“If I don’t like it, I’m not going to stay”: Paula looked for work for months, got it, and quit before finishing her first day

Paula Lapeña is 23 years old and had been looking for work for months. 🇪🇸

When she finally got one —40 hours a week, Monday through Saturday, in customer service— something inside her began to shut down. On her first day, they were still explaining the job’s routines to her and she was already thinking about leaving. The next morning she woke up crying: she was on her way to a place where she didn’t want to be.

@espejopublico

🗣️ Paula Lapeña explica por qué dejó su trabajo tras solo un día:”Al día siguiente estaba llorando” 💬 La joven de 23 años dejaba claros sus motivos: “No tengo una familia que mantener ni una situación económica que me obligue a trabajar” 📲 No te pierdas nuestros contenidos en la web de #EspejoPúblico y en @atresplayer

♬ sonido original – EspejoPublico

On TikTok, from her account @paula.lap, she said that no one fired her. She was the one who decided not to return. “I’m not going to stay somewhere I don’t like or make myself miserable”, she explained, defending that she would rather start over from scratch as many times as necessary than hold on to something that makes her feel bad. 💭

Her story went viral in Spain and reached media outlets throughout Latin America, right amid a youth unemployment rate of 23,4% in her country.