Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

112 replies

Ripthevivienne2025 · 13/01/2025 14:51

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.

OP posts:
imhavinghoops · 13/01/2025 15:11

Managed an hour selling utilities door to door. Needed the money as a student but not enough to do that. We were told to hound an elderly couple who I could see through the window were barely able to make it to the door. Said I had enough and went home.

leopardprintz · 13/01/2025 15:12

Around a month but I’d done a few weeks unpaid training too. It was as a home carer.

They knew the hours I could work but my phone would be ringing none stop with the managers asking me to attend calls at all hours. They would want me to do 7am - 11pm when I was a young single mum. Yes there was some gaps inbetween but you didn’t get paid unless you were at the clients house. I also didn’t drive.

I had old men grab me.
Incontinence pads thrown at me countless times
Old women farting like animals as a sign of disrespect at me being there
Going to hoarders houses and walking into naked old people who couldn’t look after themselves and we would sometimes only have 5 min slots.
Some had barely any food in and we had to sort something.

It was awful.

SofaSurfer1993 · 13/01/2025 15:12

5 months but I had a month of sick and two weeks gardening leave at the end 😥

Andarna · 13/01/2025 15:12

3 years.

I really needed the money, but 20 years later I still wonder if it was worth it. Well, it wasn't as in it didn't pay much but I was in an abusive relationship as well so was just trying to survive at the time.

LisaD1 · 13/01/2025 15:15

Many years ago I moved to a live in job 3 hours from home, worked a full day, packed up my stuff that same evening and went home. It was absolutlely vile.

BeachHutsAndDeckchairs · 13/01/2025 15:18

I do agency work and there are some places - only a handful in a career that's in its 3rd decade - that I refuse to go back to after just one day there. I was in a role with a fixed-term contract for 1 year but spent 1/3 of it signed off.

A job that you enjoy, even if it only just covers the bills, is much, much better than a job you hate but that pays well. You have plenty of money but have that feeling of dread that weighs in your gut like a boulder that won't shift and this is no way to live.

Isitisit · 13/01/2025 15:20

6 days at a recruitment agency.

Couldn’t handle the lies they used to get leads.

Merryoldgoat · 13/01/2025 15:20

1questionfromme · 13/01/2025 14:56

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.

I saw this at my local council. It was honestly really upsetting.

Ohohohcomeagain · 13/01/2025 15:21

1 day!

Bluejacket · 13/01/2025 15:21

Does not actually starting the job count? I was a lab technician in the pharmaceutical industry. Basically analytical chemistry. Newly married we moved to South Africa for an ‘adventure’. The only lab job I could land was in a condom factory. Level of work was putting condoms on a tap, and turning on water to look for pinholes (quality control). Fortunately the day before I was due to start I got a proper lab technician job in pharmaceuticals and stayed there for 3 years.

coxesorangepippin · 13/01/2025 15:21

About 3 hours

As a job as a chalet hostess in France

Cyclebabble · 13/01/2025 15:23

Not me, but we once had a new EA in the team opposite us. Boss was awful. She quite after half a day.

coxesorangepippin · 13/01/2025 15:23

, working at Heinz in the accounts team sorting invoices by date order in a room with no windows

^
Just awful isn't it!

I once got offered a job in a room with no windows

I didn't accept it, life is too short.

SecondStarOnTheRight · 13/01/2025 15:29

Two shifts. Supermarket job but ended up being put on a completely different job to what I was offered (and even that was different to the job i'd applied for) but the part that made me quit was when they where clearly annoyed when I reminded them I couldn't work on one particular day for something that was unavoidable. I'd informed them it was a day I couldn't work at the interview stage but they still twice told me they expected me in on that day.

Still begrudge even going into the supermarket now and this was years ago!

