25+ Employees who quit their jobs on their first day of work: 'That's not what I signed up for'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 6, 2025 5:00 PM EST

If that new job isn't working out for you, just leave it. Drop it like a hot potato and freshen up that LinkedIn page instead. If you can afford to go without working for a month or three while you find a new job, it might be worth it to have some peace of mind. Some workplaces are truly so toxic, unsafe, or downright unpleasant that unemployment feels like a better choice than spending another hour there. 

These people didn't just quit within a week, or a month: they fled from that workplace on the very day they started. Imagine going through all the effort of finding a job, interviewing and doing well enough to get a job offer, signing the paperwork, meeting your new coworkers, and still being annoyed enough to never return! One person left when they saw that the microwave was coin-operated, which is just bizarre. Another person got hired on the spot at a hotel kitchen, but the hygiene was so bad that they didn't last more than one shift. Check out a bunch of reasons that people decided "Nah, I'm out," after a single shift, and see if you spot any of the same red flags in your own company. 

Up next, read about one entitled customer who demanded a free coffee, but the cafe's owner got suspicious of her: "[She] said I should honor it because she's a loyal customer." 

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  • 01
    'Two hours into my first shift at a glassware shop, I'd broken $218 worth of stuff by accident'
    via Monika Grabkowska For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02

    "People who quit their jobs on the first day, what made you say, 'I'm done with this'?"

    Happy5Day The oh 'By the way we never mentioned it at the interview but you will get 50 percent pay for 6 months till your trial period is over'. I was half way into my first shift when they sprang that on me. I turned around and walked out. No discussion. Didn't say a word. Just left.
    via u/Happy5Day
  • 03
    UniverseBear It was a food truck owned by this Russian dude. His cash register was so convoluted. He'd be like "to sell hotdog push burger, then subtract 2 sodas and a small fry." Then he just left me alone. It was overwhelming and I just didn't come back.
    via u/UniverseBear
  • 04
    -Echo-Echo- When I found out their timeclock system didn't track hours worked, but the minutes spent typing or moving your mouse. And it'd take random screenshots too (if you're in a video meeting, I guess they get to take pictures of you too?).
    via u/-Echo-Echo-
  • 05
    All that and they wanted this installed on my personal computer. That and a few other reasons made me back out after one day.
    via u/-Echo-Echo-
  • 06
    Tambi_B2 Line job in a factory that assembled magazines. Because of all the paper sliding along the tracks, little bits would gum up the gears and they wanted us to reach inside and pull out all the wads of paper scrap about
    via u/Tambi_B2
  • 07
    once an hour while someone MANUALLY held down a button that paused the machine from moving. Refused, clocked out for lunch and left.
    via u/Tambi_B2
  • 08
    Hour_Equal_9588 When i saw that the microwave was coin operated
    via u/Hour_Equal_9588
  • 09
    brazthemad It was supposed to be a B2B sales job. First day I get paired with a "highly successful, veteran salesman," and we go downtown. Next thing I know, we're walking into a Jiffy Lube waiting area, and the guy I'm with busts out a box of makeup samples and starts trying to sell makeup to the people waiting for their oil to get changed. We
    via u/brazthemad
  • 10
    leave and I'm like yo thought this was B2B sales? He's like "well, I do go from business to business doing sales." I'm like that's door to door, not f business to business lol. I asked to be brought back to my car and never called those fools back.
    via u/brazthemad
  • 11

    This person was so right to stand up for themself

    -GearZen- I was injured and they told me to keep working. I was loading trucks at RPS by the way. Went to the boss and said "Who do I tell if I want to quit?" He responded "Me." I said "Ah OK, I quit." He asked my to finish my shift but I laughed in his face.
    via u/-GearZen-

    Just imagine if they'd kept on working, gotten even more hurt, and then couldn't work anywhere. The company sounds totally irresponsible! 

