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Work, Worries, and the Weird Ways We Cope: 6 Surprising Facts About Our Jobs
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” That’s the saying we all know. But the second half, often forgotten, is just as telling: “All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.” Somewhere between dull boys and mere toys lies the modern worker—juggling deadlines, dodging layoffs, dreaming about spreadsheets, and occasionally … Continue reading Work, Worries, and the Weird Ways We Cope: 6 Surprising Facts About Our Jobs
Fascinating Work Facts: From Ghost Workers to Digital Nomads
Working hard to get to Heaven — this saying rings particularly true when we delve into the peculiar and sometimes eyebrow-raising facts about the world of work. From an employee who turned ghost-working into an art form to the burgeoning lifestyle of digital nomads, here are some detailed accounts of how our relationship with work … Continue reading Fascinating Work Facts: From Ghost Workers to Digital Nomads
People Who Quit A Job On Their 1st Day Describe What Happened
One of the main reasons that people “rage quit” their jobs – meaning they leave in a dramatic fashion when they’re fed up – is usually due to poor management and abusive treatment.
In August of 2021, we saw the largest amount of people quitting their jobs at once in what is now known as the Great Resignation. Some left due to low wages and poor management, some left because of the pandemic, and some wanted to do work they actually loved doing.
While many of these people quit after working for quite some time, there’s a great deal of people out there who quit on day one of their new job.
Sometimes you start a new job and instantly you realize that it’s not going to be the right fit. Whether it’s red flags with management or the work isn’t something you want to be doing, there are so many reasons to leave.
We went to Ask Reddit to get the truth on why people left their job the moment they started.
Redditor redmambo_no6 asked:
“People who quit their jobs on the first day, what was your ‘I’m outta here’ moment?”
Here’s some of the best responses.
Had to pay for the microwave.
“When the microwave in the lunch room was coin activated.” – CaptainArsehole
“That’s real? What the ever loving f*ck?”
“That warrants loading that thing up with quarters, filling it with silverware and setting it to ten minutes on your way out.” – larry_flarry
“I work in building management and am personally responsible for many of the amenities tenants have in an office, and I can’t even imagine the conversation on that one.”
“I had a hard time putting in a cold brew and kombucha machine that was pay per use, I feel like if you are going to put something in an office it should be free, or just don’t offer it.” – BuffFlexson
Management has issues.
“Worked in a hotel for a day.”
“No one told me where anything was. Got chewed out for it.”
“Guests enjoying their meals told me to pay no mind/I was doing a good job and that my boss is a c*nt.”
“I told the manager that I was quitting and wouldn’t be doing the next shift.”
“I arrived the next day, returning a work uniform and my supervisor approached me and yelled at me for being late. I told her I already quit but if I was working, technically I was 5 hours early for my shift.”
“Absolute nutcases.” – O5CR
“The not getting told how to something then getting told off for doing it wrong thing happened to me. I was so mad.”
“Got told to put something on shelves by checkout. Asked if there’s way any specific way it needs to be done? Get told ‘No, idiot, it’s not hard you just put as much as you can fit on the shelf’. Stack stuff on shelf. ‘Why didn’t you follow protocol around displaying stuff here? You have to count exactly how many you use for stock control and display them a certain way.’”
“Thought that one was a one off but the next day I ask what I should be doing after a busy period? ‘There’s nothing to do for a bit. Make us all coffee to practice using the machine.’ Half way through making coffee ‘Why haven’t you done really important job? You don’t have time to be taking coffee breaks!’”
“This was my trainer vs the manager. Turns out the trainer didn’t want someone else working with her so she sabotaged me and set me up for the manager to catch me doing the (wrong) things she’d told me to do.”
“I told them they clearly have some issues to work out among themselves and quit.” – Few-Evidence-7534
They were watching.
“I got a job at a Build A Bear knockoff at the end of a mall that wasn’t very busy. My interview with the owners was interesting. They were an older couple who said that they had wanted to open a Chick Fil A, but you need about a million dollars to do that.”
“My first day, one other girl was working, and she didn’t really talk to me. I had basically no training and she disappeared into the back. I was standing at the register area, which was underneath a giant storybook mushroom. A mother and her young son walk in and start to look at the bear skin options. I greeted them and left them to look around. They ended up leaving after a couple minutes and my coworker reappeared from the back with the cordless phone and handed it to me.”
“It was my boss. He told me that when a customer walks in, he wants me to come out from under the mushroom to them (‘come OUT! from the mushroom!’). After he finished speaking to me, I hung up and went to my coworker and asked about the phone call. She said the place has cameras set up and the owners watch them from their house and call in a lot. I did not come back to work after that day.” – pocketradish
“Not mushroom for improvement there.” – FreudianAcordian
“Owner didn’t seem like a fungi.” – TrippyReality
They had been robbed.
