Are we posting quit stories?
Here’s one of my favorites. I used to work in a metal fabrication shop running a specialized piece of equipment. Another person was hired to run the same machine on another shift. I had to come in several times when I was supposed to be not working, just to help this new guy run the machine or fix some problem it was having. I come to find out, our nearly helpless new guy is being paid more than I am.
I took a day off, ignored my phone, and pursued a couple of opportunities. I got lucky and was hired as a draftsman. The next day at work, I gave a two week notice, to great gnashing of teeth. Day two of the two week notice, they decided to just let me go.
So I hit the e-stop, which shut the machine down, requiring a half-hour of time to re-start, and causing the loss of the part it was working on. My now former boss asked what I was working on, and I said “I don’t work here sir. I don’t know what any of this does. I’ll get out of your way.”
I deleted all of my notes. Pages of information I used to run the machine and how to solve various issues. How to set it up. How to take care of it. It was on my phone, because they wouldn’t spring for a notebook and certainly wouldn’t let me use a computer to make nice organized documentation. All of it, gone. New guy gets frustrated and quits a week later.
And now instead of moving heavy things around all day, I sit in a climate-controlled office (in a building I designed) and draw pictures, and some days I fly a drone and take pictures.
now a boss
Someone I worked with had a great rage quit. He worked his ass off for the whole year doing insane overtime and sacrificing way too much for a thankless corporation. When it came to raise time, my boss gave him a 0% raise, citing that he already made more than average/benchmark.
After that meeting he just left. He left all his work stuff on his desk, he didn’t tell anyone he wasn’t coming back from lunch time ish. It took a full month before they stopped paying him, and my boss would come around almost every day to ask if anyone knew where he was or how to contact him. I think they just assumed he was blowing off steam and would come back, meanwhile he moved to another city.
Lovely story… I’ve just found out my healthcare organisation gets its corporate branding wallpaper from an anonymous read blob storage (which I think I can get access to).
The temptation to fill this with dick pics on my last day is more than I thought. Not ready to retire yet, unfortunately!
I also hand a workmate when we were both young and this guy was a hot headed young Russian, he’d monitor the borderware firewall logs and counter hack people probing it (back in 2010…). so on his last week I was really worried about what timebombs or other traps he may have set. Turns out the guy was a complete professional (which shouldn’t have surprised me, really - he hated the management but loved the team and wouldn’t have done anything to hurt us)
Here’s my rage quit story. I worked for a Fidelis Care. We got bought out by a large conglomerate, they fired half the staff and forced the extra work load on the rest of us. I took a call from someone that threatened suicide, and not a single manager in the company would help me connect to the crisis line. The caller hung up, and I still couldn’t get a manager to help me. I called local EMS and requested they do a wellness check. The suicidal caller called back to complain and I got written up. Then they started refusing to let me use vacation time and dangling carrots without putting anything in writing.
They were doing other things like denying free covid testing and HIV testing, which was against state law. I spent lots of my time helping people file external appeals and complaints to the state attorney general after Fidelis denied the internal appeal, against state law. The final straw happened during covid. Right before covid hit, a gentleman was approved for pain injections, but couldn’t get into the office before his authorization ran out, because anything non emergent was closed. Once the doctor’s office was open, the doctor submitted a new request, with the same clinical information, and it was denied. I put an appeal together for this man, painstakingly pulling the clinical records from the first authorization, the second authorization, EVERY PAID CLAIM related to his condition, AND EVERY RX CLAIM FOR PAIN MEDS the company paid for to demonstrate medical necessity. 4 hours of work. The appeals team denied it in 15 minutes later, it was absolutely not reviewed.
I logged of the phone, and prepared the most epic out of office message ever.
I emailed my boss, “I quit effective immediately.” I helped the man file an external appeal through the state department of finances. The state ruled in favor of that customer. Then I helped that man file a complaint against the insurance carrier with the NYS attorney general. The happiest day of 2026 so far was learning that our attorney general, Leticia James, raked them over the fucking coals.
I logged in just to say that that is the best out of office message I’ve ever seen, and to save this post. Also, you can still read the scrubbed out names.
Ok. I’m going to do a better job wiping the names and repost. BRB.
I worked at a horrible restaurant almost 30 years ago run by an obnoxious Spanish man who would not let you have butter for bread, and once when a guest sat on his crappy plastic chair and it broke turned around and put it on his bill. He would follow you around and fuss at you for stupid things, and he liked to follow one waiter named Ken around and criticize his table wiping. “Meestar Ken, that ees not how you do it, first you spray, DEN wipe”.
Finally he did this one too many times, and Ken looked at him and said “get fucked you fat Spaniard, I already got a new job”, and left just before the dinner rush.
If a chair broke due to bad maintenance and the shop owner tried to charge me for it I’m shoving the chair up their ass and then burning the damned place down. Glad Ken got some catharsis.
Who sprays after wiping?
Really depends on the type of mess, I think. If there is a lot of dry crumbs I’d give that a quick brush into the dustpan before spraying and doing the full wipe down. I don’t want to just smear a bunch of wet crumbs around.
