'I went from the worst job I ever had, to my favorite!': 15+ Moments when employees knew they were going to quit their jobs

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 9, 2025 11:00 AM EST

Do you recall the exact moment you planned to quit your job? For many people, the decision isn't instant — it's formed over weeks or months, as trust in management erodes, and unhappiness with their workflow increases. 

For some people, it only takes a single person to change their workplace irreparably. If your old boss leaves the company and the new manager is the kind of person who screams at the workers and refuses to help them solve their problems, that dude may cost the company valuable workers. People want to be happy at their jobs, not dreading seeing their boss's face each day. It sounds simple, but it's true — people don't leave bad companies, they leave bad management. 

Some folks have issues with their coworkers. But I'd argue that's a management issue, too! If you're having problems with a coworker, you should be able to loop in HR and your boss and have a mediation session, or report any behavior that's inappropriate. If you can't, well, there's a good reason for you to find a new gig. 

The people below shared their stories, and they're really excellent reminders that if you spot some familiar red flags here, you can always start a job hunt of your own. There's always a brighter future out there! 

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  • 01

    'What happened at your work that made you go "**** this, I don't get paid enough"?'

    Group of 5 workers, 1 woman and 4 men, sitting around desk covered in laptops and phones having a discussion
    via Kübra Arslaner For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    The_RabitSlayer I got red in the face yelled at for chatting with my coworker, WHILE we were both fully working and the two of us were among the best performers on the site. Two weeks notice got put in within the week.
    via u/The_RabitSlayer
  • 03
    OkCastor I was a young professional at the time and one of the older partners had me drive his wife to her hair dresser and wait for her to be done, i then had to take her grocery shopping, carry the groceries in and put them away for her and when she told me to vacuum her carpet before i left, i said no.
    via u/OkCastor
  • 04
    By the time i got back to the office my partner was red in the face and said that if his wife tells me to do something, it is like he was telling me to do something. I told him to write me up, which he did and had HR present it to me that i was insubordinate for not vacuuming his wifes carpet.
    via u/OkCastor
  • 05
    I ended up leaving a few weeks later after a lateral move to a more progressive firm. I have that write up framed in my office as it is so ridiculous.
    via u/OkCastor
  • 06
    Party_Sea3522 I worked at a preschool where my supervisor, who happened to be a good friend of two of the aides, had them spy on me. I decided to turn in my resignation. Before I did, she called me into a meeting with the HR director. While I held the letter behind my back, they said I was being laid off. After the meeting, I
    via u/Party_Sea3522
  • 07
    ran the letter through the paper shredder, and I was able to collect unemployment insurance! I felt I had gotten even! I did go back to teaching, but I found a job that I loved in a public school. I went from the worst job I ever had to my favorite!
    via u/Party_Sea3522
  • 08
    Ferreteria A wiring closet was built on the 1st floor where a bathroom used to be. Guess what was on the 2nd floor above it? There was a sewage leak from the 2nd floor. I was the IT guy. They thought it was my problem to clean it up.
    via u/Ferreteria
  • 09
    DaniFoxglove I was working at a car dealership for a while. About a decade. I was the go to in my department. Our job was to take all the incoming leads from our website, and incoming chats, and incoming calls, and answer the customers' questions.
    via u/DaniFoxglove
  • 10
    I got paid state minimum wage which, at the time was $12/hour. If I convinced them to come in for a test drive and talk numbers and options, I got paid $20 commission. If they bought. the car from our sales team, I got an additional $20 commission. It was alright. work. Easy in a physical sense, and I'm pretty good at talking to folks.
    via u/DaniFoxglove
  • 11
    Back in 2018 we had the busiest year the place ever had. We were far and away the busiest dealer for the region. It was the year I broke six figures for income, and I wasn't allowed any overtime pay. Just absolutely bananas. How were we all rewarded for our efforts?
    via u/DaniFoxglove
  • 12
    All commissions were reduced to $0, and we were left to flounder at the state minimum wage. We were told this when the owner of the dealership called the entire sales, management, and Internet teams together and delivered a speech about how every single week, he viewed our earned paychecks as us stealing money from him.
    via u/DaniFoxglove
  • 13
    So I stopped working. I went in, sat down, did the bare minimum, and spent my days looking for a new job while at my old job. Greedy old bastard.
    via u/DaniFoxglove
  • 14
    RickySpanish74 That I've never received a review or raise in the 5+ years I've been at my current job. When brought up I received blank stares and they questioned my loyalty?
    via u/RickySpanish74
  • 15
    He... I had money stolen from my tip jar by a new employee multiple times. My boss said to wait for him to do again with proof. I said fuck that and quit. That same employee was fired two weeks later after having stolen from other employees, including the boss himself.
    via u/Hereiampostingagain
  • 16
    The whole store shut down a few weeks later because other employees quit en masse. My new job pays twice as much with half the stress. If you're reading this, Austin, thanks for being a piece of shit. Turns out it made my life better :)
    via u/Hereiampostingagain
  • 17
    neoprenewedgie I worked for a video distance learning program in the 80s- 90s. I had a cool job doing some computer graphics and video production, but I also had to recycle hundreds (thousands?) of VHS tapes that had to be de-labeled, and the stickers did NOT come off easily.
    via u/Hereiampostingagain
  • 18
    One day in frustration I just blurted out "can't we hire somebody to do this?!" My boss smiled at me and said "we did."
    via u/Hereiampostingagain
  • 19
    skavinger5882 When I was in college I worked a retail job, I always got stuck on the closing shift. The store had a policy that you needed 2 departments worth of people there with the manager when they locked up the store. My department had the most individual items (lots of small components) so repriced and restocks always took
    via u/skavinger5882
  • 20
    forever, so we were basically always stuck there until the very end (generally about 3 hours after our scheduled clock off because there's always 1 other department that for one reason or another had a very long closing each day). One day we decided we would work our asses off getting everything ready so we can leave on time for
    via u/skavinger5882
  • 21
    once, we get to 15 minutes before the normal clock out time and our supervisor goes and gets the manager to do a walk through and ok us to leave. He says there's something wrong, when we ask him what it is he refuses to tell us. We proceed to spend the next hour trying to find anything out of place, and find nothing. Finally
    via u/skavinger5882
  • 22
    once we are the last department not finished he tells us, turns out literally 1 fucking item on one of the end caps wasn't straight (it was slightly crocked). I literally screamed in his face chucked my badge at him and walked out the emergency exit
    via u/skavinger5882
  • 23
    E4... Knowing when someone in the same function got paid way more, despite not having any background in the field, and I did. They told me it's not possible to get the same salary, because of the company rules and because it would be unfair to other colleagues...
