'The supervisors were begging me to stay': 15 Job quitters who walked out of their toxic jobs while their bosses were left short staffed

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 10, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Quitting your job can make you feel free as a bird. You're onto the next phase of your career, leaving behind your toxic boss, annoying coworkers, or hours-long commute. Instead of grinding your teeth because your boss is insisting you work late again, you're looking forward to meeting your new manager. There's a sense of possibility that lights you up and makes you think you can achieve all of your dreams. 

One of my favorite parts of quitting past jobs has been watching my boss's hold on me slip away. Instead of being the person who keeps you up late at night with anxiety, they become someone who you won't even think about anymore. Instead of catering to their every whim, you realize that you won't ever have to listen to their demands again! You're living the dream in those days between quitting your old job and starting your new one. And maybe the most valuable part of it all is standing up for yourself. You're insisting on a better salary or a more positive work environment, and that should make you proud of yourself. 

Next, read about the 16-year-old who was unaware of some pretty important airplane etiquette, and got schooled by their fellow passengers: 'Perfectly deserved revenge.' 

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    'My manager took all the pens so I couldn't write my letter of resignation... I used crayon'
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

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    Cheezburger Image 10492316672
    via Townsend Walton on Unsplash+

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

  • 03
    [deleted] Found out the director | worked for for years (and thought we had a fantastic work relationship) was actually sabotaging my potential to move up. The last straw was when, after hearing a VP was asking about me/if I was willing to move under him, she hired someone to 'fill my position' out of spite (I had no idea the VP was even asking
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    about me). I was so taken aback by that and I remember asking: "if you're hiring someone in my position, what am I going to do?" and she looked me dead in the eye and said "I don't know". The person who my ex- director was trying to hire called me directly later that evening and I found out what really went down: director was trying to poach
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    him but he didn't want the job/wasn't going to take it and felt that the director was being super shady and wanted to warn me. I was so mad. the next morning, I handed in my resignation letter, effective immediately, knowing full well that she'd be in a bind because she would have no one to backfill my position/lead the projects and we were right in
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    the middle of 2 big projects about to deploy. That day was so sweet because she read the letter and said "if you leave today, I won't have any one to backfill that fast, what am I going to do?" to which I looked her dead in the eye, like she did me, and said "I don't know". I walked out of that office smug AF. I was also terrified because I didn't have another job lined up but it
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    worked out well -- that evening, I met up with my friends who knew the situation and wanted to take me out for drinks and I ended up meeting a person who happened to need someone of my skillset and hired me on the spot. I started that new job a week after.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 08
    Reasonable_Night... My best. Another guy turned in his 2 week notice. They fired him immediately. Lesson learned. This cheap place never paid OT. So I worked a 16 my last day, making it a 48 hour week, then just never came back.
    via u/Reasonable_Night42
  • 09
    Kungfubunnyrabbit Our team worked 24 hours straight building out a custom environment consisting of 500 new servers 100 we're physical. That afternoon the team was passed it off to the platform team created a huge security risk and compliance violation. I don't know the specifics but it would have been a huge scandal if it got out to the press.
    via u/Kungfubunnyrabbit
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    They asked us after having us work 24 hours to build out 2 more environments so they could reverse what they did and have a full test environment.... All of us just looked at each other that morning and went for a "coffee break" we decided to stay united and told them if they made us do this we were going going to
    via u/Kungfubunnyrabbit
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    quit. They said no we had to do it. Six of us stood our ground and drew up resignation letters. Our boss panicked and said he would get fired if we all left. He called in help from the other Global teams that he would have had to pay overtime too. We got it done rotating a schedule over 72 hours. The Platform team lost their poop at how long it took and vowed revenge ( I am not
    via u/Kungfubunnyrabbit
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    kidding). Months later three of us were part of some "layoffs". Then out of no where the scandal broke about the major compliance violations but was overshadowed by bigger leaks at another large company.
    via u/Kungfubunnyrabbit
