One programmer coded a classic video game that when played, informed everyone at the office he
quit. Others used giant signs and some colorful profanity to inform management that they wouldn’t
be coming back. Perhaps the most insane way anyone has quit their job was by hiring a
marching band to play celebration music as they handed their boss their resignation letter.
Come with us as we explore the most insane ways people have quit their boring jobs
and give you some ideas for how you might stick it to your boss in the future.
We are going to start with some truly ingenious ways that people have quit their jobs and work
our way to the more extreme cases. However, this first exit is one for the history books. Traveling
can be stressful. But think how difficult it is for people who work in the industry, such as
flight attendants and other professions that are responsible for keeping travelers safe and happy.
One man got so fed up with it all that he quit in one of the most epic ways possible.
On August 9, 2010, Steven Slater had had a tough day. He worked as a flight attendant for Jet Blue,
and the passengers aboard his flight had been particularly difficult.
He tried his best to remain calm and keep his cool, but as they pulled up to the gate
and no one followed his instructions to remain in their seats, he snapped.
The plane came to a stop. The excited murmurs of the passengers filled the cabin as they unlocked
the overhead bins. Steven picked up the mic for the intercom and unleashed a barrage of curses and
insults at the stunned customers and shocked crew members. When he was done telling them all off,
he dropped the mic, grabbed some cold beers from the onboard fridge, and turned towards the door.
The plane was stopped, but the doors were not connected to the passenger boarding bridge yet.
Slater couldn’t wait any longer. He quit then and there by opening one of the doors, releasing the
emergency inflatable slide, and sliding down it with beers in hand. He was later arrested,
but he made his point clear. He quit the horrible job and didn’t give a damn about the consequences.
This is a cautionary tale to be nice to your flight attendants because you never know
when they might have had enough, and you definitely don’t want them to quit mid-flight.
Sometimes a boss just doesn’t get why their employees quit. Marina Shifrin wanted to make
sure it was obvious how talented she was and how hard she worked. So, she created an awesome video
to ensure there were no misunderstandings about why she was resigning from her job.
Shifrin was employed by a media company that created engaging news stories.
She worked long, grueling hours, rarely asked for time off,
and was often the last person in the office. Yet, her boss had no appreciation for the work she did.
Shifrin had put her whole life on hold for this job because she really wanted
to show her dedication, and she believed in what the company was doing. However,
no matter how good a company is, if your boss is unappreciative and rude, it is time to leave.
Shifrin used all of the skills and techniques she learned at the company to create an incredible
YouTube video of her dancing around the empty office late one night to the song
“Gone” by Kanye West. She showed that quality is always better than quantity when it comes
to creating content. At the end of the video, she made it abundantly clear that this would be
the last thing she did for the company. The video itself received millions of initial views and is
currently at about 20 million views. Needless to say, quitting in a creative way like Shifrin did
can actually be better for your career than sticking with a job with an awful boss.
If there is one person in a company you don’t want to piss off,
it is anyone who works in the IT department. They have an intricate
knowledge of the company's systems and can cause mayhem if they are not treated kindly.
That is why these next few insane ways to quit all have to do with programmers.
It was a quiet day at the office. The boss was feeling pretty good
about himself as he had unloaded on one of the programmers in the design department.
The issue was only a slight bug, but he felt like he needed to show those smug programmers
who was boss. In reality, he was just being a dick. So, the programmer took things into
his own hands by locking up his boss's computer with a program he developed.
The best part about it was that the only computer affected was the one his boss used
so everyone else at the company could continue to do their work as usual.
If they clicked on the “Ignore” button, the message would just pop up again. The “HR”
button sent him to a link where he could schedule a meeting with the human resources department.
Basically, the entire computer was locked until the boss met with HR or the programmer who quit
to admit he was wrong. Things could have been a lot worse for the boss and the company,
but this is one programmer who got his point across in a non-destructive way.
Some programmers leave their companies not because they are unhappy but just because a better
opportunity presents itself. When this happens, their resignation is more fun than damaging.
