15+ Brand new hires who quit a job on day 1: 'It took me about 2 hours to realize... then I left'

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

Trust your intuition — if you fear a job is going to be impossible right from your first day, it's best to just walk away and start anew somewhere else. 

Getting a new job can be so exciting. Although you're nervous to meet your new coworkers and impress your new bosses, after the nerves wear off, you realize that job isn't worth keeping. Just ask these people, who decided to leave their new gigs before they got through day one! People noted some waving red flags that you can keep an eye out for next time you're job hunting. 

A common experience were people who tried working in call centers. It seems like you either stay at places like that for a day, or a lifetime. That's the kind of polarizing job that some people thrive at… but just ask the people below, who shared that they only lasted a few minutes before realizing they hated being the annoying cold-caller blowing up random strangers' phones. 

Other people just immediately got that gut feeling that they were in too deep, like one dude who tried working as a dishwasher, and quickly realized how unpleasant it was. They worked a single shift before telling the boss that they'd be hitting the road. At least that person's boss was nice enough to slide them $40 and a bowl of risotto before they began that search for new work! 

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  • 01

    'What's the fastest you ever quit a job, and why?'

    Woman in gray shirt and messy bun looks frustrated while holding glasses with one hand and touching temple with the other, next to her a woman in white shirt holding a tablet smiles brightly
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    [deleted] It took me about 2 hours in telemarketing to realize what an asshole I felt like, and then I left.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    JamesKPolk130 I was hired by a temp agency to file documents in a Paint Factory office - and when i showed up I was put on the assembly line with zero training or instruction and the cans came down the conveyor belt at 10,000 mph. i dont even know what i was supposed to do - i just let every can whiz by. i quit end of day 1.
    via u/JamesKPolk130
  • 04
    [deleted] At one of those quick-lube oil change places when I was about 18. The had me down in the pit (under the vehicles) draining the oil and I kept getting burned by hot oil and by hot exhaust pipes. On the second day, I said I had to use the bathroom and when I walked around to the side of the building I took off running and didn't come back.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 05
    silvanmorte 15 minutes. Applied for and accepted a job that was advertised as solely data entry, evening shifts. Got there, did the quick intro/meet and greet thing and was handed a mobile phone. No word of a lie, supervisor goes "It's actually a cold calling role, no-one would apply if we said that so we tell people it's data entry."
    via u/silvanmorte
  • 06
    I went sorry, what? He goes yeah, we cold call people for this idea my friend has asking for investors! You'll get a commission if you do well! At that point in time I was a salty, snarky young lady so I told him to shove it, that this was probably illegal in so many, many, ways, I applied
    via u/silvanmorte
  • 07
    for data entry not cold calling and swindling people, etc etc. Called my dad to come pick me up and never looked back - took a legit data entry offer the next day. So. Yeah. Uh... 15 minutes. Found out many years later that dude and the friend with the great idea both got done on some serious fraud charges shortly after my run in with them.
    via u/silvanmorte
  • 08
    Woman in white shirt and tan skirt holds tablet and smiles while walking through office
    via A. C. For Unsplash+

