The first day on the job can be nerve-wracking, with all that built-up anticipation after interviewing, training, and uncertainty. You show up, perhaps ignorant, but ready to learn what this job has in store for you.
But one netizen really wanted to hear others' stories of realizing that the only thing their new job had to offer was pain and misery, so they asked the internet to describe the least time people had spent working at a specific position and why. So read through some tales from horrible workplaces and be sure to upvote your favorites and if you have a story that is similar, don’t hesitate to share in the comments section below.
#1
I'm a vet tech. I quit a clinic after about 3 weeks when the doctor told me to start reusing needles. He wanted me to pull up a vaccine, administer it, ,the pull the next vaccine up into the same syringe with the same needle and repeat.
That was the final straw.
The first straw was finding out that we (it was a small practice with 2 other techs and 1 receptionist) were required to bring our own toilet paper to work :)
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197points
#2
15 minutes. Applied for and accepted a job that was advertised as solely data entry, evening shifts. Got there, did the quick intro/meet and greet thing and was handed a mobile phone.
No word of a lie, supervisor goes "It's actually a cold calling role, no-one would apply if we said that so we tell people it's data entry."
I went sorry, what?
He goes yeah, we cold call people for this idea my friend has asking for investors! You'll get a commission if you do well!
At that point in time I was a salty, snarky young lady so I told him to shove it, that this was probably illegal in so many, many, ways, I applied for data entry not cold calling and swindling people, etc etc. Called my dad to come pick me up and never looked back - took a legit data entry offer the next day.
So. Yeah. Uh... 15 minutes. Found out many years later that dude and the friend with the great idea both got done on some serious fraud charges shortly after my run in with them.
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185points
#3
About 5 minutes after being hired. Enough time to be shown around by the director of nursing and meet the admin. I introduced myself and he said "Why should I care?" I just went f**k this and walked out.
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175points
While the time-frames in this story truly do range from months to minutes, the average job tenure has been steadily declining in recent years, as in the US it now stands at just two years. While younger workers might see this as completely reasonable, remember that in the “recent past,” real or imagined, people might spend a decade working the exact same job, without a thought of switching it up or getting a promotion.
Indeed, these workplaces do appear to be the worst of the worst, and kudos to these people for understanding the sunk cost fallacy and leaving before any permanent damage was done. While employees of the past may have been more skeptical about simply leaving, in this day and age, now up to one-third of workers have stated a willingness to quit, if needed, without another job lined up.
#4
One week. Worked as a delivery driver for a national pizza chain in high school. Got my first paycheck at the end of the week and it was stupidly low. I reported my tips. They deducted them from my hourly wage. Took off my shirt right in front of my manager, and literally walked across the parking lot to the Chinese place with a “drivers wanted” sign in the window. I started driving for them the next day.
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156points
#5
Babysitting job as a 6th grader for a baby/toddler and the dad came home during lunch and tried to get me in the bedroom with a nudie magazine. I was terrified.
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156points
#6
While I was a studying to be a nurse I worked as a nursing assistant.
I got employed by this aged care facility - this wasn't my first job in this role and I was almost finished nursing so I had experience and knowledge.
The conditions were absolutely horrific.
They had a woman laying in her urine constantly - only changing the pad twice a day. She had developed a fungal infection and they were only treating it with steroids for the redness and not the actual fungal infection.
They had a woman laying in her urine constantly - only changing the pad twice a day. She had developed a fungal infection and they were only treating it with steroids for the redness and not the actual fungal infection.
There was 2 person assist we were doing with a resident and she had to hold on to bars to help stand herself up and it had wheels to move her. I assessed she didn't have the strength and refused to do it. The other aid did it by herself and the woman got a skin tear from not being able to hold herself up.
There was a woman there with a broken wrist from being dressed that morning.
There's a heap of other stuff that happened on that one shift but holy s**t.
I've never quit after one shift and reported a facility so fast.
I've never quit after one shift and reported a facility so fast.
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153points
While certain jobs do rely on horrible conditions to cut costs, this is ultimately a losing strategy in the long run. The average cost of replacing a worker is around $16’000, factoring in the time the position stays open, the need to train them (or the lack of productivity from an untrained worker) as well as the extra time and work for the hiring manager. Common sense would dictate that in most high-turnover jobs, this is not going to be the case, but all the more reason for workers to stay away.
