If you have ever walked out of a job?

[exhaustedbutstillgoing]

Thought this would be an interesting thread as I was very nearly tempted today!

Have you ever walked out off a job and what was it that made you walk out?

I applied for a job as a Graduate Finance Officer. On day 1 they gave me a big pile of receipts and told me to photocopy them and staple the copy to the original. After I finished the whole box I asked the boss what to do and she said get another box - that’s your job, copying receipts! I said there must be some mistake - I was hired as a Graduate Finance Officer? She said yeah well it’s a graduate job because you’re a graduate, and it’s a finance job because the receipts are financial. They literally expected me to copy receipts all day every day and nothing else. I went home and never went back.

Can you walk out when you have an employment contract that says you need to give three months notice?

Er...asking for a friend

Yes, had a major hangover and I was left to do the menial disgusting job no one wanted to do AGAIN. I couldn't cope with another 8 hours of the place so I got my coat and left.
I regretted it the second I left but my pride got in the way and even when the manager called the next day and asked if i would reconsider- I said no.

I've done it three times. I'm not one of the world's natural employees, truth be told. (Self-employed now and much happier.)

I didn't walk out but should have, it would have saved me so much anxiety.
On my first day I came back from my lunchbreak and the boss said 'You came back then, a few don't bother.'
I found out it was an awful place to work but I persevered for three months....should have left on the first day.

Oops posted too soon

First one was a restaurant when I was a teenager -- I got sick of being pinched and groped and propositioned by drunk customers

Second one an office job -- the boss was OK but the other employee in the office was very odd and seemed to take against me from day one. Wouldn't speak to me if I asked anything unless the boss was around. I had one of those 'life's too fucking short' moments and slung my own hook

Third one was a professional job where I quickly realised I'd been miss-sold both the job and the company by the recruiter. I lasted until lunchtime!

I wish I had when i worked in retail, I came close several times. I hated every minute towards the end. They fired me eventually though for being 'rude to the customers'.

Yep. Job in a cafe while at uni, the manager was a fucking arse hole. Just generally treat the staff like shit. One day I tried to raise an issue about some things in the shift. He told me if I didn't like it I could go home. So I did and said I wouldn't be back. Then he continued to put me down for shifts and rang me up a few days later asking where I was.

An example of his shit, he would change shifts without telling you then shout at you, fully shout including personal insults in front of all the staff if you didn't realise. This could be very short notice so it meant we all had to look out for each others shift changes. But changes could get lost. Then the bollocking happened.

This is one of many things!

From my first professional job. after 2 years got a new boss who we hated each other with from the first moment. At one point when I was voicing my concerns for a project he said, if i don't like it quit. He had my resignation letter in 30 seconds on his desk. A real thorough explanation and all: I quit! Handwritten for dramatic effect :)

He was mid 20s I was early 20s and we both had egos the size of a house.
We crossed paths 10-15 yrs later and actually had a great conversation and we still keep in touch

Worked at a family attraction type place as a cleaner, my supplies consisted of 1 rag and a spray bottle to cover one fast food hut and two bathrooms.... third day in I was given a whistle and told I was on lifeguard duty...I couldn't swim but it didnt make a difference, I refused to do it and walked out!

Oh actually also not quite walking out as I finished my shift but as teenager I had really bad tonsillitis which turned into cheat infection. This meant I had a few weeks off my weekend job at Asda on the checkouts. They had some kind of policy related to time of for sickness as many places do.

Although I'd been really ill and on several round of antibiotics and lost my voice for over a week they said I'd had too much time off so had no choice but to give me a warning /disciplinary for my time off sick. I just said I didn't want to work for a company who treated people like that and I had no choice but to resign.

I feel quite proud I was only 17 but knew they weren't a nice company so stood up for myself. Also minimum wage jobs weren't hard to come by at the time.

I walked out on my second day of a job because the boss was leery and sexually harassing me. I had a huge anxiety attack in the toilet ( I was going through a lot at the time - dv court case mainly) and when a lovely colleague calmed me down I thought I don't need or feel able to cope with this so I got my coat and left. Didn't feel remotely bad about it.

@EmpressoftheMundane

Can you walk out when you have an employment contract that says you need to give three months notice?

Er...asking for a friend

I don't see who would stop you. They're unlikely to sue you for breach of contract. Problem could be getting a reference or hassle with getting your p45.

I walked out of a very secure job, which I held for 5 years after my childminder text to say she could no longer feed my child as she was "picky". I was informed that I would have to feed her myself when I got home, but that she would be feeding her own children (and others in her care), at the usual time meaning my child would have to sit and watch the others eat.

I cried, did some distressed rambling to my line manager, and walked. I was still fumbling around with my car keys in the car park when my line manager came and tapped me on my shoulder and said she had a proposition. She gave me a month off, fully paid. Told me to sort out my childcare, and come back part time when I was sorted.

I'm forever grateful for what she did for me, and another 4 years later I was still there. I've moved on now but we remain great friends and I know I wouldn't have got that treatment at most places. I think if I ever walked now that would be that, plenty of other people out there desperate for a job.

Yes. Years ago I worked for a lovely family business (admin/customer service role) and they sold up to a couple of chaps who had worked in the same industry but at a more corporate level.

The one in charge of our branch seemed a nice enough person and we got on fine, but it gradually became clear that his values weren't consistent with mine or the business.

