You can shove this job up your

[Jester]

I have two somewhat amusing quitting stories, but only one of them was done in bad blood, and is the less amusing of the two.

Back when I was much younger, I worked at Sizzler's for about a year in college. For the most part it wasn't that bad, though of course like any job I had issues there--that was the place where a low level manager had the nerve to question me taking the day off when my grandmother died (full story posted elsewhere in these forums). And for a while I was making decent money. But, somehow, my schedule started to go to shit. See, we had this banquet room away from the main part of the restaurant, and we would use that for large parties or overflow. And that was all well and good. But one week, I came in, and I had something like three shifts total, two of them in the banquet room....early in the week. In other words, no man's land, as in Sizzler customers seat themselves after they get their drinks and whatever they are getting from the buffet, if they get stuff from the buffet. I thought it might be an aberration, and commented on it to a manager. The usual apologies ensued, etc., etc.....and then I came in the next week to see that I had only two shifts, Monday and Tuesday, both in the banquet room. Wtf? Figuring they were trying to send me a message, and tired of their bullshit, I decided enough was enough. On staff that day was only one person I really cared about, so I walked up to her, filled her in, and asked, "If I walk out, will that in any way affect you negatively or screw you over?" She said no, so without saying boo to anyone else, I simplly walked the hell out of there. Because I WAS so much in no man's land, it probably took them a while to even figure out I was gone, the bastards.

The other one was kind of funny, though what was funny was not so much the way I quit, which was boringly standard, but the conversation that ensued. And so we need some background....

I DJ'd weddings for a while in Arizona (four years total between the two stints with the company). My first boss with the company was named Dave. I had to leave the company for a while due to Vehicle Absenteeism. (I had no car.) As weddings don't happen throughout the week, I was still working at a corporate chain restaurant. My boss there at the time of this incident was named Colin. Anyway, after revehicularizing (getting a new car), I decided to go back to DJing weddings. Dave had left the company, and Jerry was the new guy in charge. So, knowing that I had a great track record with the company on my first go-round, I sat down for an interview with Jerry, an interview I was worried about even less than I would be normally...as in not at all. We chitted, we chatted, and then we had this exchange:

JERRY: So, let me ask you this. If I asked Dave or Colin about you, what do you think they would say?
JESTER: In all likelihood, they would both say the same thing: that I am really good at what I do, and I am one hell of a pain in the ass to work with. Basically because I am so demanding, and want to make sure I do a great job, so will drive you nuts asking for stuff, etc., etc.

Jerry hired me. While I worked there, the only major disagreement Jerry and I had was who was the best DJ in the company. He said him, I said me. He was gracious enough to say I was second best. I disagreed, saying HE was second best. Not exactly a major brouhaha between boss and employee. A few months later, I decided to go back on the road, and resigned from the company. As I was returning all my equipment, Jerry looked at me and said, "You know what? You were right. On BOTH counts."

[Broomjockey]

I quit my job less than a week ago.
Two Sundays ago, I had a minor breakdown at work. Okay, not so minor. I swore, screamed, and then went and had a good cry for about 10 minutes.

The next Friday, when I went in to pick up my schedule, the GM asked me about the incident, I explained that I was under a ton of stress, and I felt bad about it and planned on apologizing to the people involved the next time I saw them. He then informs me that after my shift, we needed to have a chat. I had no desire to have a chat with him, so, after a few hours of thinking, I went in, and told the other manager that I was quitting due to way too much stress, and I would finish out this schedule, but only if they could move me out of the areas they had placed me in (because that area was the one that caused me the most stress). She swings it to move me around, but is mad because I didn't give two weeks notice, and tells me I won't be able to be rehired if I go through with this (I had to restrain myself from saying "Good!").

Saturday rolled around, I served my shift, and then as I was cashing out, the GM comes in and says for me to wait in the lobby until he has a moment to come chat. I left, and I guess that was the point Other Manager informed him I quit, as he comes out and proceeds to throw a hissy-fit of five-year-old proportions:

"Haven't we done everything for you that we were supposed to? Haven't we? I wanna hear you say it! Tell me! Haven't we? I think it's really crappy of you to do this to us, it's just a crappy thing to do!" And so on.

