Today I let 2 of my cleaning clients go because...

[AnotherNightCooking]

1. shitty message from one complaining half an hour spent scrubbing their limescale crusted shower screen wasn’t long enough.
   I even take a toothbrush to get in the awkward parts. To me it was gleaming. How can I clean a 3 bed house & iron in 2 hours if 1/2 hour on the shower isn’t long enough. They were there so timed me !
   & has I nicked their used cleaning cloths ? I hadn’t.
   £10 ph they can scrub their own shit.

2. customer complained because I hadn’t found the shoe insoles they had asked me to look for whilst cleaning

What has made you leave a job ?

DD quit a job as a valet due to sexual harassment.

A month or so later dh and dd ran into him and his wife if parking lot of food store.

Dd told dh that she was afraid to go to store and why.

DH went over to him and asked if he was [name].

Perv said "yes, why?"

DH said, "you're a %$#@ to hit on my teenage daughter."

DD popped around her father and said to wife [who was staring at the ground], "you're married to a pervert."

Then dh and dd got back into car and went to a different store.

@whataboutbob yes the patients, although the reception manager was an arsehole as well, and one of the GPs.

Had a job at an estate agents (well known) which involved keeping chain happy/updated etc. Previous lady had had houses on the books for literally years. Managed to clear backlog, increase times (used to do conveyancing so was easier to keep chains together and happy) and got the area the highest profit in the country in my 2nd month. And 4th month - previously unheard of. On month 5 I asked for the pay rise I had been told would happen after the 3 month probation. Area manager (wearing a Simpson tie) actually laughed in my face. I left the next week and noticed adverts in the paper continuously for the next 4 months.

Years before this I was working for a Senor Fee Earner who was outsted because she married someone the other Senior/Practice Manager didn't like . I ended up working for a newly graduated woman who kept bleating on about her twins having to be vegetarian (they kept sneaking to MacDonalds) and insisting she could do the job without the post it's I had to put on piles (she really couldn't and i'd devised a system to help her because I was getting complaints which she ignored). After about a year of this chaos building I decided to take a 4 day holiday (i'd not taken any that year) and she went mental, saying I was on drugs (!) and that I was replaceable - she would just train up an office junior while I was away! I handed in my notice the week I returned - had been there for 5 years. Company, previously one of the best in the Town went bust 1.5 years later.

Ive been scared to leave jobs I dont like before because I've been worried about not having a good reference. Or worried avout what would go on the Cv.

How have people bypassed needing a reference from someone you've walked out on/resigned over something thats made them cross etc?

The first time I went travelling and worked abroad.

Second time I decided to have dd . I also still can get a good reference as they had broken their contract with me where it said the salary would increase after the probation period. The figures I achieved for them spoke for themselves.

Friends who had walked out also mentioned that when the situation is clearly not your fault many new bosses would rather hear the truth if there is a problem with the reference. You can ask why you didn't get a job and offer an explanation. My friend did this when she had walked out because of a medical issue she was picked on by her manager for. Turned out the interviewee/boss of the new company's wife had the same health issue and he was very sympathetic.

I worked as a live in housekeeper/nanny, it was awful. The mum was a z list celebrity and thought she was Madonna, my first day working there I was doing the washing and found a used tampon in her underwear. She shouted at me constantly, actually she shouted at everyone, I often wonder if she would have been more successful if she hadn't been such hard work.

I used to work for a big bank. The branch would get points based on how many/what type of product you sold customers (so mortgages hot a lot, current account less). One day a guy came in looking stressed saying he needed to speak to someone as he couldn't pay back his loan. The colleague who sold these basically told him he had no choice and as he left said to me 'I knew he couldn't afford it but we needed the points that week'. I handed my notice in that day.

Wish I could do the same in my current job, asked if I could apply for a promotion and was told it was a full time position so no. Just announced the new colleague and she's working part time. Unfortunately we can't afford to lose my salary

Frazzledmum I worked in a similar sounding bank. I left after a blazing row with the area manager about PPI. Apparently my conversion rates were shocking (less than the 80% we were supposed to hit) and I needed to improve. Told her I only upsold it when it was relevant and pulled out the past 10 files to show her why I hadn't sold it (it wouldn't have paid out).

She said she wasn't interested in excuses and I should sell it to everyone. I was in an advisory role so it came back on my head if I mis sold products.

How I laughed when the PPI scandal happened.

I left a job because my area manager and our retail director agreed to give me a pay rise... then less than a week later my area manager called me ! said sorry but we can’t give you that pay rise after all!!
I told him that I will leave in four weeks then ... they both kept calling me and came in to my store ... apparently I was being a silly girl leaving without a job to go to both kept asking me to stay... I had one interview for a new job and got it ... moved and got a flat sorted within my notice period... serious case of the boys thinking they can push women around...

