let’s discuss deranged things your employer did when you resigned

by Alison Green on January 25, 2024

Some managers handle it really, really badly when people resign. From the managers who stop speaking to resigning employees (because leaving is a personal betrayal, apparently), to the manager who told a resigning employee “I hate you” and threw things, to the manager who slashed an employee’s tires on their last day (!), some bosses lose their minds when people leave.

Let’s talk about bananapants things your employer did when you resigned. Please share in the comment section!

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  1. Maple Leaf*

    I recently resigned from a job I had been in for 8.5 years. The supervisors in the unit had a history of either ignoring you once you gave notice or doubling down on their micro-managing of you. I waited until the last possible second to give notice (yes, I did it at 4:58 pm on a Friday, providing exactly 2 weeks notice). My supervisor then proceed to ignore me until 3 pm on my last day when she sent me an email with 187 item “to do” list, to be completed by 5 pm that day. This task list is not something that could have been done in a week, let alone 2 hours. I laughed and laughed to myself, then walked out at 5 pm having not touched the task list. I happily started my new job on Monday without a regret.

      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        I kind of wish that you’d just waited until 4:57 and replied to the email, “Haha, no” right before you signed off for the last time. Or even just, “No.”

        1. MassMatt*

          This is eminently reasonable, given it would take most people about two hours to read a list of 187 tasks.

          That’s the kind of nutbaggery I would definitely want to save for future humorous reference: “look what a prior manager sent me, two hours before I left the job. No, scroll down, there’s another page. No, keep scrolling. Keep going! Yes, that’s right, this was at 3pm on a Friday of my last week there. A hundred tasks? No, there’s at least three more pages!”

    2. Clorinda*

      What was the expectation there? That you would sty till it was all done, delaying your departure date if necessary?

      1. birb*

        That she can technically say she “didn’t do anything that needed to be done for the transition” and be the victim later.

        1. Michelle*

          I have been looking for some excuse, any excuse, to write in about my sister’s horrible, horrible boss of a few years ago.

          To keep it relevant: the nutso thing he did was come to her home in the middle of the night on the day she gave her notice and remove the lawn sign she had up for his business.

          But the real reason I want to write about him is that nearly every day for the 3 years she worked there he made all his employees hold hands and close their eyes while he LED THEM IN PRAYER once a day at lunch.

        2. Pdxer*

          This is exactly what I was thinking too. “Just TRY to use me as a reference! You didn’t complete my seemingly-insane-even-to-an-insane-person list of nonsense! Terrible employee!!”

    3. Maple Leaf*

      I should add that the task list was separated by category, tabbed, highlighted, bolded, underlined, etc etc etc. The supervisor likely spent a solid 10-15 hours putting this task list together, which is not a very effective use of her time.

      2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

        Was going to ask. Revenge is a dish best served cold and old that…how long did she spend putting that thing together, just getting hotter and hotter.
        187 color coded, cross referenced tasks?
        pwahahahahahahaha
        Rock on with that nonsense.

      3. HalJordan*

        Oh, that’s just begging for a “Wow, so organized! Glad to see you’re ready for the next person in the role. Good luck with the transition!”

        1. LeafFreckleton*

          long time reader, maybe first time commenter – this is so good I could not pass by without thanking you for this image!

      4. goddessoftransitory*

        “Boy, it was really generous of you to share this creative writing exercise. I can see you worked hard on it; best of luck in the future!”

    5. Never the Twain*

      With a list that long, there must have been at least one item which wasn’t clear (or which you could pretend you didn’t understand). So wait till 4:59 and email requesting clarification “asap, so I can get on with it as soon as I get your clarification.”

      2. Maple Leaf*

        Honestly, I didn’t read past the first 5 lines once I saw the insanity that she had put together. I scrolled through the entire email but basically ignored it after that and definitely did not reply to it or take any action on it. I bounced on out of there at 5 pm, and haven’t looked back!

        PS – I am not worried about loosing her as a reference as I didn’t use her to secure my current job (she is an entire banana pants blog unto herself and her out of this world ways she tried to supervise the team).

    7. Hazel*

      At 18, I worked in a poorly run day care. When I went into the owner/director’s office to give notice, she started crying and asked me to stay because this was a terrible time to leave.
      I suspect she said it was a terrible time for me to leave because the week before I had anonymously reported her for serious safety violations due to under staffing. I’m sure she had been given a very tight time frame to turn that around.
      Her son had been a good friend in high school, but he never spoke to me again.

    8. London Calling*

      I had a similar. New manager (who barely acknowledged my existence anyway) a week before I left sent me a list of several hundred purchase orders with a request that could I tell her if these had been properly authorised by the right people and within their budget limits? (a question about the PO system, incidentally, that IT could have spend 10 minutes explaining to her without all that malarkey).

      I have no idea if she was taking it out on me for resigning or if she seriously thought that with a week to go, my job already handed over and my stated intention to take a few months off into semi-retirement (so no reference requirements) that I was actually going to do more than a) read it b) laugh and c) say ‘Yep, not gonna happen’; but that was what I did.

      No idea what happened to the list but the manager was on her way a few months later (as was my replacement. Never did find out why they departed so abruptly but I can guess).

    9. jojo*

      Should have forwarded the list to HR and told them there was no way o complete it between 3pm and 5 pm when ou resignation takes effect and you are not responsible if a months worth of work does not get done in the final two hours of your employment with the company.

  2. Super Anonymous*

    When I gave my 2 weeks, I was told it was “unprofessional” to give less than 4 weeks. No, my industry does not have a standard amount of leave required.

    1. LovelyAardvark*

      I got radio silence when I have two weeks notice. When I sent a follow up email to the management team a week later asking about wrapping things up, my manager sent an email directed to me, but sent to ALL STAFF, instructing me to clean out my desk and transfer all work to coworkers. No context showing that it was anything other than me being fired. lol. It was a weird intimidation tactic.

      I ended up sending out my own farewell message to the staff on my final day thanking then for the work experience and telling them I had a new job.

      She was nuts, and this was not the weirdest thing she did. But it was a Social Security field office. You know, a circle of hell.

      1. LovelyAardvark*

        *gave two weeks notice.

        FYI, everyone else that had quit while i had been there for two years had a nice farewell message sent by management on their behalf. But I was her 5th team member to ditch in a year and she had a weird obsession with me. So I guess my departure was a personal betrayal.

      2. FricketyFrack*

        Ah yes, I’m sure that definitely won’t result in people looking for other jobs and/or quitting without giving notice. It’s amazing how managers like that never realize that they’re either perpetuating a bad cycle or actively making it worse. But then, if they were capable of that kind of self-reflection, they probably wouldn’t be so awful in the first place.

      3. nonprofit llama groomer*

        In a prior job I had to deal with an SSA field office regularly and they were great to deal with until one FOD left. After that, that office was terrible to deal with. Same experience at what used to be known as ODARs and are now OHOs (I think because it is so many years later).

      4. Alphabet Soup Dragon*

        Ah, SSA. Or “ASS backwards” we call it at our agency. That’s not even how Federal firing works…. She can’t just decide that today is your last day because she’s upset about being down an FTE. I hope you are in a much better environment now!

    2. Not a Real Giraffe*

      When I gave three weeks notice, my senior leadership were *pissed* it was less than the three months’ notice they truly expected to receive. Also not a standard expectation for my industry.

    3. Liz the Snackbrarian*

      I was told I should have given four weeks and said “Well the handbook says two, I checked.” Thankfully this boss was super chill.

    4. Spreadsheets and Books*

      I had a similar experience, though admittedly not from my direct manager. The company handbook (not a signed contract or anything… I am in the US where enforceable employment contracts are rarely a thing, and my industry has no standard expectations either) technically requested 4 weeks for general employees, 6 weeks for director-level employees, and 8 weeks for VPs and up, but I watched numerous people at all levels on my team leave as there was a promoting from within problem (i.e. it never happened and the external hires were usually not great) and not one of them gave more than 2 weeks.

      After I became a similar victim of getting passed up for a promotion, I found a new job and gave my 2 weeks’ notice. Since it was never an issue for anyone else on the team, I figured it wouldn’t be an issue for me either.

      Wrong. I was hauled down to HR and reamed for not giving 4 weeks. They were furious that I had the audacity to only give 2 weeks and did I know the problems I was causing?? They actually tried to make me call the new company and ask to have my start date pushed back. I helpfully pointed out that 5 other people quit during my tenure and they all gave 2 weeks, including a director, and asked why this rule only appears to apply to me. Apparently, because I quit at the same time as someone else on my relatively small team, a “policy” that’s almost always ignored was suddenly Very Very Important.

      I told them, in diplomatic terms, to shove it.

      1. Reality.Bites*

        Two weeks notice is a courtesy, not a requirement. “In that case, I’ll leave now” is always an option.

        1. Spreadsheets and Books*

          Yep. At-will employment! I really liked my team and didn’t want to leave them high and dry while I passed off responsibilities, so quitting on the spot would have been extreme, but I wasn’t about to call my new company and try to change the start date. Especially since I negotiated a higher salary and a sign-on bonus that appeared to be at least somewhat contingent on starting ASAP because the role had been empty for a while and the team was swamped.

          It all worked out; I’ll have been at said new company for 5 years this spring.

        2. Michelle Smith*

          Exactly, this is what’s baffling to me. We’re employees, not slaves, you cannot force us to work after we quit!!

          1. Dawn*

            Sometimes – sometimes more often than not – people who have some authority in the workplace mistake this for absolute authority over a person.

            They are wrong, but I’ve been reading this site long enough to know that unfortunately (and especially in America) many people feel compelled to go along with it.

            1. Mister_L*

              I once worked at a transport company in a small town right next to the city I live in.
              My country abolished royalty / aristocracy after WWI, but the boss sure thought of himself as the king of the town.

        3. Perfectly normal-sized space bird*

          Yup! My cousin had a job at a “but we’re a family” place where their paycheck kept failing to be direct deposited for months. The whole place was a hot mess but cousin finally had enough and resigned via employee chat since the manager kept ducking out and avoiding “where’s my paycheck?” conversations. The manager responded with a snotty text reaming cousin out for not being professional (manager was “so disappointed” in them) and how employees in a professional setting are required to give two weeks’ notice. Cousin and I had fun drafting a letter in response.

              1. Perfectly normal-sized space bird*

                Yes, though it didn’t amount to much, sadly. Though they did get in trouble for illegally classifying him as an independent contractor.

            2. Your Mate in Oz*

              Alternatively, people who are not paid are not employees, they’re volunteers or slaves. I guess trying to quit tells you which category management think you’re in?

        4. Frostie Fan*

          I had worked for more than a year as a “temp”; I was legally the employee of company that placed me to work for another compnay. The job was supposed to be for a couple of months so I was initially okay with no benefits, i.e. vacation and paid holidays but as time went on (and my job search was not getting anywhere) I stayed since the pay was decent. I asked my legal employer for holiday pay and at least a few days of “vacation” but was refused since their contract with the company using me did not provide this. The need for my services was coming to an end but I was to be kept on another month to cover over the December holidays (everyone had use-it-or-lose-it time to burn) and train an internal transfer to do my work. I got a job offer around Thanksgiving and told the manager I was leaving that day within minutes of learning that the new job was a sure thing. They were super pissed and my legal employer admitted that they should have done better for me. I slept like a baby that night.

    5. Strict Extension*

      I once had the owner of a business I worked for complain that someone gave three months notice because the end of that notice period was in October, and it is apparently not possible to give enough notice if you are leaving in the fourth quarter.

    6. Kit Kendrick*

      There was a time in my working life when, if a round of layoffs went through a company, the employees were given at least two weeks and often much more to pass on their job duties, apply for positions elsewhere in the organization, and so forth. I haven’t seen anything like that happen in more than a decade.

      This spring, my manager was told at 8am that he had to come into the office on what was normally a remote day, and when he arrived he was escorted to his desk so he could have an hour to pack up and be gone. (No it was not for cause — several other people got the axe the same day). As far as I can tell, the norm in the USA is now that anyone being laid off, let alone fired, is expected to be out the door the same day they are notified.

      If employers are no longer expected to give notice, then I don’t see why workers should be either.

      1. LabRa*

        At my current company, when an employee is laid off their computer access is terminated at the end of the call informing them of the layoff! Which is really not helpful to those of us left behind to pick up their work…

        1. Skippy*

          IT should be ready to transfer the account or give a PW to the supervisor in that case… we do this because of the possibility of malicious deleting/email sending, etc. Though the person who really did send something firable did it during her 2 weeks’ notice, and I found out on her last day.

      2. Cat Mom*

        When I was laid off, at 8am on a Wednesday, I was told to log off for the rest of the day and that IT would be revoking my access within the hour! Of course, this was at the height of the pandemic, but I’m not surprised that that practice is continuing.

      3. jojo*

        Employer giving notice is tied to how many people it employs. Smaller employers are known to have put a padlock on the door that workers find in the morning when they show up for work. Locked out. I worked a contract with known end date. All employees wentto register with employment office on the clock.. they qualified for special benefits due to the nature of the large layoff.

      4. I forgot my user name againn*

        Not me, a fully remote family member, went to log on in the morning. Their ID wasn’t working. As soon as they tried to login, they got the call they were laid off and please come by the office to turn in their equipment.

    7. Bumblebee*

      This happened to me as well! After my last day apparently there was a happy hour where the CEO of our nonprofit gave a long speech about how unprofessional it was of me to leave at all, really, and with only 2 weeks’ notice.

    8. *OOF**

      This happened to me, too! I put in my two weeks and the owner went off on me. He said that I should give one week of notice per year worked at the company.

      The next day, when I made the mistake of telling him that I had run that claim by an employment lawyer (a family friend), he went ballistic and fired me on the spot. So they didn’t get two weeks, much less four.

      1. reg*

        ok see he’s confusing the period of time needed to adjust after a breakup with employment law. that is a lot.

        1. Princess Sparklepony*

          OK, that made me laugh and I almost had a coughing fit.

          They were like family… so it was a breakup?

      2. Princess Sparklepony*

        So, it turns out they didn’t really need you for those two weeks much less the four. They really went out of their way to prove your point!

    9. Sally Forth*

      I got the same. Thing is, I had written the letter and dated it to give three weeks but she was away with no excuse or warning for three days. One of the reasons I left was being left alone with no direction or communication.

    10. Was At Twitter*

      There are a lot of amazing managers here, but I think mine takes the cake. My last manager was Elon Musk. Briefly. I worked at Twitter. Elon sent a whole wave of truly unhinged antisemitic and homophobic harassment at my colleague Yoel Roth so bad he had to flee his home (this is all public, you can look it up, it was even worse than what’s reported).

      I’ve been dodging reporters ever since so I can’t tell you what happened to me, other than the parts of the depositions that are now public.

    11. Rosacolleti*

      Surely employment contracts stipulate notice periods? On ours it’s 4 weeks each – 4 weeks notice of resignation or termination.

      1. Audrey Puffins*

        The US doesn’t have written contracts in the way other countries do, so if they have specific expectations about resignation periods then they need to put it in the employee handbook, otherwise 2 weeks is the general standard (but longer if you’re very high up). Which seems odd to me, as a UK worker who has always had a written contract to refer to and has always been expected to a give 4 weeks notice (having never been in a job long enough to have to give a longer notice period), AskAManager has been extremely educational for me in so many ways :)

        1. Capt. Dunkirk*

          In the US, even if the company puts it as a rule in the employee handbook that a certain notice period is required, it’s not legally enforceable at all.

          Employers will act like it is, of course, but the reality is that they can’t take any legal action against an employee for violating it.

      2. jojo*

        US does not have employment contracts. You get a job description and a wage offer. It may include special consideration if for instance, while negotiating you might get extra vacation days or if you have an already planned vacation it may say you are off those days with no penalty.

    12. Random European*

      If two weeks notice was enough for the Queen of Denmark, then two weeks notice is enough for any industry.

      1. Nesnay*

        It is generally not enough in Denmark, though. For most jobs, you will need a calendar month. So if I wanted to quit today, my last day of work would be February 29th.

        1. Random European*

          To be fair, the job of reigning monarch of Denmark does not follow most of the standards of the country. She’d have retired more than a decade ago if it did. I don’t even think they have a union.

          I wonder if the court employees have a union. Is there a union that negotiates directly with the king?

            3. Creag An Tuire*

              Marie Antoinette didn’t think she needed a union, and *look what happened to her*. I rest my case.

        2. Techno Support*

          Only a month? Sweden’s standard notice period is 3 months, though it can vary depending on how long you’ve been in that position and what type of employment contract you have.

    13. Fondu*

      This reminds me so much of one of my good friends…it was in her contract to give four weeks’ notice (managing a department in a nonprofit, not a lot of staff redundancy so she did a lot of specialized tasks, but nothing absolutely irreplaceable). So she gave her four weeks.

      Managing director has a fit and rakes her over the coals for being “unprofessional,” because “even though the contract says four weeks, you should know you have to give more notice, preferably eight weeks! There was an unwritten agreement that you’d give more notice!” Seriously.

      She basically told the managing director that she was tired of being walked on and that her resignation was effective immediately. Oh, and! Open-plan office with the managing director’s office in a sort of glass cube separated from the other desks, so everyone saw and heard the whole argument. Morale was low after that.

  3. Hurt Feelins*

    When I quit a summer job in college I said that I couldn’t keep doing the work with my college classes (the job required overnights). My boss told me she understood and was relieved that it was because my classes were starting. She thought I was coming to complain in retaliation about everyone complaining about me. She said it made sense to just finish my shift then and there and I left.

    Readers, I did not know everyone was complaining about me. I cried the entire drive home.

    2. Silver Robin*

      Wow your boss is terrible.

      Either you were actually annoying your coworkers and your boss should have worked with you on that, or your coworkers were complaining about nonsense and your boss should have never breathed a word of it to you. What they hell were they thinking to go whatever this route is??

      Glad you are rid of the place.

        1. Sweet Summer Child*

          Dude. was typing the same thing and accidentally closed my screen. (I hate this laptop) Came back to the comments and thought, oh, it did post before I lost my place.
          Nope. Someone else has read enough AAM to know that anything is possible.

      2. Jojo*

        That was my thought as well. I’ve worked for a boss who would have lied like that when someone resigned. Actually, I’ve worked for 2 bosses like that, but one of them wasn’t quick enough to have thought that up in the moment. He needed time to plan his petty, vindictive revenge.

