We all need jobs to make ends meet—but we all have our limits, too. No matter how badly we need our money, there are certain things that we simply will not endure, no matter how many bills we have to pay. So, when our current jobs require us to cross one of those lines in one way or another, there’s only one solution: a good, old-fashioned, epic rage quit! Here are 42 stories of workers who have been in that position and on how their big moments went down.
1. Which One Will You Choose?
A long time ago, I was working at a restaurant that was, to put it bluntly, absolutely freakin’ atrocious. The place was almost always dead apart from the owner’s friends, who would make it their life’s mission to be incredibly rude to myself and the other staff members. Somehow, I stuck it out working there for six months.
The final straw came at Christmas, when I wanted to travel back home to spend time with my family (as my grandmother was sick at the time); and their response was, “You’ll just have to decide what’s more important, your job or your family.” I decided. I told them that this was the dumbest and most insulting question I had ever heard, and walked straight out the door.
2. Keeping Them Waiting
I used to work at a Red Lobster franchise for a few years back when I was in college. I didn't really have any complaints, it was what it was. Right after graduating, I moved to another town and was able to transfer to a different location near my new area. Worst experience of my life. Horrible management, and the location was in a relatively upscale part of town—so there were MUCH better alternatives for seafood nearby and the customers were always awful as a result.
We were required to be on site at least 15 minutes prior to the start of our shift for a pre-shift meeting and changeover and what not. The thing was, however, that you couldn't clock in until five minutes before your scheduled start time. Like every other lousy company, Darden Restaurants (the former owner of Red Lobster, and also a VERY lousy company in its own right) wanted to run skeleton crews with the bare minimum number of personnel on hand to save money.
So, of course, we were always scrambling with whatever we needed to do. Often, I would come in for a shift and would already have multiple tables seated and waiting for me. The host manager’s mentality was “Well, they need to be here 15 minutes early anyway, so why not have the customers ready for as soon as they arrive?” No one seemed to ever bother to clarify why this idea was wrong on many levels.
Well, one day, I came in and already had a seated table. I went over and greeted them immediately. They were upset at having been made to wait for me, but they were also understanding when I explained that I had just arrived. I then went to the bar to ask them to make some drinks (I couldn't just enter the orders in the system, since I couldn't clock in yet).
While I was waiting for the drinks to be made, I began venting to a fellow server about the situation. I mentioned that "If they give me another table before I can even clock in, I swear I'm done!" Well, before I could even finish that sentence, they had seated another family and expected me to serve their table. I politely told the server I was venting to that it was nice to have worked with them.
I then made sure to let BOTH tables know that they were currently seated in a section that didn't even have a server yet because the company didn't want to pay for a full staff—and that, in the future, they should choose to dine at restaurants that actually cared about them having a good experience. I then walked out the door without even saying as much as a word to my manager.
No regrets, and I'll never give Darden a dime of my money ever again.
3. A Star Is Born
My wife was about to give birth, and I had just taken an odd job as a temporary thing. We had just moved to a new city and I had started this job less than three weeks earlier. The plan was for me to work there for a bit while I continued to search for an office job in engineering for the long run. Well, when the big night finally came, I called my supervisor to let him know that I couldn’t come in because my wife was having contractions and her water had just broken.
He told me to get to work and that the baby wouldn't be born till later anyways. I said, “No, I'm driving my wife to the hospital now.” He told me to get the you-know-what back to work, so I simply said, "I quit" and hung up on him. No more than 10 days later, I found a much better job and I have been happily employed here for four years at this point.
4. A Family Dis-Oriented Business
I used to work at a small, family-owned restaurant for over a year. All I ever did while I was there was wash dishes. The owner hated me and always did her best to make my shift miserable because her creepy husband loved being around me and talking to me all the time. Eventually, she accused me of secretly hooking up with him more than once.
My last straw was when she decided to call me a filthy prostitute in front of not just my coworkers, but also a whole group of customers. I was 15 years old.
