15+ Employees who quit their jobs for good reasons: 'The boss started insisting on 4-6 hours of overtime almost every day'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 14, 2025 3:00 PM EST

Quit your job right now if these stories resonate with you, because these people had some excellent reasons for quitting ASAP. 

You don't have to be a detective to spot the signs of a sinking ship. For example, if everyone's paychecks bounce on payday, that's a great reason to immediately start a job search. If the employer can barely keep the lights on, there's no guarantee you'll have a job for much longer. Or if your boss has started to demand that people work overtime more and more and more, cutting into the employee's actual lives outside of work, that's an unpleasant environment to spend time in. Better seek work elsewhere before things get even worse!

These people have been through the wringer, and they're sharing the interesting stories of the reasons they chose to quit. If some of them resonate with you, well, it's never too late to start all over and reevaluate your career path. Sometimes you're unhappy at a job and you don't even realize until you find a new place that values their employees, prioritizes a work life balance, and provides you with a boss who cares about their workers. You never know what you could accomplish until you try! 

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  • 01
    Young man in black suit stands with arms folded, next to him, older man in gray suit expresses frustration
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

     

  • 02
    spiralsbreedtruth They wanted me to be in charge of job sites but only wanted to pay 14$ an hour. so i said fuck you and quit on the spot.
    via u/
  • 03
    Emergency_Deli... The manager. It's always the arsehole manager.
    via u/Emergency_Delivery47
  • 04
    JetPlane_88 12 hour shifts six days a week. I needed the money so I sucked it up. Then the boss started insisting on 4-6 hours of overtime almost every day. Physically couldn't do it. That made me quit.
    via u/JetPlane_88
  • 05
    Two woman sit at office table, a man in a gray suit stands and expresses frustration
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 06
    Talking_Head My paycheck bounced.
    via u/Talking_Head
  • 07
    Safety_Drance A long time ago I worked at a company that rhymes with Home Depot. It was the dumbest and worst experience I've ever had. I had to travel halfway across the state to attend "cashier college" where they taught us things that anyone could teach us on the job.
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 08
    Then I got into my cashier spot and discovered that they didn't trust anyone but one single person on the entire floor to override any correction at checkout (of which there could always be many in any large transaction) in an area that was the size of a Home Depot. So my average day would be:
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 09
    Attempt to checkout person, oops they wanted something different or wanted to change something. Call for a manager to come approve it. Wait for them to show up for several minutes. Customer would get more and more agitated.
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 10
    Wait some more. Wait some more. Wait some more. Customer is now more agitated and taking it out on me. Wait some more. Wait some more. Wait some more.
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 11
    Customer is now livid. Wait some more. Ope, see a manager in the distance... Wait some more. Suffice it to say, I lasted about three weeks there and didn't bother even quitting.
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 12
    Just stopped going, and that's the only place I've ever done that. Worst job I've had in my entire life.
    via u/Safety_Drance
  • 13
    Ff7hero I was teaching in a two year old classroom. As summer approached, the boss once again was struggling to find someone willing to teach the school age kiddos. I was asked to do this on the condition that I would have a consistent start and leave time (before it changed day- to-day on a weekly schedule).
    via u/Ff7hero
  • 14
    The first week I'm with the school agers, my boss in on vacation and no one else is aware my schedule was supposed to change. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and was flexible about when I arrived and left. The next week, she acted put upon when I reminded her about the arraignment we'd made. Rather than continue the frustrating
    via u/Ff7hero
  • 15
    conversation I made some pithy remark (I believe it was to the tune of "well I guess we'll just figure it out without you as usual") and went back to my kiddos. She came to the door of my "classroom" (which was really a travel space that got the bare minimum conversion in the summer) and yelled at me, saying specifically that if I didn't
