If your first day at a new job is a disaster, the place might not be worth a second chance and you better find the nearest exit. Whether it’s the new boss that ruined your day, work conditions that couldn’t have been further from what’s been agreed, or something else completely.
The AskReddit community discussed both of the above and other reasons for leaving a new job nearly instantaneously, which you might find interesting. Here at Bored Panda, we have gathered examples ranging from bizarre to even infuriating, but all ending in the same outcome.
To better understand the importance of proper onboarding procedures, we discussed it with the award-winning human resources specialist and growth coach for start-ups, Daneal Charney. Scroll down for our interview with her.
#1
They forced us to pray together every morning and recite the pledge of allegiance. The only thing I have allegiance to is my 14 year old arthritic dog Bisco. Haha let me know if you guys want to see photos.
289points
#2
They wanted us to make our first sales to friends and family members.
F**k that. If your first option is for me to make money off the people I care about most, there's really nowhere to go but down (morally).
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279points
#3
I had been at a job for more than 4 years, and was desperate to get out. I was doing interviews multiple places, but the one I REALLY wanted hadn't given me an offer. So I picked from the other 3 offers I had. Of course, on my first day, I got the offer from the company I wanted, and it was 25k more than the job I had started that day.
I sat down with my manager and let her know. She was shocked at first, but understood. There were no hard feelings, and she said that if it didn't work out, she would love to have me back. I actually gave her a name of someone to replace me, and that person was hired and is being groomed to be her successor when she retires.
I took the job at the company I wanted, and not 2 hours after signing the offer letter, got a 5th offer offering even more money. Had an Internal crisis, and stayed with the one that I had initially wanted. 17 months later I just got promoted, and I am wildly happy about it.
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268points
Certain companies are not off to a great start with the very first steps. A study carried out by Zippia revealed that nearly 90% of employees think the onboarding process at their workplace could be better. It also uncovered that proper practices can increase the organization’s new employee retention by 82%.
#4
20$ for parking wasn't included in for being an employee. This was when min wage was 11.50.so you work 2 hour and pay your employer. F**k That.
Another place I worked open kitchen caught fire. All the customers could see this. They didn't make anyone leave. They kept putting food out! They expected me to clean up their now burnt kitchen. Nope nope nope.
Another place had defrosted chicken by leaving it outside of the fridge over night. On the floor. During the summer. Rats scurried away from it when we turned on the light. Called the safety department on that one.
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233points
#5
When I was 17 or 18 I started a new job at a popular pet groomer in the area. The girl training me hit a dog twice because she was very roughly brushing him and he was just trying to move away from her. He was tied to the table, so all he could do was try to rotate himself. I said something to her and she said that it was his fault, he wasn’t behaving. When I left, I called the owner and explained what I saw because I was horrified. His response was “Well, if the dog needed to be corrected, then it needed to be corrected”. I thought he must not have understood what I meant and explained again that the dog didn’t become aggressive in any way, he just moved away from the brush. He told me he understood me the first time and meant what he said. I never showed up for my second day. I wish I’d known who the dog belonged to. That would’ve been my next call. This was almost 20 years ago and I’ll never forget it.
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225points
When discussing the most important factors for smooth onboarding, the HR expert Daneal Charney named three key components: a) setting an employee up for success, b) basic know-how/mastery to do the job, and c) creating a sense of belonging and connection to the company and people.
“Setting the employee up for success means giving them the tools, technology, and process they need plus being clear about their accountability and outcomes. In order to ramp them up to productivity, they need to master the basic know-how to do their job, as well as understand your customer, product and industry.”
“Lastly, those manager one-on-ones as well as team get-to-know will build relationships and a sense of belonging. If you’ve done your job right, you’ll be able to retain your employee for at least a year and they will be ready to refer other employees,” Daneal added.
#6
The moment it looked like I was about to score a sale on my very first day, my supervisor swept in and took it, then claimed the commission.
Walked out on the spot.
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209points
#7
Cost of parking was more than the wage. They told me to move my car from the back of the store to an expensive parking deck. I drove home.
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208points
#8
I'm a fish hobbyist and I got a job in the fish department at PetCo. On my first day they wanted me to take out all the rocks (substrate) from each tank, scrub them and put them back in the tanks, one tank at a time. Moving substrate releases bad bacteria and can get the fish sick or [take them out]. I explained this to them and said that it was best to just do a water change for 20% of each tank. They said, basically, sorry this is what corporate says and you have to do it. I was like, "Okay, I'll do it after lunch." I never came back from lunch.
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206points
Day one at a new job is usually an exciting time, showing that the first steps have been completed successfully and marking the beginning of a new chapter. Yet you can never really know how it’s going to go (and these Reddit stories are here to prove it).
If the company hopes for it to be a long-lasting affair, it is important to ensure the new addition to the team feels appreciated. “The first day or first impression is critical to signaling to the employee that they matter. A warm welcome is critical. Making sure they have everything they need and it’s set up. This means that you’ve taken the time to think about their success,” the HR specialist told Bored Panda.
#9
They lowered the rate from what was agreed upon and became upset when I spoke up about it.
188points
#10
This was in the 80s and I was on my first day working at this mall food court place called Au Bon Pain. As soon as I walked in, like an hour before opening, the manager handed me a cardboard box of sliced deli meats and told me to run tap water over all of them until they didn't feel sticky, rebag them, and put a new expiration sticker on them for another 3 days. Then he pointed at like 4 crates of basically rotten oranges, some had a greenish/blue coat of mold on them, and he told me to use them to make the orange juice. I said ok and I was going to go grab some gloves from the stock room and just walked out the back delivery door and never returned.
