about it because they fired him too.
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55. Speaking Your Mind
I had gotten in trouble for being rude to a customer. I worked electronics; a customer asked me a question and I pointed her in the right direction but, because she couldn't find what she was looking for, she said some negative things about me as she left the store. Naturally, I responded by saying “Goodbye forever!” I was fired, but regret nothing.
56. Bullying the Bullies
A friend got sacked from her student job for complaining to her union about her salary. Despite the company’s best efforts to cover things up by promoting two people in exchange for getting them to make bullying allegations against her, she managed to get the story on the TV news. That led to her receiving an out-of-court settlement that both tided her over until she got another job and also funded a decent holiday.
It helped a lot that there were witnesses to the “We will promote you for lying about bullying” part.
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57. Caught In The Act
Worked at Staples. The (ex) employee was putting a Galaxy s3 tablet into his pocket in the back room. I was around the corner and the manager was very quick to tell him he's fired and he will be calling the cops. The (ex) employee said he was just going to leave before the police showed up. The manager reminded him he has his address and information from the hiring process.
He proceeded to cry.
58. Piss Poor Burger
A guy started his first shift at a pizza place I used to work at. He said when he worked at Hardee's if someone came in who he didn't like, he would piss on the grill then cook their burger. Owner overheard this and fired him.
59. Getting Hammered On His Second Day There
This was at the current company I work at, about 6 years ago: dude starts on a Monday, and on Tuesday, we have our department holiday party and the dude gets pretty lit up. During a group photo, for whatever reason, this guy gets the brilliant idea to reach his arm around the woman standing next to him and grab and honk her boob. When she loudly protested, he claimed he was just joking and that she was not who he thought she was.
Well, who she was was the CMO of the company, and despite his repeated protestations that it was "all a joke," he was promptly informed that he would have to leave the party immediately and to not bother coming back to work the next day. I will never forget that example of sheer drunken idiocy till the day I die.
60. Your Share of the Pie
A long time ago, I was working as a real estate agent. After spending over a month working on a $478K deal that I facilitated and eventually closed, my boss handed me a commission check for just $500. That was all I needed to see to never go back to that job. Shortly after that, I moved to Tampa, tripled my salary, and lived happily ever after.
61. Freedom of Expression
I used to work at an inbound call center. My sales stats went up because I reversed the order of two upsell paragraphs. Nevertheless, my boss got mad at me for doing things my own way and told me to just read the script exactly as it was written. I handed in my notice right then and there. Maybe not fully a rage quit, but definitely a spontaneous one.
62. Finder’s Keepers
I worked at a small design studio in NYC. About 40 people worked there. Some account execs led a mutiny. About 85% of the employees left on the same day, taking all but one client with them. This was long before Mad Men was created.
63. Blink and You’ll Miss Them
I worked at a Noodles and Company that had some serious problems. The original General Manager was fired, and the first temporary manager was a raging jerk; he was also the first of eight temps. He threatened to fire the entire staff if we didn't follow his rules. 16 out of 28 people quit the next day. The following seven managers weren't much better. Five out of eight of them were fired within a week of leaving that restaurant.
Makes me wonder how that chain still exists.
64. No Profession for a Predator
I was the tech director of a non-profit live music/theater venue with a pretty active board of directors. One night, a board member tried to drug and assault two of my crew members after a staff party (unsuccessful, thankfully). It was a fairly small college town, and the board member was a big deal and a major donor, so the whole thing got swept under the rug.
Myself, the director of operations, the executive director, and the entirety of the technical crew quit on the day we found out he'd just get away with it and the place went under less than a year after.
65. Someone is Kind of Thick
I've been in a situation where multiple people were fired in a string. I was working for Curves, and the manager of all the branches in the city was a major witch—not to mention completely stupid. She fired everyone that was over a size 12 over a series of two weeks, from all locations. When the owner realized what was going on, she fired the manager for being discriminatory.
Also, she was hiring her teenage daughter's stick-thin cheerleader friends in their places.
66. Say “No” to The Boy’s Club
I interviewed with a mid-sized software company some time ago. Their product was selling very well, and they had recently moved into an impressive new glass and chrome building. Shortly after, every woman in the company quit on the same day. At first, I was disappointed they didn't call me back for another interview, since my technical knowledge was a good match for their needs.
