There are few things that are as agonizing as being stuck at a job you absolutely hate. But not everyone is willing to put up with their status quo—as it turns out, some things are more valuable than a paycheck to many of us out there—and some bad bosses have had to learn that the hard way. Here are 50 incredible examples of quitting stories that people out there have experienced.
1. Food For Thought
Back when I worked at Taco Bell, I also had another job as a bar back. The bar back job was paying me enough that I didn’t need the Taco Bell job; I only stayed for the extra money. Anyway, I previously never asked for time off at Taco Bell, but I told them at least a month in advance that I needed to be off for the Super Bowl. I reminded them every week leading up.
What they ended up doing got me so heated—they put me on the schedule for that day anyway. I told them I could not work that day and that I would not be there. They wouldn’t budge and left me on the schedule. So on the day of the game, I did not show up to work, but I did go in to order food. They were like, “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be working.” I said, “I quit. Let me get a Mexican pizza combo, and add some sour cream.”
The manager actually made my food and gave it to me. She was not happy, though.
2. Exit Survey
A few years ago, I left my job in the industry that I went to school for, after having worked for ten years at a truly terrible and toxic place. I was there for almost three years, and one month into the job, I realized what a mistake it was to work at this place. Sadly, the job was a little specialized and niche. And on top of that, I had moved across the country for the position. So, even though the place was a toxic mess and I knew it, I did not want to just say "screw it" and quit, either.
It took me the better part of three years to find another job, but eventually, I did find an opening in the same industry and in the same city, too. The best part? It was known to be the polar opposite of the place where I was working at the time—a good work environment, a positive place, a butt-kicker in the industry. Basically, I thought I was moving from a nightmare to heaven in my business, and I didn't even have to move anywhere to take the job.
So, once I had accepted the new position and was about to give the old place my two weeks’ notice, I was feeling pretty good for the first time in ages. It just so happened that my current job, on top of all of their other nonsense, was going through a "management shake-up" and some departments were answering to new managers across the entire company.
This meant that every employee was having these "sit-downs" with their new department heads to "talk about issues, workflow, etc." And a lot of my co-workers were terrified or hesitant about these meetings. They certainly did not feel comfortable to be open and candid and honest about the real "goings-on" at this miserable place. But, not me.
I could not wait for this opportunity. When my time came, I went into my new "manager’s" office. I should note that most of the managers at this place were a big part of the problem, and this new manager of mine was no exception. I strode in confidently and with purpose. He sat there, initially with this poop-eating grin, and one leg over his knee.
He probably expected more of the same that he had undoubtedly been receiving so far. A lot of good-intentioned but miserable and cautious people had surely just been saying "All is well." His grin subsided once I spent the next hour telling him everything that I truly thought about that place, about the people who worked there, and everything in between.
I was polite but firm. I did not let emotion guide my words and start flipping tables, but I also was very forthright about every single thing I could think of. It probably was not going to make any difference or change anything. But what did I care? I was leaving! I also kept in mind that there were still some good people that worked there and I wanted to say what I didn't think they felt comfortable saying, but needed to be said.
After literally an hour of me going through everything I could think of, he sat there with his mouth open and a legal pad full of notes. He then asked if there was anything else he needed to know. I stood up, shook his hand, and said "Actually, yes. I have accepted another position at this other place, so you can consider this my two weeks’ notice." And then I walked out of his office. It felt incredible.
3. Thinking Inside The Box
This was relayed to me by one of my buddies. Way back when we were still in high school, my friend's coworker was getting fed up with the supermarket they worked in. It was a few towns over in a not-so-nice area and was right off the highway, so that made it super busy and a lot of out-of-town commuters would shop there. This guy was going away to college and hated management.
On his last day, a woman walked up to his line and tried to browbeat him into taking a bunch of expired coupons. He told her he needed to check with his supervisor, but instead, he did something super strange—he slowly pulled out a Jack-in-the-Box toy from under his till and methodically placed it on the scanner. Then, he started cranking the thing while giving her a creepy smile.
When it finally popped, he looked her in the eye and just said: "Yeah, he said no." She flipped out and screamed for a manager while he just cracked up, took off his smock, and walked out.
4. Let’s Not Point Fingers
Back in the '90s, I was working in a warehouse with a guy who had lost his middle finger in a construction accident many years before. So when I knew him, he had a prosthetic middle finger. Our boss was a guy who would look forward to finding any reason to yell at any of my coworkers, even if it was not their job or fault.
So early one morning, the boss asked that fellow to use the big forklift to get some stuff from high up. The guy apologized and said that he couldn't, as he did not have a license to use it. Doing so could make him liable for damages and such. The boss's face immediately turned red. He started screaming at the dude, who in turn just listened for a while with a blank look on his face. Then, once the yelling subsided, he removed his prosthetic and handed it to the boss.
The boss took the prosthetic and asked the guy what the heck he was doing. Without missing a beat, he replied: "I’m giving you the finger," and then he just walked out without another word. And we never saw that legend again.
5. Long Term Goals
Eight years ago, I quit my job during my performance review. It was awesome. I had gotten my license to be a mortgage broker while working for a large automation company for 10 years. I started doing mortgages part-time and had a plan to leave after one year if things were going well for me with this side gig. Five months in, I was starting to find my groove.
