When I asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share their "I gotta get out of here" moment at a toxic job, I expected plenty of wild stories from hard-working people who absolutely deserve better. However, the responses were so much more soul-sucking than I ever could've predicted, and most of them centered around one issue in particular: toxic bosses.
How much stress at work is just way too much? I know we all need money to live, but after a certain amount of torment, we suddenly know in our hearts that we deserve to work somewhere that actually values us as humans. Let's get into the stories of people who decided enough is enough and finally got out of there.
1. "My old boss was awful from the start, but what made me leave was when my parents sent chocolate-covered strawberries for my birthday to the office. My boss just expected me to give him some, but I told him they were for me, and I didn't want to share. He then proceeded to oink at me the rest of the day."
2. "I used to work at a company that would teach children about sea life — sharks, jellyfish, tropical fish, etc. I loved the animals and would regularly go see them, but I wasn't allowed to feed them myself. One day, I noticed on the feeding schedule that they hadn't been fed in a much longer time than is safe, so I asked my boss if that was correct. He told me that he feeds the animals less so they don't poop as much so he wouldn't have to clean the tank as often. I quit without notice and reported them to every animal rights agency I could think of."
3. "The micromanaging kept getting worse and worse. I knew it was time to quit after I was pulled for a manager meeting where they had added up all the times I had logged out to use the restroom the day before — it was just over nine minutes for a ten-hour shift. They presented this info to me like 'Well, well, well, what are we gonna do about this?' and told me that since I was spending SO much time in the restroom, I needed to bring a doctor's note that says I have to pee a lot."
4. "My husband and I were trying to conceive and I had a miscarriage. I called my boss to tell him (you know, that kind of workplace where 'we're a big family') and explained to him that I needed a day off. I was waiting for a 'take the time you need' kind of response, but instead, he told me to come to work because 'it happens all the time.'"
5. "I'm a teacher and spent seven years at a toxic high school with terrible academic standards. Right before school started, the principal told me I would be teaching two Latin courses that year. When I said I hadn't taken Latin since college and hadn't really kept it up, hadn't ever taught a language, and that I really wasn't qualified to teach it, they blew it off and said I'd be fine."
6. "I used to work in hotel food and beverage for Disneyland. A really horrible family was making their way around the fine dining locations on property wreaking havoc. They ended up at my restaurant with a 'golden ticket,' meaning the location they visited the night before got desperate trying to make the family happy to the point of telling us to give them whatever they wanted and to charge it to the previous restaurant's account. We took an incredible amount of extra care with everything the family wanted, and they still found reasons to send their food back three times, complain about everything, and demand we give them another 'golden ticket' to another restaurant."
7. "I had a meeting with the district manager about raises and my concerns about them overworking and underpaying me and my coworkers. Her solution? 'I can’t give you guys a raise, but I can work you more hours.' Her solution for us being overworked and underpaid was to overwork and underpay us even more! The entire staff, including my store manager, quit on the spot within days of each other. It was pretty badass."
8. "I had a difficult boss who was amazing with the work she did, but treated the workers poorly. The kicker for me was when the company raised its minimum wage. I’d been working there for seven years and started from the bottom. I'd earned many raises to get up to barely over this new minimum wage that now un-trained workers were getting as they walked in the door."
9. "My boss was an emotionally unstable narcissist whose behavior and attitude were so unpredictable that I lived with a constant dread of what she might do or say next. She constantly insinuated that our jobs were in danger. She was very insecure in her position and was always paranoid that I was trying to undermine her or take her job."
"Any time I presented any idea for how we might improve our efficiency, she would point out how that strategy could never work, and then two weeks later she’d present the same idea as if it were her own. I put up with it for a shameful amount of time. Eventually, I’d had it and I found another job. They’re now being investigated for some shady practices. Such a blessing to not be associated with that business."
10. "I asked to work in the company office that was closer to my house just once a week instead of the office that’s in the city (where my manager works) because it was the easier commute, free parking, no traffic…my manager said to me 'No. Your commute is not my problem.'"
11. "A customer harassed me verbally and sexually over the phone, asked what time I worked until, and said he was gonna come to the store. He kept calling and cursing at me. When I called my boss to report it, the only thing he said was to make sure I treated the man professionally when he came in."
12. "I quit when it became obvious that despite repeated assurances for several months they would be hiring more people in my department, it just wasn't going to happen. I was essentially doing the job of three people. They couldn't even muster up a facade of giving a shit, so suddenly, I couldn't either. I resigned a week after this revelation."