    via u/E4mad
  • 24
    SeniorTailor1127 There was a piece of equipment in a crawlspace that needed replaced. I opened the door to the crawlspace and saw the device about 50 feet away, through a forest of spider webs. That piece of equipment is still there, still broken, and won't be replaced.
    via u/SeniorTailor1127
  • 25
    Jaevric When I was just about to graduate college, a woman. walked into my workplace and started demanding I do something that violated corporate policy. I told her I'd have to get my manager to authorize anything like that, and she started screaming at me about how dare I question her while telling me I'm an idiot who
    via u/Jaevric
  • 26
    will never amount to anything. I paged my boss and, when he arrived, I told him I was turning in my two weeks notice because I wasn't getting paid enough to deal with a dumb fucking bitch like this one. I liked my boss, but the expression on both his face and that of the dumb fucking bitch were amazing.
    via u/Jaevric
  • 27
    ass... My coworker asked why her emails weren't being sent and others weren't receiving them. She was writing them in Microsoft word.
    via u/a**kickinlibrarian
  • 28
    cdsbigsby There was a girl who I had the biggest crush on ever since we met in kindergarten. She moved away for college, and we got to talking, and I found out she had a crush on me, too.
    via u/cdsbigsby
  • 29
    She came back home for a spring break from college and we hung out the entire time. I was scheduled to work (as a cashier at Meijer, for like $7.25/hr) on her last day home. I called and quit so I could spend one more day with her. Worth it.
    via u/cdsbigsby
  • 30
    HumanN Retail jobs, multiple of them. One that really put me over the edge. Guy paid for something on layaway. Once you pay it off you get the item but it's not on site and is shipped in. Out of my control as an associate, out of store managers control too. We did not have the item yet, impossible to get it that minute he wanted it.
    via u/HumanN*****
  • 31
    This guy berated me for 30+ minutes like it was my fault. Store manager was almost zero help. He just let me get yelled at me over and over. I finally got the situation sorted and the prick left without his item. Afterwards I nearly cried in the parking lot sitting in my full motorcycle gear beside my bike. A friend I hadnt seen in
    via u/HumanN*****
  • 32
    years happened to see me and say Hi. Normally I would have talked to him forever. But I was absolutely destroyed by that customer, I basically just said "hey" and that was pretty much the extent of it. That was basically the moment I decided to go back to school, got an internship
    via u/HumanN*****
  • 33
    and worked myself into technology. Retail is FINE 95% of the time but it's the 5% that eats your soul alive. I hope that guy chokes on a rock.
    via u/HumanN*****
  • 34
    Not _Sure _ _Camac... Would drive an hour through rush hour traffic to get to work. Some days I'd arrive 10-15 minutes early and some days I'd arrive at the site right on time. Arriving on time, IMO meant badged into the building and in the gowning area (they required us to wear a clean room suit inside the production area). Being in that gowning area on time was not "on-time"
    via u/Not _Sure__Camacho
  • 35
    per my manager's opinion. told him that I could always go into the production area in my regular clothes and he insisted that it was not permitted. Thus I pointed out that "smocking up" was a requirement and that it should be when my time on the clock begins. He told me that I could either leave my house 30 minutes early (meant I would get to work 30-45 minutes early which
    via u/Not _Sure__Camacho
  • 36
    he said he would NOT pay me for) or I could find a job closer to my house. I looked him dead in his eye, and said, "you're absolutely right", and handed him my badge. I actually helped his department crank out great numbers. The lead in the department told me that she was grateful for me because she always had to work that
    via u/Not _Sure__Camacho
  • 37
    area and I was helping free her up to do actual lead work. I'm sure she was pissed when she found out I was driven out for what was essentially a disagreement of a minute.
    via u/Not _Sure__Camacho
  • 38
    I just wish more workers would stand up and recognize their value. We have more power that we give ourselves credit for, but we vote away all of our leverage to employers that don't really give a damn.
    via u/Not _Sure__Camacho
  • 39
    a_valetine witnessing my boss having an affair *in the office* with someone. He's married with kids, and the woman is like. Sort of the worst person you can imagine in a workplace (unreliable, irresponsible, unorganized, immature, unprofessional, unkind, the whole shebang). The woman
    via u/a_valetine
  • 40
    came up to me afterwards and begged me to keep their secret, and my boss couldn't look me in the eye for WEEKS but never brought it up and never apologized to me. Afterwards, the woman tried to get me fired.
    via u/a_valetine
  • 41
    elznpike Hospital: Chief physician (has office in another building and came to our ward maybe every two weeks for two hours / doesn ´t know us at all) rotated me without asking to an entirely different ward because they "just thought it was a good idea". Team was shocked, I
    via u/elznpike
  • 42
    quit within five minutes of "discussion" (wouldn't listen to me at all) and they looked pretty damn stupid with their style of leadership. Still: Fuck you, asshole, that's not how you treat highly skilled staff!
    via u/elznpike
  • 43
    Smiling young woman in scrubs and stethoscope holds pen and rests hands on clipboard in doctor's office setting
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 44
    Throw-a-weigh5 I had a job that didn't pay us during the holidays. Working a full time job that claimed they "didn't have the money. right now to pay all of their employees". It was a small "mom and pop" type employer so I get that times were hard but damn that sucked. We went 3 weeks
    via u/Throw--weigh5
  • 45
    without a pay check. Caused me to fall behind on rent, car payment and paying back my student loans. I left that place as quick as I could land something else.
    via u/Throw--weigh5
  • 46
    [deleted] My boss wouldn't let us leave to eat lunch. Instead he would bring bologna and bread and have us eat that. I got tired of it and bounced
    via u/[deleted]
  • 47
    Scabeater420 I worked for a construction company where they paid me every week. Then switched to every other week. Then the pay checks started bouncing. I started cashing my pay checks. immediately after I received them. One day the owner called me in and questioned
    via u/Scabeater420
  • 48
    why I was cashing my paychecks and questioned me if I this was just a job or a career blah blah blah. I told him what I do with my paycheck is none of his business. Two days later I was laid off. Kept me from having to quit and I got unemployment
    via u/Scabeater420
  • 49
    Significant-Cloud- Getting yelled at by my boss for telling him not to use a tool (that didn't belong to him) in a way that would break it. I walked away after that.
    via u/Significant-Cloud-
  • 50
    Consequence Nati... When I was told I had to go to an employers house on weekends and do personal pc work...that wasnt in my job description as an IT person. I worked at a law firm in IT department. I got sick of the one on one hand holding.
    via u/ConsequenceNational4
  • 51
    Sufficient-Wafer-2... Working in a library, having to deal with parents not understanding that the library is NOT a daycare. Do not leave your kids behind...
    via u/Sufficient-Wafer-244
  • 52
    Old woman in floral jacket and name tag sitting behind old computer looking at binder in a library setting
    via National Cancer Institute on Unsplash+

