15 Employees who quit instead of dealing with their working conditions: '2 weeks later I get a call... He's begging me to come back'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 27, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Quitting in the middle of your shift is a last resort, but these employees had no other choice. 

In a perfect world, every employee would give their boss 2-weeks notice before heading off to a new job. It's the professional thing to do… but not every manager or company owner acts professional enough to deserve that courtesy. Sometimes they let their employees languish under terrible circumstances, like letting customers talk to them impolitely, or by blaming them for every little thing that goes wrong. Instead of being patient with their employees or trying to help them out in any way, some bosses just push them to their very limits, then act surprised when the employee quits on the spot. 

These people didn't give a 2-week notice or even a 1-day notice: they quit in the middle of their shift. They just took off their uniform and left for home. And good for them! I'm sure their next job was 100x better than the terrible circumstances they left in the rearview mirror. 

Next, read the update from a 13-year-old kid who complied with their 7th-grade teacher who was the "keeper of the dress code": 'No frays on clothing allowed." 

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  • 01

    "People who quit a job in the heat of the moment, what s***show did you leave them to handle?"

    Fudgeislush Didn't get a bonus because they felt the overtime I did payed me more than the bonus they gave to everyone else. I didn't know what to say to that so after a few hours I offered to get coffee for everyone. Then I left and never came back or contacted them again.
    via u/Fudgeislush
  • 02
    I keep thinking that I should go back with coffee now I've been gone 10 years and just act normal
    via u/Fudgeislush
  • 03
    BradC When I was a programmer at an insurance company, one of the long-time programmers had been with the company for nearly 20 years. This guy originally wrote most of the financial system himself, from scratch, and had maintained it with the help of a couple of other people. Every month he did the month-end processing and every
    via u/BradC
  • 04
    quarter he did the quarter- end processing. Every year end? Yep, it was him. There was a change in management a couple of times, and he kept getting treated worse and worse. He was being treated unfairly, asked to do unreasonably more work than he was already doing, getting thrown under the bus, that kind of thing.
    via u/BradC
  • 05
    He finally had enough and one morning he came in, walked to the manager's office and quit, then walked out the door. In the aftermath it took a team of four other people, months. and months to get things back together and to a point where things were serviceable.
    via u/BradC
  • 06
    Cheezburger Image 10522158336
    via Pars Sahin on Unsplash+

