The point of no return. The last straw. The final indignity. No matter what it’s called, there’s always a final, infuriating incident before someone’s driven to walk away. And when it happens, it can lead to the most epic tales of brutal moments where people finally said: "That's it, I'm done." These Redditors came together to share stories of what made them finally call it quits on their worst jobs and most toxic relationships, and their stories are utterly outrageous.
1. Day On
I once got called into work on my day off. I drove a half-hour to get there. Once there, I was told they didn’t need me that day after all, and I could go home. I did go home. And I did not come back.
2. Roasted
I once had my hands full while working in a restaurant kitchen, so I asked my boss to grab me a container as I cut into a huge roast beef for a customer with blood dripping everywhere. For some inexplicable reason, my boss felt the need to literally roll out on his chair from the office to say, “You have two arms and legs, get it yourself!”
When I said, “Excuse me?” he replied with, “Oh, you didn’t you hear me the first time?” I replied “Yes, I did,” before taking off my apron, walking away from the bloody mess, clocking out right in front of him, and walking out the door.
3. Name Calling
My cousin and his fiancée who had been dating for two years, engaged for one, called off the wedding two days before it happened because they realized they'd never discussed whether she was going to keep her maiden name. Then they tried to talk about it, they disagreed, and the fight spiraled into a fight about every disagreement they'd ever had about anything.
They stayed up all night to argue and, somewhere around 3 AM, came to their senses and decided not to get married.
4. An Inconvenient Store
I worked at a convenience store. My coworker and I were classmates, and we were 16 or 17 years old at the time. The place got broken into, food and drinks were stolen, and when I came to work, the owner and his daughter were yelling at my coworker. He was angry and wanted us two to be liable for the damages. So he threatened to fire me and my coworker—but when my coworker told him that he'll have to clean up the mess with only his daughter, the owner suddenly mellowed out.
We quit a week later anyway when we found out that it was the daughter who had let her friends in to steal stuff, and then roughed the place up to make it look like a break in.
5. Trauma Savings
My client was the outrageous one, so my heart went out to his poor wife. He had OCD which manifested primarily financially, so he made their lives a penny-pinching hell. He was obsessed with avoiding unnecessary driving due to wear and tear on the car and gas expenses, so he cut the whole family’s hair at home and never let them eat at a restaurant or go to the movies.
One of the weirdest things of all was that he kept one toilet paper roll on him at all times and you had to get one square from him before you could go to the bathroom. He never gave more than one square. The wife finally got fed up and left him when 1) he gave her bangs during an in-home haircut and 2) their daughter was so traumatized by the toilet paper thing they couldn’t potty train her.
6. Which One Will You Choose?
A long time ago, I was working at a restaurant that was, to put it bluntly, absolutely freakin’ atrocious. The place was almost always dead apart from the owner’s friends, who would make it their life’s mission to be incredibly rude to myself and the other staff members. Somehow, I stuck it out working there for six months.
The final straw came at Christmas, when I wanted to travel back home to spend time with my family (as my grandmother was sick at the time); and their response was, “You’ll just have to decide what’s more important, your job or your family.” I decided. I told them that this was the dumbest and most insulting question I had ever heard, and walked straight out the door.
7. The Old Dough
My first shift working at a pizza place was terrible. Nobody washed their hands. There were two lots of dough. Old dough for new customers and “good dough” for regulars. We were paid from the till. The manager yelled at us a lot. Oh, also? All the employees there were completely miserable. I quit after my first shift.
8. Not the Brightest Match
I knew a guy from a high school job who divorced his wife of two months because she would sleep with a nightlight, but he could only sleep in total darkness. They apparently never lived together until after getting married. He hated her nightlight so much that he would often sleep on the couch instead, but sometimes he would claim the bed for himself and lock her out of the bedroom for the night.
This was an eccentric late 40s man working at Burger King who acted like all the other high school coworkers were his best chums, and often told us these weird stories. I'm glad I don't work with him anymore.
9. No, I’m Closed for Business
When I worked at McDonald's, I found out we didn't get paid for closing. We got paid until the store closed, so if it took us an extra hour or two to close, that was unpaid. I wish I knew what I know now, because that is an open and shut case, but at the time, I was young and dumb. My first paycheck, I noticed I had a ton of missing hours.
So, when I asked my boss about it, she told me we only get paid until the store closed. So that night, I walked out when the store closed. They tried to guilt me into staying, because "the other team members need me.” Screw that. I don't work for free, sorry. Especially when I'm already making minimum wage.
10. More Than You Could Chew
I know a guy who dumped his wife because she was a loud chewer at the dinner table. He developed a complex and literally needed out of the marriage as he couldn't bear to eat with her.
11. A Star Is Born
My wife was about to give birth, and I had just taken an odd job as a temporary thing. We had just moved to a new city and I had started this job less than three weeks earlier. The plan was for me to work there for a bit while I continued to search for an office job in engineering for the long run. Well, when the big night finally came, I called my supervisor to let him know that I couldn’t come in because my wife was having contractions and her water had just broken. His reaction was so disturbing, it's impossible to forget.
He told me to get to work and that the baby wouldn't be born till later anyways. I said, “No, I'm driving my wife to the hospital now.” He told me to get the you-know-what back to work, so I simply said, "I quit" and hung up on him. No more than 10 days later, I found a much better job and I have been happily employed here for four years at this point.
12. Working at Work
It took about 30 minutes. I was hired at a hotel. When I arrived, I guess there was miscommunication for the job I accepted. I thought the job was at the hotel front desk. They meant bellhop. I gave it a go for 30 minutes, wearing the uniform, cleaning out ashtrays, cleaning the trash in the parking lot, etc. After 30 minutes, the manager asked me how I felt about the job. I said, “Nope,” and he said I was free to leave.
The job wasn’t bad, but it’s not what I agreed to do.
13. There’s An App for That
I was a legal assistant when this case came in, but this lady divorced her husband of two months because he got her an iPad case for her birthday instead of the expensive jewelry she wanted.
14. Isn’t Work Your Real Family?
My mother was moving interstate with my father and it was the last time I’d see either of my parents for months. I explained this to my boss, but he just said I would have to see her another time because he needed a fence put up over the weekend. I told him I was leaving either way, and he could put his own fence up I quit soon after that.
He also accused me of lying and berated me multiple times for random things that I either didn’t do and refusing to pay me for weeks at a time.
15. So in Debt with You
I’m a divorce lawyer and one client filed for divorce because he owed his bookie $70,000. He didn't want to leave his wife but he figured he would get half the house in the divorce, which was worth $700,000 and pay his debts. He had already blown through their life savings gambling. He was the worst guy.
16. A Family Dis-Oriented Business
I used to work at a small, family-owned restaurant for over a year. All I ever did while I was there was wash dishes. The owner hated me and always did her best to make my shift miserable because her creepy husband loved being around me and talking to me all the time. But that wasn't even the worst part. Eventually, she accused me of secretly hooking up with him more than once.