But then, even though I'm a guy, I figured that the "every woman quit" indicated some real management problems, so I'm glad they didn't call me.
67. Too Big to Fail
I did landscape construction. The cheap owner kept taking bigger and bigger projects while never hiring more help. We were all overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious as hell. One of our foremen quit, and I followed suit a few days later. Two more guys quit the next day. He was down to three guys for the obscene amount of work he wanted to do.
Of course, everything gets way behind schedule, but he's convinced it's not his fault at all. He went out of business less than a year later—sweet justice.
68. They Don’t Teach Manners in Management School
Our boss would show up every day and tell us a tale of his sexual exploits. Whether true or not, none of us wanted to hear it. If an attractive looking female came in, he drops what he's doing and stares at her, drooling like a dog in a dog treat factory. After she leaves, he had to say a comment about her appearance. After talking on the phone with a certain manager, he always comments on how nice her ass is.
He'd bully us employees and other managers. Called us bitches a lot despite us getting onto him for it. My female coworkers reported him. We all had a phone meeting with our district manager and HR. He was suspended until the investigation was over and they ruled to terminate him. Surprisingly HR worked for us that day.
69. Deep Fried and Fired
I had a very old, by-the-book manager when I worked fast food. She would always criticize people for not doing their jobs 100% correctly and she often insulted employees. One time while I was on fry duty, I purposefully pulled the fries out a few seconds early and made sure a second manager was watching. She came up to me and said: "I told you before, take the fries out AS SOON AS THEY ARE DONE!! Next time, I'll dip your head in the fryer."
The other manager saw, and more people commented on her behavior and she was gone the next day.
70. Happy New Year!
I hated my corporate job and was planning to wait one more week before I turned in my resignation so I could get paid for Christmas and New Year’s. Finally lost it on my boss though, and told her "If you spent one-third of the time actually doing your job that you spent covering up for not doing your job, you could pretty much sit in your office and listen to talk radio for the rest of the day and nobody would have a problem with you."
The CEO was standing on the other side of the door. He was like "I'm real sorry, but..." and off I went. I could tell he didn't disagree with me—it felt amazing. Plus, I had another job within seven hours to start the New Year.
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71. No Empathy
My buddy got fired because he walked out after his manager wouldn't let him leave when he found out his dad was being rushed to the hospital having a stroke. The manager followed him out of the store screaming.
72. Winning In The Long Run
Girl I work with got written up for being on her phone at our break table DURING HER BREAK, just because she was staggering breaks to cover someone else, which meant that her break came in the 15 minute period immediately following everyone else's. We work in a union shop and she filed a harassment grievance and won.
73. It’s Too Damn Hot for a Penguin
The quickest that someone ever quit was 15 minutes. I hired someone to work in a manufacturing plant. We did a tour of how hot the floor would be during the interview. No problem. The first day at work, he walked out after 15 minutes of work because it was “too hot.” K?
74. Taking the Janitor Job, Minus the Duties
We had a guy show up his first day—after tons of testing, and a paid flight—just to refuse to clean toilets. He said he would clean everything else but not the toilets. He was a janitor. They bought him a ticket back home.
75. Steal My Identity, I Dare You
Got an “interview” for a call center. I had driven by it a few times, and it literally just said “CALL CENTER” in all capital letters on the front of this weird building with an all-glass front. I had a bad gut feeling about it, plus on the way there I got into a bus crash. I was inside the bus, no one was harmed. Got there and the absolute greasiest slimy dude was the manager.
The first thing he did was give me an employee information sheet to fill out with only my name, SIN number, and phone number. It was a group interview and we were all immediately forced to begin making calls. He said we were collecting donations for “charities,” which I looked up on my break—they were all bogus. I finished my “interview”, walked away, and never looked back.
Also, I never got so much as an email address from this guy. I couldn’t call the call center or any management at all. No website, no nothing! I was scared about them having my SIN number, but I’m a broke student with no assets, so if they really wanted to help me out and steal my identity and pay off my loans, I’ll take it.
76. You Seen my Gun?
A pizza place. Worked one shift with the owner/GM. He was kind of a dick the whole time and kept bringing up other staff's sex life. Like outing a driver to me, and talking about another girl's open relationship. He randomly decided to close the store an hour early because it got slow, I was told that happens often. I couldn't afford to lose hours because he wants to close on a whim.
