Ultimatums have a way of backfiring. Whether it’s a parent laying down a new house rule or a CEO demanding that employees fall in line, the phrase “If you don’t like it, leave” is usually meant to silence dissent—but sometimes, those words are just an empty threat. So Reddit user Yeah_nah90 asked for stories about times when people decided to call the bluff and received thousands of descriptions of walkouts that completely changed the mood of the room.
#41
Girl scouts.
Our new troop leader in 2nd grade was incredibly sexist. She took over the camping trip planned by the previous leader and brought her two younger sons along.
Instead of a campsite, we pitched tents in a gravel parking lot. Her boys needed an RV to sleep in you see.
The fry up we'd planned, purchased and prepared in advance was thrown out. Her boys wanted pancakes. And so on.
Her boys wanted to go rock climbing. That soumded pretty good. We hadn't prepared permission forms or safety gear for 21 girls, so we sat in the hot Texas sun in July while they climbed. We were not allowed to walk to fetch water to drink without an escort, and they needed both adults to guide and belay. 4 hours with no shade and no water.
She cancelled every activity we'd planned in preference for her sons' whims and then excluded us from it, "because girls don't like doing things like that." Protesting that maybe we did like catching tadpoles or whatever was met with a "well, little girls *shouldn't* like things like that."
It got worse from there. Finally the new leader said "If you don't like the way I lead, you can always leave."
The next meeting saw that everyone but her daughter, her daughter's best friend, and me had left the troop. My parents were certain I was making s**t up until we arrived and no one else did. I didn't have a history of that, but they were so sure no camp out could really have gone so badly.
Our new troop leader in 2nd grade was incredibly sexist. She took over the camping trip planned by the previous leader and brought her two younger sons along.
Instead of a campsite, we pitched tents in a gravel parking lot. Her boys needed an RV to sleep in you see.
The fry up we'd planned, purchased and prepared in advance was thrown out. Her boys wanted pancakes. And so on.
Her boys wanted to go rock climbing. That soumded pretty good. We hadn't prepared permission forms or safety gear for 21 girls, so we sat in the hot Texas sun in July while they climbed. We were not allowed to walk to fetch water to drink without an escort, and they needed both adults to guide and belay. 4 hours with no shade and no water.
She cancelled every activity we'd planned in preference for her sons' whims and then excluded us from it, "because girls don't like doing things like that." Protesting that maybe we did like catching tadpoles or whatever was met with a "well, little girls *shouldn't* like things like that."
It got worse from there. Finally the new leader said "If you don't like the way I lead, you can always leave."
The next meeting saw that everyone but her daughter, her daughter's best friend, and me had left the troop. My parents were certain I was making s**t up until we arrived and no one else did. I didn't have a history of that, but they were so sure no camp out could really have gone so badly.
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35points
#42
New management was hired and took over scheduling (from me, who was covering for a now-gone manager) without understanding any of the intracacies of scheduling. After two weeks we had an all-staff meeting to address grievances based on her incredibly poor method of scheduling, and she refused to back down, dropping the famous ultimatum.
Out of a staff of 40 or so employees, I think maybe half a dozen stayed.
Out of a staff of 40 or so employees, I think maybe half a dozen stayed.
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34points
#43
Well I wasn't here for this one unfortunately, but my high school English class had this scenario.
The senior AP English teacher was notorious in my graduating class for not really giving a d**n about a lot of the students. From the way I was told, they were going over quizzes to which the teacher started going over some vague subjective response and how it was wrong. The students started arguing and the conversation came full circle to where the teacher started agreeing with the students. Once he realized this he started backing off that answer and correcting students again, causing more frustration.
This resulted in a student saying, "Theres no point in learning this if we're wrong even if we were right at one point."
"Well if theres any of you who don't find this valuable, you can stand up and leave the classroom."
2 students of 28 remained. I was absent cause I was sick, but what a sight it would have been.
The senior AP English teacher was notorious in my graduating class for not really giving a d**n about a lot of the students. From the way I was told, they were going over quizzes to which the teacher started going over some vague subjective response and how it was wrong. The students started arguing and the conversation came full circle to where the teacher started agreeing with the students. Once he realized this he started backing off that answer and correcting students again, causing more frustration.
This resulted in a student saying, "Theres no point in learning this if we're wrong even if we were right at one point."
"Well if theres any of you who don't find this valuable, you can stand up and leave the classroom."
2 students of 28 remained. I was absent cause I was sick, but what a sight it would have been.
34points
#44
Not everyone but.
Owner of a small town bar I worked at in Washington got drunk in said bar and started yelling at me in front of customers and all. This guy was notorious for being kinda weird and didn't like that I was working at another place in Oregon 45 minutes away. I told him he was overreacting, he told me if I really thought that I could leave, so I grabbed my bar tools and left 1/3 of the way through my shift.
Owner of a small town bar I worked at in Washington got drunk in said bar and started yelling at me in front of customers and all. This guy was notorious for being kinda weird and didn't like that I was working at another place in Oregon 45 minutes away. I told him he was overreacting, he told me if I really thought that I could leave, so I grabbed my bar tools and left 1/3 of the way through my shift.
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33points
#45
Not quite everyone leaving but I attended Edgefest in Barrie one year on Canada Day. The band Cake was playing on the main stage a few acts before the closer who was Nickelback at the height of “How you remind me”‘s popularity.
