On Thursday Laurie Ruettimann, author of Punk Rock HR, asked on her blog “Do you have a take-this-job-and-shove-it story?” Apparently a lot of people do; she got 35 responses almost immediately!
Cartoon by Hugh
Of course I could not resist and I shared my The Devil really does wear Prada story, and Sarah Palin’s recent mid-term resignation as Governor of Alaska was mentioned several times.
Some of my favorite I Quit! stories were:
Pete Krawczyk: “I got tired of not getting to work and called the manager. I said, “I’m not getting enough hours to work here. I’ve only worked 20 hours in 2 months – I quit.” It happened to be final exam week at school, and she responded, “You’re scheduled to work Tuesday and Thursday night this week from 7 PM to close. You’ll have to find someone to cover your shifts.” Boggled, I said, “Excuse me, what part of ‘I Quit’ did you not understand?” Dead silence for a minute, and then, “Oh.”
Jen: “The third was my first ‘real’ job out of college. I was the receptionist/faxer/sales order enterer/coffee maker/HR rep/etc. and the sales manager loved to yell at people. Just for the hell of it. Such a FUN work environment. Not to mention the pats on the ass. Whatever. He yelled at me one day, and I was just done. I went to the CEO and explained that I was quitting, I would not be here tomorrow, I will not help train anyone else, and that he’s lucky I don’t sue. Then I left.”
teresahrgirl: “My “I Quit” story is from when I was in high school. I was 17 and working as a waitress for a diner, a greasy spoon kinda place. The owners were husband and wife and they were effin nuts. The wife pulled a butcher knife out on the husband during one of my shifts and threatned to cut “it” off! They had several more fights like this and the cops were called there on several occasions. I was scheduled to work a 3rd shift on the night of my high school graduation. When I came in directly from my ceremony, the owners were in the parking lot, surrounded by cop cars and screaming at the top of their lungs. I walked up to one of the officers and gave him my waitress smock thing and said tell them their 3rd shift waitress just quit.”
HRPufnstuf: “I’ve (thankfully) never had the opportunity to quit with any sense of elan, however when I was but a child, I am told that I quit broccoli in quite a spectacular fashion. As legend has it, I informed a close blood relative that if they liked broccoli, then they could shovel it into their pie hole. Thus began my brothers reign as “the good son.” I do dream one day of quitting a job through interpretive dance.
As a side note I’ll bet HRPufnstuf and I would get along quite well. When I was a child I quit spinach in a similar fashion. Well actually first I quit all food that was NOT spinach for a like a year (I know. I’m serious. For a year I would only eat spinach.) and then one day when my mom served me spinach I loudly declared that I hated spinach.
As a side side note: Spinach is now my favorite vegetable.
Sue Danbom: “I was briefly a teller for a very large bank. (The hardest, most under-paid, thankless job in the world.) I worked there 3 months for a Dragon Lady. Working Saturdays was pure hell. DL took every Saturday off because of her seniority. One Friday, she brought in a cake that said “TGIF” – Great for her -because everyone else had to work the next day. I could have pushed her face in it.”
And my most favorite…
mmpotter: “One day my boss came up and grabbed me around the waist from behind. Inappropriate, given that he was a married man in his 40s, and I was 16, not to mention his employee. However, I had a fork in my right hand, and I instinctively stabbed him in the left hand, in that meat between your thumb and forefinger. Needless to say, he did not bother me anymore!”
Do you have an “I Quit!” story of your own? We know you do and we want to hear about it. Post it in the comments, please. Especially if it involves forks, stabbing, and the like.
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