'Either I accept it or I quit': Project director gives employee ultimatum

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 11, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

This worker discovered the hard way what their company's "weird work culture" was all about. It turns out that the culture wasn't focused on work-life balance. Instead, this company just wanted everyone to work from sun up to sun down. 

There will always be some workers who can't help but brag about how much they work. They're the person at a social party who has nothing to share about their life besides being in their cubicle pushing papers. They love to say things like "I worked til 10 PM last night and woke up at 4 AM." This type of worker wants everyone to be impressed by their work ethic, but in the end, they're playing themselves. If you work 40 hours per week, and that person works 80 hours per week, and you both make the same salary… the harder-working person is making half as much per hour. Oftentimes, the company hasn't even asked them to work that hard, but they just have to seem like they're dedicated to their job. You can be good at your job without making it your entire life. 

This person realized the toll that working constantly was having on them. They could hardly sleep, and they spent 12 hours per day minimum at the office. When they tried to inform their company about it, they were helpful at first, but then they turned around and just changed their minds. Check out the full story below. 

Next up, these people told all about their terrible dates, like one person who got taken to a weight-loss seminar on the very first outing. 

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  • 01
    'Our deal is off'
    via Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
  • 02
    Our deal is off, if you don't like it, just quit! I used to work to a company that had a weird "work culture." Everyone (including CEO, directors and the owner) worked way too much, and some would produly say that they could only sleep after drinking because they have so much work they can't tune off. I was working 12h a day,
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 03
    plus commute, all without overtime, while being paid less than market average for 8h. I was dumb, I loved what I did, the company has a big name in my country so it helped build my curriculum and I had the chance of tackling very interesting projects. So, I saw it as a stepping stone to better jobs.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 04
    About 8 months in, though, I started to break. I had stopped exercising and gained weight, my mental health was taking a big dive and I would wake up at 4am thinking about things I wasn't able to finish and then Icouldn't fall back asleep. So, I handed my resignation. The CEO, who I had a good work relationship with, called me in to ask what was
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 05
    going on. My director was present. I was honest. He asked what they could do to keep me in the team. I said we desperadly needed more people in our department (my director nodded) and I had to start working one hour later so I could at least go for a walk every morning. He agreed with both of those things, said that they were already working on the budget to get two
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 06
    more people to our department and he'd ask for RH to post the openings. My director had vacation planned and during that couple of weeks I got to work one hour later, got stincky eyes from my coworkers but oh well, started to feel better. Interviews happened during that time and by the end of the two weeks, we had two new members for our team. Then, on the third
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 07
    week when my director is back, we are all called in to a meeting about two big projects that will require every hand on deck - company was preparing for an IPO and we had to work on it.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 08
    Second day of the week, director calls me for a chat and says I can't be getting in late. I said I wasn't late, my hours were changed to start later, as the talk with CEO. She says that I can't start at a different time than everyone else and that everything was too busy for it anyway. I either accept it or I quit.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 09
    I was sure she felt she could spare me now that we had two new members, or that I wouldn't want to leave because having helped organize an IPO is great for your resume. Not worth it. I quit. She was surprised.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 10
    Notice in my country is usually a month, unless the employer asks you not to go - they'd still pay, but if you're angry or whatever you wouldn't have time to steal information or cause damage. I get to work the next day and find out one of the new hires had also quit, too much work for her. I see
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 11
    my boss calling HR and asking them to cancel the e-mail they had talked about earlier, while throwing glances at me. I am sure she was going to ask me to not show up anymore, but with one person leaving it would be harder to handle everything.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 12
    I keep working as usual, don't want to damage my professional image. They find someone to replace me that week, since they still had resumes from the previous cycle. Second previously-hired person quits.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 13
    Replacement quit, then second replacement showed up and I wasn't allowed to train him in case the first one quit because of something bad I said but he broke a record and gave up after the very first day, all before the end of my third week of notice.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 14
    That week I had gone through a great interview for another company (yay lunch hour) and I believe they called my company for reference. HR must have told my director, since she suddenly started acting friendly to me and would stop my coworkers whenever they made snarky remarks about me leaving - did I mention that the work environmnet there sucked?
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 15
    First day of my fourth week, director calls me and say maybe we were both too harsh in our decisions. That she is willing to allow me to get to work 30m later if I cut my lunch hour by 30m, and she is fine ignoring my quitting since it was clearly a decision made by impulse. I said I would consider staying if she matched my offer from the other
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 16
    company plus 10%, went back to the previously-agreed starting work 1h later and I would have to have everything in writting before the end of the day since I wouldn't want to screw the other company over.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 17
    She said I was doing her dirty (in better terms). Something something hurting the company, no loyalty, think of your future, after everything we have done for you, you are wasting an oportuny, you aren't being professional, why would you even think of quitting.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 18
    When she said that last bit, I smiled and said it was her idea, after all. That we had a deal I was willing to uphold despite everything bad that working there had, but she said the deal was off and if I didn't like it, I should quit, so I just... complied. I didn't like it. I quit.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 19
    We had a third replacement for me that week. I trained her. She lasted 2 weeks. The two extra people for the department were never brought in, as they were trying to cut costs to better prepare for the IPO. 2 months later the whole team was different, except the director, who was there holding strong.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 20
    CEO said he was sad to see me leave but he understood it. HR confirmed to me at my exit interview that he had been talking to owner and directors on how to change the "work culture" they had been cultivating in order to "retain talents" better. HR friend later told me that the owner stopped that nonsense. Oh well, I tried.
    via u/Im_your_life
  • 21
    JoePikesbro "Loyalty to the company." Cracks me up everytime!
    via u/JoePikesbro
  • 22
    mizinamo she is willing to allow me to get to work 30m later Lol. That is already worse than what had previously been agreed. And she's treating it as an improvement?
    via u/mizinamo
  • 23
    if I cut my lunch hour by 30m This takes the cake, though. How could she possibly think that this would be an acceptable offer?
    via u/mizinamo
  • 24
    yellowjacket81 maybe we were both too harsh in our decisions. No, no, I was being perfectly reasonable. You were being stupid.
    via u/yellowjacket81
  • 25
    Bird Brain4101112 I learned the hard way, don't make an ultimatum unless you're going to follow through. She offered an ultimatum and you took it.
    via u/Bird Brain4101112
  • 26
    RJack151 I hope they failed in their IPO attempt and the business ended up shutting down.
    via u/RJack151
  • 27
    walker_strange It's incredible so many people quit so fast! The amount of work must be crazy! :O
    via u/walker_strange
  • 28
    CaspianX2 I was working 12h a day, plus commute, all without overtime This isn't just unethical. It is quite probably illegal unless. you're being paid salary... and given their turnover rate...
    via u/CaspianX2
  • 29
    [deleted] "Look out for your future ". I am, that's why I'm leaving.
    via u/[deleted]

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