15 Employees who happily quit their jobs: 'I got a whole 15 cent per hour salary increase... [I] just walked out'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 18, 2025 11:00 AM EST

You may think that your workplace runs like clockwork because you're the only person who gives 110% every day, but to your boss, that might not matter in the least. 

When you spend 40+ hours each week at your job, it's hard not to care a lot about it. Some workers start to care too much, though. It's not their fault — I think it's good to care about things, generally — but if management couldn't give a hoot about it, you shouldn't either. That's why we say to "act your wage." If your boss, who makes 6 or 7 figures a year, doesn't care if the store if messy or if clients are furious, you really shouldn't take on that emotional burden for yourself while making 5 figures. No matter how much you, as an employee, care about that space, if the bosses don't care, things will simply not change. And in that case, you can quit your job if you so choose, finding a better environment to spend your one precious life in. 

These folks have a lot in common: although they're from many different industries, almost everyone who shared their story expressed happiness that they fled their job. You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who quits a job then pines for it after the fact! It's a good reminder that you never have to just sit at a desk and be miserable for 40 hours a week if you don't want to. Change is out there, go find it!

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  • 01

    'What was "the last straw" that finally made you quit your terrible job?'

    Woman in gray shirt holds temple while sitting at home office in front of large computer monitor
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    Huntinglvy I was working my a off for my company, and everyone seemed to know it except my immediate boss. She kept burying me in tasks that were not part of my job description and that I wasn't trained for. I asked for a meeting with her to come to a solution that would allow me to continue doing my job and keep my sanity. She told me that if I didn't like it, there was the door. I was welcome to leave. That was all the wake up I needed.
    via u/Huntinglvy
  • 03
    [deleted] I was taking shifts that nobody wanted, I worked 9 or 10 days in a row, mostly 16 hour days. I was called into the office one night because I had gone over on my break by 2 minutes, then lectured about "not being a team player." After that conversation, a fellow worker caught up with me and said he'd seen that same manager change the time on the punching in machine as an excuse to pull me in. Obviously nobody believed me and the CCTV footage of it wasn't found. I quit the next day via
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    gregr333 My supervisor, who often relied on my skills to make our branch look good, took credit for the work I had done on a project that had lots of exposure and received praise from the top executive. When it came time for performance reviews, the best rating she felt she could give me was satisfactory. I was gone a month later.
    via u/gregr333
  • 05
    [deleted] We were in a meeting where we got the results of an audit. Our company beat the pants off the other companies. We came in first with 99.9%. The next closest was 83%. The supervisor gave us the results and said "Here's what we did wrong" Not even a breath or a pause or a word of congratulations about us doing so awesome. No.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 06
    Here's what we did wrong. It hit me right then and there that this toxic environment was never going to change, nothing would ever improve and the company was fundamentally broken and irreparable from the top all the way down. I was gone within a few weeks.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 07
    Scupt They approved my honeymoon months in advance. Once it was a couple of weeks out they told me I couldn't have 1 of the days off.... In the middle of my trip (Gone Friday to the following Saturday, they denied my Tuesday). I took my trip after telling then I wouldn't be able to be there because we would be out of country. When I turned my phone on when we got back it was full of threatening voicemails and texts. I put my 2 weeks in when I returned.
    via u/Scupt
  • 08
    InternetMoose Stocked shelves in a big chain supermarket for about a year. Started out OK enough, plenty of exercise, worked with a couple guys my age who were fun to be around. 9 or so months in, they both leave for different jobs and the new department manager who comes in is terrible. He doesn't show up half the time, messes up the food orders when he bothers to do them at all. He handles the work schedules and that's about it. My only job is to keep the shelves stocked and I can't do that be
    via u/InternetMoose
  • 09
    in upper management, trying to get them to do something about it, or to allow me to do the food orders, but I'm just given the run-around. Eventually I just end up hijacking the food order sheets and filling them out myself, signing my own name on them since apparently no one checked them anyway. I'm working plenty of overtime at this point just to keep the department stocked and looking neat. Come in on off days for an hour or two just to straighten up the shelves and tally food waste. I didn't
    via u/InternetMoose
  • 10
    rolls around and I sit down with one of the store managers and lay out everything i've been doing the past few months. Explain that i've basically been doing the job of the department manager and wanted the title and payrate, or for them to at least put someone competent in the position. I'm given the standard "we'll look into it" response. A few days later I walk into my 5AM shift, department manager was supposed to work the prior shift and clearly never showed up as the shelves are mostly empt
    via u/InternetMoose
  • 11
    turned heel and just walked out and never came back. Felt good. I knew it was a crap job, but I worked hard. In the end the store managers clearly didn't give a shit, so why should I?
    via u/InternetMoose
  • 12
    [deleted] I had a look at the books when I started as a manager of 3 units in a food court, we were making a horrific loss. I spoke to my line manager, and he assured me that the other (big branded, franchised) unit made the profit.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 13
    A few months later, I managed to get a peek at the figures for the other unit and they showed they also were making a loss. I spoke to the other managers around the company, and they reported similar "oh its okay that you're making a loss because x is making the profit" stories from upper management. 6 months after I left, the company folded. Can't imagine why.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    DDJ8694 I worked overnights as a manager at a fast food place. We were slow that night so we busted ass to clean and do as many of the tasks that normally get neglected as we could. The end of the shift rolls around and the morning crew is starting to come in. They all complained and called us lazy because we didn't get to a couple things and completely ignored everything we did do. Next Manager comes in and says "(other manager) always gets this done when she works!" I said "great. She can do i