Meestar Ken.
You could spray while wiping, but really the point is just that this Spaniard boss is being a micro-managing asshole who dissects every process for not being exactly how they do it
But then you’ll spray your wiping hand 😩
This is how I left my first job. Literally the day I planned to hand in my notice, I had an email from the secretary of my boss’s boss. Big meeting with lots of management - also a pre-meeting beforehand to chat. I waited until management went over in the big meeting that we were deep in the shit, but Forgottengoldfish is going to go over there and fix everything.
“Um, well - I can do a few things in the next two weeks.”
Next job tripled my salary - never looked back.
Just a heads up mate, you used a different username in you story than your current one. Might want to change it to prevent linking identities.
One day while goofing around in the web UI, I set my name as Carnival Prize. Even I get confused still. But yeah, the actual username matches. Thanks for the heads up.
Was the carnival prize a goldfish that you forgot about by any chance?
I think the one they used in the story is the canonical name, if I click their name above the comment it links me to a profile with the name they used in the story in the url.
I was sent to another country overseas for (initially) one month (they made it two in the end, deciding for it a day before I was coming back). They noticed me about it one week before the depart.
While I was abroad, working my ass 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, I was contacted by a headhunter. I explained them the situation and they understood it. They planned an interview for the first day after my (supposed) return.
When my employer decided to keep me there for another month, I had to contact the headhunter, explain it and they rescheduled without issues.
I came back and, as pissed as I was, went to the interview and nailed it. Few days (and interviews later), I had a new job. By then, my current job knew nothing (yet), I was about to give my notice when something happened:
Right before lunch, my then manager, calls everyone and starts a speech saying there’s “some people” who are lately lacking will and enthusiasm because, and I quote, “they clock in at exactly 8 am and clock out at 5pm without caring if there’s other people still working”. That was directed at me because I was pissed and started to simply follow my shift to the second. He continued rambling about how there’s people who don’t deserve to work there and other indirect attacks that clearly had my name on them.
I was going to give my two weeks notice that day, personally, to my boss, but the “meeting” got me so pissed that I decided to be pety about it:
Here, you can, instead, notify the ministry of employment online about your two weeks notice and they send an official notice to the employer in your place.
The boss found about it the same day he called me to offer me a raise. It goes without saying but he wasn’t happy about the notice. He sent me home and told me to never come back. I took my stuff, went home and enjoyed my free days until I started on my current job.
Wait, you have to give 2 weeks notice in your country? Do employers have to give you two weeks notice of firing?
Not every country is as lax as america. In Germany is often 3 months. On the other side a really good reason is required to fire someone.
And if their reason to fire you was not good enough you can actually sue them and get quite a delicious amount of money (it of course depends)
Oh yeah, I’m sure he was just about to give you a raise lol
I heard that one before and was even shown an agenda that said “bump salary by X” (might have been a passing thought at some point, lol) but by then I had already made my decision. They’re bloodsuckers. 😞
Isn’t it odd that you can be fired immediately for any reason (in America, anyway) with disastrous financial consequences; but if you don’t give a two-week notice you risk not getting recommended for future jobs?
It’s not that odd, it is a direct consequence of the complete loss of worker’s rights in the US.
Isn’t it odd that you can be fired immediately for any reason (in America, anyway)
This is why we need more unions.
I plan to go into work wearing nothing but my work boots. I don’t think the two weeks notice will be required
Username checks out
Don’t forget to livestream it
That’s why you try to line up the new job before you quit - they can’t talk shit about you quitting on short notice if you’re still there.
I actually tried to give two weeks at my old job - they didn’t deserve it, but I figured I should. The application for my new job even had a checkbox labeled “I am currently employed and will need two weeks notice of my first shift.”
Instead, they called me on a monday and asked “can you start next monday?”
…My boss wasn’t in that day, and I really wanted a weekend before starting my new job; so on Tuesday, they found out that Friday was my last day.
I dont think I know a single person who doesn’t just put their friend/co-workers down as “supervisors or managers” and use them as a reference.
And I know people will say “thats fraud,” but if you dont realise every business/corporation is committing white collar crimes, fraud, cheating the system, using tax loopholes, etc on a daily basis, I have a bridge to sell you.
I’ve never left a job thinking my direct manager would be a usable reference. Either they are the one who laid me off, or they are mad about having to replace me. Either way I’m not giving their number to anyone, so who cares if I make them more mad leaving without notice.
In the hypothetical universe where I leave a job with a healthy environment on good terms, I would give two weeks independent of the recommendation anyway.
What if your logic is “yes I know THEY commit fraud regularly, but that doesn’t mean I have to.”?
That’s a perfectly reasonable viewpoint to hold, though sadly from a pragmatic perspective all it does is maintains the power imbalance between employers and employees. I’d love to live in a world where I don’t have to commit fraud in order to get a decent job but, for as long as I do, I probably will.
It’s not about references, it’s about when the prospective employer calls your former one and asks if you’re eligible for rehire.
