Have you ever walked out of a job/not returned?

[TravellingSpoon]

If so, what job was it?

A part time pub job. The manager threw a load of drinks coasters on the floor in front of me then ordered me to pick them up. When I asked him why he'd done this he said was a test of my obedience !!

In a pub bartending. It was busy, my co worker wasn't pulling his weight. I complained to the supervisor a few times but he did nothing about it. I got so fed up and frustrated with doing all the work myself. I said I was going to the toilet and instead I walked out the back doors and went home. I never went back.

Kind of. I hated my job when I went on my first maternity leave so spend most of it keeping half an eye open for something else. found a new job on my second week back. The boss was notorious for trying to guilt people who handed in their notice to leave so I emailed him and my line manager one Monday saying I was really struggling being away from the baby and that husband and I had crunched the numbers and I could have a year or 2 at hone before needing to go back to work, I wanted to finish at 5pm and use my accrued holidays as my notice period.

Line manager was very sympathetic and agreed I could leave but the boss never responded. A colleague who I was friendly w it and had access to his emails later found emails between him and my line manager and his response was just ‘fuck her’.

Started my new job a week later and joined LinkedIn so the boss would see I got one over in him. He still stalks my profile now.

When I heard a few months later they were being investigated for bribery and corruption relating to a contract they had (which they openly admitted to doing in the office) I knew I had made the right decision.

PPA cover teacher on a year's fixed term contract. I left 6 weeks before I was due to finish because of the awful, negative atmosphere and the pressure. When it got to the point of contemplating crashing my car on the way there I knew it was time to see my gp and I was signed off.

I had another job within a few months, left to have a baby, got another PPA cover role that I hated again and left to have my 2nd baby. I've been a short term, day-to-day supply teacher ever since and I love it.

Walked out of my first job when I was 16. I came home early and told my parents who weren’t happy, until I told them a supervisor called me a racist name, then they really weren’t happy. My dad drove down there and punched him in the face, breaking his nose.

Yep. Walked out of a school. I was the only teacher qualified to teach a shortage subject and they were very nice to me in the interview etc. Within a week I'd had my eyes opened to some very poor practice and vile people, including the kids (don't normally say that as kids are usually fine). I left my laptop on the desk and walked out after my lunch duty. I had a new job (not in education) within a month. Never looked back.

Walked out of a call centre job where we got no breaks and the phones constantly rang one number after the next. We had to ask people survey questions and I just heard everyone we called hating it. I had many different jobs but this was by far,very far, the worst one I ever had.

Yes at a market research company
I was cold calling businesses for their opinions. Regularly shouted and sworn at by people on the other end of the phone and toilet breaks were timed by dickhead managets. Couldn't take anymore one afternoon and left at lunchtime, never to return.

Yes, about 30 years ago. I was a van driver for a small company delivering stationery it was really hard work (copier paper is super heavy!) But all was good for about 18 months until the wife of the boss joined the company. She was awful, nothing I (or anyone else) ever did was right, she always knew best, criticised my planned route for delivery constantly, said I was slacking and that absolutely wasn't true. Her and her husband used to have stand up rows in front of staff which was so embarrassing. She thought she knew everything, but actually was on a driving ban through DUI. She would regularly fire people (there were about 10 in the company in total) and then her husband would call us up and beg us to come back.

One day she had another go at me again, and accused me of over use of packing tape. I remember it was a Monday and I'd been dreading going in that morning. I calmly put down the tape dispenser, said goodbye to my colleague who looked most surprised and I walked out. It was pre-mobile phone so they started calling my landline to get me back in. I pulled the plug out the wall. Unbelievably she then turned up at my house and made a massive scene be shouting at me through the windows/letterbox. She came back in the evening and my husband went out to her, she went sharpish! I never went back there.

Walked out of a school where the SLT were incompetent and my line manager slowly revealed herself to be a two-faced lying gaslighting nutter.

Have held two other p/t jobs for over 15 and nearly 10 years each, so i'm hardly a flitter.