We're in the middle of the lobby, in public, and it's a fairly busy time of the evening, so I non-committally responded to his tirade, thinking to myself "Wow, way to uphold the company image"

Remember, I was quitting to reduce my stress levels, and I didn't leave while I had any shifts scheduled. How bad do you think I felt about leaving after that?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"She swings it to move me around, but is mad because I didn't give two weeks notice, and tells me I won't be able to be rehired if I go through with this (I had to restrain myself from saying "Good!")."

EXACTLY what I was told my the Asst. Manager! (See above story.) Almost VERBATUM. "You realize you'll never be able to work here again, right?" was what he said.

Eight years later, my friend the store driver was the manager. He was the Asst. Manager's boss. He not only hired me on the spot, but beat the pay at the job I was quitting to come back.

Ha!

[Sunsetsky]

I used to work for a cinemark movie theater as a concessionist when I was a teenager. Worst job ever! But for some reason (unknown...even to myself) I stuck around for a little over a year. We were always written up for the stupidest reasons (like forgetting to throw a little piece of check tab away). My last writeup was when I leaned back against a counter to avoid getting smacked in the face by a swinging door. Manager thought I was leaning and not cleaning and wouldn't listen to me (actually...she was the one who opened the door and almost smacked me in the face). She humilitated me in front of a couple other workers, threatened to write me up if I did it again. I told her I wasn't leaning around and she wrote me up. I was to be suspended from work for two weeks (even though it was supposed to be a week). I got pissed off and started crying. I walked off the job. I hope they were busy as hell that night.

Oh...and right after I quit, my parents paid a little visit to the theater to tell off the manager. They were the ones who told me to quit from the get go. I had to eventually pick up my check and I was trying to avoid the manager who was told off by my parents. It didn't work. She got my check and was extremely friendly...I thought she was going to murder me once I got into the office where the checks were.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Would have posted this sooner, but I didn't get resolve until today. Um, not even sure if I have it yet, to be honest. A little background:

For the past two years, I have been employed by the evil yellow smiley face store. (Always lousy treatment. Always.) During this two years, I have built up nearly two weeks vacation time, but didn't use it because I wanted to the week before Thanksgiving, and oh, that's not going to work because there is no time off allowed between November and mid-January. Ditto with the two months surrounding inventory dates. I did request Thanksgiving day off way back in the summer, only to have it denied that same day. When the schedule for that week went up, I was given a 10AM-7PM shift leaves absolutely no room for a dinner with family whatsoever. Then for Black Friday, my schedule is 5AM-2PM, working Lay-A-Way. What the heck . . . no new layaways after November 19, so why are they opening it so early and have me come in at five to run it, when my availability doesn't start until 7AM. Doesn't matter anyways. Enter a lovely thing known as a personal life.

One of my uncles on my Mom's side isn't really doing that great, healthwise. My other uncle is leaving for an overseas trip soon, so we need to go up for a visit before hand, and my Dad has gotten approved to have a few days off anyways. Mom wanted to go pick up some personal belongings of my late grandmother as well. Ok, let's try to put in a leave of absence. I was in the personnel office, filling out my LOA packet, SM is in there and sees me, great! Since he's here I can just get him to sign this . . . whoops. Now where'd he go? It seems he exited the building faster than anyone had seen him do, and personnel refuses to page him for me so he can approve or deny my leave and sign it. I'm tired of playing his childish game. I'm not going to run all over anymore searching for him. I am tired of fighting with these people. Noting that it would probably be a proverbial nail in my coffin, I clip a note to the LOA paper stating that I could not find a manager but the need for LOA was urgent, and I had appointments to make (which I did), and dropped it in the personnel box. Next morning, no one is calling and it's way past my scheduled time to be at work, so I'm like "Wow, my idiotic plan must have worked!" Or not. Personnel manager calls later and Mom picks up. She told me who it was and I promptly hung up the phone. It rings once more, and again, for some reason that is beyond me, my Mom answers it again. Says that she is then met with a demand from the lady, whom we'll just call Witchy, to put me on the phone because "I know she's there. She's sitting right next to you right now, you NEED to put her on the phone!" Mom explains that she understood I was on leave, Witchy blurts out "IT WAS DENIED! She needs to report to work NOW! She was supposed to be here three hours ago!" Wow, nice to know my work info is available to anyone who picks up the phone. Way to keep confidential there. She eventually gave up, and we're pretty sure she thought that my Mom was me on the phone, pretending not to be me. (We're told we have the same phone voice) Screw it all.

