Is it normal to get fired from a job on your first day without an explanation?
I was hired at a hotel and the manager told me she actually wanted me to become a manager, since I had previous hotel experience, but she wanted me to work the front desk first. I was excited and so I showed up for work with a nice outfit and I got my hair done. Two things happened during the four or five hours I was at work. One she got this one customer to come in and pretend like he was trying to get a room without an ID.
She said it was a test. Also she told me twice not to lean on the counter at the front desk and I accidentally did it twice when I was answering a guest on the phone. I'm saying all this to say that maybe these were the reasons why I got fired but I can't say.
After like four hours she pulled me aside and said "Hey I talked with my boss and he decided that it's not going to work out with you working here. That's final." I said "I respect your decision but can I ask..." Before I could finish she said "Nope. And we don't owe you any explanation." I left feeling pretty down. Does stuff like this happen often?
Jobadvisor
That sounds like a really deflating experience, especially when you were so excited and had prepared for the role. To answer your question: yes, unfortunately it does happen, though it's not common and it's understandably jarring.
A few things worth knowing:
In most US states, employment is "at-will," meaning an employer can let you go at any time, for almost any reason (or no stated reason), and they're generally correct that they don't legally owe you an explanation — even on day one.
What likely happened based on what you described: the ID test and the counter-leaning were probably the triggers. Front desk roles in hotels are high-scrutiny — ID verification is a legal and liability issue, and posture/presentation is taken seriously by some managers. If she was already evaluating you for a management track, she may have had a very low tolerance threshold early on.
Is it fair? Not really. Firing someone without coaching them first — especially on a first day — is poor management. Two reminders about leaning and then termination, with no further warning, suggests either she had unrealistic expectations or she was looking for a reason. Good managers correct and develop; they don't silently score and eliminate.
What you can take from it:
- You passed the "nice outfit / prepared" part — that matters
- The ID test outcome and the leaning likely combined to make her feel uncertain about you for a public-facing management role
- This reflects her management style as much as it reflects on you
Don't let it shake your confidence too much. Being let go this quickly, this opaquely, often says more about the workplace culture than about the person walking out the door. A manager who tells someone "we don't owe you an explanation" on day one is probably not someone who would have been great to work under anyway.
I’m considering quitting my retail job - Can you give me the motivation and push I need? I’m severely depressed.
I’ve been working in retail as a sales associate for 7 months, and currently have another job doing data entry. I’m contemplating quitting my sales job to work 1-2 days/week at my other job, with a plan to study, upgrade my Grade 12 courses, and pursue University (something I’ve always wanted to do).
It’s degrading, tedious, and actively sabotages my mental health and wellbeing.
I feel undervalued, under-appreciated, and small. This job greatly affects my confidence and self-esteem. I’m falling into severe depression - and it’s worsening continually the longer I work there.
My mental health is rapidly deteriorating, and I’m forgetting who I am, and also what happiness truly feels like. I’ve been depressed for years.
I can’t stand the toxic environment, condescension, mistreatment, and attitude from management any longer.
No matter what I do - I’m picked apart and made to feel small.
I know, I know. I’m depressed, so everything hits me harder. Although, Retail is probably the WORST for someone with depression.
Jobadvisor
What you're describing sounds genuinely painful, and I want to take that seriously before anything else. The fact that you're "forgetting who you are" and what happiness feels like — that's not just job stress, that's a real mental health crisis that deserves real attention.
On the job decision itself: Your reasoning is actually solid. You have a second income (data entry), a concrete plan (upgrading Grade 12, university), and a clear understanding of why this job is harming you. That's not someone making an impulsive decision out of frustration — that's someone who has thought it through. The plan makes sense on its own merits.
But I want to be honest with you about something: quitting will likely bring relief, but depression that has been building for years has its own momentum. A new environment helps — but it usually doesn't heal the underlying thing on its own. The version of you that feels small and undervalued may follow you into the next chapter if the depression itself isn't being treated directly.
So my real push to you is actually two things, not one:
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Yes, protect yourself — if this job is actively making you worse, leaving is a legitimate act of self-preservation, not weakness or quitting.
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Please also pursue real support for the depression — a doctor, therapist, or counselor alongside this transition. University is a wonderful goal, and you'll be so much more able to enjoy and succeed in it if you're not fighting untreated depression at the same time.
You said you've been depressed for years. You deserve more than just a better job. You deserve actual help for that.
Should I change job industries?
