This article was originally published on WHerMoments
"You can't fire me — I quit!" Who among us hasn't wanted to yell this at one point or another? That said, some people have found their working conditions to be so cruel that they’ve felt they had no choice but to quit on the spot. What exactly pushed them over the edge? Well, these former food service workers turned to Reddit and BuzzFeed to share with the world the moments they decided they just couldn't take it anymore. From villainous bosses and unhinged customers to gross working conditions, the question isn't so much why these employees quit, but why they didn't do it sooner!
Please note, answers have been edited for length and clarity.
"I don't deserve to be treated like this"
“I worked at a fancy restaurant for my city’s nicest hotel. One fateful night, we were a little busy but we were nearing close, so it slowed down. I was proud of myself because I hadn’t made a single mistake. Then the phone rang for room service.I was in the middle of taking an order when a new hire suddenly started asking me questions. When I tried to direct her over to the assistant manager, he got mad at me and started yelling. Long story short, I forgot the room number because I had three different conversations going on...
He went on a tirade about this and started calling me names as I was making the drinks at the bar and said something that made me think ‘I can’t do this anymore. I don’t deserve to be treated like this.’I took the soda hose that was behind the bar and sprayed him with it. Then I dumped the drinks I made into the ice so they couldn’t use it to make more drinks. I grabbed my stuff and left.” — Pretentious Banana, Reddit
"I was bleeding like crazy"
"Let's just say that I used to work at a place named after a day of the week — do with that what you will. I quit serving for good after a man applying for a job in the kitchen ran into me and caused me to drop all of my table's food. He was running and collided with me. Plates shot out of my arms, and one even hit the window and shattered. A piece of plate cut my leg open. I was bleeding like crazy. I apologized profusely to my customers, and they blamed me for running into him...
The assistant manager ended up comping their whole meal, and somehow, I got written up for it. Later in the week, our general manager returned from vacation and wondered why I had quit. He called me and asked, so I explained. He believed me and asked me to come back. I refused. The restaurant business is so toxic. I wouldn't ever go back." — katieh101, BuzzFeed
"The store had to shut down for several days"
“I worked at a KFC in the '80s. We had a really cool manager… [he] was hired to turn around the store and he was given a budget to buy new equipment. He also saved money on paper products and got the store really clean with our help. At the end of the year, he was fired by the upper management for "spending too much". They then brought in a new manager who immediately set about giving us all a hard time...
Everyone walked. The store had to shut down for several days and the new guy brought in his family to help run it. The store shut down permanently a few years later. The district manager offered me a job in management, but I just didn't trust them at that point.” — EurassesDragon, Reddit
"The look on his face made it so worth it"
“I worked at a Denny’s and we had an assistant manager that was very full of himself. I was scheduled to get off at 11... I got everything done and had no tables when my relief came in. I started to clock out. The assistant manager strolls in and says, ‘Hold on, hold on, where are you going?’I finished clocking out and said, ‘Going home. See ya tomorrow.’ He stopped me and said, ‘What about this?' He opened the pie oven and it was disgusting. One of the waitresses skipped it on her side work. ‘Tracey messed up. She’s off the next few days, so you’ll have to ask her about it Thursday,’ I said as I started to leave.‘Get over here, NOW!’ he said in his most authoritative voice...
I turned around and he pointed at the oven and said, ‘You’re going to clean this oven from top to bottom. THEN you’re going to go clean the dessert cabinet. After that, you can go ahead and clean out the ice cream freezer. I want them spotless.’I stared at him for several seconds before flicking my name tag off and throwing him the bird. The look on his face made it so worth it...” — VespineWings, Reddit
"It was so gross"
"I dropped a chicken wrap on the floor and was on my way to tell the customer that it would be a little longer since those were the last strips. A coworker told me it was no problem and to just drop it in the fryer since that'll kill the germs...
