Sometimes in life, you have to take a leap of faith. Especially if you have a job that makes your life miserable and even possibly makes you sick, physically and emotionally.
That sometimes means quitting your job even when you don’t have another one lined up.
That’s exactly what these AskReddit users did. Find out what happened after they quit…
1. Now you’re on call
“Yes. I had a job that I loved. Had coworkers I loved (I’m still friends with some). Ownership changed. My job that was a M-F, 9-5, somehow turned into on call all the time. My workload was always heavy, got added onto. I would say no to additional workload. It somehow still ended up on my plate. Somewhere around a year after the ownership change, I found myself googling heart attack, and mental breakdown symptoms because I knew something wasnt right.
I finally walked into work one day and handed in my notice. No job lined up. Didnt think it through. I wrote up my notice 5min before I left for work that day. Due to bills, I ended up taking a job I was overqualified for, and made crap for pay. But after a few months I got hired to where I am now.
I do the same type of job as the one I walked away from. Did it work out for me, I’d like to say yes. But only time will tell. I will say both myself and my family are much happier right now. And I havent wondered if I’m having a mental breakdown or possible heart attack since I left. That’s a win.”
2. No regrets
“Got burnt out and quit after bullshit management changes. Luckily I saved up a good amount of money to do whatever I wanted for about 4 months until I finally felt the need to better myself and move on with my life. Got another job that was safer than my last and went back to school to further my degree! It was a much needed break, don’t regret it one bit.”
3. No more
“Yes! I quit a very high-paying job, in fact. I was a software engineer.
It was great at first. I liked my coworkers, and the company was one of those startups that had a ping pong table and coldbrew coffee on tap and all that jazz. It was my first job out of college and I was dazzled by the cool community feel and all the “amenities.”
However, they had no system in place to train me. I was basically expected to just read the codebase and just instantly know exactly what to do. My team leader couldn’t answer my questions, and I quickly started drowning in work.
My once-recreational drug use turned habitual. I was railing lines of coke in the bathroom to stay awake because I stayed until 9pm trying to finish projects by the deadline and doing benzos at night to fall asleep. Once I finally started performing well, that only reinforced my terrible habits. I thought that if I stopped “self-medicating”, I would fall behind and they would fire me.
I cried every day. I was also the only female employee on the software team, and I got these paranoid thoughts in my head that my male coworkers didn’t really like me (in retrospect, I’m sure my alienation was totally my fault and a result of my anxiety). I didn’t even like the programming anymore. When I was in college, I interned with people who were using software to help charities, uncover bogus statistics, and generally lift up communities. My job was nothing like that. The people there acted like they were curing cancer, but the majority of what we did boiled down to helping huge companies build training platforms that were more “hip” and “cool.”
So I quit. Not just that job, but the whole field. I had started abusing harder drugs as well, and I knew I was going to end up killing myself. I went to rehab, and then I went back to school and got my Master’s degree in Education with a focus in mathematics.
I’m a private tutor and a substitute teacher now. I hope to get my PhD one day, but for now I am happy helping young people realize their dreams. I set my own schedule so that I’m able to pursue my passions: volunteering at a children’s hospital tutoring sick kids that need to miss school, and helping young women from local battered women’s shelters and homeless shelters learn graphic design and programming so that they can have valuable marketable job skills.
I’m two years clean from drugs and I have the most wonderful friends and a purrfect kitty! I am so, so happy I quit my job. Even though people thought I was insane for leaving the tech field (and I’m sure my mom’s friends talked shit about me behind her back), I’m glad I didn’t pay them any mind.”
4. Turn it around
“Yeah, I had been overworked and underpaid (and underappreciated) at a small resort for months. Tempers flared and I was given an ultimatum, I chose to walk out the door in the middle of the busy season.
The next night I went to a bar and saw another resort owner (and friend) saying goodbye to his only employee (he typically had 2-3). I walked up after and the conversation went like this:
Me: that sucks, do you have anything else lined up?
Him: nope, I’ve got nothing
Me: do you need somebody to help?
Him: do you need a job?
Me: yup, as of yesterday.
Him: show up tomorrow whenever you want and you’ve got the job.
The rest of the summer I ran his cafe/ shop (I had 7 years of cooking and 2 years retail management experience) and he ran the outfitter.
The first day after showing me around the kitchen he had to go attend to something, when he came back I had 20 people already eating and I was chatting them up and cleaning. He looked around and goes “well, you’re getting a raise.” The rest of the summer was great.”
5. Anxiety
“I quit my job of a year and a half out of anger and spite for my manager, and because of my quickly declining mental health.
While it helped at first the anxiety of not having a steady source of income took a much larger toll on me than anticipated and I really didn’t get to focus on my recovery/ therapy for my mental health until I had secured a new job to quell my anxieties.”
6. Time to quit
“Radio Shack. I worked there for about three months. They paid minimum wage + commission, and the only ways to earn commissions was pushing useless extended warranties or cell phones. And we had to push batteries, like AA and AAA batteries.
We were expected to get so many of these things every so many customers – batteries were like 1 out of every 10 customers. I got a headache every time I walked in for a shift, knowing I had to push this crap on people.
The major turning point for me was when my manager – who was just an arrogant little man who was built like Danny DeVito with John C. Reilly’s face – butted into a transaction of mine. The customer was a special needs man who was buying an up-convert DVD player. It didn’t feel right to push the extras on this man, considering the circumstances. My boss saw this and forcibly took over the transaction and talked this poor man into buying extra cables and disc cleaner and warranties for everything he could.