5. The Feature Attraction
I used to work at a movie theater in my hometown all throughout my high school years. When I moved away to start college, I was able to transfer to a theater owned by the same company as the one in my college town. The management at the new theater was absolutely terrible. They were demeaning towards the staff, they fired people for not selling rewards cards, and they scheduled mandatory all-hands meetings with less than a week’s notice.
At one such meeting, (at seven in the morning on a Sunday, by the way), some of my coworkers were starting to fall asleep. To wake them up, our managers forced all of us to stand up, do five jumping jacks, and sit back down. They did this every time that anyone fell asleep at any point for the duration of the three-hour meeting.
After around the fourth or fifth time that this occurred, I decided that I'd had enough. I didn't stand up for our "punishment" when everyone else did. My manager singled me out, asking why I refused to participate. I replied, "We're not children, don't treat us like we are." I was 20 years old at the time. My manager replied by suspending me for a month, right there, in front of everyone.
I promptly replied, "I’ll save you the trouble! I quit" and never went back. No regrets.
6. You’re Tearing Us Apart!
This just happened two weeks ago. I was going out with some friends one evening and I tore my ACL. I told my boss that I couldn’t come in for a while because of this. I’m a chef, so there was no way I would be able to work with a torn ACL. Unfortunately, my boss failed to understand that and said that if I didn’t come in the next day I would be let go. So, I quit on the spot.
7. Running Behind Schedule
I was in university working at a Pizza Hut franchise. The assistant manager was a jerk who was always way too touchy with the girls who were working there. I started dating one of those girls. He was still touchy with her, so we had a talk. After that, he hated me and tried to screw me over on scheduling at every possible opportunity he got, so I always had to get the supervising manager to fix the schedules for me.
Skip forward about six months or so and I was the next person to get off one evening, but he was intentionally keeping me for way longer than he was supposed to. I had friends who were going to see the movie Spirited Away in a theater that was about an hour and a half away from where I worked. It was probably the only chance I would have to go.
So, I was just like "Can I go? No? Okay, then I quit. I'll find another minimum wage job tomorrow." Apron drop. I then left and never returned.
8. I Walk the Line
I was 18 years old and working at a movie theater concession stand on an extra busy day. My coworkers made themselves busy doing things that didn’t need to be done (like checking toilet paper or organizing candy) instead of helping me with a long line of customers that wrapped itself around the entire stand. One lady got extremely nasty with me because I didn’t butter the middle of her popcorn the way she had wanted me to. She was literally screaming at me for it.
I looked around and saw one of my coworkers just watching me and laughing as they pretended to clean the ticket booth window. I logged out of the computer system, closed the cash register, walked out of the concession stand, slammed the door behind me, told the customer she was a fat jerk who didn’t need more butter, told my coworker to go screw himself, and walked right out of the theater—leaving the long and very confused line of customers completely unattended.
I never went back despite the fact that they were apparently willing to forgive me because this “wasn’t my usual behavior.”
9. Sounds Like You Quit Two Jobs!
My old boss was a jerk who liked to rip off old ladies and low-income families. I got in trouble for doing my job right because it made him look bad. He expected me to do my job and his. So, one day, while he was yelling at me for some nonsense, I abruptly removed my work shirt, threw it in his face, and walked off the job.
The fallout was that I now had no job in a city I had just moved to a few months earlier, but knowing that I had just screwed this guy over made it all worth it. I ended up moving back to my hometown a few weeks later—and that turned out to be for the better.
10. Cooking Up a Storm
First job ever. McDonald's inside a Walmart. It was a busy Saturday afternoon with a line going all the way out the door. The manager starts yelling at me to stop taking orders because she can't keep up with my pace. I was 15 years old at the time and therefore not old enough to work the grill, so I asked what I should do instead.
She rudely told me that if I was too dumb to figure that out, then she didn't need me there. So I was like, "Yeah, I guess you've got this covered then," clocked out, tossed my hat on the ground, and strolled out the front door as she pleaded for me to come back—leaving her to deal with that long lineup on her own. I wish 31-year-old me had the nerve that 15-year-old me had!