Things like that happened over and over again. I constantly reported it to the manager, but he didn't seem to care. It was so gross; I quit." — snowiehair, Reddit
"She threw the drink at me"
"A group came in at the end of the night while I was bartending and asked for one drink before we closed up. I obliged and made them vodka O.J.s at their request. After I served them, one woman accused me of giving her 'only orange juice.' I explained to her that there was definitely vodka in it, as I had just made it right in front of them...
The men started calling me names under their breath, and the woman demanded I 'dump it out' and make her a new one while she watched — for free. I said no, and she threw the drink at me, then jumped over the bar to try to fight me. I walked out and never returned." — Anonymous, BuzzFeed
"Since they were wronging me, I was going to wrong them"
“About four years ago, I worked at a very well-known chain restaurant… My management was some of the most underappreciative people I had ever encountered. One day, I woke up and realized I was extremely sick but couldn’t particularly afford a doctor’s visit at that time...
I figured I would stroll over to my job since I worked across the street so that I can give them a visual of my condition since they wouldn’t believe me over the phone.I explained my situation and was told ‘I don’t care, you’re the only one we have scheduled for this shift today.’ Being the hard worker I am, I decided I was going to go in and not just ‘no call no show.’ Being the spiteful person I am, I also decided that since they were wronging me, I was going to wrong them. I waited for the entire restaurant to fill up and empty. While staring at every single filthy table, I took my apron off and walked directly out the door.” — dancingwithostriches, Reddit
"I quit after that night"
"I accidentally charged a woman for guacamole. She opened up her burrito, looked me in the eye, and said...
'See? No guac,' then proceeded to throw said burrito in my face. I quit after that night."— Grace A., BuzzFeed
"Our manager was wildly incompetent"
“I used to work at IHOP as a server, and our manager was wildly incompetent. She would leave with the manager’s card (which was the only way to correct an order/refund something etc). I had a pair of Doc Marten work shoes that were slip/oil/electric proof…She threatened to fire me over the shoes so I caved and wore the [work-issued] raggedy ones to work.I was carrying an appetizer sampler and a tray of drinks to a table when my shoe sole ripped causing me to TRIP AND SPILL THE WHOLE SAMPLER ON THE TABLE. I freaked out and apologized, explaining that I would comp the food, and went to find the manager...
Guess who went home with that almighty card you need to void checks or discount them? I called the manager to find that she was at her house 15 minutes away. I told her not to bother, asked how she could be so stupid to go home with the card for the 1,000th time, screamed about the shoes, and told her to get lost.” — behindler, Reddit
"He started pleading with me"
“I used to work at McDonald’s (I know). It was in a small rural town so we were typically fine with three [employees] but we were off a major highway so sometimes it would get busy out of nowhere.One morning we got super-busy... I was a fantastic multitasker but my drive-through line was backing up since I was trying to juggle them and all the walk-in folks from my front registers. I glanced around trying to find my manager for help. I saw him on one of our cameras — he was outside smoking around the side of the building. I was absolutely dying trying to get caught up.[The manager] came in, saw me with my headset off, and went berserk. He screamed, ‘WHO’S TAKING THE DRIVE-THRU ORDERS?’I sort of auto-responded, ‘No one. Hang on.’ As I dashed behind our counter to grab a fruit and yogurt parfait for an order, he got in my way and started screaming at me...
I pointed to the camera and yelled loudly enough to disrupt the entire inside of the restaurant, ‘I’m these two registers, first window, the second window, and I’m bagging. I’m like FOUR PEOPLE and you’re out behind the building not doing ANYTHING!’I tossed him the headset and said, ‘You want to yell at me for not being able to run four stations with no support? Run five. I’ll watch.’ About ten minutes into his struggle he started pleading with me to come back behind the counter. I called back, ‘I need a smoke first!’ and went outside.I didn’t smoke. I wasn’t even a smoker. I drove home.” — PuppetShowJustice, Reddit
"It was the last straw for me"
“I worked as a server at a bar during college…There was one bartender who really didn’t like me and every time she worked, she would give me the worst tables so that I wouldn’t make as much in tips…She started only scheduling me for slow times early in the day. It sucked, but she did the scheduling and I needed the money. It kept getting worse and worse until I was barely making minimum wage. One day, during a slow lunch…I was serving a large table of around 15 people, probably the best table I had had in a week or so. She saw this and decided to ‘reassign’ tables and work as a server as well as a bartender...