Tillow4ever · 13/01/2025 15:31

Roughly 4 hours. It was a market stall. It stank. I was cold. I was wearing jeans and had spilt all sorts all over me by accident so I was also soaking in this cold weather. And I've never admitted this to anyone, but I couldn't go to the loo and wet myself a little bit. I was mortified. I handed them back the apron and said "I'm sorry, I can't do this".

BlessedAreTheCheesemakerz · 13/01/2025 15:31

Two weeks.

Nannying job, and the girls' mother reprimanded me a couple of days in for prioritising cuddling her sick baby over cooking dinner for her husband. We were clearly not going to get on.

The next day, I accepted another position I'd also been offered, and gave her a week's notice. 😀

Ahappymediumlarge · 13/01/2025 15:31

One day - Chelsea Girl (remember them?) when I was about 18.

The manager assumed we were only there to steal so went through our bags and made us get changed communally, and we were expected to get there early / stay late to tidy up (unpaid time).

I was left in the shoe department on my own and quickly realised that very few boxes contained the correct shoes, so customers had to wait while I desperately tried to match a pair. When I pointed this out the manager told me I needed to go through the whole storeroom and sort them all out. Nope, I didn't.

ForgettingMeNot · 13/01/2025 15:34

Two years. I'd been made redundant two months into a job so this was a job I took as I'm in a fairly niche industry and it was all there was and I needed money

I tried to like it but my face did not fit, never had that issue before so it took me two years to find something I really wanted to change two as wasn't prepared to jump from one 💩 place to another.

I'm very happy in my job now

JustHereWithMyPopcorn · 13/01/2025 15:35

One week and that was two long, it felt like a year.

Ineedanewsofa · 13/01/2025 15:35

6 days. Recruitment for contract/temp staff and drivers for warehouses/logistics. Absolutely horrendous culture (beers at lunch and coke in the loos!), totally financially driven, pressured to pass RTW checks even though paperwork was dodgy.
Left everything on the desk, walked out and called the next day to say I wouldn’t be back. Best career decision I ever made!

bobby81 · 13/01/2025 15:35

3 days - it just wasn’t the role that they advertised & I felt they had lied to me at interview about what it involved so I left. I felt extremely lucky to be in a financial position to just walk away.
OP have you considered care work for a local authority? More likely to be contracted hours & the pension is great. In my area there always seem to be vacancies advertised on the council website.

FarmGirl78 · 13/01/2025 15:42

Promotion to elsewhere in the NHS which I relocated for. It came with additional salary points for extra responsibilities which didn't actually exist, they just paid everyone extra because they were desperate for staff. I was the only applicant and they offered it to me before I'd even left the interview room. I started and it quickly became clear there was massive chances for further promotion as they had very inexperienced staff in senior roles. The management was simply awful, it was clear the Lead had breezed in from private industry and didn't really have much of a clue about the runnings of the NHS. After 2 weeks I rang the local hospital to ask if they had any basic grade jobs going. The salary and status just weren't worth it. The lack of training was just awful and there was no focus, just like everyone was winging it. I handed my 2 months notice in as soon as I got the basic grade job. I was there a little less than 4 months. For a "career" job in a specialist NHS institute that's an incredibly short time.

Picklewicklepickle · 13/01/2025 15:42

2 weeks telesales cold calling as a student, absolute hell. Luckily my old manager at a clothes shop I worked in at school was happy to have me back with open arms! I can’t believe I even lasted a day, I got no leads so would have been sacked at some point anyway.

2 weeks in a job that I actually quite liked but the commute was a bugger and the job I’d actually wanted then called me for interview after a week. I’d been made redundant so I had to take it but still feel really bad for leaving after such a short amount of time, the other job was the right move though.

confusedlots · 13/01/2025 15:43

A month. It was awful and I handed in my notice during the first week but they made me work my notice, which was pointless as they were still training me during that period

cheezncrackers · 13/01/2025 15:44

One day! Cold calling trying to sell kitchens when I was a student. It was so utterly soul-crushing that I didn't even go back for my wages.