Yes, a sandwich shop. I lasted two weeks. My job was to wash dishes, and also to make sandwiches, prep food, clean generally, and serve customers. It was hard work, extremely low pay. However, the reason I left was because we were expected to re-use salad that wasn't eaten, by removing it from sandwiches and putting it inside fresh bread. One customer noticed, and complained to me "my sandwich is decomposing on my plate", and I looked at it, agreed, and I left after my shift and never went back.

Yes , hairdressing apprenticeship job. I had done a days trial and the manager was nice but said she would be gone travelling for a year on my start date and the assistant manager would be in charge.

I started and the atmosphere was awful the assistant manager was a right bitch and noone told me what to do. My cousin's girlfriend worked there and she was too scared to speak to me for awhile until she did her jobs. There was degrading graffiti about her written on the staff room bench. I asked her if I stuck it out would it get better and she said no.

So I went on my break and never went back. I practicurlary skipped home.

I found another apprenticeship job 2 weeks later in a great salon where I spent the next 12 years.

Yes, but it was within my notice period as I had already handed it in to go to a better job. It was an (awful) pub. It was supposed to be my last day but one.

First, the ladies toilets had to be put out of order because they were all backing up. Then the gents had the same issue. This was about 5.30pm on a Friday night and the place was heaving. I had about 40 people queuing for the disabled toilet and surprise - it got clogged up.

The manager told me that as I was a supervisor, it was my job to unclog it. I actually tried to put on some latex gloves and had an allergic reaction, my hands started puffing up so I took them off. He told me it didn't matter and I had to go and unclog the toilet anyway.

I went into the toilet, locked the door behind me and leaned against the wall trying not to breathe for about 2 minutes. I then walked out and told him I couldn't manage it. He went apeshit! Threatened to withhold my wages, etc. I said alright you try that, I'll see you in court.

I got my stuff and walked out, and phoned the environmental health on him. My wages did get paid (eventually). I'm glad I quit when I did because about a month later he had a temper tantrum and sacked the entire workforce in one fell swoop - absolute wanker!

Yes, I did a moonlight flit from Lapland where I was working as Santa’s elf. The company (who are one of the leading companies in such trips and often recommended on here) treated us appallingly. Everyone was miserable.

Our team leader quit, and the manager told her she had to leave the accommodation immediately. This was in a forest in the middle of nowhere, north of the arctic circle - she had nowhere to go and no means to get there. Fortunately some of the lovely local Sami people (who also worked for the company and who knew what was going on) took her in while she found a flight and organised transport to the airport.

She then sneaked back to our cabin and asked if any of us wanted to join her. More than half the elves jumped at the chance of escape, and we all left together at 3am. It felt like escape from Alcatraz!

No but I really wish I had on several occasions

These stories are making me feel better as I have just walked out of a new job after r weeks. It's been in a dementia care setting (a new one for me but a job I have done before) and its awful. Its unsafe and care is so lacking, plus its beyond shirt staffed. Have fired over a resignation email with immediate effect and called CQC.

Bit anxious about getting a reference as I have another interview on Minday, but I just couldn't do it to myself any more.

I worked in primark and went on my lunch break and just didn;t come back - it was horrible there - the manager that was on kept clapping at me telling me to hurry up with every task I was doing and was super rude and kept putting me down in front of customers - I had enough and just left

Yes I have, unfortunately more than once.

One job I was working for a large coffee chain, been there for about 4 years and the woman that was managing the store turned completely bonkers in a short space of time. Screaming at staff and customers, turning up late, leaving early then on our backs’s making sure we were there on the floor, 10 minutes before with no pay, taking drugs at work etc. I spoke with the area manager in confidence or so I thoughtand said it was getting out of hand. I came in to work the next day and she went absolutely mental at me and I was generally worried about what she was going to do. I left and never went back. I heard a year later she was fired and sleeping rough so wish I hadn’t just walked out but at the time it felt like the only option.