#7
I had an interview that was unlike any other interview I’ve ever had. It was a room full of other applicants and the “interviewer.” The interviewer was telling us about the job, asked if anyone had any questions, then said we were all hired. I didn’t fill any paperwork out thank goodness. After he said we were all hired, half the people including myself walked out. The job was to go door to door selling knives, and we would have to pay $2k for our demo set of knives. Nope! No thanks!
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146points
#8
4 hours. Took a job working as a computer operator at a casino only to be told after orientation that I would be working a split shift twice a day, every holiday, and every weekend. I went home called back and quit. They threw a fit and asked who would cover that weekend as they all had vacation and I said I didn’t know because I didn’t work there anymore. Years later someone I worked with at another job and who had worked at the casino found out I had worked there and said “YOURE THE GUY!!! THEY HAAAAATE YOU THERE.” lol
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145points
#9
1 day thru a temp agency. They had me 15+ feet high, up on a cherry picker with no harness loading 60 pound pales of reflective roofing paint onto the picker. I would have refused but I was broke and needed gas money to keep looking for another job 😆. Anxiety was thru the roof even after I had ended the day. I reported them to OSHA.
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143points
While there still are a lot of old-fashioned ideas about working environments, where toxic managers will see unpaid overtime and safety-rules-violating policies as a “feature, not a bug.” But many studies do indicate that most managers are aware of how poor working conditions directly lead to burnout. This means that some subset of them simply choose to ignore it and let people burn out anyway.
#10
i started dishwashing at a hotel. morning shift 6am to 3pm. partway through my shift they said the night guy called in and asked if i could cover it. partway through that shift they said the night security guy called in. told me it would be super easy i’d just need to carry some keys and a radio and they would let me stay in a room. i made it through the night and managed to show up for my 6am shift in the kitchen. the manager walks in and starts with “the other dishwasher just called in. can you—“ at that point i f*****g lost it and threw whatever i had in my hands across the room and walked out. twenty six hours on the clock
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131points
#11
I quit Tim's because I had no idea where to go. I went to my first day, and they told me I was at the wrong location, so I walked to the one they sent me to, and I was told that there were no new people starting. Then I tried calling the person who hired me, so they gave me a number to call to find out the right Tim's. I get to the one I'm told to go to, but they don't have anyone starting that day either. I get a call from the Tim's I'm "supposed" to be at, asking where I am, I ask them their address, and then I get back to the first one I was at! I went in and explained my situation and was told that they aren't the one either. I'm just standing there with a stupid look on my face, so I left to go to the park and sit on my phone, calling, texting, emailing for a couple hours, just to be told to go to the one that sent me away twice already.
My shortest time "working" was the four hours I spent playing hide and go seek with Tim Hortons.
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120points
#12
Within 30 min of finishing/filing all the HR paperwork. I sat down at my new desk, opened my backpack and started organizing all the books I brought when my new boss came over and made a comment that didn't sit well with me. He expressed his disappointment in me for not filling out the paperwork with a "sense of urgency" and said he hopes this isn't a habit. When he left to go back to his office, I opened up my email and wrote a brief paragraph to the effect of "I can see you run a tight ship here. I don't believe this is a good fit for either of us." I packed up my books and walked out the front door. Again, literally 30 min. Turns out, this was the best decision I could have made, as I almost immediately found a new job that paid 40% more. The job I walked out on paid $58k as an IT Field Engineer. I went on to work as an Infrastructure Engineer, my job until this day. $81K start, 100% WFH.
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115points
The dirty not-so-little secret is that many bosses are aware that what they are doing is wrong, if not illegal. But once one makes the decision that the bottom line is all that matters, then it doesn’t matter how unhappy the average worker is. This is why most of the people in these stories did the right thing, as in most cases it will not “get better” and it’s not worth getting used to.
#13
10 minutes. Walmart. Shoe Department.
