15+ Employees who quit on the spot: 'A newly hired coworker was making 30% more than me'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 29, 2026 3:00 PM EST

These employees hung onto their jobs as long as they possibly could before quitting with flair. 

Quitters actually do win, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's good to work hard and all that, but if you find that you're just spinning your wheels in your career, going nowhere fast, it might be time to throw in the towel. Quit something bad, start something positive, you know? 

It's so difficult to find a new job, though. A lot of workers are forced to stay at jobs they're completely unhappy in just because they literally cannot find a single other job out there that will offer them a gig. Your chances of just getting a single interview when you apply, let alone getting a job offer with a nice big salary raise are infinitesimally small. I don't really have the answers here — I don't think it's going to get better any time soon, though I hope someone comes up with a solution for the problem. It seems pretty silly that there are so many companies with open jobs, and a ton of workers who are desperate to find somewhere new, and yet… No one is getting hired. 

These people below didn't wait to find a new job before quitting, and you know what? If you have a strong skillset and a vast network you could reach out to (and a few months' worth of mortgage payments saved up!) go ahead and quit! Tell your boss exactly what you think of them. Clear out that desk, get all the cobwebs out from every drawer. You'll have a huge smile on your face as you return all your papers and your company-issued laptop. Just think about how you'll never again have to feel a pit in your stomach when your work phone rings at 9 at night, interrupting your peace. Nope, you're onto bigger and better things. 

Some people are rather emotionally attached to their jobs, too. They believe that everything will fall apart without them, and some companies definitely do crumble without that one person propping them up. But just ask yourself — would your employer ever hesitate to fire you for emotional reasons? Probably not, because as much as we dislike considering it, we're really just a number to our employers. "We're a big family here!" they say. Um, listen close: no we are not. When money is on the line, there's no room for emotional thinking. Get your bag, preferably without burning bridges along the way… but if a bridge must be burnt so that you can sleep peacefully at night, well, you know exactly what to do. 

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  • 01

    'What was the final straw that made you quit a job?'