[The bartender] took my table and said it was now hers, even though I had been serving them for about an hour and they were almost done with their meal. This wasn’t the first time, but it was the last straw for me. I went up to the table, explained the situation, and instead of transferring the table, cashed them out which they were happy to do. I collected the cash tip, told the bartender ‘Forget you, I quit!’ and walked out. I never talked to anyone at that bar again and found a better job the next day.” — ABrotherGrimm, Reddit
"I never put anything from that fryer close to my mouth"
"The fry oil at our place never changed once in the approximately five months that I worked there. By the time I left, it was almost black...
Needless to say, I never put anything from that fryer close to my mouth." — werter375, Reddit
"Everyone just looked at me, shocked"
“Roughly ten or so years ago, I was in high school and was working my first job at Taco Bell. I was about a year into my employment when one Taco Sunday (I don’t know if they still do this anymore but it was a day with extremely discounted tacos) I had enough. There were roughly ten people working, most of them cleaning for a big inspection coming up. There were another four people in the front, one person on drive through, and the other three just standing around socializing. I was the only one stationed making the orders. I had a dozen orders, all having a ridiculous amount of tacos a piece. I called for help multiple times and no one came...
The manager knew I was struggling and never once sent someone to help or came to help themselves. Not too long into this, I took off my hat, walked up to the group laughing and talking in the front, handed them my hat, and calmly said that I was quitting. Everyone just looked at me shocked as I walked out of the store never to return.” — ahnlehkeyi, Reddit
"I cried so hard"
"I left when my boss dumped out two buckets of cutlery roll-ups that had taken me an hour of unpaid time to do, for no reason other than the first roll-up was 'scratched...'
I cried so hard that my fake eyelashes fell off." — SisterGoldenHairSurprise, BuzzFeed
"We left him with all the orders right there and then"
“When I was 14, I wanted a summer job with my best friend. We went to the fast food shop at the beachside... We got there on a Friday afternoon and met the owner… He told us we could come in the next morning at 9:00 a.m. and people would show us around. We got there at 9:00 a.m. as he told us and no one was there. We finished our first day without any trouble, a slow day overall. Sunday arrived and we were not prepared for the sheer number of customers. We still had no idea how to cook the food and how the equipment worked. The owner arrived with a bunch of his friends. Even though we were swamped with people, he shoved them aside and asked us to make six hot dogs, six fries, and six diet cokes fast...
We knew it was for him…Not 30 seconds later, he came back behind the counter and began to tell us that we were trash at our job… I looked at my friend, he looked at me and we both knew what to do. We took our aprons off and told him to buzz off. We left him with all the orders right there and then, and never went back. They closed down about two years later.” — jewishpinoy, Reddit
"Why are you being such a dang turtle?"
“I worked at Outback Steakhouse for two years growing up. We were a busy restaurant but began to have lighter-staffed shifts after a cutdown from corporate saying we could perform the same with fewer bodies on the floor. I always had a partner with me to wash dishes, but it was a solo mission after the cutbacks. One day, the dishes piled up so high and there was nothing I could do because the dish machine was broken and I was by myself. My boss asked me, ‘What is going on back here, kid? Why are you being such a dang turtle...?’
I waited until my boss finished his cussing rampage and went back into his office. I took my apron off and put it on the dish counter. I walked out of that place and never went back. Ever. I feel bad about the nice coworkers I left behind. They cared about me a lot, more than they should’ve.” — Likelythesame, Reddit
"Tips got worse and worse"
"I left after tips got worse and worse...
After I worked a 12-hour shift — serving one of our 'highest-paying customers' — management let him walk out on a $1,000 tab without tipping even $1." — Anonymous, BuzzFeed
"The customers are not always right"
"I've been a server for 25 years, and the only reason I'm not going back is the customers. Every server will tell you that the customers have become intolerable over the past two years, since the onset of COVID...