What should have been a roughly $50 purchase for this man ended costing him close to $100 when all was said and done. The cherry on top was when the man left, manager printed a copy of his receipt, shoved up in my face and proceeded to brag about it. I quit a few weeks later. Luckily, I was able to go back to my old job for a while, while I looked for a permanent job. I ended up going back to school about a year or so later.”
7. No reward
“Left my job of 15 years with nothing lined up because it was gaining me nothing any more aside from being overused for my job knowledge with no reward.
Took a month off, found another job that pays me more per hour than my last after I got promoted to supervisor after putting in 5 months. Couldn’t be happier”
8. Bad signs
“Quit my job at a call centre without anything lined up. I used to cry in my car before a shift, used up all my sick days, and it worsened my suicidal thoughts so I got myself out of there when I couldn’t take it anymore. I quietly stood up from my desk and quit on the spot. I had never walked out on a job before.
Took me a month to find another job with just slightly less hours (so a little less money) but it was worth it because I’m a lot better mentally and physically, and I like the job. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Also people have been asking where I’m from – I’m Canadian.”
9. F that noise
“Worked a call center job after one week of training and two days of actual work.
During the training you’re shown how it’s not possible to order a free trial of these expensive products without seeing the clearly marked (in multiple locations) terms and conditions.
But then I got to the floor and these people were old people who were offered a free gift when they bought something on amazon. They never went to a website and ordered a free trial. They were lied to and then charged $80+ three weeks later.
It was a scam built to prey on old people.
I had a panic attack on the way to work and quit when I arrived. Fuck that noise.
I was a new mom and we were really hurting for money. That was my first job after having my son and we had to beg money off relatives to stay afloat another month until I found a new job which was MUCH better. I was able to be hired as a substitute for a school district and, a month later, get rehired by the same district as a teacher’s aide.
Now I’m about to finish my certification and become a teacher.”
10. Not a scammer
“I worked for a shady company that sold a $2000 vacuum/air purifier. For some reason they needed someone to go door to door offering a “contest” where you had the chance to win $1000 in gas gift cards as long as you had someone come over and give a demonstration of the vacuum cleaner. Except I later found out that the contest winner was always someone in the company, and they give it back to the company.
I decided to quit after one day, I gave my speech about the “contest” to an old lady who didn’t seem to be all there, and she was super excited about the contest. I realized I’m not cut out for scamming people.”
11. Uggghhhh
“I worked in a retail store that was farming-based, but had the political atmosphere of Game of Thrones. Everyone hated each other and constantly tried to undermine one another. If you were talking to someone that someone else didn’t like, it was known across the store, and suddenly, people would stop talking to you. As in, you would stand there and ask a question, and they would turn their back on you.
I got zero training, got promoted to “zone manager,” (more work with no extra pay), and then injured my foot falling off of one of their rickety wooden ladders.
This caused everyone to turn on me because the store had to file a workman’s comp claim, so they missed out on the annual reward: a visit to the Golden Corral buffet in January.
Anyway, after about two weeks of mind-numbing boredom and having everyone staring daggers at me while I tried to figure out what the hell I was supposed to be doing, I just quit. Didn’t give notice. Just left my badge and vest there and went to lunch and never came back.
It took me a few months to find another job, but at least I was no longer alternating between openly weeping and feeling physically nauseous.”
12. I don’t agree with you
“I quit after an argument with my boss because I didn’t agree with how he did things.
Within two months I started my own company doing what he did but the way I thought it should be done. I am still running that business and he shut his down 3 years ago.”
13. A horrible industry
“I quit a job working as a logistics manager for a hospital. It was the worst job I ever had. The union reps would constantly mess with you, taunting you and try to get you fired, I was constantly on edge and would basically snap over everything. I developed a huge persecution complex where everyone was out to get me.
They would purposely feed you false information that would go against required practices. For example, one of the reps gave me a fake forecast for products we needed for the upcoming week, so I was to arrange the delivery/ordering and storing for the products. When I ordered it all and had it delivered I found out we needed like 1/10th of the products that was ordered, so I had to explain to the finance department why we exceeded our weekly budget.
Basically my choices were be fired, or quit because of the colossal fuck up. I was 21 at the time, I’m now in school to get my bachelors of accounting, so I guess it turned out pretty good because I could leave that horrible industry.”
14. Back stabbers
“Oh yes. I had a good job at a college. I felt so lucky to get it (administration) but it turned out that all the employees, staff and faculty, were back-stabbers who set you up for failure. I think it’s just the way academia runs, but I didn’t know that.
I stuck it out for nearly 7 years, and started having suicidal thoughts. Once I realized I was going a little crazy, I gave my notice and quit without a net. I never got over it, though. I’ve had a lot of rough jobs, but that was the absolute worst.”
15. Quite a story
“I worked for an insurance company for 6 years. Was fun at first then went through a divorce and all five years in and stopped caring. So I quit, cashed out my 401K and drove from Indiana down to Key West and got fucking trashed for a week. Then traveled to various states and just hung out and did what the fuck ever. Lasted three months and then went back to Indiana and then went to work for a different insurance company.
I don’t regret it. It was healing and uplifting and met some cool people along the way.”
Have you ever been in this position? What did you do?
Share your story in the comments!