He constantly let clients down, and end up owing one a considerable amount of money. She kept calling the office, and he would avoid calls and keep making excuses. One day he saw her coming across the road and jumped up to hide out the back. That was the final straw for me, so when she came in I shouted out to him "Mrs X is here to see you!" and walked out. I phoned the other business partner who was based at the other office and told him exactly what an unprofessional knobhead his partner was and that I wouldn't be coming back.

I left my medical training in 2016. Since then I have had another child and started retraining as a psychotherapist. Even though I miss medicine, I know I simply wasn't compatible as a person to the overall culture and expectations. I do battle with feelings of failure, but know deep down it was the right thing to do. I hope once a qualify as a psychotherapist and establish a successful private practise this feeling of failure will dissipate.

Once. I was about 20, working on till and filling shelves in a small shop. Pretty crappy at the best of times but one colleague in particular was a complete creep, I and at least 2 other women working there had complained about him with no results, he'd been there since the place opened and could do no wrong in the owner's eyes. That day he leered at me and said 'you need a husband 20 years older than you, older men have more experience' and I just snapped. He stayed there for another 5+ years, can't imagine he ever changed!

when i was 18 i walked out. Manager verbally abused me because i was wearing socks over tights they were both black. There was no rule against it but she hated it and told me not to come to work like that anymore so i decided to leave and never go back.

I finished my first day in a dreadful temp job once, walked up to the temp agency and said there was no fucking way I was going back.

The job was in a private company which assisted MH patients. They phoned up, often in crisis and I was supposed to put the calls through to the relevant person. So, of course, the first thing I asked was where the extension numbers were. Were they programmed into the switchboard phone? Was there a telephone list / database? "Nah we need to make one of those" said workshy useless temp manager. Wtf?

So, calls would come through and, (it almost would have been funny if it wasn't for the fact these callers were really distressed), I had to put them on hold and trot round the office asking who was who and then asking if they'd take the call, (often "nah, I've got other stuff on" type responses), then get their extension if they wanted to take it and put the call through. The final straw was towards the end of the day, when I took a call from a man who was too distressed to speak, so he put his support worker on the phone and she left a message for a call back. I hunted down the person they needed and she said she wouldn't call back as the patient didn't leave a message; it was his support worker . It was almost home time, so I explained to workshy cow manager exactly where I'd got with some shredding I had been doing between calls. She started being all helpful to me then. She bloody knew. It was an utter disgrace that place.

Also remember a story about my predecessor walking out of the job I then got. The woman who had my job before me was late in for work one day.
She called and said she was busy doing something and they'd see when she got there.

When she arrived she was in full Disney Princess* costume. She said it was national Disney Princess day, so she had come to work dressed as that. The manager said that it was not appropriate for the office and could she please go home and change. Poor woman left and never returned.

*not the real costume, but along those lines.

No, but I've walked out of a job interview

Yes. On the second day.
It was in central london, Soho to be exact. I was answering telephones for a late night bar. My job was to get them to buy a drinks package in addition to making a reservation.

The first thing to happen was I was offered £6.50 when offered the drink (I was 22). Then when I arrived on day 1 the manager lady subtly threw in to conversation that it was £5.90. I had to make a fuss to have it rectified. Then next thing was, she had a meeting with the man who owned the place. He looked me up and down and said so I could hear 'no point having her in here, let's have her in the street touting for punters, the blokes will like her'. WTF I thought. Stood in the street with flyers trying to get people to drink at the bar. Next thing I know the female manager asks me to wear 'something slutty tomorrow'. I went straight home but then had to sign on (for a v short time, 3 weeks I think). The jobcentre person I spoke to said I should have continued with the job and it was my own fault I was out of work so wouldn't be entitled to anything. I had to fight for that decision to be overturned.

Yep, from Tesco years ago. I was put to work on the cooked chicken/food counter and on my 2nd day I walked out over the lack of hygienic practice. I refused to rush and put cooked chicken on raw chicken boards so I walked out. Never regretted it or eaten their hot food since. 😂

Yes.

Moved to a new city and got a job working in mortgage arrears, basically calling people who’d missed their recent payments. I’d come from being a manager in another bank call centre, so I was pretty confident.

Fucking hell it was grim. Managers really unprofessional, and the culture was just depressing. I was told I was too nice, made to feel shit and stupid. My manager had just been promoted from being on the phones himself, and decided to treat me like a problem instead of offering any meaningful help. He’d make me cry, my mental health was on the floor. I couldn’t sleep at night, and I was crying before going to work.

After the last “meeting”, I grabbed my phone and went out to speak to DH. We were just married and needed my income, but he just told me he knew I was miserable and we’d work something out no matter what I decided to do.

So I went back and sent an email to horrible manager saying I wasn’t fit to be in work, gathered my stuff together and left. He rang me while I was on the bus, clearly panicking after getting my email and I was like “Sorry Gary- I’m off. I’ll send you a doctor’s note in the post. Cheerio”.

I was off sick for 3 weeks until I found my next job, which I loved. Walking out that day was the best thing I ever did.

Twice.
Age 18-full time in fast food chain. Fed up of being talked down to and the shit pay.
Age 26-call centre for catalogue. Marriage broke up, was sick of the compulsory overtime on top of 40 hours a week and my then 2 year old Dd spent all her time with dm or at nursery. They pulled me up for a minor disciplinary. I went to the meeting, accepted what they said then told them I quit. The hr person was really lovely, asked for a break and really made sure it was what I wanted.
Spent a year on benefits after that which was hard, but I am so grateful for the time I got with my Dd.