What sealed the deal for me was him misplacing his gun. As we were walking out the back door, he stopped and he had to look for his gun first. Then he remembered he left in his car. I called my old job the next day and got back on their schedule.
77. Got Some Fly Suspenders, Though
About four hours. When I was about 16, I applied for and landed a job at a local movie theatre with the express intent of stealing the black and red suspenders they used as part of their uniform. I showed up, got my uniform, took my 15-minute break, and just never went back. I'm not super proud of that story, but I'm not ashamed either.
78. B-oof
I got hired to work at an edible arrangement store close to Valentine’s Day. I needed extra cash and they needed extra people, so it worked. I spent 45 minutes ramming old, squishy grapes onto plastic skewers while listening to my new coworkers discuss their experiences boofing various liquids. I asked my supervisor if I could take a smoke break.
Two and a half years later, and I’m still on my break.
79. Roasted
I once had my hands full while working in a restaurant kitchen, so I asked my boss to grab me a container as I cut into a huge roast beef for a customer with blood dripping everywhere. For some inexplicable reason, my boss felt the need to literally roll out on his chair from the office to say, “You have two arms and legs, get it yourself!”
When I said, “Excuse me?” he replied with, “Oh, you didn’t you hear me the first time?” I replied “Yes, I did,” before taking off my apron, walking away from the bloody mess, clocking out right in front of him, and walking out the door. I was scared that my mom was going to flip on me for walking out on the job, but she reacted well and told me not to let someone talk to me like that.
80. It’s a Small Stage After All
There's a story about a Disneyland Cast Member (i.e. employee) who snuck backstage at the Aladdin stage show wearing an Indiana Jones-style fedora. During the show, he ran on stage, grabbed the Genie's lamp, and ran off stage reenacting the rolling boulder scene. Epic way to go out on your last day if you ask me!
81. Day On
I once got called into work on my day off. I drove a half-hour to get there. Once there, I was told they didn’t need me that day after all, and I could go home. I did go home. And I did not come back.
82. Everyone’s Got Beef
Ok, I did NOT work there, but I saw the glory. In the 90s, we would end up at the Waffle House in town. We always enjoyed talking with the bottomless coffee and the ''all the way'' potatoes or whatever...One night, I ordered chili and the waitress who knew us said: "Mo, I think you want a T-Bone steak.” Being college students fresh from a bar, we didn't have money for that, but she simply said: "Rare, Medium, or Well."
We just laughed and went on with our conversations. Then all of us got steaks and the hashbrowns all the way!! All the customers seemed to be getting T-Bones. We perked up and listened to the staff. They were really angry and cheesed at the manager. It seemed he had been harassing them and calling constantly berating them about their service and anything else he could come up with.
Several had worked double shifts and were beat. They then came around and gave us checks for just coffee. One of the waitresses started laughing and noted that the manager was over in the Flag Stop parking lot watching with binoculars. That was it. They all put their Waffle House uniforms on the counter and walked. All. Of. Them. They simply left.
The manager came screaming to the restaurant and burst in the door. He was running around like a lunatic. He went in the back and no one was there. Then he went table to table asking what we ordered. Everyone got up and started to leave while he was madly trying to stop people on the way out. The employees migrated to "Western Sizzlin" across the street. The Waffle House is now a Chipotle.
Was a truly odd moment.
83. Watered Down Goose
A food runner at a bar I used to frequent was fired from his job for stealing a giant bottle of Grey Goose. The best part is that it was a display-only bottle that was filled with water.
84. Not a DIY Project
The boss went off on a tirade on me for something that wasn’t my fault and I got him to scream something that made 80% of the engineers, including me, quit the next day: “People like you are expendable pieces in this company and I can replace you tomorrow if I wanted to.” We all simply didn’t show up. From what I know, the entire project folded because my now ex-boss couldn’t find people to replace us because no one wanted to do the kind of work he was looking for at the salary he was paying.
85. Time is Money and His Was Up
I was bartending on the side to augment the trash pay I get as a helicopter flight instructor. Worked there for two years and I was never late, nor had any disciplinary trouble. Well, one day I had a cross country flight run longer than it should’ve because I had some maintenance issues. I knew I would be late for the bartending gig, so I called and talked to my supervisor to give him a heads up.