My last straw was when she decided to call me a filthy homewrecker in front of not just my coworkers, but also a whole group of customers. The kicker? I was 15 years old.
17. The Joke’s On You
I once commented on a social media post and made a joke, saying that I went back to a girl's house to play Uno and talk about politics. Clearly just a harmless joke. Then one day, I get into an argument with my girlfriend and she screams out "AND I KNOW YOU WENT BACK TO THAT GIRL’S HOUSE TO PLAY UNO AND TALK ABOUT POLITICS!!" That moment was so ridiculous that we could never recover.
18. Stop Making Things Easier
I was a data entry temp for the Red Cross and my boss was a control freak. I wrote a batch file script to automate my work and they fired me on the spot accusing me of hacking. I quit on the spot.
19. Not What the Doctor Ordered
I worked with a guy who put his wife in an assisted living facility based on a misdiagnosis, the medication for which caused the wife to be unable to care for herself. While in the facility, my client—shocker—started dating another woman, and methinks began using illegal substances. He used a loooot of money on both of these things. She eventually got off the medication and got better.
Suffice to say, she was not happy about what had transpired.
20. Smack It Outta Ya
My neighbor filed for divorce because her husband smacked his lips when he ate and slurped his coffee and soup. She thought if she didn't divorce him, she would end up in jail for battery.
21. A Dirty Separation
I’m an intern, but the judge I work for used to do divorce work. He has some crazy stories but this one is probably the most outrageous, though the divorce was pretty justified. Every morning, this couple would sit in the bathroom together while one of them had their morning dump. One would sit on the toilet and the other on the rim of the bathtub.
This particular morning, the wife was on the toilet and husband on the edge of the tub. They started to argue about their relationship, so the wife reaches down, pulls her tampon out and flings it at the husband. I’m told the tampon stuck for a brief second to his forehead before sliding off. He filed for divorce that same day or the next.
22. Rolling Paper
Back in the 90s, I worked for a temp agency. I was told the job entailed assisting in an IT department, which happened to be my field. I arrive on said job to learn that the job actually consisted of using a rolling pin to fold reams upon reams of printed computer data that someone had loaded into the printer backward and would no longer fit back into the boxes from which it was fed.
As I was handed the rolling pin, I immediately handed it back and told them I was there for an IT position, not a baking lesson, and left. Total elapsed time: about seven minutes.
23. Comical
My boyfriend really looked up to Captain America, who always did the right thing and stuck to his morals. One day, he said that he wasn’t happy with me because I was not living up to Captain America’s standards of good behavior. That was it for me. Dumped him.
24. Just the Usual
I had a client file for divorce because every morning his wife would ask him how he takes his coffee... for seven years.
25. You’re Tearing Us Apart!
This just happened two weeks ago. I was going out with some friends one evening and I tore my ACL. I told my boss that I couldn’t come in for a while because of this. I’m a chef, so there was no way I would be able to work with a torn ACL. Unfortunately, my boss failed to understand that and said that if I didn’t come in the next day I would be let go. So, I quit on the spot.
26. That’s Never a Good Sign…
When my girlfriend came home from work one day and the first thing that popped into my mind was “Well, there went my day.” Just a normal day, no fight the night before, no stress, just my subconscious finally making himself heard. That was the last straw in that relationship.
27. I Walk the Line
I was 18 years old and working at a movie theater concession stand on an extra busy day. My coworkers made themselves busy doing things that didn’t need to be done (like checking toilet paper or organizing candy) instead of helping me with a long line of customers that wrapped itself around the entire stand. One lady got extremely nasty with me because I didn’t butter the middle of her popcorn the way she had wanted me to. She was literally screaming at me for it.
I looked around and saw one of my coworkers just watching me and laughing as they pretended to clean the ticket booth window. That was the final straw. I logged out of the computer system, closed the cash register, walked out of the concession stand, slammed the door behind me, told the customer she was a jerk who didn’t need more butter, told my coworker to go screw himself, and walked right out of the theater—leaving the long and very confused line of customers completely unattended.
I never went back despite the fact that they were apparently willing to forgive me because this “wasn’t my usual behavior.”
28. Taking Some Initiative
It was the night of my sorority initiation ceremony. I didn't have my phone for a few hours and my boyfriend was calling me incessantly. In response to him not being able to get a hold of me he went and got two sleeve tattoos. They were done in his friend's basement and they looked like it too. That's when I knew I needed to get out of that relationship.
29. Sounds Like You Quit Two Jobs!
My old boss was a jerk who liked to rip off old ladies and low-income families. I got in trouble for doing my job right because it made him look bad. He expected me to do my job and his. So, one day, while he was yelling at me for some nonsense, I abruptly removed my work shirt, threw it in his face, and walked off the job.
The fallout was that I now had no job in a city I had just moved to a few months earlier, but knowing that I had just screwed this guy over made it all worth it.
30. Taking Things to the Next Level
My mom called me and said that I needed to come to the house (30 minutes away) because she didn't know how much longer my grandfather was going to make it. She insisted that I let my girlfriend at the time drive me because she didn't want me driving upset, as I was very close with my pawpaw. Girlfriend agreed... I threw on some shoes and was ready to go. Girlfriend proceeded to get in the shower. And then blow dry and straighten her hair. And then do her makeup.
My mother called when we were 15 minutes away and told me that he'd passed. Had we left when we were supposed to, I would've gotten to say goodbye.
31. Cooking Up a Storm
First job ever. McDonald's inside a Walmart. It was a busy Saturday afternoon with a line going all the way out the door. The manager starts yelling at me to stop taking orders because she can't keep up with my pace. I was 15 years old at the time and therefore not old enough to work the grill, so I asked what I should do instead. Her answer was vicious.
She rudely told me that if I was too dumb to figure that out, then she didn't need me there. So I was like, "Yeah, I guess you've got this covered then," clocked out, tossed my hat on the ground, and strolled out the front door as she pleaded for me to come back—leaving her to deal with that long lineup on her own. I wish 31-year-old me had the nerve that 15-year-old me had!
32. Meet DefinitelyNotYourGirlfriend123
The moment that killed my relationship was when I discovered that my ex-girlfriend had secretly made a Reddit account without telling me, and started commenting on posts of mine asking how I felt about my girlfriend. So weird.
33. Green with Envy
I had a job in a salad plant that produces those bags of salad mix that a lot of restaurants use. I was there for two weeks coring lettuce in front of a conveyor belt for eight hours a day. I would pick up a head, slam it, pull the core, put it down, and then move on to the next one. At a job like this, you basically have two options in order to pass the time—you either talk to your co-workers or you plot the downfall of Western civilization.
One really sweet lady had been there for 10 years—10 years on the lettuce line! She got called into the office one day and was gone for about half an hour. She then came back and said "I won't be here tomorrow. I got promoted!" I asked what she'd be doing. "Cabbage!" I wished her well, dropped my stuff, and walked out.