      3. Hills to Die on*

        I had a boss that did that. Told me everyone was mad at me for letting them down. I talked to them – we were a tight group – and they told me no. That they felt that way about the manager, but not me.
        Years later we all still talk, but not to him.

    4. LifeBeforeCorona*

      I bet no one was complaining about you. It was just one final dig when she knew that you couldn’t respond.

      1. Judge Judy and Executioner*

        I agree, wasn’t there another manager who would tell their employees how EVERYONE was overwhelmed with their work when they needed time off for a medical thing. The manager told everyone this individually, and it wasn’t until they later compared notes they realized it was all lies.

        1. I forgot my user name againn*

          I had a retail boss that told the other keyholder, she had to work every Satuday night because I had children and couldn’t do it. I found out when she asked me to switch one weekend. I didn’t have any children at that time.

    5. Gilgongo*

      My boss told me I was the second most hated person on in our department (after him).
      It wasn’t true at all (I don’t think he realizes how close I am with other people in our department). I think he was just lying to make himself feel better.

      1. Chick-n-Boots*

        WOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW. That’s…..really something. Talk about being disconnected from reality!!!

      2. Princess Sparklepony*

        Come on now, he told one truth there – he definitely was the most hated person in the department. He got one thing right.

      3. Mr. X*

        He was the most hated person, ask anyone. It was beautiful, how much people hated him. People came up to him with tears in their eyes and said, “Thank you for being so terrible.”

    6. I'm on Team Rita*

      My guess is this was a blatant lie unless you already had bad vibes from your coworkers.
      Don’t cry, laugh! You got away!

    7. goddessoftransitory*

      What a horrible thing to say, and obviously a lie designed to make a teenager feel bad!

    8. Vincaminor*

      For what it’s worth …
      At the retail job I worked after college, in which I was way too invested, every time the manager didn’t like something I did, she told me “everyone else wanted to quit” because of me. Which worked until I apologised to a coworker for making her so uncomfortable, and she didn’t know what I was talking about.

      I don’t think everyone was secretly complaining about you, either.

      1. CountryLass*

        I had a (older, male) boss who disliked women, especially younger ones. He pulled me aside and said that the (younger) man in the office had told him that I was wearing clothes that made him uncomfortable. I listened to what he said, then spoke to my colleague a couple of days later, to apologise and ask if there was a particular outfit or thing that made him uncomfortable so that I could try to avoid it. He had not a single clue what I was talking about as he had never spoken to anyone about my clothing choices! Went on to work with the colleague in 2 different industries over the course of a couple of years, but the boss got fired within a year of this. Partly for referring to me as ‘that little b!tch’ in an attempt to encourage the male team members in a sales competition that I was winning… I tore a strip off him then called my area manager.

  4. Stella70*

    Hmmm. I can’t think of a single time an employer showed emotion over the news of my departure. The closest one came was when she patted my shoulder and said, “To thine own self be true”.
    Could it be that I am not nearly as special as my mom tells me I am? (She’s 84, with zero traces of senility, if you must know.)

    1. Silver Robin*

      that is kind of a hilarious response, it feels so formal and grandiose. Like a mentor in a fantasy book dispensing wisdom to the young protagonist. Or maybe I am just imagining it wrong, but at least I got a giggle out of it

      1. MigraineMonth*

        I’m trying to invent a context where that would make sense as a response. Announcing that you’re leaving work to go on a spiritual pilgrimage? Leaving Chevron to be a full-time Greenpeace activist? Quitting to compete on RuPaul’s Drag Race?

        1. Princess Sparklepony*

          Quitting to go touring with a Shakespearian theater company? It would definitely work there, right?

      2. SheLooksFamiliar*

        Eh, I read it as ‘This isn’t great news for us and we’ll miss you. But you gotta do what you gotta do.’

        No matter how you interpret it, it’s still giggle-worthy.

      1. Hlao-roo*

        For those who need a refresher on who Carl is, read #12. The spill from “Mortification Week: the terrible misunderstanding, the cat serenade, and other stories to cringe over” from August 7, 2023.

        1. Stella70*

          You are amazing, too, Hlao-roo! If I didn’t screen shot my “confessions”, I would never find them again. :)

        3. Dogbythefire*

          I am quite literally sitting here laughing with glee and crying at the same time over #12. Thank you for that – it really improved my evening! “But Carl, I hadn’t even pulled my pants down yet!”

      2. Stella70*

        That made me blush all over again, Lorna! (As well as move my coffee further away my elbow….) No, I think when I left, Carl was probably just relieved he could begin using the lower level bathroom again.

    3. Dust Bunny*

      Mercifully, none of the jobs I’ve left have gone bananas. Granted, I’ve never left in a sudden or dramatic fashion, but even the ones that were run by less-than-ideally professional people took it as a matter of course and didn’t do or say anything weird.

    4. Corrigan*

      Yeah. I quit a job after 4 years and I was the only person doing what I did. My boss didn’t show up for our weekly meeting (not unusual.) When I finally tracked him down and let him know “I’ve accepted a position at X, my last day will be Y.” He said “Really?” I said yes. Then he said “What else is going on?” Just changed the subject. Gee, thanks.

    5. Theon, Theon, it rhymes with neon*

      My reaction when I read this: I’m so glad I have no stories to report!

      The funniest resignation story I have is leaving a company that my team had just been acquired by, and almost all of us (boss included) left within a couple months of the acquisition. I was the first to announce my imminent departure, and this is how it played out in our team meeting:

      Me: I think you all know why I’m leaving.

      McCoy: Yep, no need to say a word. (McCoy and I both knew the other one was actively interviewing and had wished each other luck.)

      Me: Actually, it’s that after six and a half years, I just can’t stand working with Scotty. (Scotty, the only other employee who’d been there that long, and I were known to get along well.)

      McCoy: Well, you gave it the good college try.

      Scotty: I can change! :D

      2. Ama*

        Yeah other than my boss that cried at my going away party and in my exit interview advised me to marry my boyfriend “for security” mine have been pretty tame. (Said boss really wanted to be my “life mentor” not just a professional mentor and ignored that I just politely changed the subject every time she tried to give me life advice.)

        I did actually marry that boyfriend but not until six years later and it wasn’t “for security.”

        2. Dancing Otter*

          For “security”, SMH.

          When my Mom and Stepdad got married, they went together to revise their wills.

          Upon reading Mom’s list of assets, the AH lawyer said he had thought she was marrying Bill for his house.

          Quite apart from the “He said that to her FACE?!” factor, Mom had investments worth more than ten times the equity in the house.

          Incidentally, the lawyer lost his license a few years later on an ethics charge. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy /s

          1. Skippy*

            Ou restate lawyer told my (immigrant) husband that she guessed he was “one of the good ones, not like the guy who got deported 4 times and killed that girl over the weekend.” I’d like to think now that I would stand up and leave.

            1. Dogbythefire*

              It’s so ingrained not to make people uncomfortable, isn’t it? Even (or especially, maybe?) when they’re just awful. At times, I’m astonished they’ve voiced their awfulness and can’t even think.

        1. Theon, Theon, it rhymes with neon*

          Scotty left, McCoy left, Kirk (our boss) left, etc, and all of us very shortly after the acquisition. We took one look around at the dumpster, saw it was on fire, and updated our LinkedIn profiles. That’s why I knew I could deadpan it being Scotty’s fault and know there was no chance of being taken seriously.

          Plus Scotty and I kept in casual touch afterwards, and even caught up one afternoon when I was passing through the city he moved to. Not friends, exactly, but good rapport.

          I’m glad that’s my most memorable resignation story! (I have other deranged stories from my brief time at that company post-acquisition, but none of them from my immediate boss or team, because we all had come from a sane place and landed there involuntarily.)

    6. Corvus Corvidae*

      The closest I’ve ever gotten was when I handed in my notice and my then manager said “Damn, you beat me to it.” He handed in his own notice on my last day, lol.

      2. Greg*

        I had something similar. I liked (and was good friends with) my immediate boss, but hated the guy above him and, before I left the office one day, had typed up my resignation letter, left it in my desk, and was preparing to verbally resign the following day. There was a work event that evening, and my boss and I went to grab a slice of pizza before going to it. Over dinner he told me that he had just resigned to his boss, and I burst out laughing. The next day I went into Big Boss and resigned as well. He probably assumed it had something to do with Immediate Boss quitting, but whatever

        1. Princess Sparklepony*

          My weird quitting story was that my boss quit and got another job but declined to take me with him (it would often happen in that industry.) So HR didn’t know what to do with me. Then the HR person decided that I was my bosses mistress and suggested that… I got a fairly nice settlement.

      3. Bruce*

        2 years into my first job we had a huge layoff, and my grand-manager told that he was OK but he was ordered to layoff a guy who had started >that day<. He resigned himself, came by to tell me and my boss that he was on his way out. Then he spent the next week finding a new job for the guy who'd been fired on his starting day. It sounded like my first level boss and I might have been laid off too if our manager had not bailed out, there was some weird choices being made… but we stayed for a couple more years and I learned a lot before I moved on.

      4. o*

        I’m giggling: your username is well-chosen when it comes to your boss’ resignation. (Fellow [assuming you are, but anything’s possible!] bird nerd here.)

      5. Lolllee*

        This happened to me too! What made it really funny was both my boss and I went to work for the same customer’s company. I overheard a coworker at my new (customer’s) company complaining they couldn’t get a hold of me at my old (supplier) company. I stepped into the room, and said, “I’m right here, just started 2 weeks ago, not sure I can help you now with Huge Sudden Urgent Quality Issue but I’ll try!” New coworker shook her head in annoyance and said she’s just have to call Boss directly (at old company). I said, “Oh, he’s just down the hall, started here two days after I did!” Everyone in the room turned to stare. finally, someone asked who was in charge of quality at my old (supplier) company now. I said “no one”, looked at the Huge Sudden Urgent Quality Issue and suggested they call the president directly. He was the reason we both left. I advised they call him at 2 am which was when he preferred to address all Huge Sudden Urgent Issues, which was why my manager and I had left.

    7. MissB*

      Same. I haven’t had that many jobs as an adult!

      I left a job when my kids were 2 and 3 years old. Daycare just wasn’t working out. My big boss called me in before I left and said “we will be here when you decide to come back”.

      8 years later, I was ready to come back and they had a position open that I applied to, and am still working there not quite 20 years later.

      I overheard that same big boss tell my boss (when I returned) “she looks exactly the same!” It wasn’t creepy. Just funny. I guess I don’t age?

    9. Bluebonnet*

      Your remark about “not nearly being as special as my mom tells me I am” made me smile. My mom very similar. :)

    10. Kuddel Daddeldu*

      My manager in my second job got white as a sheet when I gave my notice (six weeks, as per contract). I was his second in command and had been with the company for six years, building the department from scratch. He took it well and we kept in contact afterwards, but the shock was visible.
      The next time, eleven years later, I had seen writings on the wall that my department would be wound up, so we had an amicable discussion on that I’d finish one project and then go on garden leave (I had been headhunted to a competitor but into a very different role. I’m still there but in a nice plot twist the two companies merged threee years after I moved!)

  5. Happy to have left*

    My bosses reaction was to tell her that my notice period was way too short and that I was burning bridges. I gave her four weeks notice, the standard in the industry and at the organization was two unless otherwise stated in the job contract (it wasn’t). She told me that I should have told her I was interviewing elsewhere. Then she told me that she would absolutely not release me and that she would escalate this to the Vice President if she had to. What made it even better, was that she was making me interview and compete for my current position that I had built from scratch with minimal support.

    1. pally*

      “she told me that she would absolutely not release me”

      I’m envisioning the boss standing at the door of your office not allowing you to exit. Like that’s gonna keep you from taking your new job.

      1. Magenta Sky*

        And I can envision looking her right in the eye while dialing 911, unlawful imprisonment being a crime and all.

      2. Ama*

        Bosses that do this always crack me up. It’s so telling that of how they think of their employees that they think they can somehow forbid you from leaving.

      5. Ohno*

        might be an education thing . instead of making things better a lot of places have made it so they can hold your license if you try to leave

        1. jojo*

          I have copies of all my certification. I can take them anywhere. Because they are from an outside agency.

      1. Happy to have left*

        No, I think was a scare tactic and I think she realized that that would make her look ridiculous. I did call my HR department though..,

        1. snowfall123*

          I need more details on how this played out.

          Did HR do anything? Did you stay for only 2 weeks instead of 4 that you gave? Did she give you the silent treatment for the rest of your time there?

    4. LoV...*

      “she would absolutely not release me” I’m imagining a B movie villain monologue starting here, like, I’m afraid I cannot let you leave.

      1. Miss Ames*

        When I gave notice, my manager said “You can’t just leave.” That is literally what she said. Huh?? This was September 2021 after coming back to the office from Covid changes, so we both had masks on – which was good because at least only my eyes were visible after hearing that one!!! I took a slight pause (during which my brain was reeling) and just said, “well, Yes, I can.” I think I added rather stiffly, “I have that right.” It was bizarre – What did she take me for, a slave? how was it that she would think I couldn’t “just leave” – ???

      3. Hannah Lee*

        Boss “I won’t release you!”
        Employee “You won’t release me? Be warned! I am prepared to flounce!”

    5. BellyButton*

      People are so ridiculous. She isn’t going to “release” you?? She is going to escalate it? It isn’t a prison sentence (or is it?? ha!) what did she think she could do?? Is she going to chain you to your desk and hold you captive.

      1. Rex Libris*

        I think she was confusing indentured servitude with at will employment. A common mistake in administrative circles.

    6. Yes And*

      I feel like both OP and other commenters are burying the lede here. “She was making me interview and compete for my current position that I had built from scratch with minimal support.” Sorry, WHAT?! And she was surprised you were interviewing elsewhere?

    7. Observer*

      Then she told me that she would absolutely not release me and that she would escalate this to the Vice President if she had to

      And just what did she think the VP could do about this? At least in the US, your employer doesn’t need to “release” you. And even in most other countries, as long as you are in compliance with your contract, they also don’t have to “release” you. Yes, there are still countries where slavery exists, but it doesn’t sound like you lived in one of those.

    8. Marzipan Shepherdess*

      “She would absolutely not release me”? Unless your job was making license plates in Club Fed, she had absolutely no power at all to REFUSE to “release” you after you’d quit your job! What on earth have some of those bosses been smoking, anyway?!

    9. goddessoftransitory*

      “Okay, you get I’m not actually in a cage and you have the only key, right? I can just leave? Like, walk out?”

      Honestly, what is with some bosses and their notion they have their workers bound to them in blood?

      1. Princess Sparklepony*

        Don’t give them ideas. You’ll end up in a Triangle Shirtwaist Factory situation where all the doors are locked.

    10. Artemesia*

      I hope you said ‘Gee, when you asked me to interview and compete for this job that I built from scratch, I just assumed you were letting me know it is time to go.’

    11. Fluff*

      I hear your reply in the evil alien voice from Independence Day:
      “Reeelease meee. ::heavy breathing:: Releeeease. Me.

      Steam, tentacles thrashing exist.

      2. Pdxer*

        Funny, I was thinking more of the independence day parody scene from “Muppets in space,” myself…

    13. Laura*

      “I will absolutely not release you from this job!”
      “Well, you can keep paying me if you want to, I’m fine with that.”

  6. Katie Porter's Whiteboard*

    As someone who is planning on resigning, this post is making me unnecessarily anxious.

    1. ThatGirl*

      If it makes you feel better, these are all gonna be outliers – it’s fun to hear the crazy stories but most of the time resigning goes fine and is boring.

      1. ThatGirl*

        Also, let me offer a counter-example if that’s OK: My husband was super anxious about giving notice at his last job; his newish boss seemed a little unhinged and had previously freaked out when a different coworker gave notice and marched her out two weeks early. But when it came time, she was fine! Very supportive even! Let him work out his whole notice without incident and wished him well!

          1. Expelliarmus*

            My guess is that maybe the boss was new to managing in general and just needed some time to adjust to employees resigning?

          2. ThatGirl*

            No, she was a great employee. The manager was new to managing, I think. But there had been a Thing the week prior – she got into a car accident on her way to work and needed to go to the hospital to get checked out. Her phone died so it took her a few hours to get sorted and get charged and the new manager basically accused her of lying about it and demanded to see her hospital papers. (And this is a profession that knows all about HIPAA.) That was the last straw that led her to resign the following week, but she was more than ready to work another 3-4 weeks and close things out with her clients. Instead they were all left hanging.

        2. Avery*

          Another counter-example: the worst boss I ever had? When I told her I was resigning, the first thing she said was “Congratulations!”
          (She knew I had training in another field, and that my new job was in that field, while the current one wasn’t.)
          There was maybe one or two passive-aggressive barbs about making sure I did well at the new job, but the actual resignation and notice period went as smoothly as I could have wishes.

      2. amoeba*

        Absolutely! Doesn’t belong in this post, but just to cheer you up a bit – when my colleague resigned, my boss told him he was sad to see him go, wished him all the best, proceeded to inform the department by mail (with nothing but warm words for colleague) and continued working together well for his notice period. No drama whatsoever, and I hope that would be the norm!

      3. lyonite*

        Yeah, I’ve never run into any drama leaving a job. In think that’s true for most people! But it doesn’t make a good story.

      4. Echo*

        Yes! The last time I left a job, I had a manager who I’d actually seen have emotional outbursts at work over other things, and when I gave notice her response was 100% friendly and professional.

      5. ConstantlyComic*

        Another counter-example: my supervisor at my first job was not only absolutely chill with my leaving, but was also fine with my eventually cutting my initial notice period short so I could attend the funeral of a family member who had passed suddenly.

      6. Sola Lingua Bona Lingua Mortua Est*

        Exactly. This post exists because the craZy is rare and memorable, so you’re unlikely to see the issues yourself.

        Post-resignation is about the only time my employers have been “normal.” I’ve either been walked out immediately, received a counter-offer, or worked my notice in peace and wished well, but never anything bizarre. At least nothing bizarre by AAM standards.

    2. The Bill Murray Disagreement*

      Hopefully, if you have an otherwise decent to good boss, none of this will happen. I have often felt a tremendous sense of loss when a great employee or colleague gives notice BUT as someone who doesn’t feel like I have to take all my emotions out on the people around me, I buck up and wish the person the absolute best (“I am so sad for us and so happy for you!”) and help them plan their transition of work to their colleagues or backfill.