@Ferret sounds very similar to mine. Guys downstairs joking about all day, never answering the phone and showing about 3 houses a week. Me upstairs answering all calls/juggling over 100 files for 3 branches/keeping everyone happy and they were being paid double. They had literally no idea how the process of conveyancing actually worked

Doglikeme,
Your post resonate with me. The other day asked help to my boss to a complex issue and he kept asking if I had done the most basic checks. I asked him if he really tought if I was that stupid. And he couldn't even solve the issue

Once worked at a company where there was just me and one other woman and lots of 'blokes' whose 'banter' included constant sexual jokes, leaving a dildo in my drawer to find, offering to 'cure' my gayness with a shag and watching porn on their lunch break together. I was quite young and honestly wondered if this was just what some workplaces were like! I stuck it a year before moving on and upwards... looking back now I can't quite believe what went on.

My last boss was a horrible homophobic bully who barely acknowledged my existence on his team, despite the fact that I was a high achiever. He was an ex public school boy with the emotional intelligence of a slug who preferred the men on the team to the women anyway. Our HR dept said their was clearly a 'personality' clash as no-one heard him actually call me a derogatory term in meetings etc. so it was my word against his. He got himself fired after other ( senior) women apparently put in complaints about him... good riddance.

I left a job as a practice nurse as they were so tight they sterilised plastic urine pots.

I left a job in admin as my supervisor was a power hungry psychopath who blamed me for all her mistakes and was a gas lighting bully

I walked out of a job in a rather elegant way I feel. Worked for head hunters. Hunting for very senior roles globally. Had been there three months and realised directors were useless and had never been able to grow their business, just able to keep it ticking over. I was early 40's returning to work after young children. My background had previously been in sales/ business development. I had still worked as a freelancer whilst children were young. Sales Director bullying little sh*t who was obviously intimidated by me and my experience. Large open plan office. I walked in one morning to him screaming at me across the room in front of the 5 other cowed employees. My 'crime' was not putting a smiley face emoji on the end of an email to an important client in Israel. Apparently, I was being too formal. I smiled at him...sat at my desk whilst he was ranting. Emailed a letter of resignation to the MD. Smiled again, stood up and sashayed out of that place with my head held high. I have always found work, reference or not. :-)

I've quit before due to low pay/crap hours. Lots of local businesses and even big ones take advantage of young people and pay them nothing even when I have to pay rent etc.

Turned down a job trial today as it was 4hrs long and they weren't going to pay me. They also slipped that they had another trial on Wednesday, that to me makes me think they just use free trial people to avoid paying actual wages! Also £5.90ph (I'm 20) no thank you.

@SwimmingJustKeepSwimming have a look at the Citizen's Advice Bureau website, that has a useful section on what to do in a possible bad/no reference situation.

I left a job after having been ground down by low-key bullying and micro-managing for months by the manager. I wasn't the first: the manager used to pick on one staff member until they left then move on to the next so I probably wasn't the last either. Asst manager who knew what was happening failed to back anyone up as he was hoping to get the manager's job on a dead-man's-shoes basis. Git. Small town so heard from several other people later "oh, I know someone who worked there and hated it" etc.

Left with my self-esteem at rock bottom and signed up with an agency and was able to use them plus one of the placements (quite long-term so they got to know me well) as a reference.

Made to clean out commodes when there was no disposable gloves. Same place I was also on my hands and knees picking up food trod into the smelly carpet whilst the cleaner sat outside in the sun chatting.

I started a new cleaning job once and I found dirty knickers containing sanitary towels on her bathroom floor 🤢
The house was disgusting - cat shit all over the place and piles of dirty washing everywhere
I had been there about half an hour but I just walked out and left her money on the side.
She wasn't happy when I texted her to say I wasn't coming back - she called me ridiculous !!

Not me (sadly) but I loved this one: worked in a large city corporate. Our boss was a complete bastard who we all hated, but, you know how it is, not much you can do sometimes. PA had left so we had a temp in. She was great, and by mid morning on the first day we were all dazzled by her efficiency. Mid afternoon of the same day, we realise she's on the phone to him. Turns out he was swearing and cursing her because he was on his way to a meeting, and had got lost (she hadn't organised the meeting - it was her FIRST day). Then wanted her to talk him through directions but kept telling her she was a fucking idiot.

She put the phone down on him mid rant, told the rest of us what had happened and then didn't come back the next day. We heard via the grapevine that her agency was super supportive and stopped providing temps to him....

OP your clients are twats you are well rid. I speak as someone who has a cleaning company. pm me if you are in or near Leicester! I have fantastic clients and I need more staff.

I think the worst place I ever worked was the british Gas call centre. You had to ask to go to the toilet. Fuck that, I never did, and always got in trouble for daring to leave my desk for 2 mins for a piss but as a grown adult, I was fucked if I was asking permission

Also the customers were beyond vile, probably due to the horrendous service they received

I got sacked in the end for telling someone to fuck off

Pretty much all office jobs I had were hideous, silly rules and unspoken politics

Been self employed for ages now and it is the best

walked out well gave notice. After finding out I was the only night nurse for 89 people who were ill and frail.

I was once told I had failed a probationary period after 2 weeks. Found loads of discrepancies with patients, medication, being referred for cancer treatment etc. Reported this to authorities. The manager gave me horrendous refs for 3 years and I was unable to get a perm job despite being successful for 15 years of my career.