Yes, the money can suck and the hours aren't great, but the Karens of the world are taking over...and since I'll definitely get fired for telling them how I feel, I'll just never go back to work in a restaurant again. The customers act worse than my four-year-old grandson. The customers are not always right." — Anonymous, BuzzFeed
"The management was a mess"
“I worked for Papa John’s in college. I made out well and ended up moving into management. After moving home and needing a job while in grad school, I got hired at the local Papa John’s there. The management was a mess. My GM was a drunkard that didn’t care, so people did what they wanted. Every time I’d get to work I’d start by counting the registers as I’d been trained. I kept finding that the register we never used was empty- it was supposed to have 50 dollars in change. It became clear that someone had a key or password and was treating the register like an ATM… I got told by corporate that if we were off more than $10, the manager would be written up...
I just started throwing the difference in out of pocket.I came in one day to the other manager passed out inebriated in the bathroom. He’d puked everywhere first and the store was a mess. I called the GM and he didn’t even know what to say so I called my corporate supervisor and said I was never coming back.” — ChrisInBaltimore, Reddit
"I'm in a much better place mentally, physically, and financially"
"I worked in the restaurant industry for about ten years, in and out of different places. My last restaurant was Red Robin, and I was in a pretty high management position. I could no longer put up with being forced to see my employees — actual people — as just numbers and percentages. The final straw for me was being forced to make people work in over 110-degree weather, with the A.C. not working in half the restaurant, under the guise of 'being there for the community...'
It couldn't come at the expense of the employees I was supposed to be there for. So I dropped my keys on the counter and walked out. Ever since I walked, I'm in a much better place mentally, physically, and financially." — Anonymous, BuzzFeed
"I was about to pass out"
"I went back to work in an NYC restaurant this May. For months, I suffered consistent, unwarranted comments from entitled Upper West Side customers about my body and my looks, such as, 'All this standing keeps you so skinny, doesn't it?' and, 'The next time I'm here, I'm going to force you to eat!' The pay was pretty good, so I tried to shrug it off...but I definitely internalized those comments. In July, 80 percent of the restaurant's seating was outdoor seating...
On a day where there was a city-wide heat warning and temperatures reached 103 degrees, management wouldn't let us go inside to cool off, or have a water bottle outside at the host stand. They said that it 'looked unprofessional.' After being yelled at by management for going inside to get water when I was about to pass out, I grabbed my stuff and ran out of there for good." — Anonymous, BuzzFeed
"I was crying while making the sandwiches"
“I used to work for Subway. It was a really bad fit for me, as I’m not good at interacting with people. My store was slowly losing customers after the owner fed a guy a moldy sandwich (I swear that was the turning point), so I would often be the only person on staff after the lunch rush, which was even more stressful for me. One night, I was crying while making the sandwiches and the customer complained. The boss pulled me aside the next day and wanted an explanation. I told him how miserable I was. He said to me, “You need to learn to accept your place in life.” Accept my place. Making $9 an hour with no sick leave, vacation, or insurance. Screw that...
I got angrier and angrier throughout my shift, and come 3:00 p.m., I was the only person running the store again.I called my fiance and told him to come pick me up, locked up the store, and texted the boss that I quit and that there was no one running his store. He called me back before I even left the parking lot and begged me to reconsider. I told him to screw off.” — 5bi5, Reddit
"I severely injured my back on the clock"
"My breaking point came after I severely injured my back on the clock and was told I couldn't leave until after my shift...
I left, went to the E.R., and never came back." — zombiedolllizkah, BuzzFeed
"He snapped"
“I was working at a pub shortly after college. During the evenings, things would always get pretty stressful and hectic... One day, though, in the middle of dinner, the other cook… apparently just had a bad night. Suddenly, a waitress came back and whined that one of her tables was complaining because the food was cold. He snapped.He picked up a hot pan from the stove, and I was terrified for a second that he was going to throw it at her...
