I’m Done!: People Reveal The Craziest Reasons Why They Called It Quits On Their First Day Of Work

‘Salesman’ for Kirby vacuums. 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.

I applied for a job at my longtime favorite restaurant (celebrated my birthday there every year).

Owner asks me to come in for basically a try out, as I communicated i was looking at other job possibilities. I come in and they just stick me on dishwashing for an hour, no biggie. Then there dishwasher doesnt show up, so the kitchen manager asks me to stay one for their lunch rush, saya I'll get paid for the hours. I do, kitchen staff was nice so I was happy to help out even though i figured i'd be taking a different job. I fill out a time card at the end of the shift and tell the manager I probably wouldnt be back, he understands and thanks me for the help.

Fast forward a couple weeks and he tells me to email the owner after I ask him if i should pick up my measly paycheck. I do, she basically tells me to f*ck off over text. Tells me it was "staging" and that she told me i wouldnt be paid, I respond that I understand that but that I stayed an extra 3 hours which I WAS told i'd be paid for. She stops responding, I decide I want to be petty over the 40 bucks so I get the statw labor department involved, dude goes in there and makes her pay me for the hours including the first "staging" hour. Couple weeks later I got my 40 bucks, never went back to that restaurant.

Edit: Firstly, "petty" is not how I see it two years later. Im VERY glad I did this and sharing the story with others in my city I learned this practice was very common with local restaurants. Hopefully others learned to stand up for their labor too from my small experience.

Secondly, this restaurant closed down a couple weeks after I got that paycheck. The owner made a long winded complaint on the FB page about how the food culture had "changed" in the city and her restaurant didnt fit in anymore (total bullsh*t, they were ALWAYS popular. Most people theorized the terrible mismanagement and employee abuse had caught up to her).

My very first job was at a little drive in restaurant close to my high school. I showed up to work the first day, they lady said I had to pay her $50 for training. She showed me around the place and said that my pay would be $4.50/hour as a carhop(this was in 2010), and all the tips I made went into a bucket with all the other girls’ tips. At the end of the night, she counted up tips, kept 20% for herself and split the rest up evenly among EVERY employee. Also, part of our job was one day a week we had to spend 4 hours cleaning her house. It seemed super shady.

I literally left after listening to her go over all these rules. My dad was pissed until I explained, and another girl confirmed and my dad agreed I did the right thing.

I got a job at a Build A Bear knockoff at the end of a mall that wasn't very busy. My interview with the owners was interesting. They were an older couple who said that they had wanted to open a Chick Fil A, but you need about a million dollars to do that. My first day, one other girl was working, and she didn't really talk to me. I had basically no training and she disappeared into the back. I was standing at the register area, which was underneath a giant storybook mushroom. A mother and her young son walk in and start to look at the bear skin options. I greeted them and left them to look around. They ended up leaving after a couple minutes and my coworker reappeared from the back with the cordless phone and handed it to me. It was my boss. He told me that when a customer walks in, he wants me to come out from under the mushroom to them ("come OUT! from the mushroom!"). After he finished speaking to me, I hung up and went to my coworker and asked about the phone call. She said the place has cameras set up and the owners watch them from their house and call in a lot. I did not come back to work after that day.

Fast food chain: I was 17.

I found out during training that the place had been robbed 3 times in the past month and 1 employee was seriously injured.

Not worth the $5/hr.

Edit: For those asking about the pay and the time, this was the US state of Georgia in 2004.

I was hired at a chain restaurant to be a hostess. I was so excited because my last job was washing dishes and because of my eczema, I had to quit. It was too painful to do that job. So, I arrived at my new job dressed up to be a hostess and those mfers took me back to the kitchen to do dishes because the dishwasher just quit. I noped out of there real fast!

Went into an Italian restaurant for my first day of work and I got 3 red flags on the very first day. 1- The manager said he had lots of hours for me and getting shifts would be no problem. Every single other employee told me that they were struggling for hours and that they had no idea why they hired me.

2- Everyone said the manager was an ahole. Even the customers.

3- It was my first day there, and I actually had to teach the woman training me how to do one or two things.

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 sh*t.

I spent my entire day inside a Starbucks applying for other jobs and went home, got paid, but never went back.

I knew someone like that. She tolerated the water and activity enough to get certified because she just wanted to work as a “lifeguard” - in her head that just meant getting to wear the red sweater and playing on her phone in the sun all day while flirting with guys. She didn’t last long.

