What's the shortest time you've stayed in a job you hated?

A couple of hours, (after a week's training though). Customer services (phones). I did the training but the first day on the phones was a no no. I took one call and we also had to try and upsell the product. I got an irate woman on the phone who just sounded mardy and I hated it. I didn't have very much confidence then and used to panic ringing/talking to anyone in person and over the phone! I told my supervisor I didn't think that this is the job for me and I left there and then! This was many moons ago And I am a lot better confidence wise now, but still wouldn't ever work in any kind of sales.

God I've had some shite jobs in retail. I think it's a bit of right of passage when you're younger and/or a student to earn a bit of pin money. I worked in Superdrug (manager was a horrible woman who snapped at everyone all the time and was just generally unpleasant. She clearly didn't value her staff the way she spoke to them.) Also worked my "work experience" week in Next - hated that too. So fucking BORING. Dealing with the general public in retail is the work of the Devil.

Then whilst at Uni I worked shifts at a local Macdonald's. Manager was rude, overbearing, and the customers were pushy, complained about fucking everything and were a complete monstrosity to deal with. Stuck the Superdrug job for about two months, and Maccy D's - which was actually better pay and only marginally better treatment - about six months because it was easy money.

But kudos to all who remain in frontline retail roles. The general public make you lose faith in humanity TBH

About twenty minutes. A temp agency sent me for a job I was totally unqualified for. I had time to be shown into my fancy office, have a mini breakdown, and then leave.

‘Market research’ 0 time, or perhaps minus half a day.

It really was market research and not selling. I had just completed a OU degree with a lot of statistics/social sciences research in it, and was interested in the collecting data side of things.

I did a day’s unpaid training and then was supposed to do another one shadowing an experienced worker. That day’s job involved knocking on doors (in a housing estate they directed us to) and asking people if they would answer ‘a few questions, it will take 5 to 10 minutes.’ Except it would be at least 25 minutes, and that’s if they answered every question quickly and didn’t say a lot more.
We were also given the demographics of who to survey, eg 2 women aged 30-50, 2 aged 50+, probably other categories too, like job type, so at the end of the day it could be difficult to find people who fit the groups we hadn’t already seen. It would also have involved going into strangers’ houses on my own or standing on the doorstep asking questions for far longer than they expected.

I wasn’t happy with that, went home at lunchtime and didn’t continue any further. I imagine that online surveys have cut down the need for jobs like that.

One evening shift on reception at a sauna and massage parlour. I was suspicious as the clients were paying way more than the advertised price list. It was exposed 6 months later in the News of the World as a brothel. 😳

2 1/2 days, but it was temp role and I was a teenager. I walked out at lunch time on the third day, called the agency and said I wouldn't be going back. The manager called and said he new the person training me was a nightmare but could I give it another go. They had been through a lot of temps apparently.

7 weeks and 2 days (mid 90's)

It was in a nursery and my face didn't fit

I've never worked so hard in my life-i was 16 years old and left alone with over 20 small kids,most days,while the main staff members went for a bitch session in the kitchen every shift

If anything went tits up,it was all my fault even though loads was beyond my control

I worked 50+ hours for £34.50 a week (I seem to remember the hours where 8am-6pm,mon-fri and we where often still there well past 8pm,unpaid,but the favourites could leave on time) and someone stole my purse with my wages in one week

I lost it when I really needed a wee (I've always had crap bladder control,so when I need to go,I have to go) and wasn't allowed to go to the toliet as the main ones had pissed off for a coffee and their daily bitch,so I couldn't just nip off as I was alone with over 15 kids

I told the manager where she could stick her job and walked out-my narc mother hit the roof and tried to make me go back to grovel for my job back

Not a chance-I was suicidal by the time I grabbed my bag and coat and marched out of that door

Best thing I ever did

It went bust about 6 months after I left

Temp office job many years ago - 3 hours. The boss was one of the rudest and most unpleasant people I’ve ever met. I left at lunch time and went back to the agency and they told me that I was the third temp to walk out in a fortnight!

Me and my bf took the same train to his new job and my new uni course. We took the same train back home and he announced that the job gave him bad vibes and he called one of the jobs he rejected and will start there tomorrow. So his record is one day. Mine is 1.5 years.

4 weeks, I couldn't get out of it any sooner, for legal reasons, - and it was the longest month of my life. Makes me shudder just to think about it.