    3. Jazz*

      I know, it can be nerve wracking resigning and finding your employer wishes you well like a normal person. You lose the chance of a story to dine out on for years.

    4. anecdata*

      But if it goes badly, at least you’ll have a good story to tell us!
      (Fwiw, it’s likely to be fine – you get to leave when you want to, and these stories are deranged /because/ there not common)

    6. Elspeth McGillicuddy*

      Remember, these are the ones that are STORIES. The ones that are so unusual that someone remembered them years later and retold the tale. I actually sometimes find it helpful to read these sort of thing (specifically about Internet dating), because it means that my experience is nearly certain to be less interesting.

    7. Trippedamean*

      After over 2 decades in the workforce in a number of different jobs, I’ve never had anyone react badly when I’ve resigned. At most, they were a little sad (but didn’t really show it).

      But if I ever do resign and my boss does something wild because of it, my mantra is: “What are they going to do, fire me?”

    9. Jay (no, the other one)*

      The worst thing that happened to me when I left my last job was that they took an hour of our team meeting to give everyone a chance to say goodbye. It was sweet and lovely and my eyes were swollen for days.

      Seriously. No drama. It was fine.

    10. asterisk*

      Every time I’ve resigned from a position, my managers have always expressed that they’re sad I’m leaving but supportive and excited for the new thing I’m going to.

    11. Ama*

      I’m also resigning soon — this post is actually helping me because I know there is no way anyone at my office will do anything this extreme. They won’t be happy (I do a crucial role that will be very difficult to cover if they don’t find a replacement quickly) but they will be professional about it.

    12. Hastily Blessed Fritos*

      Don’t worry, people are sharing them here BECAUSE they’re so over-the-top weird! When I’ve resigned it’s always been “okay, make sure you document everything for handover” or “is there something we can do do make you change your mind?” (no, the new commute is 1/3 of the old and you can’t buy time).

    13. Hamster*

      I don’t think you should worry. A rule of thumb I’ve learned is to see how it’s gone for previous people who have left. One job that had really high turnover was very inconsistent with how they treated resigning staff members. Some were allowed to work out their period, some were walked out right away. Eventually people began giving a few days of notice instead.

      Another job, only 1 person left in the year and a half I was there, and he stayed his 2 weeks and was given a good-bye party at the nearby bar after hours. The team joked that our boss may have cried after hearing the news but in front of us boss was pleasant, friendly, professional etc.

      Early on in my career, I quit a job via email. The owner was verbally (and I think physically?) abusive, like he’d throw things, smash pens, call me and other staff members idiots, berate us over a staple placed a millimeter crooked, refuse to pay. I forget his reaction now, but I felt a huge sense of relief – I think I was only there for 6-ish weeks? that was 5 1/2 weeks too long.

    14. Happy meal with extra happy*

      I had a horror show of a boss, and I was super nervous about resigning. It was also the first time I’d done it from a full time job. I wrote a three sentence resignation letter and handed it to him, and it was honestly fine. (I know the letter necessarily isn’t required, but it can make it easier.) The two week period wasn’t a big deal, and there was never any sort of drama. I’m sure, after I left, he talked a bunch of crap about me, because that’s what he did, but that’s his issue, not mine. Fortunately, I was at my next job long enough to have multiple references from people who left, so I don’t ever need to use my first boss.

    15. Feral Humanist*

      I thought there might be drama when I left, two jobs ago. They’d tried to retain me and failed (their fault for offering very little money until I had another offer in hand). But they understood my reasons for leaving and were actually quite nice about it. I also offered to work 10 hours a week through a major event about 6 weeks after I started the new job (new job was aware, and because there was a relationship between the two organizations, they were okay with it). I don’t think I’d make that offer now, but at the time I was trying to maintain good relationships with everyone.

    16. Bitte Meddler*

      I gave notice in January 2020 to a House of Evil Bees. My manager (a Director level person) was vindictive, petty, and manipulative. He had laughed in my face when I told him the Sr Manager on a project I was working on was giving me free rein for a good chunk of it. (“What would YOU have to offer??? LOLOLOL!”)

      I was terrified of having a 1:1 with him to tell him I was leaving.

      All he did was wish me well. (Pretty sure he was happy to see me go, but not as happy as I was to get out).

      This past October, I left the job that I had gone to from House of Evil Bees. Management didn’t want to see me go, made a counteroffer, but understood that they couldn’t match what the new job offered, both in term of pay and work environment. They did, however, tell me that I would always be welcomed back.

      I think quitting seems scary, especially if you have a toxic manager, because they’ve held so much power over you and you therefore expect them to punish you (and that you’ll have to endure the punishment). It’s hard to see that turning in your notice is the end of any punishment you’ll ever receive from them. But it’s a ticket to freedom and, man, it’s so wonderful when they’re firmly in your review mirror! :-)

    17. Venus*

      My most stressful resignation was when I left a group with a new manager and some problem employees, where I was one of the better ones and I felt like I was leaving him at a bad time.

      He was genuinely happy for me! Excitedly asked a few questions about the new work I’d be doing, and supported me through everything.

    18. Roland*

      People are only posting them because they’re strange! If any of these reactions were common, they wouldn’t be interested. At my previous resignations, my managers just said I understand, thank you for telling me, we’ll miss having you on the team and reach out in the future if you want to come back.

    19. Web of Pies*

      The last job I resigned from, my boss told me he was sad to lose me, but really happy for my future endeavors, and was just very kind about it. I’m about to resign my current job to go back to that one. :)

      You got this!

    20. Seeking Second Childhood*

      I resigned because I was moving out of state to get married. My manager & his looked into whether or not they could have me work from here. When the tax team said no, they bantered about getting my fiancé a job in their city and wished us luck.

    21. Bluebonnet*

      I agree that most of these are outliers and most resignations are boring. I resigned at a job of eight years several months ago. My boss wished me well, told me to make sure my work documents were up to date, and gave me a nice card with a gift card on my last day. Very boring but in this case, boring is good.

    22. Willow Pillow*

      Unhinged isn’t necessarily a bad thing for you! I gave 4 weeks’ notice at a job and they flat-out lied to me about it being standard to pay out notice and walked me out that day (the last person who quit worked through her notice a couple of months beforehand). I ended up with a month off and laughed to myself that they were so concerned they’d rather pay me to not be there.

    23. Leira*

      I resigned recently, and nothing terrible happened. I was very worried about it, to the point that I’d imagined so many arguments they might make to negotiate me staying longer and come up with all the answers to these hypothetical conversations (I didn’t have anything lined up, but was leaving due to burnout). No one pushed back AT ALL–I was shocked. I just said “my last day will be December 30” and didn’t give any of the higher ups any indication of what I was (or was not) doing next, and I left, and everything was fine. Hope that helps soothe the anxiety some!

    25. two time quitter*

      when I quit my first full-time job post college I was beyond nervous and my mom said “don’t be nervous, you’re not doing anything wrong” and I found that very comforting perspective that helped a lot!

    27. Raging Iron Thunder*

      Mine wasn’t too bad. The worst that happened was (1) my boss said, “You’re ACTUALLY leaving?!” apparently he thought I wouldn’t when he was totally underpaying me. And (2), didn’t bother setting up any kind of going away party.

      Oh well, glad to be out of that crazy town.

    28. Chirpy*

      For what it’s worth, my most awkward resignation was that after I told my boss, she told my closest coworker before I had a chance to tell her myself. But it was fine in the end.

      The job that cut my position was definitely awkward, but that’s a totally different situation.

  7. Jane Bingley*

    This isn’t nearly as dramatic as some, but it irks me to this day: I gave my boss a heads up when it became clear that an offer was likely so we could plan, since I’d be leaving at a less than ideal time. When I gave my official notice a week later, my current boss asked me for 4 weeks’ notice instead of two to internally hire and train my replacement. They then spent two weeks arguing whether or not to replace me, a week interviewing and deciding not to replace me, and two days deciding who would get what tasks as they were redistributed. I got three whole days to train people after giving 4 weeks notice.

    Lesson learned: never again!

    1. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

      When I left my previous employer before this one (I didn’t have another job, I was moving), I gave them ten weeks notice because the department was grossly understaffed, like me and two SMEs in a department originally built for a me and six SMEs, and I had become certified in the SM because we were so short-handed so I was like half a SME. There was no drama, but some panic, but they didn’t even manage to get the job posted before I left, let alone a replacement hired or any training done. I literally left on my last day, went down to my packed car in the parking garage, and hit the road for my move.

      1. Autofill Contact*

        This is remarkably close to my own story. I gave about that much notice as well for the same reason. The email on my last day, a Friday, announcing I was leaving contained the job posting. I started my new job halfway across the country on Monday.

        1. Red Reader the Adulting Fairy*

          I forgot to include — halfway through my ten week notice, one of the two full SMEs announced to the team that she had just been diagnosed with inoperable cancer and would be dropping to part time immediately, and I heard about a month after I left that she had passed.

    2. FricketyFrack*

      I gave a job a couple of months once, because my coworker, aka the only other person who did what I did, had recently retired and they hadn’t been moving particularly quickly to replace her (which definitely didn’t help with the burnout that caused me to leave) and I realized my boss basically had no idea how to do our day to day tasks. She knew WHAT we did, but had no idea HOW.

      The continued to take their sweet time hiring and I ended up with about 2 weeks to train someone who was very nice but had never even worked in an office, so she had to learn all of that in addition to the job itself. It was a terrible. I don’t know if I’d say I’d never give a long notice again, but I wouldn’t do it with the hope of adequately training a replacement, because I already know that won’t happen.

      1. Donn*

        IME, it’s not possible to teach someone both the basics of an office and the requirements of a specific field, at the same time.

    3. Person from the Resume*

      I laugh at anyone who thinks they can hire someone’s replacement in 4 weeks. It’s not impossible, but it’s impossible if you give people what I consider reasonable timelines like a week for applicants to submit applications, a few days to a week for someone to review the resumes depending on how many come in, and then another reasonable timeframe to schedule the interviews. Plus if the person hired has a job, they should give at least 2 weeks notice to their current employer.

      1. Jane Bingley*

        In my specific case, it was plausible – I was actually hired and trained during my last boss’ two week notice period! For the role I was leaving the hire had to be internal and had to come from within a specific team. When my boss left, they promoted me less than a week after she gave her notice and I’d already been doing some of her work, so I didn’t need much training time. When I left, there was an obvious choice for my replacement (at least to me), but I knew that person would need some extra time.

        That being said, in general I fully agree! If you move VERY quickly you might get one week of crossover with a 4-week notice. But in most cases the goal is just to set up some future hire for success.

    4. allhailtheboi*

      I was in a situation where it made sense for me to give several months’ notice, which I did. They didn’t manage to hire anyone until my last fortnight, and there was a week’s gap between me leaving and her starting (not a catastrophe, but still not ideal)!

    5. goddessoftransitory*

      The more time given, the more time wasted. Amen to that! The book How To Be Idle actually had something to say about this phenomenon–when the author was at a job where they got paid once they finished a certain job, they could finish in 3 hours. But when they got paid by the hour, guess what took a lot longer?

    6. Adds*

      I gave an employer 6 weeks’ notice once, specifically so they could hire someone to replace me and I could train them. They had not made one single step towards getting another body at the desk when I left. In fact, no one did my job at all until I came back to it 2 years later. Now here I sit, 4 years after that trying to work myself out of that office.

      At the end of my notice, however, I did get a really lovely lunch at a restaurant (even though by that time I just wanted to go home).

      1. Old Lady manager*

        Department wide crazy.
        I had a job where I gave 6 weeks notice once. Was asked to documented all I did. So I did, it took 2 days. I used stuff from my resume draft file. Went looking for the folks to hand it off to and train, asked boss how the handover was going to be. Silence. Gave hard copy to my boss along with link to file on work drive. Silence. The only team that actually processed that I was leaving was accounting and HR. I worked 100% until last “Last Day” 10-14 hrs , 5 days a week plus on call after hours and weekends. “Last Day” I packed the last of my stuff (I had moved most of my personal things the day I gave notice.) I went around saying my goodbyes, giving out my private cell and email address to friends. Turned in all equipment assigned to me and had it accounted for. Went to my bosses office to give him a list of things in flight that may become a problem if not addresses soon. Said Goodbye and how it was a pleasure to work for them. I learned a lot and that I wished them the best. (It is what you say in real life so that you don’t burn bridges.) I handed in my keycard and badge to security and almost made it to my car before someone came running up to me asking me to come back. I thought I had forgotten something.
        My boss was actually shocked that I was actually leaving.
        I reminded him that I had given notice 6 weeks ago, written out documentation of all my actual duties, contacts, calendar, schedules so that they could write up a job description and had waited to train someone or offload duties to someone who was staying.
        He said “I thought you only wanted a raise, not that you would actually quit!”
        I asked, do I get a raise?
        He said no.
        I said Goodbye and how it was a pleasure to work for them. I learned a lot and that I wished them the best. (It is what you say in real life so that you don’t burn bridges.)
        He asked me to stay for a meeting where we would go over the documentation I gave him 5 weeks ago. I had already done a 10 hour day (Salary), said goodbye to all my contacts, etc.
        I did the meeting with his boss, a VIP, an owner and managers of other teams to go over splitting up my job.
        They decided to schedule a meeting on the following Monday to go over things and start cross training. I reminded them that I no longer worked there.
        “But we needed you to do this! We aren’t ready! It’s a bad time to quit!” Blah,Blah,Blah.
        I told them that I was no longer in the HR system and unless there was a contract of some type, I would not be working for free.
        There was no offer to pay me something.
        I said Goodbye and how it was a pleasure to work for them. I learned a lot and that I wished them the best. (It is what you say in real life so that you don’t burn bridges.)
        My daughter and I then left.
        Oh, I forgot to say, It was take your daughter to work day.
        They split my job between 6 people.
        Those 6 friends we pressured to call me daily for help.
        They were told to call me by old boss.
        They hadn’t been given my docs.
        I told some, that if they took me out to lunch, I would go over something with them.
        I contacted boss with a offer to consult, with a price inline to what consultants in my industry we charging per hour.
        He declined.
        I stopped helping at all.
        A friend told me that they had to hirer 3 people to replace me.
        I probably would have stayed for 25% more pay and a 1 week guaranteed PTO increase.
        I didn’t have a job lined up but, I was burned out and willing to live on savings for a bit to give myself time to figure things out.
        Next job I got paid 30% more.
        I make just shy of 3 times that now.
        Plus my daughter knows the proper way to leave a job.

        2. Old Lady manager*

          Also figured out later that folks were told that I wasn’t really leaving. Which explained the lack of interest in cross training and documentation. Since HR and accounting were buddies of mine, they knew I really was leaving and processed everything correctly. They also made sure that I received a check for months of unused PTO.

  8. meetme*

    My old boss had a 3 day long tantrum. She threatened to withhold 6 weeks of PTO that I’d earned if I didn’t give them 30 days notice. Then she called me and had a tearful meltdown and said she was tired of people leaving her after she’d poured so much into them. I’m Black and all of the aforementioned people who left were Black.

    2. SereneScientist*

      Gotta love how personally she’s taking it but with zero reflection on why it keeps happening. Reminds me of a very self-centered former friend who cried to me repeatedly about losing friends, but she just kept on treating people like they were side characters in her life story.

    3. Magenta Sky*

      One of the (few) good things about living in California is that accrued PTO is considered wages already earned, and wage theft is criminal. And threatening it is nearly as bad.

      HR at most companies here would break out the hammer and nails, and order a cross installed in the parking lot, even if it was a joke.

    4. goddessoftransitory*

      BIG step back from this lady!

      Did she actually say the word “ungrateful?” Because that’s what’s dripping off her behavior.

    5. Raging Iron Thunder*

      I want to know more about this boss and how she treated you and other black folks at your job.

  9. Video killed the radio star*

    Withheld my final paycheck for over a year. This was a franchise, and when I wrote and complained to brand headquarters (who could not help me, because my very bad boss was the owner of the business and they were not responsible for him paying his employees, apparently) he had the gall to complain that I had complained! Why would I do that? After all, it had only been 9 months, and he only owed me a whole month’s wages (I’m in Europe, where monthy pay is very common)… I finally got paid by showing up and refusing to leave until he gave me cash in hand. I think he took it out of the till. He was a real gem.

    1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

      When I read stories like that I really start to understand the kind of people who own slaves.

        1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

          They exist in America, too. We don’t have to play into the CIA’s propaganda campaign against a complex and fantastic country on this blog.

    2. Bluebonnet*

      I am sorry you went though that but very glad you stood your ground and got what was your’s.

      1. Video killed the radio star*

        I was 23 and not particularly assertive – looking back, I am incredibly surprised (and proud) that I managed to stand my ground for that long and not just… give up entirely. I’m closer to 40 now, and there is no way I would let it go on for a year – I would pull the ‘not leaving without my money’ thing the first time I asked for it instead of just leaving to come back another time. Thankfully I now work a place that is highly unlikely to pull anything like that…

    3. goddessoftransitory*

      Franchising is its own hellscape. Check out the book Fast Food Nation for an in depth take on its shady, slimy history.

    4. Urban Fervor*

      This reminds me of what I believe were the standard payroll practices in India (Indians, please correct me if I’m wrong). I, an American, visited our company’s offices in Delhi. One of the things I wanted to accomplish while there was to understand and flowchart their payroll processes. My biggest takeaway was that their process for handling resignations was WILD. This was about 6 years ago so I don’t remember all the details, but they required a very long notice period (something like 2 months). Once notice was given, all payments to the employee were frozen until they’d both completed their notice period and returned all company equipment. I believe there also might have been a required waiting period after all requirements had been fulfilled where pay was still frozen for some reason. So people would go *months* without pay through no fault of their own.

  10. HonorBox*

    Not totally bananapants, but I’d had a conversation with the GM of the business I worked for a week or so prior. He asked myself and my teammate if we were “on board” as some others from the team (including our direct boss) had been fired or resigned. We both told him we were, because even though we were both looking for other jobs, we didn’t have anything.

    When I received an offer, I accepted and sent him my resignation. He picked up the phone and gave me quite an earful. “I thought you said you were on board. You lied.” I assured him that I was honest when I answered the question, and he told me that he knew that I was actually going to be offered the job a week or more beforehand (because he’d heard that through the grapevine) and he still considered my answer to be a lie. No one other than my new boss knew of the offer, and certainly wouldn’t have known as far in advance as he was suggesting.