Fast foward to three days later, I'm barreling down I-95 southbound at 80 miles an hour, and the cell rings. We had all our calls fowarded to it. Dad picks up and he's like "It's Mimi" Ah, the nicer personnel lady. Nope, still can't talk. Not whilst driving, cause I'm not one of THOSE people. Ugh. Anywho, got home from trip very exhausted and decided to fill out some job apps online since I was on that 'unapproved' leave. I'd already decided I wasn't going back even if it meant waiting tables again. Filled out an app on Friday afternoon and my phone was ringing first thing Saturday. Can I do a phone interview and would I be able to come in Monday morning for job preview and testing? Talk about fast and meant to be.

Got the job, started training classes Tuesday. Went back to Wallyworld today to pick up that last paycheck and turn in all my crap, but wait, my paycheck came in the mail, complete with all the vacation pay I had accumilated. Hmm. Went into personnel a bit sheepishly, thankfully Witchy wasn't there, and told Mimi "I got another job . . ."

M: "You've already been terminated."

Me: "Heh, I kinda figured on that. Here's my stuff."

M: "Is your discount card here?"

Me: "Yep, bye!"

I then proceeded to shop as regular and relay the story to my now former co-workers. Good grief, even my CSM's didn't know I was fired! But pretty much everyone gave me the thumbs up for putting family before that place and there was much use of "Good for you!" God, but it felt so good!

Not so much a "Take this job and shove it" story, but it was nice to take some of the wind from their sails by saying I was already re-employed. Oh yes, and not a single manager would even make eye-contact with me. I was relieved that I didn't have to deal with Witchy, but I was also a bit disappointed that I didn't get the opportunity to chew her out for harassing my mother like that. I would really like to just give her a taste of her own medicine, but we can't have everything . . .

EDIT: Oh yeah, a little clarification here would be helpful. When my check was mailed to me (not in a security envelope, even), there was no note with it, nothing. And when I went in today they didn't tell me what exactly was the reason given for my termination, the date, or the manager responsible for it. Am I entitled to this info? This is the first time I've ever been fired and I'm a bit bemused at how it's supposed to work. Though I have to say, I certainly have no hurt feelings from the ordeal.

[Gurndigarn]

I went in today they didn't tell me what exactly was the reason given for my termination, the date, or the manager responsible for it. Am I entitled to this info? This is the first time I've ever been fired and I'm a bit bemused at how it's supposed to work. Though I have to say, I certainly have no hurt feelings from the ordeal.

Details will vary with the state/country, but you could probably get something on paper if you really cared. They probably fired you for unwillingness to bend over and beg for a new one* rather than putting you down as a no call, no show, because you left documentation about when and why you were going to be absent-- which means that if you hadn't found a new job, you probably could collect unemployment**. Oh, and incidentally, you got your vacation pay because they fired you instead of you quitting.


* Which is legal, before anyone says it's not. At will employment is just that. Moral? Depends on your viewpoint. Smart? No, not really. Evil Grinny Place is going downhill, and the biggest reason is the way they treat their employees. And just about anyone else that they have to pay money to, instead of extract money from.
** Just remember, I only pretend to be a lawyer. For real legal advice, don't talk to me.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Well I'm going to inform my new personnel people tomorrow that I was indeed, terminated, though they said that I probably was anyways once I told them what happened. I just don't want anyone coming at me later saying that I didn't inform them that I was ever dismissed from a job. And me wanting documentation on it is for any possible future jobs that I apply for, as they always ask it. Though I notice more and more, especially with this being a small town, that 'I was fired from crap-mart' doesn't really put much of a black mark on your resume. And the getting fired instead of quitting was somewhat . . . well, the point was I no longer cared. I was just tired of being treated like a retarded five year old on a daily basis, not to mention that if anything at all went wrong on the front end, we cashiers always got the blame for it. Such as the scenario in which dumbass Co-Mgr ordered four boxes of bags instead of four pallets. Did he admit to his mistake? (one that had been made twice before already). No, instead the head CSM and cashiers all got chewed out for 'wasting bags'.