By the time I made it to work, I was only 20 minutes late. Well, the owner’s 23-year-old son managed the place and informed me that his new policy was that I would have to surrender half of my tips for the night, as punishment for being late. I told him that I didn’t think that was very fair, especially since I was only 20 minutes late for a five-hour shift, I’d never once been late, and I’d called ahead.
He literally said, “Tough luck, don’t be late.” I told him to go screw himself and walked out. When I told my coworkers what happened, four other people quit right on the spot because they’d had enough of the dude’s power tripping BS. Don’t mess with people’s money.
86. An Empire Falls in Four Moons
Owners retired, they were literally the greatest people, both very sweet, but kept the place running like a well-oiled machine—they took pretty good care of us and their restaurant. When they left, they gave the restaurant over to their nephew, who at the time was a busboy/waiter, He was kind of standoffish, didn’t really interact with us too much, a bit lazy at times, but for the most part did his stuff and went home; he seemed okay—I've never been so wrong.
As soon as he got the power of being the owner, he fired four people, including two of the four cooks and two of the three dishwashers, all because he "didn’t like their attitude." This was literally the same day he got the gig; a Friday night just before the dinner rush. He refused to allow people to take vacation that they’d already requested and gotten confirmed by the original owners, would change the schedule randomly without telling anyone, and then scream at people when they missed a shift or came in late because of it.
He’d refuse to replenish the kitchen until we were literally already out of things, then take forever to put in the orders. He showed up randomly and would drink at the bar, for free of course because he was the owner, and then bring in all his buddies to drink with him, together they’d get way out of hand and grab at women and try to start fights.
Within the first month of him being the owner, over half the staff had quit, usually walking out literally in the middle of their shifts, after being screamed at. They’d basically throw down their aprons and tell everyone else that they were so sorry, but they couldn’t do it anymore. Finally one day, the last cook, this big dude who usually kept the kitchen laughing and running at a decent pace, started crying in the middle of his shift.
He dropped everything he was doing after the boss came and yelled at him for being to slow and making "slop," then walked out. The rest of us just bailed along with him. Four months later, the place was closed, his aunt and uncle were absolutely furious and devastated that he’d run the business they’d built up for over 30 years into the ground.
87. The Higher They Creep, The Harder They Fall
It was my supervisor. It got to the point that I had decided to quit. I had my resignation letter in my purse but decided to let his boss know why I was quitting. The supervisor would talk about all the people on our team constantly, but only behind their backs. I got so sick of telling him to cut it out. My husband and I happened to work at the same place (different departments) and my supervisor would make comments about threesomes (with him, ewww), what hotel we picked for our afternoon delight, stuff like that.
It was so bloody uncomfortable. Apart from this, he spent most of his supervising time outside smoking. The problem was that the supervisor was "one of the guys" and I was the only girl. Turns out his boss was disgusted, told his boss who lost his mind. They started an investigation which took three days. They interviewed staff—they corroborated what I said.
They checked the security cameras and saw he was spending most of his work day outside smoking. And was fired. When he was told he guessed (wasn't hard!) that I was the person who complained and tried to get to me to "apologize that I took it the wrong way.” The best feeling was my coworkers surrounding me as he was walked out. That was a lovely ending to it all.
88. Screw Me Twice, Shame on You
Our desks were separated by a 5-foot cubicle wall. He was under the mistaken impression that it totally blocked sound. Thus, I got to hear all his loud phone conversations, primarily his booty calls including those with his boss's fiancé. I figured it was none of my business and tried to ignore it. Well, there was a position in another department that I was interested in and as per procedure, I handed in an application to my talkative boss.
I didn't hear anything further and followed up a couple of days later, only to be told that something must have happened to the application. I filled out another one and handed it in. As I return to my desk, I hear the boss on the phone with a friend laughing about how he had just trashed my application again and how he was never going to let go of me.
I go to my boss's boss and angrily offer my resignation, telling him what I had just overheard, explaining that I was constantly hearing his phone calls like his booty calls like with <woman's name> and <woman's name> and <boss's boss's fiance's name>. He got very quiet and told me to go back to my desk and he'll take care of everything. The next day I come in and boss is gone.