    The best part… the GM was fired shortly after I left.

    1. Florp*

      Ugh, my husband worked for a woman who seemed to get most of her management language from MLMs, and she was constantly pestering people to declare that they were All In. If you disagreed with or even questioned her in any way, this was a major betrayal of your All In Oath.

      Of course, it did not go both ways. She had zero loyalty to her employees and would throw them under the bus or fire them for no reason with no notice.

      1. Gumby*

        You know the only place where being “all in” belongs? When Luke said it to Lorelei. (Yes, it *still* took them ages to get their acts together after loads of manufactured drama but that line was perfection at the time.)

  11. Athenae*

    Promised me a bonus if I stayed to manage a particular event. Did it in writing. Then, when I began discussing my end date after the event, asked if we had ever “firmed up” the bonus amount.

    This was after two weeks of absolute hell managing an academic conference, during which I was screamed at, accused of lying about venue details, screamed at by my boss’s WIFE, and directed to send out bills for fraudulent charges which I refused to do.

    I sent them the original email, with the total they’d promised me in red, and told them, “My last day is X. Come with a check or a lawyer. I really don’t care which.”

    1. AAMLurker*

      I really hope that someday I can utter the words “come with a check or a lawyer. I don’t care which.”

      2. Magenta Sky*

        There’s a certain emotional satisfaction to it, but honestly, I hope I *never* have any reason to utter those words.

        1. Michael*

          After college, my cousin and I both went to work at my parents’ shop. (Intuitively I knew this was not the best situation but rural town, not a lot of options.) After ~2 years I found full time work in my field and gave my parents 2 weeks notice. My dad pouted and iced me out for the entire notice period and my mom talked about how disappointed they were that I wasn’t planning to stay for my entire career (!!!!). (Also they subsidized my degree in a completely unrelated field, not sure what they expected.) Whatever, bullet dodged! Then I stopped getting invited to family functions that doubled as work functions. That stung more, but whatever. Then, after a decade of being their amazing office manager, my cousin went on maternity leave. Cousin and her son had significant health issues after a traumatic birth so she made the difficult decision not to return to work. My parents said the nastiest things about her behind her back about how she had tricked them, how she never planned to return from maternity leave (so???? It wasn’t paid leave!!!!), so ungrateful blah blah blah and they never had anything to do with the child until cousin returned to work part time when her son started kindergarten. Amazing how quickly they all acted like nothing ever happened. I’m grateful every day that I left!

    8. Laura Charles*

      So what did they do? (I am apparently very personally invested in this.) The institution lost, right?

  12. TinyLibrarian*

    Not necessarily bananapants, but I was told I was “unprofessional” for leaving. Just… for finding another job, giving four weeks (above the industry standard of two), and leaving. You know, normal stuff. This place was full of bees, anyway, I don’t know what I expected.

    1. AngryOctopus*

      That was my first job. It was thankless and there was a lot of yelling from the PI (academic research). I should have known better to resign to him directly, but my colleagues all thought I should (probably b/c they worked directly for him, but someone else was my supervisor. I was 23 and didn’t know better though). He called me unprofessional and immature for resigning when I knew the lab had so much work. I didn’t feel bad when he said “maybe today should be your last day” and I said “OK” and took my vacation payout and didn’t look back.

      1. Zombeyonce*

        I love when jerks shoot themselves in the foot just so they can keep being jerks. “The audacity of you trying to leave when we have too much work means that you should just leave now instead of working for 2 more weeks.”

        Only one person wins in that scenario and it’s not the jerk. <3

  13. JC*

    Had a manager be a complete jerk to me when I gave him weeks of notice before leaving. He later told a friend who also worked there that he was trying to get me to quit on the spot.

    1. DJ Hymnotic*

      I had a boss–the business owner, actually–who didn’t beat around the bush and gave me the “you can’t quit, you’re fired” speech after I gave them my two weeks’ notice. Ironically, I had actually desperately wanted to quit on the spot because this person had just posted a six-minute recording to the company WhatsApp thread trashing me, but my professionalism told me to at least offer them two weeks.

  14. Sarah*

    My manager burst into tears and ugly-cried. It took her several minutes to get herself together. And this occurred when I told her I was leaving the position after an annual eval that was less than stellar and included a discussion about me no longer being a good fit for the role.

    1. Lab Boss*

      NOT defending the reaction, but I can understand the emotion. I hate feeling like I hired or promoted someone into a position they couldn’t succeed in, and would be very upset with myself for failing them if it led them to feel they had to quit. But I wouldn’t dump that emotion on them!

    2. Momma Bear*

      I also noped out after a subpar review. Like what do they expect? You got the memo, were you supposed to ignore it?

      1. Caliente Papillon*

        I think sometimes people think they can get more out of you by making you feel less than, you’re not doing enough, you’re not good enough – but ya got potential! Many people upon receiving that feedback will keep working to prove themselves – this dynamic happens in personal relationships too. I’ve been told there are companies where managers are told you can’t give someone the highest praise, they need to always feel like they’re not quite there.

      2. DisneyChannelThis*

        I think sometimes they think you’re desperate to keep your job, and that giving a bad review means you’ll break yourself apart working extreme hours, taking on ridiculous projects, etc to try and save it. When in reality, a bad review just makes you want to job hunt and find a better role.

  15. Optimus*

    My spouse wanted to leave OldJob for a long time but kept sticking around anyway, probably just due to exhaustion/inertia and the distant hope that things would magically improve at some point. Then, two weeks before our annual family vacation (which Spouse had put on the shared calendar weeks prior), they were told no, you can’t go because so-and-so-else requested that time off too. Spouse called me and we decided it’s time. So Spouse went back to their manager that afternoon and put in their two week notice. Here are some of the things their manager, Jane, did in response:
    – made a big to-do over Spouse quitting due to being denied vacation (when the real issue was that Spouse had a different role, on paper, than the person who also wanted to be off at that time, but Jane had not allowed Spouse to transition out of their old role… so Spouse was in fact wearing 2-3 hats and then was denied vacation because someone on a team he wasn’t even on anymore, allegedly… but Jane didn’t want to own up to that part)
    – began rewriting history that she’d actually never said Spouse couldn’t go on vacation
    – got very distant and weird through much of the notice period
    – called Spouse to ask if they’d be willing to work part time instead of quitting

    That last one is extra hilarious, not only because this came at the tail end of two very icky weeks where Spouse was vilified for putting in their notice, but also because Spouse had just accepted an offer at a different workplace.

    We went on that vacation and it was glorious, and Spouse started their new job the following Monday.

      1. Optimus*

        Will it warm your heart cockles an extra couple of degrees if I tell you that Spouse requested an exit interview, during which they left out all the aforementioned grievances but did mention the losses of some accounts as well as some workday/schedule tinkering that (1) included people routinely having to work through meal breaks and (2) was actually documented somewhere? Spouse left HR with some lil nuggets of info to think about.

        Now, whenever I leave a job, I keep in touch with at least a few people so I continue to know what’s going on, because I’m invested like that. Spouse did the mental equivalent of balling it up like scrap paper and throwing it over their shoulder – just dumped it and never looked back. However, Spouse did hear from a former coworker a few months later. Jane had been demoted. I was so floored by this news – Jane had managed that facility for at least 14-15 years at that point – that to this day I remember where I was standing when Spouse told me this. (I was standing in a parking lot in front of a food truck. lol)

    3. goddessoftransitory*

      “Dear Jane: Weather’s great! Getting a fabulous tan!”

      I’d be writing SO MANY postcards.

  16. meganaflame*

    Ooh I’ve got one! I told my previous boss at my last job that I was leaving via Zoom call. She was NOT happy and clearly jealous (she was also trying to leave and my new position was with a partner organization we worked closely with and held in high regard). After we got off the call, she then called me back for the express purpose of having her teenage daughter shame me for leaving. “How could you”, etc. Such a toxic boss but I’m so happy at my new org with an incredible boss and she ended up getting fired. :)

      1. Caliente Papillon*

        Probably more like My daughter wants to speak with you, Miss missy! Yeesh
        Reminds me that I previously had a supervisor who I mentioned to someone else was like an angsty tween about everything and they were like oh my gawd, yes! She was sooooo ridiculous

    3. Filthy Vulgar Mercenary*

      Her teenage daughter got in the phone to harass you???

      I am … wow! What was that conversation even like between her and her daughter. “Her I’m going to call meganaflame back, and I want you to get on the phone with her and say she’s a bad person for leaving. Okay? Okay.”

      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        That poor kid. I highly doubt that’s the only time her mother has pulled her into service for some bananapants reason.

        1. Observer*

          Yes indeed. The whole thing is insane, but at least @meganaflame gets to get away from her. The poor teen? Stuck for a while at least.

    6. KK*

      Ooh Ooh! I have a similar! I gave my 2 wks notice to quit. My manager took it very personally. She cried, pleaded me to stay, walked around sad for 2 wks while trying to guilt trip me. I was the file clerk so it’s not like I was running the company!

      Well the next weekend, I ran into her son in a bar. He approaches me with a voice dripping with sadness and anxiety, asking me why did I quit my job working for his mom? And that she was really hurt and upset, angry, conflicted and looked after me like I was the daughter she never had (let me be clear, she was NEVER my mentor, just a friendly boss). He wanted me to call her & ask for my job back!!! That it would lift her spirits & make her feel better about her self.

      I was like “wut??”. I only left that job bc I found another one w/ a better title, better pay & closer to home. It had nothing to do w/ my boss. But yeah, her son came at me. I feel you.

    7. Artemesia*

      And you said ‘Oh Susie, I am just so very very sorry that you have a mother like that; good luck for your future.’

  17. oh geez*

    I’d worked in this office at entry level for just over two years, by no means was I an irreplaceable institution. My supervisor was a very fraught personality type, so I knew it was going to be rough and got a pep talk from a supportive mentor-colleague. Went to my supervisor’s office and asked if they had a minute. They looked at the letter of resignation I handed them and tossed it down and put their hand on their hand and said, distressed, “I might as well go outside and hang myself from a tree now if you do this.”

    I’m still stunned thinking about it years later, honestly.

    2. Expelliarmus*

      OMG it’s like those toxic partners that threaten to kill themselves if you leave them, but at work!

      1. Twix*

        Yup. And having lived through that particular hell, the solution is the same. “Your mental health is a you problem.”

    4. Hornswoggler*

      Blimey.

      I mean, would it have been appropriate/not appropriate but satisfying anyway to have called a welfare check on them?

      1. SarahKay*

        When I was a kid my sister, aged about eight, would often threaten to run away from home whenever my Mum was particularly mean to her – you know, things like telling her it was bedtime (at bedtime), suggesting that her coat would look better on a hook than the floor, that sort of thing.
        Mum’s standard response was a cheerful, friendly “Would you like me to help you pack?”
        (Spoiler alert, sister did not run away from home.)

        1. Bitte Meddler*

          Ha. My mom did that to me when I was 4 years old. I wanted another lollipop from the big bag, she said No, and I threatened to run away. She said, “Would you like me to help you pack?” and I was so mad at her that I said No.

          And then I packed my little pink suitcase (it was like a large hat box with a handle) on my own, marched down the driveway of our house that was in the rural outskirts of a medium-sized town, found myself a nice, comfy ditch a mile or so away, and played with my dolls until I got sleepy, whereupon I got cozy and went to sleep.

          My mom had kept thinking I’d come right back so, when it got to be long after dark and I still wasn’t home (or near enough to even hear her yell my name), she had to call the police and request their help to find me.

          To this day, I do not make empty threats. :-D

          2. LibraryQuokka*

            When I packed up my little suitcase and threatened to leave home as a preschooler, my mother responded, “If you can wait until I’m done with this, we’ll go together.”
            Thus began a long tradition of “running away from home” involving getting in the car and going somewhere random together.

  18. Annimal*

    I left my first real job after 5.5 years with 2 weeks unofficial notice and 3.5 weeks official after a weird situation where I was kind of up for a promotion but they came to me to say “we aren’t doing anything just stay in limbo” and I said “well there is a possibility I won’t be here much longer if you don’t make up your mind about me.” The ED FREAKED out when I put in my notice, accused me of taking advantage of a conflict of interest because of a role/set of responsibilities she never told me she intended me to take on based on one conversation six months prior she’d had with the company I left for, betraying the company, etc. etc. etc.

    I burst into tears and cried for 3 hours, then got on the phone with a relative who’s an employment lawyer to better understand conflict of interest and what I might have to do if they decided to make some sort of continued claim/accusation, etc. The next day my boss came in and acted as if it’d never happened and never brought it up again. Then she tried to refuse to pay out my accumulated vacation time until the office manager showed her that it would be illegal to do so. Now I see her at conferences and she acts like we’re old friends, not like she’s a person that sent me to therapy for years. Great time had by all!

    1. Brookfield*

      Ugh, Annimal … glad that’s behind you. It’s so weird to feel like you have to “play nice” with a toxic former coworker, isn’t it?

      1. goddessoftransitory*

        I wonder how many of these toxic/bananapants types walk away from clear setups to a murder mystery starring an avuncular, quirky priest/retired librarian/ex cop with an issue, never knowing how close they came to being the corpse in the last shot before the fade out to first commercial.

  19. Capt. Liam Shaw*

    Manager and AVP both didn’t speak to me nor came to my going away lunch, Manager who had been there all of 6 weeks mind you. I had applied for the job and didn’t get it. AVP said my leaving was proof that she made the right call the day I turned in my 2 week notice to her, Manager and HR. I left and got a title and huge pay raise ($12,000/yr). I really wanted to tell her it was about the money and not being promoted, but I resisted.

  20. CG*

    Pretty mild by comparison, but I worked for a nonprofit that had terrible senior management and insane turnover. When I started, there were 60 employees and when I left, there were 25.

    After employees announced their resignation or if they were laid off, senior management would completely ice them out. Cancel all their meetings, take them off email chains. They’d even tell other employees not to talk to them.

    I have to say, it was my best notice period ever. Up to that point, I was expected to be on call 24/7 in case the CEO had an “emergency” (didn’t like that I only included the mission statement once in a document). So, being cut off was heaven. I got my transition document done and told my coworkers, then just spent the rest of my time scrolling TikTok and preparing for my new job.

    1. Yvette*

      “ When I started, there were 60 employees and when I left, there were 25.” That is not turnover. That’s people reading the writing on the wall. :)

      1. Momma Bear*

        I had a job where the office dwindled from 35 to 5. Then coworker looked around the barren office and asked if they should start looking for a job. I said they should have already been looking.

        1. CG*

          Yes, very similar experience for me at that nonprofit! I was there a year, and looking for other jobs for about six months. After they laid off four people from our team of seven, it went from actively applying to frantically applying

        2. ferrina*

          My first office job I walked into a department that had been 6 a year ago and was now down to 1- the most junior person. I was too young and naive to see the writing on the wall. I genuinely thought I was going to be part of the fresh start for the department.

          I wish I’d kept my job search going

        3. persimmon*

          My current job had five people when I was hired two years ago – currently three, and hopefully soon to be two. I started looking the day the last person got laid off.

          Apparently pre-COVID it was nine.

  21. juliebulie*

    The year was 1988. I worked for a publisher of computer hobbyist magazines. It was a tiny family business and the boss was kind of a jerk, compounded by rage issues. When I gave my two week’s notice, he demanded an explanation. My official reasons for changing jobs were more money, convenient location on campus where I lived, and good resume experience.

    My unofficial reason was that it was a sexist environment, I had had to prompt them to raise my pay by 25 cents as they had promised, and the boss was generally a jerk, treating us like a bunch of goldbrickers when we were college students doing professional work producing a high quality magazine for $4.25 an hour. And he was a sexist pig. And he often threw temper tantrums.

    But I wanted to leave on good terms, so I didn’t say that stuff. Until.

    The day after I gave notice, there was a memo on everyone’s desk about how disappointing and untrustworthy and ungrateful we were. That really made me mad. So I went home and composed a memo of my own and gave it to him the next day.

    The vein in his forehead began to visibly throb. He called all of us into the conference room and proceeded to read my memo to everyone. Occasionally he would pause in disbelief (for dramatic effect) at what I had written. When he was done, he said, “none of this is true.” And I replied, “if that’s so, why do you never make those remarks when your wife is around?”

    That did it. He threw me out. Several of my coworkers got jobs on campus after that too. I don’t know how he continued to produce the magazines, but changes in the home computer market would render them obsolete in a few years anyway.

      1. juliebulie*

        – Fake “security codes” for using the printer (with experimentation, we found out that any 2-digit number would do, he just wanted to know who was using it for what)
        – Everybody gets business cards except me. WTF
        – Not letting me go to a trade show because I was the only female and they didn’t want to have to rent a separate hotel room just for me
        – Taking my picture when I said no
        – Inappropriate comments about the way I drank a can of Dr Pepper (there was nothing unusual about it)
        – Accused me of flushing feminine unmentionables down the toilet and clogging it. NOPE in fact I used the bathroom as seldom as possible
        – If one of us went to McD’s to pick up lunch for everyone, that person had to stay late after work to make up the “extra time” they took for their lunch break
        – There is a blizzard. Us college students have old cars with no 4-wheel drive or anything. Oh, and I get to make an extra side-trip in the snow to take the proofs to the FedEx place because it’s on my way home (not really on my way home). My parents were having kittens waiting for me to come home

        1. Silver Robin*

          Except this time the memo was handed directly to the boss, not circulated among the reports, was in response to a passive aggressive public response, and it was the *boss* who decided to read it aloud. Petty and a bit immature? Probably, but I think it is significantly different. Besides, what was he going to do, fire her?

            1. Slow Gin Lizz*

              I also wish you had made copies! You are 100% my hero for doing this and for your “if that’s true….” question after he read the thing out loud. I also want to know what your coworkers were doing while he was reading it. Did they look really uncomfortable or were they just rolling there eyes or what?

              1. juliebulie*

                I wish I could tell you what my coworkers were doing. I was looking at my boss. I was as angry as he was, so I kind of had tunnel vision. But I can tell you that no one else moved or spoke. I wouldn’t expect them to defend me, but no one was defending our boss either.

