It's no secret that workplaces can be toxic. From horrible bosses to ridiculous and outdated policies, people certainly have their reasons for walking away from a job.
A while back, Reddit user u/Penguin__Farts asked the question, "What's your 'Fuck this, I quit' story?" Not too long ago, another Reddit user, u/EL1TE1NFERNO asked the same question. Both threads were chock-full of juicy, dramatic, and off-the-wall stories. Here are the wildest that I found:
1. "I worked at a movie theater for about two years during the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was hectic enough, but we also have to work holidays there. So, I was working on Christmas Day when I was informed via radio that one of the theaters had a mess that needed to be cleaned. When I arrived, I found a pile of a grown man's shit on the ground. I put down my broom and walked out. I never even told them why I left. Didn't feel like I needed to justify that."
2. "I worked in a fast food restaurant, and there were three of us in the back working. The 55-year-old owner was sitting in the middle of the tiny kitchen floor playing Candy Crush on his phone at full volume. This went on for 30 minutes while everyone else had to run around him. At the end of the shift, the tip jar mysteriously was empty. The three of us did not return the next day."
3. "I worked at a pizza parlor for about a year in high school. My boss was a constant source of stress for me. He was controlling, rude, and downright degrading. The straw that broke the camel's back happened on a busy Friday night. Someone came in and placed an order. I got their name and told them it would be about 20 minutes. The customer left the store to wait in their car. Twenty minutes later, they sent someone else inside to pick it up. The problem was, this person didn’t know the order and claimed that it was under their name. When I struggled to identify their order, my boss grabbed one of the giant wooden pizza spatulas, swung it full force, and shattered it over one of the ovens."
"After about five minutes of attempting to serve the customers in the store, I walked into his office and told him I was out. I walked to a nearby Wendy’s in the snow and waited for my dad to pick me up. I’ll never forget how freeing that feeling was."
—u/xlv45
4. "I was working retail and caught the store manager destroying clothes that had been zeroed out (meaning they had been on clearance so long that they couldn't sell them anymore) with scissors. Stores had the option of either destroying them or donating them. I offered to take the clothes to local thrift stores with my own car/gas/time, but she blatantly told me to mind my business and continued shredding. She said if people couldn't afford to come in and buy the clothes on clearance, then they didn't deserve to get them at a thrift store. That was my last day."
5. "Many years ago, I worked at a burrito place. I only worked there for four days. I was washing dishes and the manager walked by and started yelling at me for using soap! He said, 'Soap costs money, and you're just putting the same food back in the pans anyways.' I quit right there and walked out the door."
6. "I fractured my orbital socket in an industrial accident. Another employee lost focus at the wrong time and was supposed to wait for a hand signal, but didn't. We had been working 14-hour shifts for over 90 days straight while living in a crappy motel 45 minutes away from our worksite. We were supposed to be on a rotation where we didn't work more than three weeks at a time. It was a close call and could have been a lot worse. I'm glad I saw it coming and had time to at least try and get out of the way. I got sent away after a night in the ER while the rest of that crew continued to work. After spending two or three days at home, the boss called to say that he needed me in Alaska in two days and that my flight was already booked. I quit right on the spot."
7. "The day I got hired at the call center, I told them my wedding was in five months and I would need the day off, and preferably the week after too. I had already paid $7,000 out of pocket, my parents had paid $11,000, and my soon-to-be wife's parents had paid $23,000. I double-checked about the time off two weeks before the wedding, and they said, 'Oops, our bad. We can't do anything about it now. You can get married or you can keep your job.' I’m still happily married."
8. "I started dating a regular customer that one of my coworkers liked. She started doing things like spitting in his food, telling my boss I wasn't working, and writing her name on our checklist to make it seem like she did everything while I did nothing. Then, she stole $100 from my drawer and the boss wanted me to pay for it. She didn't believe me because she was friends with the girl. I walked out on the spot. A couple months later, they caught her stealing again on camera and fired her. Also, the guy is my husband now."
9. "I'm currently in the US military. I kept going back and forth about re-enlisting for another four years (I'd done nine at this point). I had a 3-year-old daughter at home who I hadn't seen for more than three weeks over a two-year period. I was talking to an officer in my chain of command and told him my thoughts. I had just received orders to remain overseas for an additional two years. His exact words were, 'You've already missed two years of her life. You can afford to lose two more.' I went and signed my intention to separate the same day."