I technically quit before my first day. I got hired at a well known gift store. I was hired with the understanding that I would work Saturdays, Sundays , and a grand total of 8 hours a week (so two 4 hour shifts). Also at minimum wage. Not a problem with me, done that before, I would just pick up a part time job for rest of the week. Nope, apparently that wasn't allowed. The manager thought that was a horrible thing and "disrespectful" to her. I should only work for them and only them and I should have better control over my money if I can't survive on $64 a week before taxes..... Yeah, didn't show up cause f*ck that noise. She called pissed off that I wouldn't show up to such a opportunity.

Ended up being a scam to try and get free labor. I went for a job interview as a security guard, a man and a woman asked me my name, asked me how strong I was then hired me and asked me to start immediately. That started alarm bells ringing, 2 questions in a interview and I am employed and working with no discussion about anything else.

They took me down to their warehouse (office interview was above it) and told me to start moving boxes from a shelf into a truck. I said hang on, the job is security not manual labor and then they started getting really sh*tty with me and saying if you want the job then you need to do this as part of it. I was like yeah nah I am out and walked out, total scam, there was no job and it really pissed me off because I could've gone to another interview at that time but choose to go there instead.

I had a job for one day selling home security equipment door to door. The whole idea was basically to make it seem like you're doing them a service and then lock the customer into 5 year contracts.

My supervisor and I were in this one home of a family that hardly some English. The father said they had been struggling with finances but my supervisor kept pushing it on them, and the customer seemed like he didn't fully understand what was going on. I couldn't in good conscience take these people that were already struggling and put them in a worse position.

It was a petrol station and the manager wanted me to work for free until I had learned their computer systems to what he deemed a satisfactory extent. I agreed to do it, because I needed a job, and he brought me in at 7am on my first day, however he was not present to go through the training with me, so I was just standing around kind of helping out on the forecourt but not really knowing what I should be doing. Not learning anything. After about an hour and a half without the manager showing up or anyone training me on anything, I decided that I wasn't going to continue to be taken advantage of and told the cashier to pass on the message to the manager that I had quit.

Sh*tty motel gig in Raleigh NC when I was young and desperate for a job, any job. Came in to relieve the cigarette hag overnight lady who told me about the bat she kept beneath the counter, which rooms had the prostitutes and which rooms were for the genuinely lost tourists, how not to give out towels to certain people because they had 10+ people to a room and they were trying to get them to leave. While she was talking to me, one of the prostitutes came up and paid her with sweaty boob money. Also, they expected me to do laundry in the backroom in between babysitting the front desk. Also to watch out for stray needles or paraphernalia in the sheets.

I overheard a man in the lobby on the phone, talking about how he had a friend who was in jail and he was going to hire him to kill his cousin who was in that same jail. All in between bites of bargain bin Froot Loops from the continental breakfast. I left. They never sent me my check for working that day and I never called to get it.

Had two interviews to work housekeeping at a hospital. Got a call the night of the second interview at around midnight from the guy saying "I was just so excited I wanted to call and tell you I'm gonna call you to offer you the job tomorrow". Should have taken that as the first red flag but I needed the job.

I go in for my first day of training and he has printouts of my Facebook wall and my boyfriends. He started asking me how long we had been together and made it clear he knew everything so as not to lie to him. It was so uncomfortable.

I leave his office and do some training. We break for lunch and he sits with me in the cafeteria asking how it's been going so far, etc. Then tells me he expects to see me at his church Sunday. I haven't gone to church in like ten years at this point.

We all have a quick meeting in our main room and I stay back after everyone had left. I put my badge, keys, and walkie on the desk and walk the f*ck out. I felt bad but it was no wonder why they can't keep anyone.

He call the me for MONTHS afterward asking what had happened, he was worried sick, he deserves answers, blah blah blah. I had called their HR the day after I had walked out to tell them I quit and why, so they had to have told him. He had no reason to keep contacting me.

My very first job was at a buffet restaurant that was popular with senior citizens and known for their desserts. I was asked to get another coconut cream pie from the back and as I was getting it out of the fridge, another employee bumped into me and I dropped it on the floor, pie side down. This employee’s (someone who’d worked there for years) solution was to just scrape off all the whipped topping and replace it. I was horrified they served pie that had been on the extremely dirty floor and never went back.

