Ever Walked Out of a Job?

[DangerMouse]

Cause I'm on the verge of doing so.

I actually have an amazing job. But changes within the company that are affecting what I do are becoming unworkable and unbearable.

Every night I go home fed up and depressed...

I'm getting to the point where I think "is it worth it?" This amazingly creative job that also makes me so unhappy.

Anyone else ever considered just jacking it in?

 

[Hermiod]

I would have with me previous employer but I was of the opinion that I had a job and that, as much as I hated it, I could use the fact that I didn't need to find a job to find a better one.

This enabled me to turn down a few places before getting the job I'm in now which I've had for nearly 9 years now.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Yes. Once.

It was an impossible environment to work in. The boss was an idiot looking to make a quick profit, without caring for quality and proper procedures.
On top of that he treated us as if we were slaves and dirt.

I tried for a few months to work there and maybe change things but I got tired of being miserable all the time and walked out. I also no longer cared for my name to be associated with such a business.

I didn't have another job lined up but i also did not care.
Sometimes enough is enough, you know. There's so much I can take before I grab and twist your neck.

 

[SeerSGB]

Yeah I've walked out on a couple, but only when it got to the point that it was either walk out or get fired for going off on a superior.

-- Blockbuster I quit in a middle of shift and walked out on a store full of customers when the AM cussed me out in front of said customers over me calling the law on her drunk boyfriend that had decided to piss in the corner of the store the night before. It was a shittacular job anyway, long hours and overtime never got paid it was always "rounded down" so that I was just under the line.

-- Theater = Walked out, laughing, in the middle of a shift due to the 2nd shift AM coming and threatening me and my crew (I was a shift super, so I got to have my own "crew"/shift of people I picked) with being fired due to the fact that we were selling out of sodas and candy he had to keep coming downstairs (and interrupting his 'net surfing on the office comp) to unlock the storage room for us to get more. I had told him that morning we needed to pull triple or quadruple candy and soda charge orders, but he said only pull 1 at a time cause "well if you run out, just page me". Well he got pissed by the 6th or 7th time he got paged and middle of a lobby full of people out to the sidewalk, he screamed "you page me again for candy I'm going fire everyone of you fuckers and run it myself!".

I went on break, called the house to check on things, he came outside and ripped into me while I was on my cellphone-- wife heard him, and we're not talking work related just personal "I hate you, you're a son of a bitch..." yada yada yada. Wife said punch him, I went in got a resignation paper and filled out and put him down as the reason and handed to him. He didn't like that and wanted to me to fill out a new one with a difference excuse, I refused and start for the door, he grabbed a customer's popcorn tub on the counter nearby and threw it at my head-- missed though. And people just died laughing at this short little prick stomping and cursing. I got a call 2 hours laters, "Come back, your crew walked out too and we found <AM's name> trying to run it on his own". I just hung up without even talking to them.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

I've walked out of about 2 jobs before because i'd had enough of it and it was getting me down. Walking out was the best thing i'd ever done, was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.
Don't stay in a job you don't like, your health will suffer both physically and mentally.

 

[JonathonWally]

I walked out of one. It got to the point where it was really screwing with my mental health. It wasn't worth it, so I left.

 

[Kommander]

Once, sort of... if abruptly quitting over the phone can be considered "walking out."

A few years ago I was working for a small home improvement company (drywall, various repair and light construction, some plumbing and electrical, et cetera.) The big problem for me working with them was this: The owned was trying to expand at the time, and thought I had the potential to take on a supervisor-like role fairly quickly. However, I needed training so I knew enough about what we were doing to lead a group. The one supervisor he had, however, pretty much refused to train me. Everytime something new came up, one of the other guys would say "how about I show Kommander how to do this?" To which the supervisor would say "no, he doesn't know how to do that. He'll fuck it up." The guy aparently doesn't know what the word "training" means. This led to several arguments, and he'd always throw a bitch fit and threaten to fire me if I argued with him again (which, despite his role, he didn't have the power to do. Only the owner was allowed to hire and/or fire people.)

