‘I got to spend the next hour cleaning up 96 broken eggs’: 20+ “I don’t get paid enough for this” moments that made people rethink their jobs

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 9, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

It's a thought that crosses everyone's mind at times: "I don't get paid enough to deal with this nonsense." Some days at work make you take out your phone calculator to figure out how much you're getting paid by the minute or second. When you've had an off day, it's easy to start fantasizing about future careers that'll line your pockets better.

A lot of times, the most physically demanding jobs also pay the least. Jobs where you're dealing with fuming customers also seem to pay peanuts. Meanwhile, folks with cushy office jobs often make five, six, or even seven figures annually, and they don't even have to stand all day or get yelled at by angry customers! It's just not fair, and there's not much to be done about it except heading to a job site to put your application in.

More than 13,000 people revealed their moments of "I don't get paid enough for this" in response to u/sprite_is_spicy's question on r/AskReddit. Check out some of the funniest answers down below!

Next up, this foreman was surprised when one of his employees stood up to him to declare that no, they would not be working unpaid overtime. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10358262784
    via Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
  • 02
    What was your 'I don't get paid enough for this' moment at work?
    via u/sprite_is_spicy
  • 03
    Mi... Got change thrown in my face at work because a man was upset we didn't have meatballs. Now if I'm working he'll come in, see me, and walk out Edit: I work at subway lol
    via u/Mitchyrex
  • 04
    kadno When I worked at McDonald's, I found out we didn't get paid for closing. We got paid until the store closed, so if it took us an extra hour or two to close, that was unpaid. I wish I knew what I know now, because that is an open and shut case, but at the time, I was young and dumb.
    via u/kadno
  • 05
    My first paycheck, I noticed I had a ton of missing hours. So when I asked my boss about it, she told me we only get paid until the store closed.... So that night, I walked out when the store closed. They tried to guilt me into staying, because "the other team members need me" . That. I don't work for free, sorry. Especially when I'm already making minimum wage. No thanks, not gonna happen
    via u/kadno
  • 06
    [d... Psycho camp director lost her on all of the lifeguards because we said we weren't coming back next summer. Reality was we all had legit reasons. I was goi g to take summer courses to graduate early, another guard was moving to university and was going to work in that city, another guard got offered a head guard spot at a camp near
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    her house, etc. Nothing that said we hated the current camp, just other things going on. We were told in a group meeting if we weren't happy there we could leave and she would find other guards. Following Friday she calls us all in to tell us what a great job we are doing and how happy everyone is going to the lake.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    Tuesday after that she calls us in individually to tell us we aren't working hard enough and she sees us slacking off all the time. Lunchtime Tuesday all the guards walked into her office, told her to go herself in front of the owner of the camp, and we all piled into my Ford Focus and went for beer.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 09
    Went home that night to message from camp owner asking us to give him a call back (we all chatted and realized he had called all of us). Called him the following day, told him what went down. He asked us to reconsider and that he would give us a $5 an hour raise and report directly to him. We discussed it and agreed on the condition that psycho
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    director apologized to us at a collective staff meeting. She refused and had a tantrum. Camp owner fired her on the spot, escorted her off the property and we opened the lake back up. you Barb.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    salegarce I make $13/hour. On an ambulance. Everyday is an "I don't get paid enough for this" moment.
    via u/salegarce
  • 12
    MeatSpace2000 I was working late, like 2am in the office. My manager, said let's go to the convenience store to buy some snacks and smokes. She sits in the back and we drive there. After we get our she says can we swing by (this street intersection) real quick.
    via u/MeatSpace2000
  • 13
    When we get to that intersection, I guess she see's a car that belongs to someone she knows, parked infront of her boyfriends house. She starts to wail, cry and kick around in the backseat. While my bewildered just holds the steering wheel, with a stupid look on my face.
    via u/MeatSpace2000
  • 14
    After 20 minutes of that we drive back to the office, I drop her off and I go home.
    via u/MeatSpace2000
  • 15
    Im_a_mouse_duh Worked at a fast food place about 13 years ago. This lady in the drive thru claimed she was missing a sandwich. Our policy was to ask for the bags back to verify. I asked to see the bags (3 or 4, decent sized order) and instead of handing them back like a civilized human being she instantly started raging and throwing the food into the
    via u/Im_a_mouse_duh
  • 16
    window while cussing me out! Guess what one of the items that she threw at me was? Yep, said missing sandwich.
    via u/Im_a_mouse_duh
  • 17
    [deleted] My boss insisted that everybody be at their desks at 8:30 sharp. She made me take roll on an attendance sheet and hand it into her everyday. She also made me do it at lunch time (when everybody left and came back) and when they left at night. Took roll for a bunch of adults three times a day. I don't work there anymore.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    wa... We used to be paid half- salary to attend seminars related to our industry that grant Professional Development Hours. These seminars would often be at 7am at a hotel that was about a 2 hour drive for me (if I was lucky) in rush hour traffic to get to, but hey it was paid and had free breakfast, so waking up at 4:30 to attend wasn't the
    via u/walkingcarpet23
  • 19