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

  • 09
    Suougibma 15 minutes before I got there. I had a weird feeling about the job and how vague the hiring manager was being. Half way to my first day it dawned on my that it was some traveling door-to-door
    via u/Suougibma
  • 10
    sales shit. The kind where they pack you in a van and drive you to some neighborhood to sell coupon books or whatever.
    via u/Suougibma
  • 11
    cheyonreddit Sandwich shop. Health inspector showed up. Found mop cleaning solution in the tub they were keeping the utensils they used make sandwiches with (get meatballs out for subs, spread tuna on sandwiches, etc). That explained the very odd, burning chemical smell from that area. The mop cleaner was mixing with the
    via u/cheyonreddit
  • 12
    meatballs and sauce and just cooking all day in that pot. Owner argued that it was safe to use it that way. He made he dump it out in front of him. The second he left, she filled it back up and put all the utensils back in it.
    via u/cheyonreddit
  • 13
    89fruits89 Worked at 24hr fitness when I was 17. Wanted to go skiing for a week and was told no it was impossible to schedule. Just walked out. Manager was fuming yelling about marking me as a no rehire or some bullshit. I found a job at LA fitness down the street that paid more after my ski trip. Good times.
    via u/89fruits89
  • 14
    BoosterRead78 6 weeks. Got blamed for another delivery driver leaving the tank close to empty and not parked where it needed to be. I was: "huh?" A week after I left, they found out it was another driver and they were fired right afterwards.
    via u/BoosterRead78
  • 15
    [deleted] First day. Got out of the Marines and got a job doing. hardwood floors for 10/hr. Didn't tell me I had the job then called an asked where I was. Used a whole tank of gas driving from job to job.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 16
    First thing boss asked me was "are you messed up from the war" (yes MFer I am). Every employee told me how much they hate the job and to run. Finished the day and quit
    via u/[deleted]
  • 17
    LAGreggM Started telemarketing job at 8 am. Left at lunch because I couldn't stand how supervisor pushed us to lie to make sales.
    via u/LAGreggM
  • 18
    PewpyDewpdy Pa... Dishwasher and I lasted 1 shift. I was 19. The owner/chef was a nice guy but I knew this wasn't the job for me maybe 1 hour into my shift. Finished the shift, told him I wasn't coming back and asked for $40 cash to call it even. He obliged. Even gave me a bowl of risotto.
    via u/PewpyDewpdyPantz
  • 19
    Jellybones52 About 5 minutes after being hired. Enough time to be shown around by the director of nursing and meet the admin. I introduced myself and he said "Why should I care?" I just went f this and walked out.
    via u/Jellybones52
  • 20
    JohnnyDaBassSla... I worked in the call center for the university I attended. The job was to basically call alumni and get them to donate money to the school. There was a computer that would automatically call people for you. Most people simply did not answer the call because they had caller ID or didn't recognize the number. So most time was spent staring at a computer
    via u/JohnnyDaBassSlapper
  • 21
    listening to a phone ringing with nobody answering it. If somebody did answer the phone, there was a script we had to go by to try and get them to donate. We were required to ask at least 4 times and lower the amount each time before we could hang up. For example, maybe starting by asking for $200 and working down to $50. We couldn't take no for
    via u/JohnnyDaBassSlapper
  • 22
    an answer no matter what the response was until we asked for money 4 times. If somebody said, "sorry I can't afford to donate my husband has cancer." We would be required to use the script and say, "I'm so sorry to hear you are dealing with medical bills, but did you know the school is building a new football stadium! Can I get you to donate $50?"
    via u/JohnnyDaBassSlapper
  • 23
    Needless to say between the boredom of nobody answering and the terrible and awkward feeling of asking for somebody's else's money over and over if they did answer, I quit after my first 2 hours there. Just got up and told the supervisor it wasn't for me and left.
    via u/JohnnyDaBassSlapper
  • 24
    [deleted] A few weeks after at a retail job. Hired for holiday work. They offered to keep me on after the holiday. I said ok but I will need a week in January off because I'm visiting a friend. Already had plane tickets. They said ok and then put me on the schedule anyways. Screw that.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    KingBayley About two weeks. Applied for the university center's info desk. They hired me after they'd already trained the other new hires. It was something like 8-10 hours of training, but I got about half an hour of "here's where this is" hand waving. I was a new freshman so unable to answer most questions off the top of my head. And we were supposed to sell bus
    via u/KingBayley
  • 26
    passes from a special register I never got trained to use. I did my absolute best but kept getting yelled at for not knowing how to do things, and when I asked for training they said no because they'd already held the training. Got sick of getting scolded and feeling lost and set up for failure and just told them I'm not coming back.
