Companies often imposed strict policies for the well-being of the profits and of course, other employees. However, there are times where policies make no sense and may be even selfish.
I had some of my friends and close acquaintances dishes out the things their ex-companies did that made them throw in their letters and walked. Some are disappointing, some are disgusting while others are downright shady.
If your company is doing this to you, you may want to reconsider your job options.
All names are kept anonymously so nobody get into legal trouble.
When one of my coworkers was diagnosed with cancer, my ex-boss asked if she can postpone her treatment. This wasn’t the first time either.
Earlier, the same boss demanded other coworker to switch dates of a major operation so that he can complete work on a project. Many of us just had it with the insensitivity and left the company together with our cancer friend.
Diana, Site Surveyor
A newly appointed headmaster was determined to drive all the special needs students out of his school.
He reassigned all the students into different classes and group those with special needs (regardless of age or needs or education progress) into one class. He threatened us that he’ll assigned one of us as the sole teacher of that class if we refused to cooperate with his plan.
All of us protest and half of us, including me tendered our notice in protest. The school management came forward to address the issue but refuse to replace the headmaster.
I was utterly disappointed and left for another school.
Grace, Music Teacher
I used to work in a huge organization that have branches all over the world.
I loved my job but I left the company when they put through a no-dating in the workplace policy. It’s stupid. I can’t believe people agreed to that kind of policy infringing on our privacy.
I also left because I was dating my then-boyfriend. Although we are from different departments located at different areas, Tom and I met while working on a project together.
As much as we were into our relationship pretty early, I wasn’t ready to break up with Tom. I figured out that I probably able to find a new job easier than I can find someone like Tom. So I left and 3 months later, Tom left as well. They started issuing warning letters and threatening employees who were found dating each other.
Did I regret my decision? No. Tom and I are happily engaged and planning to wed next year.
Sally, Finance Planner
My company had a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for same sex orientation.
I have a sister that is a closet lesbian and she is struggling in her identity every single day. Nobody in the world knows except me. I have found her unconscious several times, trying to end her life.
So you can tell this affect me badly. When I joined the company, I didn’t know about this policy. Only after I gone through the first week of orientation, I was briefed about it. I was sick in my stomach. I couldn’t left sooner.
As I wasn’t really on the job yet, HR let me go without serving notice. I guess I wasn’t the first one who felt disgusted by their policy and left.
Avery, Factory Supervisor
Straight up, my ex-manager asked if I can skip going to my father’s funeral. I left my home country seven years ago and I had only been back home twice in those seven years.
When my father passed away, I submitted my leave for approval and got rejected. I tried to explain my situation but I was turned down because they are seriously understaff during Christmas period.
I packed up and left my resignation letter on my desk. I never returned.
Ethan, Civil Drafter
As a sales person, I am required to meet my target every month. Then my company started to raise the target ridiculously high. It is impossible to hit even if there are three of you in the same role. Many of the sales folks either quit or sell unethically. I chose to quit.
Danny, Sales Personal
I am very good that what I do. It is a niche industry and my specialisation is pretty rare in the country.
When I was hired many years ago, I negotiated a bonus scheme where I will be given a cut on each project I completed. A rough estimation would bring me at a high 5-figure every month. This created a problem when the company’s board of directors reshuffled. I am being paid too well.
In fact, my salary over exceed some of their own salaries. They decided to raise my target to make it difficult but I took it as a challenge and still manage to come out unscathed. Then they decided to cut away my basic salary which was still fine, given that it was inconsequential to my commission payout.
It was too much when they decided to lower my cut and delayed paying me for six months without consulting me. I ended up walking away without my payout and working for their direct competition who has no qualms in paying me double of what I was getting!
Walter, Project Execution Specialist
I was working happily at an NGO. The pay is certainly low but I felt I was making a difference.
When the news broke that our top management had siphoned some of the money off our funds, I was disappointed. Well, everyone makes mistakes. There was reshuffling and a lot of new regulations put in place to prevent such incident from happening again.
Guess what? It happened again twice! Police were called, arrest were made and I couldn’t stay after that. I just couldn’t tell my family and friends that I work there.
Elijah, Charity Worker
My apartment caught fire from my neighbours. The entire row of 5 units were gone. All our things were gone. I ran out in the middle of the night in my pyjamas with my cat.
I wasn’t hurt but the whole night I was alternating between sobbing and shaking with fear in my best friend’s house.
I called my boss next morning to explain why I couldn’t come in for work because I need to sort out a few things like getting myself a place to live and a new passport (all the identification documents and what nots). He didn’t believe me and made my colleague go to my place to verify.
She came and she brought with her groceries and some old clothes with her. We both hugged and broke down in tears. Both of us resign that day, over the phone because we couldn’t believe what an arse he is.
Sonia, Customer Service Rep
It didn’t happen to me but to my sister. She was working for a printing company for almost a decade when the owner decided to retire and hand over the business to his son.