I had just had a really good previous month, but I still didn’t have any intention of quitting my day job. Well, during my next performance review, my manager told me I was doing really well, and wanted to know what my aspirations were for the next six months. I don’t know what hit me, but I thought about it for a second...and then I blurted out some rather surprising words: “Well, Frank, I gotta be honest. My goal for the next six months is to not be here anymore.”
He was so confused, so I told him what I was doing on the side, and he was super supportive. I told him I didn’t see things slowing down on that front, and that if I was doing mortgages full time, I probably could have made enough money to have quit already. And he said, “Well, why don’t you?” So I did. I thanked him for being so understanding and supportive.
I told him I would use my remaining vacation to cover my two weeks and emailed him my formal notice the next day. I then shook his hand and left. I called my wife from the parking lot, shaking like a leaf, and surprisingly, she also was super supportive even though I hadn’t run this major decision by her before acting on it.
Shout out to her for being so amazing! Fast forward eight years, and it was the best decision I ever made. I love helping people, I love math, and I love trying to come up with ways to pay the bank as little as possible for my clients. Plus, I have way more financial freedom now, and I get to control my own schedule. Even though my former boss was a nice guy, I know I made the right choice.
6. Breakfast In Bed
I used to work for a terribly cheap software company in the early days of the internet. You’ll recall hearing about all the perks being lavished on dot-com employees back then. This was not that kind of place. We were expected to put in crazy extra hours with the only additional perk being an unspecified bonus payment at the end of the year.
These bonus payments always amounted to getting paid far less than minimum wage for your overtime hours. At some point, management determined that having our weekly status meeting during the workday was hurting our productivity. Their solution was completely uncalled for—they decided to have the weekly meeting on Thursday in the hour before work starts!
We grumbled, but we all showed up on Thursday mornings expecting at least some bagels or donuts. Nothing. After a month of this and feeling generally unappreciated, my coworker had enough. The next Thursday, we showed up for the 8 am meeting and saw a big tent set up in the parking lot, with tables and a catered breakfast buffet.
My coworker was there with a huge smile, telling everyone to grab some food and enjoy themselves. We were all giddy with delight. Management did not join us, but also did not say anything about us all being 30 minutes late for the meeting. After the meeting, this coworker went straight to HR and handed in his two weeks. They asked him to leave the premises immediately.
As he walked out the front door, he yelled a loud Braveheart style “Freedom!” Pretty legendary.
7. That’s Not What I Ordered!
I managed a sandwich shop in college for a terrible owner, but he at least put me in charge of hiring. I hired this guy that was covered in tattoos and had piercings because he was really chill, lived within walking distance, and had experience working at a deli. He checked all the boxes that matter for job performance, so it was an easy decision for me.
But the owner did not feel that way, and he was suspicious of the guy right from the outset. On his very first day on the job, the owner made a horrific accusation—he claimed the new hire had swiped a freaking Gatorade from the refrigerator. He was on lunch and had made himself a sandwich, which we were allowed to do. Nevertheless, the owner confronted him about taking the Gatorade.
So, the guy threw his sandwich down at the owner’s shoes and walks out. He texted me later and said, "You’re a cool guy, but that other dude is a freaking jerk. Don't tell him, but before I left, I stuck my stuff in his gas tank and took a pee." As hilarious as this was, I chose not to tell anyone about that last part...until now.
8. Chain Reaction
I worked for a company that planned a huge annual event. I was asked to take over the role of someone who was retiring. It seemed straightforward enough, but it ended up being a total nightmare. She proceeded to give me a moist, leaking poop bag of mish-mashed instructions and a task list of very unlawful things she was doing because she didn't want to make anyone mad. I got written up for not doing things in a timely manner and asking too many questions.
This then started a waterfall in which I got written up any time anything bad happened in the office. Power goes out during a storm? Write up. Does the building need to be re-mortared? Write up. The pollen count is high? Write up. Noisy road work happening outside the office? Write up. So, I very professionally and calmly explained that this job was not what I had expected.
It was supposed to be an HR position. I calmly expressed that, under the circumstances, I thought it best that we part ways. I gave my two weeks’ notice and wrote up all the notes on all the things I had been doing. I attempted to train everyone on what I was doing, but they all dismissed my efforts because I was clearly an absolute imbecile who couldn't even prevent our admin's allergies from flaring up.
On my last day, I packed up my office, said thank you, went home, and drank a ton. But I would end up having the last laugh. Within the next month, literally, everyone I had been working with rage quit at one point or another, because they couldn't do my work without me. I had been given such convoluted nonsense instructions by my predecessor that no one else could figure out how to untangle things to make the processes work.
I handed over all the handwritten notes I was given, so they knew I wasn't making it harder. It was clear that I had inherited that mess. Then, they all got written up for not doing things in a timely manner. They quickly saw where things were headed for them, decided it was a joke, and left. The owner ended up losing her mind about it and selling the company.
And that's the story of how I indirectly took down an entire business by quitting calmly and professionally.
9. Just Before The Deadline
I was working for this huge American company that had a lot of trouble making decent plans and keeping promises. I work in IT projects, but due to a vacancy, I was asked to pick up a commercial role. I refused. Then, it turned out it wasn’t a question, it was a demand. I had until Tuesday to give the wanted answer. But there was an important detail that they didn't know—I was already working out contract details with another employer, which luckily got sorted out by that Monday.
