1. "I took a temporary job at a junk yard. When I asked where the restroom was, they said a bucket was out back. I laughed and said, 'No, for real. I need to drop a deuce,' and they chuckled and repeated the original statement. I went out back fully expecting it to be a joke. Lo and behold, there it was. The piss'n'shit-filled plastic bucket. I just walked to my vehicle and left immediately. This job was from a temp agency in the late '90s. I reported the job, and the temp agency banned the junk yard from their client list. I still can vividly recall the stench from that bucket."
2. "The assistant manager handed me a cash drawer and said I didn't need to count it because she'd already done it for me. When I refused to go along, she took the drawer back into the office and closed the door to 'recount it' before I could count it. Her husband was in jail, and her father-in-law was kicking her out of the house. I think she was setting me up because she needed some cash. I walked out while she was in the office, counting."
3. "The girl I was unknowingly replacing welcomed me, gave me an office tour, and directed me to my desk. She was then fired by the boss right in front of me. I followed her out the door. I was not going to work for someone who would do that."
4. "I got hired as a waiter in quite a fancy restaurant. Someone stole my coat from the employee dressing room. Had to go home in the pouring rain with no coat, and I had to get a locksmith to open my front door because my keys were in the coat. Didn't feel like that's the environment I wanted to work in."
5. "Porn. It was Porn! I accepted an offer for a marketing job within a cellphone company back in the late 2000s. I was supposed to monetize their content. After I signed the contract, they started hinting that I would also need to manage some 'adult' content. When I actually got access to the product sheets for the dozen or so websites, there was nothing adult about them; they were straight-up porn. I felt my soul leave my body when I realized what was expected of me over the next few years. I couldn't do it. I set a meeting with the boss and asked to check something on their copy of the contract, and when they handed it over, I just tore it in half. I was promptly asked to leave. The memories..."
6. "I've only done that once. I was ordered to spray insulation without a respirator. When I quit on the spot, I was told that if I reported them to the workplace safety authorities, they would come to my house and murder me and my family. I reported them to the workplace safety people, the police department, and local media. The guy who threatened me went to jail, the company had all their licenses revoked, and I even got a payment for two weeks of wages out of it."
7. "QC at a spice factory. I was expected to eat spoonfuls of spice mixes every day to 'test' them. I was told to drink lots of water to offset all the sodium I'd be putting in my body. Nope."
8. "I interviewed for and was hired by Ruby Tuesday's as a host. I went in for my first day of orientation, and they showed me around the place. They walked me into the kitchen, and I was horrified by what I saw…dirty dishes scattered all over the counters. Plates of food ready to go out were stacked on the floor because the counters were so full. Random puddles of spilled food and drinks. I went to their 'break room,' which was essentially a closet with a single chair and a bunch of papers all over the walls and floor, with various sweatshirts thrown over the chair. Overall, just completely grossed out by how much of a mess it all was. Called them the next day and said I wouldn't be coming back. They got shut down for health code violations a few months later."
9. "I worked at Walgreens. I've been a pharm tech for eight years, so they figured I didn't need any training. It was a whole new system. It crashed on my first day, and they told the patients it was my fault. Walked out right then and there. It was a multistate-wide system crash. It had nothing to do with me."
10. "I was 17. My very first job was at Taco Bell. I was ready to clock out at the end of my first shift, so I checked in with my manager. He told me an 'accident' happened in the bathroom. I went with him to look, and it was, I shit you not, the worst display of explosive diarrhea I've ever seen. The toilet, floor, WALLS, nothing was spared. The worst part wasn't even having to clean it up; it was the fact that he made me just stand in the bathroom with him 30 minutes past my scheduled clock-out time to WATCH him clean up the shit. I never returned and got a job at Chipotle the next week."
11. "The boss/owner spent the first two hours completely shitting on everyone who worked for her, past and present. I was exhausted just listening to her complain about literally everything, zero good things to say. So I told her this wouldn't work out, and I left. Took her a month to pay me $30, but you betcha I hounded her for it."