  • 12
    ntmrkd1 I was laid off from my first job back when I was in high school due to the housing crisis in the 00s. I was a dishwasher at a restaurant. When new management took over, they offered everyone their old jobs back, and I accepted.
    via u/ntmrkd
  • 13
    I tried to take my CD player that I had left there before the layoff home with me, and I was told that I was stealing as it was company property since it was there when they took over.
    via u/ntmrkd
  • 14
    Everyone in the kitchen attested that it was my CD player, but the new manager wouldn't hear of it, so I just walked out with it. I was called later that night by HR telling me I was fired for stealing company property. I guess I didn't quit, but I was going to do it anyway.
    via u/ntmrkd
  • 15
    N.. I got a job in town X. One the first day they told me tomorrow I needed to show up to a different office in San Francisco (which is a 90 minute commute there and a 2-3 hour commute home). Not what I signed up for, they legit could not understand why I was leaving.
    via u/NeighborhoodDude84
  • 16
    Sir_Atlass Work in IT and got a new job as a SysAdmin and on the first day found support tickets where the guy before me was required to track every second of his time through it. Several tickets. that read something like "Cleaned office - 15 minutes".
    via u/Sir_Atlass
  • 17
    No thanks. I'm not a child that needs supervision. Luckily my old job let me come back like I never left.
    via u/Sir_Atlass
  • 18
    f futurism I was a Cold caller trying to solicit donations for an organization. Called a guy. His widow answered the phone saying he had recently passed. Supervisor said I should try and get the widow to make a donation. I was done.
    via u/f***futurism
  • 19
    too_many_shoes14 I was between jobs and got a temp job helping with payroll and they told me I would have to hold paychecks for people who did not return their uniform and when I pointed out this was illegal (and showed them the law) they said to do it anyway so I quit and
    via u/too_many_shoes14
  • 20
    went back on unemployment until I found a real job 3 weeks later. Quitting a job because they want you to break the law gets you unemployment in most States.
    via u/too_many_shoes14
  • 21

    These are absurd levels of cheapness

    pulse14 In highschool a friend of mine talked up this warehouse job he had for an online surplus store. They gave him a bunch of free electronics and sports equipment. As a highschool student that seemed pretty cool, so I decided to try working there for the summer. Now I realize that was a red flag. On my first day they asked me to
    via u/pulse14
  • 22
    package a commercial range hood that had to be shipped to Alaska. They had no packing material or boxes. and refused to buy any. I created a box by piecing together scraps of cardboard and covered them in a ton of tape, then I filled the box with crumpled printer paper from the
    via u/pulse14
  • 23
    office. The manager saw me doing this and proceeded to yell at me for 10 minutes, because I wasted their printer paper. I laughed at him and walked out of there. Of course, my friend later told me the range hood was destroyed in shipping and the manager was livid. A year later the business was busted for selling stolen gps units.
    via u/pulse14

    What was this boss even thinking? 

