We’ve all had a moment when we’ve just wanted to escape from a situation because we knew “something just wasn’t right.” Well, these stories are all about those times.
Source list available at the end.
I was doing a home cable installation, and this particular customer had a basement I needed to enter. I absolutely had to, otherwise, I would’ve had to rewire the entire house from the outside, which is trashy, and the customer definitely didnt want to do that.
Anyway, the basement was infested with literally thousands and thousands of crickets, but they were like cave crickets, or spider crickets, or whatever. Each one of them was terrifying, and I had never seen anything like this before. I didnt even realize they were crickets at first. They were just jumping around and flying everywhere. They lined the walls, the ceilings, and the floor. Plus, I had to get through three rooms of them, as well as, make three separate trips, and then spend about 5 minutes trying to work on the wiring next to a hive. The basement had no lights. So, it was whatever I had carried with me.
I opened the door and saw them and said screw this. But I had to do it, so I came back with like four entire cans of hornet spray, emptied them, and it barely even phased the crickets. I hated every moment of it.
dangheck
My first job out of college was at a sewer treatment plant. The pay was supposed to be really good at like around $20/hr, plus good benefits, and solid hours. Oh, and it was full time of course.
I got the offer, accepted it, and started on the first day. I was told the local board of government didn’t fully approve of the funds for a new position, so the job had changed a bit. It had become part-time, $14/hr (a 30% decrease in pay just based on hourly wage alone), and the work was less management-based and more labor-based now.
On the second day, I had to sift through a filter full of used tampons and had crap sprayed on me. I didn’t come in for my third day.
The worst part is, on my first day, the other workers had told me about a guy they called “Two-Week Jim” who quit after two weeks. I had only lasted two days, and I’m sure they’re still talking about me but whatever.
alrashid2
I was at a customer site installing some new servers that were replacing older ones. Somehow, management screwed up the project and some important equipment wasn’t there.
The customer CEO said (during a big conference call that involved the customer on site, myself, some other colleagues, and my own boss), “Let’s not endanger the business by replacing the servers yet. Let’s just put this off for 3 to 4 weeks until all of the equipment has arrived.” It was an extremely reasonable decision, way more reasonable than my company deserved.
Right after the conference call, my boss called back and basically said, “Install the servers anyway, so they’ll be obligated to pay.” (LOL). I strongly protested, but my boss persisted and insisted.
I went inside, sent my resignation via. email, shook the customer’s hand (while telling him that I agreed with him), and told him to stick to his guns and wait until he felt comfortable. I said my boss would reach out to him to regroup, and then I took the next plane home.
judolphin
I was told to operate a train that didn’t have fully functional brakes. They worked well enough on flat ground, but on downhills, they simply wouldn’t stop me. I called it into the shop and said that it was unsafe.
They told me to “deal with it” because they didn’t know what to do either. I told them that I needed to swap it out with another train. The general manager said that nothing else was available and that I could deal with it or go home. I offloaded all of my passengers and took it back to the yard, then I threw my keys and my badge at the GM while telling him that he had ruined the entire railroad with his unsafe business practices.
Thankfully, I got a better job pretty quickly where if the trains don’t have fully operating brakes, and the train simply won’t move.
LittleTXBigAZ
I worked at a jewelry shop and had to take a day off for my uncle’s funeral. My boss called me (knowing why I wasn’t in the shop) to accuse me of stealing a ring that we had sent out for engraving. It turned out that the engraver had just lost it. That lady was one of the most miserable pieces of human garbage I had ever worked for.
flosefstalin
I worked for a consulting company that let their salespeople estimate the dev work so that they can sell. They told me that my team must finish the job in two weeks for work that you could only be finished in months. They told us to work 14-16 hours a day, including weekends on a salary. I was out.
PogingPinoy
A terrible manager put me on a performance improvement plan and literally every single problem she brought up in the review meeting was a result of her terrible management. I had evidence and everything.
I’d been thinking about quitting before that, but I had no intention of quitting at that moment until she said, “I don’t know if you’re smart enough to work here.”
I said, “Are you kidding me? I’ve spend half my time covering for mistakes that you’ve made. I’m out of here.”
And that was it. Never worked there again. She was fired a month later when they figured out that she was causing more trouble than she was preventing.
Navyblazers2000
My freshman year in college I was looking for a job and saw an ad for AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES at Vector Knives. Being the broke student that I was, I decided to check it out.
It started off as a group interview, then we were placed in some kind of room where I think our behavior was observed through a camera or a one-way mirror. Finally, the person in charge gave us a demo of their product while explaining how the company operated, and how you made money.