“Fast food chain: I was 17.”
“I found out during training that the place had been robbed 3 times in the past month and 1 employee was seriously injured.”
“Not worth the $5/hr. (This was the US state of Georgia in 2004).” – ThunderFlash10
“I worked at a KFC when I was 16. I remember the training orientation video told us over and over not to be a hero if you get robbed. Do they really think we’re gonna take a bullet for them? Like we’re gonna scream ‘Not on my watch!’ and dive over the counter?” – casino_night
They didn’t take breaks.
“Took a summer job at a textile plant and the trainer said, ‘Forget about taking a break if you want to stay caught up.’” – p38-lightning
“Reply forget about being caught up.” – Big-Red-Husker
“Especially because ‘caught up’ is an arbitrary standard.”
“Breaks, however, are mandated by law and measurable.” – TootsNYC
They didn’t want to pay the $40.
“I applied for a job at my longtime favorite restaurant(celebrated my birthday there every year).”
“Owner asks me to come in for basically a try out, as I communicated I was looking at other job possibilities. I come in and they just stick me on dishwashing for an hour, no biggie. Then there dishwasher doesn’t show up, so the kitchen manager asks me to stay one for their lunch rush, says I’ll get paid for the hours. I do, kitchen staff was nice so I was happy to help out even though I figured I’d be taking a different job. I fill out a time card at the end of the shift and tell the manager I probably wouldn’t be back, he understands and thanks me for the help.”
“Fast forward a couple weeks and he tells me to email the owner after I ask him if I should pick up my measly paycheck. I do, she basically tells me to f*ck off over text. Tells me it was ‘staging’ and that she told me I wouldn’t be paid. I respond that I understand that but that I stayed an extra 3 hours which I WAS told I’d be paid for. She stops responding. I decide I want to be petty over the 40 bucks so I get the state labor department involved. Dude goes in there and makes her pay me for the hours including the first ‘staging’ hour. Couple weeks later I got my 40 bucks, never went back to that restaurant.”
“Firstly, ‘petty’ is not how I see it two years later. I’m VERY glad I did this and sharing the story with others in my city I learned this practice was very common with local restaurants. Hopefully others learned to stand up for their labor too from my small experience.”
“Secondly, this restaurant closed down a couple weeks after I got that paycheck. The owner made a long winded complaint on the FB page about how the food culture had ‘changed’ in the city and her restaurant didn’t fit in anymore (total bullsh*t, they were ALWAYS popular. Most people theorized the terrible mismanagement and employee abuse had caught up to her).” – sleepdyhollow
“You’re not petty, I wonder how many other people they fleeced for free labor.” – FaustsAccountant
“You would not believe what restaurants get away with. And they’re so blatant about it.”
“It’s such an insane work culture. I’m glad I experienced it but the thought of doing it everyday makes my job being a welder now a total cakewalk.” – providenthound
The employee had to pay for training.
“My very first job was at a little drive in restaurant close to my high school. I showed up to work the first day, they lady said I had to pay her $50 for training. She showed me around the place and said that my pay would be $4.50/hour as a carhop(this was in 2010), and all the tips I made went into a bucket with all the other girls’ tips. At the end of the night, she counted up tips, kept 20% for herself and split the rest up evenly among EVERY employee. Also, part of our job was one day a week we had to spend 4 hours cleaning her house. It seemed super shady.”
“I literally left after listening to her go over all these rules. My dad was pissed until I explained, and another girl confirmed and my dad agreed I did the right thing.” – tlr92
“Shady and highly illegal.”
“Tip pooling is legal but is supposed to be only with other tipped employees, her skimming 20% off the top is not legal.”
“Pretty sure you can’t charge someone to train them for a job you hired them for.” – -Work_Account-
Hired to do one job, told to do another.
“I was hired at a chain restaurant to be a hostess. I was so excited because my last job was washing dishes and because of my eczema, I had to quit. It was too painful to do that job. So, I arrived at my new job dressed up to be a hostess and those mfers took me back to the kitchen to do dishes because the dishwasher just quit. I noped out of there real fast!” – Ismygrayshowing
“13 years in restaurants, I can say if you have any skin condition stay out of restaurants not because of your skin but the chemicals some places use for their dishwashers. I’ve seen people welt up just from industrial detergent.” – scootiesanchez2038
Even the customers knew it was bad.
“Went into an Italian restaurant for my first day of work and I got 3 red flags on the very first day.”
“1- The manager said he had lots of hours for me and getting shifts would be no problem. Every single other employee told me that they were struggling for hours and that they had no idea why they hired me.”