10. "For my first job, I worked at a little BBQ place with a drive-thru. On my day off, my manager called me at 8:30 a.m. (30 minutes before opening) to say she didn't feel well and needed me to open. I rushed in and ended up working all day. 5:00 p.m. rolled around and my manager came in with the owner of the business, who she was dating. They had been at the fair all day and she'd completely forgotten about lying to me and claiming to be sick. I bit my tongue and asked if I could go home. They said no and kept me until close (9:00 p.m.) At 9:00 p.m., I took my shirt off, handed them my keys, and said, 'Today was my last day,' as I walked out the door shirtless."
"When I got home, my dad was pissed that I quit my job. I told him what they did and said I wasn’t making enough money. He looked at my pay stubs and saw they hadn’t been paying me overtime the entire time I worked there! He made me go back in and demand my overtime pay. When I came in with the pay stubs, the manager started crying and gave me cash out of the register to cover my overtime and then some. They called me the next day making sure I wasn’t going to report them to the BBB. I didn’t, but my dad did."
11. "My manager accused me of stealing money from the store during the month I wasn't even in the store because my father had just died. This was after they scheduled me for 65 hours (yeah, 25 hours of overtime in one week) the week my dad died. I quit via text."
12. "I was just a few hours away from starting my two-week vacation for my wedding and honeymoon when I got written up. My manager pulled me into his office and said he had a wedding present for me, then proceeded to go over the write-up and had me sign the paper saying I was 'coached.' The rest of my shift was horrible. I cried for most of it. I got back from my time off, cleaned out my desk discreetly, sent an email to the program director saying I quit, and just walked out. Fuck that place."
13. "I was in the same position for two years and was actively looking at other roles within the company. My bosses knew I was looking. It was time for a change and to advance my career. A great opportunity came up and I was offered the position. My current leadership blocked me, saying I received a 'promotion' six months prior. That 'promotion' was literally an automatic email that said I'd moved from Level 1 to Level 2 for meeting my sales attainment and completing my yearly trainings. An automated email stopped me from getting promoted. My bosses said I had to wait another 18 months."
"I left that company and went to a competitor doing the same thing for better pay and significantly more support."
14. "My boss had my crew and I cut corners on a job. I was fairly new to the position and did what he said because I thought it was the way things got done. Inspectors came and checked the job because of an unrelated screw-up by another company and, in turn, found out what we had done. My boss then blamed the whole thing on me and denied ever telling me to do it this way. I spent the next two days replacing all my previous work to get things the way they should've been done in the first place. My boss then told me that he was not going to pay me for the days of work (14 hours each day) because I was 'fixing my fuck-ups.' He also spent those two days calling me a 'fucking idiot' and a 'liar.' I said, 'Fuck you. I quit.'"
15. "I had a manager who just didn't like me. I don't know why, but I guess it happens. But she couldn't keep things professional and acted as if every mistake I made was intentional just to fuck with her. Meanwhile, everyone else told me that they were super happy with me and that I was a great worker. She had worked that Saturday, and when I turned on my PC that Monday morning, I had about 10 emails from her, all with screenshots and rude remarks like, 'Why is it so hard for you to follow the rules?' and 'How did you not know this?' She was the one who trained me! Fuck that shit. I quit. I'm worth way more than that."
16. "I was a line cook in a pizza place. The general manager was the son of the owners and a total piece of shit. One day, our dishwasher didn't show. I had arrived 10 minutes early, so I clocked in and set up the pit so we could at least have something to work with. I worked the whole day with no incidents. My manager never said a word to me. When I clocked out, my time had been adjusted and those 10 minutes were removed. I went to talk to him, but he was gone for the day. I later got an email to the entire store staff saying we were not allowed to clock in early and that adjustments would be made if we did. I was making like $10 an hour at the time, so this was all over what amounted to maybe $1.75. I did not go back."
17. "I was at this job for three years and consistently at the top of my department in terms of performance. I asked my supervisor repeatedly if I could be recommended for advancement/a promotion, and he always told me he was trying his best to get me new opportunities. Well, I found out from a friend in a different department that I'd been considered a top candidate for four different promotions, and each time my supervisor had blocked it. When I confronted him with this information, he told me it was true and he did it because he would never find someone else who worked so well for such little pay. I quit and found a new job within three months. Fuck that dude."