The other employees would always take my side in these arguments, the owner, however, given Supervisor's bitch tendencies, would not, and futhermore, played up being hard on me in front of him so Supervisor would stop complaining about me.

After that, the Owner tried to train me himself, but he was busy and didn't have a lot of time for it. He also gave me a few easy projects either by myself or with the new guy to boss around, but there weren't very many. Over all, it just wasn't working out.

The way this job worked, we didn't have a set start time. I was sharing a car with my mom at the time, so I'd drop her off at work at 8:00, call Supervisor, and he'd tell me where to go and what time to be there (usually between 8:30 and 10.) One day, Owner wanted to start at 7:30 the next day. He knew about the car sharing, and I said I'd talk to my mom about going in early that day and I'd get there as soon as I could. He said that was OK because the other guys were going to be there and they could do without me for an hour or so.

The next day, my mom was able to start at 7:30, so I dropped her off, then called Owner and said I'd be there in 20 minutes. He said: "You said you'd be here at 7:30." I reminded him of the arrangement we made the day before, which he denied agreeing to and said "Never mind, I don't need you" and hung up. No idea what that was about.

I assumed "I don't need you" meant "you're fired," but Supervisor called me a week later wondering where the hell I was. I explained that I thought I had been fired, which apparently that wasn't the case. He then asked me if I wanted to work that day. I thought about it for a second and a half, and then said "Umm... no. I'm tired of the bullshit. I quit."

 

[Plecostomus]

Four times.

One time due to the fact I just watched a man die in a styrofoam extruder. When they went looking for a scapegoat they picked the person with the least seniority, me. I pulled the safety files, with my daily inspection reports and showed that 21 times (thee times a week) I either flunked that particular line for violations or that operator for causing violations. Cleared my name, watched them rape the area forman over it for ignoring my reports, then I left. The fact that they just picked someone based on senority boils my blood even today.

Walked out of a job because I was promised a position setting up and programming injection molding equipment, what I got was a shipping and reciving job and when I mentioned that there was some sort of mix up they said "no mixup we did it because we cant convince anyone to join shipping willingly."

Next time was a print shop that could not retain janitors so they assigned me more and more cleaning duties until I quit.

Last position I walked out of was a sheetmetal plant where people were getting high right on the equipment, lighting up and smoking during work. I have been clean for over a decade an a half I do not need that shit.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I walked out on a hand job once. I tried reporting the hooker to the Better Business Bureau and they hung up on me. The nerve!

 

[Shatmandu]

When I was in high school, I worked at a hardware store, stocking shelves, sweeping up, etc. The owner was an insanely cheap old cocksucker.

One morning, I was sweeping the floor with an ancient broom, one that had less bristles than a Republican has morals.

Well, it broke where the handle meets the head, because it was an ancient piece of crap with rotten wood that had been taped up too many times. He claimed it broke because of "tool abuse" and said he would take the cost of a new one out of my next check.

I had just gotten paid and there was no money at all coming to me, aside from fifteen minutes of work that morning.

I told him I would stick the old broom up his tight ass and pry a couple of nickles out of there, so he could buy himself a goddamned broom from his own store.

I left to shouts.

Joe, tool

 

[Jan]

I've never just walked out, despite many temptations. I've always given notice and made sure that my resignation got into my Personnel file. Sometimes I ended up working my notice, other times they let me go right away or partway through my notice.

If you've been on the job more than a month or so, I suggest that you can't really afford to literally walk out because it will haunt you for years. And you won't be able to collect unemployment benefits. If you do need to quit, be sure to document everything leading up to it.

Jan

 

[Balrog]

Yup. Was working for a summer camp, and owners were a bunch of a-holes. I was doing work, they were giving me some shit, and I got up and walked out. They tried to "scare" me with some lawyer, but I told him and his clients that they could all f-off because they still owed me a weeks pay despite my walk out. Needless to say, I never heard from them again, and I'm glad. The job didn't mean squat to me or my resume, so f-'em.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I was actually just about to start this topic. I've never walked out on a job before, but at my first day of work for my new job, someone else quit (he waited until he had made $30 in tips and then told the manager not to seat him for any more tables. Then he walked out).