11. Green with Envy
I had a job in a salad plant that produces those bags of salad mix that a lot of restaurants use. I was there for two weeks coring lettuce in front of a conveyor belt for eight hours a day. I would pick up a head, slam it, pull the core, put it down, and then move on to the next one. At a job like this, you basically have two options in order to pass the time—you either talk to your co-workers or you plot the downfall of Western civilization.
One really sweet lady had been there for 10 years—10 years on the lettuce line! She got called into the office one day and was gone for about half an hour. She then came back and said "I won't be here tomorrow. I got promoted!" I asked what she'd be doing. "Cabbage!" I wished her well, dropped my stuff, and walked out.
I feel bad about not telling anyone I was quitting, but I was young and disturbed by the idea of doing this for ten years only to move on to cabbage! That was 29 years ago. Had I stayed, I might be up to carrots by now. I sometimes wonder how my life might be different had I stayed, and in those moments I celebrate every decision I've ever made.
12. Up Close and Personal
I quit my job the minute my boss started rubbing my thigh and asking if I’d ever slept with a married man before.
13. A Classic Case of Gaslighting
I worked at a gas station deli back in the day and, right before I went in for my shift one time, my mom called me up to let me know that my sister had been rushed to the hospital and that I needed to get there as soon as possible to be with the family. I called my manager, who told me that I had to find someone to cover my shift if I wanted to miss it.
I called a few people and one person said that they would come in and cover my shift. I called my manager back and let them know that so and so would be covering my shift. My manager said that was ok. I came in two days later for my next shift and the manager immediately started flipping out on me as soon as I walked in the door.
She was ranting about how I had screwed the place over because I didn't show up for my shift. I proceeded to remind her that I had to go to the hospital for my sister and that so and so was covering my shift. She then proceeds to tell me how so and so didn't show up, and how therefore it was my fault that they lost a bunch of money that night and whatnot.
I simply replied "Are you freaking kidding me? I'm sorry if you were too methed out to remember our call, but I had a family emergency so screw you and screw this place!" As I walked out the door, I slowly paused, turned around, and proceeded to shout, "Screw this place!" one more time.
14. Facing the Music
I rage quit my job this past March. The new director of the orchestra that I’ve played in for 11 years decided that she was going to reaudition to replace around a third of the group, most of whom had been playing with the ensemble even longer than me and had never caused any issues or done anything wrong in all that time.
When she announced that, I walked out of the rehearsal, dropped my sheet music with the librarian, and left that jerk without a principal violinist for the last concert of her inaugural season. Take that!
15. It Takes Four to Screw Something Up That Bad!
I once told three out of four managers (as the last one wasn’t there that day) that my grandma had passed away and that I therefore wouldn’t be able to make it to work the day after tomorrow. I had to go to the funeral. I also left a note for the fourth manager and asked everyone to let him know. In the middle of the funeral, I got a call from the fourth manager asking where I was. I called him back to explain, and he said ok.
I went back to work the next day and they immediately handed me a paper saying I’d been written up for doing an improper call out. I handed the paper back and just walked away.
16. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
I had been working 12-hour days for weeks on end. The day before Christmas, they came in and told us that even though the company gave everyone the day after Christmas off, my line still had to come in. I literally turned away from the meeting, grabbed my gear, and walked right out of the door the second I heard that.
17. Bathroom Break
I was working at a grocery store. While kneeling down to stock the lower shelves one day, I suddenly felt something landing on my head. I looked up and discovered that a customer was peeing on my head. That was all it took for me to leave that job and never come back.
18. Out to Lunch
I was working at an inbound cold-call transfer sales job, where you would get utility customers from all across the USA who would be randomly transferred to get a "confirmation number," but in reality were mostly being transferred so we could try to upsell them for extra cable services. I hated it and would always get pressured to sign callers up for Dish Network, even though no one ever wanted it.
