To ask you - what's the fastest you've gone "f*** this" to a job

[Weston14]

Inspired by some chat in my office today.

Worked in one of those horrible, sickly, neon-lit dessert type places as a sixth former. Did one shift where I came straight from sixth form and was rota'd until 10pm, didn't end up getting out til about half midnight at which point I'd missed the last bus, I was covered in batter and chocolate, it was roasting, they had Capital on which just played the same three songs over and over again, and I ended up spending half the shift hidden in the fridge in the stock room. Ended up getting paid for a full week's work and blocked the recruiter's number and the manager's number in case they came asking for it.

At what I thought was an interview, but turned out to be "sign the contract, put on your uniform and get on the shop floor". They were desperate, and happy to hire me off the back of my CV.

I was shown to the staff-only area by the manager, who left me to it as the boss from HQ had flown over to visit.

The whole staff area was chaos. 5 foot piles of muddled up stuff in boxes with a narrow path to coat hooks and then the toilet. You couldn't access the fridge/kettle/sink because of all the stuff.

While I was reading the contract and manual, a worker came up to try and find something in the mess. I knew her to say hi to as we'd both worked at the same supermarket, so I asked her if it was always such a bloody mess. She said it was usually worse, had been tidied up for the big boss, and would be much worse again in a couple of days.

I went and told the manager (who was with the big boss) thank you, but dealing with the mess and poorly labelled planograms for minimum wage was a big ask. He agreed with me and said fair enough.

I went to get my stuff, and the big boss from HQ followed me sounding panicked, saying that he couldn't promise anything, but they were considering upping the wage by 50p (I knew food retail was paying at more than that at the time for less insanity).

Turns out the manager had given notice to the big boss just before I came over and said "thanks but no thanks", saying they couldn't keep local workers with such poor pay. Then I went and demonstrated it!🤣

I did a trial shift in a hotel once where I shadowed a member of staff for a few hours.
She showed me how they serviced the rooms cutting as many corners as possible including just rinsing the mugs and glasses under the bathroom tap and not replacing with new clean ones.
I didn't go back, and told everyone that would listen not to stay there!

I worked in a cafe and got sacked after three days. And got told to tell my friend who was also working there that she was sacked too. She'd spent three months working as a waitress in Switzerland so was perfectly capable. The manager just didn't like us.

In terms of my choosing to leave, I had a Saturday job in Boots that I left because it was an 8am start (I was a teenager) and I was on the till all day after the first hour and it was soooo boring. I stuck it out for about 3 months. And I had one job where I knew I'd made a mistake on day one but left at the end of my six month probation.

Worked in a brand new SEMH school, which I had loads of experience in. Second week got belted with a chair by a very angry young man. Went on sick for 3 months and didn't go back.

Years ago now, but took a part time cleaning job during the evening at a school. I'd left my last job in administration and won a tribunal against the boss and was just looking for something that fit in with childcare while I applied for other admin jobs.
I got hired from the phone call which should have given me a heads up on how shit it was going to be. The school was FILTHY. Built up dirt and rubbish too, it had clearly not been cleaned properly for quite some time. The supplies we were given to clean with were piss poor and watered down, what we had to get done in 4 hours was physically impossible. No wonder it was such a mess. I lasted 4 days and quit. I told the guy exactly why I was leaving too and he wasn't even remotely surprised.

2 jobs I left at end of 1st day. You know when it's shit, life too short.

I lasted around four hours in an admin role in an office of a warehouse.
It was horrendous. There were nine of us altogether and the supervisor ran me through the list of rules.
First rule was that there was to be no talking in the office unless it was regarding a work related matter.
Strictly no eating or drinking at your desk, of anything.
Break time was at 10.45 for 10 minutes, lunch was 12.30 for 30 minutes and afternoon break was at 15.15 for ten minutes.
You had to take your break in the canteen with the warehouse staff and during the 10 minute break, you were expected to drink your drink and use the toilet, as once you were back behind your desk, you couldn't go to the toilet, unless it was a dire emergency in which case you had to ask permission.
Mobile phones were banned and had to be turned off and handed over to be locked in a cupboard until break and home time.
I lasted until lunchtime, collected my phone and walked out. I didn't even bother to tell them.

Waitressing. Saw a steak sent back because customer asked for no sauce. Chef threw it in the sink with dirty pans, washed the sauce off, put it back on the grill and sent it back out.

I walked out.

I was a carer . Very limited training . Used to do doubles ( me and another carer ) to calls where people were completely immobile , being moved with hoists . I was not comfortable with this - these are humans , they should be safe , I told them I wasn’t comfortable . I was 8st nothing and moving and lifting people who were 2/3 times the size of me . I asked if I could just do singles ( these are people that just need medication , a meal , maybe a strip wash- more things like dementia rather than mobility issues . I said I would do doubles if I was with an experienced carer , as there were some who were and were completely confident and I was just like an assistant. One day they sent me on doubles , supposedly with an experienced carer . Met them at the property of a woman who was obese , completely immobile and needed rolling over to clean and change pad , but then hoisted out of bed to get changed and for us to re make the bed . When I met the carer I was with it was a girl who was 18 , had never done care before , had shadowed two runs ( so about 12 calls and shadowing means she was with 2 carers so wouldn’t have actually done anything , just watched ) . She was even smaller than me , she asked me if I had done this call before as she was really nervous about it . There was absolutely no way I was going to go and lift a vulnerable person when I didn’t feel secure in doing so. I called my manager and told her , she said I was fine and had done my training ( about an hour in the back office with someone showing me what buttons to press on a hoist ) . I refused . She said I wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t do it. I said you either send someone experienced or I am going home and I won’t be returning . She told me I would be in breach of my ( 0 hour ) contract . I told them I was going home and if I didn’t get paid for what I had worked that week I would take it further . I left and never went back . I will NEVER allow my loved ones to have carers after what I witnessed in my time there .