12. "I got a job at a 5-star hotel as a bartender. I did two days of hotel training before being scheduled for a bar shift. It was the first time I'd seen the bar, and I assumed it would be full and top-of-the-line. It. Was. Disgusting. On top of that, it was empty. I served three customers during the shift, and no one came in after 7:30 p.m. I spent most of the shift cleaning. The beer traps hadn't been cleaned in months. They had a slimy algae buildup in the taps. This only happens if you haven't been cleaning and flushing the beer lines, and it's also a sign that the tap beer is used infrequently."
"The espresso machine also hadn't been used or cleaned in weeks. Everywhere I looked were signs of neglect and lack of use. Coffee sugar bowls that had just been left on tables to accumulate ants and dust. Beer bottles in the fridge that were three months past expiry. Milk past expiry. Menus covered in sticky filth that hadn't been wiped down. Furniture with chewing gum under it. Stains on the carpet that should have been easy to clean if dealt with promptly. Table tops hadn't been wiped down.
I noped out of the job at the end of the shift. I told my boss the place was so far below my expectations and standards that I would not be back. I also questioned how a 5-star hotel could operate a bar like that. Totally unprofessional and out of character with the hotel. I even suggested the place should be closed for breaching health code requirements."
13. "Home health aide. When I applied, I was told it was just like helping older people with daily tasks, doing laundry, cooking, and whatnot. I had been struggling to find a job for months, so I immediately said yes when I was hired. I didn't have experience, but they assured me I would be trained and taught everything I needed to know. Then I showed up for training, which was basically just HR info, how to do time cards, and that junk. 'We'll train you on the job.' Uhh, okay. So I showed up at my first job. A manager was there with me, and as she knocked on the door, she said, 'Remember, if anyone asks, you've been doing this for 100,000 years.' Direct quote. Didn't like that, but we were already there, and I was just hoping it would get better."
"I spent a few hours there answering questions and running through what I was expected to do. I really started feeling uncomfortable and entirely unqualified. Then, towards the end, the daughter talked about everything she required from the caretaker, like certifications and whatnot. The manager assured her that I met all her criteria. The manager cued me to say what she told me to, and I mumbled something I don't even remember. On the way home, I just kept thinking of all the ways things could go wrong, so immediately after I got home, I messaged them to say I wouldn't be coming back. No, thank you."
14. "With the onboarding paperwork, the owner wanted me to sign a non-compete agreement that was absurdly broad, basically saying that I couldn't work in the entire industry or related industries for a year. I was only 19 then and didn't understand how absolutely unenforceable this was, but I wasn't going to sign anything that I couldn't agree with in good faith. The guy was like, 'Sign it or leave.' I left."
15. "I got hired to work at the reception in a podiatrist's office. I sat and watched the head nurse make the other receptionist cry because she made a simple mistake. Then the doctor who owned the practice came out and yelled at the receptionist in front of a lobby full of people, and in front of me, the new girl. The toxic work environment was oozing from every corner, so that was my first and last day."
16. "I got hired as a server (with 10 years of experience) at a movie theater serving food/drinks. I showed up for my first shift and was then told all servers had to start as food runners for $7.25/hour for the first six months before being promoted to server. They also told me my uniform would be deducted from my paycheck. The job listing was for servers. I interviewed for the server job and was hired as a server. No thanks to the bait and switch. Noped right out of there and got a job somewhere else almost immediately."
17. "I got hired as a medical scribe for an oncologist. He treated his patients terribly. I was also told to expect to stay two to three hours longer than scheduled every shift. Nope."
18. "One of my first jobs was a barista in a local coffee place. On the first day, I was shown where the ingredients were, asked if I knew how to make a latte, and left alone with no one else in the store for over four hours. I had no idea what to do. I didn't know how to make any of their specialty drinks. I didn't know how to prep any of their food. I legitimately don't remember how I got through those hours; I just recall being terrified the whole time. Walked out when the owner finally came back. Didn't even want the money for those hours. I just wanted to go home and cry."
19. "A friend of mine took a job at an email marketing agency. Found out day one they were doing mostly spam; their IP addresses were banned, and they wanted him to fix it. He quit."
20. "Call center doing surveys. Went through day one training and had a meltdown on the way home. Never went back. It was hell; we were supposed to call people back if they hung up on us. No one hangs up on a call center accidentally. It's on purpose. It's always on purpose."