  • 24
    Cheezburger Image 10464382976
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 25
    Bobbito95 I was in high school, working 3 part time jobs. I had gotten hired as a cashier at a supermarket. I really just wanted to be a stock boy, but oh well. I show up to work and the manager isn't there. So I just start asking people like, hey I'm new how do I clock in? What do I do?
    via u/Bobbito95
  • 26
    Eventually someone clocks me in like an hour late. They put me on a register, show me the produce code sheet like once, then left me alone. No clue how to do a sale, no idea how to do coupons, etc. The manager shows up halfway through and yells at me, in front of a customer, for not knowing produce codes. Even the customer was like, "hey, it's his first day. Calm down."
    via u/Bobbito95
  • 27
    Time for my lunch break. Nobody has shown me where the staff room is, so I just buy lunch from the store and eat it in the cafe area. Manager storms in, takes my tray, throws the rest of my food away, and goes off that I CANNOT eat where
    via u/Bobbito95
  • 28
    customers are, that I'm stupid, etc. I just got up, threw the apron at her, and walked out. Absolutely ridiculous. I did, however, go back and demand my check for hours worked. Because f that.
    via u/Bobbito95
  • 29
    jimicus Not quite the first day (I have a mortgage), but: Been through the entire interview process: small payrise plus quite a generous company pension. All confirmed in writing. "Cool!" thinks I. Leave my existing job and start at the new place.
    via u/jimicus
  • 30
    A week or two in, HR does their induction. And the "generous" company pension doesn't exist. It's statutory minimum. Obviously I raise this, because that's not what I signed up for. The answer comes back: "Tough, that's the pension". Er... excuse me, but we agreed in writing. that it wasn't. "Don't care; that's the pension".
    via u/jimicus
  • 31
    They were astonished when I put in my resignation about a month later.
    via u/jimicus
  • 32
    argoncats I have never quit a job on the first day, but I saw some one who did for physical reasons. This was a man in his mid 50s who was hired to be a construction inspector at good old Fort Irwin. He showed up one Monday morning in mid July, got his briefing, and then went out into the field. Do you know
    via u/argoncats
  • 33
    what Fort Irwin is like in mid July? It was a typical 110F day by noon (the hottest part of the day is around 3 pm). I saw him come back at noon. He was beet red and drenched in sweat. I heard him tell our supervisor he simply could not take it, so he quit.
    via u/argoncats
  • 34
    theintuitivekitty When I was 21 I got hired on the spot at a Village Inn. I didn't know enough at that time to know that's a huge red flag. When I showed up for my first shift I was shocked and appalled at how disgusting the kitchen was. When I watched a server drop somebody's
    via u/theintuitivekitty
  • 35
    pancakes on the kitchen floor, pick them up and put them back on the plate, then walk out and serve them to someone, I was done.
    via u/theintuitivekitty
  • 36

    Good for this person who dipped out at the first sign of trouble

    Panda_Mon Basic restaurant server job, I was in college. The drive was kinda long, and as a college student that matters a lot. I was mostly getting a job due to feeling like I was inadequate if I didn't have one. So I go buy the black clothes required and show up. But the clothes weren't
    via u/Panda_Mon
  • 37
    black enough, due to having a gray lining around the button-up shirt's collar and cuffs on the inside of the shirt. It barely peeked through under certain angles. They told me to leave and come back when the clothes fit their requirements.
    via u/Panda_Mon
  • 38
    So I drove back to campus, called them up, and quit on the phone. It was just way too much BS to deal with and did not bode well.
    via u/Panda_Mon
  • 39
    Cheezburger Image 10464375296
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 40
    Lickthemoon Two hours into my first shift at a glassware shop, I'd broken £175 worth of stuff by accident - while dusting the shelves, while wrapping items that a customer had just bought, and some things I swear broke just because I existed too closely to them. The owner, who was the artist/glassblower, to his infinite credit didn't want to charge me or take it
    via u/Lickthemoon
  • 41
    out of my pay - he actually said I did a great job with the customers and wanted me to stay - but my nerves couldn't take it so I walked out. Carefully.
    via u/Lickthemoon
  • 42
    Vertigobee A bartending job - the person training me found a giant shard of glass in the ice. And then poured more ice over it. Bye.
    via u/Vertigobee
  • 43
    theFooMart Had a job as one of those people holding a sign on a street for a closeout sale. I sat down to tie my shoe, and got yelled at because I'm not supposed to be just sitting there. I mean she literally yelled at me. So I left the sign there and went home.
    via u/theFooMart
  • 44
    StationOk7229 They wanted me to work in the dark. "Nope."
    via u/StationOk7229
  • 45
    Embarrassed_H... I was a GM car salesman half a day. Family of 5 come in and settle on a Pontiac Catalina. Sales manager told me to squeeze another $275.00 from them. I went to family, cut $500 from the contract, turned it in and sent them home in a new ride. Told sales mgr I was done and left..
    via u/Embarrassed_Half8427
  • 46
    NewRazzmatazz... Interviewed for a position. and they outlined everything I would be doing. Got there the first day and discovered that I would be doing none of it. Fortune 50 company no less.
    via u/NewRazzmatazz1641
  • 47
    mangococom When the manager said, 'We're like a family here! Bro, my family doesn't make me clean a bathroom for $12 an hour.
    via u/mangococom
  • 48
    What_The_Frak19... Oh you're on call so whenever we need you, no matter where you are if we call you you have to come in.
    via u/What_The_Frak1982

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