While the owner was fair and generous, his son was mean and a miser. He started off by delaying everyone’s salary then cutting off their bonus. He claimed the business wasn’t making any money which wasn’t true because my sister was in charge of accounting and balancing his books.
In fact, they were making more profits than the previous years. The last straw was he cut everyone’s salary by 20% without any warning or announcement and threaten to fire my sister if she reveal the truth to anyone in the company.
She resigned but not before letting everyone know what was happening.
Wilson, Retail Associate
We had a new boss who brought over the existing restaurant. He was a sexist pig.
In a few months, he quietly fired any female staff if they make the slightest mistake like being late for a minute or not clearing the table fast enough or missing a spot when mopping the floor.
When he was advised against doing that by his lawyer, he start hiring only male staff. He’ll be extremely rude to anyone who is a female, only made female staff work overtime and refused to listen to any feedback that wasn’t suggested by a male.
One day, he announced that all the ladies have to wear only pants and shirts, we cannot have hair past our shoulders and we cannot put any make up on.
I left that day after the announcement.
Annie, Waitress
Do you have similar stories to share? Come and comment below! Love to hear from you.
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MiddleMe 
Oh you are speaking to me with this post- I recently had an issue with one of my jobs- so I resigned. They then refused to give me any of my accrued paid time off.
Chillaxin With The Kiddies
https://justpene.com/chillaxin-with-the-kiddies/
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That’s ridiculous! The least they can do is to pay you for your hours. Well, with the travel now being restricted almost everywhere, I’m not sure if anyone can fly everywhere. Or if it is safe to do so.
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Oh no. I cannot fly anywhere currently. But they still refused to pay me. I have forwarded a letter to the Corporate HR. We will see what comes of that.
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Finger crossed. I hope your HR is reasonable.
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I will update you. How are you doing? Keep safe!
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I’m doing quite well. Still stuck indoors but being positive and grateful that I have my family with me. Be safe and take care!
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A new General Manager was appointed. His first act was to visit every branch around the country, find some safety issue, and then berate the manager in front of all his staff and any customers that may have been around. The adult’s way would have been to discuss the issues quietly with the branch manager. I witnessed this man’s performance at my branch and it was anything but adult.
That, however, wasn’t what made me resign.
His second act as GM was to impose staff cuts on all branches. At my branch, it meant that even with everyone on deck and none of the usual hassles of the workday, we couldn’t get everything done we had to. Sometimes the phone would be left to ring for half an hour.
After six months of this the GM suddenly announced the company would get a rebranding! New name, new colours, new uniforms, new stationery, new paintwork for the company vehicles… all of which amounted to a hell of a lot more than the cost of keeping the staff that had been let go.
At that point I said to hell with it. And I closed my letter of resignation by saying the GM was a dangerous idiot.
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Your closing line made me chuckle!
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I’m not kidding! I actually put that in there.
I also referred to the upper management as ‘gutless’ for not standing up to the GM. That got me a visit from the state manager, who tried to provoke me into throwing a punch at him.
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Oh my!
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Oh My! You are so brave! I almost choke on my tea at your last part.
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The state manager had clearly been sent with instructions from the GM to goad me. Then they could not only sack me but hand me over to the police as well, with assault charges.
It didn’t work, and I saw the manager sag like deflated balloon when he realised he’d failed.
They pulled some other stunts too. It was funny in a way. They were trying all these ways to make me walk out – I’d given the standard notice of a month – and at the same time they were scared as hell that I’d fire off an email to all staff telling them about my situation. If they’d been smart they could have wound me up when I handed in my resignation. ‘Sorry you feel that way, here’s what we owe you, there’s the door.’
In the end I was vindicated. The GM parted company with the firm rather suddenly a couple of years later, leaving the company with losses in the millions.
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Your story made me breathless. It could very well made it into a movie. Something like the Wolf of Wall Street. It’s crazy that the GM pull all these stunts without anyone stopping him at all.
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The state manager was extra angry because he’d been on leave when I handed in my notice. It was redirected to the manager of another department. My branch manager said that this guy described my letter as ‘impressive’.
I think he meant it in the Sir Humphrey sense of the word. Impressive = career suicide.
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You are clever to sneak in your resignation letter when he’s on leave! I bet he didn’t enjoy his rest.
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It was even better because these two managers didn’t get along well! So the state manager would have had to have that ‘You should see this’ conversation and not enjoyed it at all.
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Wahahahaha. OMG! That’s really evil but I love it!
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I got a motorcycle bumps on a deep leaning curve and all to hear ” don’t throw my manager under the bus.” I was about to fail out of college (try number one) I was not getting any support with that. I watched and yet again no change in help and yet again school catches the book dropped on the toe… I broke and school was unsalvageable..bye that place!…. Folks being older said I’m sorry but get a job …it was a few months but that was a disaster of a job coming…hahaha but there you are…no support as I began working life around working and I had a bunch of that! Lol.
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Found it interesting!
