'It was amazing, still the best work email I’ve ever received': 20+ Rage-quitters who left their jobs on the spot

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 18, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

So you're stuck at an awful job, and you can feel the pressure of it starting to build up. Day after day with an overbearing boss, or maybe you have the world's worst coworkers who won't stop bothering you at your cubicle. Some bosses refuse to respect your time off, meaning you're constantly checking your phone and emails even when you're off the clock. 

You start to daydream about quitting. Maybe you start looking around on job sites to see what's out there. If you don't quit soon enough, you might just flip out one day, much like these 5,000+ people did. On the r/AskReddit subreddit, one person wondered what the final straw was for those who've rage-quit their jobs on the spot. There were plenty of differing reasons from people of all walks of life. Some quit jobs when they were still in their teenage years, while others were fully invested in their careers before they snapped. You can check out all of these great stories down below. 

Up next, on a similar note, this 17-year-old was utterly fed up with their boss's constant demands, so they left a huge mess… then quit. 

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10362809600
    via Kenny Eliason on Unsplash
  • 02
    People who have straight up rage quit a job, what was the final straw?
    via r/AskReddit
  • 03
    MisfortuneGort... My manager started snapping her fingers in my face, 3 inches away from my eyes saying in a slow drall "youuuu're doinnnng it wroooong, hellloooo that's not how I told you to do iiiit" when I was folding the shirts somewhat slower and less optimally than I was shown
    via u/MisfortuneGortune
  • 04
    (though achieving the same fold-also it was my third week and one of 20 folds I had to learn on that job). I walked right then and there.
    via u/MisfortuneGortune
  • 05
    ImHereForFreeT... My managers boss did a surprise inspection and my boss wrote me up for doing my job the exact way he trained me. Apparently when he trained me he was cutting corners.
    via u/ImHereForFreeTacos
  • 06
    HenrysGrandma I was a receptionist for a medical software company. Boss refused my request for a single day off to take my teen daughter to get eye surgery. I waited until the first day of her 2 week vacation and put in my notice. Ruined her holiday.
    via u/HenrysGrandma
  • 07
    s8n29 The company told me i was to enforce two, new policies. 1. All employees must report to work 15 minutes early for their shift, however they would not be paid for that time. 2. All employees must take their unpaid lunch break in specific areas,
    via u/s8n29
  • 08
    under very specific circumstances. I told them we needed to have a meeting to discuss the legality of their new policies before I could enforce them on my team. They replied "Either you enforce the policies or you resign your position."
    via u/s8n29
  • 09
    I said See Ya!!!! They begged me to reconsider and to not make a "bad decision" just because I was upset. Unfortunately I was already out the door.
    via u/s8n29
  • 10
    b I was waiting tables while I was in grad school. I had requested a weekend off far in advance (right after I got my syllabus) because there was a seminar pertinent to a class. Our professor expected to us to go and write a paper. It was a decent chunk of our grade.
    via u/b
  • 11
    The weekend comes up and lo and behold, I'm scheduled doubles Friday through Sunday. I hunt down the manger and say I can't do that and I've given months. notice. She pulls the "requests are just requests not guarantees" and I tell her point blank I will fail this class if I don't go. She shrugged she said "that isn't my problem". I told her "is now" and left. Like I was
    via u/b
  • 12
    going fail a class for my masters degree waiting tables at a Rainforest Cafe
    via u/b
  • 13
    Ruthless4u This was 20 years ago. My fiancé had been hospitalized for 16 months after a car accident. When she passed away my boss would not let me have time off for bereavement because we were not legally married.
    via u/Ruthless4u
  • 14
    InfamousBassA... Many years ago while working in a manufacturing facility. My boss came into work already off because his wife served him divorce papers.
    via u/InfamousBassAholic
  • 15
    Saying "good morning" was apparently enough to set him off and he picked up a wrench from the table and threw it at my head. I ducked...it missed...then I just closed my toolbox and wheeled it to the truck lol
    via u/InfamousBassAholic
  • 16