The day after, I have an interview with the other department (got the position). I tend to avoid office drama, but really, he should have stuck to screwing his boss's fiancé, and not tried to screw me as well.
89. My Boss is a Heartbreaker
I had a doctor that constantly ignored patients in serious pain. He thought all of them were faking it to get pain killers. After a senior director at Microsoft died from a heart attack in our ER that he refused to do an EKG on, I went to management and told them what I had seen.
90. Mic Drop
I worked in a bar with an awful boss. He would always flirt with the young female bar staff and make us all uncomfortable, even though he was 50 years old. We all knew his wife and two young children, but about six months into me working there he began to “date” a 22-year-old customer. By date, I mean he used to go downstairs to his office and sleep with her—all while he was on shift.
No one was allowed to talk about it but we all knew. He knocked her up quite quickly and ended up breaking up with his wife, but he still flirted with his staff relentlessly even when his new baby was born. He once told a male employee that he liked asking female bar staff to pick up things from low shelves so we would bend over and he could check out our butts.
He always broke health and safety rules if he could get out of doing a task he didn’t want to. He was prolific at asking bar staff to clean human waste—vomit/poop customers had done on the floor—even though legally anyone cleaning that stuff needed to have passed a certain health and safety qualification. I spoke to my assistant manager about this and she confirmed that only management can do it, and I should refuse next time.
One day he demanded I cleaned up vomit in the male toilets, and I refused, repeating what the assistant manager told me. My boss went absolutely mad—he wasn’t used to people standing up to him. He told me to come downstairs to his office to speak about it. At that moment I knew I wanted to quit, so I told him I won’t be going downstairs with him. He asked me why, and I replied: “The last girl who went down there with you ended up getting pregnant.”
Lost my job instantly but it was totally worth it.
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91. Giving Yourself A Raise
I ran a 5-staff nonprofit. My first week or two, the payroll information came from ADP and it was left sealed on the office assistant's desk. I was at work early the next morning and opened it; I discovered the office assistant (who was responsible for entering staff hours online every payroll) had given herself a raise. She got there a couple minutes later, I asked her about it, and she said it had been promised to her (you'd think the board or my predecessor would have told me that, huh?). She was also pissed off that I'd opened it (Hello? I'm the boss. I get to look at the darn payroll.)
Wasn't a giant raise, but you increase your own pay without permission, you're going to be fired, and she needed some strong encouragement to remove her person from the office, too. She went down the block to where our board chair worked, told him I was a racist (she was black, I'm Asian, the chair was Latino) and generally made a loud fuss, but he was pretty clear with her about why you don't go giving yourself a raise no matter what you think you were promised (and further investigation revealed, of course, that she wasn't promised anything).
92. Nightmare Intern
I worked at a place where I didn't get to hire the interns, but had to manage them. My VP only hired pretty women. There were great interns and terrible ones, but Beth took the cake. She came in 30 minutes late. I started to take her through how our business worked, what our industry was like and what she'd be working on. She was on her phone and got pissed when I told her to put it away. She refused to take notes while I took her through all this.
I then sat her down at 10:30 and asked her to clean a list of potential clients in Excel. She laughed and said she was getting a coffee which I assumed was from our office. 45 minutes later, she shows up again with a Starbucks, and 20 minutes after that she says she's going on lunch. I told her she used her lunch up to get that coffee—she needed to get some work done. She laughed again and left. Didn't come back the rest of the day. I sent a note to her professor about this.
The next morning I got a call from her professor apologizing for her behavior and letting me know she would be failing her internship. My VP was pissed because "Beth seemed like just the kind of person we need around here."
93. He Had Fair Warning
Employee here. Had a guy get hired, was sent to get his drug test, and never came back. We tell them about the drug test when they fill out an application and also when they interview. I was told that he was called and asked why he wasn't back from going to get the drug test and he replied "’Cause I didn't go do the drug test."
When asked if he was going to, the answer was apparently a firm, concise "Nope." So that was that.
94. I’d Have Been Fired Within an Hour
I was hired to work in a stockroom once. I didn't need a job at the time but fancied a bit of extra money. Second shift I got threatened with the sack ‘cause I went to the toilet three times in an eight-hour shift. Apparently, I should've told them I had a bladder problem on my application. The boss was a generally enormous jerk in a few other ways too, but when I didn't need the job and was getting brought into her room to watch CCTV footage of me heading to the bathroom every few hours, I was like yeah… no.