“2- Everyone said the manager was an asshole. Even the customers.”
“3- It was my first day there, and I actually had to teach the woman training me how to do one or two things.” – Stevie-Avail
“Probably hired you to replace that woman.” – RonStopable08
They were pushing a sale that should never happen.
“‘Salesman’ for Kirby vacuums. First sale call was to a single elderly woman who was supporting her son in hospital (they got us in the door by offering a free carpet clean as a demonstration). The supervisor training me pushed and pushed to make the sale until this old woman was in tears. Just as she was about to sign the paperwork I asked if she actually wanted to vacuum and she said it was lovely but she couldn’t afford it. I took the paperwork away from her and said not to worry.”
“Outside I told the supervisor I quit to which he replied I would’ve been fired anyway. No love lost. I hung around for half an hour playing on my phone to make sure the supervisor left because he was a real piece of work.” – Pokestralian
“Oooh I have a Kirby story! I worked for them when I was 17 – not selling the vacuums but setting up appointments for the salespeople. They had the shadiest way of getting their salespeople into people’s houses. They went around town with raffle tickets where people could sign up with their name, address, and phone number for a chance to win some cash prize. The kicker? There was no contest. It was just a way to get these people’s info.”
“When I would get the filled out raffle tickets I was instructed to look at the zip codes and throw out any from the lower income part of town. Then with what was left I had to make calls. I had a script where I would tell them they were still in the running for the cash prize but in the meantime, they had won a free one room cleaning. I’d get the details on which room they wanted to have done and set up a day and time for it. Their free room cleaning was a Kirby salesman pitching to them the whole time.”
“The whole thing was so dishonest I quit after a couple weeks.” – SavaRox
Not only do some of these jobs sound terrible, a lot of what happened was illegal.
With all the abuse, misuse of power, and poor wages, it’s no one these people quit on day one. If they stayed any longer it was bound to be stressful.
Workers Divulge The Most Unethical Request Their Boss Ever Made
Most large corporations are built on a ‘leadership’ model that borrows heavily from the military idea of Chain of Command.
The top gives orders, which are followed with increasing levels of detail the further down the chain one goes.
The trouble is that the orders aren’t always proper – or even, in some cases, legal.
Non-disclosure agreements and general embarrassment often keep people from telling these stories but Redditor SethmAR15 decided to use the anonymity of Reddit to ask:
“What’s the most unethical thing a boss has ever asked you to do?”
Someone needed a break.
“Many, many years ago I was working as a part-time mechanic for a guy selling ‘restored cars’.”
“He called me in for an emergency brake repair on a TR-4.”
“One of the rear wheel cylinders had failed and he needed it fixed ASAP.”
“He had a buyer lined up with cash.”
“Instead of having me hone and rebuild the cylinder properly (I had the tools and the kit to do so) he wanted me to cut the pipe to the rear brakes and just crimp it over onto itself, enough to stop the leak.”
“He was in a hurry and wanted it fixed before the customer saw anything.”
“I fixed it properly anyway, so that no one would die, and then rolled my toolbox out of there that very night.” ~ limeycars
The benefit of the doubt.
“Also at Dollar Tree, most of my cashiers were teenagers or dipshits that never showed up for work so this older Korean woman kept getting called in to work the register.”
“She was pretty much getting 40+ hours every week and open season for benefits was getting ready to start.”
“My district manager called me and told me I had to convince her to not get any benefits or else.”
“I told him that else better be him doing that shit himself because I’m not about to do his dirty work.” ~Sol-Blackguy
An executive decision.
“Not me but my dad’s story.”
“1980’s.”
“My dad worked at a small mid-western bank as an executive.”
“One day a fellow executive comes in with several loan applications and says he needs them all approved.”
“My dad looks over them quickly and immediately realizes none of the applicants qualified.”
“If they approved them the loans would go into default within three months and these people would lose their farms.”
“My dad said it wasn’t possible.”
“The other exec says ‘well if you just fudge the numbers it is.’ My father tells him that’s impossible because other exec never walked into his office and they never had this conversation.”
“The other exec nods and takes the papers back.”
“Six months later the FBI raids the bank.”
“My father was the only exec who didn’t go to prison for fraud.” ~ BlackStarCorona
We’re trying to contact you about your car’s extended warranty.
“Similar but different.”
“As a teen, I worked at a car dealership in the service department.”
“At the time, there was a major recall for transmission repairs.”
“They would do fake warranty repair orders on cars that did not need it and came in for other reasons, and bill the manufacturer accordingly.”
“They had to order replacement parts to continue the fraud, and would tell me to take them to a storage room above the parts department.”
