5 MORE of the WORST ‘First Day Of Work’ Stories You’ll Ever Hear

I don’t know what it is about first days, but for some reason, it seems everyone has got a disastrous story from some point in their career.

Whether it’s nightmare onboarding or terrible managers, there always seems to be something.

This is why, I felt it necessary to break down 5 more of the worst ‘first day of work’ stories you will ever here.

Connect with me on Social:

Time Stamps

0:00 Intro
0:46 1.
2:18 2.
3:32 3.
5:05 4.
6:58 5.

[peterhobson]

Not my story but my brother's. He was a computer programmer in the 1980s. He went to one job interview on a Thursday and was told they weren't really sure about him and would have another interview on Monday. They had a piece of proprietary software and gave him the manual for it. He read the manual and it was terrible. He went to the Monday interview and told them even if they didn't offer him the job he'd rewritten the manual into English and also noted a couple of inconsistencies. He'd sell them the manual for $100. They looked at his rewrite and offered him a job as a technical writer at the same salary the programmer's job was advertised for. He worked there for two years before moving on to be a programmer.

[eric]

I once worked for a German company that has been around more than 100 years. During onboarding we saw a video of the company’s history. It skipped from 1935 directly to 1946.

[robertschwartz]

It seems to me that if you're assured of a job, SIGNED PAPERS, and resigned from your previous job, only to be told that they changed their minds, you have a great court case and deserve compensation under the theory of detrimental reliance. I'm in the U.S.A. and the law may differ among countries.

[vostock]

The company I was with hired a new facilities manager. The previous facilities manager was off sick for over a year, and random people would do urgent parts of the job, but mostly a lot of things didn't get done. When the new facilities manager starts, the boss meets him and says everything is a mess and a lot things need to get done fast, then hands him two bulging folders of work orders and complaint emails, and says get busy. The guy goes to his work station and starts sorting through the work orders, then the boss shows up with another folder of work and asks how much he has finished. The boss then gives random orders to arrange for a painter, and a carper cleaner, and other things, all before lunch on the first day. After lunch the boss comes asking for an update on what was done, and he is furious to hear nothing, the poor guy hadn't even had his picture taken for this pass yet. After 20 minutes he returns the folders to the manager and says I quit.

[shakysenior]

Not a job start but during an interview process for a well known global chocolate subsidiary, for our 3rd interview we were told it would be a day of group tests, negotiation ‘competition’, problem solving then formal interview. It was held at a Hotel chain where it was easy enough to identify the candidates in reception due to their corporate dress and punctuality. Whilst waiting there was a gobby, stroppy guy, who insisted on telllng everyone what a waste of time this whole day was. He didn’t stop, and teased out gradually the opinions of others. He spoke with an Essex or estuary accent. I was so nervous about the day I kept quiet. At 0903 “gobby” stood up and in received English welcomed us to the day and that he was in charge of the whole event. I switched off completely at that point and only made it to lunch before I walked out. The whole day seemed to be full of cheap shots, traps and pitfalls!

[ExestentialCrisis]

😢 A friend of mine interned at Amazon the summer before graduating with a master's in computer science. They "hired" him to return upon graduation. February, March, April there was all kinds of communications about start date, etc. He sells everything he owns (not a lot as college student, TBF, but still) because he's moving across the country and doesn't want to haul it all. Graduates and is literally driving to Seattle when he checks his email at a rest stop to find they've changed their mind. After 9 months of telling him he had a job waiting!!

[nomarspaulding]

My first real job out of college... I went to a school where I trained to be a ship's officer on the Merchant Marine. I graduated, got my 3rd Mate license, and signed on to join an officer's union. I started going to the union hall looking for a ship to get on over the Christmas holiday. This was a good time for a rookie to get a job since the guys with seniority wanted to be home for the holidays. A job came up. It was a 35 day trip on the Sealand Mercury. I was warned by the Union dispatcher that the captain of that ship was a very hard man to please our to work with, but was also told I would be foolish to not accept the job. It went terrible for me, but I actually still think the dispatcher was right. I needed to take what I could get and hope to make it through the trip.

