Employees dramatically quitting their jobs is something we cover often here at Bored Panda, as there are many different ways that situation can go down and the internet certainly has no shortage of fascinating tales. The police might be called, aggressive text messages might be sent, and the company might even miss out on millions of dollars. But sometimes, one particularly traumatic incident can lead to a herd of employees all jumping ship at once.
Earlier this month, Reddit user RealSlicy reached out asking fellow workers of the world what happened at their former places of employment that caused everyone to quit at once, and boy, did people come through with some crazy stories. We’ve compiled some of the most shocking and disturbing incidents that caused people to decide that their mental health, safety, and morals were much more important than a job.
Below, you'll also find interviews we were lucky enough to receive from Penelope Trunk, career counselor and blogger, Craig Ancel, career coach and host of the Career Growth Made Easy podcast, and the person who started this conversation in the first place, RealSlicy on Reddit. Be sure to upvote the stories that get you riled up, and then let us know in the comments if you have ever quit a job under similar circumstances. We would love to hear your personal stories, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring accounts from people who are glad they quit on the spot, check out this story next.
#21
Not my story but my cousin's. They found out that their boss is a child predator who tries to catfish children from roblox during work often. He was reported to the authorities on the same day they quit.
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57points
#22
We worked at a startup with amazing co-founders. Our CEO and COO were the coolest people I've met. Our company was doing well, we were some 6-8 months away from break-even and cash burn was so low, we hadn't needed funding in almost 5 years.
The startup was funded by foreign VCs who had no understanding of local market. They wanted insane growth when the industry we were in just didn't have that kind of growth potential. So the VCs got the co-founders fired.
5 of 8 departmental heads and at least 15% of total employees of the company quit within the next 3 months.
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50points
#23
Worked at a board game cafe, poor management amongst other things was pushing all the staff to quit but we didn't because we liked working together.
Next to the coffee machine we had a couple of sticky notes with doodles we had all drawn, they were very cute and gave a personal touch that made us feel part of the business.
The final straw was when out of the blue our bosses tore these down and chucked them in the bin.
In the next following days every single staff member quit including ones like myself who had been with the business since inception.
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49points
#24
I worked at a restaurant for a few years. The manager was cruel, hot tempered, and did nothing but stand in the small isles between rows of tables with his hands on his waist and elbows out so that effectively couldn’t walk past home carrying food (and had to weave around). It was normal and expected that we work double shifts on the weekend, starting at 6am we’d set up the patio, do dishes, set tables, and deal with whatever the chef “locally foraged” like picking berries off the stems. We’d work 6-3pm, get an hour off, come back from 4pm-11pm.
One day, I was completely slammed and was trying to bus and set up a table that had left. I missed a bit of ketchup that the customer had left on the outside of the bottle when they poured it. He grabbed my arm and said, “what is this f*****g mess? You are a despicable human being.”
Fast forward several months, and they hire a new server who ends up sexually assaulting me. I then hear from his ex that he tried to kill her and he has a felony on his record for this. I approach management and ask that they check his background (because they wouldn’t have hired someone with a felony) and at least for the time being don’t schedule us together. They promptly ignore my request and schedule us to work a wedding together. I left that day.
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47points
#25
worked at a fast food place. poorly managed on a good day, black mold growing on the walls, manager was a pedophile that made me take my break in his office every shift, was only working there because my family was poor & i needed the job. one shift one of my coworkers came in showing us videos of a rap concert she had attended the night before, and my manager called the rapper a series of racial slurs. his whole closing staff walked out right after that, leaving him to close by himself.
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46points
#26
The guy everyone hated became the manager because the lousy CEO played favorites.
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45points
#27
Business largely worked because the owner trusted his employees to do a good job. So the employees did a good job. The business was doing really well and the owner assumed it was all because of him so he started micromanaging everyone's job. People started dropping off like flies because the working conditions became intolerable. The company didn't last very long after that
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45points
#28
Three of us, the engineers, quit the same week and without any discussion between ourselves. Man in charge was an insufferable, insulting twat. This led to the head office losing faith and the whole subsidiary being sold off.
41points
#29
They issued phone lockers. All the lube techs quit except for one but he got high at lunch the next day and got fired. Mind you this was one day after the boss just got back from his dads funeral.
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34points
#30
Manager kept pitching a way to us on breaks and then cut hours of those that didn't sign up under him. We worked in retail at the mall.
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29points