    Sad_Ad_2632 One very busy night while waitressing, I was standing at a table of 12 in the middle of taking their order when another waitress came up to me and said our boss wanted us in their office that instant. So I leave my full section in the middle of chaos to go see what the problem is. My boss began. to chew us both out because the other girl asked
    via u/Sad_Ad_2632
  • 17
    if I would switch shifts with her and I had agreed. I didn't say anything but was obviously annoyed because I had just left all my tables thinking there was some sort of emergency. My boss looked at me and asked why I looked mad and I told him "I feel like this could have been sorted out without me, if you didn't want her to leave early you could have just told her no instead of
    via u/Sad_Ad_2632
  • 18
    pulling me away from our customers". They said "if you're going to have an attitude get your and leave". I said ok and went to transfer my tables. I was over it. I had worked there 3 years and the owners were alcoholics that treated us like garbage and spent all the company on themselves instead of getting
    via u/Sad_Ad_2632
  • 19
    ingredients to make food or paying their employees. The other waitress came back out and said our boss wanted me back in the office. I went in and they said "put your apron back on, you're not fired". I said "you're both crazy if you think you can treat people the way you do and expect them to want to work for you" and I walked out. As I was leaving they came out
    via u/Sad_Ad_2632
  • 20
    behind me saying I would regret it and was never allowed back if I left. I threw up my middle fingers and kept walking. Funny part is I let my boyfriend take my car to work that night so I had to walk a mile home and break into my house
    via u/Sad_Ad_2632
  • 21
    HalfSugarMilk Tea At one office job, I quit after the first day because the lady training me would ignore me when our manager wasn't around, and I caught her snooping through my purse when I went to the bathroom.
    via u/HalfSugarMilk Tea
  • 22
    At another job at a clinic, I quit after a month because they made me do a solo receptionist shift without training me on what I needed to do to open the clinic, and then I got yelled at for not knowing what to do. In front of patients. It was so bad, some of the patients came up to me after and asked if I was ok.
    via u/HalfSugarMilk Tea
  • 23
    Q I was exhausted, had been working 50+ hour weeks, and couldn't wait until Christmas break. I was the only person out of 25 required to work Saturday mornings on a 6-week fundraiser in addition to my regular hours. Others were only scheduled once. I was scheduled all six Saturdays.
    via u/Quix66
  • 24
    Finally, a foreign colleague wanted to work Christmas so she could go to her home country early in the next year. The entire office was supposed to be closed for those two weeks. The boss picked me to be with her and refused to let me say no. I didn't want to take a break later when the rest of my family would've been off over Christmas. And I
    via u/Quix66
  • 25
    couldn't bear to have waited another two weeks as I was barely hanging on right then. She wouldn't let it go so I quit. The boss decided to work with her herself. That was fine with me. The mystery is why it had to be me or her out of 25 co- workers. Well, not my problem.
    via u/Quix66
  • 26
    W He wouldn't train me properly, then come yell at me in front on the office. He would always threaten my job or like hiring someone else and I finally said good I hope you find someone better because I quit and will be leaving once other lady comes back from lunch. He tried to back pedal and ask if I was serious. I never looked back.
    via u/whatamidoing-here1
  • 27
    ETA: he hired me without any experience because he knew he could lowball me. I got paid pennies for what someone with experience would get paid.
    via u/whatamidoing-here1
  • 28
    I never have, but but my favorite example was when a co- worker in student transportation, who had finally gotten a position she wanted after years of suffering through stress in another, was called by management over the summer and told she was being reassigned to the stressful position because no one else wanted to do it.
    via u/oldatheart515
  • 29
    She had fought too long and hard to get what she wanted, and her immediate response was, "Then tell me what I need to do to resign." She did, and she's been at peace with her decision ever since.
    via u/oldatheart515
  • 30
    Cardchucker Godfather's pizza, the manager wouldn't give me my paycheck at 8pm on Sunday because the money might not be in the account yet, but I could pick it up at 9am Monday. This was decades ago, before direct and mobile deposits. THE BANK WOULDN'T BE OPEN UNTIL THE NEXT DAY ANYWAY! All of the
    via u/Cardchucker
  • 31
