Man quits job 3 days after encountering an unprofessional work environment

Editor's note: This article was originally published on July 25, 2023. It has since been updated.

Starting a career after finishing school often means being underestimated as naive or inexperienced. This can lead to fresh grads' time being undervalued, as was the case for Reddit user u/Whidog15, who quit his job only three days after starting. The issues were unclear work hours, lack of leave, poor communication, unrealistic expectations, and intense work pressure. He shared, "For reference, I just graduated college and went right into a job with decent pay, allowed occasional work from home, etc. About a week ago, one of my old classmates called me saying this company just had someone leave unexpectedly, and they needed the position filled ASAP."

He added, "It sounded like a good gig, and was told it was a great 'networking' opportunity, so I dropped everything, packed up, and drove 9 hours to the city where the company is located. My friend was so excited that I was coming, saying she had been crying every single day from the stress of the person leaving and that having me there would make everything better. Pretty much the second I arrived, I realized I had signed up for a sh*tshow. When I agreed to make the drive, the boss said he would call me to talk more about the position, but he never did. All communication was done through my friend as a middle-man."

They even expected him to start working when they arrived in the town at 7 pm. "The next day, which you might call my first full day, was 13 hours long. I was not given one break in those 13 hours. The only exception was at around 3 pm when I got permission to leave for 30 minutes to eat lunch because I felt like I was going to pass out from standing all day and not eating," he wrote.

He also had to share a small house with their friend after being promised "free housing." He also revealed how they did not get time off from their work. Monday "is generally the designated 'day off' for most employees. I use that term loosely because my friend was tasked with running errands for our boss the entire day. At one point, my friend texted me demanding that I come in to work. Confused, I asked why I would have to come in on our day off. She just said that our boss said to call me in and that I had just arrived 3 days ago so I didn't deserve a day off. Without giving away the nature of the job, basically a certain task normally divided amongst 2-3 people was put on me to do alone."

Finally, the man realized that enough is enough, "I was being demanded to come into work, on the designated 'day off,' with no notice, to work by myself because I was the only one who hadn't 'earned' a day off. I stood there for about 30 minutes, realized what I was doing, and walked out." "I was naive and easily manipulated, but I definitely learned my lesson. No job is worth this amount of stress. I'm just glad I got out when I did."

 Excessive work without any assigned day off can lead to burnout and create an imbalance in one's personal and professional life.  Therefore, OP was right to walk out. He is being hailed for taking a stand for himself. "You were a new grad convinced by a friend. Lack of experience/being talked into. Now you know. poor communication, unclear expectations and shoddy documentation along with one of their employees (your friend and the main driver here seemingly) crying every day about the job stress is a very bad sign before you even get on a shift. Moving forward you should establish a stronger base of expectations of professionalism from a hiring company too. It su*ks this happened but you actually did the right thing for yourself, you were misled from the beginning," commented u/PriestessKikyo. 

"The red flag should have been your friend who was 'crying every day' over her job. I’m glad you got out quickly but you probably could have seen that one coming. But live and learn, could have been much worse!" wrote u/CosmicCreeperz.