“It so happened on my last day there, an auditor was on site for routine audit stuff.”
“In the break room I told him what I knew and left.”
“Fast forward 3 months and the dealership was closed.”
“I probably wouldn’t have said anything if my boss hadn’t been such a dick when I asked for time off to attend my grandfather’s funeral.”
“He thought I was lying and I had to bring in the obit (pre-internet) to keep my job.” ~ RunMelba
Dollar Tree doesn’t play around!
“My old boss at dollar tree would make me drive her to the bank in my car every night.”
“And she would have me park like 10 feet back from the ATM while she walked up to it.”
“She told me that if someone ever tried to run up on her while she was depositing the money I had to run them over.”
“She said if they were too close to her to just hit her as well.”
“She was incredibly adamant that I absolutely HAD to do this and very serious.” ~ durkinbrowns
Expiration dates are suggestions, right?
“Back in a butcher shop portion of a grocery store I worked at.”
“The supervisor asked me to change the date on some burger that wasn’t selling.”
“The day she asked me to do this was the sell-by-date.”
“I even asked her if that was safe/legal.”
“She just tapped her name tag that said supervisor on it and said that was the only thing I needed to worry about.”
“I put new tags on all of the packages while she was there but I didn’t put them on the shelves.”
“After she left for the night I found the store manager and showed him.”
“I showed him the old tags, which were just under the new tags so it was easy to pull them back and prove it. He had me toss the burger down the trash chute and my supervisor was gone from the store by the end of the week.” ~ Nerdfatha
There are always more workers.
“Keep people at work when there was a chemical leak from the car painting shop next door, and people were getting sick.”
“The boss wasn’t on-site (almost never was), I tried calling him and got no answer, and I was the most senior worker on-site so I sent everyone home.”
“When I was almost home (1h+ commute) he called me back.”
“He had gotten my voicemail where I explained the situation and he was not happy.”
“Apparently we should have waited it out or I should have arranged for everyone to work from home (not possible).”
“The guy was a dickhead but this one still makes me angry when I think about it.” ~ipakookapi
Seeing is believing?
“Branch Manager (Banking) asked me to pose in a picture, showing a lot of cleavage, to use on his construction loan website for his builders.”
“He wanted them to ‘see’ who they would be working with in a daily basis so he could get more business.” ~ Hchel25
This sounds like an episode of the Sopranos.
“I had a boss ask to me take a bunch of stock from the warehouse to his personal storage unit, and not to ask any questions …” ~ TJDigital_
What’s a little illegal dumping between coworkers?
“Loaded unknown chemicals into the nose of tractor trailers for out of state transport.”
“I’m sure it was all illegally dumped. Just out of HS I had no idea the scope of what was happening.”
“Nothing was labeled, containers, trailers and manifests all claimed empty containers.” ~ Reddit
It can be very easy to just do what you’re told, to just follow the orders.
Remember though that actions have consequences and to be wary of anyone trying to slide those consequences off their shoulders—and on to yours.
People Explain The Reason They Walked Out Of A Job Interview
Job interviews are a major head game.
On one hand, they’re very exciting. An invitation to interview is one of the later steps in the journey to landing a new job.
And yet, they’re wildly performative, forcing us not to be ourselves, be polite, show off our skills and demonstrate general likability all in less than an hour.
It’s no wonder Redditor JimmySaulGene wondered about one of the more chaotic ways that could all go down.
They asked:
“People who walked out of a job interview, why did you do it?”
For one person, it all came down to personality.
“Years ago, I went to an interview, and sat down with the man who was to interview me. Sat in silence while he read something on his computer for a few minutes, then waited for a minute or so while he looked over my resume (it was a small business, he is the same person who called me to set up the interview and he’d had the resume for a few days.)”
“He finally looked up at me and said, ‘Well, I’m not sure why you applied for this job; you really don’t have any of the skills or experience I’m looking for.’ He was just so arrogant and I felt like he was trying to make a power move to make a lowball offer.”
“I didn’t apply to any job that I wasn’t qualified for. I was just instantly pissed that he was playing games. I calmly said, ‘Then I’m not sure why you‘re wasting my time,’ and I stood and walked to the door.”
“He said something like, ‘Oh, no, let’s talk,’ and I told him I wasn’t interested in working for him.”
“I had a job already, I just wasn’t terribly happy with it, so I really didn’t feel like putting up with his b.s.” — RumBunBun
Another person was stunned by a big twist.
“Showed up for a construction/trades workers ‘hiring event.’ I’m a plumber by trade and work was bleak as hell in my city at the time, so I went. Sh** looked legit until they sat us down to speak about the work scope.”