Take one programmer who coded a Super Mario simulation and sent it to his boss. When the
boss completed the level, the screen didn’t say “Congratulations!” but “I quit” instead. However,
it wasn’t just his boss that got to enjoy this fun game, he sent the program around the office
so everyone could play. The higher-ups probably didn’t find their employees playing Super Mario
super amusing, but it was a pretty cool way to let everyone know he’d be leaving the company.
Sometimes people who quit end up being the heroes of the office. This is especially true
for one programmer who was just crazy enough to lock management out of their own system.
The company was doing some pretty shady stuff to their employees. One day a boss asked one
of the programmers to restrict network access for certain employees who he wanted to secretly punish
using an ‘undisclosed disciplinary action.’ The programmer asked the boss if he had cleared it
with HR first, as this request seemed a little sketchy. The boss said it would be fine, but the
programmer asked to see the proper paperwork. This did not go over well, and the boss became upset.
He claimed his request was just a precautionary action, but this turned out to be a lie.
A few days later, the management of the company came back to the programmer and
forced him to implement the program to restrict certain employees’ access.
Since he could do nothing to stop them, he complied. Fortunately,
the programmer had decided he had had enough. Instead of restricting access for the employees,
he locked the management out of their own system and put them in time out for their behavior.
The programmer had changed the network password and quit, so there was nothing the management
could do to him when he walked out of the office. Before leaving, he had given HR the new network
password and explained to them the shady requests management had been making without consulting
them first. When the bosses went down to HR to figure out what was going on, it was likely a
pretty uncomfortable discussion about ethics at the company. But the programmer left by
sticking it to his bosses and perhaps making the company a slightly better place to work.
As a rule of thumb, if your employees have access to a large sign outside of your establishment,
you should probably do your best to keep them happy. If you don’t,
you could have employees who quit using these extremely funny ways.
One gas station employee had clearly had enough of his crappy job and demanding boss.
To make his displeasure clear and let his boss know he wouldn’t be coming to work anymore,
he rearranged the letters on the sign outside of the station one night.
When the boss returned to work the following day, he was greeted by this message.
But gas stations aren’t the only ones with large changeable signs outside of their establishments.
The greatest thing about the way these employees quit is that not
only is their resignation clearly obvious, but it alerts the people
who read their signs that the management is not treating their employees properly.
For example, at one Taco Bell, an employee named Adam got clever with the sign and even used two
apostrophes and a tilted C to make a smiley face. His message was clear and to the point.
James, who worked at Hardee’s, was a little nicer about his resignation.
He at least gave his boss two weeks' notice on his sign.
But that is nothing compared to the unhappy employee who quit their
boring job at a grocery store. They didn’t bother with a resignation letter. Instead,
they used a clear and concise set of words to make their intentions known.
Management probably knew from who was working the previous night which employee changed the
sign and they would need to start looking for someone new to work the night shift.
Grocery and big-box stores can be difficult places to work as a lot of people come through each day,
and they tend to be understaffed. However, one shelf stocker took quitting to the next
level by turning the store upside down, literally. It is pretty hilarious. However,
we do feel bad for the employee who had to fix all of the boxes the next day.
It appears that one big box retail worker couldn’t take it anymore, and they decided to have a little
bit of fun before quitting. You can only imagine what the face of their boss looked like when they
walked into the store in the morning and found that all of their cereal boxes had been flipped.
Management could have just left it like that, but it wouldn’t have been a good look for the store
as customers would constantly be asking why the boxes in the cereal aisle were all upside down.
If nothing else, it might have forced the store management to explain that they had
an unhappy employee, and hopefully, they were working towards keeping everyone else happy.
The more likely scenario is that there was a mad dash to flip all of the boxes
back over before the store opened for the day.
Even though there is no big sign that says “I quit,” the employee made their intentions clear.
Working with the public, in general, can be hard and make an employee's life
miserable. Having a terrible boss makes everything even worse.
That’s why when one employee at a pizza shop decided to quit, breadsticks went flying.