                But really what was most gratifying as that we all ended up coworkers again with my new employer. Where the bosses never had a tantrum.

              1. juliebulie*

                I suppose he did. Don’t most bullies think their nonsense is justified? (A rhetorical question, I don’t know about “most,” but for sure many bullies do.) Like I was endangering the future of the business by moving on. I was a copy editor, for Pete’s sake. My exit wasn’t going to bring the business to its knees… though the subsequent exits of the advertising sales guy and the graphic design layout artist and the editor didn’t do it any good. And it’s too bad. But the ungrateful person was the boss. We were making his magazines for about a dollar more than minimum wage!

  22. Dulcinea47*

    Nothing too dramatic, but when I quit my job of 17 years, my boss initially thought I was kidding. Part of the reason I quit was b/c he was such a bad and apathetic manager. He was my supervisor for nearly a decade andnever once tried to initiate a friendly conversation with me, until my very last day. Bizarre.

    1. The OG Sleepless*

      One of my favorite TV scenes ever is when Peggy gives Don her notice on Mad Men. It takes him a minute to realize she is quitting. He laughs incredulously. It had obviously never occurred to him that she would leave.

      1. goddessoftransitory*

        And how he begs her to stay! And kisses her hand! It was so inappropriate but she was thisclose to giving in and I was yelling DON’T DON’T DONT WALK AWAY the whole time!

        1. Sharp-Dressed Boston Terrier*

          I feel you there! I was shouting “SAY IT! SAY IT!” at the screen when Roger Sterling asked Peggy to get him a cup of coffee after they all jumped ship and roared so loud when she said “…No.” that I scared my ex’s cat.

    2. o*

      I couldn’t think of any plantain-pantalones quitting stories in my own past until I read yours, and I remembered. When I left a recent position in which my boss and I never really got along and I was quite overworked and underpaid, they waited until my final day to smilingly apologize for never really learning my job or how to do it.
      Flames on the side of my face.

  23. Lab Boss*

    I worked at a bar for a while while job hunting post-college. When I got an offer I told my manager that the next weekend would be my last, apologizing for only 8 days notice but needing to get over to full-time pay and benefits as fast as possible. His response? “Who gives a sh*t, most people quit this place by just never showing up again.” Which wasn’t directed at me, but it was definitely the least-professional response to a resignation I’ve experienced (funny, though!)

    1. kiwiii*

      This has me cackling.

      The summer after high school, I gave a little over 2 weeks notice to my (20-something, 00s grunge, paid about $2/hour better than I was) supervisor in the produce department of a grocery store because I’d heard that you were supposed to give that much notice, and it was my first job.

      He asked me to repeat the date I was leaving and then said, “Why are you telling me now? Remind me the week of.”

      1. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

        Oh bless, I can just imagine little high school person trying so hard to do Proper Work Etiquette with Appropriate Notice.

    3. Bitte Meddler*

      Oh, man, during the Great Recession, after I’d gotten laid off from a white-collar corporate job, I went to work at a big box retailer to keep some kind of income coming in.

      I eventually found another corporate job and so did what I had always done when leaving a company: Wrote a short resignation letter expressing how much I’d enjoyed working there and thanking them for being a good stepping stone to the next job, etc. Then I took that letter to the HR manager on site (the store was big enough to have one) and handed him all of the keys I had accumulated in the two years I’d been there.

      He sat in his chair dumbfounded. Apparently people usually just told the scheduler that X would be their last day and then either really worked those last days or no-showed. And they sure as heck never turned their keys back in.

      It was my turn to be dumbfounded. That whole time that I’d been guarding the keys with my life, there were dozens of copies out in the wild just waiting for ex-employees to use for nefarious purposes?? Yikes.

    4. CSRoadWarrior*

      Most people quit that place? Maybe the manager should look at his attitude, and think he may be the reason based on his response to you.

      Good for you for finding a full time office job, BTW.

  24. Seen Too Much*

    This happened a LOOONNNGGG time ago at one of the first real jobs I ever had. The only reason I stayed on as long as I did was because it was 2 blocks from my house.

    The owner of the business was 98 and had dementia. We would have to check his desk after he left because he would take payments from clients and lose them for weeks. He would use the bathroom, that was right in the middle of the office, and forget to close the door.

    Then the mice came. An invasion. You couldn’t open a drawer without them jumping out.

    I asked for a, in hindsight, teeny tiny raise, and was denied. I found another local job and handed in my two weeks.

    The office manager told me I was being a baby and wouldn’t hack it anywhere else. She told me I was being disloyal and showing my true colors. Then she told me I couldn’t be trusted so I could only file during my last two weeks – into the cabinets infested with mice.

    I walked out and never looked back.

    1. Anne Shirley*

      “Then the mice came.” OMG. “cabinets infested with mice” WTF. Seen Too Much, I hope you weren’t plagued by nightmares. Also I am picturing an INSANE office manager with crooked glasses, wild hair, and a mouse on each shoulder.

    2. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      So the office manager was keeping this ridiculous business alive because?
      She’d be the one mopping floors on the Titanic.

        1. Jam on Toast*

          Leaving teeny, tiny memos for their human coworkers, like the mice in the Tailor of Gloucester, perhaps? “No more twist” could be updated to “No more toner”.

    3. Observer*

      The office manager told me I was being a baby and wouldn’t hack it anywhere else. She told me I was being disloyal and showing my true colors. Then she told me I couldn’t be trusted so I could only file during my last two weeks – into the cabinets infested with mice.

      Either a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome or she had something going on there and needed to keep things going till she could officially take over. But the former is more likely, imo. The other is more fun for a novel, but I would not think it’s likely.

  25. Wonky Policy Wonk*

    I had one really terrible job for years with a company that my brother worked at, he had referred me to the hiring manager (so people were aware we were related) but it was for a role in another department and our work never overlapped. My manager promised me a raise if I hit a certain metric, then reneged on it when I actually hit that metric, and I point blank told them I would be looking for another job if they didn’t make good on their promise. The were still somehow ~shocked~ when I handed in my notice a few months later and had the audacity to call in my brother to a meeting where they tried to pressure me into staying. I’m still flabbergasted that they would ever think this was OK and it ended up causing a serious strain between my brother and I (he went along with it and still thinks it wasn’t wrong of them to do it). That place was the definition of toxic work culture.

      1. Wonky Policy Wonk*

        Yup, he actually bought a (minority) share in the company ownership last year so he’s pretty much committed for life to that place. It was his first office job after spending a decade doing blue collar work and he has no concept of what normal work place norms are. I kept trying to get him to read AAM to get a better idea of how un-normal it all is but he’s gone full ostrich at this point, so we just don’t talk about his work ever.

    3. Magenta Sky*

      I’m pretty sure my brother would have quit on the spot. I know I would have, were the roles reversed.

  26. cardigarden*

    Not a job, but I had to quit middle school band because an asthma diagnosis and playing the clarinet aren’t exactly compatible. Had a doctor’s note and everything. The band director stopped speaking to me and wouldn’t even look at me if we crossed paths in the hallway, which is such a bizarre way to treat an 11 year old.

    1. Lab Boss*

      Oof, you just dredged up a memory from my Junior year of high school- I’d had a very exhausting summer and just didn’t care enough to want to play football, so I went to the first team meeting (still during summer break) to let the coach know. Three of the four adult coaches in the room gathered around me to tell me I was a failure, that men don’t let people down, that I was nothing to them any more. I tried to salvage the situation with a “grown up” handshake before I left and the head coach, also my guidance counselor, said he only shook hands with people he respected. My mom was usually the one to deal with school stuff but my dad (a towering blue-collar guy) went in for that one to explain that he KNEW I would be facing NO further poor treatment.

      The happy ending to that one was my own lack of professionalism. I graduated with honors and a bunch of scholarships that made the school look great, and got to smile and reject the guidance counselor’s congratulatory handshake on stage in front of an audience. I didn’t make a big scene of it, only the people who knew the history noticed… but man it was sweet.

      1. cardigarden*

        Dude, what your coach did was so f’d up. I’m so sorry you had to deal with that, but being able to reject his handshake is just *chef kiss*.

        1. Lab Boss*

          He was a jerk that everyone hated. He actively withheld information on scholarships from people he disliked.I got one extremely prestigous scholarship and *several* teachers pulled me aside to tell me I should keep it a secret from him, because he hadn’t told me it existed, but he would list me getting it as an “accomplishment” and use it to get a performance payment.

          It was terrible in the moment, I kept my chin up all the way to my car and then burst into tears on the drive home. But I took a couple good lessons from it: Authority figures can be extremely petty, acting professional won’t always be replied to with professionalism, and small town pettiness isn’t always a bad thing- it can be very good at making sure jerks are recognized and treated as such.

          1. Polaris*

            Ah, no petty like small town petty.

            Got into an argument with art teacher over an assigned project, probably because my parents had opted to discontinue dance instruction for my sister from him honestly, first week of school. The principal asked me if I was okay with a switch to a completely different class in exchange for ignoring the teacher’s complaint that I told him that he was “dumb as $h!t and wouldn’t know Picasso if it bit him in the @$$” (principal said this while chuckling). Sounded good to me even if it ignored the fact that he’d said I was an “uneducated little tramp who was a pathetic excuse for an artist”.

            Entered the project I’d been working on that had provoked the argument and “Picasso Exchange” into a juried show. Won high honors. Guess who I had to accept my certificate from in front of the whole school? Me, very quietly, as I shook his hand: “Toldja.”

          2. Unguided*

            School guidance counselors are supposed to help you apply to colleges and scholarships? That makes so much sense but man was I let down and I never even realized it until now.

            1. goddessoftransitory*

              Yep. Mine back in the day was OBSESSED with scoring a million dollars a year in scholarships for students. It was good she cared that much, but it got pretty intense.

            2. Artemesia*

              In the school I taught in in the 60s and the one I graduated from in the early 60s that was the ONLY thing they actually did. True of my kids’ public schools as well although they didn’t get much help on that.

            3. Gumby*

              It varies by school. My counselor basically helped put together class schedules and dealt with students who had/caused difficulties of one sort or another. Since I was not one of those, we spoke maybe one a year. She definitely called and asked if I wanted to be moved out of my mother’s Algebra II class (I did, though the teacher I ended up with was a much worse teacher it was probably still worth switching). I think I might have needed her signature for one application or something? But I didn’t see her often. She was the school counselor of record for around 700 students. (~2700 students in my high school, 4 counselors) So I don’t know how she could have had the time to do much by way of helping with college and scholarship applications for all of us even if only 1/3 were seniors at a time. And if she was going to spend her time that way, I would have been a prime candidate.

          3. Pdxer*

            I had a really horrible band teacher in high school who totally chose favorites, was often extremely demeaning, and occasionally emotionally inappropriate. While exhorting the accomplishments of several of my friends, he turned to me unprompted and said “you’d better pick some other profession. Not everyone has actual talent.” I took him at his word, threw myself into science and healthcare after being heartbroken and upset for awhile, and am now a practicing doctor and academic medicine professor. I ran into this teacher again about two years ago at an event.

            “Well, you’re certainly not where anyone expected you to end up in life,” he told me, looking down his nose. I’d recently heard he’d been unfaithful to his wife, was alienated from his kid, and being investigated for inappropriate behavior with a student. It took everything I had to keep my expression neutral when I told him “hey, that’s funny. You’re exactly where I thought you’d end up.”

      2. idowordsformoney*

        Oh man I had a similar experience when I got my first retail job in high school and quit the track team. The coach told me he should have his son beat me up for wasting his time in front of other adults in the room. I was never allowed to compete anyway because I had dyed hair. It was insane.

      4. Observer*

        went in for that one to explain that he KNEW I would be facing NO further poor treatment.

        Good for your dad! What a bunch of jerks!

        but man it was sweet.

        I can imagine.

      5. Donn*

        These school stories reminded me of someone who quit our high school’s football team because he disliked the coach. Coach said to the someone’s younger sibling, “Tell him we don’t need him.”

        1. goddessoftransitory*

          “Or YOU could tell him, grown adult. If you think that’s in any way appropriate.”

      6. Luna*

        Hahaha, not shaking the coach’s hand, he absolutely knew what you were doing. Must’ve been a sweet moment!

    2. Elle*

      My kid is in HS band and her teachers are kind of like that. Band is everything to them and they’ve never done anything else in their lives. Truthfully they seem kind of burned out and the band could use a change.

      1. La Triviata*

        The high school I went to was new and the very first graduating class was having their graduation rehearsal. The much-loathed school vice principal came to oversee … and the kids STONED him off the field. Literally threw rocks at him until he left.

      2. Chirpy*

        I’ve worked with children in two very different jobs, and it is *always* the parents that are the problem.

    4. Arglebarglor*

      Oh lord, I had a similar reaction from my high school’s music department chair. I played in every wind ensemble, orchestra, chamber group and rock band available to play with in my school, played in the pit for all the high school musicals, took EVERY SINGLE music class that was possibly available in the 4 years I was there (so much so that they ended up sending me to the city college for further music instruction because they ran out of classes to give me in my senior year). Then in the second half of my senior year I had to quit the citywide wind ensemble that the HS department chair conducted–it was on Saturdays and I got a job to help save up for college and a new instrument. He took it REALLY poorly, even though there were plenty of people who were slavering to take my place. As a result he pulled me from the running for all the school music awards I was nominated for, that were to be given at graduation. His son won them all.

      1. knitcrazybooknut*

        Speaking as a former Gold Star and Theater Kid, that is HEINOUS. The small piece of redemption I had for surviving high school was winning about a dozen awards at the end of senior year. What a jerk!!

    5. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

      @cardigarden my contribution to this is about a vindictive teacher, too! Why are so many of them like that?

        1. cardigarden*

          Uhhhhhhhh, I don’t like the implication that teachers on the whole are the bottom of the ladder or otherwise aren’t successful people. Let’s not do that.

          2. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

            Nah, that’s not what she’s doing at all. In the context of a school, the kids are clearly on the bottom. And the teachers are clearly largely powerless except for the tremendous power they wield over the children.
            It’s great that there are lots of public school teachers who don’t use their position to bully (bodily throwing a kid into a dumpster) and promote misinformation (telling us that the Civil War was about states’ rights and slaves were happy to be taken care of), but when you get defensive about criticizing real abuse, you’re protecting abusers.

    6. Observer*

      which is such a bizarre way to treat an 11 year old.

      That’s kinder than the guy deserves. I mean, you had a *medical problem*. Who gets into such a huff when *anyone* has to drop out because of their health? To do that to a kid? That is just disgusting.

      1. goddessoftransitory*

        People who believe all illness is made up or “in your mind,” or worse, had parents who thought that way and refused to listen to them growing up about their own sicknesses.

    7. Autofill Contact*

      Oh for sure, the most insane reaction to quitting was my choir director in college. I had a competing class that I needed to graduate and was insanely hard to get into that was scheduled at the same time as choir. So I just didn’t register for choir. She went ape shit. (I was not a music major… I was just doing choir for fun.)

    8. Another School Memory*

      I had a journalism teacher in high school pout and call me out of another class to “talk it over” when I didn’t want to be on the newspaper anymore.

    9. Never Knew I Was a Dancer*

      I still think about this sometimes even after [mumblety] years later.

      My junior year of high school, I found a voice teacher who offered group lessons (yay I could afford it!). I was thrilled, and went every week for a month, but then something came up and the lessons were no longer an option for me. At the end of my last lesson I very apologetically told her that I’d have to withdraw—and she tore me a new one. Berated me for misleading her, letting her down, not following through with it, all kinds of things I can’t remember now because the overwhelming feeling I had was shame for… “misleading her and letting her down.” Cried most of the rest of the evening.

      It took at least a few years until I looked back and realized—what the hell. Who does that. WHO DOES THAT. Bullet dodged.

    10. Luna*

      You just reminded me, I was in my middleschool’s choir club, I was about 10. (I say middleschool, it was 5th grade Gymnasium; elementary school in Germany goes from first till fourth grade, then you move onto a secondary school)

      We were all practicing for an upcoming event, where we’d be singing in a location and all that. So all sorts of practicing going on, prep-works, etc. And then the choir teacher dropped the bombshell on me that I was not going to sing because I was being thrown out of the choir.
      Why? Because I had missed choir club twice over the span of the school year. I had missed those practices with permission and a note from my mother because of my orthodental appointments, I had braces.

      I recall dreading telling my mom because I felt so horrible, she was getting ready and dressed up for the event, and I ‘had’ to break the harsh truth to her that I wasn’t gonna be part of it. (I tend to focus on odd things. She said the issue was with my choir teacher, not me.)

  27. many bells down*

    I guess I didn’t *technically* resign, but a job that had promised me full-time hours starting in the summer just took me off the schedule for an entire month. With no guarantee that they’d even put me back on, let alone give me the full time I’d quit my other job for.

    So naturally I started job hunting and took a new job. SIX MONTHS later, I had to swing by the old job to pick up some paperwork and the front desk said “oh we’ve been meaning to call you. Can you come in Thursday?” They seemed legitimately surprised that I wasn’t sitting around for half a year waiting for them to call.

    1. Lenora Rose*

      I had stuff like this happen as a temp, but in the nearest equivalent with a permanent role, they did the full lay off process complete with Record of Employment. (The whole process had been more like a quiet firing than I like, but the role I had been moved to was dependent on a person who had just rage-quit, so there legitimately wasn’t anything for me to do until they hired a replacement and the replacement was ready for the project.)

      1. Happy*

        Many many moons ago, age 19 or so, it was the last day working at a grocery store. As I was saying my good-byes, my married, older manager said “Oh, i have something for you in the office.” You guessed it, he backed me up to the wall and planted a wet sloppy one on me.

        Folks, I was so shocked and naive, I just said uh, bye and hightailed of out of there. Ewww!
        Wish I could go back and react differently!

  28. Casual Librarian*

    I was working an entry-level job right out of undergrad as I worked on my master’s program. As I finished my master’s program, I began applying for jobs that had the Masters as a minimum qualification. At this point, I now had a graduate degree and 4 years of professional work experience. When I resigned, my manager declared to all who would listen that I was an ‘entitled millennial brat’ for wanting to move beyond a barely-above-minimum-wage entry-level job.

    1. Panicked*

      My sister worked in business as she was earning her MBA. She graduated and got a really fantastic job offer. Our mother told her that she should turn it down because she should gain more lower-level experience before taking a job like that and that “someone else more deserving” should get the position. My sister not only took the job, but excelled and was promoted several times. Neither one of us take work advice from our mother.