Another - this was years ago . Worked in a transport office of a family run business . I worked a night shift , one of the drivers took me home and started asking if I had a boyfriend , would I like a date , could he come into my house , who was in my house etc . I was 25. This man was over 60 , I felt uncomfortable- I was going to an empty house but I told him my partner was in there . Next day , I spoke to the manager and asked to never have that person take me home .

The day after that I was called in to the office by the same manager I spoke to , he started saying I had been making mistakes , but wouldn’t be specific . I had done this job somewhere else since I was 16 . I knew I hadn’t made mistakes , I asked him to show me so I could look and see - he refused . He was about to fire me , it was clear . So I told him I knew it was because I had complained about that person ( who was his family member ) , and not politely told him to shove his job and walked out .

I would have been fired had I not walked out and I know I could have taken it further but I didn’t want any more to do with the company to be honest .

Horrible waitress job circa 1999, did one shift and never went back. Letchy blokes, both staff and customers.

2 hours. I was 16 ( loooong time ago)and started work in a supermarket. They showed me how to use the tills then sent me on a tea break. I bolted, ran to a phone box and asked my Dad to come and get me!

1 shift at a care home via an agency Asa 'fill in' kind of job when I moved to a new area- I had in the past done 18 months nursing training so was aware of lots of aspects of the job but what I was unaware of was it was a home for people with advanced dementia - there was shit behind taps in bathrooms, in fact shit in lots of places you wouldn't expect it and you were it seems expected to act as carer, cleaner and apparently cook , as within half an hour there they had me peeling spuds for 7 pans of potatoes. As soon as I got home I sent a message saying I wouldn't be returning and luckily started a straight forward admin job the following week. I don't have a problem with doing care, I quite like it- I do have a problem when it was totally mid sold and I suspect they hadn't told the agency the truth either - this was early 90s

I once did agency work for a food canning company, they did a lot of the 'value' tins for supermarket chains- meatballs in tomato sauce, chicken in white sauce, lamb hotpot etc.

I spent my first day unpacking boxes of frozen meat in the cavernous freezer warehouse with no protective gloves so by the end of the day my hands were raw & bleeding.

Second day was spent loading can lids into the machine, again, no protection & once again got covered in vicious little cuts, but that was honestly preferable than having to stare at can lids slowly depleting so you can once again fill it up.

Rinse & repeat for a 12 hour shift, only instead of the arctic it was more like the sweaty himidity of a tropical ranforest with none of its charm.

I noticed there were these weird invertebrates crawling all over the walls, sort of like woodlice, but bigger, leggier & a sort of off-white colour you'd expect to see of some species that had evolved in deep caverns.

My third & 4th mornings were spent power washing the huge carts that moved gallons of slop from one end of the factory to the other, it was mostly welded dried on when we received them & the water pressure had a habit of going up & down, & of course was stone cold.

Oh & these same carts were also used to wheel any waste outside- which looked & smelled like some sort of post apocalyptic wasteland with broken machinery lying about gently rusting away, skips overfilled with stinking meat & the fattest rats I have ever seen scuttling around with no fear of humans.

The afternoons, meanwhile, were spent on 'meat tuck'- standing by the conveyor belt & hand tucking gobbets of raw meat that had missed being squirted directly into the cans, 9 out of 10 cans had one or more of these stringy wee beasties peering out of them so it was all systems go.

I lasted 4 days, went vegetarian & have never eaten tinned food again.

i have been offered and accepted a part time job. I wanted it and it sounded great. As soon as I accepted it the trouble began. So many requests for information and already being told I will be expected to do extra duties to what was advertised including nights at a set rate lower than my hourly rate. This has been going on for 8 weeks and still no induction date, info on what my part time hours will be and a change to the location has been suggested which will add twenty minutes each way to my commute. I am now being told i have to pay to join a professional body and for my own background checks and that I will have to change my vehicle insurance to business all at my own expense. None of this was previously mentioned. This is a crap pay part time job so today i have told them I am no longer interested. So quit before I started. Just been getting increasingly bad vibes about the company. Shame really as I know I would be brilliant at the job but it is their loss.

I had this exact same experience! Bloody awful! Took me hours to find my way home x

Meant to quote you - snap! X

I was a burglar alarm seller for just 8 hours. You can't flog alarms on estates where everyone has bulldogs or baseball bats or both. Team leader was a spotty little prick in a too-big suit as well.

Worked in Boots- first job, I was only 18 and very sweet and non-confrontational and very pretty. The women were utterly horrible to me, bitter, jealous and so bitchy. It came to a head when the manager called my landline a good 9 times ( it was my parents phone too ) on on day off when I was getting ready for prom as she wanted me to work. 9 times in a row! I moved on to much better things luckily and never let it put me off working but no way was I going back there!

Something similar happened to me @CreateAUsername2024 , many years ago when I was a teenager I applied for a job in Woolworths and as I met the interviewer at the door of the shop, we had to walk through the shop and past the other workers. They were all women and quite a lot older than me, and all stood there with folded arms staring at me in a hostile way. I could see them muttering to each other about me, stony-faced. I told the interviewer I didn't think the job would be right for me. I was not particularly pretty or anything, but I was young and slim at the time.