'I requested a 25 cent raise and they said it wasn't in the budget': 15+ Workers who quit their jobs for great reasons

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 6, 2025 11:00 AM EST

If you feel that your work is undervaluing you, this is a great time to start searching for a new position. The next best time is tomorrow! As these workers can tell you, quitting when you've been fed up with a job for a long while is an amazing feeling. 

Just imagine your ideal job. Picture what the office looks like (if you're even in an office!). Imagine yourself waking up and being excited to go to work. Imagine how you greet your coworkers and bosses, and guess what? You don't despise a single one of them. Picture yourself having enough money to go on a cushy vacation a few times each year; having extra cash to put towards a nice wardrobe and hair styling, enough to save for retirement while still having enough cash to go out with your friends on weekends. All of this can be yours if you play your cards right and have a lot of luck. Once you leave your bad job, you're just one step closer to your ideal workspace. It might seem unimaginable, and it won't come without a lot of hard work (read: submitting one million job applications…sigh). 

These workers detailed the reasons they stepped away from their workplaces. Hindsight is always 20/20, and sometimes just writing out the details of why you left your old job is enough to help you spot red flags and concerning patterns for whichever career you pursue next. 

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  • 01
    Man in blue shirt looks dejectedly at laptop with hand on head in front of windows
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    SaberGenerator I once worked in a customer service job that I thought was going to be a great fit for me. Unfortunately, the company had some really terrible policies and procedures that made it almost impossible to do my job correctly. For example, they had this rule where you weren't allowed to tell customers about any of their options or explain why
    via u/SaberGenerator
  • 03
    something didn't work. As a result, I felt like I was constantly lying to people and not helping them out. After months of frustration and feeling like I was doing more harm than good, I finally decided to quit.
    via u/SaberGenerator
  • 04
    wheresmytwodollars I never got a raise
    via u/wheresmytwodollars
  • 05
    Hoonigan0690 Everyone was Pretentious -Manager was pretending that there's future of the company -HR was pretending that company is Great workplace
    via u/Hoonigan0690
  • 06
    -CEO was pretending that he has found cancer cure In reality the business model was a useless piece of shit There was literally no growth and future Environment was unprofessional
    via u/Hoonigan0690
  • 07
    TheManDirtyDan Worked at staples. The most mundane and micromanaged job I've ever worked. Couldn't even say "have a good one" when finishing a conversation, had to say "my pleasure" like chicfila. I worked there for two days and absolutely would not recommend it.
    via u/TheManDirtyDan
  • 08
    nothingbeatagood... Lack of progression / opportunity to move / personality conflict / boredom / poached by other business. There is alway another job.
    via u/nothingbeatagood****
  • 09
    [deleted] Safety job. I left because of my direct manager. It was only me and him in the department but I felt like he gave me zero direction as to what his expectations were. Whenever I would ask what was going on for the day the response would be, I don't know. Nothing. Anything you need help getting done? Nothing. Any projects I can
    via u/[deleted]
  • 10
    work on for you? Nothing. I would get there in the morning, attend the morning meetings, half the time he would expect me to lead them without any prompt he wanted me to, any conversation, etc. I would provide orientations to contractors if there were any that came in that day. Then Nothing. I would watch around the production areas becoming the thing I hated.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 11
    when I was on the otherside - I became the safety guy who just sat there and watched people work. I would literally walk the long way around the compound because I knew it would take 10 minutes longer to help kill time. Guys that I got to know in the shop would make comments along the lines of "the previous person in your role never spent nearly as much time on the floor as you do". That would make
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    me wonder am I missing something? Is there something I'm supposed to be doing that I'm not? I didn't want to spend too much time in the office and have him pissed off that I wasn't on the floor to have a safety presence, even then in the office I had nothing to do but click around in the computer to make it seem like I was doing something
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    I honestly thought my boss was waiting until my annual review to tell me that I'm failing to meet expectations and fire me almost like he was purposely witholding info to make me fail and have an excuse.. When the review came around he said I was doing a great job. I really don't know.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    I couldn't take watching the clock all day everyday basically praying for anything to happen to pass the time. I hated going to work in the morning. And God forbid you showed up on time. If you weren't 15 minutes early - your late.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 15
    Specialist-Tale-5951 Disrespectful supervisor. He barked orders at me, would take things out of my hands when I knew better than he did, rolled his eyes at me and was generally a misogynist prick. That job didn't last long.
    via u/Specialist-Tale-5951
  • 16
    [deleted] I got written up for something someone else did, and it wasn't even that big of a deal. I used to work in a bike shop fixing bikes. We had a newer guy come in and he pinched a tube - something that happens all the time in bike shops and my boss wrote - me up because I was supervising. He said I should
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    be a better instructor and it's like dude even seasoned mechanics pinch tubes once in a while. The company I was with has an astonishing turnover rate. I quit and went to a different bike shop. I was there for about a year before I pinched a tube and when I
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    did my manager just laughed at me and we shop expensed it for $2 and everyone went about their day.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    nograynogrey It was my dream job in research doing something that meant a lot to me. However hard I tried I was never do good enough for my boss. There were weekly meetings on Mondays to discuss the project that felt more like an hour of discussion of my shortcomings. Every Sunday
    via u/nograynogrey
  • 20