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

  • 07
    Bluster3 Worked for a landscape company doing new installs. Our owner was cheap with a bad habit of constantly biting off more than he could chew. One year he asked if we wanted any part of a school project in a city we didn't live in (over 2 hours away) and we said no. He said that was fine and would just bid on one school for his crew who lived in that
    via u/Bluster3
  • 08
    area. Instead he bid on multiple schools and got three of them. Obviously, none of us are happy about this and he claimed that he'd put us up in hotels so we wouldn't have to commute. He never did. The work itself sucked, way more than a crew our size could handle and the owner's brother did absolutely nothing. He was supposed to be the project
    via u/Bluster3
  • 09
    manager/supervisor and literally all he did was play Clash of Clans on his phone and yell about people not being fast enough. After a few days, I was done. I'd grown sick of the job anyway but this project really sealed it. Having to commute 4+ hours a day and then physically destroy myself was taking a toll fast. I woke up Friday morning, called the owner, told him I quit and to stop taking more
    via u/Bluster3
  • 10
    work than he can manage. He blew up but I just hung up the phone and went back to sleep. Two weeks later I get a call from him. He's begging me to come back because after I quit, two other guys did too. The project is now woefully behind schedule and he's going to get fined if things don't pick up and get finished. I told him he
    via u/Bluster3
  • 11
    should've thought of that before he bit off more than he could chew and expected a small crew to do it all in a short time frame. He got quiet and then asked if a 50 cent raise would get me back. Hahaha no. Last time I ever heard from him and I can't find his company website anymore.
    via u/Bluster3
  • 12
    [de... Shoppers D mart. I had simply asked for better hours after working ridiculous late night hours. for over a year. Instead they hired a new guy and gave him the exact hours i asked for and then had me train him. So when training wasn't going very well because new guy was super slow? They blamed me for it.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    Now I had a good standing with everyone at this store but I didn't need Shoppers and I let a lot of sh slide everyday. So again when I asked for a vacation that I deserved because I was never sick and punctual as all h I. I was denied it and the next day the manager had 4 weeks of vacation set. So to "make it up" to me they offered me all these insane overtime shifts for the next 3 weeks.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    So I waited for the frozen deliveries to arrive that same day. The boss was packing up to go home and when he said good night to me I said "but who is going to do this frozen delivery?" He laughed and said "you are."so i replied. "Nope." and he became super cross so I started laughing. "What are you laughing about?" he says! So i said "F yourself. I quit." Now there
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    was no one to finish the night shift. He immediately asks for the uniform lol "Nah, i said f yourself. I quit." I had never done that before or since. Uniform went in the trash.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    BaggyBadgerPants 18 years old. Assistant manager at a big pizza franchise. Had been working open to close for 2 weeks straight because the new GM went on vacation right after taking over the store. When she got back from her vacation she worked a half day (i opened and still closed) then she changed the schedule and took 2 days off.
    via u/BaggyBadgerPants
  • 17
    This was the last straw on top of a ton of other sh piled over a year (multiple new GMs, district manager, awful store politics) I was alone during an unusually large lunch rush and was just done with everyone's sh. I had a makeline full of orders, phones ringing, oven full of pizza, orders to be picked up, and a massive batch of dough sitting on the prep table. I said f I shut the
    via u/BaggyBadgerPants
  • 18
    oven off, walked out, and locked the store. Didnt call anyone to let them know. It would be hours before the evening driver would roll in. No prep for the day, no dough for the day except for da blob im sure would become a massive mess after rising for hours, a double deck oven with both belts full of pies wasted and
    via u/BaggyBadgerPants
  • 19
    what was probably shaping to be a $1200 lunch out the window. I hope she was well rested after her time off.
    via u/BaggyBadgerPants
  • 20
    Bad WolfRU Worked as the engineer at the mill, was responsible for operation and process. adjustment of certain piece of equipment. Made it works. with better than specified results, but my managers required MORE PRODUCTION, LESS POWER, etc. So, at the point machine reached it`s capacity, and
    via u/Bad WolfRU
  • 21
    TehRealBabadook I worked as a small engine repair tech for a larger company. I am also in the National Guard. I had gotten hurt and needed physical therapy and one or two days a month I would have to miss because of an extended drill weekend. Well my boss didn't like that and she decided that she would punish me by making me stay later than everyone
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 22
    further pushing was risky and huge amount of invest was needed, I was told by brass, that "You didn't even try to do it, only say some lame excuses". I was full of this sh and called to the manufacturer of this equipment. Long story short - instead of instructions and advices, they sent me a job offer for local service rep.
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 23
