Mall Employees Resign With Very Public Note

Ever been so frustrated with your boss that you’ve wanted to walk out on the job?

Several employees at Journeys footwear and apparel inside the Marketplace Mall in Rochester, New York, may have done just that. They allegedly closed their store in the middle of the day, leaving a handwritten note attached to the shop’s security bars that explained their absence to their manager “Jamie.” The note read:

"Dear Jamie, since you decided to say 'Cancer is not an excuse' and think it's OK to swear at your employees like you do all the time, we quit. This is why you can't keep a store manager longer than a year. You abuse your [role] and staff. Enjoy the fact that you just lost a store manager, co-manager, and key holder in the middle of Back to School. Think next time you treat people the way you do. We aren't allowing it anymore. Niki, Jess, TJ."

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Earlier this week, Reddit user and mall employee R1y23 posted a photo of the sign to the social networking site, which received almost 3,000 comments. Most surprising: A handful of former Journeys employees weighed in, reflecting on their experiences working for the chain.

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Sinistare wrote, “I left the company simply because I couldn't take the injustices I was a witness to, both being done to myself and unto others. Something needs to be done about the way Journeys is run and the way their employees are treated. Staff members and management need to stand up and unify against the insane amount of hours, the terrible pay, the disrespectful upper management, and the responsibilities placed upon a staff."

Saranl wrote, “I worked for Journeys for two and a half years and it looks like I got out at just the right time…. My mom was in the hospital after having stents put in and I was so scared of [my boss] that I broke down in tears because he wouldn't let me leave two hours early to spend time with my mom who had just gotten out of the hospital.” User Sabbatai: “I quit Journey's for very similar reasons … they don’t care one little bit about their employees.”

And Drefxdeficit wrote, “I've worked at a Journeys for 5 years. I'm happy to see this.”

A former Journeys manager even spoke up. BadGnysbears commented on his grueling hours for low pay and a higher-up who would scream at colleagues.

A representative for Journeys declined to comment to Yahoo Shine, however the company updated their website with this statement: "We take situations like this seriously and are currently investigating this issue. Beyond this, we have no comment." And according to a story published Wednesday on Gawker, a source close to the manager says the former employees posted the sign as retaliation after being “reprimanded for violating company policy."

Employee dissatisfaction is a common occurrence — a recent study conducted by Dale Carnegie Training, a California-based organization that offers corporate leadership training, found that only 29 percent of employees are fully engaged in their jobs. Research published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine found that workers who experience job burnout (the physical and cognitive exhaustion that results from work stress over a long period of time) have a 79 percent increased risk of developing coronary disease compared with their more serene co-workers.

However, the answer to career success and a saner life might be found off the clock. According to research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, living a healthy lifestyle (abstaining from smoking, limiting alcohol consumption, being active, and avoiding obesity) significantly reduces the risk of heart disease from job stress.

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