When a job's just not for you, it's always better to be upfront and leave it as soon as another job is lined up. These food workers discovered early on that their new place of work was deeply unsatisfying and decided they had to get out, right that second, even though they had nothing else lined up.
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It Was So Disgusting, He Only Lasted Thirty Minutes

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“Back in the ’90s, I worked at a fast food restaurant to supplement my military income. I’ll just say it was associated with a king. I lasted all of 30 minutes. During that time, I witnessed an employee puke into the sink used for washing utensils without cleaning it out before using it again. Then another employee dropped a cooked chicken patty on the nasty floor, picked it up, and put it in a bun to be served. At that point, I just walked out the door, never to return. I never ate at another fast food place again as a result. I guess in a way, something good came of it.”
She Thought It Was Just A Regular Steakhouse Until She Saw The Other Waitresses

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“I had an interview at what I thought was a regular steakhouse in a new town I had just moved to. The interview went well; it was just before the restaurant opened, so it was pretty empty. At the end of it, a waitress starting her shift walked by in buttless chaps and a pair of whale tail undies. It turns out, that was their uniform. The manager called like 30 minutes later saying I got the job. I had to decline that one politely.”
He Opened The Oven And Made A Disgusting Discovery

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“I worked in a bakery. It was my first day, so I got there in the morning to meet everyone. Then they had me grease up baking trays for the others to fill. I lifted up the first tray and like 10 to 15 cockroaches just scattered everywhere from under the tray. I told the guy showing me the work that there were cockroaches and he just shrugged. This was all in the back store; the customers were only about 10 feet away.
So I told the guy that I wasn’t feeling too well after about an hour of doing that and I headed to the bathroom.
When I came out, I told him I couldn’t do that job, and he told me to get a real job then, so I left and got myself a proper job.
I didn’t report the place at the time, but I did tell my mom who had found the job for me and she didn’t believe me and thought I was making it a bigger deal than it was. A month later, an inspector closed the place down because of how nasty it was.”
This Is Why People Shouldn’t Run Businesses As “Hobbies”

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“I was looking for a sporadic part-time job. I applied at this little catering company that had been around for awhile.
I showed up for the interview and realized that a rich guy had bought it two weeks earlier for his wife to have a hobby. They fired everyone and hired their friends’ kids to help out. I was the only one with cooking or hospitality experience. They got me to help out for a few hours to see if they liked me. We got along, and there were a couple of red flags, but the pay was about 50 percent higher than the going rate. We agreed to meet on Sunday to finish up prep for the week and get everything sorted for my role.
I showed up 15 minutes early, and nobody was there. I waited 30 minutes and said screw it since I just started. She called me the next day at 8 a.m., demanding I didn’t go to my regular job and get in there to help her out since she waited an hour for me. I told her I had been there at 2 p.m. the day before and waited for 30 minutes for her. She then exploded, saying that she owned the business and was with her husband at brunch, so it would have been rude to step out to call me. Then she went full Amy’s Baking Company on me. Went off on how she fired everyone because the cooks thought they knew better than her, but she went out and ate all the time. She knew more about restaurants than anyone in the city and how as a grateful employee, I should have sat and waited for her to finish her very important brunch. I ended up hanging upon her. They were closed within three weeks. It seems she knew so much about restaurants that she forgot that to own a food service business, you need a food handling certificate, and at least one person with certification.”
The Lettuce Fields Aren’t For Everyone

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“I had a job in a salad plant (those bags of salad mix a lot of restaurants use). I was there for two weeks coring lettuce: in front of a conveyor belt, eight hours a day, pick up a head of lettuce, slam it, pull the core, put it down, next. You talk to your co-workers, or you plot the downfall of Western civilization. One lovely lady had been there for 10 years on the lettuce line. She got called into the office and was gone for about half an hour. When she came back, she said, ‘I won’t be here tomorrow. I got promoted!’ I asked what she’d be doing. ‘Cabbage!’
I wished her well, dropped my crap and walked out. I feel bad about not putting in a notice, but I was young and, well, 10 years!
That was 28 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.”
He Just Went Through Some Serious Trauma, But They Were More Concerned About The Bread

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“A few weeks after I started, I got held up while I was working as an overnight baker by another employee. Knife to my throat, the works.
The police came, and the issue was mostly resolved. They found her pretty quick since we all recognized her. I still worked the rest of my shift in a bit of a haze but didn’t want to leave the company hanging the next day with nothing to sell or for the other baker to be alone.
The opening manager (who I already couldn’t stand) came in and noticed the police dust everywhere and asked what happened. She was pretty nonplussed to hear we had gotten held up but was incredibly concerned that one of the batches of bread wasn’t glossy because I had forgotten to close the vent when it got steamed.
I walked out, even though it was already the end of my shift, so it wasn’t a huge deal. I just called the GM and said I wouldn’t be coming in that night, or ever.”
“You Get Used To It”