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186points
#11
It wasn't quite the first day. During the interview I informed them that I would not work on Sunday. The interviewer told me that would be acceptable. During my two week training, I did not have to work on Sundays. My first week after the training, I was scheduled to work that Sunday. I protested and reminded my manager about the agreement during the interview. He informed me that they couldn't always honor it and that I would sometimes be expected to work my fair share of Sundays. I quit on the spot and walked out.
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181points
#12
I started working in a retail shop and hadn't been trained on anything such as tills etc. The only thing I had been told is to great every customer that entered the store within 10 seconds of them entering and ask if they needed any help.
A customer came to me, asked for help and wanted to pay for the item I helped with. As I hadn't been shown how to use the tills yet, I asked the store manager to show me what to do. The manager, in front of said customer, started calling me out for not "knowing how to do my job". It was my first day, I had been there 1.5 hours and hadn't been shown how to do anything in the store.
I met my dad at my lunch, burst into tears and asked him to go to the store and quit for me. I was young, I'd never worked in retail before and I absolutely hated how that manager made me feel.
I started with 4 people on the same day. We had kept in touch and every single one of them left within a couple of weeks of starting. If there's a toxic environment, a bad manager (which can often take longer to figure out) or your gut is screaming at you to leave, do. Don't waste your time being miserable.
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179points
#13
I was specifically told to park in a certain lot to pick up my parking sticker on the first day. My *almost* manager met me at the front of the building to walk me to security and get my sticker and show me around, but was a complete a*****e for about 3 hours. I was asking questions about what's expected/priority (you know, the usual first day stuff) and he just shot down every question so condescendingly. Lunch time comes around, so I walk out to vape real quick / put the f*****g sticker on and guess what? My goddamn car is GONE. Why? They towed my car because I didn't have a sticker yet. I called my sister to pick me up, never went back to that place. $250 to get my f*****g car and a waste of a day.
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174points
#14
They didn't pay some of the workers their salary because of mismanagement (legit boss f****d up and decided that *he* wasn't gonna have his 6 figure salary deducted) and tried to make me sign a contract where my salary is less than what was agreed upon. BONUS: they also added two extra jobs in my position that I had to do and apparently I am to be on-call at all times.
I was desperate but I wasn't stupid.
You know it's bad when even before I could unpack at my new desk three co-workers came up and warned me to read my contract carefully AND told me it sucked to work here.
I wasn't even there for 30 minutes.
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168points
#15
I had a telemarketing job where I had to pay 75$ up front, and forgo commission for the first month. I said “F**k this s**t”, gave them all the finger as I walked out. A friend left 30 minutes later. It was some illegal call center in an apartment. The building still pisses me off walking by it.
166points
#16
They sent me to a room to do a bunch of on-boarding paperwork and those incredibly dull orientation videos companies love so much. Less than 10 minutes into it the manager comes in and tells me they need to cover the sales floor immediately because I was the only person for the department that day.
No training, no computer logins, no idea where anything in the building was or who any of the dozens of other people wandering around were or even what was really expected of me. Just go and solo a department that usually had between five and eight staff at any time.
I gave it a shot for like 45 minutes, and realized the whole place was staffed by miserable entitled f***s who went out of their way to avoid work. I just walked out without saying anything.
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165points
#17
Was supposed to be an office job, straight salary. Got there the first day and it turned out to be door to door sales, commission only. Not even people who had expressed interest; just literally cold calling but in person at their door instead of on the phone. Didn't even stay to hear the end of their explanation of how really if you think about it this *is* the job they advertised and interviewed me for, just *better* because (I don't know, some b******t, as I said, I had left by then).
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165points
#18
I was promised $17 an hour. I showed up for my first training day and started on paperwork. The onboarding documents said “$7.00 an hour plus average weekly tips equaling an average of $17 an hour”. Got up and walked out.
158points
#19
When I was in high school I got a job at an oil change place. I took the drug test and passed and got my start date. As I was getting ready to leave my house for my first day of work, I got a call from the local park maintenance director asking if I would be interested in joining their maintenance team for the summer. I already had a friend who worked there and already knew the maintenance director since she had helped me do my Eagle Scout project. I accepted that position and called up the oil change place and quit. The park job was guaranteed to be 40 hours a week during the summer and I worked there for 4 summers, making enough to sustain myself during the school year without a job. The work wasn’t bad either, clearing trails, mowing, spreading mulch, picking up trash. The oil change place was not happy but ended up hiring a friend of mine who eventually got into hard drugs after trying them with people who work there. I think I made the right choice.
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154points
#20
Slowly started changing the terms of employment during the day.
Started off "10 hour days 5 days a week £8/hour"
Shifted to "sometimes you have to work weekends too"
Then "actually it's crunch season right now so we're going to expect you to work Saturday and Sunday this week"
Then "actually we'll need you to stay Saturday and Sunday most weeks"
Then "You'll be working Saturday and Sunday for the foreseeable future"
Then "We'll need you to stay a few hours after work today"
Then "Actually you'll be working 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week for the next 6 months"
Yeah nope.
Started off "10 hour days 5 days a week £8/hour"
Shifted to "sometimes you have to work weekends too"
Then "actually it's crunch season right now so we're going to expect you to work Saturday and Sunday this week"
Then "actually we'll need you to stay Saturday and Sunday most weeks"
Then "You'll be working Saturday and Sunday for the foreseeable future"
Then "We'll need you to stay a few hours after work today"
Then "Actually you'll be working 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week for the next 6 months"
Yeah nope.
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150points