21. "Sears. I quit after about an hour. During that first hour, I was supposed to be training, but the manager they had training me spent the entire hour complaining about how hard it was to get people to come into work and how nobody ever gave notice when they quit anymore. 'Kids today are being lazy, and entitled,' you know, the same crap they are spouting now. The whole 'Nobody wants to work anymore!' isn't new; it just hadn't been a catchphrase until recently. I excused myself to use the bathroom, grabbed my bag, and noped out."
22. "I started training at a new restaurant. Hair in the food, mice and cockroaches in the storage room, waitresses literally putting their hands in customers' food to steal fries. I called and said let the manager know I won’t be back. The place is thankfully closed now."
23. "Sorting donations at Goodwill with zero protective equipment. People donate dirty underwear. I didn't return after lunch."
24. "I was starting a new job as a hairstylist in a new city. I came in with all my things. NOPE! Everything had to be black or red. All brushes, combs, scissors, my clothes, curlers, curling iron, everything. I never went back. The boss should have mentioned that in my interview."
25. "I got told to be there early. Then my shift ended, and the manager told me I couldn't leave until the restocking was done. She said, 'I forgot to tell you,' but I still had to do it. I did it and left. My next shift came, and I didn't show up. She called, and I said, 'Oh yeah, I quit. I forgot to tell you.' She gave me a lecture about how I should have told her before, and now she was short-staffed, blah blah blah. My friends and I had a good laugh."
26. "I worked for a chain sandwich place. I was told to arrive 15 minutes early, unpaid. I learned I would only make $5.75/hour the day I started. One customer left me a tip, which I was told I could not keep because 'all tips are given to charity.' The final straw was when I went to clean the tables and asked where the rags were. The manager took me aside and sternly told me to call them dishwashing cloths, not rags. Fuck that place."
27. "I got hired at a chain restaurant. On my first day, I watched the GM yell at the host (a 16-year-old girl) in front of a full dining room until she burst into tears. Took off my apron and left."
28. "I was hired as a line cook. I went in expecting to be a line cook doing line cook stuff. I discovered the owner was the ONLY PERSON 'allowed' near the grills. I was told I'd be prepping, which is fine, but not what I was hired for. I finished the prep in half an hour because it didn't take that long to prepare the fries. I started cleaning because there was a thick, 1/4 inch layer of dust over everything. I got yelled at for wasting time. I decided to clean the fryer, as its oil was blacker than a moonless night. I got yelled at for 'wasting perfectly clean oil.' I looked up and noted the hood vents had their own ecosystem growing on them. I left."
29. "I had a wild first day experience at a new restaurant near campus. I applied to be a server to earn some extra money for school. They hired me but said my contract would be ready the following week (red flag, I know). On opening day, they threw me in the kitchen to prep food. I told them I'm a server, not a cook, and I have no idea how to use any of the kitchen machines. The supervisor basically said, 'Tough luck, just figure it out. We're too busy to train you.' (It was opening day, and there were lots of customers.) So I spent the next two hours just watching people use the machines, trying to pick it up on the fly, while getting screamed at about 20 times for not doing things I wasn't trained for. Eventually, I just walked out and didn't come back."
30. "I was a secretary in the early '90s and had to sign for a package delivery. They immediately jumped on me about needing a fake name and never signing ANYTHING with my real name. A mortgage and finance company with a company policy of 'make sure nothing can be tracked to an actual human being.' Nope! I'm not going to jail for you!"
31. "I went to orientation to be a CNA in a nursing home. Nobody had linens; we were cleaning up poop with paper towels and whatever we could find in residents' rooms. There was one aide for a hallway of 40 residents. I didn't come back. When they called, I told them exactly why and then reported the facility. It closed a few years later."
32. "I was hired at a winery and got a license from the state to serve wine specifically. On the first day, they told me I'm serving tables and running food. Basically, I would be wait staff and 'work my way to serving wine.' My first table was a 16-top, all doctors. It was horrible, and they left a tip, but 'those tips are for the more senior staff,' even though I was alone. Never came back."
33. And: "I got hired to be a cashier at Dollar Tree. I spent two hours doing computer training in a closet with trash everywhere, then one of the cashiers told me a story about one of their coworkers getting punched in the face by a customer. I quit after my shift."
Have you ever quit a job on the very first day? What made you walk away? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.