I Quit! : A Collection Of Stories

Recently, someone quit at my office. I honestly don't blame her because her boss was a total B but the way she did it was a little interesting. She slowly removed personal items over the week and sent an email to the owner of the company Friday night just before walking out the door. Her direct supervisor didn't know about it until Monday morning when the owner forwarded the email.

But it got me thinking about other ways people have quit.

We recently had a guy who called out sick for two weeks, using up his vacation and sick time, only to say he wasn't coming back on the last day. That one I don't get because his boss is nice and the position was very low stress. He could have easily said, here's my two week notice first so we could have started looking for his replacement. And he was payroll so that's kind of a vital role.

The most epic quit though was when a guy walked into his bosses office while the boss was on a phone call. He grabbed a post it, wrote "I quit", stuck it on the desk and walked out. He was in his car and gone before his boss even registered what just happened (that office was a trailer in a work yard so his car was parked ten feet from the door and it was a small trailer). Another case of I don't understand because it is the same boss as the guy who was out for two weeks. That boss is really easy going and approachable.

Anyone have any memorable quiting stories?

Please keep all stories PG.

I was told at a previous job that the woman I was replacing had simply not shown up one day, and didn't answer her phone. When she finally did answer, she was just like "nah, not coming back".

We also had a substitute who did that. Just ghosted. It took us over a year to get her off the rolls because we needed her signature on the resignation papers.

One carrier in a nearby office was planning to retire in December. One day in September he came in off the route, dropped his keys and ID on the supervisor's desk and said "bye".

My mom got mad at a co-worker. Had her route all bundled up and ready to go and he said something snarky so she just called him a regrettable name and walked out. They had to scramble to find someone to finish her route. She was eligible for retirement so she just figured she wasn't going to put up with his nonsense anymore.

I don't blame anyone for walking out, particularly under negative circumstances, but, wow, it throws everything into a tailspin.

Oh wow, those are pretty crazy.

We had one guy that stopped showing up for work and was let go for that. During this time he was very active on LinkdIn. He later came back and it sounded like he was going through some things in his head, and wanted to know why he was fired.

One guy definitely sent an email to everyone saying he was quitting effective immediately. He had been letting hints drop for a while, but the last straw was being scheduled over Thanksgiving.

The one that takes the cake was an old coworker and my boyfriend’s roommate at the time. He was an awful guy, compulsive liar, drug addict and probably an actual sociopath (there are many stories that are off topic). He joined a small startup as the chief engineer, and was I think worried about being sent to Guam on a business trip. He had had several surgeries on his knee, and when there was a bruise there went to the doctor. He came home and told my boyfriend that he had cancer, and never appreciated a sunset until now and etc. He told his job that he would have to take a few months off because of his cancer. They were super supportive, but as a small startup couldn’t afford to be without their chief engineer for so long. They asked if he could still be available and come in sometimes, and he got mad and quit.

He never had cancer, it was something to do with his knee that was entirely fixable and I’m sure the doctor told him that was most likely the cause. He later told us he was suing them for wrongful termination, although I’m not sure if he actually went through with it. That dude was a crazypants.

I forgot! We had one just last week too.

A guy had an accident in the field. One of those really stupid "what were you thinking!?!" type ones and he had been warned about before (it actually cost the company $6k to repair the damage). He was suspended for five days and told when he got back it was his absolute last chance. Which shocked everyone because my company is pretty strict on workplace accidents. So the day after he comes back he comes limping into the office, "I hurt my foot". Our safety guy checks it out, but now the guy is limping on the other foot. So they call him on it and he just walks out the door. He calls in two days later (after not answering the phone or anything) saying he had been evicted and had to get his stuff before it was thrown out that day. He admitted faking an injury hoping to be sent home with pay so he could clean out his apartment but when it didn't work he just took off. He was suprised when he didn't have a job.

At the shelter where I volunteer the Medical Director threw her keys on the desk and left. When I was told my first word was Again? She had left at least twice before and came. back. But she was answering texts and calls pretty much 24/7. I had texted her about foster problems at 7 am and gotten a reply back in 20 min. She was very stressed. She now has a great job at a vet and is much happier and less stressed. I understand completely why she left.

When I was MUCH younger I was waitressing. I was full time and kept asking for better shifts. I kept getting low tip shifts over a period of several weeks. So one day I just did not show up. The manager called and I told him I was not coming back since I was not making any money. I felt like they were warned and ignored me.

Years ago when I worked at a chemical plant we had a guy working massive amounts of over time training new people because it had a high turnover rate. One morning my boss showed up and threatened to write the guy up for some minor infraction he heard on the radios we used. The guy, who was dead tired anyway, just looked at him and said "You know what? _____ you. You can have this job." and walked out. It was funny until it put said boss on site more until a replacement was found.

Not as dramatic but in the late 80s when I briefly lived in Florida, I had a job in a factory that made orange crates. The place looked like something from the 1930s, hot, humid, no airflow, and $3.80 an hour. One day at lunch I happened by a place that was hiring for $7.50 an hour working outdoors. I applied and got the job and never went back to the crate factory until the following Friday to get my check. I got the "What happened to you?" question, followed by "What do you think happened to me? I got a better offer." I'm more responsible when I quit NOW, but I got the impression he heard that a lot.

One of my old coworkers quit because the night before he drunk emailed the boss. He was kinda messed up. He believed he was the only one who ever did any work and I was kinda afraid of him because it felt like he would explode with anger at any moment. He one time was super pissed at me because I supposedly didn't help clean up the kid's section of the library at the end of the day, but I spent 30 minutes cleaning (and finishing) it before he even showed up to help.

I've quit a couple of jobs particularly when I was severely depressed, by just not showing up anymore. I also quit one job the day after I was in the ER because I was suicidal and the overnight shift of that job was just making it worse.

rgwanner said:

When I was MUCH younger I was waitressing. I was full time and kept asking for better shifts. I kept getting low tip shifts over a period of several weeks. So one day I just did not show up. The manager called and I told him I was not coming back since I was not making any money. I felt like they were warned and ignored me.

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This is funny because the one job I walked out on was a waitressing job many years ago. Things had been difficult with going through a divorce and I was really stressed. One day a woman was seated in my station and she ordered a plain omelette with cheese. Well, I rang it up as a cheese omlette, which was the exact same thing as a plain omelette with cheese except a cheese omelette cost less. When the woman saw the ticket said cheese omelette she threw a fit and screamed at me and threw the food on the floor. Well, that was it for me and I grabbed my purse and walked out. She was lucky that I didn't dump the water pitcher on her head!

I had a boss who didn't exactly quit, but it sure was something to see him being escorted out of the office by the police. Never did hear what happened.

After finishing a semester at school, I was in need of a job($.) I applied at a restaurant where I liked the food. I got the job right away, because it turned out that the entire staff, except for the managers, had just quit en masse! Over 20 people! I should have taken that as a sign (duh!) A couple of months later, when they were threatening to put me in managerial position, I quit, too. The owners were really awful.

I had planned to move out of state to care for my terminally ill friend. My job was physically exhausting, and had a policy of terminating employees for being out sick more than one day without a dr's note ( the manager mocked me in front of the rest of the staff when I came back to work with my doctor's note, after notifying her I'd be out four days ). Getting my house ready to rent, selling my car, etc. would take some time so I didn't plan on giving my notice to the job until a few weeks before I left. Everything changed when I found out my friend was in the hospital and going on hospice when he was able to be discharged. I flew out the next morning and called to tell them I quit after being at my new home for two days.

I was happy to shock them after the way I had been treated, even after following their rules when I had been sick.