Come Tuesday morning, an angry manager called me into his office, stating that I didn’t reply to the request in time and that I was in serious trouble as a result. I then had my Hollywood moment by being able to silently slide my resignation paper towards him as an answer. This only got under his skin even more, but alas…
10. Too Little, Too Late
I once worked for a landscaping company. The owner was cheap, with a bad habit of biting off more than he could chew and trying to run projects with nowhere near enough people. More than once, my boss and I saved him from getting fined for projects not being completed on time. The breaking point was him taking an absolutely massive homeowner’s association on as a new client.
We were barely treading water as it was, and then he dumped that surprise on us. It took all of two weeks in that awful homeowner’s association situation for us to realize that this wasn't worth it. My boss and I quit two days apart from one another, and we both immediately went to work for another company. But the story didn’t end there…
The best part is, a month later, he called us both and begged us to come back, because all of his projects were woefully behind schedule and he was losing clients left and right. We both told him no, and that he should have hired more help like we had told him to do on several occasions. He swore at us and hung up. Screw you, Brad.
11. This Train Is Bound For Glory
I was severely underpaid and tried for two years to have constructive conversations with management about it. But unfortunately, the problem wasn’t going anywhere and it generally led to a lot of unhappiness from me. When I handed my two months’ notice in, I was asked, “Is there anything we can do to get you to stay?” I was so proud of my response. told my manager that if he had a time machine, then he could go back two years and listen to me then.
The company then tried to claim that I was liable for a large chunk of money because they had paid for training. The amount they were asking was in the thousands, and they were threatening via email to take it from my next two months’ pay. So I verbally agreed until two weeks before leaving, and then asked them in writing for proof of these costs.
They were unable to provide it. The cherry on top occurred during my exit interview—I made the HR manager write down that HR needed to brush up on their training course funding rules.
12. Name-Ception
I work in the field of recruitment, where our job is to find potential employees for companies that are looking to hire. Whenever we make a new placement, we ring the bell and write it up on the whiteboard for a round of applause from the entire office. This one guy on our team filled a job with—get this—himself. Then, what he did next was epic—he then rang the bell, wrote up his own name on the board, and mic dropped the marker as he walked straight out into his new job.
13. I’ll Check My Schedule
I had been asking for a raise for months and kept getting excuses from my bosses. I finally put my two weeks’ notice in, citing the fact that I would need the raise we had been talking about in order to continue my employment there. Two weeks went by and, on one of my last days there, management sent out a company-wide email, making up some fake excuse as to why they were losing me.
I immediately wanted to email back and plead my case to everyone in the email chain, but instead, I devised a better plan of my own. Having my own company email address at the time and understanding how email works in general, I decided to schedule an email to go out from my address a day or so after my last day. This email would explain my real reason for leaving and shed a bit of light on the low-wage issue that ran rampant throughout the company.
Just as I had planned, the email went out and upper management lost their minds. They even went as far as to accuse one of my co-workers of sending the email out on my behalf. It was pretty apparent that they just simply didn't understand how email scheduling works, which I have to admit made me smile a bit. When all was said and done, this little kerfuffle was an incredibly satisfying experience for me.
It also led to them taking a look at and improving the wages of many of the workers there. A win-win situation in my book.
14. You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit!
This one is satisfying from the employer's perspective. Years and years ago, I worked at a hospital. One of the nurses was horrible and a danger to her patients, but the union had her back and she wasn't as easy to fire as you might think. Management and fellow nurses, knowing what a danger she was, spent months on write-ups, formal warnings, and the like.
We finally got the process done where even the union knew it was best that she went. She was going to receive several weeks’ worth of paid time off, and a reasonable-sized severance package. She came into the meeting and dropped an epic surprise—a signed letter stating that she quit, just so she could "have the last word." The manager quickly grabbed the letter and signed it too, making it official.
They waived her notice period and she walked out, never to be seen again, and getting paid for only the final two weeks rather than several months’ worth of pay.
15. You Had That In The Bag
I went to tell the store manager about my two weeks’ notice and, coincidentally, before I could even get to it, he let me know that they had accidentally been paying me as a cashier instead of as a bag boy for an entire year and they were going to start paying me the correct rate (about a dollar less per hour) as of my next pay period. I was like “Okay, well here’s my two weeks’ notice. Bye!”
16. What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks
One of my friends' first jobs was working the drive-thru at a fast-food place. He wanted to quit with a splash, so he set up an impressive scenario with another friend of ours, who had a car. The friend, posing as a customer, went to the drive-thru, ordered, and drove up to the window. My friend, the employee, started to ask: "You want any ketch-" (voice cracks), "Want any ket-," then he broke down fake sobbing.
The guy in the car then reached out through the window and said, "It's okay, man. It's okay. Just go. Come with me." And my friend literally took off his name tag and headset, climbed through the drive-thru window into his buddy's car, and they drove off. They planned it out down to the last detail, and from what I’m told it went down flawlessly when the time came.