    night I would dread going back. I finally realized that I need to leave when my friend asked me if the work was worth the misery. I don't know why it took me that long or why someone else had to ask me that question. I try to listen to my gut nowadays and put my mental health first.
    via u/nograynogrey
  • 21
    [deleted] Didn't train me at all, and changed how the job worked every other week. Lowe's got a new CEO from Home Depot, and I guess his take on how to run the company better was to make it run like Home Depot. But the way this took shape, was to set the same deadlines and metrics as Home
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Depot...without any change in policy or practice. So I got a great paying job as a MSA (glorified janitor/shelf stocker), went to an online class that covered how to be a cashier, and got 5 minutes of an older guy telling me how to do paperwork. The paperwork then changed the next day, only to change 10 more times over the 2 months i worked there, both
    via u/[deleted]
  • 23
    in format, required fields, and who was filling it out. This was on top of learning machinery like forklifts, how intense i should be in my work (coworkers said to just make sure it's not messy, manager would say to make it spotless), and how the electronic inventory system worked. Upper management and my manager just kept fighting and arguing over which system to use, and
    via u/[deleted]
  • 24
    would make us change it all the time. Best part was my manager pulled me aside, to inform me my coworkers were getting frustrated with how many questions I kept asking. All 3 of us new guys quit within a month of eachother.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    -Fire-Opal- Worked there for 2 years as a receptionist, parts, service, and accounting same pay but position changed in a car dealership. was praised as an employee, I requested a 25 cent raise and they said it wasnt in the budget after giving raises to many others. I left and went to a job as a barista and got paid 9 dollars more plus tips (i made 15 an hour)
    via u/-Fire-Opal-
  • 26
    revs201 Money. Waited a year for a promised raise after the hopeless "new guy" took over the board... Plenty of time to grasp that I was not "just a truck driver" I was lead manager of the distribution center, roving store manager (only person trained and with the keys and passwords needed to fill in at all 3
    via u/revs201
  • 27
    locations as day manager) as well as single handedly both the IT and Maintenance departments. Asked for a small/modest raise to represent all my actual duties and responsibilities expected, was tentatively approved by president of board who left... But never made official by new guy, when pay raises were rolled out after an 8+ month company wide freeze on
    via u/revs201
  • 28
    bonuses and pay increases. due to covid shutdowns... Yeah, asked for an additional $4.25/hour and got $1.15/hour raise... Less % annual raise than was minimum for time served and an accompanied notice. of the new policy starting with the new quarter that reduced my 14 paid sick days +14 PTO days to 20 allowed "Personal days" annually with paid leave
    via u/revs201
  • 29
    required a doctor's note and or prior approval a minimum of two months in advance and subject to cancelation at anytime Yeah, read that steaming heap and put in my 2 weeks as I clocked in the next morning right under my request of all my remaining. PTO time.
    via u/revs201
  • 30
    Made some calls and had a new / better job before lunch that paid $7.75/hour over the amount I'd asked for and been denied.
    via u/revs201
  • 31
    Man in white shirt and overalls sits in darkened office surrounded by computer monitors and looking at iPad while touching his forehead
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 32
    HugheyBoy05 one time i worked at an italian restaurant in seattle. my dad convinced me to do it over the summer and it sounded great to me. i walked into this job not knowing it was incredibly understaffed and high maintenance. water, appetizer, clear table, reset. i did that same cycle for 4 hours a day. it was warm, greasy, and i was always
    via u/HugheyBoy05
  • 33
    hungry. i worked there for about a month and a half before it started affecting me out of work. i started losing sleep and getting angry all the time. i wasn't able to ever get a full nights sleep because i would constantly jolt with the mistake of i was not working hard enough. my parents.
    via u/HugheyBoy05
  • 34
    grew from me and sometimes i even resented things like my own dog. i eventually quit because of the late hours and mental stress.
    via u/HugheyBoy05
  • 35
    [deleted] My first job ever at 16 was at a harp factory blending plywood joints with a sander. After 8 hours of that, saw dust was everywhere -- my eyes, nose, ears. I went home and said that was it. Didn't even bother to collet the check. It convinced me to go to college.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 36
    [deleted] Manager treated me like shit even though I was the only one putting effort into the job
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    S2JESSICA i was working at an italian restaurant, and one day i had to open and close as a manager, so i was there for both lunch and dinner. two teenage girls came in and ordered pizza/a cold antipasto salad (ours was mainly folded cold cut meats on top of the salad) at lunch. they ate the pizza and snacked on the salad.
    via u/S2JESSICA
  • 38
    later that evening, the mom came in and slammed the container down in front of me saying we ripped her off and we gave her a half eaten salad. it dawned on me 3 mins into her yelling at me, that the salad belonged to the two girls from lunch. my boss entered the convo too late, and was telling the kitchen to make her a new/fresh one. i was trying
    via u/S2JESSICA
  • 39
    to stop him because i remembered who actually ate it (the girls must have bought it for her and picked too much out of it), but it was too late. once she strolled out w her fresh $15 salad and i explained what happened, he got pissed off
    via u/S2JESSICA
  • 40
    at me and told me i should have interrupted him while he was kissing her ass about it. i told him he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise and his roid-ragey self flipped out, and he ended up called me a cunt and a dumb b i found my first job in my career soon after that. a blessing, i guess.
    via u/S2JESSICA
  • 41
    Bye-s 1-band-... Kid I was nannying turned 3. Became an absolute terror. Never looked back
    via u/Bye-s*****-band
  • 42
    Mono_KIT My panic attacks and my boss wouldn't accommodate the things I struggled with. Pretty much bullied to quit and leave.
    via u/Mono_KIT
  • 43
    Such_Run_8189 When my mental health was not being respected
    via u/Such_Run_8189
  • 44
    Yellow post-it note reading "I QUIT!" stuck to computer keyboard
    via Nick Fewings on Unsplash+

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

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