    via u/DDJ8694
  • 15
    prairiedogbox My boss scheduled me 14 hour days so he could work 6 hour days. His reasoning: "you benefit from working this much. I don't" Got accepted to graduate school and got a better paying job, put in a 2 month notice. His response: "well you had a
    via u/prairiedogbox
  • 16
    full time job with 40 hours plus overtime but you had to go and fuck that up" My two month notice turned into 2 weeks. Boss quit a week after I left.
    via u/prairiedogbox
  • 17
    [deleted] I worked for my cousins restaurant. They take advantage of me and my bro and pack us with so many fucking hours while we're doing last year of school. Oh and I was paid $4.11 Aud an hour, highest was around $7.10 and it was because I was making the most through customer service. Cousins say "family, school then work" by family they meant with my parents and What a surprise, it was the exact opposite.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 18
    One time i gave them a month notice that I'm going on a trip to visit my best friend for a week (we see each other once or twice a year), they started sooking so hard, after a week I said I won't go because I know the place will crash, he started yelling from excitement (omg, my cheap labor is still here!!). After a month my twin and I gave them a 2 week notice that we're going for some classes to help us with our studies, we payed $360 each for them, which is about a week and a half pay so 50is
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    enough time of a notice, we've told them before that we MIGHT be taking those classes and they should prepare other new workers, but that means they have to pay them the legal hourly amount so BIG NO NO, ONLY PAY WHAT YOU'RE WORTH. I had to snitch on them to my parents so I can go.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    After the school year ended and we graduated, we told them we're going for a week to visit my best friend, Ohhh hell no they even tried to make us feel guilty. They forced my twin to work at 7am because they needed to prep, my twin got there to do some pastry, and oh what were they doing? Playing Pubg mobile.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    Told them we already bought the tickets (we didn't but did eventually) and nothing could be done about it. They pm'd my twin to get the earliest ticket back. We both said fuck no and quit working for family
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Older man in blue shirt gestures toward woman sitting at desk to his left, who puts hand to her temple while holding papers and looking at laptop in office setting
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 23
    Arch021 I use to work at a bar as a barback and during my time we went through two general managers. The third general manager was a bitchy bartender who constantly belittled me and never really appreciated me. everyone else | worked with appreciated me but not just her and she would remind me constantly that my work isn't meeting her expectations and doing so by yelling at me over stupid stuff. so my last straw was she was taking down and putting away Christmas decorations so me and 2 other wor
    via u/Arch021
  • 24
    something I asked her "would you like me to start taking all this down to the basement?" her reply was "well yeah, what the fuck else are we going to do with it?" I walked right out. she was forced to quit shortly after since she fucked her best friends (former GM), husband. so she was just a shitty person all around.
    via u/Arch021
  • 25
    snailygoat Had a meeting for the whole office where the HR manager flew in to talk to everyone about bringing back the education initiative where you can do courses related to your job and they would cover between half and full tuition as long as grades were good. So I was pretty excited and after the meeting, I went up and asked what sort of courses or certifications would be acceptable in relation to my IT role.
    via u/snailygoat
  • 26
    She paused, went wide eyed and keeled over laughing so hard I could see the blood vessels on her forehead pulsing. Stood back up, then keeled over again still laughing right infront of me. Eventually she composed herself and said "oh no no oh gosh we aren't offering this to IT, its for the departments that actually matter" and walked off. I was in shock and this came from the head of HR...who do I report that to? So with my minimal vacation time, miserable pay and 24 hours on call with no overti
    via u/snailygoat
  • 27
    [deleted] Boss started systematically cutting my hours after I reported him to the labor board for wage theft with a well- documented, substantial amount of proof. Franchise (a pizza place) pretended like it would stop, hours kept steadily declining, just was done. Guy still fucking works there like nothing happened, despite the labor board completely verifying my claims and fining the franchise.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 28
    [deleted] Fluctuations like this happened very often. In this instance I had worked my 3rd consecutive 60 hour week in a row while I was sitting in an engineer's office after yet another 7am - 11pm shift. We were the only ones there after everyone went home at a reasonable hour because of this awful project that was thrown on us. It was 11pm and the engineer easily made 3 times as much as did (not saying it wasn't deserved).
    via u/[deleted]
  • 29
    We were working on a project that had no end in sight. After having designed several other things correctly and being there so late and for so many hours, I finally had a melt down when the engineer felt I was" no longer interested in getting the work done". I flipped out and yelled about how little money I made, how I had no time for a personal life, and how I was done working that night. I handed in my two weeks the next day and took a new job that was better in all regards.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    Admiral_Dermond Being stuck working two and a half hours past closing, making for a 10 hour shift in a massive hardware store because the big departments couldn't handle their workloads. Our dept. was clean and fixed up 15 minutes before closing. Some nights I wound up cleaning 30 aisles just because no one else bothered to do it. After multiple nights of being let out at midnight and told to come back at 9 am the next morning, I told my boss enough was enough.
    via u/Admiral_Dermond

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