17. The Power Of Love
On a slightly different note, a female friend of mine had a bit of a romantic thing for her boss, and kind of felt like it was mutual, even though he had never said or done anything to confirm it. They worked together for almost a year, then he handed in his notice. And the day after he’d left and had a goodbye party, he called her and asked her out.
That’s classy. But here's the greatest twist of all—they’re now married. I like to think of this as a different sort of satisfying quitting story because, in a sense, he gave up his job for love. And he seems to be happy with this choice.
18. No, For Real!
I really liked my supervisor, but I hated my job. He was the only thing that made it bearable. Eventually, I got a new job and handed him my written two weeks’ notice. Just my luck, it was April 1st, so he didn’t believe me. Every day after that, I’d remind him how many days I had left, yet he never took it seriously. I’m told he was quite surprised when I stopped showing up!
19. Teaching Them A Lesson
I was teaching in a private school. At one point, I got promoted and was given way more responsibility. These new responsibilities included training staff, coordinating assessments, etc. All of this was on top of my regular duties. I asked for a €200 per month pay increase to cover the final 12 months of the contract.
The boss refused to give me this raise, citing budgetary restrictions. Instead, she gave me another offer that basically felt like an egg to my face—€100, which still left me earning less than some of the unqualified teachers who she employed that just so happened to be friendly with her. She wished me luck on my return to my own country. I wished her luck with recruitment, as I knew a standard job search for that position actually cost €2,500.
The most satisfying part was passive-aggressively telling her I hope she can find someone as good as me to work for that little again, knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to. Not only did they fly three different applicants out, costing the school well over €1,500, but my replacement left after just six months, so they had to recruit all over again.
Meanwhile, I went to work for a different school across town for a significant pay raise and an easier job, too. Thanks, new boss!
20. Back So Soon?
I briefly worked at a local Burger King back when I was in high school. My manager was extremely rude. He yelled and talked down to staff regularly. On my third day on the job, he started cussing and screaming at me about something extremely petty. I honestly can’t even remember what, it was so insignificant. I told him to go screw himself, then threw my name tag down and quit.
But there was a problem that I didn't foresee—I had gotten a ride to work with my best friend who also worked there. So I had to sit on the curb across the street for hours until my buddy got off of work. The manager stared daggers at me through the window all night, but my homie laughed and clapped through the window when the manager wasn’t looking. 10 times out of 10, I would do that again.
What kind of jerk feels the need to power trip on 15-year-old kids working at a fast food joint?
21. Be Careful What You Wish For
I worked as a product designer in a company that consisted of the owner and a 20-person staff. This was back in 2019, and I was making a total of $42K a year, in New York City. For those who don’t know a lot about New York prices, that is far from enough to live comfortably on these days. So I was barely getting by, but oh well.
I shrugged it off because it was my first job; plus the excitement of moving after college, making new friends, etc. I started going above and beyond to impress everyone, to the point where even during my downtime I would take on the responsibilities from other departments and manage the work of this other guy in addition to my own.
Then, in 2020, the big worldwide shutdown hit, and my boss furloughed everyone for about three or four months. Eventually, we returned to work, but with significantly reduced hours. My salary dropped from 42K to 36K, and that’s before taxes. One day, my boss came around and asked me to take on some extra work because some people didn’t want to return.
Fine, it would be a good experience for me, right? But then, my boss took it even further—he came and asked me to take on the responsibilities of the guy I was taking care of previously, which is purely a machine operating job that takes an entire day at each run. I said I had no official training on a giant industrial machine of that kind and that dealing with this machine would mean that I would have to allocate less time to my actual job duties.
His tone quickly changed to condescending, as he told me that training is expensive and that I should just “press the big red button” if something happens and not make a fuss about it. Well, I refused, because I was not going to risk my fingers for his lack of company financials. Then he proceeded to call me into a meeting room and started saying some nasty stuff.
Stuff like: “You should be grateful to even have a job,” “There are millions of people at my door to replace you,” “You are not a critical thinker, initiator, or really that important to the company in the big picture,” “If you aren’t happy, you can just leave,” basically humiliating and scolding me for not saying “yes” to him, in front of an employee that he is friends with, despite my months and months of effort for helping him out for every one of his stupid requests.
I didn’t argue with him at all, but asked “Do you really mean what you say?” to which he replied “Yeah.” The next morning, I handed my computer and my resignation letter to HR. I then left the company and went home to pack my things. The boss soon starts frantically calling and texting me, non-stop for the next four days.
At first, he asked me to think about it and such. Then, he did the unexpected—eventually, he begged me to reconsider my decision while continuing to say stuff like “Be humble,” “This will be worse for you than it will be for me,” “I won’t write you a recommendation letter for leaving without two weeks’ notice.” What the actual heck dude? Regardless, I never argued.
I just said, “This is my final decision, thank you.” My favorite part of the whole experience was when he learned about my resignation for the first time and called me. That exchange went something like this. Boss: “I just got a call from HR. Are you being serious?” Me: “Yes. You told me to quit if I wasn’t happy, so I did.” Boss: “I didn’t mean it like that. What am I supposed to do without you giving me a two-week notice with all the projects pending?”
Me: “Well, you said that there are a million people trampling each other for a chance to get my job and that I don’t matter that much. So I think you will be fine.” Boss: “I was just trying to teach you some humility.” Well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. This guy tried to intimidate me into submission, but I knew my worth.