One day, my supervisor sits down next to me, listens to every single call I'm doing, and starts questioning me on why I didn't try to sell an 80-year-old woman AT&T U-verse triple play when she said she doesn't own a computer and just uses an antenna. He freaks out and says I need to get my act together from now on.
I just give him a blank stare, continue to take calls for the rest of the morning, and ignore everything he's saying. He is storming around the room, fuming as I make no sales. When my lunch hour arrived, I grabbed my phone charger, headed out on my break, and never came back.
19. Your Share of the Pie
A long time ago, I was working as a real estate agent. After spending over a month working on a $478K deal that I facilitated and eventually closed, my boss handed me a commission check for just $500. That was all I needed to see to never go back to that job. Shortly after that, I moved to Tampa, tripled my salary, and lived happily ever after.
20. Mom One, Jerk Boss Zero
After decades of working at a government service job, my mum finally got fed up with her managers one day and decided to retire. As soon as she informed them of this, they tried to screw her over on her payout amount because of an alleged error in their records from twenty years earlier. In other words, they claimed that they had been paying the wrong amount into her retirement fund after the rules had changed and forgot to update it or something.
Jerk Boss: "It can't be fixed. You would have to bring in your payslips for the whole 20 years to have the evidence to fix it." Mom: "No worries. I'll bring them in this afternoon if you'd like." Jerk Boss: "No, I mean all of them. Every single one." Mom: "Yep." Jerk Boss: "In chronological order." Mom: "Yes of course. I wouldn't keep my payslips in some other order, that wouldn't make any sense at all."
It hadn't even occurred to my mum that one would not keep all those documents in one place, and she never left the job so she just kept on filling up the box. That’s how you leave a lousy job in style!
21. Freedom of Expression
I used to work at an inbound call center. My sales stats went up because I reversed the order of two upsell paragraphs. Nevertheless, my boss got mad at me for doing things my own way and told me to just read the script exactly as it was written. I handed in my notice right then and there. Maybe not fully a rage quit, but definitely a spontaneous one.
22. Let’s Get Away From It All
My boss refused to let me take a weekend off for my best friend’s wedding because a co-worker was already taking the time off for a dirty weekend away with the married guy she was having an affair with. The married guy was my boss, by the way. I was a bridesmaid and had booked the weekend off 10 months in advance.
I quit on the spot and told my boss’s wife he was cheating on her. My best friend’s wedding was lovely.
23. Independence Day
I had a lawyer draw up an intent-to-sue-for-harassment after our new boss required me to work on the Fourth of July. There were usually 100-150 people in office, but that particular day I was the only one in the office. That was the final straw for me after six months of harassment. Result: $40,000 settlement. I still smile when I think of it.
24. Time Off for Good Behavior
I was working for my second job as a welder and booked two weeks holiday off of work. I paid for a trip to Canada to see my (now) wife's family. The day before we were set to leave, my manager suddenly tells me that he's going to have to cancel my time off as he's accidentally booked three people off for the same weeks. I explained that I'd already paid out thousands for this holiday.
He then said I had booked mine last, so I'd have to lose it. I spoke with everyone on site, yet no one else had a pre-paid vacation booked. I went to HR and he was called in to explain. He came out with the same crap he had used before and HR just backed him up. I said ok, got up, and walked off site—with no intention of coming back.
I had 45 missed phone calls by the time that I had driven home, including one voicemail demanding that I get my butt back in or else I would be fired. I called the owner and explained that I had quit and my reason. I then turned my phone off and went on holiday without looking at it again until I got home two weeks later.
Then came the aftermath. I returned from the holiday to nearly 50 angry voicemails from my manager. They included telling me that I was in deep trouble and that I should watch my back when out in public. I sent them all to a solicitor and to the police in case anything happened, along with sending them all to my former boss.
He was dismissed and I was offered his job as I'd been there longer than most of the team had been. I didn't accept the offer, as I had wanted to become self-employed for a while and I felt that this was the push that I needed to finally go through with it.