“They claimed to be one of the companies that were building Rogers Place in Edmonton. After they gave us sketchy details they said ‘however, if you don’t want to do that you can….’ And started speaking about how to do door to door sales of mostly chocolate in the higher end communities around the city.”
“They talked construction for maybe 15 minutes and the rest was door to door chocolate sales and unicef fundraising and how we can have an income of 150k+ a year doing that. I left probably 20 minutes into that. I had a friend who champed it out and stay the entire time. The stories he told me were hilarious.”
“Ironically, 30 minutes after I left, I got a call from a company who was actually a contractor on the Rogers Place job and ended up working for them for 4+ years.” — kokumslayer69
In this example, the Redditor was a fly on the wall.
“The guy interviewing me interrupted the interview to scream at one of his employees. Like red in the face screaming and berating the guy. And then tried to just pick up where we left off like it was nothing. No thank you.” — DrunkBeavis
This Redditor just had a bad feeling.
“I’m a vet tech. Interviewed at a primary care, single doctor practice. The manager was over 25 minutes late to my interview. While I waited for her, the front desk staff ignored me while they talked crap about the techs, manager, and clients.”
“The manager said they did not believe in referring to any specialists, because ‘Dr. A is a specialist in everything from grizzly bears to canaries.’ He was not, he hadn’t even done a rotating internship and definitely had not done any type of residency program.”
“I had already worked in a toxic clinic, but at least the doctors were competent. When she asked if I had any questions, I just asked if I could have my resume back, so I didn’t waste the paper.” — Karbar049
This one was, well, just bizarre.
“Applied for a software developer position for an online retailer. First round of interviews was a traditional technical skills and whiteboard coding session, second round was a cultural fit interview with HR.”
“I assumed it would be an one on one interview with HR, it was a room with 20 something people applying for anything from legal to finance.”
“They asked us to stand up, then crawl into a ball and pretend we were flowers opening. At this point I honestly thought it was some kind of prank, then I saw everybody around me doing it.”
“I just said thanks for the opportunity and left.” — neolabaque
Another case came down to timing.
“I once went to a job interview for a large welding shop, in the middle of a rain storm. After talking to the interviewer for 30 or so minutes, he walked me out to the shop floor to take a welding test. The machine we went to was in decent condition, but was literally sitting in a puddle of water.”
“The welding table’s legs were rusty and not grounded well, and also in said puddle. Over half the shop was flooded. I turned around and said ‘No thank you.’ Then proceeded to walk out the door. My life is worth more than $20 an hour.” — Alpha_Hellhound
This Redditor played with nothing to lose.
“I should have; I stayed there out of morbid curiosity to see how low they would go, but I had made the decision I wasn’t gonna work there early in the process.”
“I’m glad I stayed. The last thing that happened in the interview was the CEO personally asking us all to promise that, if we ever make a mistake, the company will calculate how much that mistake cost us, and we will voluntarily pay the company that amount.” — Oudeis16
And of course, there was the guy selling snake oil.
“I was approached at work (bagger for a major grocery store chain when I was 16) by a guy who asked me if I would be interested in making $1100 a week. He told me to meet him at one of the empty businesses in the same plaza after work.”
“He went on this long spiel about the melaleuka tree from Australia and how his company made soaps and shampoo out of it. Then he told me for $500 he would train me how to sell the products. I just turned and walked out the door with him yelling behind me that I would never amount to anything with my attitude.” — DeusEx-Machinist
This person strayed slightly from the prompt, but what a story.
“Slightly different – I actually interviewed and was hiring by a call center that focused on getting donations for a variety of non-profit organizations (I was desperate). It was on a Thursday, and I was told to show up the following Monday.”
“When I showed up Monday morning, the entire business unit was completely empty. Like, stripped to the floor, wires hanging from the roof empty.”
“When I was there the week before, I saw around 20-25 cubicles of people all working diligently, a managers desk at the far back, and waiting area chairs with a table, all in one large room. To this day I have no idea what happened, I just know they got out of there quick in 3 days time.” — Digideegs
This Redditor found out how to have a good time regardless.
“Pyramid scheme advertised as ‘sales and marketing.’ “
“It was a group interview. They served wine for fu**s sake! They had obvious stooges initiating conversation about how great this opportunity was.”
“I got very drunk and stopped being polite about it.” — wonderbrawl
For most of us, interviews are pretty standard fare.
But should they turn out like one of these, feel free to show yourself out.
Hiring Managers Divulge The Biggest Resume Mistakes That Cost Someone The Job
Making career moves can be anxiety-inducing.
You’re never really sure what to put on your resume, what to say about why you left your last position or how to really answer the inevitable question about why you want to work there without pointing out the obvious desire for a paycheck.