I feel bad about not telling anyone I was quitting, but I was young and disturbed by the idea of doing this for ten years only to move on to cabbage!
34. Breaking the Golden Rule
I know I had to dump my girlfriend when I stopped by her house on the way to work to drop off flowers on her doorstep as a surprise and saw my “friend’s” car parked out front. This was at 5 in the morning. My “friend” was married with a pregnant wife at the time.
35. Up Close and Personal
I quit my job the minute my boss started rubbing my thigh and asking if I’d ever slept with a married man before.
36. Money is No Object
One of my exes was a stickler about money to the point it felt petty. Every time we went out to eat, even after dating for two years, he would flag down the waiter and say, "We need the check split in half. Evenly." If we would spend $5 at the grocery store buying spaghetti and sauce, he would ask me to pay half.
Anyway, my 17-year-old cat was dying, and I was heartbroken. The day I said goodbye to her, my then-boyfriend took me out for ice cream. We shared a $5 sundae at Dairy Queen. He paid! I was so happy and touched by the small gesture during the worst day of my life. But then in the car afterward, he asked me a question that made me lose it. He asked if we should "settle up now or... because, I mean... the sundae was $4.95 and I don't think you gave me any money for it."
I threw a $20 at him and cried. Listen, I don't expect men to foot the bill all the time, and I definitely like to be fair, but buying your long-term girlfriend a $5 sundae when she's absolutely distraught is not unreasonable.
37. A Classic Case of Gaslighting
I worked at a gas station deli back in the day and, right before I went in for my shift one time, my mom called me up to let me know that my sister had been rushed to the hospital and that I needed to get there as soon as possible to be with the family. I called my manager, who told me that I had to find someone to cover my shift if I wanted to miss it.
I called a few people and one person said that they would come in and cover my shift. I called my manager back and let them know that so and so would be covering my shift. My manager said that was ok. I came in two days later for my next shift and the manager immediately started flipping out on me as soon as I walked in the door.
She was ranting about how I had screwed the place over because I didn't show up for my shift. I proceeded to remind her that I had to go to the hospital for my sister and that so and so was covering my shift. She then proceeds to tell me how so and so didn't show up, and how therefore it was my fault that they lost a bunch of money that night and whatnot.
I simply replied "Are you freaking kidding me? I'm sorry if you were too stupid to remember our call, but I had a family emergency so screw you and screw this place!" As I walked out the door, I slowly paused, turned around, and proceeded to shout, "Screw this place!" one more time.
38. Who Are You Gonna Believe, Me Or Your Own Eyes?
Go to the gym, no headphones! That’s cool, the house is five minutes away. Pull up in front of my house and see work friend's car out front. Walk in the house through the open garage. Son coloring at the kitchen table. Ask him “Hey bud, where’s your mom?” He points at the stairs. Walk to stairs to hear moans and movement.
Up to this point I had suspected the worst but never had proof. Knew I had to go look and catch her or she would say I was overreacting and tell me it wasn’t what I thought. Walk upstairs and hear them in the spare bedroom. Walk in the room and say “well this is awkward.” They freak out and try to grab clothes and tell me nothing is happening.
I walk out to my car and have ex-buddy chase me out and tell me to hit him. I go to my command (I’m in the military) the next day. Report him and have the command force him to call his wife that day and let her know. I am now divorced and much happier!
39. Facing the Music
The new director of the orchestra that I’ve played in for 11 years decided that she was going to reaudition to replace around a third of the group, most of whom had been playing with the ensemble even longer than me and had never caused any issues or done anything wrong in all that time. When she announced that, I walked out of the rehearsal, dropped my sheet music with the librarian, and left that jerk without a principal violinist for the last concert of her inaugural season.
Take that!
40. True Colors
I overheard my girlfriend telling a friend that she wasn’t really interested in me long term and just saw me as a familiar old friend to have some fun with for a bit. It was hard, but I couldn’t go on dating her after hearing that.
41. It Takes Four to Screw Something Up That Bad!
I once told three out of four managers (as the last one wasn’t there that day) that my grandma had passed away and that I therefore wouldn’t be able to make it to work the day after tomorrow. I had to go to the funeral. I also left a note for the fourth manager and asked everyone to let him know. In the middle of the funeral, I got a call from the fourth manager asking where I was. I called him back to explain, and he said ok.
I went back to work the next day and they immediately handed me a paper saying I’d been written up for doing an improper call out. I handed the paper back and just walked away.
42. A Conversation Waiting to Be Discovered
I picked up his phone to change the channel on Chromecast. It unlocked and opened the Messenger app where he was making plans with my roommate to hook up while I was at work the next day.
43. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
I had been working 12-hour days for weeks on end. The day before Christmas, they came in and told us that even though the company gave everyone the day after Christmas off, my line still had to come in. I literally turned away from the meeting, grabbed my gear, and walked right out of the door the second I heard that.
44. Get Your Head in the Game
We went out to lunch, she wasn’t even able to hold a conversation. I had to repeat myself multiple times because she was so enticed in whatever hilarious thing she was reading. Asked her what was so funny and she just kept saying nothing. As I was on my way to dropping her off at her place, her phone, sitting in the cupholder, started ringing.
The number wasn’t registered in her contacts. I went to answer it expecting a telemarketer or someone who simply had the wrong number with the intent of messing with them to have some fun. I went to grab the phone. She has never had a problem with me answering calls like that before, she even found it entertaining.
Anyway, she freaking attacked me, started screaming at me, and ripped the phone from my hand. We didn’t speak for the rest of the ride, needless to say, it was obvious what was going on. Shame. Turns out it was my only friend at the time. Lost two people I thought I could trust that day.
45. Bathroom Break
I was working at a grocery store. While kneeling down to stock the lower shelves one day, I suddenly felt something landing on my head. I looked up and discovered that a customer was peeing on my head. That was all it took for me to leave that job and never come back.
46. Pronoun Trouble
My moment of truth was when I told her I loved her for the umpteenth time, and she said, once again, “Who are you trying to convince—me or yourself?” This was from a woman with whom I was planning to marry. It just hurt me so much that she could think that way after all we’d been through. I never recovered emotionally from it and broke off our engagement some months later as a result.
47. Out to Lunch
I was working at an inbound cold-call transfer sales job, where you would get utility customers from all across the USA who would be randomly transferred to get a "confirmation number," but in reality were mostly being transferred so we could try to upsell them for extra cable services. I hated it and would always get pressured to sign callers up for Dish Network, even though no one ever wanted it.
One day, my supervisor sits down next to me, listens to every single call I'm doing, and starts questioning me on why I didn't try to sell an 80-year-old woman AT&T U-verse triple play when she said she doesn't own a computer and just uses an antenna. He freaks out and says I need to get my act together from now on.
