TL:DR- accepted a position I shouldn’t have, realized it was going to be a shitty place to work, and just left.
I had been looking to find a full time position in my field, as I’d been doing freelance/contract based work for years and the instability of it wasn’t conducive to starting a family. I found a job listing that I was wholly qualified for and applied. I was brought in to interview, and spent the next 4 hours doing rounds and rounds with upper management (red flag #1), and finally met with the company owner at the end. Despite everyone else I had met with telling me I was highly qualified and would be a good fit, the owner decided that I wasn’t ready yet and would be offered a role beneath the one I’d applied for. (Red flag #2)
I talked it over with my wife, and we decided that I should accept the position and give it a shot to hopefully move up to that other position in the near future after showing them what I can do. So I negotiate a salary that’s 2/3s of what I had expected to be paid for the original role, and went into the office for my first day. When I get in, I’m shown to my work station and told that IT hasn’t finished setting up my computer and stuff, but it would be all set in a couple hours. Then my supervisor walks in to introduce herself (we never met during the interviews).
She seems pleasant enough, and we make some small talk before she says that she’ll let me get started and check in later. I told her I’m waiting for IT to finish setting everything up, so I’m just kind of waiting. Then her face changed, and she says that they can’t just pay me to sit there and I need to find something to do. Given that it’s my first day, I wouldn’t even know what that could be, so I explain and she suggests that I take her personal vehicle out to make a coffee run for her. I should have flat out refused, but I agreed and made the run. While i was there I bought a coffee for myself, and went back to the office. I brought her the coffee and went back to my desk. 30 seconds later she shows up and says I’m not allowed to have coffee on my desk- it’s a spill hazard and if I damage my keyboard or computer, I have to pay for it out of pocket.
This is when I realized this just wasn’t going to work out. I’ve been on the clock for about 3 hours at this point, for a job I’m disgustingly overqualified for, working under someone I can tell I’m going to clash with constantly. So I told her that was fine, and that I would bring it to the break room. She seemed satisfied with that, and I just walked straight to my car and drove home. When I got there I called the office and told them I quit. It felt good, and next time I won’t put myself through all that bullshit with so many red flags.