This would be so much easier if you could just get a peek inside the minds of hiring managers, wouldn’t it?
Wouldn’t you love to know the things they’re actually hoping to see? And the things that they hate so much it makes them automatically disqualify a candidate?
Enter reddit user “ThanosIsMyRealFather” who asked:
“Hiring managers of Reddit, what was something on someone’s CV/resume that made you either immediately want to hire them or immediately reject them?”
So go ahead and make a new folder in your phone for the screenshots you take. We’re going to start with learning what NOT to do.
Too Much Information
“His resume was 14 pages.”
“Granted, it was for a finance position with 5-10 years experience, but there’s only so many different ways you can describe finance responsibilities – and summarizing is a valuable skill.”
“Dude never pitched for the interview.”
– zenaide1
“We had a resume for an internship come through that was double-digit pages long and included his karate accomplishments in 6th grade.”
– mcarneybsa
“24 pages; this mans IT management profile.”
“5 pages was his CV.”
“The other 19 pages was meticulously explaining every project he had done in his 40 years of experience. All the way back to before I was born.”
– magaruis
“I got a 26-page resume once. A lot of it was about his ex-wife.”
“We, uh, didn’t call him.”
– bokodasu
It’s Happened To The Best Of Us
“Their resume included the sentence: ‘I have incredible attention to dealtail.’ ”
– 4sOfCors
“I said that once, in the email body.”
“I then proceeded to forget to attach the CV. So awkward.”
– _ae_
“I had something similar on a resume.”
“I wrote ‘I have great attention to detail’ and then right after I sent it I noticed my name was misspelled.”
– squanchiest-
“Right out of law school I put a ton of emphasis on my attention to detail on my resume.”
“After about six months, one kind soul called me to let me know that I had misspelled ‘lawyer’ in my opening sentence. He was not interested in an interview.”
– AmnesiaCane
Assassination Attempts
“I had a funny typo on a resume I once reviewed. It read:
” ‘Assassinated the lead florist on site’ “
“Obviously it was meant to say assisted.”
– snailtopus
“Screw up a bride’s centerpieces and pay with your life. Florists know this when they sign on for the job.”
– Jackandahalfass
“It was a Sith florist. The only way to progress through the ranks is to kill the master.”
– Bloodcloud079
But Do You Even Lift?
“A guy put his bench, squat and deadlift numbers in his personal skills section for a bar job.”
“It spawned a long tradition of asking bartenders what they could bench when they applied for a job.”
– MoveToStrike
“This one hits close to home haha.”
“When I was in high school I won a few bench press/strength competitions and had that listed in my interests section at the bottom.”
“When I got my first job out of college my boss used to occasionally make jokes about it, so I decided it was time to retire that.”
– Fair-University
“We had a candidate who was clearly into weightlifting ask if our work uniforms came in stretchy materials, ‘you know, for my physique’ as he pointed to his biceps.”
– ballinthrowaway
A Very “Niche” Portfolio
“I was working for a small digital agency and we were looking for designers and illustrators – general multi skilled creative types.”
“The boss wanders in with a sly grin and a big folder. It was from a guy who wanted the job.”
“I came over and he started flicking through it. Page after page of sexy cartoons.”
“Lots of them furry type stuff. Boob, butts, lips, figures intertwined, lots of detailed musculature.”
“So I was like ‘Well it’s quite good for what it is… but what else is there? Is there another section?’ “
“Nope. Nothing else.”
“Just a folder completely full of semi-pornographic cartoon people and sexy anthropomorphised animals.”
“He was not hired. It wasn’t because of the cartoons, it was because it was all just those cartoons.”
“Would have liked to see some commercial applications of illustration, or something showing he could work to requirements, or a variety of work showing different styles. Also this was 15ish years ago.”
– torn-ainbow
It’s not all doom and gloom, though.
We like to end on a positive note around here, so let’s take a minute to talk about the things that catch a hiring manager’s attention in the right way.
That Wording Is Everything
“Had a kid applying to work at a Sam Goody as a stock boy write that he was a petroleum transference engineer for Exxon at his last job.”
“His job was pumping gas, I hired him on the spot.”
– Canadian_Neckbears
Playing Games
“I work at an Escape Room.”
“We once received a resume that consisted in a webpage address protected by a password, and three well-crafted riddles that we had to solve to get the password.”
“We spent an hour doing it with two colleagues, and it included decrypting a code from a specific frame of Zodiac by David Fincher. It was simply amazing.”
“Sadly, we weren’t hiring at the time, and she had found another job we we started hiring again.”