I just give him a blank stare, continue to take calls for the rest of the morning, and ignore everything he's saying. He is storming around the room, fuming as I make no sales. When my lunch hour arrived, I grabbed my phone charger, headed out on my break, and never came back.
48. A Small Miscalculation
When he admitted, with a sigh of relief, that he had recently hooked up with my sorority sister while I was gone for work. Immediately, he hugged me and told me how much better he felt now and said he knew that we would grow stronger together from that point on. He was wrong. It was like one of those movie moments where the camera should have panned from his relieved smile during the embrace to my dead eyes.
49. Your Share of the Pie
A long time ago, I was working as a real estate agent. After spending over a month working on a $478K deal that I facilitated and eventually closed, my boss handed me a commission check for just $500. That was all I needed to see to never go back to that job. Shortly after that, I moved to Tampa, tripled my salary, and lived happily ever after.
50. The Party’s Over
My relationship ended when I caught my then-girlfriend cheating at a party. I was visiting her from out of town and was having a pretty fun time. After a while, I told my girlfriend I needed to turn in, and she was like, “Yeah, go crash in my bedroom. The party’s basically over anyway.” So I got into bed and closed my eyes.
Then, I noticed that it had gotten really quiet in the living room. Like, no one was talking at all. That was a bit odd, so I got up and walked out…and my girlfriend was swapping saliva with some guy on the couch. They were so intent that they didn’t even see me standing there looking at them until I said “What the heck??” out loud.
I’ll never forget her jumping away from the guy and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, then saying “It’s not what you think.” Oh really? Then what, precisely, was it? Despite some dramatic attempts to keep me there, I took off and didn’t look back.
51. Mom One, Jerk Boss Zero
After decades of working at a government service job, my mum finally got fed up with her managers one day and decided to retire. As soon as she informed them of this, they tried to screw her over on her payout amount because of an alleged error in their records from twenty years earlier. In other words, they claimed that they had been paying the wrong amount into her retirement fund after the rules had changed and forgot to update it or something.
Jerk Boss: "It can't be fixed. You would have to bring in your payslips for the whole 20 years to have the evidence to fix it." Mom: "No worries. I'll bring them in this afternoon if you'd like." Jerk Boss: "No, I mean all of them. Every single one." Mom: "Yep." Jerk Boss: "In chronological order." Mom: "Yes of course. I wouldn't keep my payslips in some other order, that wouldn't make any sense at all."
It hadn't even occurred to my mum that one would not keep all those documents in one place, and she never left the job so she just kept on filling up the box. That’s how you leave a lousy job in style!
52. Is the Excuse Any Better Than the Crime?
I found a condom that was clearly used in his apartment. He ended up blaming it on his mother, who didn't live there. Happy to call that jerk an ex.
53. Freedom of Expression
I used to work at an inbound call center. My sales stats went up because I reversed the order of two upsell paragraphs. Nevertheless, my boss got mad at me for doing things my own way and told me to just read the script exactly as it was written. I handed in my notice right then and there.
54. Gridlock
I was dating a girl in college and didn't think she was cheating. Another guy she was dating thought she was. He found my info on her phone and texts me about it. He wants to confront her. We both meet up at her place while she isn't home. He's a nice guy and we honestly got along pretty well for the half hour we talked before she arrived.
She saw us both as she drove up and the look on her face was pure shock. By the time she got out of her car she was crying, but didn't say a word to us. We went into her apartment and her roommate acted as the mediator but it didn't really get anywhere. Me and the other guy were pissed and wanted answers.
We weren't getting any so we both gave her some choice words and rolled out.
55. Let’s Get Away From It All
My boss refused to let me take a weekend off for my best friend’s wedding because a co-worker was already taking the time off for a dirty weekend away with the married guy she was having an affair with. The married guy was my boss, by the way. I was a bridesmaid and had booked the weekend off 10 months in advance.
I quit on the spot and told my boss’s wife he was cheating on her. My best friend’s wedding was lovely.
56. Google Knows Everything
I signed into my girlfriend's Google Account to check her emails (She forgot her password so I had to reset it). I checked her Google Maps history and her most recent visits were at my best friend's house while I was away for work. Yeah, I'd call that the last straw in that relationship.
57. Independence Day
I had a lawyer draw up an intent-to-sue-for-harassment after our new boss required me to work on the Fourth of July. There were usually 100-150 people in office, but that particular day I was the only one in the office. That was the final straw for me after six months of harassment. Result: $40,000 settlement. I still smile when I think of it.
58. Scheduling Conflict
I had been with this chick for about one year. At our school summer camp, a guy from the class above me came up to me and straight-up said: "Hey, I hear you’re so and so's new boyfriend, I’m her ex and just wanted to say hello.” I didn't really know what to make of the situation but for some reason, I just asked when they broke up, and he said: "Oh, like one month ago."
Needless to say, that relationship was over quickly.
59. A Story You’ll Never Forget
I used to work at a deli counter in a grocery store. My last straw was getting yelled at for something that I forgot to do. I can't even remember what it was anymore, but it was a very minor thing and it was the first time I had ever forgotten an instruction. I was also the sole reason why my department had still been open and they were working the hell out of me, so they could have been a little more patient and understanding the one time that I made a mistake.
I had been working 10-13 hour days, not getting any help during rushes. After the yelling, I just walked out. The deli was closed for at least a few months after I quit.
60. The Real Ex-Files
He tried to convince me that while on a camping trip with his cousin, they came across a dead "bigfoot." While poking the bigfoot with a stick, people in decon suits from the CIA came upon them and made them leave the woods because it was top secret info, blah blah blah. He then proceeded to tell me that the CIA began following him, and they recruited him to carry out hitman-type missions for them.
He wasn't a teenager when he did this. He was 25. No, he is not schizophrenic. He is, however, a sociopath and a conspiracy theorist. When I dumped him, he stalked me and almost got me fired from my job. He would call my department non-stop and hang up if anyone but me answered the phone. He'd drive around the parking lot and blow up my work phone and cell. He sent creepy letters to a guy I was seeing. But the scariest part? He'd show up to a local bar I hung out at...even though he lived 45 miles away and had no friends in my town.
liveuttarpradesh
61. Slingshot
I used to work as a lifeguard. At one point, I had injured my shoulder and was in a sling, yet they forced me to come into work and threatened to fire me if I didn’t. I had to guard a pool while being unable to swim because, as I mentioned, MY ARM WAS IN A FREAKIN’ SLING. In response, I specifically did the pettiest thing I could possibly think of. I sent in my resignation very late at night, the evening before my morning shift.
Have fun finding a replacement, jerks!
62. Alcoholics Identified
My wife always had a drinking problem but I tried to not judge and just live with it. Until one day when I came home from work to find my daughter saying she couldn't wake up mommy. After ten minutes of trying to wake her up and finding an empty bottle underneath the couch, I realized that I can’t be with a person like this and neither should my daughter. I have recently started the divorce process.