13. "I had taken some time off of work because my mom had just passed away from cancer and my dad had unexpectedly passed away a few months before that. I finally decided to get an easy job to ease myself back into work and got a job at a telemarketing place as a supervisor. I had to report to the office manager. She was nice at first and then would use my parents' deaths against me. Any time I made a mistake or did something she didn't like, she'd say something like, 'Wow, I bet your parents would be disappointed in you.'"
"I finally had it and told her I was quitting. The only thing she said was, 'I won't miss you always crying in the bathroom about your parents. They're very ashamed of you, I'm sure.' She was awful and got fired a few months after I left. Good riddance."
14. "I worked for a product photo studio for over two years. We were technically contractors, and we learned later that they hadn’t made us full-time employees through illegal loopholes. But, that wasn’t what did it. We signed a client who sold meat wholesale to grocery stores. We had to start photographing raw pigs’ heads. Our massive studio didn’t have air conditioning. Our bosses had absolutely no idea how to keep us safe and keep our studio sanitary. They didn’t buy us the right safety equipment, nor did they care how hot it was (they were upstairs in air-conditioned offices.) Once one of the employees contracted salmonella, I called OSHA."
15. "I made a minor mistake on an inventory count that was easily fixable. I got a write-up, which isn’t the problem. The manager asked why I had so much 'distraction', and after I told them, they told me I needed to be more focused. Why was I distracted and unfocused? My mom had died suddenly two weeks prior and I was fresh back from bereavement leave."
16. "I’m a nurse and at this specific point in my life, I was so burnt out I was desperate for time off. I put a vacation request in and weeks later, I still hadn’t heard if it was approved or not. I spoke with my boss and she told me being burnt out wasn’t a good excuse for a vacation, so she’d just been waiting for me to forget that I put in a vacation request at all. WTF?! I put my two weeks in then and there."
17. "I decided to quit after all of my coworkers tested positive for COVID in the summer of 2020 and were told by management to keep it a secret so no one would 'freak out.'"
18. "I called out for my shift because my baby was sick. This is after YEARS of perfect attendance. Aside from my measly three weeks of maternity leave, I had literally never missed a shift before. The two days after this were my days off. When I returned after those three days my boss had completely removed me from the schedule. When I confronted him he said that he 'assumed I didn't want to work anymore.' This was after years of other passive-aggressive BS. So I said 'Yeah, you're right,' and I never went back."
19. "I worked for a small business, but they kept the staff unreasonably small. Several times while I worked there, I lost scheduled hours I needed because the ONLY OTHER staff member scheduled with me had called out and no one (not even management) would step in so we just wouldn't open that day! My final straw was being told to find coverage for a shift I needed off, or I couldn’t have it off. There were FOUR employees. Who was I supposed to ask?!"
—Anonymous
20. "I was teaching in a summer camp. The camp director had changed that year, and, to put it mildly, she was a complete jerk. She had no teaching experience whatsoever but still tried to tell all the teachers how and what to teach. She seemed to think we were more babysitters than actual teachers. The final straw came when the teachers were told we had to wear a clown suit in class, to entertain the children better."
21. "I worked a part-time job as a server at a counter service food joint. Every time I made a mistake, my boss would slap me on the hand. Literally. After I realized it wasn’t an accident, I knew I had to leave that place immediately."
22. "I had just started a new restaurant job, and I’ve been in the business for 16 years, so I’ve seen it all. However, at this new job, my general manager was an anomaly. I was bartending and he walked around the corner and actually yelled at me for the sound of my voice. Not that I was talking too loud or using inappropriate language. It was an actual 'I can not stand the sound of you talking.' He requested I not speak behind the bar. That job was a joke, so I immediately walked out. ✌🏼"
23. And finally, "I was two slides into presenting a strategy I spent months crafting for my boss and our CEO. The CEO stopped me mid-sentence and said, 'When we first hired you, I thought you were a very smart and good worker, now I think not so much.'"
I rest my case. These experiences give us undeniable evidence that more often than not, employees don't quit a job so much as they quit a boss. It also tells me that everyone needs to be extra nice to restaurant workers and teachers, because they already go through enough.
Now, let me ask, do you relate to any of these? First of all — I'm so sorry. Second of all, please feel free to share in the comments! Your stories may help to inspire others to finally break free from the chains of their own toxic workplaces.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.