18. "I worked at an office supply store. On my first week, I got held up by a train and was five minutes late. By the time I got there, the manager had already blown up my phone with 15 calls. Since it was winter and I had on a big wool coat and a sweatshirt, I didn’t feel my phone go off. I got a lecture when I walked in, and all morning he kept glaring at me like I had killed his pet. About two hours later, I got called into the office for a write-up. I went in and was very calm about the whole thing. He kept saying I should show more remorse. I told him if being five minutes late warranted a write-up and a lecture, he could keep the job, because I was done."
19. "I used to work in the paint department of a home improvement store. It wasn't the worst job in the world, but our management was shit. I just so happened to be getting married later in the year, so about six months beforehand, I put in my request for time off, per the store manager's instructions. I got no response from them, but figured it must be fine. About a week before my wedding and honeymoon, I went to double check that my leave had been approved. I was told that it hadn't been approved, and that I was scheduled to work most of the days that I had requested off."
"I begged my case and stated that I put in my request ahead of time and followed all the proper channels. I was informed that they couldn't give me the time off because the manager of my department had requested off then too and it was given based on seniority. I asked what would happen if I didn't show up (since I would be out of the country for my honeymoon) and was told that I would be fired and blacklisted from ever working for the company again. I told them I'd save them the trouble, and walked out right then and there."
20. "I was doing some side work on a farm where we would be bailing hay, which is notoriously hot and miserable work. I asked the farmer I was working for when I could expect to be paid for the 40 hours I had already put in. He said, 'Well, I usually pay all of my help at the end of the season.' The end of the season was about three months away, and I had bills to pay. I then requested that I be paid bi-weekly at the very least, or I would no longer be able to work for him. He was unwilling to accommodate, so I said, 'Okay, then I will require my pay by the end of the day, and I will not be returning tomorrow.'"
"I felt bad leaving him high and dry for the rest of the week, but how did he expect an adult with bills to work for months without pay?"
21. "My boss told me I couldn't work unless I shaved. Okay, whatever. He then sent me home with the slightest 5 o'clock shadow and told me to come back shaven. I didn't come back."
22. "I worked for a company for a few years and then got pregnant and had a baby. My husband deployed and we have no family around here, so I figured it would be pretty tough to work full-time. I was going to quit but was talked into staying with promises from my supervisor and the CEO that they would work with me on taking sicks and reduce my schedule for six months. After my husband came back, the supervisor and CEO pulled me into an office and told me that because of my reduced schedule and the time I took to pump breast milk during the day, I would no longer have lunch hours until they deemed that I had earned them again. I quit immediately."
23. "When I spoke to HR about a harassment issue, the rep told me it wasn't possible this particular man was harassing me because three other people had come to her to say how awesome he was. I literally said, 'Fuck this. I quit,' after five months of harassment with no change or repercussions."
24. "I worked in a healthy-eating restaurant that also served coffee. A customer wanted milk in theirs, so I went to the fridge in the back room to grab some. Well, what did I find? Twenty-day-old milk. I brought it to the owner's attention and they told me it was fine. It blew my mind that they wanted me to put sour milk in the coffee. I walked out and never looked back."
25. "I worked at a DirecTV call center and had 100% customer satisfaction. One day, my manager called me into her office. We listened to a recording of a malfunctioning headset where I ended up having to terminate a call. She said they wanted to fire me but were going to make an exception. She knew it was 100% equipment failure and not my own fault. I quit on the spot. That place was the 13th grade."
26. "I worked at a dog salon where I washed dogs. Everyone else clipped, trimmed, brushed, etc. I was in a back room. One day, a dog bit my face pretty bad and it was bleeding a lot. I went out into the front and said, 'Um, what do I do about this?' Three colleagues and the owner didn't even look at me. Fuck that. I quit."
27. Finally: "All throughout the interview process and onboarding, I was told they would work around my school schedule and they wouldn't schedule me during any times I had class. On the first day of training, they said, 'You're required to be here Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for the first six months. If you miss a day or are more than 30 minutes late, you will be fired.' I didn't return for the second day."
Do you have a wild "Fuck this, I quit!" story that you're dying to share? Tell us in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.