It's now one year later, and I am making twice as much money as I made in that company, at a new job with great benefits and an awesome boss and team. No regrets at all.
22. Worst Employee Ever?
I used to work at Sports Authority. We hired for seasonal positions at times, and this one guy came in to work the back room stocking area. He had access to every piece of store merchandise right off of the truck. No one could have expected that he had bad intentions. He ended up swiping over $500 worth of stuff. He also slept with one of the cashiers in his car after work, and then the next day, he cussed out our manager and quit on the spot because the manager told him to stop texting while on the clock.
23. A Hockey Fight
I worked at an NHL arena as a cook and runner for the cashiers. The boss's son was also a cashier, and so he thought he could just harangue you if you didn't prioritize his customers over the other cashiers’. At the second intermission during a Game Seven in the playoffs, he hit me hard after I brought someone else their materials before him.
I did not take well to that. When I felt him hit me, I turned around and punched him right in the face. He was a big lad, so his head went back and slammed into the concrete wall. In other words, I knocked him out cold in front of a crowd of more than 100 people. I was escorted to the arena’s holding center and was told by the supervisor that I would be charged for assaulting her son.
Security footage was then produced, showing the son hitting me and the co-workers repeatedly over the course of the playoffs. As a result, charges were not laid. It was clear that I was leaving the building permanently after I was let go, and I received roaring applause from my co-workers as I was escorted out of the building.
24. Out Of This World
My dad hated his job, so he just decided to walk into the boss' office during lunch one day and say the most hilarious thing ever: "I have been contacted by the mothership. I have to return to my home planet. Thank you for the job and for teaching me about the ways of the earthlings." He then shook the guy's hand and left the building. They never contacted him again.
25. Gone Without A Trace
A coworker of mine got really upset one day at work. This was at a large multinational company. He went home and never returned to the office; never called, nothing. He just stopped going in to work. He expected at least a call from his manager after a couple of days, but nothing.
Four months later, his manager asked me if I'd seen him at all recently. I said nope and added that I thought he had quit. But the crazy part is, it was another two months before they finally stopped paying him. It was pretty epic. And for those of you wondering, this was in Ontario, Canada, where there is no law by which the company can force you to return funds that were paid out by mistake.
26. A Match Made In Heaven
I started my career as a copywriter for an internet marketing agency. It was small and I was inquisitive, so my role increased significantly as we ramped up and hit the country’s big lists of fastest-growing companies. No raises though, despite the fact that I was the only analyst for over 200 clients. Eventually, the company president told me they couldn't find someone else to do just one of my jobs for less than six figures.
So, I decided to make things fair—I started coming in half the time. Eventually, they got tired of that and told me to come in full time, or else they would part ways. But I didn't come back full time. Instead, because they had royally upset one of their clients and didn’t have anyone else they could rely on, they reassigned me to head up a project with them.
I accepted, then took a two-week vacation before informing them that I was going to work for that client permanently. And because of a technicality, I was able to get three months’ salary from them after quitting. It was pretty epic.
27. Getting The Message
I quit my most recent job. I knew I was done with them and I was just waiting to collect my last check before I quit. So I planned to suck it up for a few more days and pretend that everything was still great. But then, I got a text from the owner's son on a Friday afternoon as I was going home from our workday. Its contents surprised me: “Before you go home, please come by the shop because I need you to sign a write-up for taking extra time on your break.”
Seriously, man? Who does that? I texted him back and said I was already home and that I’d see him on Monday. I knew right at that moment that there was no going back on my decision to quit in the near future. So I waited until Sunday night, which happened to be Valentine’s Day, just before they normally texted out the weekly scheduling along with what jobs we would be at, who we were working with, etc.
Minutes before the schedule was to be sent out, I texted the owner’s son and said, “Oh, by the way, don’t worry about scheduling me anymore.” I left it at that, and he never responded to me directly. But a few minutes later, he sent the following message out to the employee group chat: “Some jerk just decided to quit and ruined this week’s scheduling, so everybody please come down to the shop right away so that we can move some things around.”
I just know that everyone was enraged at being asked to come in on short notice, and on a Sunday no less. And I guess the guy forgot that I was still in the group chat because I got to see that message come in and enjoy the fallout directly. Shortly after he sent that message, I hit the group chats with my final blow: I sent a laughing emoji, followed by the middle finger. And then I left the chat.
This place was a family-run business that regularly promised us bonuses (which we never got) and raises (which we also never got). I waited a year before asking for a raise since I never missed any days without a week’s notice, nor did I ever show up late or have to go home early for any reason. I was the best employee they had, and everyone knew it.
I never received a single customer complaint in all my time working there, and I always had the tools and materials needed. So screw them for telling me to “give it another three months and we will see,” then writing me up one day because I needed an extra 15 minutes to rest on a big demo job.
28. Mamma Mia!
A friend of mine worked at a local pizza place. The owner was a total scumbag, changing timesheets that people had submitted to screw them out of money and all that fun stuff. Unfortunately, it was the only work that my friend could find at the time and he was saving up for tools. He went to farrier school but needed to buy his own setup.