63. One Year a Slave
My first job was at McDonald's. I worked there for a year, and was basically everyone’s slave. The managers treated me like garbage, and I was extremely overworked at all times. At four months pregnant, I started having stomach pains one night and bleeding heavily. I was working the drive-thru at the time, so I couldn't just walk away.
I called for the shift manager, explained my issue, and said that I needed to leave. He told me I couldn't and that I needed to just suck it up. I cussed him out, took off my uniform, and left the premises.
64. Whack-A-Me
An ex of mine once wouldn't stop tickling me and when I asked why, she said, "I'm trying to get you to punch me!" It wasn't her kink or anything apparently? She just wanted to see how far she would have to push me before I snapped, and was really disappointed to discover I would never hit her. We broke up that night.
65. Pay to Play
There were a couple of things building up to the last straw for me, mainly that I was the supervisor of my crew yet the boss was always just "getting around to the paperwork" that would confirm my title change and pay raise. In the interim, I had not received my proper salary for a full three months. I was also supposed to be getting full medical benefits, but the day I quit the benefits were "in the mail, so just wait"...for another seven months.
66. Telephone Tag
My moment was when I realized the hypocrisy and double standard in how he expected and demanded that I had to be available at any and all times to receive his calls whenever he felt like calling, even at 2 in the morning. I also had to answer within the first two rings or he would start hurling insults and abuses. But it gets worse. I used to sleep with the phone tightly clutched in my hands so that I could know if he was calling and pick up. If I told him I was with my mom, he would make me put her on the phone so he could make sure it was her.
Meanwhile, he never picked up when I called him and would only call when he felt like it—sometimes days or even weeks apart. I finally realized that this wasn’t fair or right.
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67. Priorities
I had a primary job that gave me decent hours, but I wanted more money for the summer so I sought out a second job. I landed a spot as a hostess at a chain restaurant. A day into that job, my mother went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Naturally, the news wrecked me. I was a teenager and already had a lot to deal with (as a teenager would) at the time.
I learned this news about half-way through my shift one day. The supervisor pulled me aside and commented on my attitude. He says I am not smiling much, that I seem down, etc. I was honest and told him about my mom. I told him I was trying my best. Then he tells me, rudely: "Your job is important and you need to be focusing on that right now. Your mom can wait."
I left on the spot.
68. Wrong Place, Wrong Time
I was at a party with a group of friends. I was standing behind my best friend talking in a group when my friend all of the sudden gets a text. I look at his phone and it's my girlfriend's full name and her asking when he is going to be over. She was supposed to be out of town at her mom's house.
69. Dance to the Music
My boss told me that we were going to be spending our breaks from now on doing mandatory Zumba. I immediately told her I was going home.
70. If That’s a Minor One, I’d Hate to See a Major One
The second time we had ever gotten into a minor argument, she reacted by cutting herself and throwing a tantrum. It was so bad that I actually ran and locked myself in the closet. I knew instantly that this could not continue.
71. Bin There, Done That
I worked at Subway. It was the first day of the $5 footlong deal, and there was a line out the door. Now, all of our veggies were cut that morning at the same time. The bin of onions was getting low, so I ran to the back and got another bin. Because I was wanting to focus on getting people their food, I dumped the new bin into the other one instead of switching them.
The manager came along, pulled the bin out, and threw it at me in front of everyone. I threw my hat down and walked out.
72. If He Can Make It There, He Can Make It Anywhere
He went to NYC on a business trip and his phone was constantly going straight to voicemail whenever I called. When I finally got in touch with him he said that he was having a hard time getting a signal... in midtown Manhattan. So I called his office and asked for him and they were totally confused. It turns out he was in another state visiting someone he met on the internet.
73. Cancelled Due to Lack of Funds
I worked as one of those super annoying face-to-face fundraising people. You know, those who will stand in your way and use every trick in the book to shame you into sending them money every month so that they can continue their scam. Well, I did the one-day training session and was sent out the next morning. I quit after just two hours.
People hate you (for good reason) and treat you accordingly. I found out soon after how the money is really spent for the most part, and I am now super against this specific type of fundraiser.
74. I’m Your Number 1 Fan
I dated a girl for three weeks. Near the end of that third week, she invites me back to her place and I discover she's made a shrine just for me... it looked like I had died, and she never got over my death. Trying to remember now, there was a picture within a picture frame with her photoshopped into it badly, several used napkins from our dates, and a bag of two-week-old popcorn I didn't get to finish from our first date...so yeah.
75. Long Weekend
I rage quit a job once because my boss wouldn't let me take off on a Friday for a wedding, even though I requested it nine months in advance. It was also MY wedding! So, I gave in my two weeks notice on Thursday, got married on Friday, and went on a two-week honeymoon. Take that!
76. Love is Not a Game
I'd finished doing the dailies on my WoW character, and I knew he wasn't going to be home for a while so like many times before (with his permission) I logged into his account to do dailies for him. Then the PMs started. Very explicit PMs. Not only was he cheating on me in a game (with loads of people, cybersex in WoW, eugh), but there was one girl who was talking about things outside the game too.
I admit I played along for a while to see what was going on. After that, I told her who I was. It all ended rather badly, between her and I, him and I, and him and her.
77. Sitting On the Dock of the Pay
When I got a promotion with more responsibilities, I asked my boss for a raise. He told me that, if anything, they’re gonna dock my pay now because it was so rude of me to make that request of them. I went home after my shift that day and never came back.
78. It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know
My moment was when he fell asleep next to me, and a text message arrived on his phone. Curious, I look and see who it is from. The contact was named “Babe❤.” I’m horrified. It must be a joke. I read some texts to see the things they were saying. I found a message of her saying, “You make me the happiest girl in the world.” Unbelievable. That’s a big no for me, goodbye!
79. Let’s Give Them Something to Taco About
I worked at a fast food place south of the border during high school and the summer afterward. I was planning on going to college in town, and asked to work nights so that I could attend classes. My manager told me that I was too stupid to go to college and that I should resign myself to working fast food for the rest of my life. She added that she would fire me if I went to college.
I threw my shirt and jalapeno-shaped name badge at her because I was mad, and mostly because I was immature. Either way, I never went back. Consequences: no more free tacos.
80. She Can’t Keep a Secret
My girlfriend kept telling me how she wasn't happy with us being apart at different colleges and how she met these really nice people. Turns out one of them had a thing for her and they made out one day. She broke down and told me immediately. She wanted to keep hanging out with him and I was obviously not okay with that.
I visited her to patch things up. Dumb of me to try to salvage it in hindsight. Not long after, she meets another guy in one of her classes who happens to be friends with some of her other friends. I immediately got a bad vibe but I just told myself I was being paranoid and she said nothing would happen.
Yeah, apparently they hit it off a little too well. Long story short she tells me about this one too after I kept asking. I ended up trying to patch things up again. Screw everything about how that relationship ended. Actually, in hindsight, if my relationship hadn't ended so poorly, I wouldn't have met some of the fantastic people in my life today.