      1. StarTrek Nutcase*

        I had a coworker become angry with me for not retiring upon my 30 yr work anniversary (full pension date) – because everyone should retire as soon as possible to clear the way for younger workers. I would have loved to because I preferred anything but working, but was smart enough to know I needed to wait for Medicare. To her credit, she lived her (warped) viewpoint because she retired at 55 (30 yrs) to clear the way. (Though she ended up eventually working elsewhere so….)

  29. Medium Sized Manager*

    I gave three weeks notice at a veterinary office and offered to continue working Saturdays since I knew they were shortstaffed. I had a bunch of unused PTO, so one of the office managers agreed to pay me out for it. The other manager found out and accused both of us of “stealing from the company” and refused to pay it. I changed my last day immediately and did not work Saturdays for them.

  30. Silence is golden*

    This was my first job out of college – I resigned my extremely entry level job with 2 weeks notice. I explained I was leaving for graduate school and had enjoyed my two years with the organization. My manager looked at me and said “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me, I can’t even talk to you anymore.” She walked out and for the rest of the two weeks gave me full silent treatment and only communicated with me by email and post it note. What made this even more awkward? We were a small nonprofit and shared offices (really small rooms like a bedroom) and so for two weeks my manager refused to speak with me and sent emails for every single request/put post it notes on my desk, all while sitting right next to me but still talking to the other colleague that shared our space. It was a painful, but quiet two weeks!

  31. noname*

    This might be in the opposite direction from some of these, but it was always interesting to me. I spent 8 years as a contractor at a large company before I got hired permanently at the site, which made my manager and I the people who had been there the longest in our contracting company.

    I put in my notice, and he said “wow, that’s great! I actually got hired permanently too!” We high-fived, he said, “let’s get out of this dumpster fire” and we both put in notice for the same day. The following Monday, we were in the same orientation class for new permanent employees.

  32. are ya kidding me*

    I extended my notice for an extra month and offered to stay on part time. Despite an inability to get meaningful raises (even though I am apparently so comptent that I eliminated the need for a second person on [program]), apparently I’m important enough that [program] can’t run without me. Management was flabbergasted that I would give standard two weeks because how on earth would the program continue without me/someone in my role? Hmm well maybe invest in your employees if they’re that necessary. Not that deranged of a reaction, I guess, but it certainly has me deranged.

    Have they posted the job to try to get applicants and get someone in the role in the meantime? No. Lmao.

    1. goddessoftransitory*

      Ah, yes, the “You’re Irreplaceable and Worthless at the Same Time” minuet so many bad managers love to do. Performed to the dulcet tones of “How Can You Do This To Me?”

  33. JE*

    I gave notice at my small family owned firm. My boss promptly gathered everyone else in the office to tell them I was leaving but it was okay because I wasn’t a “real” office manager and actually didn’t have the experience to do the job that I had been doing for a year. He ghosted me for the entire two weeks until my last day in which he silently walked into my office and tossed a bouquet of flowers at me! The “real” office manager he hired to replace me quit three weeks in. He never did fill that spot and just took on the role himself.

  34. Agile Phalanges*

    It’s not that bananapants, but I quit my last job because it was stressing me out, and the boss wasn’t very communicative so I couldn’t do my job well, but then he would storm in and demand stuff. When I told him I was quitting, he ranted and yelled at me for over an hour. Another employee IMed him during, but he didn’t notice (of course) but had a chat with him after and he came and apologized. But yeah, dude, you’re just reinforcing my reasons for leaving, not convincing me to stay.

      1. I'm on Team Rita*

        Staying there for an hour is also bananapants, though I understand why someone might do it.

  35. good riddance indeed*

    The only interesting story I have is of that one time I left a horrible internship (paid, full-time, 6 months). I exited through the back door to not have to say goodbye to my manager, who had been truly awful for that entire time.

    He was just behind said back door, taking his smoke break, and I ran directly into him. We stared at each other, stayed silent for a minute, and then he said, in a questioning voice: « Well. Good riddance, then, huh? »

    I nodded, went to my car, left the place and moved to another country (…that was unrelated, but was very satisfying still).

  36. crochet all day*

    An attorney I worked for had custom postage stamps made with HER FACE on them specifically for mailing folks their last paycheck after they were fired or (usually) quit. There was a LOT of turnover there.

      1. Silver Robin*

        same; is it unhinged? Yes. And that also lets me detach from it enough that I kind of respect the level of petty. What a wackadoodle

      1. Seeking Second Childhood*

        I’m just disappointed that I learned about custom postage stamps after they had been discontinued by the USPS!

    10. SKULL RING*

      That’s impressive. If I had received one of these, I’d actually laugh about the level of delusion this person had, and it would reinforce I made the right decision.

    13. Captain Vegetable (Crunch Crunch Crunch)*

      I would frame that envelope if I had worked there! The bananapants are strong with this one.

    17. Ex-Teacher*

      I’m genuinely curious as the motivation here- is she trying to intimidate the quitters? Is she trying to make them sad about what they’re missing? Is she trying to imply she’s more important than the quitters because her face is on a stamp?

      Baffling.

    19. Pdxer*

      This kind of reminds me of those little yellow cards the church of scientology used to send out to people who left the church. You were supposed to carry them around so the practicing scientologists knew they weren’t allowed to talk to you.

  37. Be Gneiss*

    When I left OldJob, one of my 6 (six!!!) bosses called me repeatedly – from her cell phone to my cell phone, so I could clearly see it was her – and hung up. She forbade everyone from getting me a cake for my last day. She ignored me for two weeks, then scheduled 1 hour on my last day for me to “teach her my job,” and showed up 20 minutes late…
    The icing on the cake is that it’s a very small town, and her daughter and mine have been friends since kindergarten. Her last order of business when I walked out the door was to tell me “it’s not personal” and then uninvite my daughter from her daughter’s birthday party the next day.

      1. Be Gneiss*

        I split my time between 2 sites, and it was a family-owned business. I had one actual boss at each site, which made sense, and then a bunch of family members who liked to be the boss of an assortment of things and random times, and would decide on a whim what I was allowed/not allowed/expected/encouraged to work on….and who never agreed on what those rules or priorities were.

      2. Bitte Meddler*

        At my last job, I had five managers and one grand-manager. BUT we were project-based, so even though one of the five managers was actually my direct-line manager, at any given time I could be reporting to and being evaluated by a couple or all of them.

    4. Cyndi*

      I hope, since you said “have been” and not “had,” that your daughters’ friendship at least survived this. Poor kids.

      1. Be Gneiss*

        Yep, still friends! Thankfully now at the age that requires very little parent involvement to plan their social lives.

    6. Observer*

      Her last order of business when I walked out the door was to tell me “it’s not personal” and then uninvite my daughter from her daughter’s birthday party the next day.

      I feel bad for her kid.

  38. Snarkus Aurelius*

    In the days before cell phones, I had a terrible boss. She was suuuuper sweet, but she always found an “innocent’ way to get people to do work on nights and weekends. She’d either manufacture an emergency or pretend to lose important papers so you’d have to come only to find out from other people she had what she needed all along. She once made me come in at 9 PM on a Tuesday to redo her schedule to reflect all her rebookings for a work trip only to learn the next day she decided the previous week she wasn’t going at all.

    BOSS ONLY ACTED LIKE THAT TO UNPAID INTERNS, WHICH I WAS!

    When I gave notice, my workload increased and increased to the point I couldn’t pack up my apartment because my boss kept calling me with “just one more question” and “we really need you so can you come in just one last time?” The day I left town, she told me I had to come in and work a half day before my flight or else she “didn’t know” if she could write me a letter of recommendation. So I did because I thought I didn’t have a choice.

    As I packed up my apartment and did a last minute check, my boss continued to call me and leave messages on the answering machine. (My internship gave us furnished apartments so that’s why it stayed plugged in.) I never responded. A couple of years later, I found out from an ex-coworker that my boss was asking her staff to call DC’s National Airport to have me paged so I could answer more work questions before I boarded. Apparently, you can’t use the paging system for that.

    2. Momma Bear*

      Hindsight is always 20/20 but I would have mentioned this to the internship coordinator. That’s…wow.

    3. Observer*

      A couple of years later, I found out from an ex-coworker that my boss was asking her staff to call DC’s National Airport to have me paged so I could answer more work questions before I boarded. Apparently, you can’t use the paging system for that.

      Gee, I can’t imagine why not!/sarc

      What a loon. Also a petty tyrant on a power trip.

      Agree with Moma Bear. It would have been nice to let the internship coordinator know, if there was one. But I can also see why you would not have realized that you could do that.

    4. Lizzo*

      When I transferred internally at my first job, it was to work for a manager (Awesome Manager) who I greatly admired, but then the vacant manager position on the team was filled by Terrible Manager, and I was to support both but report to Terrible Manager. The role I was in was supposed to be a growth role, and Awesome Manager had been treating it as such in the few months I had worked for solely them. But then Terrible Manager decided it was more appropriate to treat me like an admin. It sucked, big time, and my mental health took a tremendous hit.

      I lasted 18 months and finally gave notice with some job opportunities on the horizon but nothing officially lined up. I worked my first week of notice in office, as well as the Monday of the following week. Monday night I took my laptop home because we were expecting a storm on Tuesday, and my commute was quite long. I continued working at home, and then sometime between Tuesday and Wednesday became VERY ill. Fever and other terrible symptoms. Despite this, I kept working, trying to wrap everything up. I worked through serious illness on Wednesday and Thursday. Both managers left Thursday for a work trip.

      Friday morning–my scheduled last day–I wasn’t feeling better and contacted a respected colleague in the executive office who had worked there for a LONG time and had both respect/authority and building access. I was in no position to be upright for long periods of time to pack up, much less make the long drive to and from the office. She agreed that she could meet me and my spouse at the office on Saturday and help me clean out my desk and also take back my badge, laptop, etc. I conveyed this to my managers via email, and received a reply that stated I HAD to come to the office on a regular business day to deliver those items, and furthermore, I was expected at the office on the following Monday because I hadn’t done any work that week. (WTF???)

      Well, I dragged my feverish self off the couch, went to the doctor where I was diagnosed with whooping cough*, and then went straight to my office and proceeded to pack things up and be done with it. A very nice team member had brought in a cake for me, but she and EVERYBODY I saw at the office said, “Why are you here? You look like death.”

      That was my last day. I’m sure Terrible Manager still thinks that I was faking illness. And I still hope I have an opportunity to some day apologize to Awesome Manager…or at least acknowledge the impact of all of that drama on her.

      (*Yes, I know, I shouldn’t have been anywhere near my office with that kind of illness. It was different times then.)

      1. Pdxer*

        If there’s been one good thing about Covid, it’s that people now know coming to work sick isn’t the honorable, laudable thing managers have been making it out to be all these years.

  39. Yup*

    Not me specifically, but when I worked in advertising, if someone left to go to another agency, management would have security come to escort them immediately out the door. They were walked from their manager’s office to their desk so they could get their coat/bag/purse, and that was it. Any personal items had to be picked up at night after everyone left, also escorted by security. The absolute public shame-based tactics to make sure people were reluctant to ever leave for the competition were astounding.

    (When I left for a non-profit agency, not considered competition, the president told me I was being fair to the agency in return for what they’d invested in me. Meaning I wasn’t “stealing” the knowledge they’d passed on to invest it elsewhere. We were all paid peanuts. We were not allowed to freelance as it was considered “stealing” and working for the competition [many did anyway]. I still wake up thinking about how we’d all been brainwashed into working long hours for thin pay under threat of being banished and shame-walked out the door.)

    1. Richard Hershberger*

      I honestly don’t understand why, if you know they will perp shame you, you don’t pack up all your stuff the night before and leave a resignation letter behind.

      1. Momma Bear*

        Agreed. Or I wouldn’t bring in anything I cared about.

        My industry is small. We trade people like playing cards, depending on which company is doing best. Depending on the role, if someone *doesn’t* go to a competitor, it’s unusual.

    2. PassThePeasPlease*

      This happened at an ad agency I worked at as well! They always said it was procedure set by the clients but I’ve never seen it since. My favorite was a coworker who grabbed a pizza slice from the team lunch that was happening in one of the weird hallway meeting spaces on his way out while being escorted by security. I left during COVID lockdowns when everyone was working from home (and I was regularly having panic attacks about my workload) so thankfully was spared.

  40. VPCommonSense*

    My position, along with 10 others, was eliminated as a result of the 2008 recession the week after my honeymoon. HR gave me the option to transition my clients and skip an overseas trip, or take the overseas trip and not transition my clients. I made the decision to skip the trip, also figuring I could hit the ground running on searching for a job. The president of the company cornered me and told me I needed to dress appropriately and “comport myself accordingly” during my final weeks, as if I ever DIDN’T do those things. He proceeded to trash talk me to other colleagues in my remaining weeks, and told people afterwards he fired me. I ended up at a competitor six weeks after my last day, which was amazing given my line of work. Coincidentally, he used to work at that competitor. From time to time, it would get back to me that he said something disparaging about me to colleagues. Not entirely sure why but hey, buddy, live your life.

  41. Legally Brunette*

    I resigned without a firm job offer lined up, and at my going-away party, high-powered boss asked if I was planning to ski instruct (a side gig) until I found something full time. It was August in the mid-Atlantic US…

  42. Dr. Rebecca*

    Not the day of, but a few months after they called me up and asked me to do a week of work for them off the books. I’d left to go back to college. That’s a no from me, dawg, and I told them to lose my number.

    Note: this was an employer who *hated* me, and made no bones about it. The only person who liked me was the general manager, and he was the only person to say a kind word on the day I left them, the rest just acted like it was any other day (ignored me unless they were complaining about me). Even I had been available (I wasn’t, because classes), I wouldn’t stand piss on that building if it was on fire.

  43. A Penguin!*

    I turned in my two weeks notice and a day or so later my grandboss (who was probably 85% of the reason I was leaving) came into my office, slammed the door closed, and proceeded to yell at me for a good 20 minutes about how stupid I was, what a terrible decision I was making, what a great place the company I was leaving was (ha! – most toxic environment I’ve ever been in), and how my career would never recover. He was standing in front of the closed door so I couldn’t open it/leave until he yelled himself out. He then wouldn’t look at or talk to me for the remainder of my notice. That part was more than fine by me.

    With about two hours left in my last day my boss came to me and asked me to teach him how to do my job. I was the last person in the company who knew how. I did what I could in those two hours, and then left and never looked back.

  44. Former EA*

    Honestly, the most deranged thing a boss did when I resigned was…nothing. I left because she was truly deranged (among other things, she tried to ban me from leaving my desk. Like, to go to the bathroom.) She did complain to a coworker that she was astounded that I was able to get a job without anyone calling her for a reference. (I have SO MANY stories of my time there. Some of them would be pretty identifying, but just to say that she was a former professor at a university and ran two centers there. Her husband was the former university president, and she was accustomed to a certain level of…everything.)

    Anyway, given everything I was pretty shocked she didn’t try to make my life miserable in my last week–bc I only gave a week’s notice before I took a week off to recover before starting my new job.

    1. Former EA*

      Oh no wait! She did get really mad at me bc I “promised” when I started that I would stay through until her retirement (which was 2 years from my start date, 1 from when I resigned.) Which, y’know was coming off a year of unemployment and burnout from job hunting and before I realized just how cuckoo bananas she was.

      1. Michelle Smith*

        I will never understand employers that get mad about stuff like that. I’ve had jobs where I had to sign agreements saying I committed to working X number of years without a corresponding promise from them that they wouldn’t lay me off or fire me except for cause, and to me that’s bad enough. But to not even have more than a verbal assurance at the time of hiring that the person plans to stay for a couple years and then take that as if it’s a contractual agreement is just bizarre. People have lives, situations and circumstances change, and even if the job had been amazing in every way, it still wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for someone to move on in the time frame you did.

  45. Bookworm*

    I didn’t resign (sigh) but the employer told me the reason I was being fired was because I refused to answer calls that were not emergencies outside of business hours. The job didn’t involve emergency services or life-dependent services in any type of way (boring office job that also didn’t have clients who wanted answers at all hours), employer refused to set “core” hours expected to answer and would call/email at all hours/weekends/when people were on their excused and official PTO, etc.

    While I’ll own to not having handled this better, this person was also completely closed to perhaps thinking about that this was not a healthy way of working and maybe this was a management issue that could have been addressed if they were willing (they weren’t, obviously).

  46. BnT*

    My partner worked his job for 12+ years, and left due to an industry shortage of work, trying to maintain professional (and some social) relationships. They told him to leave immediately (he gave 2 weeks notice), so he asked if he’d be paid for his notice, no. They didn’t plan on that (illegal where we are). He declined, and kept doing his job as per usual (quality work and normal workload- he wasn’t slacking off). They told him to work his two weeks. Two days later they approached him, said they are not firing him but they are concerned he was a liability and would become injured during his notice period. Please leave now (and they would pay him his wages required). No goodbye, no company announcement (longest employee there aside from the owner). Nothing.

    1. milkdudsnotdrugs*

      I’m not sure what industry your partner was in, but this almost reads like a personal threat to safety. I can’t imagine a scenario where an employee who, presumedly up until that point was operating/ performing their job in a satisfactory and safe manor, could possibly be at sudden risk of serious injury without an outside influence. Did your partner get the sense that they were in danger from another person, or did they believe this was just a convoluted excuse to get them them to exit the facilities quickly and voluntarily? I can’t wrap my brain around this!

      1. I went to school with only 1 Jennifer*

        It was a lie. That’s all. It was a believeable thing to say (if you knew nothing of the context). It was a way to back down and pay BnT’s partner out for their notice period without ever having to say they’d been wrong. (People in general are REALLY BAD at admitting they made a mistake, and so will come up with stuff like this to avoid it.)

  47. Stunned Silence*

    Not necessarily deranged but when I resigned from a job a few years back, my manager launched into the usual “follow your dreams” speech. Strangely, the speech devolved into how she’d wanted to get breast enhancement surgery in her early twenties and that she should have followed her dreams and that she might just do that now. The speech was complete with hand gestures of approximate size and lift. I just sat there, smiling, for over an hour. I can only imagine what my colleagues were thinking when they walked past her office. I hope she followed her dreams. She really was a lovely person.