Cake seemed to be pissed off that many Nickelback fans were present and started making a bunch of anti-Canada jokes. On Canada day this was a recipe for disaster so some water bottles started to be tossed towards the stage. After one got a bit too close, the lead singer of Cake stopped in the middle of a song and told the crowd “if any of us gets hit by a bottle we will leave the stage and not come back”. I swear about 10000 water bottles simultaneously got chucked at the stage and they were booed right off.
Cake seemed to be pissed off that many Nickelback fans were present and started making a bunch of anti-Canada jokes. On Canada day this was a recipe for disaster so some water bottles started to be tossed towards the stage. After one got a bit too close, the lead singer of Cake stopped in the middle of a song and told the crowd “if any of us gets hit by a bottle we will leave the stage and not come back”. I swear about 10000 water bottles simultaneously got chucked at the stage and they were booed right off.
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33points
#46
My lecturer wanted us to have an extra class (online) after the exams because we had missed a lesson during the semester. We asked him if he could at least move it to the afternoon but he insisted it be at 9am. So everyone logged into classroom but only two people were answering his questions, he then decided to take the register and everyone was present. Then he said, " I'm not forcing anyone to be here, if you don't want to participate in the lesson, go!" Everyone logged out immediately except me because I had gone to the bathroom, when I came back, I found him calling for my name. He later logged out and sent me the ppt of the lesson.
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31points
#47
My old management team had rearranged my whole schedule/made a lot of changes and taken me off one of the areas I worked hard to get into better shape to a start from scratch again somewhere new. Handing my other project over to newer team members. They announced this at a meeting with everyone present where it soon transpired I was the only one who wasn’t aware in advance of these changes. I went to speak privately with a manager and explained they had changed all my working day/hours and placements without even mentioning it could be a possibility- alongside some other things. She exclaimed ‘this is your job and you will go where we tell you when we tell you. If you don’t like that then leave’ I handed my notice in. They spent a while asking my to reconsider but to be honest this was the straw that broke the camels back and I’m so glad I left. Although I do remember taking a walk later that evening and thinking to myself ‘d**n I’m technically unemployed’ but I solved it before my notice period ended.
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31points
#48
Have not seen it, but was told. In one camp, where I worked back in 2018, a year before the camp was super understaffed, and the pay was s**t. People started messing up because they were tired, fed up, and didn't give a s**t.
Than, the camp director requested a meeting to see what was the problem.
And instead of helping the staff who held the camp from falling apart, he started to insult, bellitle and threathen to them. Like a f*****g tirade. The last thing he said "Who doesn't like it here, can get up and leave"...
Everyone except the managers and the director walked out, and then the s**t hit the fan. People started to leave, and by the end of the week, the camp was almost empty.
The company was then forced to hire much more people, give them a minimum paycheck of a average pay in a state, and the director? Who knows where he went, but was fired.
Than, the camp director requested a meeting to see what was the problem.
And instead of helping the staff who held the camp from falling apart, he started to insult, bellitle and threathen to them. Like a f*****g tirade. The last thing he said "Who doesn't like it here, can get up and leave"...
Everyone except the managers and the director walked out, and then the s**t hit the fan. People started to leave, and by the end of the week, the camp was almost empty.
The company was then forced to hire much more people, give them a minimum paycheck of a average pay in a state, and the director? Who knows where he went, but was fired.
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29points
#49
I once took a job waiting tables at a national chicken wing chain. Was in training for the first week. Training involved shadowing another server and gradually taking on more and more table waiting responsibilities until you were doing the whole d**n deal while your trainer observed.
I made it to day two.
After handing a couple tables entirely on my own, I collected the tips left behind and put them in my apron. As I walked by my trainer (who was literally just sitting at the bar while I did her job) she held her hand out... and expected every single dollar I had just collected. I asked if she was even going to tip me out. Nope.
So I went to the manager to get explain how unjust this absolute b******t was and her response?
“If you don’t like it, leave”.
I dropped my apron and shirt at her feet and f*****g left.
I made it to day two.
After handing a couple tables entirely on my own, I collected the tips left behind and put them in my apron. As I walked by my trainer (who was literally just sitting at the bar while I did her job) she held her hand out... and expected every single dollar I had just collected. I asked if she was even going to tip me out. Nope.
So I went to the manager to get explain how unjust this absolute b******t was and her response?
“If you don’t like it, leave”.
I dropped my apron and shirt at her feet and f*****g left.
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28points
#50
I work for a hoisting/transport contracting company at a large refinery and for the most part its very relaxed. Basically it's more cost effective to have more than enough people just incase something goes wrong so a lot of the time we just sit around waiting for something to do.
My foreman for some reason doesn't like this and thinks we all have it too easy (even though he is totally redundant and literally not needed at all here) and was telling one of the guys one day that "maybe he needs to go to the yard (our hq/main office we are dispatched from and all our equipment is stored) and see what a *real job* is like".
So he did.
He called the office and transfered there permanently and our foreman on site lost his f*****g mind. He didn't even say anything about it for weeks but we all knew what happened. One day I even asked if (guy that left) was on vacation or something. He just mumbled "yeah something like that".
My foreman for some reason doesn't like this and thinks we all have it too easy (even though he is totally redundant and literally not needed at all here) and was telling one of the guys one day that "maybe he needs to go to the yard (our hq/main office we are dispatched from and all our equipment is stored) and see what a *real job* is like".
So he did.
He called the office and transfered there permanently and our foreman on site lost his f*****g mind. He didn't even say anything about it for weeks but we all knew what happened. One day I even asked if (guy that left) was on vacation or something. He just mumbled "yeah something like that".
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18points