95. Day One Bump
I was a supervisor at a grocery store a few years back. A guy I knew from high school got a job at my store and at a fast-food restaurant at the same time. He told me that at the end of the month he would quit the job he liked less. The next day he quit my store. I asked him why he wasn't waiting a month as he planned. I couldn't believe his answer.
Turns out, on his first day at the fast food place, all of the other people on his shift including the manager went out back to smoke and left him running the whole store alone for a couple of hours during the lunch rush. The owner found out, and fired everyone except him, and promoted him to the manager. On his first day. He decided he didn't want to bag groceries after that. I didn't blame him.
96. Itching to Quit
I worked four hours into a shift at a fiberglass ceiling tile plant. They offered no dust masks or any kind of protective clothing. I was itching like hell by lunchtime, so I just left and went home. I took several showers a day for weeks before I stopped itching. I got paid for three days, I guess they never realized which day I left and never returned.
97. Must Have Been an Important Phone Call
I worked for Dollar General. I got threatened with a knife over a damn phone card. Alright, I’m gonna get right out, thanks.
98. Let’s Dine Out
I was a line cook at a restaurant and the owner was treating us like trash. There were only three of us, the Executive Chef, Sous Chef, and myself, but we all picked up our paychecks on Friday afternoon and cashed them, then called individually to quit before the dinner rush. The owner called in some family members to fill in and the place is still thriving 20 years later.
99. Which One Will You Choose?
A long time ago, I was working at a restaurant that was, to put it bluntly, absolutely freakin’ atrocious. The place was almost always dead apart from the owner’s friends, who would make it their life’s mission to be incredibly rude to myself and the other staff members. Somehow, I stuck it out working there for six months.
The final straw came at Christmas, when I wanted to travel back home to spend time with my family (as my grandmother was sick at the time); and their response was, “You’ll just have to decide what’s more important, your job or your family.” I decided. I told them that this was the dumbest and most insulting question I had ever heard, and walked straight out the door.
100. Keeping Them Waiting
I used to work at a Red Lobster franchise for a few years back when I was in college. I didn't really have any complaints, it was what it was. Right after graduating, I moved to another town and was able to transfer to a different location near my new area. Worst experience of my life. Horrible management, and the location was in a relatively upscale part of town—so there were MUCH better alternatives for seafood nearby and the customers were always awful as a result.
We were required to be on site at least 15 minutes prior to the start of our shift for a pre-shift meeting and changeover and what not. The thing was, however, that you couldn't clock in until five minutes before your scheduled start time. Like every other lousy company, Darden Restaurants (the former owner of Red Lobster, and also a VERY lousy company in its own right) wanted to run skeleton crews with the bare minimum number of personnel on hand to save money.
So, of course, we were always scrambling with whatever we needed to do. Often, I would come in for a shift and would already have multiple tables seated and waiting for me. The host manager’s mentality was “Well, they need to be here 15 minutes early anyway, so why not have the customers ready for as soon as they arrive?” No one seemed to ever bother to clarify why this idea was wrong on many levels.
Well, one day, I finally reached the end of my rope. I came in and already had a seated table. I went over and greeted them immediately. They were upset at having been made to wait for me, but they were also understanding when I explained that I had just arrived. I then went to the bar to ask them to make some drinks (I couldn't just enter the orders in the system, since I couldn't clock in yet).
While I was waiting for the drinks to be made, I began venting to a fellow server about the situation. I mentioned that "If they give me another table before I can even clock in, I swear I'm done!" Well, before I could even finish that sentence, they had seated another family and expected me to serve their table. I politely told the server I was venting to that it was nice to have worked with them.
I then made sure to let BOTH tables know that they were currently seated in a section that didn't even have a server yet because the company didn't want to pay for a full staff—and that, in the future, they should choose to dine at restaurants that actually cared about them having a good experience. I then walked out the door without even saying as much as a word to my manager.
No regrets, and I'll never give Darden a dime of my money ever again.