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“When I was 16, I had an interview at a local pizza place in a not so good part of town. I was hired, and as I was walking out, two guys came in and robbed the place. The manager gave them the money in the register, and they ran out. I looked at him, and he said, ‘You get used to it.’ I never went back.”
She Was In A Terrible Accident, But Her Manager Still Didn’t Believe Her

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“When I was 17, I worked fast food. I got in a car accident on my way to work the day after Halloween and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. My mom called my manager. He then told all my co-workers that I was lying and just hungover or drinking. I stayed on for two weeks while not working on doctor’s orders. I stewed on it for those two weeks. About 15 minutes before my first shift back, I called and quit.”
Those Garbage Bags Weren’t Made For A Mess Like That

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“When I was in my late teens, I got a job at McDonald’s inside a mall. On my first day (on the closing shift), I was asked by a lazy assistant manager to empty the grill grease traps into large garbage sacks, quadruple bag them, and toss them down the garbage shoot. Mind you; this was not the appropriate way to dispose of the grease; the right way required a longer process of taking the grease traps, pouring them into a container on wheels, then taking that down the freight elevator, and emptying into a big grease dumper. This process took about 20 minutes, but the manager wanted to get out of there ASAP because she said she had a date.
So there I was, on my first night of this job and I was now waddling like a penguin down the back food court hallway with two giant with heavy garbage bags full of Mickey D’s grease. Before I got to the end of the hall, both bags split wide open, and all of that oil, burger chunks, chicken McNuggets, fish fillet pieces, etc. just completely slather the entire corridor. It smelled awful!
I went back into the store and told the manager, who screamed at me at me, called me useless and told me I had to stay with her to clean it up ‘off the clock.’
I said, ‘You’re outta your mind lady. I quit!’ and threw my hat at her.
The next day, the store manager called me and asked me why I had walked away from the job. I told her the story, and she subsequently fired that assistant manager.”
The Cows Weren’t The Hard Part, It Was The Hours

“I worked in a dairy barn for about three hours. I went to an agricultural college, and my roommate worked at the dairy. He said they needed equipment operators to clean out the barns. I thought, yeah I can do that, thinking it would be four or five hours in the afternoon. This was during the summer, and I already had an 8 to 5 job. I went to the dairy, and they showed me the skid steers and where I needed to scrape. After that, they showed me the milking parlor and everything else. I asked what time I might finish, and they said 1 or 2 a.m. I said, ‘Yeah, no thanks.’ I called the dairy manager on my way out the door and told him it wasn’t for me. I went to the bar and never looked back. My roommate still gives me crap for making him look bad.”
She Had No Idea How To Use A Register, But They Put Her On One Anyway

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“I needed a summer job while in high school, so I applied at a local grocery store to bag/stock/clean. My first day there, there was some sort of confusion as to what I was supposed to do or to whom I was to report
I was sent to the front counter where the customer service manager gave me a till and told me to open a register. Mind you; I’d had ZERO training on a register (I didn’t even know how to put the till in it for goodness sake). I told the lady this and was told to do my job.
Within about two minutes at the register, there was a line several deep, and I was just standing there with the till in my hands.
The customer service lady came storming over, asking why I had such a line and I tried AGAIN to explain to her that I was supposed to be a stocker or whatever and that I knew nothing about operating a register.
She called me stupid in front of the customers, so I handed her the till and told her to screw herself.
I walked down the street in my uniform and got a job at another grocery store.”
Her Lazy Coworker Was The Final Straw

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“When I was 16, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant for like two weeks. The girl they had training me was 18 and more concerned with talking about the lovemaking she’d had with her baby daddy the night before than actually training me. I worked maybe three shifts total in these two weeks… the same thing every shift.
Then one Friday night, she disappeared, leaving me by myself to seat the dinner rush/bus tables by myself. I suffer from chronic migraines, and sure enough, I got a really bad one due to the stress, so I had to leave early. The girl had been MIA for over an hour by this point, but still on the clock (we had punch cards, and they were right by the front door, so I knew for a fact she hadn’t punched out before she disappeared). I was informed another coworker had called in for the next morning and they’d put me on the schedule to come in by myself and open. I was annoyed since I didn’t know what I was doing and the seating chart for the servers was disorganized and confusing as heck, but my migraine was so bad I just wanted to go home and didn’t care enough to argue.
Anyway, I went outside and saw the girl sitting out there, eating McDonald’s with her baby daddy. The managers on duty knew she was out there; they could see her through the window from their office and just didn’t care. I stormed back in and quit on the spot.”
No One Cared When She Was Injured And They Wouldn’t Take Her Education Seriously