    Woman holds file while smiling and walking outside glass office building
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02
    Levianneth I was asked to shovel snow all around our building (which is large btw) when I was the only one in my department while they have. a ton of other people in other departments. I get behind on my work and literally no one could help me catch up while I waste an hour doing that? Fuck no. Fuck that place
    via u/Levianneth
  • 03
    Hrekires After years of no raises due to budget constraints, I learned that a newly hired coworker was making like 30% more than me. Didn't help that he absolutely sucked.
    via u/Hrekires
  • 04
    masahirox Going from a great manager to a bad one.
    via u/masahirox
  • 05
    Signal_Daikon_... A panic attack while driving home. Hope to never have that experience of being unable to breathe again.
    via u/Signal_Daikon_5830
  • 06
    PrettyPetiteQue... Boss said, we expect you to go above and beyond without extra pay, extra respect or even extra coffee. I went above and beyond straight out the door ee
    via u/PrettyPetiteQueen
  • 07
    realgone2 I was the de facto manager at a hobby store back in 2001. The owner had chased everyone else off. I was doing all the manager duties at the pay of a regular store associate. One day I come in and one of our regular customers is behind the counter. I ask him what's going on and he says he's the new manager. I went with it for a few months.
    via u/realgone2
  • 08
    Turns out the guy was a snake. He tried to lock me in the bathroom "So I'd clean it". Next day when the owner was there doing orders I threw my key at him, told him to go fuck himself, and left. I walked to the other end of the strip mall and was promptly hired at Mail Boxes Etc. Fuck you, Larry!
    via u/realgone2
  • 09
    I. Edit... it's a long read.. I apologize ahead of time. . . . My last job, I was warehouse manager, installer and delivery for heavy arcade equipment, over 3 years. They had a high turn over rate. But my boss was cool. Later on I found out why the turn over rate was high. The company owner was a massive prick.
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 10
    The day I quit, I was going through a heavy depression, but still showed up to work because I did enjoy the work. I showed up at 6:50 am.. clock in is at 7am Used the bathroom, I come out and the owner was outside waiting for me to come out. No good morning, no how are you, nothing. Just, (you know clock in time is at 7 right) I look at the clock and it's 6:58... I looked at him
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 11
    and say good morning and walk to the punch ignoring his comment. I start my work day and look at the sheet for what I have for the day.. it's a packed day from start to finish. About 30 minutes into the shift I just lost all drive.. again depression is a bitch. My mind kept racing about everything I had to do and then some.. my heart
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 12
    started pounding, I was short on breath and started to feel like I wanted to barf. I called my boss and explained the situation, asked if I could go home and he told me yes! Have a good day and I hope you feel better, CALL ME if you want to talk. I didn't even pack my personal tools, I just clocked out got in my truck and
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 13
    started crying completely on edge.. sat there for 20 ish minutes.. The owner comes out with a pissed off face asking why I'm not working getting ready for the day.. I told him I was having a BAD morning and I needed to leave, I had already confirmed with B that it was okay to take the day.
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 14
    The owner then says No you already clocked in you HAVE to finish your shift. Im usually a cool calm and relaxed person at work.. but As soon as he said that.. | completely lost it.. I got out of the truck and the first things out of my mouth, before I could even think were, I DONT HAVE TO DO A FUCK THING! IF I SAID IM HAVING A BAD MORNING
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 15
    IM HAVING A BAD MORNING! You seem to forget I'm here because I CHOOSE TO BE HERE! YOU DONT PAY ME ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH FOR THE AMOUNT OF RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK THAT I DO. He stared at me with a wtf just happened expression.
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 16
    Then following what I said, before he even got a word in, I blurted out you know what, If I can't leave then I QUIT plain and simple find someone else that can do everything I do and isn't going to complain or steal from you. Got back in my truck and left. Skipped out on a week and a half of work. Never even left the house. Then my boss calls me asking if
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 17
    I'm okay and that he saw what happened on the camera in front of the building.. and apologized for it on behalf of the owner. Asked me to come back and all. I said I'd come back under the conditions that I get a raise and a helper. He said yes we can talk about it here. I show up the next day, everything is cool, then the owner shows up talking about how it was extremely
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 18
    disrespectful the way I spoke to him blah blah blah. I looked at B and said you know what man, I'm good I'm just going to look for something else. 3 days later I was at a company across the street getting paid almost twice. what I was making with them with none of the responsibility or problems.
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 19
    I'm still friends with B. Last we spoke, he said they had to hire 3 people to do what I was doing. All the owner had to do was agree to what I was asking for and some respect.. he would have saved a shit ton more money than hiring 3 people.
