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Original poster

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

130 replies

Honkytonky12 · 25/08/2022 22:21

I've been in my job for 2mths and I really hate it. I keep putting off handing my notice in but it's just getting worse and worse. Help me feel better 😭

OP posts:
TokenGinger · 25/08/2022 23:00

Mine was 6 months, but I was actively searching for new jobs 3 months in as I disliked it so much. I applied for my current job 4 months in, but the interview and reference process took 2 months to complete so I had to stick it out for longer. It was such a relief when I finished.

lickenchugget · 25/08/2022 23:00

Five days.

I’m not flighty, but when you know it’s not right, you know.

Alexaspartyline · 25/08/2022 23:00

ha and mumsnet might be able to create more jobs by ebabling an edit button. Fuck me! How cosy that would be, how Cameron-esque.

cakewitch · 25/08/2022 23:01

Knew it wasn't right after the first week. Stayed far longer then I should have.although most of it I wasn't there because of lockdown and school holidays. Thank god. Worst job I ever had.

Marinamountainzoo · 25/08/2022 23:02

Well, I did temping for a while, so some of those jobs I only did for a day and told the agency I wouldn't be going back. There was an actual job I did for 3 days. I was 19 at the time and didn't give a shit so just walked out.

I stayed in my last job for 2 whole fucking years when I knew before I even started it wasn't right for me. I went in to meet everyone one day and my new boss ignored me the entire time. I came away thinking WTF. I look back now and kick myself for missing a red flag. I wish I'd left after 2 months TBH.

Strangerthings4NW · 25/08/2022 23:06

@Alexaspartyline I think we could be friends!!

Glittersparkle76 · 25/08/2022 23:07

A day and a half,I was working in a hairdressers,it was old fashioned and run down and I just hated it.I went on my lunch break on day 2 and never went back!,I was about 18 at the time and caught the bus home after I'd eaten my lunch on a bench outside the salon.Then got up and fucked off home!🤣

Strangerthings4NW · 25/08/2022 23:08

I left a job after 2 days. It was on a reception for a nursing home and I hadn’t been trained. I was supposed to order pharmacy supplies, the staff would slide the order under the door at me and expect me to know who to call. I sent an email saying, I found the whole thing detrimental to the patients and it wasn’t for me.

SpaceJamtart · 25/08/2022 23:09

About half an hour,
It was a holiday job as a teenager, walked in and the man running the shop slapped me on the bum (really hard) and said "welcome to the gang, girlie".
The other two guys in there laughed.
I started to sort the boxes in the back like I was told to and one of them turned the light off and shut me in there "as a joke".
As soon as he opened the door I just walked out and never went back

Peppermint81 · 25/08/2022 23:11

20 mins!! Fainted at a summer factory job as a teen. To be fair I was rather hungover...

Definitely find another job!

Ameanstreakamilewide · 25/08/2022 23:12

BogOffTraceyBeaker · 25/08/2022 22:28

I dated a guy who started work on Monday went Tuesday and at lunch on the Wednesday he walked out and hasn’t been been back it’s been roughly 30 years

Is he Craig David??

IKnowAPlace · 25/08/2022 23:12

Three months. Mid-senior professional in the industry, had just left a business I'd been with for 8 years. I knew the new place was wrong from day one.

BarryBantam · 25/08/2022 23:14

OMG @SpaceJamtart that's appalling. But good for you.

Like others, my shortest was half a day. Awful, awful place. I walked across the road to a recruitment agency (Brook street, from memory) in my lunch break. They got me a temp contract starting the next day. They said I was not the first person to do this with that particular workplace.

Eupraxia · 25/08/2022 23:16

Have you got another job to go to OP?

If not, start looking now and hand notice in as soon as you're offered.

BarryBantam · 25/08/2022 23:17

But anyway OP if it's not right it's not right.

There are two other jobs where I've stayed far longer than I should have, thinking it can't be all bad. Wrong! You know when it's not working. Don't worry about your colleagues, just apply for something else that suits you better.

marblemad · 25/08/2022 23:19

Very recently around 3 weeks, it was my dream job on paper but when I started it was nothing like it was initially described, absent supervisors, expecting me to come in 4 days a week because trainer refused to 'work online' despite it literally being an online remote role on my contract, I contracted covid at the end of week 2 and due to having elderly team members told them I would be distancing, by the Tuesday they were querying why I hadn't come back in despite me being seriously ill and still very much positive and followed up with 'well so and so had covid last Monday but still managed to come in'?!?! oh cheers for letting me know as someone in the vulnerable category! My first day back was the thursday, first to arrive in and not one member of the team was in despite them telling me they would be, I queried the reception and another manager who informed me the desk space wasn't available that day as the team was 'remote' returned home as instructed only to be phoned by my supervisor 4 hours later asking why I wasn't in the office, told her exactly what had happened that morning and had advised I had been teams messaging and phoning all day, dismissed my comment with a retaliation such as 'well that shouldn't matter you should have just sat there all day' what with no desk, no trainer, and no other colleagues in?? I told her then and there evidentially it was not going to work if that was how the company is ran and it is very unprofessional and resigned. (hint it was a big energy manufacturing company globally but predominantly europe)

marblemad · 25/08/2022 23:21

Oh and they lied about the address of the main hub and training center, telling me it was the one in my city, yet it was in the neighboring town over 20 miles away and they knew I didn't drive!

Original poster
Honkytonky12 · 25/08/2022 23:22

I'm looking at joining an agency if I can to find a job.

OP posts:
RoseMartha · 25/08/2022 23:27

A day. But I had just left school, it was a kitchen assistant in a guest house. What put me off was the owner scraped the leftover bits of cooked breakfast off everyones dishes into a pan and then mixed it with meat and to serve it for dinner.

torquewench · 25/08/2022 23:27

I walked out of an interview once because one person on the interviewing panel was horrible, acting like I was a massive inconvenience. I just said I couldn't ever see me working with someone like her in charge of HR.

Kona84 · 25/08/2022 23:28

3hrs
it was a warehouse job when I was 18 sticking those perfume samples in magazines.
I hated it we were not allowed to talk to the people working next to us. Couldn’t stop for water until break time and the radio was playing golden oldies.
I made it to lunch and walked out didn’t go back.

Original poster
Honkytonky12 · 25/08/2022 23:29

marblemad · 25/08/2022 23:21

Oh and they lied about the address of the main hub and training center, telling me it was the one in my city, yet it was in the neighboring town over 20 miles away and they knew I didn't drive!

Marblemad that sounds awful. My managers are lovely and seem very accommodating but then do sometbibg different. I actually think they are using their niceness to manipulate me though and suck me in.

OP posts:
BarryBantam · 25/08/2022 23:29

Do it, OP - no harm in speaking to agencies. Maybe not temp though if it's perm you need. I wasn't particularly fussed at that point so I was happy taking on a temporary contract.

As it turned out, it was closer to home, slightly better paid and they offered me a permanent post a couple of months later so it all worked out brilliantly but there's no guarantees with temping.

DollyDan · 25/08/2022 23:29

A day! Sold it to me in the interview as a banking job (was my first interview after uni) but in reality was cold calling clients already struggling to get them to borrow more money, was given list to work through which made my stomach turn, they left me to lock up and I put the keys through the safe box and never returned!😁

PinkButtercups · 25/08/2022 23:33

2 hours.