Once he made enough money to afford his tools, he proceeded with his epic exit. He walked into the pizza place, opened a can from their fridge, chugged it, smashed it on the ground, and said: “Consider this is my two weeks’ notice.” He then just started making pizzas like it was any other workday. No one had the guts to say anything or call him out for the stunt. It was hilarious.
29. Over The Counter
It was so satisfying to me when I handed in my notice to my boss. She offered me a raise because she knew full well that I was aiming for better-paid positions, and I really think she thought I'd go for it. I didn't even hesitate in saying no, and she was clearly taken aback. It was the first time in my career that I've ever said no to more money.
But I had no problem at all in doing it this time, because I knew I'd have much better opportunities at the place where I was headed to next, so I was just thinking of the bigger picture. Not trying to blow my own trumpet, but they were screwed without me. I felt that way going into my departure, but their reaction made that all the more clear.
A few days after quitting, I received a call from the manager of the whole service. She said she'd like to offer me even more money to stay. My immediate one-up was offering me an extra £1,500 per annum, which I make at my new job already. The service manager didn't say how much more money she was offering, but left it relatively open.
For context, she was the budget holder and can pretty much offer whatever amount she wants (within reason). I was a bit intrigued by this development, but unless she offered n extra £4k at least, I wouldn't have noticed any difference from a monetary point of view. The thing is, I saw how much money was spent at the company, and where it was wasted.
My job involved observing the company’s financials, and they were pretty horrific. I'm talking tens of thousands per year going to absolute waste. I realized that I had the leverage to ask for an entirely new role to be created for me and to receive a lot more money, but I wanted to be respected and to be listened to when I voiced my concerns. They never did that when I was there, and the problems just kept on persisting.
I know my worth. I strongly feel that I'm worthy of not being reliant on idiots of their level for my entire livelihood.
30. This One Is Just Unhinged
At some point in the last century, a very young technician was sitting in a now long-forgotten meeting. The IT manager in the meeting was a sanguine guy who started with the first mainframe. The IT engineer must have started about the same time. Anyway, the manager got angry about a point that was made and he basically threatened the engineer, saying: "And if you continue like that, you can take the door!"
What the engineer did next was nothing short of awe-inspiring. He calmly folded up his notes, stood up, unhinged the door, and in a mild-mannered, completely serious voice, asked where the manager would like it. It was hilarious, but also extremely awkward and cringe-worthy. I never wanted to leave a meeting so badly in my life!!! I switched companies soon after, for some reason...
31. On The Road Again
I was driving to work one day, but got stuck in traffic. I called my boss to let him know that I would be late. He said fine. But then, when I got to work, I was met with shocking behavior from him—he started yelling at me. He said: “If you pull something like that ever again, you will be fired.” He didn’t believe that I was stuck in traffic caused by a wreck, even though the crash that caused the delay was all over the news.
Coincidentally, the next day, there was another wreck on the same road. I quickly realized that I would be late again, so I just turned around and went home. My boss called me, yelling at me again. “Where the heck are you?” I told him I got stuck in traffic again and reminded him that he had told me if I “pulled that again,” then I would be fired.
He started saying “Oh come on, I didn’t mean it! Can you please come in?” Nope. Bye!
32. Next Time, Try “Sorry For Your Loss”
I once read a story about how some guy’s father passed, so he informed his boss that he would not be working overtime that day. Again, he didn’t even take the day off. He just chose to spend some of the rest of his day grieving rather than doing extra work. The next thing he knew, he got a text from his manager, telling him to “stop playing the victim” and that he was “letting his coworkers down.”
The dude read that and that was his final straw. He immediately responded, "Mail me my check and never talk to me again. I quit." Pretty satisfying just reading it.
33. Getaway Car
Something like three weeks into the beginning of the first global lockdown, a guy who was about 24 years old looked like he had just been run over by a train or something. He was a McDonald’s employee delivering me curb-side food. Due to the way he looked, I asked him if everything was okay. His response was chilling: he told me that working at that franchise was a living hell.
Apparently, they only had three employees running the whole restaurant, and one manager who was constantly chewing the others out. This was all before the pay went up and before the national government assistance payments began, so he was only making something like eight dollars an hour and he had no other source of income or job prospects.
Right as he handed me food and finished telling me how bad things were inside, the manager came storming out and aggressively cursing at him. He yelled until he was red in the face for the guy to move faster. I knew I had to save him, so I asked the guy if he wanted an easy security job at our factory for $14.00 an hour. He said yes, but he had no access to transportation.
I told him to just hop in and I'd drive him, as I was heading into work now anyway and my boss needed another guy to work. Without another word, he jumped into my car like something out of a '90s action movie. And we took off into the sunset. He never even told the boss he was leaving. I got him hired that same day, and he began the new job that night.
He then went back to that McDonald's to recruit the other two kids who he had been working with there. Now they all work security, where they mostly can sleep all they want at the post, as long as they make sure doors are all locked at night.
34. One Thing At A Time
One of my previous employers decided to hire a new manager for our side of the company. On paper, he seemed perfect for the job. However, in reality, he was a Grade-A jerk. He decided in his wisdom that we should all restrict ourselves to our specific roles and never comment on matters that weren’t our direct concern. Great idea, right? No.