101. Wrinkle Hater
Lasted a month. I worked at a small pizza place. The owner/manager was incredibly anal about everything. He hated how I did everything. Mind you, I had worked at other pizza restaurants before and this was also my second job. My main job was lead prep chef at a more successful restaurant. I like to think I knew what I was doing.
He just had the weirdest ways of doing things. Because his business was failing (recession of 2006), he was always stressed and always trying to find ways to save money. Including but not limited to: not running the water while washing dishes, reusing older dough, and stretching the definition of fresh for fresh ingredients.
Ultimately, I was young and didn’t really fit his working style. I showed up ONE time with a wrinkled shirt and he told me the next time I did, “Don’t bother showing up.” Which doesn’t make sense, but I got what he was saying. About a month into the job, I wake up, go to the dryer where my work shirt was to discover that the dryer shut off during the night.
Then, I notice that everything electrical is out. I discover in a panic that all of the power was out because my crappy roommate didn’t pay the bill!! Terrible time for that to happen but I had to go to work. I threw on a worn work shirt that was in my hamper that wasn’t messy, but of course, was WRINKLED. I thought I could tell him my story and he would be ok with it this time.
I was very wrong. I show up to work and he gets pissed. He says stuff like, “What did I say?” And, “I thought I said don’t bother showing up?” Here’s the thing—it was an empty threat. I was the only person that worked there besides him and it was Friday. Friday business lunch was the busiest time of the week. He needed me there and I knew it.
But, I realized at that moment that I was done. So I helped him setup for the day. Prepped the dough, made some pre-mades, cut the vegetables and meats, did ALL of the prep work. It’s now 9:55, five minutes before we open. I asked, “Are we all prepped?” He said, “Yes,” and I say, “Great,” take my shirt off, throw it at him, and say, “You can take this shirt and shove it up your butt!”
And then I walk the heck out, shirtless and leaving him on his own for the busiest day of the week. He tried yelling something about telling my boss at my other job but I just got in my car and drove away It was very satisfying! I had to go back in a week later to pick up my final paycheck. He didn’t say anything to me.
I had a gigantic smile on my face.
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102. A Star Is Born
My wife was about to give birth, and I had just taken an odd job as a temporary thing. We had just moved to a new city and I had started this job less than three weeks earlier. The plan was for me to work there for a bit while I continued to search for an office job in engineering for the long run. Well, when the big night finally came, I called my supervisor to let him know that I couldn’t come in because my wife was having contractions and her water had just broken.
He told me to get to work and that the baby wouldn't be born till later anyways. I said, “No, I'm driving my wife to the hospital now.” He told me to get the you-know-what back to work, so I simply said, "I quit" and hung up on him. No more than 10 days later, I found a much better job and I have been happily employed here for four years at this point.
103. A Family Dis-Oriented Business
I used to work at a small, family-owned restaurant for over a year. All I ever did while I was there was wash dishes. The owner hated me and always did her best to make my shift miserable because her creepy husband loved being around me and talking to me all the time. Eventually, she accused me of secretly hooking up with him more than once.
My last straw was when she decided to call me a filthy prostitute in front of not just my coworkers, but also a whole group of customers. I was 15 years old.
104. Racists Never Win
Two days. I was a cashier for a restaurant when I was 16 and a guy asked for an application. As soon as he left, my manager said, “Go ahead and give them applications, but we don't hire black people here. Too much of a liability.” Yeah, left that place on the spot.
105. Garbage Garbage Man
Working on the back of a garbage truck. I lasted ONE day. Those bags can be heavy, nasty, and full of unspeakable liquids that spill all over you. I was a scrawny kid, six-foot and maybe 140 lbs. It was mid-summer in Texas, so very hot. I smelled like rotten food for days, couldn’t wash it off. I have extreme respect for people that work on the back of those trucks, it’s not easy work.
106. The Old Dough
I didn't come back for the second shift. My first shift working at a pizza place was terrible. Nobody washed their hands. There were two lots of dough. Old dough for new customers and “good dough” for regulars. We were paid from the till. The manager yelled at us a lot. Oh, also? All the employees there were completely miserable
107. Head Math
I got hired at a laser tag place. Come paycheck time the owner looks like he is doing math in his head, then counts out cash from the drawer. I took my "paycheck" and never went back. They didn't stay open that long.