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“I worked at Sonic during my first semester of college; I worked there a total of six weeks. I got yelled at because I fell. I spilled grease on my leg and was trying to keep it from burning skin, so I slipped. Someone else left the chicken spatula on a hamburger patty, and because I happened to be on that side of the kitchen, I got chewed out even though I was cleaning and hadn’t touched the grill all day, I usually just worked the fryer.
The final straw was when I told the manager that I was going to start Beauty School in January (this occurred in like October or November) and would have to move to part-time or nights, instead of the full-time days I was working. I was trying to give her enough of a heads up to not inconvenience them. But she told me she knew I wasn’t going to work out and I could just leave. So I just took my apron off and left. Said screw it, I’ll come pick up my last check in two weeks.”
There Were A Lot Of Warning Signs That The Restaurant Wouldn’t Be A Good Fit For Him

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“Many years ago, I worked at a popular sports bar as a line cook. On my first day, they had me train with a guy who didn’t speak English for two hours. Not a huge deal. Mostly you observe people in a kitchen, and that’s how you learn. The owner came back and said she was scheduling me to be alone the next day, which was Super Bowl Sunday.
Noped out of there so fast. I left right then and there.”
Lying To Get Interested Applicants Doesn’t Endear Them To Management

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“I found out that the educational assistance they touted in their advertisement applied only to full-time employees and that they both defined full-time as no fewer than 40 hours and kept anyone who would apply for that assistance from ever being qualified for it. None of this was advertised, and the people I interviewed with assured me, a college student, that working 21 hours a week would get me the benefits. Too bad I read my contract before signing it and called them out. Don’t lie to your employees, especially during an interview on something that can be easily and swiftly disproven. If you’re willing to lie to me about this, what else are you willing to lie to me about?”
They Were Literally Standing Ankle Deep In Sewage Water

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“I transferred to a different Steak N Shake when I moved. I worked there for two weeks before quitting. Not only were they disgusting, but a few weeks earlier the town had flooded. During a shift I was working, damage from the flood caused sewage to rise from the floor drains, causing about two inches of sewer water to sit on the floor. They didn’t close down the store. Instead, we made food while walking through sewer water. It smelled horrible, and I can’t imagine how unsanitary it was. I called the health department, and they got in trouble. I witnessed the big boss come in and ‘talk to’ the manager. After that, I never returned.”
They Kept A Weapon By The Register For WHEN (Not IF) They Got Robbed

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“It was an adult beverages store in a not so good part of town. Part of the orientation included advice on keeping the pervs away from the dirty magazines. ‘If you don’t, you’ll find them tugging off back here,’ and how to use the weapon by the register when (not IF) the store gets robbed. ‘It’s better if they’re not around to tell their side of the story.’
Nope.
It was a summer job when I was home from college. It paid minimum wage ($4.25/hour I think). The rack with the mags was visible from the counter, but the pervs would walk by the rack, grab one and head for the back corner where they’d do their deed. I did NOT fire the weapon as a part of the training, but I was and still am, familiar with weapons.”
Picking Cucumbers Is Hard Enough, But The Boss Didn’t Help Matters

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“Three days.
It was at a greenhouse that grew cucumbers. It was about 110 degrees and 100-percent humidity.
That wasn’t the worst part though. The guy who owned/ran the place was nuts.
One rule was you could listen to a walkman (dating myself), but only if you were listening to classical music.
On breaks, after you’d sweat your sack off for a few hours, he’d come into our break ‘shed’ and write math problems for us to solve on a blackboard.
I called him on the morning of the fourth day and said I wouldn’t be coming in again. He didn’t sound surprised.”
It Just Wasn’t A Safe Environment

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“I didn’t even last a full shift. I was a production operative at a food factory. About 90 percent of people didn’t speak English and shouted at me in Polish; I was shoved and pushed; I wasn’t told what the job even was; I had no health and safety training, what my shifts were, no breaks; they also had me doing physically impossible stuff. I was meant to do two back to back shifts, but I just left after the first shift.”
When His Boss Tried To Cheat Him Out Of His Wages, He Had The Perfect Revenge

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“I got an under-the-table job at a restaurant; the owner told me it would be $8/hr. I worked a 40-hour week before paychecks went out, but I didn’t get one. The owner said that week would be on the next paycheck in two weeks, not to worry. I worked 40 hours again the next week and the week after that was a holiday weekend, so I worked nearly 60 hours, including one 14-hour day without a break. I finally got my paycheck. $44. What the heck. The owner said I was a worthless immigrant and was lucky to get it. I told him to screw himself; he said I was fired.
But I wasn’t having it. I went back to the restaurant and sat at the bar from open, until he left for the next three days, telling everybody who walked in how he treated his employees. At the end of the third day, he took me in his office and gave me my $1,000 paycheck.”