This is a company that regularly fires people without notice, so it wasn’t much of a moral dilemma for me.

After a long commute during a snow emergency, I walked upstairs to clock in and was told, “oh, you know you’re not working today, right?”. I replied, “no, how was I supposed to know that? I was told last time that we never close due to snow”. They didn’t call to let me know, nothing.

On the way to work, I had swerved off the road and almost got into a serious accident. No job is worth risking my life. I decided on the spot that if they weren’t courteous enough to inform me that I need not come in, then I don’t need to give them notice.

I told them “your behavior is ridiculous and unprofessional. I quit”. I clocked in, walked out, and that was it.

After working for this company for 5 years, the manager appointed “supervisors” for each shift. These women were not chosen by seniority or for their ability to work with others; I would have to say that both of them were coarse, vulgar, loud, and rude.

One morning I got to work (6 a.m.) and the radio was blaring. There was a “bass boost” button that someone had turned on and the radio was bouncing itself off the shelf. This shelf was closest to my desk and the reverberation noise was ridiculously distracting, so I turned off the “bass boost.” The supervisor immediately began screaming — SCREAMING — at me that now she couldn’t hear the radio! I told her I hadn’t adjusted the volume, just the boost setting. But you can’t talk to an irate idiot.

I sat down and thought for a minute before replying. I was still holding my backpack and jacket. How could I possibly reply to this abuse? If I ignored it, then I sent a signal that I was fine with being treated like this. If I complained to her boss, I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere. If I complained to her, I risked starting a fight because she was being irrational.

It was a no-win situation. Further shouting could lead to real ugliness. My only real option was to remove myself from the premises, so I went up to the production office and spoke with the production shift manager. I told him, “I’m done with this. There’s no way to deal with this that won’t guarantee that it won’t happen again. I have to quit.” He was concerned but not in a position to usurp the general manager’s hand-picked cronies.

So, I handed in my keys and calmly left the building. I felt very free, even if I was now unemployed. But at least I was out of the nuthouse. Sometimes, you have to just quit.

Mike: Hi again. How did that positive-bang thing go?

You raise a great point. Does the company have a culture where feedback, positive and negative, is encouraged… or one where the easiest (or maybe even the only viable) way to resolve differences is to leave?

And getting yourself fired can be a great tool to move on as you write.

Mark: Serves’em right. :o)

However.

If someone walks off the job, it’s surely because things have built up a long time in a culture where it’s easier to walk out on a job than have a discussion with management about what’s going on and whether it’s the right place for you to be in. Any job where someone walks out on the spot is symbol of both the person and the job.

Sometimes firing yourself on the spot might be the best thing for everyone in an environment where an employee is miserable and unproductive while management is hesitant to fire the employee because they can do the minimum to scrape by, are afraid of HR lawsuits, or think they need the employee around to do whatever work possible at any cost.

My philosophy is certainly different (see here) – I think you should try to leave as much of a positive impact behind as possible, if you have the opportunity to do so.