It was then that it dawned on me that this was yet another one of those pyramid schemes where you worked on 100% commission and had to sell to family and friends. I politely excused myself and left. The guy came chasing after me and was manically trying to convince me that I was missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime.
joel7890
A customer screamed at me over the phone saying how she was going to call the police on me and sue me because I accidentally wrote her up a receipt for the wrong amount. The clock turned to 5 PM, and I hung up because it was time to clocking out. My boss didn’t complain when I told her the next day. Plus, it was her fault that the receipt was wrong.
CinnamonBunBun
A place that I had worked at previously had the time clock accessible on the register. An old lady was being particularly difficult, so I just clocked out while she was talking and walked out of the store.
11181514
I applied for a job that was advertised as a marketing position. I got a response asking if I’d like to come in for an interview so I was super pleased with myself. Along I went for this interview, and alarm bells instantly started ringing.
I was told there was no base salary. I’d be paid solely on commission, and it was more of a sales job. I was told part of the interview process involved “Going out with the team to see the job in action.” About 5 of us got on to a public bus and went to a shopping centre when it finally dawned on me.
This “marketing job” was, in actuality, a case of standing at a makeshift stall in a shopping centre pestering passersby and asking them if they wanted to buy car insurance. I told them I was going to the bathroom and just went home instead.
Dixa_Danglin
I went to an unsupervised high school graduation party just outside of the city limits. There was a huge bonfire (like the ones you see at Burning Man out in the middle of a field) with dozens upon dozens of teenagers from all walks of life.
My friend and I had just arrived, and we were socializing in a barn when some girl in tears ran through into the corner. Her, apparently ex-boyfriend (who was clearly drunk) was dragging an axe while everyone else just followed behind. He entered the barn and slammed the axe into a wooden support pole. He started yelling about something, and a few others tried to calm him down and put some space between him and the axe. We quickly left the place. I didn’t even have to time to meet up with the host of the party.
I later found out that this kid still thought they were together, but apparently they had broken up months ago, and she was now dating someone else. I seriously thought I was going to witness a murder.
Dr_Ghamorra
I worked for a tiny coffee shop owned by like 9-10 people, and it was managed by this ridiculous woman named Alice who thought this place would be the next Starbucks or something.
I was hired with the promise that Id be working the front counter as I had previous experience as a barista, but they kept me in the kitchen doing things like slicing meats, washing dishes, and baking all of the cookies and muffins that they sold. I was being worked harder than anyone there, and the kitchen manager was terrible.
One day, I voiced my concerns to Alice. She went and turned the whole thing around saying how they werent happy with me either and that theyd give me another chance while putting me on a weeks probation.
The next day, all of the investors/owners were going to meet at the shop to see how the place was doing. I was supposed to bake all the cookies and muffins, slice the meats and cheese, deep-clean the kitchen, and do prep for the next few days. None of it got done.
I had reached my limit. So, instead I just sat on my butt all afternoon and wrote a note to the owner. I told her that I wanted to quit, called her out for hiring me under “false pretences,” and for working me too many hours without a break. I also said that if she didnt mail me my last check then Id report them.
dustbunnee
I went in for my first day of training at 7 in the morning at a “Food served fast but not fast food” style restaurant where I was going to make $7 an hour (this was in 2005, and I was 17 at the time) working morning shifts as a second job over the summer.
The first thing that happened was the manager got really frustrated with me for not wearing non-slip shoes even though he never told me that I needed to get them. Then, he sat me down in the backroom in front of a little TV and started playing a “Getting Started” introductory video for the company. About five minutes into the video, I heard him SCREAMING bloody murder at a middle-aged lady who was doing the morning food prep. Like just going off on her, screaming at the top of his lungs, and berating her.
I immediately started shaking with anxiety, but after a few minutes, I decided: “You know what, no. I got up, took my name tag and apron off, and walked into the kitchen where he was still muttering and cursing to her angrily. I said his name and he turned around. I handed the items over to him as he stared at me completely stunned and I told him, “I don’t think this job is for me.” And got right out of there.
I was lucky that I already had another job and had the option to bail because I really didn’t want to get screamed at by a bloated, balding, sweaty man all summer long for minimum wage. Nope nope nope.
camp_serious
I was walking home from my night shift. I gave some guy a lighter and was invited to a party. There was just so much drug use happening like I don’t even think it was a party, I think it was just a drug den. So anyway, I rolled up my sleeves, politely bowed out, and quickly left before anything terrible happened.