108. Dessert Time!
Not me, but someone in my class. He wanted out of his apprenticeship, so he walked into one of the giant coolers the store had, sat down inside, and began to eat a fully finished, fully paid for, expensive wedding cake, waiting for someone else to enter the cooler and discover him.
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109. I Guess It's Just Me and You
I was promoted to VP of my company. The company was in trouble, and the CEO had asked me to figure out why and fix it. I arranged for a random drug test. All employees, the CEO, me, everyone. All on the same day and everyone went down at the same time. Even said I would ignore weed but anyone with anything stronger would be gone.
We get the results back and I fired everyone who had tested positive for any drug other than weed. The CEO and myself were the only two people left working for the company.
110. Sometimes It’s Best to Keep Your Mouth Shut
Company consisted of something like 1,200 employees at the time, and rented out a big conference center for a Christmas party. At the opening of the party, the CFO was giving opening remarks, and asked—expecting cheers—if everyone liked their Christmas bonuses. He got booed. See, of that 1,200 people, a bit over a thousand were in customer service. No one in customer service got bonuses, only people in the "corporate" departments got them.
And our awesome CFO decided to rub everyone's noses in it, because clearly the Chief Financial Officer of a company would have no idea that 80%+ of his company didn't get bonuses. At the same party, the CEO made an announcement that the company would be closed on Friday (Christmas that year was on a Thursday), and everyone got a day off.
Now, he had literally just finished making a speech about how everyone was important, and everyone was part of the company, no matter the department. He had shoveled crap hard, trying to make CS happier. The next day, we all got a memo that Customer Service still had to work on that Friday. We apparently didn't count as "everyone" and the CEO just hadn't realized that the announcement wouldn't apply to anyone.
January saw a 60% attrition rate.
111. Too Little, Too Late
I was working as a General Manager at a struggling restaurant—struggling despite excellent business, because the owners would do stupid things like take trips to Italy on the company dime to source the "perfect" panini press. They also wouldn't staff properly; I was the only waiter ever there, open to close, six days a week, on top of handling phone orders, inventory, and other managerial duties. I was wildly overworked, but I sucked it up because the base pay was good, plus tips.
However, to fund their lavish "business" trips, costs had to be cut at the store. They decided to do this by bumping me down to minimum wage for tipped employees—effectively cutting my salary to 1/10 of its previous level. They were also too chicken to tell me until I got my new teeny paycheck and questioned the mistake. "Oh yeah haha, forgot to mention that blah blah cost-cutting blah valued team member please work with us through this difficult time."
I had worked for two weeks at this new lower rate without my knowledge. Pretty sure that's illegal, but hey, a lot of illegal things go on in the restaurant industry. That's not when I rage quit, though....a couple of hours later, I'm fuming and have decided that I can't work for the lower rate, so now I’m just waiting for the perfect chance to give my notice.
They called in a delivery guy who was fired a few weeks before, and they talk about hiring him to start doing our Facebook posts and handing out flyers around town. Whatever. Then I hear them offer him close to my old salary as "Promotions Manager"! What??? I was basically running the place for $2.13/hr and you're offering this dude almost $20/hr to walk up and down the street saying "Eat at (Name)"?
And yet, it gets worse.
They bring up our negative Yelp reviews and this guy suggests asking friends to post positive ones. The boss starts laughing and says "Better not ask our waitress to post one, it'll be all boohoo don't eat there, I can't pay my rent this month because they cut my pay without telling wahhhh!" I don’t think I was supposed to hear that, but I was five feet away, so of course I did.
I RAGED! I quit on the spot, told them to screw their job, and wished them good luck keeping the place open without me. They quickly realized I was right, as neither of them knew how to do more than pick up the takings once a week. They begged me not to quit. They were so desperate that they sat there for half an hour and allowed me to bluntly tell them exactly what kind of huge idiots I thought they were in excruciating detail.
I went on and on as my rage burned, and they just quietly listened, nodding and apologizing. Once I had cursed myself back into calmness, I walked out, 30 minutes before the dinner rush began, leaving them with an unstaffed floor and no clue how to even open the cash register. God, they were morons. I loved that they actually listened to me telling them exactly how stupid they were. No repercussions on my side, as the restaurant industry isn't known for checking references.
The place closed down about 18 months later, and I was surprised it even made it that long.