“We would have loved to hire her, but we were fully staffed and not in a position to just create a job for her. Believe me we wanted to.”
– Maximelene
World Of Warcraft
“Once I received a resume that had ‘Raid leader for WOW in top guild of a server.’ “
“The other hiring managers laughed their asses off and said this guy was a joke. They all dismissed him.”
“Me, I asked the guy to come in for an interview. He did pretty well and I hired him.”
“The reason I brought the guy in for interview was because I’m an avid Warcraft player and I know the sh*t raid leaders go through.”
“Trying to get a large number of people together, coordinate resources and rewards, getting guides together and telling people to up their healing/dps and not stand in fire. All done virtually via vent and forum postings (meaning you never met these guild members in person.)”
“You need some great leadership skills and project management. Also at that time I was dealing with a lot of people offsite so I thought this guy would be a good fit.”
“9 years later (I’ve since left the company), the WOW guy I hired turned out to be great!”
“He’s particularly shined in recent years when corporations decide that working from home doing virtual meetings is the way to go to cut cost. His skill set as a raid leader translated very well with remote project management!”
“Oh, and is now the manager of those same hiring managers that laughed at his resume.”
“This was at a Fortune 500 financial company.”
– evonebo
So let’s go over what we’ve learned today, shall we?
- Keep things brief.
- It’s important to spell-check.
- How much you can bench press probably isn’t relevant enough to go on your resume.
Oh, and make sure there’s more than just furry semi-porn in your portfolio.
People Confess The Real Reason Why They Quit Their Job This Year
This year, an incredible amount of people quit their jobs. So many people left that media have started calling it The Great Resignation.
In August, 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some believe that people are quitting in droves because of government supplements available during the pandemic are being taken advantage of, but that may not be the whole story.
While many are calling this a labor shortage, others are pointing to low wages for customer service work like restaurant workers, retailors, and hospitality workers, who are at hire risk for contracting COVID.
With so many people quitting, we wanted to know what was the final straw for the 4.3 million people who walked away.
Redditor daraand asked:
“Why did you quit your job this year?”
Here’s what The Great Resignation is really all about.
Too much stress.
“72 hour weeks, was stressed out constantly. Kept getting passed over for promotions.” – basic-fatale
“…this, plus the a**holes who made everyday miserable for me.” – sirlongbottom441
“Bloody hell. This makes me appreciate some of the employment laws we have in place. Anything above 48 hours is illegal, regardless if it’s on your contract or not. Your employer can ask but you’re in no obligation to accept.”
“This is in the UK.” – steelcity91
Goodbye retail.
“Found one that is Monday to Friday, same hours as my wife so we can carpool, and paid more for the starting wage than my last job did after working there for 2 years and getting a promotion. Win win win. Plus the actual work is more personally fulfilling. Goodbye retail!” – Ghiraheem
“What a huge relief. Good for you.” – LaserTurboShark69
“Because working retail is crap and working retail during a pandemic is just life-draining.” – anarchos1288
“I got out of retail in 19. Couldn’t imagine being in during Covid.” – ogier_79
Low Wages.
“Might do it soon. Wage has not kept up with inflation at all.” – Opie67
“I’m looking forward to my annual 1-2% best we can do right now raise, and giving my notice shortly after. Though I wouldn’t mind being wrong for once.” – tris_majestis
This has been predicted. Year end bonuses will be here and before you know it and January will bring the next wave of walk outs.
Time to switch careers.
“I was so tired of the politics, racism, and anger there. I just finished my second master’s degree and have decided after 20 years I’m switching careers and could not be more excited!!!” – Redditor
“Congratulations! That’s awesome! May your new job bring you a sense of peace and fulfillment.” – Ghiraheem
Left after seven years.
“Got taken off a team I started and was on for 4.5 years and moved to a newly created team with 0 notice. New team is under a different director and also had other people pulled onto it. ‘This team was put together to work on a project that’s very close to the CEO’ we kept getting told.”
“My experience is in a completely different tech stack. No idea why I was moved to this new team. Spent a month doing courses and trainings to learn this new tech stack at the behest of my manager and our lead engineer. Business kept changing their mind on what we were doing, so I had to keep changing what I was learning. (Flutter, Android, iOS, Kotlin, Spring) I was learning all of those from the ground up mostly. Nothing I was experienced in was useful on this new team.”
“Lead engineer submitted his 2 weeks. Was tired of dealing with our management chain.”
“After that, director pulls me into meeting. Says I’m not performing at the expected level. Why don’t I have as many tickets done. etc. I explain that I’ve been doing courses and pair programming with our lead to learn the new code base. That I’m from a completely different tech stack. He doesn’t believe me, says I should be learning outside of work hours. wtf.”