Now that I think about it, I actually haven't had any contact with her since the breakup.
81. Can’t Take the Heat
The last straw came when the company had deadlines approaching and the scumbag management staff was getting desperate, so they started cutting out everyone's breaks and harassing people out of filing first-aid reports. Someone on my crew was starting to get heat rash (working in the summer in the middle of a heatwave) but the boss was standing in the shade glaring us down so that we wouldn't take breaks.
After my coworker collapsed, I stopped everything and ran to her side to help. The boss came up and said "Uh oh, heatstroke? Take five minutes, get water, and get back to work!" I exploded and told them to go to hell. I said they were as bad a manager as they were a person and that they had no right to treat people like that.
I helped my coworker gather her things and I gathered mine. Then, I drove her to the hospital and I never went back to work. I immediately filed a safety breach report with WorkSafeBC, telling them of every safety rule that the company had broken. Since then, I have heard that at least two others quit and the company is under investigation.
82. On the Road Again
Years ago, I had a girlfriend I was dating for a few months, had to break it off. I go for coffee to give her the news and four hours later she's trying to throw herself out of my car at 80 KPH. We went from coffee shop to a parking lot where she cried more, then I started driving, pulled over again, so she could wail more. I felt like Kramer in that Seinfeld episode.
It just went on and on. Then came the threats..."I'm gonna hurt myself without you" "Screw this life!" Finally, I called her friend and told her to come pick her up. I start driving her to the pickup spot, and she's screaming and I'm driving, all of a sudden, she pulls off her seatbelt and opens the door. So now I'm driving with one hand and holding her in with the other.
I had to scream to a stop in the middle of the road while she ran through a ravine. Saw her friend, told her what happened, and her response was maybe you should let her cool off.... yeah really, Sherlock?
83. We’re in the Money
My former co-worker had a great rage quit. I was working at a sporting goods/automotive store with a fairly large staff of around 35-40 people. One of the guys in the automotive department was gay—not flamboyantly so, but it was pretty obvious nevertheless. He was middle-aged, portly, and an extremely nice guy who was a genius in terms of cars.
He had been with his partner for nearly two decades, and they were quite happy together. However, our new general manager was a total jerk, and she frequently made comments about his homosexuality for nearly a month. He tried not to show any reaction, but I could tell it was hurting him. Then, his partner's company suddenly exploded financially (in a good way).
Massive bonuses, huge raises, and all kinds of very cool things happening. The two of them decided that they now had the money to move to Vermont, get married for real, and basically retire. So, at a store meeting, my automotive friend says he has an announcement to make. He tells us that after many years with our company, he's retiring, effective immediately.
He thanks us all for being good people to work with (we were, he was a cool guy) and adds that he has enjoyed his time here. He then took off his name tag, walked over to the GM, and stood there for a moment. He then held his arm straight out in front of him, and dropped the name tag on the floor. His hand then rotated, arm still out, and morphed into the most perfectly formed middle finger I have ever seen.
He then spoke five words, very quietly. "Screw you, you hateful jerk." He then turned around and walked out the door, head held high and "hater's gonna hate" strutting. The rest of us were silent, as the GM turned bright red and stormed off to her office. We all started to laugh and cheer.
84. Sometimes It’s Best to Keep Your Mouth Shut
Company consisted of something like 1,200 employees at the time, and rented out a big conference center for a Christmas party. At the opening of the party, the CFO was giving opening remarks, and asked—expecting cheers—if everyone liked their Christmas bonuses. He got booed. See, of that 1,200 people, a bit over a thousand were in customer service. No one in customer service got bonuses, only people in the "corporate" departments got them.
And our awesome CFO decided to rub everyone's noses in it, because clearly the Chief Financial Officer of a company would have no idea that 80%+ of his company didn't get bonuses. At the same party, the CEO made an announcement that the company would be closed on Friday (Christmas that year was on a Thursday), and everyone got a day off.
Now, he had literally just finished making a speech about how everyone was important, and everyone was part of the company, no matter the department. He had shoveled crap hard, trying to make CS happier. The next day, we all got a memo that Customer Service still had to work on that Friday. We apparently didn't count as "everyone" and the CEO just hadn't realized that the announcement wouldn't apply to anyone.
In January, 60% of the staff quit.
85. Set for Life
One of the moments that made me realize my first boyfriend was a dud was when I asked him why he never looked around before crossing the street. He said he was hoping he would get hit by a car someday, so he could just sue the driver and be set for life. I asked how he planned to do that with his body mangled. He said he was sure he could manage to roll over and look at the license plate.
Real winner, that one.
86. Can’t Tie
As I was walking in for my first day, the manager yells at me to put on my tie, that I should be prepared to work when I walk in. I walk back to the bathroom to put on my tie but as I'm struggling in the mirror trying to figure out how to tie it, I decide to say forget it. If the manager is going to be this much of a jerk from the start, I don't need the job that bad.
As I walk out of the store, I tell the manager, "I quit." The stunned look on his face is still with me to this day, 30 years later.
87. You Can Eat My Hat
I was working the drive-thru at a kick during the lunch rush. A woman came through with all of her coworker’s orders. She wanted me to take them one at a time. So. Ring up nine separate orders for one car while my line backs up out of the lot. I explained to her numerous times she'd have to come inside or place it as one order and do the math herself when she got back to her work.
She spent five minutes straight calling me things that would make Tarantino blush, then pulled around to the window, and threw trash from her car at me as she left. This wasn't my moment though. The next day I get to work, and the general manager is there. He gives me two options. I ride with him to her work and apologize to her in front of her co-workers, or I am fired.
He didn't ask for my side of the story. It didn't matter my manager told me to not take her order. It didn't matter how abusive she was. She called and I was going to apologize. We get there and the smug look on her face broke something inside me. I flipped her off, tossed my hat at him, told them to kiss my butt, and went home.
88. Playing Favorites
I'm a lawyer and I took a case where the wife wanted to divorce her husband because he kept taking their dogs for walks while she was at work, unintentionally making it so they’d rather cuddle the husband instead of her after a long day.
89. Daily Routine
Every night, my boyfriend would come home drunk, demand physical attention, and go to sleep until work the next morning. I cannot say that there were no good days in the relationship. There were some better days than others. But things overall were miserable and unhealthy. He would hit me, use cuss words, and throw my things away.
He even once asked me to leave in the middle of the night. The moment I decided to leave the relationship was when it hit me that this daily cycle would probably never change.
90. Terrible Boss
I was hired by a small company in my hometown after a few months of unemployment. I went in knowing that the boss was notorious for firing people and that his business had a horrible retention rate. For example, the business was over 30 years old, but the senior-most employee had only been there for three years.