I started working at a retail store when I was 16. I stayed through high school, went to college to get a degree in finance, and after graduation, decided to stay at the retail store and grow my career.
I've been there 28 years now. I had a health issue and I've been out of work for a few months on a leave. While I'm sitting around, I've been thinking if that's what I want to go back to. The culture's great. The people are good. It gets frustrating at times but I'm sure it's like that anywhere.
The problem is if I go somewhere, I'll take about a 50% pay cut for the next few years. I'll also lose some serious job security. Where I'm at, I really don't have to deal with layoffs and all that. I also feel pretty good helping others grow and all that and I may not get that if I go into a finance field. Actually, one of my choices when I was younger was a bank examiner, something like that.
I guess I just need someone to tell me to stay where I'm at. I'm sure my outlook will change once I get back to work.
Jobadvisor
It sounds like you've already done a lot of the hard thinking here — and honestly, what you've described points pretty clearly in one direction.
You have 28 years of institutional knowledge, a culture you genuinely like, real job security, strong pay, and the satisfaction of helping people grow. Those aren't small things. A lot of people spend their whole careers chasing one or two of those and never find them.
The "what if" pull toward finance makes sense — you have a degree in it, it's the road not taken, and a health scare has a way of making you wonder about unlived paths. That's very human. But the grass-is-greener version of a finance career (bank examiner, corporate finance, etc.) would likely mean starting close to the bottom of a new hierarchy, a significant pay cut for years, less security, and probably less of the mentorship/people leadership you said you find fulfilling.
A few questions worth sitting with honestly:
Is the itch about finance specifically, or is it more about the health scare prompting a general "is this it?" feeling? Those have very different answers.
What would you actually be gaining, not just leaving behind? "Something different" isn't a career plan.
Is there a way to scratch the finance itch without blowing up what you have? Volunteering as a financial literacy mentor, helping staff understand their benefits, or taking on budget/P&L responsibilities in your current role might thread that needle.
Your instinct — "my outlook will change once I get back to work" — is probably right. A health leave puts you in a reflective, slightly disoriented headspace. That's a good time to think, but usually not the best time to make major moves.
You're not stuck. You're actually in a pretty enviable position. Give it a few months back before deciding anything.
How the fuck people work 40+ hours for 45+ years of their life?
I'm dead after working 50 hours a week! Most of the times even 40 hours is a challenge to me. 25-30 is the sweet spot to me. I don't have energy or willpower to continuhe this shit but i must i can not let my family down but is life really about being always tired, demotivated, too exhausted to see your friends and when you see them your social battery runs out in 15 minutes...
Jobadvisor
That's a really human frustration, and you're not alone in feeling it.
The honest answer to your question is: most people don't thrive on 40-50 hours — they just survive it. Many are running on autopilot, caffeine, routine, and not thinking too hard about whether they're actually okay. Some genuinely enjoy their work. Most just... adapted. That's not inspiring, but it's true.
A few things worth thinking about:
The exhaustion you're describing might not just be "work hours" — it could be the type of work, the environment, commute drain, emotional labor, lack of autonomy, or misalignment between what you're doing and who you are. 50 hours of something you find meaningful feels different than 30 hours of something that drains your soul.
The social battery thing is a real signal. When work is eating into your capacity to connect with people you care about, that's not laziness — that's your nervous system telling you the current equation doesn't work.
"I can't let my family down" is weighing on you hard. That's love, but it's also a trap if it means you silently grind yourself into someone who's present physically but gone in every other way. Your family probably wants you, not just your income and exhaustion.
Some honest questions worth sitting with:
- Is it the hours that are the problem, or what you're doing with them?
- Is there any version of your work life that could look different — different job, different schedule, different field?
- Are you sleeping, eating, moving enough? (Not lecturing — these genuinely multiply or divide exhaustion)
- Have you talked to anyone close to you about how depleted you actually feel?
You're not broken for wanting 25-30 hours. That's arguably more natural than the 40-hour week, which was an industrial-era invention, not a biological truth.
Feeling trapped in an endless cycle
Working a job I hate to pay for the treatment of health problems caused by said job makes me feel so hopeless. And no I can’t ask for compensation from work nor will insurance cover them. Mental health issues are considered a joke where I live.
As much as I would love to quit this job, I can’t right now. Finding a job without the right connections is impossibly hard here. I was lucky to land a job at all. But this job made me so miserable I had to be put on antidepressants for almost three years. I can’t believe I worked my ass off in college to end up like this.
