29 Breaking Points That Made Workers Quit Toxic Jobs

Buzz Feed

18 hours ago

Reddit user u/Prudent617 posed the question, "What was the reason you ended your last job?" The question clearly resonated with a lot of people, as the thread promptly filled with numerous stories, and BuzzFeed Community users even chimed in with their own accounts. Here's what people shared:
"My boss called me at my mom's funeral to ask about a charge from a company credit card I never used. He knew where I was and didn't apologize; he just asked when I'd be back at work. I had been there almost five years at that point and realized that no matter how good of a worker I was, my boss did not respect me or my time. I did find a new job that I started earlier this year, and I am so happy with it. It was the six-month anniversary of my mom's passing, and my new boss saw how much it affected me, and she wanted to make sure I was okay. We talked it out. She gave me info about grief counseling that helped her out when she experienced a loss. It was the kindest thing a boss had done for me."
"I had been working at my job for four years when I learned I had to have a D&C due to a miscarriage that wouldn't evacuate on its own. I found out about the miscarriage on Tuesday and had the procedure done on Sunday, my doctor's day off. When I told my boss I would not be in on Monday after the procedure, she said, 'I hear it's an easy surgery. You should be able to be here Monday.' I spent my recovery updating my resume. I changed my whole life because of that moment."
"Both my officemates were crying at their desks due to stress when I received a message from my boss that I was working too slowly and was no longer allowed to wear headphones at my desk. That was the last straw. I took a break, ran it by my partner, and submitted my two weeks' notice. They told me I could just finish out the day. Now, I run my very own doggy daycare and couldn't be happier, or less stressed. Don't put up with it, people."
"I nearly lost my nose to frostbite after working in -80°C (with wind chill). When the day was done, I got to go back to camp. They refused to evacuate the work camp in a -60°C cold snap when we lost power and heat. We had to sleep in -30°C with a thin blanket and whatever clothes we had in the closet. I fell asleep before the power outage, so I never had the opportunity to put on anything. It was -63°C outside the camp. The warmest it got was -49°C. No lights, just cold and darkness. It looked like something out of The Walking Dead. I told the camp manager that if it ever happened again, I would take apart furniture and burn it for warmth."
"I worked at a fashion boutique in Boston, and they made me clean the floor with dry paper towels on my hands and knees instead of using a broom or mopping."
"I was hired as a hostess at a new restaurant. I had years of experience, and it wasn't my first time opening a new restaurant. I did everything for them. I created their floor plan, sections, rotations, wait time system, everything that should have already been in place. I was the only hostess they hired at first, but when they hired more, they didn't have me train them for some reason, and it turned into a shit show. I repeatedly told them they needed a reservation system, which they ignored, so one hostess would take a reservation only for the people to show up and be told we don't take reservations. They were making it up as they went along. I was constantly undermined and then told it was my fault when it all went to shit."
"The boss reduced employee salaries 30% for all except his wife and kid, who also worked for the company. That was after taking his extended family on a 12-day vacation."
"The company didn't offer bereavement days. I called off to go to my father's funeral, and my manager told me it was inconvenient for them to have to cover my shift because they were short-staffed, so I needed to come to work. I told them I wasn't missing my father's funeral for their measly $11 an hour. They fired me the next day."
"I had been having a long, hard struggle with endometriosis for a while, and it came to a point where I either had to get a hysterectomy or get another repeat procedure in hopes of controlling the endometriosis again. After much hesitation, I made the fearful decision to get a hysterectomy. I knew kids were not in my future. Everybody had been saying, 'If you aren't actively trying to have children, what are you waiting for?' The doctor got in there and saw just how out of control the endometriosis had gotten again, and they had to do extra procedures to remove the scar tissue. As such, it caused me to have a hyper-inflammatory response to the point where it not only shut down my bladder, but my colon, too."
"My manager had a grudge against me because she didn't like one of my family members, whom she had known prior to me getting the job, and she didn't reveal that information to me until after I signed on. She spent three months making my life a daily hell as a way to get back at that person through me. So, I walked in and quit."
"I worked at an animal welfare nonprofit in a medical setting, and the emotional burnout among staff was atrocious, not to mention the physical exhaustion after working 50+ hours a week doing hard manual labor. Staff continually requested decreased patient numbers so we could work fewer hours and not feel so drained, and were guilted because we were 'putting ourselves over the animals.' Everything that went wrong was excused by saying, 'Think of the animals.' Like, sorry, we can't help animals if we're all burnt out. People were quitting left and right, THEN management went ahead and fired several long-standing employees, so we lost a lot of really good trainers for any new staff they were able to hire."
"Teaching has turned into behavior management daycare. It sucks the joy out of you all day, and then the parents call to suck out some more joy. A select handful of kids are incredible and fantastic. So many kids won't turn anything in, as in earning a literal 0 for the semester. While all of this is going on, you'll have admin and the network telling you the kids are failing because you didn't set them up for success, you didn't reinvent the wheel, you didn't take enough data, you didn't love them into behaving better, etc."
"HVAC installer here. I quit my last job because our scheduler decided she didn't like me, so when I'd message her to get the address of my next job, she wouldn't respond. I had to call another office staffer to ask if she was in (she was) and ask to be transferred. She picked up and hung up immediately. I called the staffer again, asked to be transferred, and again, she hung up. This was on a Friday. I went home, cleaned the work van of my tools, dropped the van off at the office with the keys inside, went home, and emailed the boss a letter explaining WHY I was quitting, where the van was, and that he could mail me my final check."
"I asked for a raise when I realized my job was about five positions in one. When my boss tried to get my raise approved, she was denied. She told the big bosses that I would walk if this wasn't approved, and they said, 'Oh well.' I got my dream job the following week."