Megaross
I invited some friends to a Flyers game. I was the “designated driver” as I dont usually drink anyway. They all proceeded to get hammered and act like imbeciles, and then they started treating me like crap for no reason (screaming at me, one threatened to hit me, cursed at me, and called me names). I got out, left them all in Philly, and drove myself home.
shmimeathand
During my junior year of high school, my parents got divorced. My mom started seeing her old ex-husband shortly after. That summer I chose to go and live with my mom and her ex-husband/new boyfriend, which was about a 6-hours drive down south. He had a son who was already living there as well. They were a nightmare.
They had no concept of personal space, the internet was terrible, he disrespected my mom, my room was the size of a closet, the town was so tiny, had zero amenities, and just numerous other reasons that made me quickly think that this was a huge mistake.
I was there for 3 days before I secretly packed all of my stuff into my car and drove back to my dad’s place. I called them after I had arrived to let them know that I had moved back home.
My parents had mixed feelings about the whole situation. My mom ended up taking my judgement of the whole situation as a huge indicator that something wasn’t right down there. She moved a month later to her own place, and they split up.
GoodRighter
I got shelled by friendly fire artillery! I was a young Marine stationed at 29 Palms and was out doing road guard for our range. Road guard basically means that you get dropped-off in the middle of no where with one other Marine, and you are there to keep people from driving into your live fire area.
My friend Rob and I were chilling, talking with the other two road guards about a half mile away to the south, and watched as an artillery company set up downrange to the east and started firing. This went on and on for hours with no issues, but then slowly the rounds started getting closer, closer…. and closer.
Our radios were short range, so we really couldn’t communicate with the range safety (called Bearmat) without climbing 1000 feet off of elevation on a hill to the north. We were talking to the south road guard position via. radio when we noticed that some of the rounds were exploding way too close between our positions.
We all decided that we should probably find someplace safer when we heard the “thummp thummp thummp thummp” of more rounds being fired in the distance. The radio went dead mid-conversation as we witnessed the south guard position get hammered by rounds. We couldn’t really see. There was too much dust and smoke down there, so we started running north. “Thummmp thummmp thummmp thummmp.” A rushing sound like a plane and then a shockwave behind us. I swear it was the loudest and scariest thing ever.
Long story short, we ran up the hill, called Bearmat, and shut down a large part of the MCAGCC range. The south guards were knocked over while running, but luckily the rounds that were fired that day were training and not HE or WP. We all lived and got to watch our battalion CO chew out a artillery captain.
IfritanixRex
I was invited by a friend and some locals in South America to go hunting at a swamp. We were walking in water that raised till our waists. During our trip, I was watching the trees because I thought that we were looking for lizards. Turns out, my group was looking for crocodiles instead. It was the biggest nope for me.
dokterstofje
Right after college, I was looking for internships in film/video to supplement my part-time work. I read about one that seemed like a good fit editing videos for a local startup Youtube channel business.
I attended the first meeting, and we were all sitting around a conference table at the owner’s day job (He had stayed after hours to sneak us into the closed building). We were told that we would each be asked to write, film, edit, and upload a 20-minute video per week to create the content of this “business.” Oh and we would need to provide our own equipment, actors, software, and bring in at least 50 new subscribers with each video.
I was looking around the room at all of these other slightly younger kids nodding and taking notes. Apparently, my ‘what-the-heck’ face was enough to make the boss ask if I had any questions.
I told him that this wasn’t an internship, it was unpaid labor, and he was asking us to basically freely create his entire business for him from the ground up and that was illegal. Everyone got uncomfortable as he sort of danced around my accusation, but he clearly couldn’t refute it. So, I got up and left.
erikarew
I was living with my boyfriend at the time, and his two kids (11 and 9) who were abandoned by their mother.
He and I worked at the same place, but in different departments on opposite ends of the building. I was working 20+ hours of overtime every week so we could have an extra nice Christmas for the kids (Their mom dropped them off in the parking lot of our apartment with a plastic bag filled with wet clothes, and we never saw her again).
Payday came and his check was extremely short. Turns out, he had been taking voluntary time off whenever it was offered, going to his friend’s house to smoke, and play video games all day. When I found out, it was like a kick in the gut. We had agreed that we would quit smoking together because we had kids in the house now so that compounded the betrayal.
I took the next day off and moved all my stuff out while he was at work.
chablissful
I was hanging out with my friends at their frat house in college. The smoke alarm went off from us smoking in one of the rooms. Everyone was escorted outside by the “House Mom” and lined up to be questioned by police. Right before the police could show up, I realized that I wasn’t even a part of this frat and quickly left.
Quicksi1verLoL
When my father disowned me for having different religious beliefs and my siblings defended him. I haven’t spoken to my family in years.
TheOtherJeff
Posts are edited for clarity.