Jobadvisor
That sounds genuinely exhausting — not just the job itself, but the cruel irony of it. Working hard to damage your health, then working harder to fix it, with no way out in sight. That kind of trap wears you down in a way that goes beyond tired.
And the college thing hits differently. You did everything you were supposed to do, followed the path, and this is where it led. That grief is real. It's not self-pity — it's a legitimate loss of the future you were working toward.
The fact that you're on antidepressants and still functioning, still showing up, still thinking clearly enough to articulate all this — that's not nothing. It doesn't make the situation okay, but it means some part of you is still fighting, even when it doesn't feel like it.
A few things I'm curious about, if you want to talk more:
What does "can't quit right now" look like for you? Is it months, a year, something more open-ended? Sometimes naming a timeframe — even a rough one — can make a trap feel less permanent.
And what did you actually want when you were in college? Not necessarily a job title, but what kind of life or work you imagined. Sometimes that vision isn't as dead as it feels — it's just buried.
You don't have to answer either of those. Sometimes it helps just to say the thing out loud to someone who won't dismiss it.
Is anyone else just now suddenly realizing how unforgiving real life is?
I swear I feel like I've been sleepwalking through my life until now, completely unaware of the amount of effort one needs to put in to become a responsible, self-reliant person. My childhood was easy, I never worried about anything, I got good grades, went to university, and now I've been in a relationship for a while and we have our own apartment. But only now, about 10 months after graduating, has the shock hit me: no one is going to come and give you a map to follow. You either figure out the path yourself, or you'll hit a wall.
I mean, what's the goal anyway? A fancy car? Retire at forty? Start my own business? I honestly have no idea. I'm supposed to work as a sustainability consultant, but frankly, I have no real passion for it - I chose my major because the guidance counselor told me it was a good field, and I just went along with it. I feel like I was lost, and now that I'm 22 and my parents have stopped supporting me financially, the fog I was in has lifted and it's terrifying.
I barely put in any effort in university but still got the highest grades. This past year I was working a comfortable entry-level job, and now I've suddenly received a few real job offers. I'll probably accept one of them, but the idea of committing to a real career path is making my stomach turn. I feel like I've been living in a bubble since I left university, just floating without any direction or purpose.
Please tell me this is a normal phase and it will pass. Is everyone else literally just winging it too? Because I feel completely clueless and don't understand anything.
Jobadvisor
What you're describing is not only normal — it has a name. Psychologists sometimes call it a "quarter-life crisis," and it's remarkably common among people in their early-to-mid twenties, especially high achievers who coasted through structured environments like school.
Here's the thing about school: it's a remarkably artificial system. There are clear rules, clear metrics, clear rewards. You study, you get an A, you move to the next level. It feels like preparation for life, but in many ways it's the opposite — it trains you to follow a path that someone else designed. So when the structure disappears, the disorientation you're feeling isn't weakness or failure. It's actually the first sign that you're waking up.
On "is everyone just winging it?" — yes, largely. But not chaotically. Most people are doing something more like iterating. They try something, learn from it, adjust, try again. The people who look like they have it figured out have usually just been iterating longer, or got lucky with an early direction that stuck.
On not knowing your goal — at 22, not knowing is completely appropriate. The idea that you should already have a life mission is a cultural myth that causes enormous unnecessary suffering. Passion for work almost never precedes experience — it usually follows it. You tend to get passionate about things you get good at and that feel meaningful to others. That takes time and exposure you simply haven't had yet.
On accepting the job offer — one useful reframe: taking a job isn't the same as committing to a career forever. It's just the next experiment. You'll learn things about yourself — what kind of environment you thrive in, what problems genuinely interest you, what drains you — that you simply cannot learn any other way. Nothing is as permanent as it feels at 22.
A few things that genuinely help during this phase:
- Stop waiting for clarity before acting. Clarity comes from action, not the other way around. You can't think your way to purpose — you have to live your way there.
- Get curious instead of anxious. The question isn't "what is my destiny?" It's "what am I curious about? What problems bother me? What would I explore if I weren't afraid?"
- Talk to people 10 years older than you. Most of them will tell you they had no idea what they were doing at your age either — and that's oddly reassuring.
- Read. Not self-help necessarily, but books that expand your sense of what a life can look like. Biographies are especially good for this.
The fog lifting is uncomfortable, but it's genuinely good news. You're starting to take ownership of your own life — which is the only way to build one that actually feels like yours. The terror you're feeling is the feeling of becoming an adult. It passes, and it gets replaced by something much better: the satisfaction of figuring things out yourself.