“15 Minutes”: 40 Ex-Employees Share The Quickest They Have Ever Left A Job

While the time-frames in this story truly do range from months to minutes, the average job tenure has been steadily declining in recent years, as in the US it now stands at just two years. While younger workers might see this as completely reasonable, remember that in the “recent past,” real or imagined, people might spend a decade working the exact same job, without a thought of switching it up or getting a promotion.

Indeed, these workplaces do appear to be the worst of the worst, and kudos to these people for understanding the sunk cost fallacy and leaving before any permanent damage was done. While employees of the past may have been more skeptical about simply leaving, in this day and age, now up to one-third of workers have stated a willingness to quit, if needed, without another job lined up. 

While certain jobs do rely on horrible conditions to cut costs, this is ultimately a losing strategy in the long run. The average cost of replacing a worker is around $16’000, factoring in the time the position stays open, the need to train them (or the lack of productivity from an untrained worker) as well as the extra time and work for the hiring manager. Common sense would dictate that in most high-turnover jobs, this is not going to be the case, but all the more reason for workers to stay away. 

While there still are a lot of old-fashioned ideas about working environments, where toxic managers will see unpaid overtime and safety-rules-violating policies as a “feature, not a bug.” But many studies do indicate that most managers are aware of how poor working conditions directly lead to burnout. This means that some subset of them simply choose to ignore it and let people burn out anyway. 

The dirty not-so-little secret is that many bosses are aware that what they are doing is wrong, if not illegal. But once one makes the decision that the bottom line is all that matters, then it doesn’t matter how unhappy the average worker is. This is why most of the people in these stories did the right thing, as in most cases it will not “get better” and it’s not worth getting used to. 

In some cases, the netizens that responded to the initial question probably avoided actual physical harm. High-risk environments are acceptable if the worker is cognizant of the dangers and consents to them. Underwater welders and telecommunications technicians are well-paid jobs for a reason, however, they tend to involve intensive training. Sending a kid from a temp agency to do a similar job is a recipe for disaster.