10+ Overworked employees who reached breaking points on the job: 'I don't get paid enough for this!'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 23, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Every employee faces some sort of crisis at some point in their professional careers. For some, it's about change. Perhaps another opportunity arose that would change the course of your career, but would require a significant adjustment to your lifestyle, such as being asked to relocate. For others, it could be a personal epiphany. Maybe all of the ways in which you were once justifying the normalcy of your day-to-day at work have suddenly proven ineffective, and you have come to realize that this is not the place where you want to work day in and day out for the rest of your life. 

Despite what many folks will tell you, it isn't too late to change your mind, and most decisions in life are reversible. Of course, if you quit, you likely won't be asked back, but if you have chosen to work for a difficult boss for several years, there is no need to justify your regrettable choices by staying there even longer. Check out these stories of employees who finally realized that they were not getting paid enough to endure this abhorrent treatment!

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    Cheezburger Image 10496799488
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Frostbite is never worth it!

    . PurpleDreamer28 • 1d ago There was a polar vortex in my area a few years ago, and nearly every business was closed. That is, except for my job, which was a bookstore, which is totally not essential enough to remain open. Guess who
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    was one of the people scheduled for that day. What really ped me off was when I got there, my boss said she was hoping I was going to call and say I couldn't come in. Oh gee,
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    maybe you could have told me this before I went out in frostbite weather???
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    Being a librarian does not make you a babysitter!

    Viet_Sensation_03 · 1d ago Working at a local library. Found a used diaper crammed in behind the books in the children books area. Not the first time I'd found one, but the first one I'd found folded sh side out.
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    Never feel sorry for wanting some semblance of work-life balance!

    Nyxs55 1d ago Manager: "Are you against overtime?" Me: "Not at all I'm just not doing it unless it's actually needed." Also me: "I have a life outside of work. It's pretty great, I try to visit it daily."
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    His reply? "Maybe we should look into your work-life balance..." Sir, the balance is balancing. What you actually want is unpaid enthusiasm. Big difference.
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    Then he hit me with: "I noticed you used up all your vacation days?" Yes. Correct. That's what they're for. If you didn't want me to use them, maybe just give me a nice little O days off in the contract next time?
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    True-Criticism-45... . 1d ago I was mid-teens, shingling roofs for this guy. We were between jobs and he asked us to help at his small farm.
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    He devised this contraption out of 10' long, 4" PVC with holes drilled in it and rags stuffed in the holes. The idea was that Round-Up herbicide would be poured into the PVC and would soak the rags through the holes.
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    We would then carry the pipes around our necks and walk through the fields to more or less brush the weeds with the herbicide. He initially meant it for his horses but he "didn't want them getting toxic chemicals on them". We quit on the spot.
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    RefrigeratorOk5465 · 1d ago Go work in any retail job and that should answer your question lol.
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    Perfect-Little . 23h ago When a customer asked me to microwave their cold coffee... while holding their tiny dog.... And the dog bit me mid sentence. I stood there like an unpaid extra in my own life.
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    CuteTinyPrincess_ · 19h ago Being asked to train your new manager... who makes double your salary
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    ead_ryebread • 1d ago . Supervisor in charge at Tim Hortons for 3½ years. People are disgusting and most of them don't know how to use a toilet.
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    NoxiousQ . 1d ago I was a bank teller about 8 years ago in my early 20s. A cardiologist in my city came in to deposit a check. I saw he had two different checking accounts and asked him which one he wanted to deposit it in. To
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    this day, I have no idea why this was so difficult for him to understand, but he just went absolutely ballistic on me, screaming loudly in the bank and demanding to see
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    someone smarter than a teller who could actually help him. He storms away and sits down in the lobby waiting for another employee to walk in. In the
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    Cheezburger Image 10496800000
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

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    meantime, I take the next customer (super nice fireman FWIW). While I'm helping him, the a hole doctor gets tired of waiting for someone else so he storms back up to me and starts yelling at me again demanding that I help him. I
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    told him I was helping another customer (nice fireman) and would speak to him afterwards. At this point, ahle doctor pulls out his phone and starts filming me screaming that I refused to help him. Then the fireman basically tells him to off
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    because he'd seen the entire interaction from the beginning. So yeah anyway, I'm never allowing some wealthy over-educated a h le to speak to me like that again.
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    Krazoee • 1d ago I had worked 10 hours a day (no overtime) for two weeks straight to get an analysis done for my professor. He yelled at me, gave a mafia style talk about how he was <<good >> and asking if I was.
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    Sounds weird in hindsight but he was always talking about pulling my funding, and with it my visa to the us.
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    I told him I would quit two weeks after, and was told to hand in my two weeks or get escorted out the building.
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    This was for a measly 57k a year, and not even at an Ivy League. Yeah, no, I'm not dealing with that bullsh..
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    MikoSkyns 1d ago • When I was in college working as a stock boy in a department store and suddenly they wanted me to act like a security guard after an uptick in shoplifting.
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    After a few confrontations that got ugly I thought to myself, "Nuh-uh. You're paying me minimum wage to put price tags on stock and put it on the shelves. This wasn't part of the job description" Getting into
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    physical confrontations over a stolen pack of razor blades is above my pay grade.
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workplace discussion overworked employees workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work employees company toxic-work-environment in the workplace
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