    1. HugeTractsofLand*

      What a, uh, titillating conversation. Resigning really gives you the strength to smile and nod through anything!

  48. Carrots*

    At my previous job, my manager would micromanage me, bully me, and tell me how she would give me “doesn’t meet expectations” ratings on my reviews. She seemed shocked when I resigned. On my last day, she escorted me around to say goodbye to my colleagues and walked me to the door. I was supposed to work the full day but they had me leave at 10am. It was weird. I’m surprised that she didn’t walk me to my car in the parking lot.

  49. not salty at all*

    A few years ago I gave three and a half weeks notice, timing my exit to the beginning of a new month for health insurance reasons. The CEO, to whom I was reporting because my (VP/Head of Department) boss had also quit, froze me out completely even as I was trying to work to ensure a smooth transition — and then a few days before the end of the month let me know that my services were no longer needed, effective immediately (thwarting my scheme to have health insurance for the following month). This is, I’ve learned, a common move — my partner also left a toxic work environment for a much better one last year and had their notice period cut short 2 days by a vindictive boss attempting to grab the upper hand at the last minute.

    1. Retired Vulcan Raises 1 Grey Eyebrow*

      I hadn’t thought of this consequence of the US not having state health care: a real opportunity for a vindictive boss to hurt someone leaving.
      I suppose you could time giving notice so you have 2 weeks only to the beginning of the month, but I gather they could still shorten that to deprive you of benefits.

      1. Artemesia*

        With COBRA you can get up two two months of coverage as a bridge to the next job and not pay for it if you don’t actually have to use it. We did this when I retired and my husband who was already retired and on my insurance was not going to be eligible for Medicare for a couple of months. (obviously find out current regulations on this if you need to do it. But basically you apply, and get enrolled in COBRA and defer payment for 60 days. If you by then have other insurance you can just let COBRA go and not pay. COBRA is incredibly expensive — you basically pay both sides of the employer provided insurance — but it can give you that peace of mind and safety during brief periods of unemployment.

  50. should have ordered a plain salad*

    When I left for a wayyy more prestigious company and twice the salary, the HR person and my manager took me out for lunch. They spent the entire meal explaining that I really wasn’t that interesting of a person and that I would miserably fail with the high expectations of the new job, since it “required someone with social skills”.

    Then, the HR lady paid for herself and my boss, leaving me to foot my own bill.

    (I’ve been at said new job for 5 years now. I can tell you that my first years were an absolute dream and that I exceeded expectations at every yearly review. Turns out the “absence of social skills” was mostly due to the fact that I just didn’t really like my old team. Sorry, old team.)

    4. Sister George Michael*

      This is hilarious to me because my MAGA brother has always told me that I don’t have social skills. Nope, we just have nothing in common.

      1. Firefighter (Metaphorical)*

        Yes, my mum has told me I am “not good with people”, not an opinion shared by anyone I work with (I’m a people manager and handle complaints among other things)

        1. StarTrek Nutcase*

          Yeah, I’ve had a few coworkers say that to me too. I’ve been quick to point out that I recognize I’m not good with people whose crappy work is foisted on me to fix nor do I respect their supervisors who are either too stupid or lazy to fire those employees. Apparently, that’s just another example how I suck with people.

          1. JustaTech*

            As my high school fencing coach told my mom “JustaTech doesn’t suffer fools gladly”.
            That was after some random dude tried to tell us we weren’t allowed to practice on the grass outside because you can’t stand on the grass in a public park (we were on the grass to be out of the way of everyone on the path). “Really? Where is that rule?” “It’s written on that sign!” “That sign is a memorial to the firemen who died in [X historic fire].”
            “Oh.”

  51. TalesFromTech*

    My manager questioned why I was resigning “before talking to him” about it. Dude, what you you think every 1:1 we’d had the previous 6 months where I told you the toxicity of the team was unacceptable was leading to?

    Then he told I should give 4 weeks notice instead of the 2 I gave because 4 weeks is what was standard in India, where he was from. You’re not in India anymore bud, and I don’t really care what is standard there. We are having this conversation in the US where 2 weeks is standard so 2 weeks is what you are getting.

    Finally, he told me he’d “get back to me” about my resignation. I actually laughed at him at that point and told him he was welcome to “get back to me” but in 2 weeks I wasn’t going to be walking in to the office.

    2. I Have RBF*

      Oh, my, the Indian manager who thinks that they are still in India. Why do these people expect to manage people in the US like they were in India? Different cultures, different norms! I know this is sometimes the problem with other non-US born managers, but I’ve seen it the most often with Indian managers whose first management experience was in India.

      OTOH, an American manager who went to someplace like Germany would probably get the same type of reaction.

      1. NotSoRecentlyRetired*

        OMG, I can imagine a US-trained manager trying to fire (and walk out the door) an employee in Germany!
        I was told that the US Government had to give 3 months notice (and pay for retraining) for all the local-hire employees that were terminated when they closed US bases in Germany in the 1980-90s.
        (I worked as a contractor from the US on a US army base in Germany in the early 1990s. My German friends were astonished when I told them that I had been layed-off and had to move back to the US with only a month’s notice.)

      2. Clodagh*

        My father had an American manager, who had transferred straight from the American arm of the company. The guy was appalled at everyone’s holiday entitlement and tried to strong arm them into not taking bank holidays off. Obviously none of them complied because, hello this is Ireland not the US. The flipside is that all the Irish employees got to take Juneteenth off when the head office in the US made it a holiday for the company, so that was weird.

  52. Usuallyalurker*

    Resigned and gave my contractual 2 months notice (I’m in the UK). One of my co-managers, same level as me but responsible for allocating work, received a phone call from the boss telling her to take me off the schedule from June and she had a massive temper tantrum in the middle of the corridor in front of clients saying I had done it to give her more work, that she had never liked me anyway and that she hoped my dog would die. She then did not speak to me for the remainder of my time there, save from sending me passive aggressive emails telling me she was sure I wouldn’t mind picking up various bits of crap that no one else wanted to do given that I would be leaving them with all my work soon. On my last day, she came to my leaving do, ignored me and ate cake. I was relieved to leave a job I had genuinely enjoyed. And my dog is fine.

    2. Seeking Second Childhood*

      To borrow a phrase, she’s a villain in a Reese Witherspoon movie. I literally laughed out loud at the dog comment… And was heartily relieved that your dog is fine.

    3. goddessoftransitory*

      Anybody who said something that heinous about one of my pets should take to checking their brake lines.

  53. Oryx*

    Not the worst reaction, but I had a manager in a group setting with colleagues announce I was uninvited from the holiday party taking place a week after my last day.

    1. allathian*

      Did you actually want to go to the holiday party or did you coincidentally time your resignation to have an excuse to avoid going?

      1. JustaTech*

        Weirdly, I had a boss ask a coworker, repeatedly!, to come to our holiday party after she’d quit.
        Like, yes, she’d worked there a long time, but that year the holiday party was literally take out in the sad lunch room during the work day, not a real party somewhere interesting.
        He was astonished that she wouldn’t take time off her brand-new job to eat mediocre sandwiches with us.

  54. It's Marie, Not Maria*

    Not Deranged, but Very Odd: I had two Managers. I copied both of them on my resignation email, which spelled out the reasons I was leaving and my concerns moving forward. For over a week of my two weeks’ notice – neither acknowledged I had submitted my resignation! Neither acknowledged my efforts to transition my (unique and very important to the program) duties to someone else. (For context, I work in Human Resources, so this behavior was even more strange) Finally, one, then the other, set up meetings with me when I had about three days left. One passed on kudos from our very important client in the meeting, but asked very few questions; the other was just weird and awkward. Neither wanted to discuss my concerns, which could seriously impact the company’s relation with very important client if not addressed. It was just bizarre.

  55. Brian*

    This happened to a friend of mine. We were Americans, teaching English in another country. My friend, who had never missed a day of work, asked if she could return to the US a week before classes ended, so she could begin a master’s degree program. She would told she could, though she’d forfeit the pay for the work she missed. She agreed, thinking they meant a week’s pay. Just before she left they dropped the bomb: not only would they withhold the week’s salary, but the entire two month’s summer pay as well as the sizeable bonus we all received for completing our contract. We’re talking the equivalent of four paychecks for missing one week. She took her case to a local attorney who confirmed this was BS and the school didn’t have a case. The school’s response? ‘Take us to court.’ They knew she was leaving the country and couldn’t.

    2. Brain the Brian*

      I can see forgoing the bonus (which, after all, was supposed to be only for people who finished their contracts), but skipping time paid before then is definitely out of line (and illegal!). I hope they got caught. I know of overseas language schools that have been caught billing clients for teaching hours that they never paid out to teachers.

    3. Retired Vulcan Raises 1 Grey Eyebrow*

      That’s evil. I’d have thought the attorney could continue the case without the plaintiff being present though (Video conf, EM etc)

  56. Second Deputy, Third Class*

    I’ll never forget the time a colleague resigned and accepted a counter-offer. Boss said they wanted to retain him, made a verbal counter offer for a significant salary increase, and my colleague stayed… but never got anything in writing and, SURPRISE, never got the promised raise. Boss was always “working on it with HR.”

    Six months later my colleague finally gave up and resigned again.

    2. Betsy*

      Do these idiots not realize that people actually talk to each other? And that their bad behavior will be talked about?

  57. SquarePizza*

    Fairly mild, but once I left a financial industry job to go do something fairly similar in an unrelated (smaller but more creative) industry. One of the project managers said “interesting life choice” and walked away, like I’d done it to spite him. He didn’t acknowledge me in meetings for the remainder of my notice period.

    He was let go like eight months later. People are weird.

  58. Anne Elliot*

    Mine wasn’t bananapants but just bewildering. I had a terrible job where absolutely nothing I did was right, the boss was impatient and contemptuous (a lot of sighing and eye rolling) and the only other employee, the office manager (his wife) was openly rude, like she thought I was after her husband. (Girl, no.) I was there only maybe a month, flailing around trying to do a job I didn’t fully understand, when I received yet another critique from the boss about how useless my work was and when I asked for guidance he said, “You’re doing it wrong, and I don’t have the time to teach you how to do it right.” That statement flipped a switch in my head as I realized I was never going to be even minimally competent in the job, nevermind successful. So I quit on the spot. (“Look, it’s clear this isn’t working out for either of us . . . .”)

    I was quite shocked when he immediately shifted to saying how unprofessional it was to quit without notice; that I was leaving him in the lurch; and demanding that I give him at least two weeks notice. After all I’ve heard is how shitty and incompetent I am? I answered with the mid-’90s version of “Naw bro” and drove home to celebrate my escape.

    1. Burned Out and Ticked Off*

      This is what I am experiencing now. Tried to give notice after all of my contributions for the last 7 years where utterly devalued and they begged me to stay. Took some time off and returned to work to collect my paychecks and am phoning it in as I am now looking for my next project.

    2. Luna*

      ‘It’s also unprofessional to treat your employees this way.’

      Though this guy’s words make me think of my last job’s supervisor, who was not doing a very good job teaching me the office-side of the job (but was great in telling me how to CLEAN.) And one time, I was trying for a while to get a certain date-range of invoices to appear.
      I tried everything I could think of, seeing what parameters I could manipulate in the program to see what I needed, but no.

      I told her that I wasn’t able to get those invoices to show up and she said, “I can’t hold your hand all the time, you need to figure this out yourself”.
      Well, genius, that’s what I’ve been trying to do and it’s not working. And I didn’t want her to hold my hand, I wanted her to do her dang job as a supervisor and *instruct* me on how to do something that was apparently my job.
      …I’m so glad I’m away from that center.

  59. Bexy Bexerson*

    This wasn’t full bars deranged, but it was super disrespectful.

    I gave notice by email rather than face-to-face or phone call because my manager was on PTO the day I needed to give my notice. In the email, even said “I would have preferred to tell you in person, but that would be less than a full two weeks notice, and I want to adhere to a standard notice period” or something like that.

    The next day, as soon as he’d read my email, he asked to see me in a conference room. He asked why I hadn’t told him in person. Like, screw you man…I already explained that. So I explained again. He then proceeded to lecture me and tell me how disappointed he was that I gave notice that way. Ugh.

    A few minutes later, he sent out an email announcing my upcoming departure to the entire department. The normal thing at this company was for the employee to do that themselves, or for the manager to do it if the employee preferred. he didn’t consult me, he just did it…and I was immediately inundated with emails, instant messages, phone calls, and desk drop-ins from my colleagues. I was not ready to have all those conversations yet!

    On my last day, he insisted on walked me out. I know this is normal at some companies for security reasons or whatever, but it was not something normally done at this company.

    He just wanted to try to control me as much as possible up until the very last minute.

    Yes, he was always an asshole and he is 100% the reason I left that job.

    1. HugeTractsofLand*

      Yeah, it sounds like he was really overinvested in your relationship? Like how DARE you not tell me in person like the close personal friends we are, and of COURSE I’ll tell everyone on your behalf and walk you out like there’s a heartfelt farewell to be had.

      …Either that, or he knew exactly how much you disliked him and didn’t want anyone else to guess!

  60. urguncle*

    I got a full-time job on the other side of the state from a summer job right out of college. The GM asked me if I could “commute back” for weekends. She was very cranky when I said no.
    No, I will not be driving 6 hours round trip for a seasonal minimum wage job on my weekend.

    1. LifeBeforeCorona*

      I left a job and was asked to drive 40 minutes twice a day through rush hour traffic for a 3 hour shift until they filled the position. No thank you.

  61. are ya kidding me*

    Management was flabbergasted that I would give standard two weeks because how on earth would the program continue without me/someone in my role? I extended my notice for an extra month and offered to stay on part time. Despite an inability to get meaningful raises (even though I am apparently so comptent that I eliminated the need for a second person on [program]), apparently I’m important enough that [program] can’t run without me. Hmm well maybe invest in your employees if they’re that necessary. Not that deranged of a reaction, I guess, but it certainly has me deranged.

    Have they posted the job to try to get applicants and get someone in the role in the meantime? No. Lmao.

    1. are ya kidding me*

      Whoops, sorry for the double comment. The textbox was still showing for me with all the text so I assumed I forgot to click submit.

  62. alferd g packer*

    My boss, who had previously been pretty solid, completely checked out due to personal issues — not responding to time-sensitive emails, generally being unavailable for basic office operations — and started raking all her senior people over the coals for not doing things she hadn’t actually told us to do. The last straw was when she pulled a “you can’t quit, you’re fired” on our favorite teammate and promoted her own sister’s boyfriend into that position.

    I had been accepted to grad school and promptly gave two months’ notice, because at that point our team felt it was time to go over our boss’s head, and I was in my early 20s and had nothing to lose. Nothing came of it, of course. And my boss fully iced me out. For two months. Wouldn’t make eye contact in the hallway. If this was the 1800s, it would have been the cut direct.

    So I completed my dwindling case management worklist every day — even after she’d reassigned everything to sister’s boyfriend, because she never told me things had been reassigned — and thoroughly enjoyed getting paid to read old stuff on Project Gutenberg for 7.75 hours a day.

    Three months later, I was sitting in a seminar class and checked my phone on break. My old teammates had all texted me to tell me that boss had been marched out of the building. According to sister’s boyfriend (who was a nice guy), she was able to get a new job in the industry… which required a seven-hour one-way bus ride to work, and she lived in a community college dorm during the week, and got less than 24 hours at home on the weekends. I cackled.

  63. Former Manager*

    I received an offer on a Thursday morning for a promotion in another department at my institution and immediately began trying to let my manager know. I put multiple appointments on her calendar (she ghosted them), texted her a few times and said we needed to meet urgently, and did everything else to proactively give her notice.

    I then tried to reach out to our administrator, who was on vacation. Finally, after 3 days, HR told me I had to sign my letter in our online system. I told my manager that I needed to speak to her by 4PM that day (our system notifies the manager when a transfer document is signed, so I had to alert her). She didn’t call, so I sent her an email and cc’d the administrator and outlined the times I’d tried to reach her. I gave them 6 weeks notice. They didn’t have an exit interview with me, had no idea where I was on multiple projects, and then got upset that I didn’t tell them (I sent them links to all of my documents with a detailed outline for each item).

    My new department and manager are amazing and lovely. I’m very happy here!

  64. BecauseHigherEd*

    I’ve told this before but: I was working for the owner-operator for a small organization. She had wanted me to do somethings that violated certain federal regulations. I’d been telling her for weeks that that was something I just couldn’t do, and she kept putting me off. Finally, after a heated exchange, she said, “If you can’t do what I say, then I’ll find someone who will. And if you consistently can’t do what I say, then maybe this field isn’t for you.”

    I cried, went home, and wrote a resignation email saying, “After reflecting on what you have said, I’ve decided to tender my resignation.” I gave two weeks’ notice to help with the transition because, truthfully, there was going to need to be a SIGNIFICANT hand off.

    She wrote back and said, “It has been a pleasure to meet you and to have you as an employee. I have just pulled your access to [work systems and email] immediately as opposed to waiting until the 30th., therefore, you won’t be able to perform any of the tasks that require access to the system. HR is checking how much PTO you have available so you can use that during the next two weeks.” She then listed all of the things she wanted me to do during my final two weeks of…PTO?

    I wrote back and told her I’d like to make my resignation effective immediately.

        1. BecauseHigherEd*

          Ironically, I recently talked to some people who are still there, and they said that she recently gave the managers unlimited PTO. At the same time, she keeps blowing them up with phone calls, Zoom meetings, and emails when they use their PTO because, “How else will you learn and grow?!?!”

          So, yes, I think she may literally not get what PTO means.

          1. BecauseHigherEd*

            Adding that her having to pay out my measly PTO made her think she didn’t want to have to pay anyone out ever again, hence creating the unlimited PTO option and never letting anyone use it.

    2. Mister_L*

      “She had wanted me to do somethings that violated certain federal regulations.”
      Please tell me you reported her to whoever oversees those regulations.