I basically quit a retail job on the spot, because they took your 2 week notice effective immediately, and was wondering why I couldn’t find another until the hiring manager from the same store in another state told me I was marked ineligible for rehire. Once I stopped listing them I found a job easily.
Many states are right to work, meaning that you can quit anytime. Unless you have stuff in a contract requiring notice, quitting without notice does not have legal repercussions. If you’re rage quitting a job, no sane person would use them as a reference. Finally, the bridges we burn light the path forward.
You mean “at will” not “right to work”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law?wprov=sfti1
Sorry, on mobile or I’d embed the URLs as links
The one blemish on my resume is a job I stayed at for a month. I was hired for one job but was told I had to start on a lower job just to get the swing of things. Fine enough. When I started in the position I was hired for, another person in the “entry” job confronted the supervisor about his promises to do the job I was hired for. On another occasion, the big boss (wasn’t a very large business. Most of the higher ups were family) comes in and says “Due to the high amount of samples, we need to work Saturday. I’ll start with volunteers” I took that as (and my coworkers verified) "If nobody volunteers, I’m going to start forcing. " I ended up leaving after one month, no notice. When I left, the supervisor told me he had hoped to put me in another position they were making. Nope. Didn’t work for me. I had left a note saying it was pretty messed up that the coworkers were lied to. Best thing I did. Went to another business for a year and left under more amicable circumstances. Now I’m happy in a job where I’ve been for the past 11 years.
i don’t leave a job expecting a recommendation for another. so yeah. i give as much notice as i feel would be helpful to my peers. if ive been talking openly about leaving then they already know where my docs and such are.
You can both end your employment immediately, and just like it’s nice of you to give notice it’s also nice of them to give severance pay
I imagine the majority of employees are not getting any kind of severance.
And severance pay and notice of layoffs are de facto fairly common in corporate America.
Notice of layoffs and layoff severance are required by WARN act. It’s not just a defacto thing, it was a hard fought victory for labor rights
WARN only kicks in at a 100 people or more laid off, and it only gives you 60 days notice, not any extra pay or benefits.
Its basically the least they can do, and the 100 person threshold gives lots of orgs plently of room to skirt it by doing small, and steady layoffs instead.
It also has to be enforced. Musk laid off thousands of people at Twitter and didnt follow WARN, just paid them 60 days instead. He was sued by individual people, but didnt suffer any penalty for breaking the law itself.
Couldn’t he phrase it as “you will be laid off in 60 days and you’re getting 60 days of bonus PTO”? I don’t see the issue with no warning if they still get paid.
As I recall, they didnt follow WARN at all, just firing thousands people left and right, and only after the fact when they started getting sued did they say “well your severance worked out to 60 days, so that counts.”
I do remember that one of the sale conditions was that all previous employee perks were retained, which twitter had very good severance, like 1 months/pay per year at the company. Some of the lawsuits were about that not being honored.
My favorite no-notice rage quit (tho I’ve done it several times) was when I worked for a call center dealing with big money warranty stuff. People frequently tried to get the warranty extended to cover whatever, even though it was an extremely generous warranty anyway. My mom had died a few months prior, and of course I got the minimum legally acceptable bereavement time. Three days I think. Maybe a week.
On her birthday, I had to work, and I fielded a call by someone who was giving me some sob story about how she couldn’t possibly have followed up on the warranty in the last three years since the problem started because her dad had a stroke. They were now two years outside of the warranty period, and this was the first contact we ever had with them.
I was like look, my mom died a few months back and you know what I did the next day? I paid my bills like an adult because they were due. Today would have been her birthday, and I have to work because that’s what adults do. If you can’t get your shit together in three damned years, you deserve to pay to fix it yourself. Get bent and don’t try to guilt trip people when you don’t know what they are dealing with.
I hung up on her as she stammered some objection, logged out of everything, took my badge and parking pass, slammed them on my supervisors desk, said “you’ll probably want to review my last call.” And walked out. That call wasn’t why I quit, but it was the catalyst.
Edit: apparently this posted as a top level comment… it was meant to be a reply to the chain about no notice quitting… my bad
I once interrupted a conversation where I was about to be promoted in order to give my 2 weeks’ notice.
Zero regrets, 10/10, would do it all over again.
Every time you think “I don’t like this job but maybe it’ll get better after XYZ”, the answer is always the same.
My last week at one employer saw me sitting in an empty cubicle all week because they took my gear. So I called up my new boss, told him I could start early (remotely). Next day I had a laptop and docs to read while I waited out the week.
Hey he worked hard planning how to best exploit your labor at least listen.
I posted about this last week :
https://lemmy.world/post/42963753/22068707
reminds me of the time I went on sabbatical just around the timeframe of the annual reviews.
I went into the meeting with my manager, let him know I fixed the automations I committed to fixing, and that I wasn’t coming back after my holiday, and that I was going on a sabbatical. His face was blank, silent and still for a bit, and felt like in his mind he had a stack of paper he was going to talk about, which he then threw into the air.
Felt good man.
Removed by mod
It wouldn’t be a good year without you man