    paychecks were literally in his hand at that moment. There were lots of issues before that but that was the final sign that the manager was completely uninterested in reason. In the next few weeks nearly everyone else quit, then the manager was finally fired.
    via u/Cardchucker
  • 32
    DummyDum Dum7 Not me, but a colleague once wrote a long stinker of an email, hit send at 10:30am and exited the building immediately. He blind-copied all receivers but sent it to multiple departments of a large multinational I was working at, no one knew who did/didn't get the email, except for the gasps and
    via u/DummyDum Dum7
  • 33
    OMGs around the office. He was completely disgruntled, and went in on multiple managers, supervisors and various colleagues with absolute venom. It was amazing, still the best work email I've ever received and some he called out actually had to be addressed by management,
    via u/DummyDum Dum7
  • 34
    it brought about a lot of positive change. If you're out there Khalil, that was awesome.
    via u/DummyDum Dum7
  • 35
    Kind-Dust7441 The owner of the company told me to fire a woman for arriving to work right on time. It was always something different with him, some ridiculous new rule that he applied retroactively to suit whatever mood he was in on any given day. And that particular morning, he took it as a personal insult and a
    via u/Kind-Dust7441
  • 36
    show of blatant disrespect that his employees didn't arrive early. I just couldn't do it. I couldn't fire this woman, who I didn't even particularly like, to satisfy this new whim of his. So instead of firing her, I marched into his office and quit myself. Funnily enough, the woman I wouldn't fire continued working for him for years.
    via u/Kind-Dust7441
  • 37
    She might even still be there now, twenty-some years later.
    via u/Kind-Dust7441
  • 38
    a1ien51 Was told I did not have experience to move up. Hired a person with 1/20th of my experience in that position.
    via u/a1ien51
  • 39
    thegreatsquare When I was driving home and my blood pressure shot through the roof cause somebody was driving the same make, model and color car as the boss. ...obviously that wasn't THE STRAW, just the recognition that there was to be no more straws.
    via u/thegreatsquare
  • 40
    nelsonalgrenca... I was flat out lied to about the position. It was a management position at a residential mental health facility and I had taken it (leaving a great paying but stressful position) because it wouldn't require travel and was supposed to be much more laid back. On top of many other issues I ended
    via u/nelsonalgrencametome
  • 41
    up having to work eight weeks straight without a single day off (even weekends and one holiday) so after a very heated meeting with upper management where one person was flat out lying to cover their own , I sent a resignation email from the parking lot.
    via u/nelsonalgrencametome
  • 42
    My boss cursed me because I took a phone message for him, because he was already on a call. Apparently he was eagerly awaiting the call I answered and would have preferred I interrupted him. I threw a pencil at the wall, said "Do I look like a mind
    via r/AskReddit
  • 43
    reader? Cut me my check; I quit." He tried hard to backpedal but there had been many, many previous straws.
    via r/AskReddit
  • 44
    potatowoo69 Worked at a korean bbq resturant. They said since I was unexperienced they will cut my wages. Hired me as a server and Made me clean toilets and grills all day. 12 hour shift, gave me 9.45 in cash. Quit on the spot
    via u/potatowoo69
  • 45
    lemcar My dad was in the ICU and I got put on a performance. plan since I missed 3 days in a row. Best thing I ever did was rage quit that job with nothing lined up. Got a job a few months later and I'm extremely happy there.
    via u/lemcar
  • 46
    vampyrewolf I was working as the kitchen at a 24hour Greek restaurant. Hired as dishwasher, also doing cold prep and maintenance. I was the guy peeling 50 lbs bags of onions/carrots/potatoes, as well as making dry ribs, pizza, salad...
    via u/vampyrewolf
  • 47
    I had booked off 3 days over a weekend. Got called on day 2 at 7am telling me I was late. Got there and was told I was on the 11am start... then it got changed to 4pm when I went in again... Then got changed to 11pm when I went in for 4pm... And when I went in for 11pm it was changed AGAIN to actually have me off for the 3 days.
    via u/vampyrewolf
  • 48
    4 schedule changes in 24hrs. Laws here say 1 week minimum notice, that owner would change the schedule AFTER you clocked out to say you worked shorter hours on a regular basis and you pretty much had to check at 7am to see if you were on for the day. I had my choice words, told em I'd be back in 2 weeks for my paycheck.
    via u/vampyrewolf

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