New York City has some of the best pizza in the world. There is nothing like a
fresh slice of pie with hot cheese falling off the sides and dripping with grease.
However, New Yorkers can be a little rude and loud sometimes. This means that the words
please and thank you don’t always get used when they should, which can cause tension,
especially in the fast-paced setting of a pizza joint on a Friday night.
Unfortunately, this time when the boss yelled at his employee to clean up the
breadstick tray in the middle of the dinner rush,
the employee decided he couldn’t put up with his boss’s rudeness anymore. He grabbed the breadstick
trays and flipped them, sending breadsticks flying across the counter at gaping customers.
He then ripped off his gloves and extended both middle fingers at his boss. He walked out of the
pizza shop and never looked back. The words “I quit” may have never left his mouth, but
the series of events that unfolded made it pretty clear that the employee wouldn’t be coming back.
It is a risky move for a boss to mistreat their employees,
especially when they are in charge of opening the store.
There is probably nothing more embarrassing for a business owner than having your shop
be the only one still closed when the mall opens for the day.
It is even more embarrassing when your employees leave a strongly worded letter telling everyone
who passes that you’re a bad boss and that everyone who worked for you just quit.
After Niki, Jess, and TJ left their resignation letter, it was probably pretty difficult for the
boss to hire new employees as everyone was now aware of what a terrible place it was to work at.
That being said, this was a powerful way to make a point and quit simultaneously.
Kudos to those three employees for sticking it to their boss in a public way.
Again, not everyone leaves on bad terms with their bosses but still can quit in pretty crazy ways.
When one man quit his job, he didn’t want his co-workers to forget about him,
so he hid pictures of himself around the office. For weeks people would
find his photographs hidden under computers and inside drawers. Even two years after he left,
employees were still discovering pictures of their former co-worker in the most random places.
Many people prefer to quit their job on good terms using food. Or even on bad terms using
food. It seems that cake can be used in some pretty unique ways when quitting your job.
One man named Charles Holmes actually left his job because of cake. He was so passionate about
baking that he decided to leave his 9 to 5 job in order to open his own cake shop.
To explain this to his boss, Holmes created a resignation letter cake.
To be fair, the cake was really well made, and Holmes included his website on the cake,
so his boss and co-workers knew why he was leaving and how to get in contact with him.
Based on the resignation letter cake, it appears
Holmes was indeed very talented and had a future in cake making.
His boss couldn’t have been all that upset as the cake was probably very delicious.
Other employees work together to quit their boring jobs. In fact,
some combine cakes and teamwork to let their boss know that they quit.
It was just a regular workday when employees came into the breakroom to two white boxes on
the table. There were no special occasions, but they looked like birthday cakes.
Upon opening the boxes, it became clear why they were there. Two very colorful cakes stating that
two employees were quitting sat on the table for all to see including the bosses. If you
are going to quit with one of your friends from work, getting two cakes might be the way to go.
Other people take a not-so-nice approach to quitting their jobs. Instead of cake,
one man informed his boss of his resignation using a sledgehammer.
One former construction worker who specialized in concrete maintenance
had a dispute with his boss over his salary. Every month they would argue. The
boss told his employee he would be getting a raise each month to increase his salary,
but the raise never came. This was drawn on for a year before the employee lost it.
Working with concrete means there are lots of dangerous tools around. The employee grabbed a
sledgehammer from the tool rack, marched up to the car his boss was sitting in,
and began screaming at him. Sledgehammer in hand, the disgruntled employee threatened to hit his
boss with it. After berating the frightened man with harsh words for a few minutes,
the employee dropped the sledgehammer and walked away, calling out over his shoulder
that he quit. Even if he hadn’t, that likely would have been his last day on the job anyways.
Some people are a little less confrontational and
let their employer know that they have quit from a safe distance.
One employee had planned a whole trip to the Bahamas without discussing it with their boss.
The day they were leaving, they boarded the flight and took their seat. When the captain informed the
passengers that their seatbacks and tray tables needed to be in their upright and locked position
and that all electronics should be stowed, the employee texted their boss.
