People Break Down Why They Quit Their Job On The First Day

The job market is tough, especially lately, and most of us have imagined what it would be like to find that job that's just perfect enough that we can spend the rest of our working lives there and not have to worry about navigating job applications and interviews anymore.

But there are some jobs that are not destined to last, and it has little to do with the new employee.

Already cringing, Redditor drip47 asked:

"People who quit their jobs on the first day, what made you say, 'I'm done with this'?"

How Much Does This Cost?

"It was a food truck owned by this Russian dude. His cash register was so convoluted. He'd be like, 'To sell hot dog, push 'burger,' then subtract two 'sodas' and 'small fry.'"

"Then he just left me alone. It was overwhelming and I just didn't come back."

- UniverseBear

Security Boundaries

"When I found out their timeclock system didn't track hours worked, but the minutes spent typing or moving your mouse."

"And it'd take random screenshots too (if you're in a video meeting, I guess they get to take pictures of you too?)."

"All that and they wanted this installed on my personal computer."

"That and a few other reasons made me back out after one day."

- -Echo-Echo-

"Heck nah, if they want to install stuff, ESPECIALLY stuff that potentially impedes on your privacy, they need to provide a company device."

- Need_Help_Send_Help

"Seriously! They tried to walk it back, saying they'd make a special exception for me so I wouldn't quit."

"But then they went on about how I'd be judged solely on the work I'm submitting like they were doing something special... Uhhh, that's how it's SUPPOSED to work!"

- -Echo-Echo-

Advocating From A Young Age

"I was in high school, working three part-time jobs. I had been hired as a cashier at a supermarket. I really just wanted to be a stock boy, but oh well."

"I show up to work and the manager isn't there. So I just start asking people like, 'Hey I'm new how do I clock in? What do I do?'"

"Eventually, someone clocks me in like an hour late. They put me on a register, show me the produce code sheet ONCE, and then left me alone. I had no clue how to do a sale, no idea how to do coupons, etc."

"The manager showed up halfway through and yelled at me, in front of a customer, for not knowing produce codes. Even the customer was like, 'Hey, it's his first day. Calm down.'"

"Time for my lunch break. Nobody showed me where the staff room was, so I just bought lunch from the store and ate it in the cafe area. The manager stormed in, took my tray, threw the rest of my food away, and went off that I COULD NOT eat where customers are, that I was stupid, etc."

"I just got up, threw the apron at her, and walked out. Absolutely ridiculous. I did, however, go back and demand my check for hours worked. Because f**k that."

- Bobbito95

"I’m proud of you for quitting AND for going back for your money."

- Maniacboy888

No Empathy On The Job

"It was a telemarketing company selling timeshares around the US. My first call was from an old lady who told me the story of how her husband fell down the stairs two weeks ago and died right in front of her."

"My manager was over my shoulder listening in and said something like, 'Okay, now pitch the package.'"

"I left immediately."

- Thinks_22_Much

Safety First

"I started a line job in a factory that assembled magazines. Because of all the paper sliding along the tracks, little bits would gum up the gears, and they wanted us to reach inside and pull out all the wads of paper scrap about once an hour while someone MANUALLY held down a button that paused the machine from moving."

"I refused, clocked out for lunch, and left."

"It was a job through a temp agency, and they called me the next day, saying I disappeared, and I explained what happened."

"They said they totally understood but that since I had just walked off the job, they couldn't represent me anymore. I said I was totally fine with that.

- Tambi_82

Not Paid As Advertised

"The oh 'By the way we never mentioned it at the interview but you will get 50 percent pay for 6 months till your trial period is over'. I was halfway into my first shift when they sprang that on me. I turned around and walked out. No discussion. Didn't say a word. Just left."

- Happy5Day

"I interviewed for a job like that like 20 years ago. Factory worker in a box company. They advertised 20 dollars per hour, which was pretty decent 20 years ago."

"I went through the entire interview, walked the floor with the hiring manager. Then he offered me the job, and I said good, because I liked the pay."

"He turned around and says that pay was actually not 20 dollars per hour, it was ten. They only advertise 20 because if they were upfront about the pay, then no one would apply."

"I asked him if that switcheroo actually worked on anyone, and he smiled and said yes. I told him it didn't work on me and thanked him for wasting my time."

"As I turned to walk out the door, he said, 'You don't have a job, I think you have time to waste.' F**king annoying and sleazy trying to take advantage of unemployed people."

- dplans455

Injured On The Job

"I was injured and they told me to keep working. I was loading trucks at RPS, by the way."

"I went to the boss and said, 'Who do I tell if I want to quit?'"

"He responded, 'Me.'"

"I said, 'Ah, okay, I quit.'"

"He told me to finish my shift, but I laughed in his face."

- -GearZen-

"Company Property"

"I was laid off from my first job back when I was in high school due to the housing crisis in the 2000s. I was a dishwasher at a restaurant. When new management took over, they offered everyone their old jobs back, and I accepted."

"I tried to take my CD player that I had left there before the layoff home with me, and I was told that I was stealing as it was company property since it was there when they took over."

"Everyone in the kitchen attested that it was my CD player, but the new manager wouldn't hear of it, so I just walked out with it."

"I was called later that night by HR telling me I was fired for stealing company property. I guess I didn't quit, but I was going to do it anyway."