And yeah, I figured if they did get fed up and fire me, at least I could get unemployment for a while till I found something else. In my state, all employers are at-will, and I understand that. But one has to draw the line somewhere. When I went back in today to turn in all my smiley face crap, geez . . . it was depressing in there! I've only been gone two weeks and the moral has even dropped in that time alone. I've never seen such a large group of long-faced human beings in my life Made me really glad that I got out when I did. Ah yes, not to mention that cashiers are now being required to wear some sort of Christmas decoration on their head. The store dress code has a strict no-hats policy, but these girls and guys are being forced to wear garland halos, antlers, and santa hats. Go figure . . .

[Gurndigarn]

Well I'm going to inform my new personnel people tomorrow that I was indeed, terminated, though they said that I probably was anyways once I told them what happened. I just don't want anyone coming at me later saying that I didn't inform them that I was ever dismissed from a job.

Your reason for you leaving, if anyone asks, is "Disagreement over emergency family leave." That doesn't sound as bad as "fired", but tells the truth, and anyone familiar with SmileFace policies (thanks to news reports, that's most HR people) can fill in all the blanks.

And me wanting documentation on it is for any possible future jobs that I apply for, as they always ask it. Though I notice more and more, especially with this being a small town, that 'I was fired from crap-mart' doesn't really put much of a black mark on your resume.

If you're stateside, documentation beyond location phone number and address, plus dates of employment, is about all you need. If you're in the UK, though, it's sounded here like paper references are still more in demand.

Fired from anything is a minor black mark, but the fact that you had about two years time there is a not-minor white mark: most undesirables get fed up or fired within six months.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Thanks for that info, man. I do live in the states, so I guess it won't be too much of a problem. I really would have rathered not to have done it this way, but I had reached the 'who cares' point by this time. And when I told the situation to my new HR people, they kind of just rolled their eyes and waved it off. I see quite a few ex-coworkers at my new job who were given the boot from SmileyFacePlace, and others that got fired have pretty much all found new (and much better) jobs. I was almost to the point of thinking I'd better quit making friends with people at work because they always got terminated And usually for stupid reasons, before anyone accuses me of hanging with the wrong crowd. One, because he took 'too much sick time'. He was in his early twenties with heart and sinus problems, working in the damn dairy cooler. They refused to move him to another dept. Someone else was fired because one person accused him of sexually harassing her, then after he was gone, paraded round the store bragging that she got him fired. And so on and so on.

Oh yeah, today I found out that I've been added to the Do Not Hire list. Yippy

[JustADude]

No spiteful or funny 'I Quit' moments here, but the way I left my last job probably deserves consideration for 'most well deserved walkout':

This job was at McHell, which I honestly believe is the worst work-to-pay ratio I have ever seen... at least the franchises this owner was running were, anyway. I was only working it because the job I'd arranged transfering between my old (corperate) Blockbuster store and a local (franchise) BB fell through and I was pretty desperate to stop freeloading on my fiancee's parents. One AM in particular at this store is hellishly demanding, and it's the worst kind of demanding because she drives herself just as hard. I mean, we're getting ridden like it's boot-camp even though we're the best store the owner has, and one of the best on the region. Woman has no conception of stress aparently, and she's the #1 reason for turnover there. I even got moved to a different shift just to see her less.

Fast forward a few months:

There have been some rocky patches, but things are now looking good: We'd just gotten a huge house for a steal because it needs a lot of cosmetic work, my best friend has moved in since my fiancee really likes him and because of her medical conditions, her insurance will pay for an attendant at a rate that comes out to about what he was being paid at his old job, with only minor creativity in the book-keeping. We've got things covered financially, and once the house is renovated and I find a better job it's all gravy. Then I get something handed to me that NOBODY should have to deal with, ever. Only person it sucked worse for was my fiancee... or maybe not, depending on your views on the afterlife.

