For those of you looking for quitting inspiration, here are some of my stories (m51).
- After my first year of college, I planned on switching to a new college in a new city. I made arrangements to live with a friend in the new city for the summer prior to the fall semester at the new college. Three months in advance, I looked for jobs close to my new apartment since I didn't have a car. I found a waitstaff job at a pizza restaurant, and set my start date for when I moved to town. When I eventually moved, and went to the restaurant for my first day of work, they said they didn't have any waitstaff positions open, and that I would start in the kitchen. That was not cool – I was counting on getting tips to survive as I had $30 to my name. They gave me a hat, apron, and shirt, and assigned me to some angry dude working the kitchen. If you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen, those places are noisy af. My 'trainer' spoke very softly, and I had to ask him to repeat his instructions multiple times. He eventually got frustrated and said “You have to listen and hear what I'm saying the first time I say it!” After a brief pause, I said “No, actually I don't” and I started removing my hat, apron and shirt, and handed them to him one at a time. His eyes were still burning a hole through me as I casually walked out.
- I worked at a small tech company during the '90's Internet boom. We started with a small staff of 5, and eventually increased up to over 25 people. I held many positions over the decade that I worked there, but one of my primary responsibilities included reporting and analytics. The work that I did was mission critical, and no one else at the company could do what I did. We went through a few rounds of layoffs, but they could never fire me as that would mean they would either have to hire someone with my expertise immediately, or lose 90% of their customers overnight. The boss eventually convinced his wife “Nelly” to work at our company, and gave her supervisory authority. She was a disaster of a human being, and every interaction with her was painful. You never knew if she was going to blow up over something trivial or inaccurate. I saw her yell at a coworker and made the coworker cry – this person was a kind and gentle soul who was extremely good at what she did for the org. I stated out loud if “Nelly” ever yelled at me like that, I would quit on the spot. This was a job that I absolutely loved, and I had nothing else lined up. Sure enough, the next DAY “Nelly” screamed at me claiming that I hadn't delivered a specific report to her on deadline. I had to walk her to her own office, push some piles of papers aside, and point at the report I had already delivered one week early. Instead of saying “Oops my bad” she doubled down, claiming that it wasn't what she asked for. I then showed her that her own request was included in the document, and the report was exactly what she'd requested. Still she dug in further and started attacking me personally instead of just admitting she was wrong. I then said “I'm fucking done – I quit” – grabbed my coat, and walked out the front door. Sure, it was hard to get back on my feet for a few months, but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. According to my friend who continued working there for a while, the company lost most of its contracts within three months due to a “failure to deliver” on contract obligations – namely, all of the reporting and analytics that I had been doing.
- I was a CTO at a growing retail organization. As they grew, they needed a good project manager to oversee installation and remodeling efforts. After struggling to fulfill that role, they asked me to take on this responsibility on top of my CTO role. I agreed to do it as long as I would be fairly compensated for the additional responsibilities. For the first two projects, they did indeed compensate me, though one of the projects was incredibly difficult, and caused me to miss out on important stuff with my family. It nearly ruined my marriage. The third project they asked me to do it again, but I established some new requirements so that it wouldn't affect my personal life as much as before. I assumed they would give me the same agreement and compensation package. When I went to HR to sign the new agreement, there was no increase in pay – only a few lines about restricting how many hours I was required to work on the project. I asked why I wasn't being compensated like before, and the HR manager said “Well, if you got that adjustment on top of the CTO wage increase you got this year, you would be making more than me!” After a pause, I said “What does that have to do with it?” She of course had no reply. Not only did I turn down PM responsibilities, I quit almost immediately. This time I easily found another job in my field with better pay and benefits.