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Thank you, Ravisingh! How is your book doing? I hope it is selling off the shelves!
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Ya starting response is good and it is waiting for you to gain its momentum,
Pl take full care of you both and your little one!
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Thank you and please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
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Yes Kally!
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That’s an amazing and disturbing collection of stories.
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Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy them!
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Wow this is so bad. My company I recently quit my job from over a month ago was so toxic and shady. They would overload my other work colleagues with roles and work they never wanted without their permission. They would then get blame when things go wrong and they were given no help at all. They were not allowed to delegate or reach out for help. When I saw this happening to my coworkers and it wasn’t getting any better, I knew the same could be done to me too so I had to leave. And I am glad I did.
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Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, Faiza. Your previous company is really a toxic workplace. It is abuse to overload someone with work and then turn around to push the blame to them. I wouldn’t want to invest my time and future with such company!
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I know, it’s one of the reasons I left. They did that to a few of my coworkers and it was terrible
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Yuck. Maybe they’ll close someday. Nobody with talent will go work in that kind of company.
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I know right? I’m glad I left
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My god, these are real problems. Some are adjusting these attitudes some are not. We work for 7 days a week, we got Only one weekend off in an entire month. Sundays we have to be online to send them whatever they required, and the policy says something, when we raise a complaint to HR, it goes straight to the head and no actions will be taken. Ofcourse they do sometime on the guy that raised complaint. One of a reason why I decided to go out, good thing is I’ve learned a lot and my profile weightage gone 2 level up in a year. Pain sometimes comes with a benefit 😉
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No wonder you’ll leave your job. One weekend off the entire month means only one day in a month you get to spend time with your family. OMG! That’s terrible! That also means your HR is not doing his job.
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I wonder there is HR exist. I have never seen a HR till date. I work at remote location, the head office is very far from our place. We have never seen a HR in our local branch till date, It’s only us. All boys. It will look like a boy’s hostel. I made a mistake joining here, but learned a lot. I must agree that, but work culture 😳 sigh .
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Like you said, the positive side of this is that you learned a lot. Not only from a skill point but even from a management perspective, one day when you become a manager or a boss, you’ll know you should do this to your employees.
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The place became too much like a police state. We were told to have our coffee and breakfast and be in our seats by 8:15am. Then the manager took all of our desk keys, so we couldn’t lock our drawers, and he could search them at whim.
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If I’m working in your company, I will hide mousetraps in drawers so that any sneaky fingers will get caught! Haha! Just kidding.
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Ha ha. That would have been the perfect irony for him.
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Awesome! What a wonderful accounting of the TRIALS of the Workplace.
Over my 50+ years and many jobs; I can identify with several of these HORROR STORIES. Now retired for many years; the injustices possible in the work-place are still incomprehensible to me from a management perspective.
The pettiness, ego’s and plain stupidly of some companies high ranking employees STILL astounds me.
My advice is to use the “BS Meter” (every job is only worth “X” amount of BS; when the jof exceeds this level more than a few times; IT’S TIME to move on.
Another great one Kally, thanks and God Bless
Patrick
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Thank you, Patrick. Love your BS meter. I probably have very low tolerance for BS. I always call them out even if they are my superiors (with respect, of course). The problem is that I still have many friends who are enduring BS bordering on abuse every single day in their jobs and it is horrifying to me that they still haven’t get out.
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I know someone who discovered their company had no bereavement policy when a grandparent died. They created a bereavement policy then and there–that didn’t cover the death of a grandparent.
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That is so stupid! Why don’t they just on a goodwill basis, cover the death? Urgh!
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Wow. These stories!. It’s sad how inhumane some organizations and some bosses could be.
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It’s terrible hearing all those stories.
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Yes Kally.
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Very sad experience.
I want to wish condolences to Avery, the factory supervisor. I hope you are well and
Elijah, the charity worker. I am so sorry for your loss and hope you are ok now.
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All of them are doing better than before. Thank you.
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Omg, so sad stories, dear Kally.
I am one of the fortunate employees that still work from home and get paid in these times.
My father for example, the work leadership is leaving him in furlough for two weeks and promised to pay maybe in the summer. But I don’t think is the leaders choice when to get the employees vacancies and when to pay them, as the employees also have rights.
I am actually really angry on this situation and I believe that only in these times we get to know and understand who is the best employer.
Take care, stay safe! 🙂
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Thank you for sharing your father’s experiences with us. Is the government providing any reassurance or protection?
In both Singapore and Malaysia, the employers are not allow to hold off the employees’ salaries even in times like these. Especially in difficult times like these. Both countries have made the ruling very clear.
Check in with your government website or aid, and see if they can provide assistance.
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Take care, Katherine and I hope your father find resolution soon.
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What eye-opening and awful stories. My respect goes to each person who refused to tolerate unfairness.
Thank you Kelly for your interest in my blog. I am grateful that I found your blog.
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Thank you and welcome to MiddleMe!
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