I was the lead server and bartender and my boss had hired a girl a month or two back in a panic because several employees were leaving at the same time. This girl was rude to customers and employees alike and did things however the hell she wanted, despite repeated attempts at training her properly. She would lie constantly about some of the most trivial things. She almost never did what she was asked, and if she did, it was with a huffy sigh and eye roll. She never smiled, and did not communicate at all, which was especially bad because we were big on teamwork there. We'd have our own section or rotation, depending on the night, but we'd run food and refill drinks and get this that and whatever for everyone. We pooled tips, so even though we had our own tables, we were all invested in the dining experience of everyone in the restaurant, not just "our" customers.

Anyway, we'd been having issues with her for awhile, and I had just spent two hours on the phone with my boss after work the previous night discussing some of these things. This particular night, she apparently decided she was taking literally all of the tables and generally fucking things up. She would ignore the rotation, and I would specifically say, "I will take the next table," but then I'd run an order for one of her tables because she was tied up, and next thing I know, she was all over the new table. She'd take a table, give them misinformation about an item, or take an order incorrectly, and because she was taking over everything, I was just running her drinks and food, so I was constantly looking like an ass for bringing the "wrong" item.

I don't remember all the details, because this was many years ago, but I reached a breaking point. I complained to my boss, he called her over, I restated the problem, and she got all snotty and huffy and started botching about me to him. I had known and worked for him for 5 years and I had never had a problem with any coworker. Ever. But he literally said nothing. Nothing in my defense, nothing about the lengthy conversation we had the day before, nothing about the problems he had with her that he said he was going to address. Looking back, I think he just didn't know what to say in the moment. He was far too nice of a guy to discipline or fire anyone. But his silence was more than I could take, and I just told him I'd had it. I was done. I wished him luck and left. For the next six months, I watched the online reviews of the place take a nosedive. I know those are to be taken with a grain of salt, but there were many complaints of a rude, unsmiling waitress, and generally incompetent, unmanaged FOH staff, which did not surprise me at all.

A few years later, I apologized for leaving the way I did, but again stated that she was impossible to work with. He actually apologized as well and told me that I was right, and that she was hurting the business.

The other time I walked out was after my first day working at a buffet when I was 18. I was hired as a cashier, but somehow, I wound up replenishing the salad bar. It was a crappy job, but what did me in was when someone spilled a tub of salad greens floating in water in the walk-in. The manager said to me, "You need to go clean up that mess in the walk-in, when we make a mess around here, we clean up after ourselves." I told her (truthfully) that I didn't make the mess. Her response? "Well it's your job, so do it anyway." I did it. But when I finished, I told her I wouldn't be coming back the next day. Somehow she was surprised.