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    I swore of big companies after that until recently. The company I am at now is amazing and really takes. care of its people. Sometimes I feel like an abused dog in a happy forever home.
    via u/Kungfubunnyrabbit
  • 14
    [deleted] My manager took all the pens so I couldn't write my letter of resignation... I used crayon
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    UnfortunatelyEvil Printed out all the evidence on the manager causing all the problems and brought it to their boss. Their boss refused to look at it with a "did you ever think that you were the problem?" (Like... yes, that is why I went into all the evidence to find out).
    via u/UnfortunatelyEvil
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    Turns out, that the new management and the new HR were hired to get rid of as many employees as possible while adding on as many clients as possible to prop up the numbers for selling the company. So, nothing I said had any meaning, as a functioning company was not a priority. for them.
    via u/UnfortunatelyEvil
  • 17
    bowyer-betty I did waste water for a company that had switched hands a few times in the years before I started working there. I was good at my job, and after a while I ended up being one of 2 people who could run the department without getting fines from the city for sending dirty water back. Well the people in charge decided to save a bit of
    via u/bowyer-betty
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    money by cutting back on the amount of chemicals I was allowed to use and just generally fucking with how shit worked back there. Guess how that turned out. Evidently the chemicals that were precisely engineered by a company that specialized in this type of thing were meant to be used the way they taught me (specifically the guy who designed the system flew to me and trained me to use
    via u/bowyer-betty
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    them personally, which I then taught to the rest of the department). It all came to a head one night when the whole department went to shit from heavy rain. The main pump crapped out (probably because they kept sending the same terminally ill pump back to the shop for infusions of unicorn blood to keep it alive rather than just replacing it) and the
    via u/bowyer-betty
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    maintenance supervisor (who, for whatever dumbass reason, had recently been put in charge of my department and was the one making all the stupid changes) was nowhere to be found. Terrible night, wastewater was literally 2-3 feet underwater, and I'm sure we got $10k in fines just that night. The maintenance man/my big boss showed back up right
    via u/bowyer-betty
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    as I was telling my immediate supervisor who had just come in what happened, and he proceeded to scream at me and basically call me stupid/accuse me of sleeping on the job. Excuse the fuck out of me, what? I, the man soaked in unmentionable nastiness and obviously stressed beyond my limits, is getting yelled at by the lazy cunt who's been hiding in his
    via u/bowyer-betty
  • 22
    office all night watching TV (as he frequently did) and drove up dry as a bone with coffee and breakfast about not doing his job for him. So I told him to go fuck himself and quit. The only other competent (and he was only just passably competent) guy back there quit not long
    via u/bowyer-betty
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    after, and as I understand it the massive bill they ran up with the city from fines for unacceptable water return contributed heavily to them going under and being bought by another company.
    via u/bowyer-betty
  • 24
    n213978745 Got my first job as software developer, was very happy. I worked for a consulting company and went directly to a client company and worked there, alongside with a recently hired co-worker and Boss of consulting company. First couple weeks was fine. Then I noticed red flag here and there. I told them I
    via u/n213978745
  • 25
    didn't have laptop, boss said we would get you one in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I used a company's Raspberry Pi for work. 2 weeks after I started the job, I notice boss bought himself a new laptop and I still didn't have work laptop... really? I resorted to buy myself Raspberry Pi just for work, and took client company's keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
    via u/n213978745
  • 26
    Paycheck was supposed to be monthly. One month went by and I didn't get mine. My co-worker said he couldn't go to work because of money problem, got yelled at. It wasn't until my co- worker sent a strong letter and refused to come to work, did we got paid (one month and 3 weeks late). One week later, it's supposed to be our second paycheck but never came.
    via u/n213978745
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    They kept promised it's tomorrow or next week. Again my co-worker had to threaten not coming to work in order to get them paid. New co-worker coming in, she handled logistics. Basically she's in the same situation as us: late paycheck and never got a PC to work for. Then I heard she asked for Health Insurance, and consulting company began to gather
    via u/n213978745
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    information for health insurance rate. I was excited. But I never heard anything about it again. My last straw was when they asked me to work on a new task, that in my opinion, too difficult/hard to do in my hamster powered raspberry pi. I handed my boss resignation letter next day. Then my other 2 co-workers follow after I told them about it.