You got it. We went to bed as normal and when I wake up, she's dead. Since I wasn't techincally family, and her family pretty much hates me, all I've been told about what killed her is 'natural causes'. When I was in another room and not supposed to be able to hear it, one of the paramedics says to another that if they'd gotten there a half-hour sooner they might've been able to save. Saying I was taking things poorly is like saying a nuke is a big firecracker. Having my best friend there is probably the only reason I didn't open my carotid with a steak knife. I was off the day all that happened, and I got a 'policy standard' 2 days off, plus told my request off for the funeral will be honored when that gets figured out. Not the best, but at least they didn't try to make her family and I schedual her funeral around their schedual.

I get back, and I'm maintaining okay for the first day or two, but on the third day I end up working with Dragon Bitch, which literally doubles the stress. I hold it together untill the end of lunch rush, but she says something to me that somehow gets me to a point where I can see crystal clear that I am either going to slit her throat with the metal spatula I had just sharpened, or break down crying. Since I'm here and not in jail, you've probably already guessed I started to cry. Heavyset guy, 6'3" in a McHell uniform blubbering like a baby. Not pretty, I know. It was pretty much mutually decided that I was going home at that point, and I haven't been back in since. Wonder if they're still holding my final paycheck for me?

Since you're probably wondering what's happened since... I sold the house, which was in both our names, and my friend and I moved into a 2-bedroom apartment. He got a job almost immediately with a video-game store (one of his dream-jobs), and I've been paying my part of the bills from the small life-insurance policy she had, though I've got a new job starting on Monday. Her family insisted on holding the funeral... their money, their arrangements. I could go into a whole new rant about their disregard for her religious beliefs in that setup. Lets just say they couldn't accept that their daughter wasn't christian.

Oh, and having been an occasional practitioner of bibliomancy, I flipped the pew-pocket bible open during the service to see if the White Beard In The Sky has anything to say about the matter and land squarely in the book of Job. The passage basically boils down to 'I do what I want when I want, and you can kiss my hairy, omnipotent ass if you don't like it'. Looks like a certain someone doesn't want my business. While I may be an Omnitheist, that's one god on my Do Not Pray List.

[nekoro]

My best quit/got fired story was actually my last job. I worked at a little lingerie store that was trying to be both Victoria's Secret and Frederick's of Hollywood, but was skankier (and, well......made for more generous figures) than either one. They sold crap, but paid all right for retail, about 2 bucks above minimum wage, and when there was no one in the store, we were allowed to read, do homework, etc etc.

Between the crap being sold, the lack of variety in sizing (generally 1-2 sizes for each product), the lack of a dressing room, and the crappy "Big Corporate Store" selling techniques they made us do in a store that was about 30 feet square (i.e. following people around the store, asking if they needed help ad nauseum, thanking them by name for buying revealing lingerie), we didn't get a whole lot of business. A good night was $250.

One day, I got to the place about half an hour before the beginning of my shift. My friend Mouse was opening that day, I was closing. I dropped off my stuff, and went to the Subway in the mall for lunch/dinner, having not eaten for almost 8 hours. I get back, and one of the bosses, David, was puttering around the store, putting away new stock and such. I say hi to Mouse, we start closing out the register from her shift, and we hear "Could I talk to the two of you for a moment?"

We turn. "Sure, about what?"
"Things aren't going exactly the way we'd hoped. And the only change we can think to make is that of personnel. We're going to have to let the two of you go."

We look at each other. "Sure, no problem. Mouse, can I get a ride home?"
"Yeah, I just have to do a couple of errands on the way."
"No prob. You don't need me to finish today, right?"

David shakes his head slowly. "No, I'll take care of it. I will need your keys though."

Immediately, we tug our keys off our keyrings and hand them over.

"All right, I've got all my stuff, shall we go?"
"Yup. Bye!"

And we high fived on the way out.

