"So What Will You Do? Fire Me?": 35 People Share Their Most Absurd Resignation Stories

Years ago I quit a fast food job on the spot over the boss stringing us along on raises. I got the "you are required to give us two weeks notice!" nonsense (I was not in fact required to do that). My reply was "Fine. I'm quitting in two weeks. Oh, and don't schedule me for the next two weeks because I won't be coming in".

I quit my job of five years in May. I was pulling out my own hair trying to stay for the “two weeks”. They pulled shady sh*t on me right after I resigned. Some of the things were uncharacteristic. One being the VP of our office decided to make an email announcement two hours after I told them I was leaving. The email announcement was to my entire team telling them “Insert name has resigned, but don’t worry we will replace her ASAP!” I was shocked and left the next day. F*ck them! Five years of my life and through the pandemic and no thank you’s. Just a bold announcement as if they were happy I FINALLY RESIGNED. Now, I’m delivering goods and foods for the meantime until I find a better job! Best of luck.

I submitted 2 weeks notice at my previous job. They didn't offer me a larger salary or anything to stay, but they did ask if I could make it three weeks... Still friends with some folks that work there and the owner said in a meeting that he offered me more money but I refused to stay. That of course was after a lot of people said he was making a mistake by "letting me quit."

HA. Classic. I gave notice once and the boss wanted me to rethink it. I said, "I'm not asking, I'm leaving. In case you're confused"

Classic. Somehow we got to be friends after that. Still are

Happened to me a few weeks ago.

Car crash of a project. And they didn't want to listen to me to help - because it's too complicated (their words).

Resigned on the spot.

They'll be concerned because they might know you're on to something.

I'm still talking to some of my ex colleagues because my resignation sparked big debate apparently (small company).

I told them I either do my job correctly and the way I've been trained to (elsewhere) or I don't do it at all.

Your mental health will thank you for sticking to your guns.

I worked at the “we can save you $15” blah blah insurance company about 6 years ago. My team in Los Angeles had been just bleeding people. We were fine under our first manager - the job was tough but he always handled things for us and kept our schedules clean and workload manageable. Then he got promoted and we got a new manager - it was a complete 180. He’d throw us under the bus, get more work assigned than we could do, try to look like a super-tryhard for upper management, scold everyone like they’re 5 in front of others because he liked to power-trip. Well, we went from 6 adjusters to 2 - myself and one other to manage one of the busiest areas in the US. One day that boss said I had to go get a $.48, yup that’s cents, refund from a shop over a $4500 estimate. I told him that was a waste of everyone’s time, and he told me he was going to write me up. I was super stressed because I was taking on 2-3 times my normal workload, it was hot as sh*t outside and I had to travel from Irvine to Pomona to get some of these things done. I had like a minor anxiety attack and just decided that I’d rather just watch it all burn.

I told him he could find my company car, laptop and all other company property at one of the partner shops and hung up.

That man blew up my personal phone with emotions ranging from angry and yelling to practically begging me to come back because “we literally have nobody else and sh*t will be unbearable”.

He tried to pull the whole “You can’t quit! You never told me what was wrong! How can we fix things if we don’t know? I’ll expect to see you tomorrow.” The dude was f*cking clueless. He lost 5/6 of his team and just couldn’t for the goddamn life of him figure out that it was HIM being the problem. Sure dude, see you tomorrow - as in never because f*ck you.

I never answered or called him back. HR sent me an exit interview and I told them everything, but I didn’t care if they acted on it or not.

F*ck em. I went back to school and got my degree.

I remember i told my toxic boss i was puting in my 2 weeks. He said thats not professional and i need to write a formal resignation letter. I wrote i quit halfway across the page and signed and dated the bottom.

I gave Tesla my resignation and three days later they told me I was fired. I felt like I was on the TV show punked waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out and say gotcha.

Had a similar situation. They refused to confirm my end date, so I stopped doing work and told them that I would not produce any more work product until a date was set.

My boss blew up and told me that if I couldn’t get with the program, that I could “get the f*ck out.”

So, I told him that sounded like my last day is today and left.

Too bad. I was on an important project and wanted to see it through, but my project manager wanted to take it day by day . . .

Doesn’t work that way once I’ve resigned.

One of the reason I resigned was that they micro-managed. You literally spent every day waiting to be told what to do. I worked nights and weekends. I desperately needed some control over my life.

One time I resigned as the role was insanely stressful and we were being “asked” to work more and more hours. I had an unofficial talk to discuss the least impactful leaving day. Handed in my notice with that date as my last day. They were absolutely furious - tried everything to get me to stay.

When it went official the management pulled me into a room and said you’ve accrued so much holiday (read: we’ve not let you take holiday this year) they asked me to work for free till my end date! I sh*t you not, free. I immediately burst out laughing and said no chance.

Their final words were if you do this you’ll never work here again, you’d have burned all your bridges. Classy.

… got a better paying job later that week. Best decision I ever made.

Side note: none of the team or management ever spoke to me again. Was branded as sell out, as**oles

I've given a 30 day notice, during tenure as a GSA contracted employee, and on my final day they threatened to sue me! They pulled out my 2 year contract, claiming breach of contract, and attempted to stiff arm me into staying. I pointed out the loophole of giving a 30 day notice of resignation, showed them the email (from 45 days back), pulled out my resignation paper (signed by my immediate supervisor), and walked out.

Some companies are just… gross. My partner was on sick leave. We sent 2 emails - 1 to HR and other to her Manager directly (just in case because those emails magically could get lost - it happened in the past) with all details, doctor and hospital note. Her manager called her after few days, when she was in a hospital threatening her to write her up and take her to HR if she won’t show up at work right away. Mind, she was still cover by doctor’s note, but Manager just refused to acknowledge it. He called her next day, this time screaming. I could hear him and he was not on the speaker. She quit, turned off her phone. I started then getting calls from him. It went from “welfare check” to screams and threads of investigation. At the end she got letter that she got fired, haha. We regret that we were not in a mind space to record those calls.

I had a job try to demand six months notice. Then tried to pretend I hadn’t quit or given notice as an attempt to blackmail me into staying (they changed my schedule, I said I would quit if they didn’t accommodate me, they called my bluff and didn’t think I would follow through.)

I was in the same situation. They didn’t let me go, so I just cruised through work, interviewed for the next job whenever I needed, and whenever I disagreed with anything, always reminded them they can fire me, I already quit.

I had an employer like this. I gave 30 days notice and proceeded to only do what I wanted to do and took my sweet a*s time getting to work every day. On the last day I brought a bottle of tequila to work with me and went around getting hammered doing shots with friends I had made over the years on the job and then took a cab home. It was glorious.