Having worked there for years, I was multi-skilled in various departments. After all, I had worked in almost all of them at one point or another. I had to let the other supervisors know that I was now unavailable for help with any issues they may have. Then, one day, they had a massive screw-up on a piece of equipment that is older than my parents.
They were waiting around for an outsourced company to come and repair it. When someone mentioned to Mr. Jerk that I had always done the repairs on this particular antique machine in the past, he came looking for me and told me to get it fixed. I said sorry, but that's a great big nope from me. "What?" I gave him the biggest in-your-face reply ever: “As per your instructions,” we are all to stick to our role and my role is to supervise this other department.
He tells me: “We have a rush order, so you either fix it or go home.” I reply: “Can I get that in writing before I leave?” He stomps off quickly and fires off an email, telling me that I am being suspended for failing to carry out an order. I emailed back and said: “Thanks for the confirmation. You can take this as my formal notice that I quit.” I CC'd HR and all the big bosses into my reply, and then went home feeling great.
35. A Parting Gift
I walked into work one day and handed my boss a “Sorry for your loss” greeting card. Baffled, he asked me what this was for, considering that he hadn’t lost anyone recently. I replied: “You’re about to,” and handed him my two weeks’ notice. You should have seen the look on his face. It was a day I’ll never forget.
36. Having Some Fun With Them
Someone who I'm six or seven degrees removed from won like $10 million in some lottery or something. Good for him, because he hated his job; but instead of just quitting, he started standing up to every jerk he had ever met at the company. He was hoping to get fired in some spectacular, viral fashion. But HR was onto his scheme—they found out how toxic some other employees were and fired them instead.
Morale in the office legitimately did improve after that, but someone had to fill the void left by one of the terminated managers. So, this guy was offered a promotion. He rejected the promotion and rage quit over the fact that nobody was willing to fire him. I think the moral of this story is that when you win the lottery, don't be a hero and try to get fired.
Instead, just be a mature adult, hand in your two weeks’ notice, and blast the heck out of your ex-employer on Glassdoor or some other online review board.
37. Reading Material
When I quit one of my jobs in the past, I left behind several pages of screenshots and explanations about the behavior of a colleague who had tormented me day in and out. He essentially gaslighted me and my immediate colleagues all the time, and it started to cause me a lot of mental distress. Since most of it was via Slack messages, I just wrote out detailed explanations of how his behavior was impacting us and provided lots of documented examples of how he was screwing with our work.
I gave it to HR, and also emailed copies to this guy’s boss and several other people. Here's the surprising part—it apparently led to several C-level meetings. And six months later, the guy quit because “He didn’t have the same freedoms anymore” and couldn’t handle being held to account for his awful behavior. Not the best way to quit ever, but it was definitely my favorite way to quit.
38. A Long Vacation
Working at Walmart, after a couple of years of being a mindless employee, I saved up my two-week vacation and put in for it. I told them I was seeing my family. On the last day of work, before my two-week vacation, I put in my two weeks’ notice. It took the manager a minute to do the math. Her: “So...you’re not coming back?” Me: “No. No, I’m not. Take care!”
39. Earning His Bread And Butter
I worked for Panera Bread for a few years after high school. I ran the line, back of the house, inventory/truck delivery management, and any other position you could think of besides being an actual manager. They had me train people but tried to not give me the raise that normally went with that. I got frustrated and refused to train another person until I got at least a 25¢ raise.
They essentially said, “Whatever, I guess,” and so I got an additional dollar an hour for doing inventory stuff. So a step in the right direction, but then I found out I was now getting paid $12 per hour when the general manager was hiring new people with absolutely no experience at any job for $14 per hour. And those were for entry-level roles.
I told the boss that I wanted a raise to coincide with the new employees’ wages, and I was told that I didn't deserve a raise because I didn't work hard enough. So I went to the dumpsters out back, got some air, went inside, made some free food for myself and my brother, knocked on the office door, and I gave the boss my final words: "Hey, what’s up? Just thought you should know I quit."
I never looked back, even when he called me a week later asking me to come back. My response was "Sorry, what was that? I can't hear you over this new $17 per hour pay."
40. Creative Energy
During her spare time, one of my old coworkers developed a tracking system for vendors. Then, our workplace found out about it, and the boss said to her: “How about [so and so] supervises your progress from now on when you work on this thing you created?” She replied, “How about I quit?” And left that same day.
41. A Taste Of His Own Medicine
I worked for a tyrant. He hired me to be his right-hand man after his kids quit working there. He treated everyone like garbage but was cordial to me at first. However, I always knew the other side of him was coming for me eventually. I had taken this job for half my former pay due to the terrible economy of 2008. Eventually, I found something else and was ready to give notice.
He came in that morning and said “Your six-month review is tomorrow, so be prepared.” I said, “Actually, little fellow, your six-month review is right now.” He turned five shades of red. I hit him hard in the chest, threw my keys at him, and walked out never to return. It was epic ripping that jerk apart while he stood there and took it.
I don't think anyone ever gave him the perspective on himself that I gave him that day.
42. No Time Like The Present
My dad worked for the phone company and, while I don't know exactly what he did there, I do know that it was hands-on and involved working on-call connection switches at the office itself. He was a hard worker and was always at the office early. I guess the phone company was a cushy place to work at because once you worked there, you were typically there for life.