So, the ship arrived in port, and I was at the dock before it arrived. I went aboard and spent like 35 minutes doing the sign on paperwork with the Chief Mate which was normal. I was shown to my stateroom and met the guy I was taking over for. He introduced me to the Captain and gave me a very brief rundown of my duties and how to do them all. This took maybe 2 hours. He did leave me some adequate notes. Again, pretty normal but pretty rough on a guy on their first ship ever. Below the ship left port, I went to the Bridge to start familiarizing with the equipment etc. and the Captain walked in. He asked me a few normal questions, then he said, "So how many jobs have you taken." I told him this would be my first. He was not happy, and didn't try to hide it. He then asked, "Well, where did you sail as cadet?" I told him where I'd done my cadet shipping and he replied, "That doesn't impress me." Well, asshole, it wasn't meant to.

The first day out from port, he was mad at me that I hadn't learned how to fully utilize a complex, frustrating but of proprietary software that I'd only heard of for the first time about 20 hours prior, and that I had a grand total of about 30 minutes of instruction on and very limited notes. His exact line was, "I can't be doing your job for you." He was pissed at me ask the time for not knowing company procedures and for being green. He one warned me of a problem that would happen sometimes with the handheld radios, and like a week later, I encountered that problem, so I grabbed someone else's radio and made a radio call about 5 seconds slower than the Captain expected. He could see me having radio issues... I was on direct sight of him and I saw him looking directly at me. When I told him I had the radio issue he warned me about, he used the line, "This ain't my first rodeo." The guy was just a jerk. He blamed me once for following his orders and at another point accused me of messing up some of the ship's mooring lines. The extremely experienced bosun of the ship told the Captain that I had nothing to do with that problem, but the Captain insisted I was the culprit despite the Bosun being out in deck with me while I allegedly messed those lines up. My 35 day trip was cut short after 21 days (that was the earliest day back to the USA) and I quit off the ship because I was advised that my union file would look worse with a firing from my first doing job rather than a quit.

I only met 1 other officer who didn't hate that Captain's guts. Unfortunately for me, that officer was Chief Mate for my voyage so I had no backup what do ever. The 2nd Mate was an old man who sailed the minimum number of days per year to keep his health insurance up to date and he was incompetent. I was green, but that guy was just inept abs he had like 50 years at sea as an officer. Anyway, Captain Dildo was so hard on me because he believed the route his so was on was too difficult for green officers to be on his ship so he did everything he could to drive them off, but he was constantly wondering why the more experienced officers weren't sailing with him. It was because he pissed them all off as JOs, so when his ship came up for a job, the experienced guys who could afford to pass up a good contract and just take he next one would say, "Oh the Sealand Mercury... which Captain will it be? Oh him... I don't want the job." The inexperienced officers needed to take any job we could get and hope to not have our careers harmed by people like this Captain, so when the veterans passed up the job that only left less experienced officers to take the jobs instead. It was not a good ship in any way at all and I wouldn't work for that Captain for any amount of money now that I don't have to. I once did a favor for his crew - not for him. I covered all their watches in port for a very long period uninterrupted when they were in Norfolk after being absolutely battered by Hurricane Sandy. I had to bring that Captain some papers, and I hoped the year since I sailed on his ship would mean he'd forgotten who I was. He saw me and said, "Ugh... you again." That's a good way to treat a person who is doing your crew a huge favor. I had other jobs I could have done that day for less work and more money, but I knew a guy on the ship and I knew they needed rest after the hurricane so I went to cover them instead and that was my greeting. Fuck you Darren W. Collins.

[ad-mc]

I had a friend's go through the same as #1. But the new company paid him his first month's salary as an apology, so he wasn't left short while he looked for another new job.

[strawberrykatnz]

On my first day of a job, I finished my shift and the boss called me into his office. I assumed it was just general performance feedback and he told me my skirt was too short and he'd rather I wear pants. Meanwhile I was wearing a professional knee length pencil skirt and the girl who had been working there awhile was a foot taller than me and wearing a mini skirt. I mentioned that my skirt was longer than the other girl's skirt and he told me he didn't care, he wanted me to 'cover up' and she's allowed to wear a mini skirt. I was dressed far more professionally than the other girl too. He didn't appreciate my feedback and gave me a warning on my first day. I couldn't believe it. He then refused to pay me consistently as promised and I had rent to pay and he got so angry at me and I told him I was required to pay for the roof over my head so I needed him to be consistent with pay day. That was on my second week and he said he'd pay me and then he told me not to come back in again. So not only was he hiring based on who he thought was more attractive, but he wasn't doing the accounting in a professional way either. I'm not even sorry that I was fired from that job😂

[JohnOdermott]

I started a job in the summer of 1996. Morning of my first day, I spent about 45 minutes with H.R. getting all the paperwork in order. Then HR sent me to my manager's office, the person who had interviewed and hired me and who I was looking forward to working with/for. He sat me down and told me he'd given his 2 week notice and was leaving the company.

