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 that
entire 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 Shiffrin 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.
Shiffrin 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. Shiffrin 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.
Shiffrin 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 Shiffrin 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
were 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 admitting 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 Margery, 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 Walking to speak
the words that you’re too afraid to. Even if your boss is initially
upset, there are 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 Arizona 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, Arizona 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 ballsiest 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 Geek with Laptop 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.”