Reddit user u/BubbaHoStep posed the question: "People who quit without notice, what straw broke the camel's back?" The thread quickly filled with tales of toxic workplaces and evil bosses. Here's what people shared.
1. "I was working at a restaurant brewery and one of the regulars grabbed my butt in front of the brewery’s owner. I immediately slapped his hand away from my butt, and then the owner grabbed me by my arm and dragged me into his office. He told me, 'Don’t you dare touch my customers like that.' I quit on the spot. I should have sued him, but I was 21 and had no clue what to do."
2. "Old sales job I had. Landed/closed a big deal and had a nice commission check heading my way. Found out a week or so later that the client wasn't 'mine,' therefore, the check would be going to the correct sales rep. The 'correct' sales rep just happened to be related to the boss, and so they got a free commission check without ever lifting a finger."
3. "They told me to clock out and work all night because regional was coming to inspect the store. They wanted me to work for eight hours moving around heavy stuff for free. I quit on the spot. They told me I wasn't a 'team player.' I asked the manager if he would pay me for not working. He said no. I asked him, 'So, why would I work without getting paid?' Blank stare."
4. "My dad had stage-four lymphoma. We couldn't have our phones on the floor unless we filled out some paperwork with HR for emergencies. I asked my supervisor for the paperwork and he said, 'Don't worry about it!' Well, when his boss visited, he saw my phone and asked me about it, so I told the truth. My supervisor was MAD. A couple of weeks later, I was called into the HR office. My sister called to tell me my dad died. My supervisor wasn't there, but I left early. I took my bereavement and came back to work. My work bestie pulled me aside and told me my supervisor accused me of lying about my dad having cancer and dying to the entire team while I was gone. I hugged her and just left."
5. "I heard my boss talking about my mom (who did NOT work for the company) on the phone to HR while at work. She said my mom was a 'nut job' and went on to lie about how she had 'plans to replace me for the last few weeks.' She was deeply paranoid and earlier that week she’d gotten wind that I was looking for a second job closer to home, which caused us to have a loooong talk where I kept having to reassure her I had no plans to quit. Her merely assuming I would quit made her turn on me like THAT after six years of working together, including through multiple major work events (like COVID). So, somehow, she went from begging me not to leave, to the next day telling HR she'd had plans to fire me for weeks."
"It was what she said about my mom during that same call that was the last straw. My mom was deeply grieving at the time from having found her boyfriend dead on the floor on her birthday, and I had confided in my boss that I was spending a lot of energy trying to help my mom and that it was causing me stress. As soon as I heard her say that, I packed up my desk, walked over to HR, told them everything I’d heard, and I quit when they said they didn’t have any other positions open elsewhere in the company and that they wouldn’t take action against my boss."
6. "I got hired at a grocery store once, and I told them explicitly that I was in college and gave the manager my schedule so he knew when he could and could not schedule me for work. He scheduled me during every class I had in the first week, and when I went to tell him this wouldn't work, he tried to talk me into dropping out of college. I quit right there."
7. "My manager threatening to punch me in the face for wearing dress shoes (he thought I was interviewing for another job...I wasn't) AND a customer threatening to kill me in the same day."
8. "New management started taking from my commissions and kept trying to worm out of our agreed contract and pay. Final straw was when they were taking from the tip jar claiming tips weren't for employees, just the boss."
9. "I put in that I needed off a particular weekend five months in advance. That week came and I was on the schedule. I called and said, 'Yeah, I can’t work this. I have someone in town from across the country staying with me. I put in to have off five months ago.' My manager replied, 'You put in a request off, and it’s just that: a request.' So, even though I was seething angry, I said okay and then hung up. Day of the shift comes and I waited until 15 minutes before it started to leave a message thanking them for the opportunity to cover everyone else’s shifts for three years, but I wouldn’t be in ever again. I still joke to this day with my friend that I quit my job for her."
10. "I was a sous-chef at the country club where I live. Morning after morning, I would come in to discover no dishes were done, the kitchen had not been cleaned, product had not been rotated, etc. I talked to the head chef, and he would just make up excuses, saying it was busy and the closing crew was close to working past their eight hours. At first, I believed it, foolishly. Then, one night, I was asked to cover a shift for the head chef, as he had a family emergency. While working his shift, I kept delegating tasks to the night crew, but was met with strong resentment. I even had one line cook tell me, 'Well, [head chef] says we don’t have to do it, so we don’t.' Even the dishwasher just sat around and didn’t touch a single dish."
"After the shift, I thought about how I would talk to the head chef about everything. However, after some thought, I locked up the kitchen/club, walked over to the mail drop slot, and dropped my key into the slot. The next day, I started getting calls about where I was because no one was in the kitchen. I told the GM that I quit because I was tired of the lack of accountability and respect."
11. "The supervisor said my weight made me look unprofessional."