Some of these are really good stories. I'd probably have quit too. It's certainly crossed my mind before, but I usually keep going because I need the money.

 

[kimc]

I've never walked out without having something else lined up. However, if you have enough in the bank to cover your expenses for at least six months and it's truly making you unhappy then perhaps it's time to go. Otherwise, starting a job hunt may make you feel better.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Haven't walked out (I haven't had that many jobs yet so who knows what will happen in the future), but I came close with a job that I had last year. I was only there for about a month but it felt like much longer. Every day was a nightmare and the place was so poorly run that I could not believe that they weren't shut down for health violations. The managers were incompetent and treated anyone below them like their personal slaves. I hated the job and everyone there and although I never said anything to them about it (I really needed the lousy money), my attitude easily betrays my emotions. They also seemed to dislike me from the outset, I think they were sore over me having a college degree at such a young age because that was mentioned a couple of times (though I don't really know why that would bother them so much). So after a month, while I was still on probation or whatever they called it, I showed up for work one day and was called into the office. A manager told me it wasn't working out and that I should go home and not come back. I tried to stop it but a huge smile broke out on my face. I told him that I had expected it and that I was very relieved, because it had been a horrible experience. And then I left, and boy was that a great feeling.

 

[Shatmandu]

If you do have to walk out, if it comes up in the future at a job interview, all you have to say is, "It was a very, very unprofessional environment."

Just about everyone on the planet has a horror story about a job.

Joe, casting couched

 

[Aurian]

Yes, my former boss would not give me a fulltime shedule on paper (she was planning on keeping me around on loose basis though.. but i was lead to believe i would only get to work 50%). Since I cannot survive on half-time pay, I went looking for a second employer. That one grabbed me as fast as she could and offered a full time job, so off I went.

 

[SeerSGB]

If you do have to walk out, if it comes up in the future at a job interview, all you have to say is, "It was a very, very unprofessional environment."

Just about everyone on the planet has a horror story about a job.

Joe, casting couched

Bingo.

My goto--which is the truth 99% of the time-- is typically "I've found the environment to be unprofessional and not goal oriented" If they pushed for details I'll tell, up to a point. It's actually surprise sometimes how much HR people respect an interviewee that refuses to dish dirt on former bosses or co-workers.

 

[auntiehill]

I walked out on a job---I just couldn't take it anymore. I had already given my notice, but I just couldn't face working the last few days. I was sitting at my desk, crying into my hands, and thought, "Why am I doing this?"

I had a training class of about 40 people. We all trained together for three weeks and went right to work together. Within 6-8 weeks out of training, all but 5 of us were left. Everyone else had quit. I think I made it to about 10 weeks before I just got up, grabbed my purse and left. I never came back.

I knew I shouldn't have taken the job; I hated it from Day One. But everyone in my family told me to take it, since it had good benefits. But it was pure hell, and I kinda had a feeling it would be. I have since learned to trust my instincts.

Take a job that YOU will feel somewhat comfortable doing or at least be able to tolerate. Life is just too short.

 

[Mallory]

Just once. I found myself working for a less than reputable company. The owner would do things like buy used computers, put them into a new case and sell them as new. The sales department would sell vaporware using Wordperfect screen mockups and then expect us to program, document and QA their vaporware by the delivery date they promised. The payroll account was always underfunded. Every payday someone wouldn't be able to cash their paycheck due to insufficient funds. That last one led to the building emptying as soon as the checks were handed out and a run on the issuing bank, where everyone literally cashed their checks and walked out with the bills.

Needless to say, none of the above was good for employee morale. As a result, every payday we'd all go to a bar for lunch, eat and consume vast amounts of alcohol. One payday, after lunch, my manager who was sitting next to me looked at his watch and said "I think we should be going now". I looked at him and told him I wasn't going back. He said "What?". That's when I handed him and envelope with my resignation and office key in it and said "Because I quit, effective now".

They went back to work. I spent the next couple of hours drinking beer, watching a baseball game and being generally pleased with my new lease on life.