I went in with high hopes, but I soon realized the place was a crap show. The owner loved to micromanage and took it as an insult if anyone was slightly smarter than him. He also had undiagnosed ADHD, since every two minutes I was assigned a new task that was completely unrelated to the previous one. He was constantly bouncing from one thing to another in no logical order.
To top it all off, he couldn't admit when he was wrong. For the same pay as a Walmart cashier, I was supposed to be in charge of tech support, shipping, and inventory. On my first day, I realized that the majority of his customers were beyond pissed. We sold vital equipment for the disabled, yet there was no ticketing system to keep track of customer's problems.
There was one poor lady who was without this vital device for over six weeks. In the end, the stress of dealing with neglected customers and a crappy boss was too much, so I took a permanent lunch break.
91. What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas
We got married way too quick. It was Vegas where she was from. Came back to NY where I worked and she did nothing at all. She left around X-mas to see family in Vegas. Came back like three weeks later. Then a month later just after she interviewed for a job she told me she was leaving again to go to Virginia to help her worthless aunt move back to Vegas.
She gets there and blows $500 in two days then calls me to ask for money to put gas in her aunt's car. I said hell no and she didn't talk to me for two days. I finally tell her this isn't working. We get a quick Vegas divorce and she is remarried six months later.
92. Man’s Ceramic Throne
One couple that I am close to were in the process of filing for divorce with papers served and lawyers involved. The husband put down for one of his reasons why things were irreconcilable was because she would poop in HIS bathroom. I’m sure not exactly in those words. But I’m happy to say that they worked through that issue and are still together.
93. Wrinkle Hater
I worked at a small pizza place. The owner/manager was incredibly anal about everything. He hated how I did everything. Mind you, I had worked at other pizza restaurants before and this was also my second job. My main job was lead prep chef at a more successful restaurant. I like to think I knew what I was doing.
He just had the weirdest ways of doing things. Because his business was failing (recession of 2006), he was always stressed and always trying to find ways to save money. Including but not limited to: not running the water while washing dishes, reusing older dough, and stretching the definition of fresh for fresh ingredients.
Ultimately, I was young and didn’t really fit his working style. I showed up ONE time with a wrinkled shirt and he told me the next time I did, “Don’t bother showing up.” Which doesn’t make sense, but I got what he was saying. About a month into the job, I wake up, go to the dryer where my work shirt was to discover that the dryer shut off during the night.
Then, I notice that everything electrical is out. I discover in a panic that all of the power was out because my crappy roommate didn’t pay the bill!! Terrible time for that to happen but I had to go to work. I threw on a worn work shirt that was in my hamper that wasn’t messy, but of course, was WRINKLED. I thought I could tell him my story and he would be ok with it this time.
I was very wrong. I show up to work and he gets angry. He says stuff like, “What did I say?” And, “I thought I said don’t bother showing up?” Here’s the thing—it was an empty threat. I was the only person that worked there besides him and it was Friday. Friday business lunch was the busiest time of the week. He needed me there and I knew it.
But, I realized at that moment that I was done. So I helped him setup for the day. Prepped the dough, made some pre-mades, cut the vegetables and meats, did ALL of the prep work. It’s now 9:55, five minutes before we open. I asked, “Are we all prepped?” He said, “Yes,” and I say, “Great,” take my shirt off, throw it at him, and say, “You can take this shirt and shove it up your butt!”
And then I walk the heck out, shirtless and leaving him on his own for the busiest day of the week. He tried yelling something about telling my boss at my other job but I just got in my car and drove away It was very satisfying! I had to go back in a week later to pick up my final paycheck. He didn’t say anything to me.
I had a gigantic smile on my face.
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94. Time Off for Good Behavior
I was working for my second job as a welder and booked two weeks holiday off of work. I paid for a trip to Canada to see my (now) wife's family. The day before we were set to leave, my manager suddenly tells me that he's going to have to cancel my time off as he's accidentally booked three people off for the same weeks. I explained that I'd already paid out thousands for this holiday.
He then said I had booked mine last, so I'd have to lose it. I spoke with everyone on site, yet no one else had a pre-paid vacation booked. I went to HR and he was called in to explain. He came out with the same crap he had used before and HR just backed him up. I said ok, got up, and walked off site—with no intention of coming back.
I had 45 missed phone calls by the time that I had driven home, including one voicemail demanding that I get my butt back in or else I would be fired. I called the owner and explained that I had quit and my reason. I then turned my phone off and went on holiday without looking at it again until I got home two weeks later.
Then came the aftermath. I returned from the holiday to nearly 50 angry voicemails from my manager. They included telling me that I was in deep trouble and that I should watch my back when out in public. I sent them all to a solicitor and to the police in case anything happened, along with sending them all to my former boss.
He was dismissed and I was offered his job as I'd been there longer than most of the team had been. I didn't accept the offer, as I had wanted to become self-employed for a while and I felt that this was the push that I needed to finally go through with it.
95. Stake Out for an Unfaithful Nurse
Had a suspicion that the wife was seeing someone else. She had been acting "off" for about a week. We would be sitting on the couch and she would get text messages claiming to be from a female friend, yet she would always set the phone face down. A few nights later she tells me that she is going to go cover a shift for a nurse co-worker who just had a miscarriage and that she would be working late.
That night I woke up out of a dead sleep with my heart racing, with just a feeling that something was wrong. I snuck over to her side of the bed, took her phone, and went out into the living room to go through her text messages. Sure enough, she had detailed plans to meet up with some guy at a hotel to hook up.
I took photos of the texts with my phone as future evidence. I went back to bed, returned her phone, and just laid there contemplating my next steps. I finally just laid awake for about four hours until it was time for me to get up for work. I knew they were planning on meeting in the afternoon at the hotel, so when I arrived at work I told my boss that I needed a half-day and possibly a few days off afterward.
About an hour before their planned meetup time, I drove to my brother-in-law’s house. I let him know what was going on and asked to borrow his truck so that I could witness their arrival with my own eyes. He made me promise not to confront them. I showed up at the hotel parking lot and about 30 minutes later, they both arrive in his truck.
She was dressed in her work outfit. After they went in, I snuck around to his truck and deflated all his tires (not slashed because that's a bigger crime). She had carefully planned to cover her tracks. She took our two kids to the babysitter dressed in her scrubs to appear like she is going to work. Then drove her car to the parking garage to have him pick her up there, knowing I might drive by her work to see if her car was there.
I left the hotel, went back home, piled every picture we had ever taken together along with photos of our kids on the kitchen table. I packed a bag for myself and the girls and drove down to my hometown to stay with some friends. On the way there, I called the hotel and asked to be connected to the room under her name.
She answered and I don't remember exactly what I said, but something to the effect of "I know where you are and I know what you're doing..." She wasn't really phased until she heard our girls in the backseat laughing and signing. Then she broke down and begged me to come back. I told her we needed a few days away and that they deserve a better mother than her and hung up. She called me constantly and I just sent it straight to voicemail for the next few days.
