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Original poster

What is the shortest amount of time you have stayed in a job?

69 replies

TravellingSpoon · 26/08/2019 17:50

I have been in my current role for 5 months and am hoping to be able to hand my notice in at the end of this week, which I am dreading. They are short staffed as it is but the role isn't for me.

So make me feel a bit less shit and tell me the shortest time you have been in a job before you left.

OP posts:
JustMe9 · 26/08/2019 17:51

4 hours lol

Redshoeblueshoe · 26/08/2019 17:52

I worked somewhere and a bloke walked out after 2 hours !

leghairdontcare · 26/08/2019 17:54

2 weeks. Had a few interviews at the same time and a better offer came up.

LordEmsworth · 26/08/2019 17:54

Ah ha ha ha... not me but in a previous job, someone left to go elsewhere. Their last day was Friday, they started their new job Monday.

Imagine our surprise when she walked in to our office on Tuesday... she'd realised on Monday morning that she'd made a mistake, rung and asked for her old job back, and they'd said yes!

Redshoeblueshoe · 26/08/2019 17:54

Once I was sooooo pissed off in my job, I had holiday booked and I said to DH I can't go back. He said write your notice, and post it before we leave. I really enjoyed that holiday

Comps83 · 26/08/2019 17:55

I was training someone on a morning on her first day
She left for lunch and didn’t come back
Couldn’t blame her, I left not long after too

sebashocked · 26/08/2019 17:57

2 hours. 10 am start. 1 hour induction. 1 hour to call mechanics from the Yellow Pages to flog them some rubbish First Aid spray nonsense. Went to pub for lunch with the other (2) poor souls working there and didn't bother doing the afternoon shift.

Mentounasc · 26/08/2019 17:57

1day, but to be fair it was a really awful badly-paid summer job (selling popcorn), and at the end of that first day I heard I'd got a much more suitable post so jumped ship. The popcorn guy refused to pay me for the day, apart from the two huge bags of leftover popcorn I'd been allowed to take home that first day. This was a long time ago and not in the UK!

BloodyhellMartha · 26/08/2019 17:58

I once 'sold' double glazing in Asda's entrance for a day. Well, I say 'sold'. Obviously I didn't sell any, didn't go back and didn't get paid. Most boring job I've ever had.

Plainandsimple · 26/08/2019 18:00

Shortest ever - 1.5 days Smile - I was 17 and it was a typing pool type job, with designated times for toilet breaks each morning and afternoon. I stuck it out until lunchtime the second day then just left Blush. The job before my current one, I knew quite quickly it wasn’t for me but gave it three months in case it was just ‘settling in’ nerves, when it still wasn’t any better I started job hunting, was there in total eight months. If you know it’s not right for you then go with your instinct and leave. Remember businesses are just that and wouldn’t hesitate to ask you to leave if they felt it wasn’t working out.

Hecateh · 26/08/2019 18:02

I handed my notice in after 3 weeks, worked another 2 to give them notice - goodwill gesture not because I had to.
I had had another application in at the same time, took longer to get to interview but was by far the better job for me, as well as being almost double the pay for the same hours

MidCenturyVintageWoman · 26/08/2019 18:03

8 hours. I was interviewed for the job away from the site. On the day I started I turned up and the place was so soulless, just a dead atmosphere. The staff looked like extras from Invasion of the Body Snatchers - dead behind the eyes. At home time I spoke to my new boss and said I was really sorry but it wasn't for me. He offered me more money but I really had to get out of there. Had a new job within the week (this was the 80's and you could do that then!)

Trixya · 26/08/2019 18:04

About 3 weeks! Also another one where I lasted 3 months.

This makes me sound flaky Blush but my other jobs I was in for 2 years, 3 years and current one nearly 6 years, with the short spells above mixed in there!

howdyalikemenow · 26/08/2019 18:04

1 day. McDonald's. I was 15.

I hated it.

howdyalikemenow · 26/08/2019 18:05

But recently, 3 months. Rather like you op the role wasn't for me so I ended it just before completion of my probation period.

Socksontheradiator · 26/08/2019 18:05

2 weeks. Do it. Its OK!

Frith2013 · 26/08/2019 18:06

4 months. Was made redundant when the company was taken over by a larger company.

username678889 · 26/08/2019 18:06

3 weeks and it was 3 weeks too long . I was only 20 was years ago and I hated it the manage was a couple of years older than me but was vile completely shocking his she spoke to staff . She used to demand we worked overtime and I was in tears most days . I quit mid shift after I just got up picked my bag and left . I didn't even resign . I just rang payroll a couple of weeks later and asked for did pay ( I got paid by cheque back then ) .
I also no of some guy who walked out within a hour of working . It was just before I worked there but he just walked out and sent a txt to say I can't handle the passive aggressive ladies .

greentheme23 · 26/08/2019 18:08

Started a job door to door selling steam cleaning when at Uni. Got invited in to a house for cocktails by a guy at 11.15 am and never returned to job afterwards!

IMWang · 26/08/2019 18:10

2 weeks.

Don't feel bad. If it's not right for you, it's not right!

DefinatelyAWeeGobshite · 26/08/2019 18:12

Two days

RezCowgirl · 26/08/2019 18:15

2 weeks, but it was only a 2 hr shift each week cold calling for double glazing.

BexleyRae · 26/08/2019 18:16

2 days, was lied to about the hours. Rang my old manager and got my old job back. Luckily he didn't want me to leave in the first place

Tuesday2ndApril · 26/08/2019 18:17

4 days - I wasn't in a good place emotionally and taking the job had been a serious mistake for me (and for them, too). I felt awful because they'd spent £1k on recruitment Blush

joolzfromyork · 26/08/2019 18:20

1 day (and if it wasn't for the place being way out of town and needing a lift to get home, i would have left after 20 minutes)

The job ?

In an abattoir (what was I thinking ?)