12. "My first job as a dishwasher, and the owners were cheap pricks. I got yelled at for emptying a metal container with a serving or two of marinara sauce at the bottom at the end of the night because I was supposed to pour it back into the container for use later. He then freaked out and started throwing other food away in the fridge because 'well, we might as well not save anything!' So, I quit on the spot."
13. "My dad died right before Christmas. I was already scheduled for a week off for family travel, and HR said I could add three more days for funeral services so we could have it after the holiday. I came back and received a call from HR. The woman apologized and said she needed to chat, but would make it brief. She asked if my dad actually died. I told her yes, and she apologized again and said she didn’t need anything else. Then, the office manager called me into her office to tell me my boss had been telling people she thought I was faking it to get more time off. My boss was horrible in general and relied on me to do the majority of her work, which is what led her to creating the story about my dad not actually dying. She was hoping I’d be called back early from my trip. I had been interviewing for a job at another company and got an offer the day I got back. I called from my desk and accepted the offer, then packed my things and left."
14. "I worked at a coffee shop/cafe. I came in wearing pants where my ankles were showing, and I was told clock out, go home, and change. I lived 30 minutes away. No thanks. The men there would wear basketball shorts, so how was I in the wrong and the only one told to go home? I’m not playing these games."
15. "My brother had just died and it would have been the first Christmas without him. I was expected to work because 'it’s not like you have kids.'"
16. "I worked at a small-town sporting goods store. Overall, I enjoyed it, but of course, one thing broke me. I had a massive sale weekend and worked OT. Some of the employees went out and bought everyone dinner from a fast food place, so I had my soda under the counter as we were cleaning up. One of the managers asked me about the soda, and I told him it was mine and I was saving it for later. He decided the appropriate action was to throw it on the floor and tell me to clean it up. Yeah, I said pretty much everything I ever thought about the guy and walked out."
17. "I was working at Sears part-time for Christmas. They never trained me. When my supervisor came in for something and found out I was working alone, he ran out before they could ask him to help. My other supervisor had a nervous breakdown, and while crying, said he wanted to punch the manager but was a felon and needed the job. I got tired of the BS because I was just working there for Christmas money. They found me at my other job and asked me to come back because I had figured out how to do the job without being trained. I said no, and they told me I'd never be able to work for Sears or Kmart again."
18. "I’ve only quit one job ever, and it was in high school when I worked at a grocery store. I quit after I somehow was the only person scheduled to work on a Saturday night. Like, literally the only person. I was 16 or 17. Granted, I lived in a small town, but being the only person working in a whole grocery store (not a single other person was working — not a janitor, not a manager, not a bag-boy, no one else) was just absurd. Never went back."
19. "My new boss completely changed hours/expectations without any notice or checking in with any employees. I got the worst of it, and when I stood up for myself, I was greeted with crocodile tears and full-on insults. After three months of being miserable, I walked after one final scathing insult. I regret the lack of professionalism on my end, but I don’t regret leaving the job."
20. "Got lit up publicly by the a-hole store manager for clocking in two minutes late. I waited for a busy shift when it was just him and I on the schedule, then called 10 minutes after my shift started to tell him I quit. He threatened to kill me."
21. "After a stressful year of late nights and extra work (including all the work my manager didn’t feel like doing), we were informed by the CEO that the company had suffered major losses and we wouldn’t be getting bonuses or raises that year. This was extra hard considering we were in a recession and barely scraping by. I guess no one at head office told my manager to keep quiet, because come Monday morning, he showed up in a brand new Porsche bragging about his massive bonus."
22. "I was told I could no longer sigh while at work."
23. "My coworker took a lateral transfer, leaving me to do the work of two people. When I asked if she was going to be replaced, I was told no and that I would have to do everything. I quit/retired two weeks later. Two months later, they hired three people to do my job. Go figure."
24. "I was working at a hotel. It was Sunday after checkout and the hotel was a ghost town. All guests had checked out and only a couple were booked to arrive later that day. Phones were not allowed to be out. A coworker called the hotel and asked if I could text them their schedule. My phone was in my purse in the back office. I went back, texted her a pic, then the front desk phone started ringing, so I tossed my phone on my purse and went out to answer the call. The owners lived in the hotel and were always around. One of them went into the back office and saw my phone on my purse, so they called the general manager. The GM called me and started reaming me out about having my phone out. I told him he had 10 minutes to get there because I quit."
"I counted out the drawer, making sure I was on camera, and dropped my cash in the safe. At exactly 10 minutes, I was walking out the door just as he was walking in. He was yelling at me about how I couldn’t just walk out and I would never work at another hotel again. Well, that was just a part-time job I did for extra money to pay off some bills, and I still had my full-time job. By the following weekend, I was working at another hotel."