Shift trainer: (gestures vaguely at a shoe department where there were HUNDREDS of shoes thrown haphazardly onto the floor by some goofball kids running wild up and down every aisle) Clean this. All of this. Put it all away. And if you don’t finish before you leave, I’m clocking you out and you’re staying until it’s done.
“Sounds good.” As soon as the shift trainer went down a different aisle, I took off the vest/lanyard and speed-walked right out the door to my car.
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108points
#14
I worked for Buc-ees in Texas for 2 days. During the interview they told me that if I had exposed tattoos I would have to wear compression sleeves to cover them or wear a long sleeve. On my first day of training I showed up in compression sleeves. Everytime I would reach across the counter to check someone out the compression sleeve would come down on my arm a little revealing a portion of the tattoo I had on my elbow. Eventually the manager noticed this and gave me a verbal warning for it, then on my break that day I took my compression sleeves off while I had my lunch, and the manager came through the break room, saw that I had my sleeves off and gave me a written warning.
The next day I came in in a long sleeve shirt, hoping to avoid the same issues. I reached across the counter and the tattoo on my wrist poked out. The manager then told me that she thinks I’m an idiot for getting tattoos on my arms and that if I couldn’t manage to keep them covered 100% during my duties she would fire me. I left that night and never went back.
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105points
#15
In college, I got a summer job at SeaRay boats through a temp agency. Showed up first thing and they had me sit in the break room which was on the 2nd floor, overlooking the entire plant. Waited an hour for someone to come get me and heard a commotion. Looked out and 3-4 people were running out, because a dude cut off his middle and ring fingers with a sawzall. The dude behind him had his fingers in a towel. At the time, I wasn’t what you might call tool handy. So I noped right the f**k out.
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97points
In some cases, the netizens that responded to the initial question probably avoided actual physical harm. High-risk environments are acceptable if the worker is cognizant of the dangers and consents to them. Underwater welders and telecommunications technicians are well-paid jobs for a reason, however, they tend to involve intensive training. Sending a kid from a temp agency to do a similar job is a recipe for disaster.
#16
I worked at a hotel for a matter of 3 hours because I listened to the hotel manager talk on the phone about wanting to strangle and murder a staff member. I was taking a training course on the computer, immediately got up and did not return. He seemed off before that and that did it in for me.
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92points
#17
Late 80s. Dishwasher for a big chain restaurant. Super busy, at the end of the night, we mop the whole kitchen area. Then the chef comes around with a giant flashlight looking under everything. If he finds a single thing he doesn't like, I have to mop the whole floor again. Well, he keeps finding stuff. After the 3rd time, I told him to stick it. Was making $3.35 an hour.
89points
#18
8 hours/1 shift. I was working for a temp agency and they were very specific about what we could and couldn't do for light industrial work. The big one was ladders; we were not to go higher than 8 feet. The agency also set our hours for us, and any changes would need to go through them.
So they send me to a warehouse that makes plastic frames for windows. It's August in the south, and the place has no AC. The entire space reeks from the furnace that melts the plastic and extrudes it into the various molds. My job was to do an updated inventory count. I was contracted to do first shift (7 am-3 pm). My supervisor starts off by saying that starting tomorrow, I should come in at 2 am to start that day's count because it is so much easier to do when it is cool. I told him that he'd have to clear that change with the temp agency. He replied "No, it's fine, we do it all the time." I then asked if I would be getting a pay bump because that's technically 3rd shift, and those workers get paid more. He immediately changed the subject.
As the shift goes on, I'm partnered with a veteran, and we have to count everything on the shelves. The shelves go up to @ 20 feet, so he drives over a scissor lift. No straps, no safety harness. I look at him and tell him that the temp agency only lets me go up on ladders no taller than 8 feet. He told me to get on and just not tell them. He wants me to lean waaaaay out over the edge of the lift to count frames.
I finished the shift, drove home, and called the temp agency. I told them about the unauthorized change in schedule and the unsafe working conditions and told them I would not be returning.
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88points
#19
“You’re a girl, you can sweep.” F**k you Frank. I walked off and never went back. I was in my early twenties working for a big box store.
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88points
#20
Walmart. Around 10 days in there was a psycho who broke into the gun case resulting in an active shooter alarm. Hid in the freezer and quit on the spot once it was over.
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87points