My dad had been at the job for over 25 years and he still didn't have top priority when selecting their holidays for the year. It's also a union gig in a deep red state. One day, he was working on a switch and the wires had been mislabeled by the last person to work on it. As a result, several thousand phone calls got dropped. That was bad enough, but it got even worse for him.
He was called into the boss’ office where, instead of being given a chance to explain, he was told to go home. This was also in spite of the fact that the first infraction demanded only a warning, according to union rules. So, he went home; and the next day, he came in early and retired immediately. A true “take this job and shove it” moment.
43. Seeing The Bigger Picture
I put in my two weeks’ notice at a call center and my supervisor, who was great the whole time I was there, caught me off guard with his gesture: "Yeah, I'm just gonna give you two weeks paid vacation. I know how much you are done with this place. With your notice in, I give it an hour before you would call the first rude customer you got an idiot. Have a nice life man, it's been good working with you!"
Wherever you are these days, Chris, good call! You were 100 percent right. Screw that place and its customers!
44. Staying Ahead Of The Story
I was working in the Dallas office of a well-established company with a new CEO. One day, this new CEO wrote a company-wide email with some sort of harmless “inspirational” message about how we are going to crush it and do well, blah, blah, blah. Nothing to get worked up about. But then, everyone got the shock of their lives...
This woman in accounting, who was usually mild-mannered and a very Christian Texas lady, replied to everyone with an email that had some sharp words: “As if we believe a word that pompous loser has to say.” She had been with the company for 15 years and came in super early to do the books that day, so by the time most people got to work, it had already happened.
But people there at the time said that her reply-all went out, she made a loud squeak when she realized her mistake, then calmly got an empty box from the mailroom, packed up her desk, walked out to her car without saying a word to anyone, and drove away. She was never seen or heard from again.
45. You Should Be Dancing
My first and greatest quitting story? My boss told me one day we would be spending our breaks doing mandatory Zumba lessons. I simply looked her in the eye and told her I was going home.
46. That’s A Wrap
I went into a Taco John's and ordered a super burrito, with no tomatoes or black olives, to go. They weren't super busy, but there were a couple of orders ahead of me. So I was standing near the counter watching them put items together and I saw that they had started on my burrito. The cook loaded it up with everything. He had it in his right hand and he reached up with his left to clear out the order on the monitor.
He stopped for a moment when he realized that he screwed up by putting everything on the burrito. I could sense something building up inside him already. He was facing me until he turned around and fired a 100 mile per hour burrito fastball against the back wall. He then walked into the back room, took off his Taco John shirt, put on another T-shirt, and headed out the back door.
30 seconds later, the girl running the drive-thru wanted to know where Brian was. I pointed him out to her, as by then he was already walking across the parking lot toward downtown. I told her that I think Brian had just given his notice. She said a few choice words and wanted to know what I ordered. Way to give it to the man, Brian!
47. Starting A Tradition
A co-worker of mine at Subway once quit when I was working during college. It was the lunch shift in one of the busiest shops in the area. The guy got halfway through making a sandwich, then he looked at the customer. He said three simple but effective words: "Till next time, bro." He then just walked out. He never came back, not even to pick up his final paycheck.
When I left the shop to go back to school at the beginning of the next semester, I left 100 sticky notes in random places throughout the store that said: "Till next time." It was the only way I could possibly give my notice after that experience! And something tells me I probably wasn’t the last person at that store to quit in this fashion...
Wikimedia Commons, Corey Coyle
48. A Slam Dunk
I worked for an electrical company that was family-owned and operated. The owner's brother was constantly calling me an idiot all day, saying I couldn't do anything right. One day, he told me to go to Dunkin' Donuts to get breakfast for everyone. He said to me: "Can you at least get donuts for us without screwing it up?” That was the last straw for me.
I took his van to the donut shop, bought myself a nice sausage egg and cheese sandwich, called my girlfriend to pick me up, and left his van right there. He called me at 11 am, flipping out. He shouted: "Where the heck is my van? Where are you?" I told him that I went and got breakfast as he said, but that he never told me to come back. So I went home.
49. Golden Parachute, or Golden Arches?
I worked in a high-end restaurant that didn’t treat its employees well. One of the cooks gave his two weeks’ notice and, in a passive-aggressive move, they didn’t schedule him for any shifts for what should have been his last week. So, on his final scheduled shift, he showed up in a full McDonald’s uniform. The managers were in shock.
He refused to take it off and they couldn’t tell him to leave, because then they wouldn’t have enough staff for the dinner rush. So he worked for his whole eight-hour shift at this fancy upscale restaurant wearing the McDonald’s uniform, and any time the manager asked or told him anything, no matter what it was, he responded with “Would you like fries with that?”
50. Egg On His Face
My cousin once quit his job by throwing an egg into the boss' face. He worked in a restaurant and brought me along one day to see where he worked. I was only a little kid at the time. While I was there, the boss was yelling at him because he brought me. He went on a whole rant about how I was too young to be there and needed to be babysat.
Somewhere during the rant, the boss said a curse word in the regional language that could make your family disown you (not joking). This got under my cousin’s skin. He got fed up, took off his nametag and uniform, picked up an egg from the kitchen, and with a powerful swing threw it directly into his boss' face. And that was the end of that job.
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