- ntmrkd1

Not The Job Advertised

"It was supposed to be a B2B (Business-to-Business) sales job. The first day, I got paired with a 'highly successful, veteran salesman,' and we went downtown. Next thing I know, we're walking into a Jiffy Lube waiting area, and the guy I'm with busts out a box of makeup samples and starts trying to sell makeup to the people waiting for their oil to get changed."

"We left and I was like, 'Yo, what the f**k? I thought this was B2B sales?'"

"He's like, 'Well, I do go from business to business doing sales.'"

"I'm like, 'Dude, that's door-to-door, not business-to-business,' lol (laughing out loud). I asked to be brought back to my car and never called those fools back."

- brazthemad

Questionable Paychecks

"I was between jobs and got a temp job helping with payroll, and they told me I would have to hold paychecks for people who did not return their uniform, and when I pointed out this was illegal (and showed them the law), they said to do it anyway."

"So I quit and went back on unemployment until I found a real job three weeks later. Quitting a job because they want you to break the law gets you unemployment in most States."

- too_many_shoes14

Set Up To Fail

"In high school, a friend of mine talked up this warehouse job he had for an online surplus store. They gave him a bunch of free electronics and sports equipment. As a high school student, that seemed pretty cool, so I decided to try working there for the summer."

"Now, I realize that was a red flag."

"On my first day, they asked me to package a commercial range hood that had to be shipped to Alaska. They had no packing material or boxes and refused to buy any. I created a box by piecing together scraps of cardboard and covering them in a ton of tape, and then I filled the box with crumpled printer paper from the office."

"The manager saw me doing this and proceeded to yell at me for 10 minutes because I wasted their printer paper."

"I laughed at him and walked out of there."

"Of course, my friend later told me the range hood was destroyed in shipping and the manager was livid."

"A year later, the business was busted for selling stolen GPS units."

- pulse14

Micromanaging To The Max

"I work in IT and got a new job as a SysAdmin, and on the first day, I found support tickets where the guy before me was required to track every second of his time through it. Several tickets that read something like, 'Cleaned office: 15 minutes.'"

"No thanks. I'm not a child that needs supervision."

"Luckily, my old job let me come back like I never left."

- Sir_Atlass

"I malicious-complianced a manager into tears over a policy like that. Motherf**ker, I have autism, you want me to turn Detail Mode on? I will end your s**t."

"(I timed how long it took me to type website addresses into the search bar, timed how long it took for software to compile, minutes I spent in the restroom, and added the time I had to take to set up the stopwatch to time myself, among other things.)"

"The absolute screaming fit he pitched when I gave him my Excel spreadsheet was INCREDIBLE."

"I teach preschool now, and the three-year-olds are more rational."

- PumpkinSpiceMayhem

Location-Dependent Work

"I got a job in town. On the first day, they told me that the next day, I needed to show up to a different office in San Francisco (which is a 90-minute commute there and a two- to three-hour commute home)."

"That's not what I signed up for, and they legit could not understand why I was leaving."

- NeighborhoodDude84

"I had a construction company try to pull this s**t. When I interviewed, I said I wanted to work in the city I lived in and not commute long distances to job sites because I was so sick of doing that."

"The owner enthusiastically agreed and said they almost always work in town."

"Then on the first day, he sent me an address to go to. It was over two hours away! When I pointed that out and that I'd specifically said I didn't want to commute long distances, he said, 'Well, that's just how it is here.'"

"I replied, 'Okay, well, then I quit,' and blocked his number. I found a new job shortly after that actually did do all their work in the city."

- apocalypticradish

Extreme Working Conditions

"I got hired as a farmhand for a potato farmer as a summer job from college; minimum wage through the local job office where I was told, 'this guy has gone through a lot of workers.'"

"The first thing he told me to do was change the oil in the tractor and pointed to where things were. Now I had changed the oil in my car, but that hardly compared… I managed."

"Next, I was given a 'suicide jack' and told to walk out to the field where a 40-inch tire on one of those huge sprinkler systems had slipped off the railroad tie going over the ditch and use the jack to get it lifted out of the ditch and somehow use my 130-pound frame to move it back onto the railroad tie… I managed."

"Lunchtime came, and I trudged back from the field with the jack. The farmer saw me and said, 'I’m going to the house for lunch, please eat in your car.' Luckily, I had brought my own lunch, but it was 90 degrees out and I was a sweaty filthy mess from what I had done so far and had no way to clean up… I managed."

"For the afternoon, the farmer had me perch on the back of the potato planter while he drove it down the field and I had to hop back and forth between the planter bins and manually make sure the potatoes were dropping into the feeder tubes… I managed."

"Then I got a call shortly after getting home asking if I’d like an assembly line job in an air-conditioned factory, and I never went back to the potato farm."

- pigheartedphil

No Guidance Whatsoever

"I was assigned to a middle school grade six as a student teacher. I was supposed to be under the guidance of the classroom teacher."

"She was all too willing to let me be in complete charge and told me I could just do 'whatever.'"

"I called my faculty advisor and requested to be reassigned. The next day, I was at a different school with a teacher who knew what she was doing."

- OPMom21

We generally will put up with a lot in the workplace when a paycheck is guaranteed, but the working conditions many of these Redditors found themselves in are just ridiculous.

Not to mention, it makes little sense to stay at a job that does not turn out to be what was promised. If an employer can hold their employees to the standards they declared in the job description, the employee should be able to hold their employer accountable for what was guaranteed.