7 Examples When Quitting at Work is the Right Thing to Do
Jobs and careers can be joyful experiences where we contribute to a larger goal. But all it takes is one nightmare workplace to change our minds. If you’re lucky, you’ve experienced the joy of walking out of a ghastly job. Your steps instantly become lighter despite your fear of the unknown. Here are some instances where women quit or never returned to jobs.
1. Shifting Loyalties
When an international firm bought the business this woman worked at, and she received a promotion to head office, things took a turn. The company’s original owner resented her, believing her new position divided her loyalties. The real problem was he hired his mistress to handle payroll without reporting it to her department.
When the numbers didn’t add up, and she challenged having to fix his mistress’s mistake, he yelled at her, and she walked out.
Though he claimed she was taking a few days off, she called to discuss her severance package. She managed to get a year of severance at her full salary with a bonus to boot, all while landing a consulting job within days of walking out. Though it took three years for her to find a job she loved, that’s still a shining ending to what sounds like an awful, unnecessarily stressful job.
2. Prejudice Tyrant
It’s hard enough navigating a job, but this woman had to deal with a racist, sexist, and homophobic boss on top of everyday stresses at work. The final straw was when he accused the project manager of going on a date during work hours. It was, in fact, a business meeting with a potential client at an LGBTQ+ networking function.
She criticized him for his homophobia, and he told her to go home. The next day he phoned her, stating she needed to apologize, to which she asked if he had apologized to the project manager. After that, she was out but wasn’t the only one who departed since four other people on their 8-person team quit. Sometimes the best option is to remove yourself from that level of toxicity.
3. More Work, Same Pay
It’s vital to recognize your value like this 80-hour-a-week employee. She managed client relationships whose business was in the hundreds of millions. Her job teased her with a promotion, and she worked hard to secure it. Plus, she loved her job. But how did they thank her for doing the work of five people with a couple assisting?
They double her work. No promotion, no added staff to help. She immediately resigned, and though management refused to accept it, they lost all the clients costing them $600 million when she left—just desserts.
4. Nepotism Resignation
An office employee resigned from a hideous job and sent notice two months in advance, a requirement for her position, via registered post. The boss dipped into nepotism and hired his 20-year-old inexperienced daughter, and while the soon-to-depart employee trained her for the office manager position for over a month, the girl still had no clue how to do the job.
Cut to two weeks before her last day, and her boss said she couldn’t resign and accused her of providing false info despite proof to the contrary. Stressed out, she used her sick leave for her last two weeks on the job and never returned.
She received little more than half her pay without an explanation. After contacting an HR lawyer, a court order sent her a priority payment, and a criminal complaint could lead to state prosecution for her bitter boss.
5. The Last Straw
Another woman, already hunting for another job, left her current one suddenly. The assistant manager at the real estate company constantly hurled insults at her, blamed her for their mistakes, and stole credit for her work.
One day, the boss came over to verbally abuse her, so she said, “I don’t need this crap anymore,” and quit. She found a new job within a week but switched careers within a year because of the toxicity rampant in her former industry.
6. What’s Nursing?
Fresh off maternity leave, a new mother attended a staff meeting for team assignments at a consulting/engineering firm. They assigned her to a team that would have to live in Abu Dhabi for three months. She rose and stated she could not go because she was breastfeeding a newborn.
After some confused looks, she decided to talk with the employers later. In an elevator, she heard a couple of bosses discussing her comments at the meeting, wondering why she brought up her breasts. She quit within the week, and now she has a career she loves that gives her the time to nurse her children.
7. Maternity Harassment
A former librarian noped out of the profession after an extremely abusive five years. She said misogyny is rampant in this seniority-based profession. This job is another level of horrendous. They put her on probation for missing work because she needed emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.
She also received a write-up because she refused to add her assistant supervisor on Facebook.
The year before quitting, she got pregnant, and they refused to make any accommodations for her condition. A week before her due date, they wanted her to train someone for her position, but she went into labor that day, and they blamed her for that, too. Fed up, she resigned and decided to pursue a Ph.D. in history while being a stay-at-home mom.
This thread inspired this post.
