Everybody loves a good "quitting your job" story, but could you imagine the satisfaction of hearing about how an entire team left a terrible job together?
Well, that wish was granted when Reddit user u/BoysenberryTasty7016 recently asked, "What happened at work that made everyone quit at once?" Here are just a few stories:
1. I led an IT team that supported a new version of a proprietary application. The team was a mix of corporate employees and contractors. Most of the customers who used our app were located in the Western hemisphere, so while we provided 24/7 support, the vast majority of customer issues were during the typical North American workday. We had a couple of contractors who liked working overnights, so they covered the evenings, and did a handoff every morning. This worked very well. So well, in fact, that our corporate overlords decided that the app should be expanded globally. We noted that the current team couldn't handle the additional support load without more team members. Instead of doing that, management decided that we should just move a bunch of people from the day shift to the night shift."
2. "CEO announced to the company, amid concerns of being overworked, that other people have it worse and 'if you don’t like it you can leave.' So everyone left."
3. "I worked for a landscaping company. We were already stretched to the breaking point because the owner would never hire enough help. Then he decided it was a perfect time to take a new project — over two hours away from where anyone lived. Multiple people quit after this announcement. I stayed for another few days and then quit. A few weeks later, he was calling everyone and begging us to come back because the property owners were furious with him over the work not even being started. I told him I'd already gotten a new job, and he swore at me and hung up."
4. "Management laid me, the manager, off. In six years, I had one turnover. After they laid me off, all six of the guys reporting to me had their two weeks' notice in. It’s a long story but basically, the new management had no clue what they were doing and it showed when they 'eliminated my position.'"
5. "They hired a manager who was vicious, then did not stop her behavior. Long-term employees just quit one by one. I held on longer than most. At my exit interview, they asked why I was leaving and I just said her name. Finally, two years later they let her go but by that time they had an entire turnover of staff."
6. "A private company (1924–1988) single owner dies of old age. His family sold a Connecticut-based company to a French corporation. The French company says we are moving you guys 500 miles north to New Hampshire. You can move at your own expense and have equivalent pay for one year after which it may be readjusted. They were expecting about 125 people to relocate with them; They got three."
7. "Our salon lost our manager to having a new baby and becoming a stay-at-home mom. It was sad to see her go. So our DM comes in and says he's hiring from within the salon. He'd been looking at our sales, client retention, and whatnot. Meanwhile, for a month or so, we had no manager, but we still had paperwork and orders that needed to be done. So one employee, Becky, took the role and did great. Meanwhile, Tara had worked there for six months at this point, and Tara was not a team player. She would put your sales commission on her account accidentally. She would say things like she's 'paid to do hair not clean.' Not to mention, she weight-shamed everyone. She found hurtful things to say about everyone."
8. "The boss let his dickhead son take over."
9. "I worked as a desk clerk for my dorm building freshman year of college and came back during my sophomore year knowing we got a new housing director. Notably, our contract stated we were allowed to do homework or watch TV/listen to music during shifts (one earbud only) as long as we were still checking cameras, sorting packages, helping students as they came to the desk, and checking people in of you worked a night shift. These tasks usually took around an hour of your shift (excluding shifts between 10 p.m.–2 a.m. on weekends when students would constantly be coming back from parties and having to check in). The new housing director for the building I worked in decided that even though we all signed contracts saying these things were allowed it didn’t mean we should be doing them."
10. "Boss binge-watched us on the security cameras and came back to us with the findings."
11. "Our boss had multiple issues: trying to make us work while on vacation, underpaying us for car mileage, refusing to help with training, and lying about being at the office when she was at home. What made us all leave was when she denied leave for our coworker whose dad had died unexpectedly. She asked for even just one day for the funeral and my boss refused. We covered for our coworker for the week but then all put in our notice. The higher-ups finally figured out something was wrong for us ALL to resign and they fired her. They begged us to come back, but if they’re that blind to what’s happening, it’s not worth it."
12. "It was my first 'adult job' and I very intelligently, like the person I am...worked for an MLM. Now obviously we were all stupid enough to continue working there for long periods of time. About five months in, we had to start going door to door in much nicer neighborhoods than we were used to resulting in much fewer sales and much less money for all of us. But that wasn't why everyone quit. Of course, because we just had to 'work harder' and be 'better salesman.' So a month goes by and one of the newest workers discovered a website called devil corp. This website explained in detail what an MLM was, the way they use people and fool them, and many actual company names that participated, our company being one of them."
13. "I worked at a grocery store. We got a new store manager who was just awful. We toughed it out (unionized, so he couldn't do anything to us). Then we start hearing/seeing how he was treating the department managers, who were all amazing. My department manager eventually said enough is enough and quit with a week's notice. I left the same week, a third of my department put in notice, and half of the other department managers have since left."
14. "I had a boss that colluded with some new hires and family members to vote out the union. We lost our pension, benefits, and guaranteed rates overnight. They only needed 40% to pass. Everyone who voted to keep the union quit within a month."
15. "I quit after four years after I was going to be denied a pay raise that I was supposed to have. It put the entire management staff in shock. A week later, over half the staff quit because they were being blamed for what management was screwing up. The district manager came in and wanted to know what the hell was going on. They finally admitted I had pretty much run the place while they were sleeping and calling in. She fired all but one person and promptly promoted the crew leader who I had trained as the new assistant manager. Sadly, the damage was done and they were bought out less than a year later by another company because they sank their profits after I left. Linchpin."
16. "Boss ordered a tractor-trailer full of rain gutters for a large job. The truck arrived however no Moffett or forklift was on-site. 60K pounds of metal gutters and equipment he wanted to be unloaded by hand. The whole crew got in the work trucks and left."
17. "A coworker, whose brother owned the business and no one liked, got promoted to supervisor. Took him about 20 minutes before he started abusing his power, ordering people to do extra hours to cover his shifts and shit like that. About six weeks later, basically, the entire staff had found new jobs and quit."
18. "I worked at a brick-and-mortar video rental chain, and, strangely enough, CBD products outlet before the pandemic hit the US. When it did, the governor put out an ordinance mandating the closure of all non-essential businesses. Corporate tried to stay open by insisting they were essential, on account of providing entertainment to people languishing at home, and also CBD for anti-stress. That didn't fly because it wasn't for legit medical purposes. Here's the thing: I read state laws on the books for that ordinance. It was directly enforceable by state and local law enforcement authorities. Which meant corporate was basically flying us in the storm like kites. Needless to say, everyone quit at once, on the same day, including me."
"I got unemployment off it despite quitting voluntarily, thanks to corporate 'creating unsuitable conditions for my remaining employed.'"