    After I quit the mill, my ex colleagues tried to push machine above the limits and successfully broke it and stop the production for couple of weeks.
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 24
    else. She was punishing me for going to physical therapy for a workplace injury and for being a soldier. Now, you may be thinking, having to stay late to keep up on your work doesn't sound like that much of a punishment. Normally, you would be right but trust me, she was doing a lot more to make sure it was a punishment.
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 25
    Well, one day after being told that I was not given approval for the ONE DAY of vacation I asked for THREE MONTHS in advance to go see the eclipse and generally being treated like a slave, I was like, "why am I doing this to myself?" and clocked out at the end of my shift. That next Monday after drill weekend, I showed up, packed up all my tools. and took off. My boss started freaking out when
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 26
    she saw what I was doing. I left and found out that me leaving cost her over 100k dollars because she had to ship my workload to another state to get another shop to work on them. That meant she needed to pay to ship them, and then pay to ship them back and since her shop didn't do any of the actual work, she never saw any money for any of the repairs. it was over 80 Riding mowers.
    via u/TehRealBabadook
  • 27
    ral... I spent some time working at a gas station where my supervisor would take about 20 smoke breaks a day while demanding that the rest of us work harder. After several days of this, and my boss not doing anything about it, I quit in the middle of a pizza order rush.
    via u/ral365
  • 28
    [deleted] I worked in shipping and receiving for a health food. store. Over the past 5 days everyone else had quit, including supervisors and department heads. I was working a frozen shipment (my regular job). Dairy came in. Cheese came in. A bit over $130k. (Huge fancy cheese in whole wheels, a large generally organic dairy
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    shipment). I refused to sign any thing. GM demanded I sign and put it away. Signing was already out of my pay grade, those numbers made it way the h I out of my pay grade. He then demanded I put it all away, it would have taken the rest of my shift for my own work...i just quit. F it. Heard he signed it in and it all went to waste. He was fired.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    AllofaSuddenStory I worked 25 years for a large company in the sales division. I was making 6 figures and had earned my role as VP of the west coast. My plan was to stick around to retirement But then we got a new president. And the new president was an a hole to everyone. I saw one sales guy walk up all excited and
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 31
    offer a handshake to meet him. The president didn't shake the extended hand and instead said "I can't believe you came here without polishing your shoes". The president gave a directive for me to stop hiring people with business or sales experience and to start just hiring attractive men and women. Because "their good looks will sell product better than the educated words of a veteran
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 32
    salesperson, plus they are young and work cheaper." I went along with this request and made 2 such hires. Then the next request came along "tell me who is the worst member of your team right now," I explained my team was #1 in the company and were all doing well, but the weakest one one 8 year employee who had a bad year last year. He was making less frequent calls
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 33
    and the quality of calls was dropping. I had to place him on a PIP to improve in 3 months. And he did! He busted a, worked long hours and weekends. And moved into the #1 spot on my team. At the end of the 3 months th president calls me to discuss the PIP. I explain the great progress and that I want to release him from the PIP because he is on-track
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 34
    now. The reply was "well there's probably other things wrong with him anyway so terminate him and document it. Make sure to hire a young attractive person as a replacement" I quit on the spot with zero days notice (unusual for a white collar job) and told him to do his own dirty work
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 35
    Now I work as a high school teacher LOL.
    via u/AllofaSuddenStory
  • 36
    Clo... Famous footwear During the interview manager wouldnt shut up about how she wanted the other person but would hire me just to give me a chance. Worked there for 5 shifts. On day 2 she went and asked my previous managers about my s life. The one that really peeved
    via u/Closecalllynn
  • 37
    me was she specifically asked my last employer who was employing my room mate while my room mate was on shift if I was sleeping with my room mate. On day 3 she got mad at me for doing something wrong after refusing to train me. I asked numerous times about pricing shoes. She would just do one silently without showing me where to look on the scanner or
    via u/Closecalllynn
  • 38
    what exactly she was scanning or anything and then hand it back as if she had retrained me. On day 4 she berated me saying if I quit it would royally f her vacation up, which was the only reason she hired me over the other person. But now she wouldnt have time to train a new person to cover her vacation which was still 2 mon ths out. My room mate
    via u/Closecalllynn
  • 39