I delivered pizza for one day. At the end of the day, I did the math and the tips did not cover the gas I used. They had me driving 15 miles for some deliveries and my truck gets about 20 mpg. So 30 miles round trip is one and a half gallons and that's not even factoring in the extra wear on my truck. Also, the people were strange and they insisted that I call the one black kid who worked there n* John. I refused, the kid was like, no it's cool that's what I call myself and I politely declined and just called him John.

I was a waitress, the only waitress, at a just-opened diner. The boss didn't have me sign any paperwork. Everything was under the table. But that wasn't what made me quit at the end of the night. In order to get me where he wanted me to go, he would pinch my skirt at my upper thigh, not quite the butt but very close, and pull me around like it was a leash. Needed me in the kitchen? Rather than call me. He would come out, pinch my skirt and pull to the kitchen. Needed me at the cash machine? Again, come over to where ever I was, didn't matter if I was serving a customer, and would grab my skirt to pull me. That act in itself, made some customers uncomfortable. Mind you, one couple left an almost 50% tip in the end. But I think it was more out of pity and embarrassment on my behalf. I was supposed to come in the next day but I called that night and said the job wasn't for me. I came in a couple of days later to turn in my apron and he just took a wad of cash out of his pocket and paid me then and there. God, he was creepy. I think it was a smart move to quit.

I got hired at a very small knock-off dollar store in an old, failing mall. The owner was foreign with a very thick accent. He told me I'd get $6 an hour but neglected to mention it was under the table. I spent about an hour stocking the very overly cluttered shelves before I was told to get more chips out of the back storage area. I walk back there and there's about a dozen men sitting on boxes all crammed into a small back room. I asked where the chips were and these guys all glared at me. They started speaking in another language and rapidly motioning towards me. Then one guy got up and asked what I needed. I told him I was supposed to get a box of chips and he got a box out of the pile and handed it to me. The entire time these guys are all staring at me. Everything back there looked shady as all hell and it was very uncomfortable.

A while later I had to use the restroom which was also in the back. These guys all just wordlessly glared at me while I went into the woman's restroom. While I was in the restroom, someone tried to open the door. I was the only woman there. The owner told me he wanted me to come back that night late in the evening well after the mall closed. I didn't show up. I came in the next morning and lied about why I couldn't work there. He still gave me the few bucks from what little time I did work. I don't know what in the hell that guy had going on there and I didn't want to find out.

Not technically my first day but second day.

When I was 20 or so I got hired to be a temporary floor member for Forever21 during the holiday season.

My training started a week before Black Friday so the store was already kind of in chaos. On my first day of training I walked in and the floor manager gave all the new hires a tour showing us the facility and layout of the store. After this, I was assigned to a veteran floor member to shadow and get an idea of what my job was and what my duties would be. As soon as I was assigned the manager dipped never to be seen again.

An hour and a half into my shift my shadowee got an emergency family call and had to take off for a week. When this happened I found some other floor manager and explained the situation and asked them who else I should shadow. The manager's response was “just do what you can by yourself you’ll be fine, everyone else is busy.” Figured we’ll ok I’ll try…

I don’t know if any of you have shopped in the women’s section of forever21 but during seasonal sales, they will have multiple articles of clothing that all look almost exactly the same but with slight differences (ex. A white cardigan with 4 buttons that looked literally the same as a white cardigan with 5 buttons). The best part was these different items were often placed in completely separate parts of the store and it was the job of the dressing room to return the unpurchased items to the correct section so the employees could put them back on the shelves. Well, these employees f*cking sucked and I didn’t know if they were a part of my section or not so I’d spend a ridiculous amount of time trying to find where they go before realizing “wait this isn’t even my section I’ve checked literally every rack” so I’d put it back on the sorting rack and move to the next item. More than 50% of the stuff I was told to reshelve wasn’t my section. I just did as best as I could and got ready for my next miserable day.

The next day I come in and the store manager pulls me to her office and tells me how slow I was the day before and if I want to keep working here I need to be very fast. I explained my lack of training and unfamiliarity with the store and she told me if I didn’t know where the clothes were in sections I should come in my free time and memorize where stuff was at. I spent the rest of my shift putting clothes in random f*cking places then never came back for a third shift.