It was a pretty crappy job, we were both looking at quitting anyway, and our bosses were a little on the odd side. And, we found out, several other girls had been hired at minimum wage, significantly lower than our wages. Basically, their business was going under, due to the crappy, overpriced lingerie for large skanks. (Sorry, I'm not saying being fat makes you a skank, but the 50 or so 44DDD XXXL corsets that we had in stock when nothing else in the store had more than 5 anywhere, kinda made us wonder what the hell they were thinking.) So they cut wages, and fired the ones who knew what we were doing.

[Rocko]

The best "I quit" story I have is from my last job.

I found a job with the RGIS inventory company in January 2005. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I was desperate to leave my job at the liquor store before I hit the owner in the head with a whiskey bottle. They were willing to pay me $8 an hour, much more than what I had been making before, and since they did a lot of night work, it would be flexible with my school hours.

The trouble started my third week into it. I was forty minutes late to a Big Lots in a neighboring city because the lights to the sign were off, it was 5:30 am on a very rainy morning, and the sign that advertised that the store was in the shopping center was on a small side street rather than on the big main street where I was at. Needless to say I was sent home.

It went downhill from there, getting up before dawn to drive to the office, where we would meet so we could drive thirty miles out of the way to inventory a store for five hours and drive back, averaging maybe four, five hours a shift three days a week, most of my money ended up paying my gas, and I think my highest check was $230. Yeah, it was that bad. I also want to mention that two of my friends, who work for two different stores and for two different companies, both told me about the appearance of my coworkers, "You got some fuckin' mutants working there."

What got me the most though was that on three seperate occasions, we were all given involuntary two-week vacations. That was six weeks total in which there was no work. The first time ended up being a good thing, because my sister was in the hospital and I would have ended up calling out anyways. The other two were total BS, as both occurred in the summer, when I had total open availability, within three weeks of eachother. I managed to get hired at Wal-Mart, and after my first day of training, the woman who did the schedules for RGIS called me and asked if I wanted to be added to a few schedules. I told her I found a new job, and I quit right there over the phone. She said okay and hung up.

It should be noted though that the DM called my house a few times after that, and said to my mom that I was being very unprofessional quitting on them like that, especially since they going to be busy. I wish I had picked up when he called, I think I could have made Jesus cry with what I would have said to him.

[AirHostess]

I once knew of a stewardess who flew to Athens, was so sick of the job she just walked off the plane and never returned. Actually heard of a few of those stories!

[Kogarashi]

snip...

it was depressing in there! I've only been gone two weeks and the moral has even dropped in that time alone. I've never seen such a large group of long-faced human beings in my life Made me really glad that I got out when I did. Ah yes, not to mention that cashiers are now being required to wear some sort of Christmas decoration on their head. The store dress code has a strict no-hats policy, but these girls and guys are being forced to wear garland halos, antlers, and santa hats. Go figure . . . /snip

Man, I'd hate to work at that Wal-Mart. I've lucked out. The two Wal-Marts that I've worked for have actually been pretty good work environments, with the management treating me well enough and only a small handful of people actually making me want to smack heads together.

As for headwear, I wonder if it's particular to your store. One of the CSMs got out a bunch of Santa hats my last day there (Friday Dec. 1) and was handing them around for the cashiers and CSMs to wear, but we were by no means required to wear them. I did 'cause it was fun and it was also my last day, but a fair number of cashiers and all but one CSM refrained from wearing the hats.

[Noelegy]

Man, I'd hate to work at that Wal-Mart. I've lucked out. The two Wal-Marts that I've worked for have actually been pretty good work environments, with the management treating me well enough and only a small handful of people actually making me want to smack heads together.

Every time I go into a WM and encounter a sub-par employee, I'm reminded of the one time I tried to get a job at a WM. During my interview, the hiring manager stressed their extremely high standards in hiring. I didn't get the job, but the fact that I lived a half-hour's drive away (closer jobs were pretty much limited to fast food and nursing homes) might have been a factor in that.

Yes, I thought of that a couple of months ago when I was checked out by a WM cashier who said not a word to me during the whole transaction and was dressed in a belly shirt that said something like "Can I ignore you later?" out of which far too much belly was hanging, and a skintight pair of pants with a rip right up to the crotch so that I was treated to the sight of her underwear...yes, those are some high hiring standards indeedy!