Another was for house of Fraser. I was interviewed and hired as an assistant manager. On my 4th shift, one girl asked the manager if I was the new assistant manager and he said, “no, not till she’s been here 6 months.” Was news to me. Then on my 5th shift I was told by text, I was doing a double shift (9am-9:30pm) opening and closing completely by myself, no means of taking a break and with no training at all and the next day would be the same. I got till lunch time that day and decided it wasn’t worth it. I told someone I was going to the toilet and never came back. I later found out he did it to all the members of staff and the turnover was incredibly high.

And last was for a global shipping company. My first day I was told “you need to do X Y Z, I’m going for a meeting” I was left completely by myself with absolutely no idea what was going on and then other team members were shouting at me as they couldn’t do their job until I’d done mine. It didn’t matter when I told them I hadn’t been trained at all. I decided to try again the next day and the same happened. Then lunch time came, the whole office went to the local pub to celebrate someone’s birthday but I wasn’t invited. They went to the pub and I left and didn’t go back.

Ive also worked with people that have just upped and left and I can completely understand why people do it

The Lapland exodus is the best story ever!

Yes, from a waitressing job in the middle of a shift. It was in my mid 20's and I had a full time job but a large mortgage so I used to work Saturday nights and Sunday lunchtimes in a well know chain. I had worked there about 2-3 years. good friends with everyone and earn't a small fortune in tips. One evening the manager and her fiance came round to mine for dinner/drinks. The fiance was a sleaze bag and when my friend the manager went to the loo he hit upon me. I made the rookie error of telling my "friend" (still, don't regret it though) that he fiance was a shit and trying to get off with me. She didn't take this news well and obviously didn't believe me (or want to believe me) and the next shift I did was hell. I was in the middle of a really busy evening with loads of tables and she did something awful - I can't quite remember now, but I literally just walked to the lockers and got my bag and left. I felt a bit sorry for the diners but never regretted that. I heard they got married and divorced a few years later as he had cheated on her numerous times.

Yes I left my old job and it was the best thing I'd ever done after years of ups and downs and bullying it was telesales and the branch manager was an arsehole who bullied loads and got away with it I walked out one day when I was couple of weeks pregnant got moved to another branch but decided when on my maternity I was never setting foot back to work for that company ever again

Yes when i was working in a well known high street bank, my boss was a complete dick head. One day something happened , i didnt do what he thought i should have..... my thoughts were with the customer his thoughts were with how much money can we make out of her..... we had words, i left and never went back.

Yes. An office job filled with misogynistic fools, all older men stuck in their ways. They made me know they thought They were better than me. I lasted 7months or so then walked out one day, sent an email to say I wouldn’t be back.

Yep. My first saturday job as a teenager. No one told me I was meant to 'give notice' so I just didnt turn up one day

It was in a small local cafe and I didnt go back in for about a year after I realised my mistake. When I finally plucked up the courage my manager gave me a hug and said they'd all missed me. I got free coffee from then until the place closed about 5 years later

Er, yes. 4 times... I don't suffer fools gladly

No 1 - software company, I was interviewed and given the job when my supervisor was on holiday. She hated that, and by extension, me. There was a lot more to it, but the final straw came when she refused my holiday request for a Friday off. It was the day before my wedding. So late on the Thursday evening I wrote my resignation letter and went and stuffed it in the letterbox for her to find on the Friday morning.

No 2 - Restaurant, part of a large chain. Treated me like dirt and the pay was awful. I lasted a week and just didn't go back.

No 3 - I was self-employed and my client would not listen to my advice. I was there because I knew how to do the job and he didn't (finance related). He was a misogynist twat and I got fed up to the back teeth of him so one day I just emailed in and said best of luck finding someone else to do it instead.

No 4 - a niche retail shop in financial difficulties (and no wonder). Owner and manager were both ridiculously bossy and treated me like a workshy adolescent. The endless nitpicking was ridiculous - in the end I got a bollocking for giving a customer change for the car park. Had a massive row with the owner, picked my bag up and marched out.