25. A Story You’ll Never Forget
I used to work at a deli counter in a grocery store. My last straw was getting yelled at for something that I forgot to do. I can't even remember what it was anymore, but it was a very minor thing and it was the first time I had ever forgotten an instruction. I was also the sole reason why my department had still been open and they were working the hell out of me, so they could have been a little more patient and understanding the one time that I made a mistake.
I had been working 10-13 hour days, not getting any help during rushes. After the yelling, I just walked out. The deli was closed for at least a few months after I quit.
26. Slingshot
I used to work as a lifeguard. At one point, I had injured my shoulder and was in a sling, yet they forced me to come into work and threatened to fire me if I didn’t. I had to guard a pool while being unable to swim because, as I mentioned, MY ARM WAS IN A FREAKIN’ SLING. In response, I specifically did the pettiest thing I could possibly think of. I sent in my resignation very late at night, the evening before my morning shift.
Have fun finding a replacement, jerks!
27. We’re in the Money
Not me, but my former co-worker had a great rage quit. I was working at a sporting goods/automotive store with a fairly large staff of around 35-40 people. One of the guys in the automotive department was gay—not flamboyantly so, but it was pretty obvious nevertheless. He was middle-aged, portly, and an extremely nice guy who was a genius in terms of cars.
He had been with his partner for nearly two decades, and they were quite happy together. However, our new general manager was a total jerk, and she frequently made comments about his homosexuality for nearly a month. He tried not to show any reaction, but I could tell it was hurting him. Then, his partner's company suddenly exploded financially (in a good way).
Massive bonuses, huge raises, and all kinds of very cool things happening. The two of them decided that they now had the money to move to Vermont, get married for real, and basically retire. So, at a store meeting, my automotive friend says he has an announcement to make. He tells us that after many years with our company, he's retiring, effective immediately.
He thanks us all for being good people to work with (we were, he was a cool guy) and adds that he has enjoyed his time here. He then took off his name tag, walked over to the GM, and stood there for a moment. He then held his arm straight out in front of him, and dropped the name tag on the floor. His hand then rotated, arm still out, and morphed into the most perfectly formed middle finger I have ever seen.
He then spoke five words, very quietly. "Screw you, you hateful jerk." He then turned around and walked out the door, head held high and "hater's gonna hate" strutting. The rest of us were silent, as the GM turned bright red and stormed off to her office. We all started to laugh and cheer.
28. One Year a Slave
My first job was at McDonald's. I worked there for a year, and was basically everyone’s slave. The managers treated me like garbage, and I was extremely overworked at all times. At four months pregnant, I started having stomach pains one night and bleeding heavily. I was working the drive-thru at the time, so I couldn't just walk away.
I called for the shift manager, explained my issue, and said that I needed to leave. He told me I couldn't and that I needed to just suck it up. I cussed him out, took off my uniform, and left the premises.
29. Pay to Play
There were a couple of things building up to the last straw for me, mainly that I was the supervisor of my crew yet the boss was always just "getting around to the paperwork" that would confirm my title change and pay raise. In the interim, I had not received my proper salary for a full three months. I was also supposed to be getting full medical benefits, but the day I quit the benefits were "in the mail, so just wait"...for another seven months.
30. Priorities
I had a primary job that gave me decent hours, but I wanted more money for the summer so I sought out a second job. I landed a spot as a hostess at a chain restaurant. A day into that job, my mother went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Naturally, the news wrecked me. I was a teenager and already had a lot to deal with (as a teenager would) at the time.
I learned this news about half-way through my shift one day. The supervisor pulled me aside and commented on my attitude. He says I am not smiling much, that I seem down, etc. I was honest and told him about my mom. I told him I was trying my best. Then he tells me, rudely: "Your job is important and you need to be focusing on that right now. Your mom can wait."
I left on the spot.
