Some Of The Best, Most Creative Ways People Have Quit Their Jobs

In American Beauty, Kevin Spacey's character has his resignation letter read back to him by an incredulous boss: "My job consists basically of masking my contempt for the a**holes in charge".

Many people entertain passing thoughts of walking in to their office one day and saying "I quit" and walking out.

Of course, unless you have a back-up (ie: you won the lottery) cooler heads usually prevail.

Well, the following people quit with panache, sticking it to the man with creativity and maybe giving the phrase "disgruntled worker" a more positive connotation, depending on how you look at it.

Cake Boss:

On his 31st birthday, Chris Holmes checked out of his border agency official job at London's Stansted Airport.

He iced his position, literally, on a cake (see image above) launching his baking business and giving social media a taste of one of the more creative resignation letters we've ever seen.

Holmes told a Cambridge-area TV station, "I think that's probably a nice way for an employee to leave and I hope they enjoyed the cake as well as the resignation."

Strike Up The Band:

A hotel worker in Providence, Rhode Island became a sensation with his musical send-off. Joey DeFrancesco, like many of us (well, not us at Strombo.com) entertained thoughts of one-day leaving his dead-end job.

The hotel worker told the Huffington Post, "in his own workplace fantasy, [he] would march right up to his boss with a letter of resignation. Upon handing it over, a brass band would explode into boisterous song."

That fantasy become reality when DeFranceso enlisted his band What Cheer? Brigade to play him off, so to speak.

Taco Hell:

A Buffalo-area shift manager at a Taco Bell/KFC combo store, referred to in media reports only as "Adam", left a sign of his discontent - on a sign.

The worker, who alleges he was in a dispute over vacation time, finally called it quits and did it in lights.



Photo: via Reddit

Reaction to the fast food worker's impropriety, was surprisingly positive.

Tony Guizzotti told WIVB TV, "There's many times I'd like to say something like that especially as an employee, but it could hurt him down the road."

Another man John Gondek said simply, "Guy's got guts to do it."

No Time For Losers. Leaving A Job Like A Champion:

A worker quit to the strains of Richard Strauss' 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and then later, to Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Choice lyrics: "So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye / So you think you can love me and leave me to die / Oh baby - can't do this to me baby!".

The unnamed employee is filmed walking into a nondescript warehouse lunchroom, boom box in tow, and then rips open his shirt to reveal a magic marker inscription " I Quit!".

He then uses the Queen song to let everyone else know.

The Whole (Foods) Truth And Nothing But the Whole Foods Truth?:

In the Summer of 2011, a Toronto Whole Foods worker sent the following missive to the whole company, taking umbrage with its "core values" and sounding off with...

"You waste an absurd amount of energy, ink and paper in your offices for useless bureaucratic nonsense" and "Almost everything that prepared foods makes is terrible. The pizza used to be pretty good but the slices have shrunk, the toppings are sparser and it's usually extremely overcooked."

Read the entire "epic" resignation letter here:

A Little Bird Told Me:

According to the New York Times, Jonathan Schwartz, the last chief executive of Sun Microsystems, became the first Fortune 200 boss to tweet his resignation.

And he did it in style, tweeting the following haiku: Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more.

Today's my last day at Sun. I'll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more — Jonathan Schwartz (@OpenJonathan) February 4, 2010

Walkers Without Borders:

The book retailer Borders went belly-up in 2011, leaving hundreds of bitterly disappointed employees, several of whom put together the following over-sized note, "Things We Never Told You: Ode To A Bookstore Death."

It subsequently appeared on the social media site Reddit and contained gems like: "Most of the time when you returned books you read them already - and we were on to you" and "If you don't know the author, title or genre, but you DO know the colour of the cover, we don't either."



Photo: via Reddit

Here you can read the entire Borders employee note.

Over The Airwaves:

To get all the media bases covered, we turn to former BBC radio DJ Danny Baker, who branded his bosses "pinheaded weasels" after his slot was being cancelled.

He bemoaned having to "kowtow to middle management", blasting station bosses as part of a two-hour rant.

Here's another DJ, in Jacksonville, Florida, who decided to say "screw it and give the middle finger to upper management"... calling his bosses "empty suits" in the process.

Finally, a short-list of some popular Disgruntled Worker Movies:

'Half Baked', 'Clerks', 'Office Space', 'Fight Club', 'Jerry Maguire', 'Falling Down', 'Ghost World' and the aforementioned 'American Beauty'.

Of course, if you don't want to go out in a blaze of glory, and you'd rather leave in a more professional way, here's a piece to check out entitled '6 Flubs To Avoid When Quitting Your Job'.

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