They informed their employer that they were about to fly to the Bahamas and wouldn’t
be coming back to work. They hit send and turned off their phone for the entire trip.
We can only imagine what the boss did when they read the text. They likely tried calling,
but the phone would go straight to voicemail as the employee was now flying to a tropical island.
This takes ghosting to a whole new level.
Although it could be worse, this next way of quitting is so bad it’ll make you cringe.
Numerous employers have recounted workers having their parents call
to inform them that their child had quit. This is not only awkward but
just not okay. If you are going to quit your job, you should be doing the deed yourself.
If you are too afraid to face your boss, just send them a cake with “I quit” written on it.
If the idea of telling your boss that you quit makes you so nervous that you become sick to
your stomach, we have a perfect solution for you. Websites like Cameo allow you to
hire famous people to record messages that you can then send to others. For example,
one man had Bam Margera, of Jackass fame, record a video telling his boss that he was quitting.
There are numerous people you could get to deliver this message. Perhaps you could hire
William Shatner or Christopher Walkin to speak the words that you’re too afraid to.
Even if your boss is initially upset, there is no way they could stay angry for very long
as they now have a memento from a famous person.
Sometimes a cake just won’t cut it. If this is the case, pizza might be the way to go.
Luka Arežina was working at a call center where his boss was a monster. After six months,
he was absolutely miserable and sought to find employment elsewhere. When he landed an IT job
at a different company, he decided to send his boss a message using pizza. He didn’t tell anyone
he was leaving, mostly because he was afraid his awful employer would try to sabotage him.
On the day he quit, Arežina ordered 26 large pizzas so that each of his co-workers would
get their own. The pizza came with a personalized message, joke, or motivational quote to help his
coworkers get through the day. However, the last pizza was made especially for his boss.
This pizza was covered in insanely spicy ingredients, making it practically inedible.
The bill went to his boss, who begrudgingly paid for it. Everyone got to enjoy their pizza
except for the boss, who took one bite and discovered it was too spicy to eat.
One of the most ballsy resignations that anyone has ever done probably goes to Greg Smith.
Smith worked for Goldman Sachs. He had made it pretty high up in the company
when he decided he just couldn’t work for the terrible people above him any
longer. Working for a gigantic financial institution came with a lot of stress,
and many people got screwed over just so his bosses could make a little more profit.
So, Smith did what he thought was right and told the whole world why he was resigning.
He wrote his whole resignation letter in an Op-Ed piece published by the New York Times.
This was a paper his bosses read every morning. On the day his article was published Smith
didn’t show up to work as millions of people including his employers now knew he had quit
and the reason why. This move actually paid off for Smith as another company
almost immediately hired him after they read his resignation letter in the Times.
Some people don’t need the world to know they’re resigning but want to make it clear to everyone at
the office that they quit. One employee did this by covering their workplace with sticky notes.
When Anh Trinh came into the GeekWithLaptop office to start his day, he found sticky
notes covering everything. On them were written different words and phrases such as “Good Day!”
and “ I can’t work here.” It became somewhat of a scavenger hunt to find them all and put them
in the right order to uncover a resignation letter made. Once all of the sticky notes were laid out
it became clear which employee had quit and that this was their unique way of telling the bosses.
Sometimes, you just need to go out with a bang.
Joey DeFrancesco hired a marching band complete with drums, horns, and cymbals to accompany him
to his hotel job, where he despised his boss. He snuck the whole band in through the back door and
waited for his employer to come down into the basement of the hotel. When his boss entered
through the doorway, Joey told him that he quit, handed him his resignation letter, and walked out
as the band started playing celebration music all the way down the hallway and out of the building.
It was an epic conclusion to his year-long battle with hotel management to treat their
employees better. The video of Joey quitting received millions of views and brought the
unfair treatment of hotel employees to light. Not only was what Joey did an insane way to quit
that made the news across the country, but it also did some good as well.
Now watch “Insane Ways the Queen Survived 3 Assassination Attempts.” Or check out
“Insane Ways People Are Preparing for Doomsday.”