[kjell]

If you're being onboarded, it's likely that you not only have put in your notice, but that notice period has likely ended. If I got something saying that the onboarding period didn't mean I got the job, then it would be interesting to ask the prospective employer when I should put in my notice to my current employer.

[misterpizzaman]

Most companies don't know how to onboard properly

[LotsofLisa]

Company: “Sabbatical, sabbatical, sabbatical…”
Also company: *Calls Mark and demands he come back immediately from his South African safari vacation because they’re short staffed.*

[Greenplanet]

First day on the job my boss had gone into labor over the weekend (she never returned) and people started throwing these complicated documents at me and saying they were at deadline. No one showed me what to do and they had no training manual. Somehow I got through it but once I was a seasoned employee, I complained so much about their complete lack of training and no wonder they had so much turnover that something was done about it. Ridiculous! It’s not the first time this happened. I got hired to assist researchers in filing medical research grant applications. When I had questions once I started, the boss said “I really don’t know the mechanics of these, so I guess you’re on your own.” And she laughed!!! How do these idiots get management positions? It’s a mystery to me.

[douglaspate]

I have been enthusiastically following you for some time now. Love your videos. I have had the privilege to have been owner of or run small companies in 11 different countries (lived in 7). My goal as a boss was to try to treat everybody as I would want to be treated myself. Some of what you post is so mind blowing unreal I am you make it all up!!

Hahaha... not really it just doesn't seem possible that some of the examples you cite can be so ridiculously ridiculous!!!

[kellyk]

I work in HR. We don't "onboard" you unless you are hired. Why would I make extra work for myself?!

[tylergartner]

Years ago I took a job as a dishwasher at a catering company, on my first day the boss showed me my station and what I needed to wash on my shift I finished everything in a few hours. The boss then brought me in the kitchen and had me clean the area and take out all the trash. After that he had me clean the bathrooms. At the end of the day an employee pulled me aside and told me the boss was trying to take advantage of me. Turns out before I was hired there was a listing for a fulltime dishwasher and a part time possition for a janitor but being as I was efficient at working and was able to finish my duties with time to spare the boss figgured he'd take advantage and save the 4 hours a day he'd pay a part time worker for all the cleaning duties.

Spoke to the boss about this and told him I was capable of filling both roles but was not willing to do so for minimum wage, boss replied we could talk about wage increases after a year, claiming it was inappropriate to discuss a raise on my first day. I responded by countering it was inappropriate to ask an employee to go beyond the scope of the role they were hired to fill and quit, took 5 months to get my day worth of pay.

[Silverlabyrinthjewelry]

I worked for a while at a well known uk supermarket chain. It was a smaller shop and a bit understaffed. Unfortunately, I found a lump which I was told was almost definitely cancer (it was) and promptly placed on the urgent surgery list. I let work know the circumstances & told them I’d be off sick for a while in a couple of months for the operation. In the meantime, I’d booked a week away with my daughter (I’m a single parent, she was 15 at the time). All approved etc. It was a difficult time for both of us and we needed the break - just a few days by the sea in a b&b, nothing fancy. I was sent a text by management asking me to cut our holiday short to work a shift as they were short staffed. Obviously I told them where to stick it. I was furious. Then, after my operation, I was severely ill with complications and hospitalised for 8 weeks. I received another text from management in this time, in which it was suggested I “could catch up with training videos” while in hospital. I have many more stories about that place… it pitches itself as an “ethical” chain. It’s bloody well NOT.

[cynthiajones]

I started a new job in 2016. When I arrived on my first day, I walked in and NO ONE knew who I was or that I had been hired. it was an office of less than 10 people. The Ops Manager never told anyone I had been hired as the Office Manager. I managed to stay for 3 years. I was never Office Manager. I ended up being their Receptionist. I stuck it out because I needed the job.

[TheJase]

The one who rescinded the offer. I’d be all over social media naming and shaming