Instead, he swung it as hard as he could at the entire stack of clean plates and knocked almost all of them off the table, shattering them on the floor. Weirdly enough, the store manager was going to let him keep his job if he’d admit to being out of line... instead of apologizing, he smashed a coffee cup against the wall and left. All told, it was probably for the best.” — Lindvaettr, Reddit
"Something clicked in my brain"
"One time, during a double with the Sunday church crowd — not tipping because they gave all their money to the church — and then my night shift of two tables staying an hour after closing, I left with $30 in tips. THIRTY BUCKS FOR EIGHT HOURS OF WORK...
Earlier that day, a customer said I was a 'good door opener.' Something clicked in my brain and made me realize that I am more than that. I never went back." — baebumblebees, BuzzFeed
"Good riddance"
“Not my work, but close friend's. Restaurant owner wasn't paying his staff and checks kept bouncing. So one night, they all said 'forget this', closed up shop together and left. Owner ran out of town after social media and reg media took over...
He closed down both of his places (the second also had a staff walkout the week prior to the first) and sold the buildings…Good riddance.” — SnoopThereItIs88, Reddit
"You are all replaceable"
“Worked at a chain pizza place. The manager didn't approve of how well we cleaned and prepped for the next day. So we all came in to a note saying something to the effect of, ‘You are all replaceable’. So we all said ‘Okay,’ took off the uniform, and left. We didn't even lock up or close up shop...
Just walked off. They had to close for about a week or two to replace the staff. The location completely closed and filed bankruptcy less than a year later at least partly due to her leadership.” — Anonymous, Reddit
"She didn't say a word"
"It had been a long day and it was about 8:00 p.m. when this woman came in with her two rowdy kids... She started playing on her phone, and the kids decided to run around the booths with their muddy shoes on and start standing on tables as if people didn't eat there. The lady looked at them and didn't say a word...
The food came and of course they made a major mess with their food... as a result I had to re-clean the whole lobby, which was even filthier than before. I quit that night." — DoDoADollopofDaisy, Reddit
"I thought he was joking"
"Years ago I worked in a restaurant... This place was supposed to function with four waitresses, a busboy, a dishwasher, a manager, and two cooks. Only the manager and I showed up... I took orders, served, bussed tables, washed dishes, and so on. During this, I accidentally dropped two bread plates and they broke. The manager says to me, "I'll have to take those out of your pay." I told him that was funny, thinking he was joking...
He wasn't. I turned around and grabbed a stack of dinner plates, threw them on the floor and said "take those out of my pay too" and walked out to leave him with the whole mess." — seagoingcook, Reddit
"You can't fire me — I quit"
“I got hired at a burger joint in the south loop in Chicago. The night shift consisted of the manager (not a working manager, just someone who assumed he was there to schmooze customers and yell at the staff), a petulant bartender, a megalomaniac cook, and me. I worked with these people as the one waitress on shift for the entire restaurant with zero dinner training. One evening, a customer asked for mayonnaise for his burger. The manager was too busy talking to someone to help me (surprise, surprise), so I went into the kitchen and asked the chef where they stored the mayonnaise. He yelled at me to figure it out…He cussed a blue streak at me about how I was an idiot, but still refused to help me, so I had to tell the customer he wasn’t going to get his mayonnaise. Right after this happened, a table for 12 came in…[The cook] put all 12 burgers up on the counter in no particular order and wanted me to magically figure out how the meat was cooked and what cheese was used…I started to peel back the buns a little to at least see if I could tell what was on them...
He saw me touching the burger with my hand and screamed bloody murder at me about how I was an idiot. I went out on the floor to try to think for a minute while I picked up the drinks from the bar, but the bartender still wouldn’t give me my drinks! It was then that I said ‘that’s it!’ [The manager] was coming back from the kitchen red in the face and screaming in front of the customers that he was going to fire me because the cook said I was an idiot and wouldn’t deliver the food. I told him, ‘You can’t fire me. I’m quitting.’I grabbed my stuff and left, and I’ve never been back. They make good burgers there, but DANG, what a bunch of scums.” — lemjne, Reddit