About 5 weeks as a newly qualified solicitor. The sole practitioner I went to work for was an utter arsehole. I had to take him to the employment tribunal to get him to pay me!

I did 1yr minimum on 2 different jobs I hated, just for the CV. I've had longer periods of work since then so wouldn't hesitate to leave after a few months if I hated my job now, life's too short to be putting up with it.

One day! Cold calling trying to sell kitchens when I was a student. It was so utterly soul-crushing that I didn't even go back for my wages.

A month. It was awful and I handed in my notice during the first week but they made me work my notice, which was pointless as they were still training me during that period

2 weeks telesales cold calling as a student, absolute hell. Luckily my old manager at a clothes shop I worked in at school was happy to have me back with open arms! I can’t believe I even lasted a day, I got no leads so would have been sacked at some point anyway.

2 weeks in a job that I actually quite liked but the commute was a bugger and the job I’d actually wanted then called me for interview after a week. I’d been made redundant so I had to take it but still feel really bad for leaving after such a short amount of time, the other job was the right move though.

Promotion to elsewhere in the NHS which I relocated for. It came with additional salary points for extra responsibilities which didn't actually exist, they just paid everyone extra because they were desperate for staff. I was the only applicant and they offered it to me before I'd even left the interview room. I started and it quickly became clear there was massive chances for further promotion as they had very inexperienced staff in senior roles. The management was simply awful, it was clear the Lead had breezed in from private industry and didn't really have much of a clue about the runnings of the NHS. After 2 weeks I rang the local hospital to ask if they had any basic grade jobs going. The salary and status just weren't worth it. The lack of training was just awful and there was no focus, just like everyone was winging it. I handed my 2 months notice in as soon as I got the basic grade job. I was there a little less than 4 months. For a "career" job in a specialist NHS institute that's an incredibly short time.

3 days - it just wasn’t the role that they advertised & I felt they had lied to me at interview about what it involved so I left. I felt extremely lucky to be in a financial position to just walk away.
OP have you considered care work for a local authority? More likely to be contracted hours & the pension is great. In my area there always seem to be vacancies advertised on the council website.

6 days. Recruitment for contract/temp staff and drivers for warehouses/logistics. Absolutely horrendous culture (beers at lunch and coke in the loos!), totally financially driven, pressured to pass RTW checks even though paperwork was dodgy.
Left everything on the desk, walked out and called the next day to say I wouldn’t be back. Best career decision I ever made!

One week and that was two long, it felt like a year.

Two years. I'd been made redundant two months into a job so this was a job I took as I'm in a fairly niche industry and it was all there was and I needed money

I tried to like it but my face did not fit, never had that issue before so it took me two years to find something I really wanted to change two as wasn't prepared to jump from one 💩 place to another.

I'm very happy in my job now

One day - Chelsea Girl (remember them?) when I was about 18.

The manager assumed we were only there to steal so went through our bags and made us get changed communally, and we were expected to get there early / stay late to tidy up (unpaid time).

I was left in the shoe department on my own and quickly realised that very few boxes contained the correct shoes, so customers had to wait while I desperately tried to match a pair. When I pointed this out the manager told me I needed to go through the whole storeroom and sort them all out. Nope, I didn't.

Two weeks.

Nannying job, and the girls' mother reprimanded me a couple of days in for prioritising cuddling her sick baby over cooking dinner for her husband. We were clearly not going to get on.

The next day, I accepted another position I'd also been offered, and gave her a week's notice. 😀

Roughly 4 hours. It was a market stall. It stank. I was cold. I was wearing jeans and had spilt all sorts all over me by accident so I was also soaking in this cold weather. And I've never admitted this to anyone, but I couldn't go to the loo and wet myself a little bit. I was mortified. I handed them back the apron and said "I'm sorry, I can't do this".

Two shifts. Supermarket job but ended up being put on a completely different job to what I was offered (and even that was different to the job i'd applied for) but the part that made me quit was when they where clearly annoyed when I reminded them I couldn't work on one particular day for something that was unavoidable. I'd informed them it was a day I couldn't work at the interview stage but they still twice told me they expected me in on that day.

Still begrudge even going into the supermarket now and this was years ago!

, working at Heinz in the accounts team sorting invoices by date order in a room with no windows

^
Just awful isn't it!

I once got offered a job in a room with no windows

I didn't accept it, life is too short.