    via u/KingBayley
  • 27
    Sea-Woodpecker-... One week. Worked as a delivery driver for a national pizza chain in high school. Got my first paycheck at the end of the week and it was stupidly low. I reported my tips. They deducted them from my hourly wage. Took off my shirt right in front of my manager, and literally
    via u/Sea-Woodpecker-610
  • 28
    walked across the parking lot to the Chinese place with a "drivers wanted" sign in the window. I started driving for them the next day.
    via u/Sea-Woodpecker-610
  • 29
    [d... Within 30 min of finishing/filing all the HR paperwork. I sat down at my new desk, opened my backpack and started organizing all the books I brought when my new boss. came over and made a comment that didn't sit well with me. He expressed his disappointment in me for not filling out the paperwork with a "sense of urgency"
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    and said he hopes this isn't a habit. When he left to go back to his office, I opened up my email and wrote a brief paragraph to the effect of "I can see you run a tight ship here. I don't believe this is a good fit for either of us." I packed up my books and walked out the front door. Again, literally 30 min. Turns out, this was the best decision I could have made, as I almost immediately
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    found a new job that paid 40% more. The job I walked out on paid $58k as an IT Field Engineer. I went on to work as an Infrastructure Engineer, my job until this day. $81K start, 100% WFH.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 32
    TrappedinTX 2 days. I worked at Walmart before and quit to start a gig in trucking. Got about a year into the trucking before I decided maybe I wanted to be home more. So I quit my job and got hired at Walmart within a week. Which was perfect, it was for a deli position which was cool, never worked deli before, I was always an overnight stocker. First day was mostly
    via u/TrappedinTX
  • 33
    computer work, second day was partial computer work followed by a half day on the job. I sh you not, the first hour I was in the deli I get an older lady (65+) requesting ham sliced as thin as possible, so I asked the chick training me for some help and she got it to the lowest setting. And when I shaved a practice piece off I asked if it was good. She says "no, I've gotten it
    via u/TrappedinTX
  • 34
    thinner before" so I asked my training chick and she says "ma'am that's as thin as we go." The woman didn't like this answer. She proceeds to say, "that might be thin enough for you lard but I need my thinner". At this point I was already debating on throwing this ham at her and quitting and tmher statement about sent me over the edge. While I didn't launch the ham slice at her I
    via u/TrappedinTX
  • 35
    did throw it on the counter and told the old woman where she could shove that ham. Walked into the backroom, clocked out, threw the assistant manager my best and told them today was my last day. And that some old hag needs help in deli.
    via u/TrappedinTX
  • 36
    I called my trucking company the next days and within two weeks they had me in a truck and down the road. I'll NEVER do customer service again. Kudos to everyone whose stuck it out this long. I did it for 10+ years and once I got out, I'll never go back.
    via u/TrappedinTX
  • 37
    Shelby71 8 hours/1 shift. I was working for a temp agency and they were very specific about what we could and couldn't do for light industrial work. The big one was ladders; we were not to go higher than 8 feet. The agency also set our hours for us, and any changes would need to go through them.
    via u/Shelby71
  • 38
    So they send me to a warehouse that makes plastic frames for windows. It's August in the south, and the place has no AC. The entire space reeks from the furnace that melts the plastic and extrudes it into the various molds. My job was to do an updated inventory count. I was contracted to do first shift (7 am-3 pm). My supervisor starts off by saying that
    via u/Shelby71
  • 39
    starting tomorrow, I should come in at 2 am to start that day's count because it is so much easier to do when it is cool. I told him that he'd have to clear that change with the temp agency. He replied "No, it's fine, we do it all the time." I then asked if I would be getting a pay bump because that's technically 3rd shift, and those workers get paid more. He immediately
    via u/Shelby71
  • 40
    changed the subject. As the shift goes on, I'm partnered with a veteran, and we have to count everything on the shelves. The shelves go up to @ 20 feet, so he drives over a scissor lift. No straps, no safety harness. I look at him and tell him that the temp agency only lets me go up on ladders no taller than 8 feet. He told me to get on and just not tell them. He
    via u/Shelby71
  • 41
    wants me to lean waaaaay out over the edge of the lift to count frames. I finished the shift, drove home, and called the temp agency. I told them about the unauthorized change in schedule and the unsafe working conditions and told them I would not be returning.
    via u/Shelby71

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