15 People Share Their Best “I’m Out of Here” Job Quitting Stories

There are good jobs and then there are bad jobs. If you’ve ever had a bad job, perhaps you’ve thought about quitting on the spot on your first day.

While sometimes it’s best to wait things out, other times you know the job isn’t going to work out, even if you haven’t been there very long. These people knew they had to quit right then and there—so they said goodbye on or around the day they signed their on-boarding papers. Here are their stories!

  1. A Brazilian Teen Detention Center

    “My first internship was at a Brazilian teen detention center (it’s akin to a prison, but Brazilian law has some distinctions between crimes committed while as an adult or as a teenager – teens go through socio-educational measures). I was walking through a courtyard with my supervisor when some doctors came running flailing their arms and screaming while officers came running from the opposite direction. I get pulled by my supervisor who just tells me to run back to our office. These teens as young as 12 had escaped their block. A few minutes later an officer comes knocking on the doors of the offices and yelling for everyone to run outside because a fire had broken out. Some of the teens had set mattresses on fire in their cells. I didn’t really nope out. My teacher did (she hadn’t even been there that day). So I was forced by the university to choose another place to intern at. Oh well.”

  2. A Café Chain

    “Wasn’t exactly the first day but I didn’t show up after the second shift. It was a rather popular cafe chain in my country. I was hired to work in the kitchen as a cook along with another, senior cook. Let’s put aside the fact that I had zero cooking knowledge whatsoever, the senior cook was leaving the kitchen every five minutes to smoke. So there I am, alone in the kitchen, orders are printing FAST, and I’m standing there not sure what to do first, and the waitress comes over yelling at me to cook sh*t I don’t have any business cooking, definitely not on my own. Later on the senior cook told me they had at least two rats running around the kitchen. Showed me they pooped on a plate. I never came back and I’m glad the place got shutdown.”

  3. A Lawless Job

    “I took a job at a lock down residential treatment center as I was desperate for a job. The interviewer said most of the kids were court ordered, and were a step away from juvie. The interview didn’t go well so I was honestly surprised when they called me offer me the job. The morning of training was going over all of the state and federal laws that governed the place, like resident rights and staff to resident ratios and the like. The afternoon was a tour of the facility where it became readily apparent that exact none of the laws we’d just covered were being followed. I left at the end of the day and never came back. I had a feeling something bad was going to happen at that place. A few months later they got shut down after a riot that results in several serious injuries to both residents and staff. Glad I wasn’t around for that.”

  4. Amazon

    “On the first day of working at Amazon warehouse the managers broke down to Everyone how a 15 minute break works there. Walking to the break room is 2 1/2 minutes. 10 minutes of actual break and then 2 1/2 minutes to go back to your stations. It took me 2 1/2 minutes to walk to my car and I took a forever break.”

  5. Landscape Architect

    “Summer job working for a landscape architect. Got to the job site and he asked me to dig a hole in some rocky dirt. I asked for a shovel. He didn’t have one. I asked for a hand spade. He didn’t have one. He told me to just dig the hole with my bare hands and then he drove off to another site leaving me completely alone. I dug for a little bit and then said ‘f*ck this’ and left. Had the job specified that I needed to supply my own tools I could’ve but it didn’t and I wasn’t going to work for somebody that expected folks to dig through hard, rocky soil with their hands.”

  6. An Alarm Company

    “Had an orientation for an alarm company. Next day manager calls and says don’t worry about going into the office and to meet at “Planet Hollywood” they like to get to know the employees better over lunch. Next day I go into the office and another employee whom I had not met says “You must be “Scandal929.” I was like “ha”? They responded “Light skinned, pretty boy” is how the manager described me. In same conversation I found out no one else had ever been invited for a “get to know you” lunch. I’m out!”

  7. Marketing Assistant

    “I interviewed for a ‘professional marketing assistant’ and got the job straight away. I was under the impression that I would be an assistant to the man I was interviewed by. When I showed up for my first day, the same waiting room I was in the previous day was FULL of people. I quickly learned that we were all hired, and that I would be a door-to-door salesperson selling some pretty useless shit. I spent my entire day inside a Starbucks applying for other jobs and went home, got paid, but never went back.”

  8. A Cashier

    “I used to work at a craft store as a cashier, but quit when I moved. Ended up going back a couple years later to make some extra cash, but this time in the framing department. During the interview they swore up and down I would only ever be a backup cashier because I said I refused to have full cashier shifts. First shift after interview is listed as framing, but I’m put on cash and told that actually most of my shifts would be cash since they’d found someone else for framing. I spent the next six hours giving everyone who came to my register 20% off of everything and then never went back.”

  9. An Insurance Agency

    “It was a small independent insurance agency in 2006. My first day there the owner (a true fossil) said email and fax were strictly forbidden as he only ‘believed in’ communication in person, by phone, or through mail. Left for lunch and never went back. I couldn’t imagine the inefficiency I’d have dealt with had I stayed. They ultimately closed their doors so it was definitely the right decision.”

  10. Vacuum Salesman

    “First sale call was to a single elderly woman who was supporting her son in hospital (they got us in the door by offering a free carpet clean as a demonstration). The supervisor training me pushed and pushed to make the sale until this old woman was in tears. Just as she was about to sign the paperwork I asked if she actually wanted to vacuum and she said it was lovely but she couldn’t afford it. I took the paperwork away from her and said not to worry. Outside I told the supervisor I quit to which he replied I would’ve been fired anyway. No love lost. I hung around for half an hour playing on my phone to make sure the supervisor left because he was a real piece of work.”

  11. Telemarketer

    “Once I applied for and got a telemarketing job. I didn’t know what it entailed. After an hour I knew it was a terrible fit…auto dialing people during their dinners, trying to sell them stuff they didn’t want, reading a horrible script while sitting in a soulless grey cubicle. I got up, went to the manager, apologized and said it wasn’t a good fit for me. He seemed understanding.”

  12. A Restaurant

    “Swept under my station when we were closing. Giant brown pile came out with broom from under low-boy fridge. Pile began to scatter. It was hundreds of roaches. Never returned.”

  13. “Babysitting”

    “I answered an ad for a babysitting job. I was already working on a casual basis but it was sporadic so I thought some after hours baby sitting would be welcome extra cash. The couple were both in the military and proceeded to tell me that I would be staying in the spare room and looking after their 6 month old child around the clock as well as doing the housework. I would have one day off every two weeks. They said it is cash in hand so I could sign onto the dole (unemployment benefit) to make up the rest of the money. I left on the spot. They wanted a live in housemaid and nanny not a baby sitter and they were not able to pay for one. Why they thought it was up to me to illegally collect the dole to subsidize them I don’t know.”

  14. Gas Station

    “The manager gave me a weird vibe. I made it through the first day but didn’t go back.. Found out later he cornered another girl in the back of the store and she had to fight her way out. Trust your gut.”

  15. A Hotel

    “No one told me where anything was. Got chewed out for it. Guests enjoying their meals told me to pay no mind/I was doing a good job and that my boss is a jerk. I told the manager that I was quitting and wouldn’t be doing the next shift. I arrived the next day, returning a work uniform and my supervisor approached me and yelled at me for being late. I told her I already quit but if I was working, technically I was 5 hours early for my shift. Absolute nutcases.”

Did you ever quit a job on your first day? You can find more stories like these on this Reddit thread!