25. "Back in college, I worked for an events production company in the film department and was assigned some larger clients. One day, I had a panic attack on my lunch break (due to outside circumstances) and one of my coworkers informed my manager of this. He called me into his office after I got back into the editing suite and told me, 'You know, you don’t really matter all that much to the company, so I don’t see why you get so stressed that you cry on your lunch.' I didn’t even finish my shift. I took my laptop and hard-drive (as I was never issued one by the company) and went home. The worst part was that no one bothered to find out what happened until my biggest client complained that an edit was late."
26. "They tried to force me to sign a 'pay restructure' that was not only a massive cut, but retro 90 days. It was gonna cost me thousands of dollars to sign that form. After 10 years, I left it and them sitting right there."
27. "I requested and was approved for PTO so that I could get dental surgery. Morning of the surgery, I got a message from my boss that I had to get to work ASAP. I explained that my surgery was in about 30 minutes, and he told me that I had to be there that afternoon. I came in after surgery. I couldn't speak and was in a world of pain. The reason I was called in? His boss was present and she asked if I was around. When she saw me and my condition, she apologized and had a very loud conversation with him. She had been one of my regulars in my previous company (yay, food service). A few days later, he laid into me about my lack of professionalism and other topics about general management. I ended the call, put my keys in the safe, emailed his boss, and left. He was fired about a week later, but it wasn't enough to get me to return."
28. "The company had lied about so much of the job, but the straw that broke the camel's back was being forced to work in a room with no windows that constantly smelled awful due to a nearby kitchen exhaust. I'm honestly still amazed that they got away with that. They interviewed me on the third floor of a glass building that turned out to be a space they rented to lure people in. I got an offer from my dream job and bailed immediately."
29. "I was the only employee who could work all departments and was constantly going from one to another. That part I didn't mind. But, while going through a very stressful set of situations in my life, the owner of the store took me in the back and asked me what I did around the store because he never saw me working. I started crying and walked out. I was at that job eight years and was making wonderful money. My peace was worth more than their money."
30. "My manager was always kind of mean. He threw pots and pans and would throw finished orders that he didn’t deem worthy of the customer. He once dragged a customer out of the restaurant while she was having a panic attack because he ID'ed her well into her meal after she was already ID'ed for her first drink. I worked there for two years. I was 22 and a lot of the people I worked with in the afternoons were still in high school. I was on the grill when he started screaming at this 16-year-old girl who he told to man the fryers. She had no prior experience. It was a Saturday night. He started screaming at her because she was slightly backed up, but doing extremely well for it being her first time. She had tears in her eyes before he shoved her to the side and took over himself."
"The kitchen went silent. It felt like time stopped. We all walked out together. Nobody really said anything. She left first, then the dishwasher, then me and two other guys. The manager was cursing and customers were watching us all leave. The servers were stressed, but understood. It felt like sweet relief."
31. "They kept accusing me of stealing money, even though my till was never off by more than $1, which I always paid. Then, one day, they demanded I give them $35 out of my tips because 'they just knew I stole money somehow.' I quit on the spot and told any customers around that the business owners were thieves. Then, next year, they tried charging me for my W2. It's illegal to withhold government documents. Once it was made clear they would get taken to court, they told me I could pick it up. When I got there, the owner screamed at me from the moment he saw me about how I'm the thief and in the wrong for leaving them short-staffed. I never said a word. I just grabbed my W2 and left."
32. "I worked as a cashier for a big electronics store (that closed a few years back). I broke my foot and was in a cast. They wouldn't let me sit on the stool that they had at the registers because it 'looked unprofessional.' Whatever. That job was just for 'walking around town' money anyway, so screw them."
33. "I was working at a Sears. I told them I could only work 20 hours a week maximum because I was still in high school and needed time to do my homework. I was hired as a part-time employee. I showed up for a shift to see that I had been scheduled for 35 hours the following week, including one shift that started before school got out. When I asked my manager about it, they said, 'You’re 18. Just skip school.' I ended up quitting on the spot instead."
34. "My boss asked me to go to the company’s Facebook page because he 'wanted to check something.' When I did, he leaned over my shoulder and hit 'share to all' on my phone. It was such a disgusting violation of privacy that finally made me realize all the crap I was putting up with would never change."
35. And: "I worked for an aviation company that would operate a skeleton crew and played the blame game rather than accepted accountability when someone fell short due to the never-ending list of responsibilities they were given. One newer employee moved cross country for the job, and I overheard management saying they were going to fire him two days before his one-year mark so they didn’t have to make good on his relocation package (which required he make it an entire year). I quit on the spot and told my boss that he didn’t treat people well and that he should be ashamed of how demoralized the team had become under his 'leadership.'"
"He didn’t address one concern I had and instead looked to the man I was dating at the time (now my husband) and said, 'Talk some sense into her and tell her she can’t do this. Tell her she has to stay.' He didn’t even respect that I could make my own decisions and saw me as someone that had to be 'controlled' by another person. It was the greatest feeling ever to tell him I quit."
Have you ever quit a toxic job on the spot? Tell us your story in the comments below!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.