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

  • 53
    PostMatureBaby There are plenty of people at various offices I've worked that refuse to use email/MS Teams/open spreadsheets because "they don't do Excel"/fail to adhere to any sort of scheduling on their outlook. calendar... the list goes on.
    via u/PostMatureBaby
  • 54
    You don't have to be completely tech savvy and even have the latest software tools for your industry or various functions at work but my god, it's 2025...
    via u/PostMatureBaby
  • 55
    altaf770 My manager once asked me to 'smile more' during a 12- hour shift. I smiled all the way out the door after that.
    via u/altaf770
  • 56
    Daaammmmmnnn... After being denied a raise after being told I was one of the best employees they had I was asked to help load the owners 17 year old daughters car that he was borrowing because his was in the shop. That car was a brand new Porsche Cayenne.
    via u/Daaammmmmnnnnnnn69
  • 57
    The--Truth--Hurts As an IT person, hearing people's life stories and being told by management to play therapist and handle people's feelings delicately. Like, no bitch, if Janet wants a therapist, she can pay for it through our insurance like everyone else. I'm not getting paid enough to be do my IT work and listen to people's bullshit.
    via u/The--Truth--Hurts
  • 58
    RedditWhilelWerk Highly unprofessional co- worker had the balls to complain to me because I'd been at home recovering from a life-threatening crash, which apparently was inconvenient for him. Management did nothing about it.
    via u/RedditWhilelWerk
  • 59
    I don't work there any more. I did not in fact get paid enough, as my next job included a significant raise. I made it clear why I was leaving when I did.
    via u/RedditWhilelWerk

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