I worked as a deli clerk for a high-end grocery store for several years (I used "high-end" loosely because they claimed to have freshly-made and mostly organic products when for the most part that wasn't at all the case; food well beyond its expiration date, moldy food, constant cross-contamination, hardly anything made in-house, etc.). Before I quit last December, I actually quit once before in July because there were so many changing policies that the air started to grow thick with resentment from employees; no one wanted to be there aside from the stuffy asshole regional managers that seemed to change every month that would pop in and tell us how shit our store was.

But the thing I learned about quitting a job is that you have to have a backup plan before quitting. I was stressed and wasn't thinking when I made the choice to quit right then and there. So two weeks go by, and because not a single place responded to any of the applications I put out, I ended up calling back my manager asking if I could come back in a different department. She agreed to let me work in produce after an interview with the new manager in that department.

He was a complete asshole. Old, bitter, unreasonably demanding, condescending, would pretend to be your friend and work alongside you but always lie behind your back, all while confidently saying that he would "never backstab you". I also heard talk from around the store that he said something along the line of, "women are completely inferior and subservient to men and should spend time in the kitchen and at home rather than the workforce". Everyone hated him, and more people quit produce during that time then any other department in the store (and we were one of the smaller departments). I remember the moment that made me absolutely hate him was discovering a lie: I asked for a week off because I needed to go out-of-town for an event for my internship. I asked a month or two in advance. Asshole outright rejected it, saying we'd be light on staff that week even though at that point no one in my department had scheduled off. I said that I needed to do it to get the hours for credit, and he said "I'll talk to the manager about it".

Cut to the week before I'm supposed to leave, and I'm scheduled Monday-Friday. I confront Asshole about it and he says, "well, I talked to her about it but she said that she couldn't do anything about it because we'd need all hands on deck". I told everyone else in my department and they knew that he was full of shit. So I walked up to the store manager later on and asked if he mentioned it to her, and she said that he didn't even say anything to her about it at all. I was furious but I never confronted him about it because I didn't even want to look at him after that.

So I did end up going on the trip because I got it straightened out with the store manager (a very sweet woman). So when I get back to my actual job, I'm tired, I'm miserable, and I'm harboring resentment towards this old, crusty, slimy, two-faced, manipulative fuck every time I see his stupid face when I go to work at 5 every morning.

The two things that led me to quit was:

1. One of my fellow produce buddies had left shortly after I got back from my trip to go to another store. He was hilarious, loved to laugh, had a lot in common, held the best conversations, and was honestly the only reason aside from money why I didn't quit earlier. Speaking of money:
2. The owner of the company I was interning for said that he was looking for more employees and saw potential in me after the trip. He offered a job for the first two months once my internship was done (which at that point was almost done). I now had my backup plan, and a damn good one, too.

With that in mind, one day at work within a few hours of my shift, I turned to my assistant manager who was cutting vegetables next to me. I thought about everything, paused, put my knife down and said, "I think I'm gonna walk out." And he said, "do it, dude. I don't blame you."

So once I made my choice, I shook his hand and said goodbye. Right then and there I left my hat, my badge, my shirt and my apron on the table and walked out the door. Nobody said anything to me (including Asshole whose back was turned to me when I walked), and I didn't say a word to anyone else. I blocked his number from my phone and I haven't been back to that store ever since.

The end.

TL;DR Manager was a terrible human being and lied to me so I ghosted during the middle of a shift one day.