    worst thing in the world. The company announced that they believed attending the seminars was furthering our knowledge, therefore helping the company, and therefore helping us, so we would no longer be paid to attend them but were still expected to go? I just said that and haven't attended a single one since then and delete all
    via u/walkingcarpet23
  • 20
    the invite emails. I'm paid hourly, so taking the ~6 hours out of my day to drive and attend a seminar I am not being paid for is just plain stupid. I was asked why I haven't gone to any and told them I have a mortgage to pay. Haven't been asked to go again since.
    via u/walkingcarpet23
  • 21
    [deleted] When my boss screamed at me for something they got wrong.. This was a couple hours after two coworkers almost came to blows because one of them left their phone overnight and the other, the first person to arrive in the shop, used it to send a prank text to another co- worker but didn't want to admit it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Morganelefay I work in security, and a bit under a year ago, I worked at some kind of public TV event. My job was to keep people without passes out of a specific area which was intended for those working behind the scenes to kick back and relax and get their lunches and all that.
    via u/Morganelefay
  • 23
    Anyway, only ones I was allowed entrance were people with passes and other security folks. But then word from above came that the exception was to be made for some kind of supposedly famous child music group. I had no clue what they looked like, so 4 kids and their parents walk up and I stop them.
    via u/Morganelefay
  • 24
    "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO THESE ARE" quickly followed, eventually it got cleared up... ...and every time after they kept bringing in more friends and family members and the same song and dance continued. Eugh.
    via u/Morganelefay
  • 25
    Ta... "I don't think you understand what a contract means, besides, this is an opportunity for you!" - when the new manager tried to move me to night shifts- weekend from my day shifts-working days despite. my contract being very specific about when I worked.
    via u/TastyDuck
  • 26
    "Hey, you were right, this is a big opportunity for me!" was how I opened when I told her I was quitting. The look of shock and 15 mins of silence on her part were hilarious and the best feeling interval of my entire life when she realized I had thrown her own stupid words back at her.
    via u/TastyDuck
  • 27
    frnoss The time I went to sleep under my desk at work at 5 am because I needed to be back at my desk for an 8am call. I had promised myself a long time ago that I would never sleep under my desk. I would go home, or just work straight through, but I wouldn't do that. I only lived a 12 minute walk home, but
    via u/frnoss
  • 28
    that night I realized that getting those extra 24 minutes of sleep were worth not going home. I was so sad about it. I am a corporate lawyer, we had been working (literally) around the clock for days on a deal that was going sideways. This was a Wednesday -> a Thursday morning, but I had been there until 3am Sunday night, 5am Monday night,
    via u/frnoss
  • 29
    6am Tuesday night, and had been back in the office by 9am every day. That's when I knew I needed to quit...but I'm still here a year and change later, oops.
    via u/frnoss
  • 30
    sangred0 Was working the registers at a grocery store. About an hour before closing, a customer comes to my lane with 2 48-ct egg cartons. Stumbles a bit putting them onto the belt, and before I can react the entire thing was on the ground.
    via u/sangred0
  • 31
    Best part? Apparently the janitor had left already, so I got to spend the next hour cleaning up 96 broken eggs with nothing but paper towels.
    via u/sangred0
  • 32
    fu... I had an emergency, last minute 20,000 word translation that needed to be done in under 24 hours. The usual output for a translator is 2,000 words per day (including proofreading and editing). I don't know. how, but I managed to bash it out. Not my best quality. translation ever, but I got it done.
    via u/funpowder_plot
  • 33
    Edit, I'd like to point out that I did get many thanks from my actual boss. I also just remembered I did get a thank you email.
    via u/funpowder_plot
  • 34
    _V... I was being sent all over the province to give leaflets to people. We're talking about an average of 4 hours of travel and 3 or 4 different bus and trains per day to get there and back home. I tried to tell my boss if they could just tell me where I wasn't supposed to go because we'd already left leaflets there, but they insisted I just kept going to that specific
    via u/_Valkyrja_
  • 35
    part of the province, and said that they were going to keep sending me there and further north... Which meant that I was gonna spend even more time per day travelling. To walk for hours and hours for 300 euro and 50 cents per "correctly delivered" leaflet.
    via u/_Valkyrja_
  • 36
    I called them and said "look, this isn't gonna cut it, I'm not gonna waste your time, I quit". They told me "well you're gonna travel for hours anyway" but I quit nonetheless. I now travel a grand total of 20 minutes of trains per day. Who's travelling for hours now, suckers?
    via u/_Valkyrja_
  • 37
    babybeewanderlust I have to render at least three hours of OT to get everything done within the deadline and we get no OT or holiday pay
    via u/babybeewanderlust
  • 38
    i... Was working at a checkout during a hot Australian summer (can't remember exact temp, maybe around 40+ C?) a few years back, and store policy meant we had to wear long pants regardless of the weather. I was maybe 15, so was super cheap labour and had long hours. Almost fainted at one point (I was super small for my age and had loads of
    via u/babybeewanderlust
  • 39
    people buying bulk soft drinks and putting them on the conveyor instead of keeping them in the trolley, so I had to deal with lifting all that heavy stuff; I didn't know how to lift without injuring my back) and got a 10 minute break when the customer warned my supervisor after seeing me almost black out. Then I was back at it. Sucked. Also, I was told to quit while I could
    via u/babybeewanderlust
  • 40
    from an ex-employee. I should have done that sooner. Edit: just for clarification yeah, there was an AC, but it was a biggg grocery store during Christmas/New Year's season and packed with people, too, so p nasty even with it on. I'm sure there was a heat policy too, but it didn't happen when I was there. I quit a month or two after.
    via u/babybeewanderlust

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