    via u/Ff7hero
  • 16
    like how she ran her school | could leave. Then she walked away. My director heard this and offered to cover for me while I collected myself. I took her up on this but decided to collect my things and slip out the back.
    via u/Ff7hero
  • 17
    d _touched_... Got overworked because i was management. Spoke up for myself, and my manager starts to bully me. I take it. up with the GM, and he defends her and doesn't let me say my piece. Made me sign a write-up, and I walked out.
    via u/d****_touched_me
  • 18
    Think Opposite... I was tired of not even making it paycheck to pay heck and begging for raises while working my ass off for them. I tool the severance package and ran. Also there's always that one co worker who makes work just living hell. I feel better now that I'm not paycheck to paycheck
    via u/Think_Opposite_8888
  • 19
    JCanadia Working at McDonald's about 10 years ago, there's a process when you swap from breakfast to lunch to make sure all lunch foods are ready to go at the exact second lunch starts at 10:30. I was told by my manager to go on break right before that process happened, and instead they made two new employees handle it instead.
    via u/JCanadia
  • 20
    I came back from break and basically nothing was done, lunch orders were happening and no lunch had been made, breakfast foods were still out, it was a mess. Next day, regional manager comes and is very mad at the way "changeover" went the day prior, and everyone is written up. I'm very vocal about the fact that I was sent on break and had nothing to do with it, so I
    via u/JCanadia
  • 21
    don't want to sign the write up, and they replied "it was a team effort". I don't sign the write up, and the next day they didn't fire me, but wiped my hours from the schedule. When I found that out, I walked off the job
    via u/JCanadia
  • 22
    FaerieQuene I had a breakdown and burnout and when I went back to work one of my coworkers was hostile towards me. I didn't want to fight it so I just quit
    via u/FaerieQuene
  • 23
    PossibleJazzlik... At least five messages per hour on my days off and on. Look dude, if you don't know how to run your ship, I don't need to be here to do it for you.
    via u/PossibleJazzlike2804
  • 24
    KoRaZee People don't quit their jobs, they quit their bosses
    via u/KoRaZee
  • 25
    Ragnarotico Late night/closing shift fast food. Policy is to close the doors on time. On this night someone came up to the door right as I was locking up and the manager insisted I let them in. Ok fine. I'm on clean up duty anyway so no big deal. She tells me to get to the counter and help out. I ask her what she needs. She
    via u/Ragnarotico
  • 26
    starts yelling at me for no reason. I literally can't understand what she wants. I ask again and she keeps yelling. I was fed up to all hell so I clocked out, left my uniform in the office, got my stuff and just left.
    via u/Ragnarotico
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    Next day GM called me and asked me what happened. When I explained he asked if I would come back to work. I did agree to go back but I started applying for other jobs immediately and I was gone within a few weeks.
    via u/Ragnarotico
  • 28
    NowCheesers I'm currently in the middle of my two weeks notice. We got a new manager and she's terrible. She has no knowledge of the job and still manages to be a know it all. Me putting in my two weeks notice started a chain reaction that led to everyone in my department handing in theirs. Upper management
    via u/NowCheesers
  • 29
    is in shambles now. Decades of knowledge and experience is walking out the door. The job is really hard and it doesn't pay well, but as someone before me said, "it's always management."
    via u/NowCheesers
  • 30
    TheInternetIsTo... Was hired to build HVAC simulators ended up wiring countless boards and systems unrelated to HVAC. Constantly being pulled off one job to complete someone else's work all to be cited for not being efficient in the quarterly reviews. The meticulous grading on projects was even worse. A smudge or a
    via u/TheInternetIsToxic
  • 31
    fingerprint, getting bad parts or silkscreens would cause a red card along with plenty of paper work to fill out.
    via u/TheInternetIsToxic
  • 32
    Long-Tip-5374 Was tired of being laughed at in the mall as a security guard by all of the hot women and picked on by high schoolers and skateboarders. On my last day I busted a skateboard in half over my knee in the parking ramp after some skateboarders were making fun of me, it was the last straw.
    via u/Long-Tip-5374
  • 33
    EmbarrassedVic... I hated taking advantage of people who knew very little about what they were signing up for or buying. So I quit.
    via u/EmbarrassedVictory53

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