"The site supervisor asked me to fraudulently sign training documents for an upcoming audit from corporate because nobody knew how to do their job."
"I worked at a company with 'unlimited PTO.' One Sunday night, I was prepping for Monday meetings and got a call that one of my best friends had taken their life. I was beyond devastated. I asked for Monday off. Tuesday, I returned and just couldn't collect myself, so my boss told me to take the week off. I said I didn't need that long, just the day. He insisted. The following Monday, I returned and was fired for being 'unreliable.' I'm at a company with people I love now. Getting fired from a horrible company is sometimes a blessing. Just keep moving forward."
"I was there for just over a year…waiting to be trained. I sat in a room for 48 hours a week, unable to work because 'nobody wanted to train.'"
"The other esthetician I worked with constantly left the room, products, brushes, etc., absolutely disgusting. All brushes and products should be sanitized and wiped down after every single client. She would also come in blasted off of whatever pills she decided to take that day. Police followed her once. The boss wouldn't fire her because she didn't want to get audited again by the IRS since she committed tax fraud during COVID. I'm not losing my license over a trashcan of a spa and incompetence."
"I took early retirement to get away from the micromanagement/bullying that was endemic throughout the company from the top down. I now work part-time for a lot less money, but somewhere where I'm appreciated and looked after. My mental and physical health has improved beyond measure."
"I started a job as security for a gate at a nuclear power plant. I enjoyed it, and was working 40 hours a week. I showed up every day and didn't complain. Then, they fired three people for no reason and made me start working 80 hours a week, mandatory. I was making tons of money, but was struggling to find time to buy groceries since I worked until late at night. The boss started micromanaging every little thing I did while I was working 16-hour days. Then, they wanted me to start training people, and said I'd get a $2 an hour raise for doing so. That never happened. Then, I had some car issues and couldn't come in one day. I had to go to AutoZone and buy a replacement part. I got the problem solved and was good to go the next day. I had not missed a day in six months."
"I was a teacher. My vice principal yelled in my face in front of a student. A combination of other factors had built up over time and made me hate teaching, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back. After that, I walked to the principal's office and told him I intended to resign. Right now, I'm in the process of changing careers, but I'm far happier than I was as a teacher. I'm glad I left when I did."
"I worked at a large retailer for five years before I got promoted to manage in a department I'd never worked in, but because I was the only person on the bench and there was a restructuring, I didn't have a choice. I did what I could with the little bit of training I had, but it wasn't enough for my direct supervisor. Nothing I did was good enough, and when I asked for help, I got nothing. Managers who had mentored me turned on me because our supervisor was telling them that the store manager was protecting me because she and I were having a fling (I'm a lesbian). It got so bad that my face started to swell from stress, I was suicidal, stopped sleeping, and was generally in ill health. It finally came to a head when I was written up for not locking a door that I know for a fact I locked, because I had video evidence of it."
"My last employer, of 32 years, had shrunk from 3,000 employees to about 200. I'd earned above-average reviews for many years, then my boss gave me a below-average one. That was the writing on the wall for me. Things were getting worse and worse — bad attitudes all around. I just got fed up and gave my two weeks' notice. I told them for years that they'd miss me when I was gone. Well, I left, and they started calling and asking me to return. Sorry! I'm retired."
"I was burning myself out and losing my mind when they introduced a new system. What would've taken me five minutes to do on the old system now took me an hour. The department was understaffed, and they refused when I asked for more help. Needless to say, I left, and they hired seven people to replace me."
"I worked somewhere and had years of experience at a previous place doing exactly the same job. Like many places in the UK, they did a probationary period, and in that time, I became a key holder and one of the top sellers. I even ran the shop on a Sunday with only one other junior staff member. So when they wouldn't make me permanent and allow me to book time off and sick pay, etc., I told them it was a joke. The owner refused, so I said, luckily for me, it works both ways, and left immediately. This plunged them into chaos, and it was very satisfying. I was fortunate to be able to do that."
"There was a change in management. On the first day of the job, the new manager said, 'What is it that you do all day? Because nothing ever seems to get done.' Should've taken the six weeks of holidays that I was owed that day, but I didn't. Within a year of me finally leaving, I was replaced by four people."
"Complete chaos in the IT department. The company had a super tight budget, and everyone, from bottom to top, was stressed out because not enough personnel were hired to meet the goals of the C-Suite. Basically, you got paid below market to do the work of four employees. And, this wasn't a startup. It was a company that had been in business for decades. I ended up finding a role that paid double for less work. Bottom line: If you are overworked and underpaid, look for a new job ASAP. It can potentially take a long time, but it's always worth it."
"My father was hired in the same company. While on working sites, he talked to me like his 'kid' and spoke to other people about me like I was still a child. It ruined every single relationship I had with other workers. I was looked at as a child when I was 20 years old. All respect from the boss was down the drain, and I just had no voice anymore. I had to go. Father of the year."
And: "A toxic leader in a peer department. He used extortion, fear, and blackmail regularly. His team couldn't hold talent for longer than a few months because of him. Leadership refused to address the issue. There were rumors that he had dirt on the company, so he effectively got everything he wanted when it counted. I left when he went after my team, and leadership allowed him to. It turns out it was the best decision of my professional life because, at the same time this happened, I was offered my dream job, making more money and working fewer hours. Over a year in, I can report no workplace drama here!"
Have you ever quit a nightmare job? What was the final straw that pushed you over the edge? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.