31. Dance to the Music
My boss told me that we were going to be spending our breaks from now on doing mandatory Zumba. I immediately told her I was going home.
32. Bin There, Done That
I worked at Subway. It was the first day of the $5 footlong deal, and there was a line out the door. Now, all of our veggies were cut that morning at the same time. The bin of onions was getting low, so I ran to the back and got another bin. Because I was wanting to focus on getting people their food, I dumped the new bin into the other one instead of switching them.
The manager came along, pulled the bin out, and threw it at me in front of everyone. I threw my hat down and walked out.
33. Abuse of Power
My manager tried to sexually harass me in the staff room. I didn't turn up for any subsequent shifts.
34. Cancelled Due to Lack of Funds
I worked as one of those super annoying face-to-face fundraising people. You know, those who will stand in your way and use every trick in the book to shame you into sending them money every month so that they can continue their scam. Well, I did the one-day training session and was sent out the next morning. I quit after just two hours.
People hate you (for good reason) and treat you accordingly. I found out soon after how the money is really spent for the most part, and I am now super against this specific type of fundraiser—especially since they ruin the good name of actual charitable fundraising. So now I just ignore these kinds of people as much as possible when they come around, and I warn all my friends not to work for them either.
35. Long Weekend
I rage quit a job once because my boss wouldn't let me take off on a Friday for a wedding, even though I requested it nine months in advance. It was also MY wedding! So, I gave in my two weeks notice on Thursday, got married on Friday, and went on a two-week honeymoon. Take that!
36. Sitting On the Dock of the Pay
When I got a promotion with more responsibilities, I asked my boss for a raise. He told me that, if anything, they’re gonna dock my pay now because it was so rude of me to make that request of them. I went home after my shift that day and never came back.
37. Let’s Give Them Something to Taco About
I worked at a fast food place south of the border during high school and the summer afterward. I was planning on going to college in town, and asked to work nights so that I could attend classes. My manager told me that I was too stupid to go to college and that I should resign myself to working fast food for the rest of my life. She added that she would fire me if I went to college.
I threw my shirt and jalapeno-shaped name badge at her because I was mad, and mostly because I was immature. Either way, I never went back. Consequences: no more free tacos.
38. Can’t Take the Heat
The last straw came when the company had deadlines approaching and the scumbag management staff was getting desperate, so they started cutting out everyone's breaks and harassing people out of filing first aid reports. Someone on my crew was starting to get heat rash (working in the summer in the middle of a heatwave) but the boss was standing in the shade glaring us down so that we wouldn't take breaks.
After my coworker collapsed, I stopped everything and ran to her side to help. The boss came up and said "Uh oh, heatstroke? Take five minutes, get water, and get back to work!" I exploded and told them to go to hell. I said they were as bad a manager as they were a person and that they had no right to treat people like that.
I helped my coworker gather her things and I gathered mine. Then, I drove her to the hospital and I never went back to work. I immediately filed a safety breach report with WorkSafeBC, telling them of every safety rule that the company had broken. Since then, I have heard that at least two others quit and the company is under investigation.
Then, another co-worker asked me to support him in filing a discrimination lawsuit against the company (as the same lousy boss was also very racist towards Native Americans).
39. It’s a Small Stage After All
There's a story about a Disneyland Cast Member (i.e. employee) who snuck backstage at the Aladdin stage show wearing an Indiana Jones-style fedora. During the show, he ran on stage, grabbed the Genie's lamp, and ran off stage reenacting the rolling boulder scene. Epic way to go out on your last day if you ask me!
40. Day On
I once got called into work on my day off. I drove a half-hour to get there. Once there, I was told they didn’t need me that day after all, and I could go home. I did go home. And I did not come back.
41. Roasted
I once had my hands full while working in a restaurant kitchen, so I asked my boss to grab me a container as I cut into a huge roast beef for a customer with blood dripping everywhere. For some inexplicable reason, my boss felt the need to literally roll out on his chair from the office to say, “You have two arms and legs, get it yourself!”