96. What’s the Price of Loyalty These Days
The psycho camp director lost her mind on all of the lifeguards because we said we weren’t coming back next summer. The reality was, we all had legit reasons. I was going to take summer courses to graduate early, another guard was moving to university and was going to work in that city, another guard got offered a head guard spot at a camp near her house, etc.
Nothing that said we hated the current camp, just other things going on. We were told in a group meeting if we weren’t happy there, we could leave, and she would find other guards. Following Friday, she calls us all in to tell us what a great job we are doing and how happy everyone is going to the lake. Tuesday after that she calls us in individually to tell us we aren’t working hard enough, and she sees us slacking off all the time.
Lunchtime Tuesday all the guards walked into her office, told her to go screw herself in front of the owner of the camp, and we all piled into my Ford Focus and went for a beer. I went home that night to message from the camp owner asking us to give him a callback (we all chatted and realized he had called all of us). I called him the following day, told him what went down.
He asked us to reconsider and that he would give us a $5 an hour raise and report directly to him. We discussed it and agreed on the condition that the psycho director apologized to us at a collective staff meeting. She refused and had a tantrum. The camp owner fired her on the spot, escorted her off the property and we opened the lake back up. Screw you, Barb.
97. The Feature Attraction
I used to work at a movie theater in my hometown all throughout my high school years. When I moved away to start college, I was able to transfer to a theater owned by the same company as the one in my college town. The management at the new theater was absolutely terrible. They were demeaning towards the staff, they fired people for not selling rewards cards, and they scheduled mandatory all-hands meetings with less than a week’s notice.
At one such meeting, (at seven in the morning on a Sunday, by the way), some of my coworkers were starting to fall asleep. To wake them up, our managers forced all of us to stand up, do five jumping jacks, and sit back down. They did this every time that anyone fell asleep at any point for the duration of the three-hour meeting.
After around the fourth or fifth time that this occurred, I decided that I'd had enough. I didn't stand up for our "punishment" when everyone else did. My manager singled me out, asking why I refused to participate. I replied, "We're not children, don't treat us like we are." I was 20 years old at the time. My manager replied by suspending me for a month, right there, in front of everyone.
I promptly replied, "I’ll save you the trouble! I quit" and never went back. No regrets.
98. He Who Smelt It, Shouldn’t Be Dealt It
I was working retail right after high school. Minimum wage job ($5.15/hour) as a stockman for a retail company. When I took the job, I thought “stockman” was only dealing with the merchandise from the truck to the floor. Turns out, it was a code word for "Everything the managers, cashiers and people on the floor don't do", including janitorial work.
It was one Saturday, we were busy, and someone trashed the men's room. Clogged the toilet, then pooped in it again, and flushed it in the only stall we had. The walls, they had to have taken an ink pen, broke the ballpoint off and let it ooze out all over the walls. It was disgusting. I was the only stockman on duty because the store cut everyone's hours.
So, my manager told me that I had to clean that restroom up real fast and get back into the stockroom and do the rest of my other duties that day. I took a survey of that destroyed restroom and told the manager (he was a jerk anyway), "No. I don't think we have the tools to fix that toilet and I'm not doing that with my hands and if you tell me to do so I will quit."
He fired me for refusing to clean it up. The next day his boss, the store's actual manager (the one who fired me was just a co-manager) told me that such cleanups aren't store staff but should have been a call to a plumber and that the guy who fired me didn't actually have the authority to fire me. Then he asked me to come back to work because I was the only stockman scheduled for the weekend and no one else was either answering the phone or wanting to come into work. I didn't go back.
99. It’s That Time of the Month (for a Divorce)
Had a soldier stationed at Guantanamo Bay who met a local. Fell madly in love. They decided to get married so she could come with him back in the States once his tour was done. She was working on American dishes and was making spaghetti. He comes home from work one day, and she's making it. She puts the meat in, puts the canned sauce in, and then pulls an unlabeled bag out of the freezer and adds it to the sauce.
At this point in the session, she's hysterically crying with broken Spanglish. She's trying to explain she didn't know any better. Through the hysteria he informs me her mother and grandmother told her if she wanted to keep her man, she needed to put her menstrual blood in his food. It was so hard to keep my composure. I was trying to hard not to gag.
They both described they were madly in love, but he couldn't let it go. They ended up getting a divorce. Having done this for 14 years, I have found it 100% accurate that truth is stranger than fiction.
100. Too Little, Too Late
I was working as a general manager at a struggling restaurant—struggling despite excellent business, because the owners would do stupid things like take trips to Italy on the company dime to source the "perfect" panini press. They also wouldn't staff properly; I was the only waiter ever there, open to close, six days a week, on top of handling phone orders, inventory, and other managerial duties. I was wildly overworked, but I sucked it up because the base pay was good, plus tips.
However, to fund their lavish "business" trips, costs had to be cut at the store. They decided to do this by bumping me down to minimum wage for tipped employees—effectively cutting my salary to 1/10 of its previous level. They were also too chicken to tell me until I got my new teeny paycheck and questioned the mistake. "Oh yeah haha, forgot to mention that blah blah cost-cutting blah valued team member please work with us through this difficult time."
I had worked for two weeks at this new lower rate without my knowledge. Pretty sure that's illegal, but hey, a lot of illegal things go on in the restaurant industry. That's not when I rage quit, though....a couple of hours later, I'm fuming and have decided that I can't work for the lower rate, so now I’m just waiting for the perfect chance to give my notice.
They called in a delivery guy who was fired a few weeks before, and they talk about hiring him to start doing our Facebook posts and handing out flyers around town. Whatever. Then I hear them offer him close to my old salary as "Promotions Manager"! What??? I was basically running the place for $2.13/hr and you're offering this dude almost $20/hr to walk up and down the street saying "Eat at (Name)"?
And yet, it gets worse. They bring up our negative Yelp reviews and this guy suggests asking friends to post positive ones. The boss starts laughing and says "Better not ask our waitress to post one, it'll be all boohoo don't eat there, I can't pay my rent this month because they cut my pay without telling wahhhh!" I don’t think I was supposed to hear that, but I was five feet away, so of course I did.
I RAGED! I quit on the spot, told them to screw their job, and wished them good luck keeping the place open without me. They quickly realized I was right, as neither of them knew how to do more than pick up the takings once a week. They begged me not to quit. They were so desperate that they sat there for half an hour and allowed me to bluntly tell them exactly what kind of huge idiots I thought they were in excruciating detail.
I went on and on as my rage burned, and they just quietly listened, nodding and apologizing. Once I had cursed myself back into calmness, I walked out, 30 minutes before the dinner rush began, leaving them with an unstaffed floor and no clue how to even open the cash register. God, they were morons. I loved that they actually listened to me telling them exactly how stupid they were. No repercussions on my side, as the restaurant industry isn't known for checking references.
The place closed down about 18 months later, and I was surprised it even made it that long.
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