    put in notice at her job on this day. On day 5 manager hears that room mate got a better job. She confronts me saying I better not quit and then asks if I planned on putting in two weeks. I tell her I'd been considering because she refused to train me and she was asking inappropriate questions to my previous employers. She went off on me, yelling at me
    via u/Closecalllynn
  • 40
    on the sales floor telling me not to ever come back. She then put that she had terminated me in my paper work due to insubordination and theft as well as sending my one and only paycheck to the wrong address 5 times before i finally got hr to just cancel the old checks and mail it directly to me.
    via u/Closecalllynn
  • 41
    eagerrangerdanger I worked as a porter at a pretty busy bakery once. The owner must've been at least 500 pounds and being that this was a family business, his wife ran the front of the shop. It wasn't long before she started making passes at me and grabbing me in extremely inappropriate ways. I was 18 at the time and she must've been in her 50's. Either way
    via u/eagerrangerdanger
  • 42
    this was very unwelcome. attention and eventually I got fed up and quit. I specifically chose a holiday (Valentine's Day) because I knew that they would be swamped. I was tasked with cleaning everything up at the end of the day and prepping everything for the
    via u/eagerrangerdanger
  • 43
    next day. Needless to say I left everything the way it was, did not prep a single thing and dumped a bunch of flour on the floor and spelled out "I quit" in the flour. I had a lot of angry voicemails the next day but I never regretted doing what I did.
    via u/eagerrangerdanger
  • 44
    [deleted] I worked at a sub shop for 2 years. The last two weeks we were so short that I was working a 70 hour workweek and I wasn't even being worked the hardest. I was loyal to the company but the management wasn't fantastic and I was severely underpaid. I had a friend who knew about my work situation and without telling me referred me to his much
    via u/[deleted]
  • 45
    better job. The job called one day while I was working a double at my sub shop. After I got off work I went by the place and was hired. I immediately called the owner of my store and quit. They were so short handed that there wasn't enough people for a shift. They had 5 total employees. But now I have way better way, insurance, and great management. I'm happy with jumping off the boat.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 46
    Red_Hooker_Hunter I was a driver (medical transportation) and they told me I had to work 12 hrs for 8 hrs pay. "I said guess what.. Looks like YOU are working 12 hrs because im out this f ." He was like haha ok.. when I left he was still like did he really quit LOL
    via u/Red_H**ker_Hunter
  • 47
    izzi... I've only done this once in my life, but it was a really crazy situation. My first professional job was an event planner for a small business, like 3 people. I was 24 and I worked there for a year. After about 5 months, my boss became extremely abive. She would make
    via u/izzidora
  • 48
    little snide remarks about my terrible skills or time management or organizing. She stopped talking to me and would basically act like I wasn't there unless it was to criticize me for something. One day she asked me if I implemented a new filing system she had learned from the bank she used to work at. I replied no, as she hadn't yet showed me how to do so. She said, with a
    via u/izzidora
  • 49
    Cheezburger Image 10522195968
    via u/izzidora
  • 50
    "help me grow". Like I worked for a big incorporation or something with an HR department, and not a private office with literally one boss. If I argued why I wasn't doing so, she made me sign something saying I was refusing training. I literally have no idea who those papers were for. Stuff like that.
    via u/izzidora
  • 51
    It made me so paranoid and unhappy, I spent many lunches crying in my car and many nights stressed out completely after work. I couldn't understand what had changed, and felt so stupid and helpless. My coworker had just left, so it was just the two of us, and I gave my 2 weeks because the thought of being alone in an office with her was unbearable. As soon as I left
    via u/izzidora
  • 52
    her office, she called her mom to complain about me ditching her and talked about how happy she would be with me gone...while I was about 10ft away in another room with the doors open. I lost it. Got up from my desk and grabbed my purse. Went to her office and told her that I was leaving for good. Right this minute. I
    via u/izzidora
  • 53
    was shaking and terrified, and she was furious. She told me, "Good luck finding another job in this town. I know everybody." Spoiler alert, I did. The kicker What I didn't know at the time, was that my coworker had been feeding her bs the whole time. When it started to affect how I was being treated, and I would
    via u/izzidora
  • 54
    complain or talk about it, guess who also told my boss all of that. Yup. With many embellishments, of course. I had zero experience with people like that, and overlooked many clues, (like how she would stay after work a lot to "finish her assignments"...while in reality she was staying to tattle on me) because I was so new to the real world and naive. I found out all of this a few months later from one
    via u/izzidora
  • 55
    of her friends I ran into who she had also screwed over in some way. It made me stronger, and after I left my boss had to deal with scrambling to find people to do all her events and I'm sure it was h I. I felt happy about that at first, but now that Im 10 years older I can see things differently. She definitely could have handled it better, but it was her first boss-job too, and
    via u/izzidora
  • 56
    she maybe had some things to learn herself.
    via u/izzidora

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