    via u/lost_10_mm_socket
  • 20
    codeflawed I was working as an IC for five years with the same company. I handled multiple clients at any given moment and was the longest "employee" my boss had. There had never been an issue. I had never considered leaving the position as it was work from home, allowed me a little more control over my
    via u/codeflawed
  • 21
    schedule, and paid decently. Fastforward to September of last year, my biggest client who took up literally a third of my income decided they wanted a different contractor because of one spelling error on an internal memo despite knowing that I'm dyslexic. As an IC, I have no protections. I figured things would suck for a month, that I would
    via u/codeflawed
  • 22
    have to pinch pennies but my supervisor would hand me a client soon as she claimed that she had a backlog of clients that she needed to pair with someone. It never happened. Instead, I was told that she couldn't trust me to do my job, that maybe the way her company does the job isn't for me, and a bunch of other
    via u/codeflawed
  • 23
    things that made absolutely no sense. This is a virtual assistant company, I've been an executive assistant for more than a decade. It's something I'm extremely good at. After that meeting, I started looking elsewhere. It took me until February of this year, but I'm now in a job that I absolutely love and thrive in even if I'm not
    via u/codeflawed
  • 24
    working from home anymore. Definitely made the right decision because my ex- supervisor tried to gaslight me into staying when I gave her a week's notice. My contract that I had signed five years prior (that had a roll over clause) had a mandatory one week notice. Those who had signed on in the past year had a
    via u/codeflawed
  • 25
    mandatory two week notice with a recommendation of 30 days. Needless to say I told her that her lack of planning was not my problem and that maybe she should think twice about punishing her hardest workers by threatening their livelihood.
    via u/codeflawed
  • 26
    ghosttiles I got put on a performance improvement plan for questioning a safety/risk concern. The company failed a year later.
    via u/ghosttiles
  • 27
    [deleted] I haven't quit yet - but working 60 hours a week and only getting paid for 40. (Public Accounting - Salaried).
    via u/[deleted]
  • 28
    PurpleDreamer28 When they let go of the cleaning staff and expected us to clean the bathrooms. And this was halfway into 2020. It's bad enough to clean a bathroom, but during a pandemic? Fuck that.
    via u/PurpleDreamer28
  • 29
    kelfromaus Had an IT problem crop up that took out email. I was the fill-in IT person - the only IT person. The regular IT guy was away and somewhere, at the time, uncontactable Boss hounded me for hours until the issue was fixed. It was an issue that shouldn't have been able to happen, but we were using such ancient versions of the AV
    via u/kelfromaus
  • 30
    and MS Exchange that it did.. For those wondering, the AV took out the mailstore. We were one the biggest sellers of both products, new versions would have cost us nothing. A week later, I was called in to the owners office and he had a go at me for letting my sales figures drop for the month - the month I was also doing all the IT. I knew
    via u/kelfromaus
  • 31
    where he heading, so I pointed out ALL the faults in the company and how they ALL led back to him and his lack of leadership. Silly man had left his office door open, so everyone heard every word I said. I then clearly articulated exactly what he could do with his job.
    via u/kelfromaus
  • 32
    Spoke to the Payroll person on the way out, had every cent I was entitled to be the close of business that day. Cost the business a $15k deal on software sales, the IT guy quit the next day in solidarity and 2 other sales people found the door.
    via u/kelfromaus
  • 33
    yukonnut We had internal employee satisfaction surveys and our department consistently ranked amongst the highest in the company. New director comes in and absolutely destroys morale and our next survey reflects that. He has a shit fit and blames his managers. He believed that nothing would ever stick to him cuz he was
    via u/yukonnut
  • 34
    such a greasy little shit, but we stuck that to him. I left shortly thereafter. On my last day he comes ripping into the office at 10 after 5 and I have tidied everything up and am about to walk out the door. He tells me to hold on as he has to conduct my exit interview. It lasts about 10 minutes before devolving. into an expletive filled screaming match. It was awesome.
    via u/yukonnut
  • 35
    Danilo-11 When I was asked to do the job of 2 people and after several months of trying I was still being told that I wasn't getting enough work done = Goodbye
    via u/Danilo-11
  • 36
    _Toaster_Baths They were blowing up my phone while I was on vacation at Disney, with something that could've easily waited. I quit within a month of returning from vacation.
    via u/_Toaster_Baths
  • 37
    NoKids JustTravel Haven't quit yet, but I recently had my final straw moment. My manager, who knows about my hobbies and that I do said hobbies to deal with the stress of work, indicated I'm spending too much time doing what I enjoy and that I'm not spending enough of my energy at work...
    via u/NoKids JustTravel
  • 38
    To clarify, my job consumes most of my energy and leaves me mentally and emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. I do physical activities after work, during my evenings and weekends, to cope and reduce my stress levels. It has never once interfered with my job aside from making it easier to deal with. This comment
    via u/NoKids JustTravel
  • 39
    comes after I performed well during one of the hardest years of my life... because I had an outlet. I'm done. Already sending out resumes.
    via u/NoKids JustTravel

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