April 25, 2026 at 3:22 am

Software Developer Wasn’t Happy About Their New Job, So They Resigned At The End Of Their Probationary Period, Leaving Management Scrambling To Find A Replacement

by Matthew Gilligan

Pexels/Reddit

If a job doesn’t seem like it’s gonna be a good fit after you’ve given it the ol’ college try, sometimes the best thing to do is just walk away and look for a new opportunity.

The person who wrote the story below explained why they left their job and why they feel guilty about it.

Read on and see what you think.

Why do I feel guilty for leaving my toxic job?

“I’m 23 years old and I started working for a company in September.

They hired me to be a solo software developer and the past few months have not been going well.

I have been under so much stress and pressure from this job.

Things are pretty tough…

I don’t have much support here. The system they hired me to manage was unstable and had a bunch of issues that they didn’t tell me about and the documentation was outdated.

The clients are also a nightmare to work with.

They decided that enough was enough.

My probationary period ends at the end of this month and I sent in my resignation letter yesterday.

My boss was surprised and he said that a week notice isn’t enough but my contract doesn’t state how much notice I need to give and my contract also ends this month which I explained to him.

He’s trying to make me feel guilty and it’s working, I fear.

They’re getting a huge guilt trip.

He told me that I’m the only one in this company that can do this job and that they won’t have enough time to find someone else.

I feel guilty about that.

I told him that I would help with the onboarding process and that I would make sure that the documentation is up to date but that’s the most I could do.

The guilt is still kind of eating me alive right now and I don’t know what to do.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person weighed in.