What's the shortest time you've stayed in a job you hated?

[Ripthevivienne2025]

Been in mine since the last week of November and really don't like it. Not sure how much longer to stick it out..it's a 'professional' job and it does have good benefits, but the actual work i hate.

I really enjoyed being a Care Assistant sadly that's a looked down upon career which is a shame, it was rewarding though and I was good at it. Part of me wants to go back if I can find one with contracted hours.

About 3 hours! It was many years ago, when my kids were little. Telesales. Bloody awful. I later did care work for 20-odd years and loved it, although the pay wasn't the best and there was a lot of driving about. I think it's better to have a job you like than one that pays well but which you dread going to.

Life's to short to stay somewhere you don't like, for whatever reason, find something else, move on.

Knew i hated it 2 weeks in (although all the signs were there from 24 hours)
Handed notice in to go to another job 2.5 months in.
Left at just shy of 6 months.

Professional role

Best decision career wise I made...

3 hours wow, I bet Telesales is very hard work!
Thanks, I just find that a lot of care work is 0 hours but I need financial stability. If I can find something with guaranteed hours I'm tempted to go for it.. honestly never laughed nor cried as much as doing that job. It's a shame people have said I'm wasting my qualifications. I'm in my mid 30s though and used my qualifications for over a decade up to now. I agree life is too short.

2 weeks. Knew I wanted to leave almost immediately after starting though. The worst management and staff members I've ever, ever encountered.

I had a job that I worked in for about 1.5 weeks. It was awful. Ridiculous hierarchy and nothing to do. NHS CCG. It was heartbreaking the money they were wasting on a massive office full of people all just sitting there.

Half a day , working at Heinz in the accounts team sorting invoices by date order in a room with no windows - went to lunch and never went back

Is CCG customer compliance group by any chance? I'm in compliance but not in the NHS.

5 hours. It was a supermarket and the rules were like being at school.

Clinical commissioning group. So choosing what providers provide what services, basically.

About three weeks, I fucking loathed it, nothing is worth that feeling of dread. Leave leave leave. Gone are the days where you need to stay in a job for a year to look good on your CV. People move far more frequently now.

There's nothing wrong with being a care assistant! Especially if you find it rewarding, you are needed!

I worked in a department store, one woman went out at the morning tea break on her first day to get something to eat and never came back!

The shortest time I stayed in a job was two months, I hated it.

2 days

The shortest I lasted was 1 day. I didn't go back the next day. The job was dull but it was the coworkers, they were vile.

Thank you! I managed 2.5 years as a care assistant, the difficult side was pressuring you to do extra overtime ! Paid luckily, but still.
It sounds daft but I know my family were proud of me getting this job and they might be disappointed if I leave, but I have to do what's right for me, it's my life.

Similar experience in telesales many years ago. Was given a phone book and told to ring people/anyone to give away a free mobile phone. Back in the day when they were a newish concept.
Team leader would walk up and down the staff barking orders and targets, horrendous.

6 months and i panicked at it ruining my CV for about 5 years after!

A few weeks, it wasn't the hours they stated at interview and was going to end up being a pain in the arse to get there as it was rural and they were making me work much, much later. I just left it off my cv completly.

I have never been in a care position where I wouldn't receive daily requests for extra hours. Honestly, you'd be swatting them calls away as they seemingly want you to work 24/7. I wouldn't worry about that nor about what anyone else thinks about it as a career choice. Why does it matter what someone thinks if you enjoy doing it?

2 hours. Retail shop. It was foul.

... 1 and a half hours

About an hour.

Started as a head chef. Was told by the owner I had to use fish and meat that was in the fridge . Meat cooked but undated so I had no idea how long it had been there. Fish 5 days out of date. I refused . He insisted. I walked out.

Hard to know whether to classify it as a week or a day, as the first week wasn't really working. But basically started a job, was completely and utterly ignored for a week, despite emailing, trying to contact on teams etc, apart from a snippy reply basically don't bother me do the training, which id already completed. Then when the manager finally decided to talk to me, on the Monday after that week, I saw it wasn't going anywhere good and sent an email quitting and asking where to send the laptop back to etc

About 5-6 months. It was a really unwelcoming team where your face had to fit and it became obvious really early that mine didn't. The training was crap too. I tried to make it work but a role I really wanted came up after I'd been there about 4 months and I went for it and got it. (Same organisation).

When I left, there was no leaving card or anything (not that I wanted/expected it) and not one person acknowledged it at all. I still see members of that team around the office and they just blank me. 😂

It was very reassuring that I'd made the right decision! Also I've had several people since comment that it's known as being a very odd team. Wish I'd known before!

One shift.

one fucking awful, soul-destroying shift.

That they docked me 11p for.