“That’s not how our company culture is at all. Lead engineer hears about this, pulls director into a meeting and yells at him for accusing me of not performing and lays out all the reasons as to why I am. Director pulls me into a meeting the next day to say ‘I guess I didn’t have the full story,’ doesn’t even really apologize. Like bro, I f*cking told you the full story…”
“I had a couple break downs during that whole week, so after that I took 2 weeks of vacation to think about shit and to de-stress. Came back, finished a small project in 2 days and submitted my 2 weeks.”
“And that is how I came to quit a company I had worked at for nearly 7 years that I really enjoyed working at. And how a tool of a director lost a Senior & Staff engineer from his 5 person team in the span of a couple weeks. I hope it reflects poorly on him.” – Shane75776
Your mental health should come first.
“I was in middle management, desperately trying to keep my small team together with no help or support from the higher ups who were content on playing golf and smoking their cigars. My team was overworked, stressed, yelled at constantly by internal and external clients, and were given tools from 1998 to fix 2021 issues.”
“Luckily a former co-worker asked how things were going, I might have an opportunity for you…he’s now my co-worker again, and I’m making 40% more than I was, no longer managing people, and back doing what I like doing: Learning new things and helping people.”
“Two things I learned:”
“Be nice to people because you never know what can happen down the road. They might call on you or you might need to call on them.”
“Mental health first. I had a mental breakdown and my former company said, ‘Are you quitting?’ as their opening statement when I opened up to them. If you’re not getting the support you need, go find it. I promise you, everything else will work out.” – jkra0512
They’re actually wanted as a worker.
“Worked so many hours, took so much on, and then was told I ‘wasn’t engaged’ so I found a job where they are thrilled to have me for 40 grand more a year. I feel like I’ve been de-programmed from a cult. I even have the energy to join a gym.”
“Took a few people to tell me I deserved my success before I started to believe it myself.” – teenabeans
No room for growth.
“I didn’t have any opportunity for personal career development because the business refused to hire another developer for 2 years to help share the load.”
“I was constantly needed to help support legacy systems that were ‘going to be replaced soon’ rather than allowed to work on anything new or things that would’ve helped me to improve.”
“After I gave my 2 weeks, they begged me to stay because they didn’t have anyone left at the company who had looked at the legacy code base within the last 2+ years.” – VonKoob
Hospitality nightmare.
“Constant eight day stretches. Sometimes up to twelve. Often made worse because schedules started on Sunday, but often weren’t posted until Friday, so I never had a chance to plan. Zero oversight from management, zero help or extra training while trying to keep a hotel’s breakfast area running through COVID, BUT others kept getting me in trouble for pointless things. (I was sometimes leaving stuff undone at end of day, and then doing it when I came in, but apparently that’s illegal.)”
“I stayed late often to help out other departments, but was looked at as not wanting to work if I went home an hour early once or twice during my eight day stretches. And then, they hired someone whose sole job was to do MY job, which wound up cutting my hours in half. Couldn’t take it anymore, so I left.” – Balsamwood
Done with CEOs.
“CEOs and journals like the Wall Street Journal keep telling me that it’s because I’m lazy or that unemployment benefits prevent me from going back to work.”
“The one thing that the NEVER mention statistics like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,322% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million, on average — 351 times more than a typical worker.”
“In 1980, CEOs at large companies made about 40 times what the average worker made. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was paid $265 million in 2020. F*ck you, Tim Cook. Chad Richison of Paycom made $211.13 million in 2020. F*ck you, Chad Richison. Amir Dan Rubin CEO of 1Life Healthcare – $199.05 million. F*ck you, Amir Dan Rubin. John Legere CEO of T-Mobile – $137.2 million. F*ck you, John Legere.”
“And f*ck you, business journals who put the blame on the workers rather than the CEOs and executive suite.”
“Occasionally, there are actual righteous business owners, like CEO Dan Price. He raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year. Price slashed his own salary by $1 million down to the same $70,000.”
“All the business journals claimed, at the time, that CEO Dan Price was a communist, and that his business would go down the tubes. These are supposedly the ‘free market’ people who should be on the side of Dan Price to do whatever he decided to do with his own company. Anyways, as it turns out, their business exploded. The workers appreciate him so much, they all chipped in to buy him a new car, because he couldn’t afford one on his new $70,000 salary. Now, that’s a real man.” – AutodidacticTactic
There’s no shortage of reasons to quit a job: low wages, terrible treatment, poor management, and being forced to keep going through a global pandemic are all valid reasons.
If there’s anything we can learn from this is that laborers have a lot of power, and that power is through their choice to work at companies that actually care about their wellbeing.