    via u/n213978745
  • 29
    Since I was friend with couple of people in client company. I told them and found out that I was the lowest paying workers there (it's a manufacturing company). Boss wanted me to stay. First he said: from "I will give you a raise", to "we would gave you a raise once you are proper software
    via u/n213978745
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    developer", to "let's talk about it". They tried to guilty-pressure me, saying that they had a big task coming up. I knew they did, but I didn't care and left.
    via u/n213978745
  • 31
    pm_haiku A friend of mine brought in a resignation cake. I now ask all my employees to resign by cake.
    via u/pm_haiku
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    [deleted] Back in college my boyfriend at the time (now husband) and I worked at a bar where the owner was a misogynistic dick hole. He treated the male cooks and bouncers like friends, and the female bartenders were far beneath him. He always made passive aggressive comments to us and accused us of stealing money when we counted our
    via u/[deleted]
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    tips at the end of the night. I should mention the other bartenders weren't all too pleasant themselves. I was the newest and the youngest, and all I did was cut into their profits at the end of the night since we split the tips. The final straw was when my boyfriend and I both requested (and were approved) for time off to visit my family who I hadn't
    via u/[deleted]
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    seen in a long time. At the end of my shift the night before we were supposed to leave the owner posted the schedule for the new week and had me working my normal schedule. My boyfriend was marked for vacation. When I asked the owner about it he denied that I had asked for time off (even though my boyfriend and I had literally asked at the same time) and said I needed to come in for the
    via u/[deleted]
  • 35
    shift the next day. To add insult to injury, on my way out one of the other bartenders said, "good luck finding someone to cover your shift, because I'm sure not doing it." Joke was on her because I left that night and never went back. She was the one who ended up having to cover my shift. Whoops.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 36
    Ended up getting my old job back working for a pizza place and it was delightful. The pay wasn't as good, but the work atmosphere was so worth it.
    via u/[deleted]
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    UnfortunatelyEvil Gave my 2 weeks at Wendy's, as I was literally moving to a different state for college. During that 2 weeks, about 8 employees quit via no- shows. The supervisors were begging me to give up college and stay, as they were so short staffed~
    via u/UnfortunatelyEvil
  • 38
    [deleted] I worked at a call centre and on my first day I hated it. The manager was listening in on calls and commenting on how I could do better (it was to ask for donations for something, I don't quite remember). All the people.
    via u/[deleted]
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    who said shitty things put me in a sour mood. During my break, I got up, went to the vending machine, bought Welch's, and walked out the door. Never returned!
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    [deleted] I was passed up for a promotion countless times. They kept hiring unqualified candidates over me because they knew someone and they would never last. Finally, after about 2 years they were set to promote me. We had an interview just as a formality. When they offered me, I turned them down and quit.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 41
    [deleted] After some serious malpractice behaviour from my manager and mentors I simply gave them my notice. My line manager, keen to keep me because I was great with clients, asked
    via u/[deleted]
  • 42
    "well what are you doing instead!?" I said "I've got nothing lined up, but it's no worse than being here" then walked out and finished my notice period working remotely. It reinforces the fact for me that yes we need emergency funds for things like buying a new boiler, the car packing up etc, but your mental and phycological health should also be prioritised.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 43
    Pull the parachute for your own sake if you ever need it but build up that slosh fund for such instances where your morals or values are compromised.
    via u/[deleted]
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    kh... Kitchen manager in busy restaurant. After a year or two of cooks I'd hired flake out on me I started having cooks come in for a try out on Sunday morning, our busiest day. This one guy stands at the back of the kitchen, looks at the fifteen tickets up, and says, "Dang it, I left my knives in my car, Be back in a minute" Never saw him again.
    via u/khegiobridge
  • 45
    Jens0485 When I was a cake decorator at a Walmart, I wrote my resignation on a giant cookie (one of the 12" ones that you decorate with icing). The store manager said it was "unprofessional" but everyone else thought it was great.
    via u/Jens0485
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    I both loved and hated that job. I was the only decorator there, so I grew to hate holidays very quickly (lots and LOTS of cupcakes...)
    via u/Jens0485

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