Not my story but my mom's. She left her previous large company looking for a change of pace as she approaches retirement and thought she'd found the ideal place: small, in a field she was already familiar with, family-owned. Due to her expertise (and general view on under-qualified management), she explicitly told the owners (father and son) that she could not work with micro-management, and the more agency she has the better work they'll see- they happily told her it wasn't a problem.

The previous person who had her job was sticking around for 5 business days to show my mom their systems. At that time she found out that every system was outdated by nearly 25 years. Her job also included taking attendance of the employees (ya know, adults??) and publically posting the sheet on a board. Finally, there were weekly all-hands meetings on what everyone was up to and during these meetings, the father relentlessly belittled everyone on their work and personal life

Every second that the previous employee wasn't showing her what to do for the job was filled with horror stories confirming the micro-management was the only constant at the company (high turnover due to hostile work conditions).

My mom's true final straw was when the son who owned the company called her at the end of the day to make sure she was leaving on time. Twice on consecutive days. She ended her employment with them on the second call after 3 days of working there.

It was a small independent insurance agency in 2006. On 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 the 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.

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.

This is gonna get buried, but walking into an Alzheimer's assisted living facility, and seeing my college philosophy professor (who was an inspiring individual for me and changed how l viewed things), sitting in a chair in the Day Room, drooling on himself. I checked with the Head on Duty, and yeah... It was him.

I avoided him as much as I could for the whole day, but when leaving, I told him that he inspired me and I probably wouldn't ever see him again. He was far gone and asked about his slippers.

I left, sat in my car, had a smoke and cried. I didn't go back and found another job.

A long time ago, not long after getting my papers as a chef I had an interview at a hotel for a position in the kitchen. The Executive Chef and I chatted in his office for about 20 mins, at the time I remember him coming off as very arrogant which is quite common in this field, I didn't think much of it at the time as the pay was decent and the shift was what I wanted. As I was leaving his office I turned to leave through the dining room (the way I had come in) which was closed at the time it was another hour or so before service started and he says to me "No not that way, go through the kitchen, you're not good enough to go through the dining room." I was so surprised by what he said, I just did what he asked without a word. Later on after I had got home I phoned him up and said that after having a close look I decided that his menu wasn't good enough and that I wouldn't be accepting his offer.

My first day working at EB games. I was super excited to be there!

The first half of my shift was basically "tidy up the shelves" It was a high traffic location so the shelves ALWAYS need tidying. After 5 hours of following kids around and putting things away I go on break. When I come back my Manager is standing in his strangely empty store absolutely aghast. Staring at a HUGE steaming pile of shi*t on the carpeted floor. Apparently a homeless person had walked in. Without saying a single word he Dropped through and emptied his bowels. My boss looks at me and says. "Oh good, you're back. Just in time. Clean that up, I'm going for lunch." I laughed at him and told him you can't be serious. I'm not going near that. He responds with. "it's your job, I'm taking a break. I want it gone before I get back." I told he's going to have to deal with it on his own because I Don't need this job that bad. So I quit. I grabbed my coat and went home.

1 week later the district manager calls me up to apologize and offer me my job back.

I met a landscaping crew at a 50 acre cemetery at 8:00am. The pay was just $5/hr cash (in 2001), but my hours at Pizza Hut had been cut and I wanted to make a little money before going off to college.

After 3 hours straight of weedeating I couldn’t feel my hands. I was filthy and hot af. It was miserable. I was 18 and headed to a prestigious school in 2 months, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, as they say.

At lunch I told the guy “Hey man, I’m just gonna go home and I’m not coming back.” And he had a totally awesome response “No problem, I wouldn’t want to do this sh*t at your age either, I’ll pay you for the time you worked and drop it off at your house.” $20 showed up about a week later.

I hope life is going good Mr. Sterly.

My S/O worked at Subway for one day. They had just started training him when he walked into the back, looked up, and saw a dozen or so knives hanging from the ceiling. As his trainer was explaining the hilarious game they played of making the knives stick in the ceiling tiles, another employee walked through the doorway and “WOOSH” - a knife fell down and pierced straight through the bill of their hat.

I used to work at a craft store as a cashier but quit when I moved. Ended up going back a couple of 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. The first shift after the 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.

Had an orientation for an alarm company. The next day manager calls and says don't worry about going into the office and meeting at "Planet Hollywood" they like to get to know the employees better over lunch.

The 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” which is how the manager described me. In the same conversation, I found out no one else had ever been invited for a "get to know you" lunch. I'm out!