When I said, “Excuse me?” he replied with, “Oh, you didn’t you hear me the first time?” I replied “Yes, I did,” before taking off my apron, walking away from the bloody mess, clocking out right in front of him, and walking out the door. I was scared that my mom was going to flip on me for walking out on the job, but she reacted well and told me not to let someone talk to me like that.
42. Too Little, Too Late
I was working as a General Manager at a struggling restaurant—struggling despite excellent business, because the owners would do stupid things like take trips to Italy on the company dime to source the "perfect" panini press. They also wouldn't staff properly; I was the only waiter ever there, open to close, six days a week, on top of handling phone orders, inventory, and other managerial duties. I was wildly overworked, but I sucked it up because the base pay was good, plus tips.
However, to fund their lavish "business" trips, costs had to be cut at the store. They decided to do this by bumping me down to minimum wage for tipped employees—effectively cutting my salary to 1/10 of its previous level. They were also too chicken to tell me until I got my new teeny paycheck and questioned the mistake. "Oh yeah haha, forgot to mention that blah blah cost-cutting blah valued team member please work with us through this difficult time."
I had worked for two weeks at this new lower rate without my knowledge. Pretty sure that's illegal, but hey, a lot of illegal things go on in the restaurant industry. That's not when I rage quit, though....a couple of hours later, I'm fuming and have decided that I can't work for the lower rate, so now I’m just waiting for the perfect chance to give my notice.
They called in a delivery guy who was fired a few weeks before, and they talk about hiring him to start doing our Facebook posts and handing out flyers around town. Whatever. Then I hear them offer him close to my old salary as "Promotions Manager"! What??? I was basically running the place for $2.13/hr and you're offering this dude almost $20/hr to walk up and down the street saying "Eat at (Name)"?
And yet, it gets worse.
They bring up our negative Yelp reviews and this guy suggests asking friends to post positive ones. The boss starts laughing and says "Better not ask our waitress to post one, it'll be all boohoo don't eat there, I can't pay my rent this month because they cut my pay without telling wahhhh!" I don’t think I was supposed to hear that, but I was five feet away, so of course I did.
I RAGED! I quit on the spot, told them to screw their job, and wished them good luck keeping the place open without me. They quickly realized I was right, as neither of them knew how to do more than pick up the takings once a week. They begged me not to quit. They were so desperate that they sat there for half an hour and allowed me to bluntly tell them exactly what kind of huge idiots I thought they were in excruciating detail.
I went on and on as my rage burned, and they just quietly listened, nodding and apologizing. Once I had cursed myself back into calmness, I walked out, 30 minutes before the dinner rush began, leaving them with an unstaffed floor and no clue how to even open the cash register. God, they were morons. I loved that they actually listened to me telling them exactly how stupid they were. No repercussions on my side, as the restaurant industry isn't known for checking references.
The place closed down about 18 months later, and I was surprised it even made it that long.
43. Sometimes It’s Best to Keep Your Mouth Shut
Company consisted of something like 1,200 employees at the time, and rented out a big conference center for a Christmas party. At the opening of the party, the CFO was giving opening remarks, and asked—expecting cheers—if everyone liked their Christmas bonuses. He got booed. See, of that 1,200 people, a bit over a thousand were in customer service. No one in customer service got bonuses, only people in the "corporate" departments got them.
And our awesome CFO decided to rub everyone's noses in it, because clearly the Chief Financial Officer of a company would have no idea that 80%+ of his company didn't get bonuses. At the same party, the CEO made an announcement that the company would be closed on Friday (Christmas that year was on a Thursday), and everyone got a day off.
Now, he had literally just finished making a speech about how everyone was important, and everyone was part of the company, no matter the department. He had shoveled crap hard, trying to make CS happier. The next day, we all got a memo that Customer Service still had to work on that Friday. We apparently didn't count as "everyone" and the CEO just hadn't realized that the announcement wouldn't apply to anyone.
January saw a 60% attrition rate.
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