      1. BecauseHigherEd*

        The issue is that it was kind of a gray area. It didn’t EXPLICITLY say anywhere that we couldn’t do The Thing, and she wanted us to do The Thing because it pressured people to continue to use our business services. However, I had talked to reps from the government agency that oversees those regulations *three* times and they emphatically told me that she was wrong–we should NOT be doing what we were doing. I immediately told my boss, “Hey, this is a big issue–Uncle Sam said to not do The Thing!” I prepared several reports for her showing that while it wasn’t explicitly in the regs, it was clear that the regs weren’t written for her to do what she wanted to do. She kept saying, “I’ll think about it.” The fight arose because I had a situation where she wanted me to do The Thing and I did not. She said it was insubordination. I said I had been trying to tell her for over a month that we had been told explicitly to NOT do The Thing by *three separate government representatives*, which prompted the comment.

        After I left, I joined a professional organization for people in this field. They have a best-practice professional manual and–lo and behold!–it explicitly said what I had been telling her all along: that we should not have been doing The Thing, citing the federal code of regulations.

        The unfortunate truth is that this falls in a weird area where there is little oversight for organizations/companies that mistreat people. Think something akin to social work. There are all sorts of mechanisms to detect if someone is committing recipient fraud with food stamps, but fewer mechanisms to catch organizations or companies that take advantage of people on welfare.

  65. ithinkanonymous*

    Right out of college, I worked as a veterinary assistant at a practice close to my house. I learned somewhat later that the vet was a very, uh, devout practicing Scientologist. I had a lot of customer service experience and a nice phone voice, but the doctor tried to make me memorize very long scripts for when I answered the phone that I had to use, word for word. When I kept going off of the script because I was speaking like a normal human, he told me that I wasn’t a “team player” and put me in a room with a self-help book written by L. Ron Hubbard.

    When we weren’t busy, he handed me a list of folks who had brought their animals in once but never went back, and I had to essentially cold call these people and tell them that their animals might be in danger of serious diseases xxx and yyy without routine vet care. I wasn’t comfortable with this, or the book, and I was getting ready to walk out; he referred back to the book and spent almost half an hour convincing me that all I needed to be a great employee was to learn about myself through Scientology and that I would never be a good employee anywhere if I didn’t “start practicing.”

    2. Old Mutha' Hubbard*

      Can so relate, ithinkanonymous; I had a banana pants Scientology boss, too. So sanity-genic to watch the recent YouTubes from ex-members and allies occupying the sidewalk and warning people away in LA right now.

    3. The OG Sleepless*

      Scientology roped in a lot of veterinarians and dentists in the 90s under the guise of management consulting. I never worked for one of them, but oh, the stories.

      1. Artemesia*

        Medical profession contains a lot of people who have a lot of advanced schooling and high incomes but little education; lots of conspiracy theorists and such. I have a relative who runs a scientific lab very successfully and yet believes in young earth creationism. Boggles the mind. I used to work with a lot of dentists and saw a lot of that too.

  66. Ann*

    I’ve heard various bizarre comments when leaving multiple jobs over the years…the boss who offered my male non-degreed replacement a higher salary, the boss who said I’d used the company and made me sign another copy of my non-disclosure agreement on the spot (though the project folded after I left), and the boss who said she’d worked long enough to be able to handle the toxic culture. I replied that I’d worked long enough to know I shouldn’t have to. But the real head scratcher was the HR team who wanted to avoid paying my last 2 weeks, then in what I can only imagine they thought was camaraderie, started divulging confidential HR complaints about my same manager from other employees! And then the COO emailed me offline wanting to speak privately after my exit interview was already completed. Hard no.

  67. Abogado Avocado*

    Got admitted to grad school after a rigorous application process and, of course, resigned with notice to begin my fulltime coursework. On my last day while on my way to goodbye drinks, another manager — not mine, but at the same level as my manager — pulled me into her private office. Although she was less than five years older, she patted me on the hand maternally and said, “Good luck. And, you know, if this graduate school thing doesn’t work out, I’m pretty sure you can come back to work here.”

    Thanks. Wait. What?!

    Fortunately, grad school did work out, the old workplace regularly threw freelance work my way so I didn’t have to subsist (entirely) on peanut butter sandwiches, and I got a good job afterwards.
    I have no idea where that manager is today.

  68. Jinxed*

    When I left a previous job two managers decided to tag team. One of them went the guilt trip route saying stuff like “But aren’t you going to miss us? Think of the friends you made here! Do you really want to leave all your friends?” The other said things like, “This is the best place to work. Everyone who leaves here realizes everywhere else is awful and ends up coming back so just don’t leave.” And my favorite, “You’re not going to do well at your new job. It’ll be too hard and you’re going to wish you never left here.”

    The guilt tripping and the seeds of doubt didn’t work. Eight years later I still love my “new” place and am thriving. Neither of my old managers is still at the old place.

    1. Jinxed*

      Edit: the deranged part is that the guilt tripping and chipping away at my self-esteem weren’t isolated to one conversation. It was every day of my two week notice. Sometimes it was just quick comments in passing but every day I was pulled into a conference room for 30 minutes or more to listen to all the reasons why I shouldn’t leave.

  69. Strict Extension*

    I once took had a service industry job request to shift me from daytime to evening hours. I told them I could do that for a while, but I am a freelancer in the performing arts, and as soon as I had a gig that conflicted, I would be leaving since that is my more important line of employment. When that time came, I let the owner know that I was giving notice and what my last day would be. Her response was “Well, if you’re not going to be able to work evenings after X date, then when the time comes, I’m going to have to fire you.” I clarified that I wasn’t expecting to stay on and that what I had just told her was a resignation with a notice period. She just kept saying it was a shame she didn’t have daytime hours available and would have to fire me. Finally one of the bartenders who knew her better than I did told me not to worry about it because while she’d probably tell people conversationally that she fired me, she most likely wouldn’t say it in a reference check or anything. I still have never used her as a reference, just to be sure.

    To be fair, she was very used to firing people. I worked there two and a half months, and there were only three people there when I left who were there when I started. Highlights included a bartender who was hired for her “following” who decided to let her friends behind the bar to make their own drinks, another bartender who thought it would be funny to leave a screenshot from a porn movie with the staff’s faces photoshopped in for the openers to find, and a busser who tried to sell hard drugs to the resident crunchy granola health nut.

  70. Another Kate*

    In grad school, I had a part-time job working retail. I got my degree and decided to move to another location where the pastures were greener; gave my notice well in advance, and the owner immediately cut my hours in half. When I asked her what was going on, she expressed her disappointment in me and told me I could ask around to see if I could pick up other people’s shifts if they would be off, but she needed to give the hours to people who would “be there.” She also was very disappointed in the person who referred me for the job, a mutual friend, requiring a serious heart-to-heart between the two of them to clear the air. I really needed the money, too.

    1. Kristin*

      I bet if you’d resigned with no notice she would have complained about that until the end of time!

  71. Oh my*

    My very strange boss told me it was standard to let your current boss know you’re looking and he was dissapointed I didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell him. Nah!

    1. Brevity*

      It is truly bizarre, isn’t it, when bosses come up with something like this? A former coworker of mine told me that, when she won an internal transfer to a different department, for a higher title, higher salary and more responsibility, after she went to his office and gave our mutual former boss something like two months’ notice in person, he pouted, then said, “You didn’t act like you were unhappy here.”

      ???

      I guess this was a necessary clue he needed? She was supposed to mope around for a few weeks, instead of not letting emotion take over and being a consummate professional to the end?

  72. CSRoadWarrior*

    Not totally bizarre, but my dad’s coworker (both under the same boss) gave two weeks’ notice because he found a job with higher pay and more flexibility. But this boss was a jerk. He expected you to be on call 24/7 and answer emails no matter what time of day. Didn’t matter if it was a Saturday afternoon, 3am in the morning, or even if you were sick. If you didn’t answer and complete a task within 1 hour (yes, you read that right), you would get reprimanded and be told you were not dedicated to your job. This wasn’t an industry where you did not need to be on call 24/7. And standard two weeks’ notice is the norm.

    When the coworker gave notice, the boss went nuts. The boss refused accept the resignation. But the coworker stood his ground. This went with a conversation that went in circles for maybe about 5 minutes. Also, it was probably in December when it happened. The boss eventually gave him an ultimatum that he will give the coworker until the end of February to decide if he should stay or by then he could resign.

    The coworker did not have it. He just worked his two weeks and then left. He started his new job as expected.

    My dad has since retired too, but not because of the boss; it was just his time to retire.

    1. CSRoadWarrior*

      I meant the industry was not an industry where you needed to be on call 24/7. Completely worded wrong lol

    2. Mad Harry Crewe*

      Employee: I’m leaving
      Boss: I’ll give you until Feb to decide if you’re leaving or not!
      E: … ok I’ve decided. I’m leaving.

    3. Luna*

      What is it with bosses that think a resignation doesn’t work unless they ‘accept’ it? It’s like breaking up with someone. It’s done. Your compliance isn’t a factor.

  73. Hanna*

    one of my leaving presents was a notebook to record sexual harassment because it was a running ‘joke’ that one of the managers often made inappropriate comments to me

  74. ZK*

    Not really bananapants, just a bit funny. I finally quit a toxic workplace (I had a heart attack on the job, y’all, and they refused my sick pay request after. It’s only because my manager went to bat for me that they “let me” take unpaid leave.), and when I put my notice in effective immediately because oh my, I just couldn’t take it a minute longer, I got the, “Well, you know this will make you ineligible for rehire, right?” comment. My reply was, “Thank you! That’s the best thing this company has ever done for me!”

  75. Duckling*

    I resigned during Covid and offered to give 4 weeks because I was the only person in my department and was coordinating a big event in 3 weeks. Well, my boss let me know that my 5 weeks of vacation would be forfeit (unfortunately legal in my state). When I tried to argue that didn’t seem fair, he really told me that it was my responsibility to use up my vacation hours, even when the entire world was shut down. I even asked if I could take two weeks of vacation and come back to manage the event, but was told it’s unprofessional to take vacation during your notice period. So I told him that, with all that in mind, I thought a traditional 2 week notice was more appropriate. Oh boy, did that make him mad. I was told that I was being petty (true), unprofessional (false), and that this would reflect badly on my career overall (also false). Then he threatened that my benefits might be affected and said I would regret my decision when I needed healthcare in between jobs. Despite all that, I held firm on my end date, and he ghosted me for the entire notice period. I documented as much as could, sent him regular updates, and logged off on my last day with absolutely no acknowledgement. I later heard from a friendly coworker that the event had to be postponed and they lost a ton of money on various deposits, definitely more than my 5 weeks of vacation was worth.

    1. Luna*

      I would have said that I was taking my vacation time immediately then. I ‘have’ to use them before leaving? Welp, notice period has become vacation time for me.

  76. DeskApple*

    Upon resigning from my (then 22F American) Au pair contract in Europe when I found out my employers were keeping my Ukrainian co-nanny’s passport from her, they told me they would inform INTERPOL that I was a fugitive and I would be barred from the country. Terrified me at the time.

    1. DeskApple*

      but as an update, not only did I return, I married their neighbor and have permanent residency and never did get contacted by interpol, though I think they should have…

      1. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

        Wait… are you their neighbor now?? How did they react to that? I am imagining a very telenovela-esque exchange of fraught looks when you returned.

        2. DeskApple*

          I actually was their neighbor for about two years and interestingly only saw them once at a distance, when they literally grabbed their mid by the arm and fled into a building. By that point I had realized that neither of them were actually citizens of the country we were living in, though EU citizens and had probably realized I had seen/known too much about their employment practices. They can look me up if they want but when I left them they also told me I would NEVER work in this country again. Not only have I had a few different employers in the last decade, I’m actually up for citizenship this year and have since moved to a very lovely village far far away.

          1. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

            Dang! It has to be satisfying when terrible people flee before you, though.

      1. DeskApple*

        the other nanny wrote me and said that once I left they freaked out and gave her the passport. she took off and married a local in another city – so it was worth the initial terror!

    3. Observer*

      my employers were keeping my Ukrainian co-nanny’s passport from her,

      You were smart to get out. People like that are very bad news (even if they don’t do things that wind up in the news.)

  77. JadziaDax*

    So this isn’t necessarily overly dramatic, but still makes me shake my head.

    Many years ago, back when I worked part-time for my department, I held two part-time positions – I was the administrative assistant for the department, as well as a training instructor and assistant. When most of the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014, the university I work at put a limit on how many hours a week part-time workers could work. Those limits made it impossible for me to keep both roles I was working in, since together they roughly equated to a full-time job (but with no benefits or paid time off, of course). I had to decide which job to keep – and since the training instructor position was in line with what I wanted to do for a career, I decided to quit the admin assistant role.

    Two months before the 29-hour limit on part time employees went into effect (and probably a week after the limits were announced in the first place), I went to my boss and told him that due to the upcoming hourly limits, once those limits went into place I’d be resigning from my admin assistant position so I could focus on the training role I was in.

    He was not happy. He barely spoke to me the rest of the day. Because I only really interacted with him in my admin assistant role, he really only saw me as the admin assistant – at one point he said “I want you to keep being the admin assistant until I retire, and I’m gonna retire when I’m 80”, if that tells you anything about this guy. He didn’t understand why I wanted to focus on training, and the assistant manager had to explain to him that I was much more useful as a trainer and content author than I was as the admin assistant.

    The big thing that drove me crazy is that even though I gave him TWO MONTHS notice, he didn’t even start looking for my replacement until two weeks before the hourly limits were enacted – and he expected me to train my replacement on top of my training duties once we finally found someone to replace me… a month after I’d resigned from the role.

    Oof. I’m glad he’s not my manager anymore.

    1. DeskApple*

      what a creepy drain of a man! does he think you’re the household loyal maid to stay with him as he ages?!

  78. FrivYeti*

    A very different sort of bananapants that the above, but the accumulated effects were similar!

    I quit my first job after two and a half years to embark on a very ill-advised plan to become a full-time writer, based on the general vibe in the company deteriorating, increasing unpaid “volunteer” overtime, and having gotten a few writing contracts in a row and thinking they were going to turn into full-time work.

    When I talked to my manager, he managed to convince me to tell him what the per-word rate of those writing contracts was, then sat in front of me with a calculator crunching out what he believed my expected salary would be based on a certain number of projects at that level per year. His numbers were, even to my inexperienced eye, *very* generous, and he produced a number that was almost twice my salary at the company, then told me he was very proud.

    Then he convinced me to extend my notice period from two weeks to four weeks because “there was a big project we were crunching for” in the pipeline and it was wrapping in four weeks.

    Those four weeks were *rough*. Everyone was working unpaid overtime, we were rushing to hit milestones, and I was increasingly regretting having said yes, but finally the last day came, and the big project was revealed.

    It was a merger without another company, including immediate massive layoffs without severance. Twenty percent of the company, including nine of the twelve people in my team (and I was told that it would have been ten if I hadn’t already been leaving.) My manager was one of the casualties; he was walked out the door at 9:30 AM before anyone else even knew the layoffs were happening, and didn’t get to either say goodbye to me or the team or give me the reference letter he’d told me he would write “just in case”.

    As icing on the cake, because I wasn’t on the layoff list, I *wasn’t* walked out with everyone who was laid off, and I had to spend two hours of my last day sitting through the all-hands meeting afterwards in which the company’s management explained to the remaining people why these layoffs were actually great for the company and would make us very profitable and effective.

    The meeting was not well-received. When I left at the end of the day, a lot of the people who hadn’t been laid off congratulated me for my foresight.

  79. Sharp-dressed Boston Terrier*

    PreviousJob was a nightmare for numerous reasons (family-owned companies, am I right?!), but the cherry on the sundae was about a week into my notice period when I was trying to make up a deficit of hours so my final paycheck wouldn’t take a bigger hit.

    Alone in the office with the wife/co-owner, who came up and asked me if I’d be available for consultation on evenings and/or weekends. Short answer: no. Long answer: [Redacted] no. At which point she – a native of Lebanon, married to an Iraqi – said that co-workers had complained about me being bigoted against Arabs. Conveniently forgetting I had actually referred people of Middle Eastern extraction to the company for jobs.

    I told her how ridiculous that was, citing the above example as well as having Middle Eastern members of my extended family, and immediately shut down my workstation and walked. Finished out my notice period and never looked back.

  80. Anonymouse*

    Several years and jobs back, I told my boss in August that I was thinking of leaving in January (due to a planned job change and cross-country move for my partner), and they repeatedly asked me for a specific last day for several months. Like I am giving you nearly 6 months notice, of course I don’t have an exact last day yet.

  81. Becky S*

    To those who are getting anxious reading these horror stories – it often goes just fine. I had at least 12 FT & PT jobs over the years (sometimes overlapping) and all my resignations went smoothly. I have a friend who was planning to resign from a job about 10 years ago and was beside herself with worry. She was sure her manager would yell at her, would talk about her behind her back, would make things difficult, would try to get her to stay. None of those things happened. The manager in question was disappointed to lose a good employee, but was professional. My friend btw, wasn’t an inexperienced kid, but in her 40s!
    Enjoy these stories but understand most of the time resignations go just fine.

    1. higheredadmin*

      Yes! As a manager, people come in to tell you and are so pensive and worried, they cry, they feel guilty about leaving the team. This is a normal part of being an employed person and building your career, and also people leave or change jobs for a million reasons, from personal to big life decisions like deciding to move city. When someone is getting a promotion, I always make sure to tell them how proud I am of their achievement. It’s OK!

  82. Space Woman Spiff*

    This may not be fully in the spirit of the question, because I was laid off rather than leaving by choice–but my manager did so many odd things after the layoff! The organization I worked at was undergoing national layoffs, and my manager laid off me and my coworker–his entire team of 2. A few days later the new org chart was emailed out to the office, which is how I learned that my manager was…hiring for two new roles, with very slightly different titles, that would be responsible for the projects my coworker and I had started. Because the layoffs didn’t take effect until TWO MONTHS after we received notice, we had to keep coming into the office while he interviewed our replacements.

    The weirdest part, though, was that our manager seemed to reframe the whole thing as us deciding, voluntarily, to quit. He kept setting up social events that we absolutely did not want to be a part of, like a brunch that was just him and the two of us he’d laid off. He hosted a good-bye happy hour where he waxed poetic about how wonderful my coworker and I were, and how sad he was to see us go. We were not leaving by choice! It was all so bizarre and made the last months at that job needlessly hard, because I had to put so much energy into carrying on polite conversation with him; but it also all fit with his management style, which was to be entirely non-confrontational in the moment but let you know of a problem 9 months later, when he wrote it up in the annual review to justify not giving a raise. (In hindsight, I’m glad he laid me off.)

    1. The New Wanderer*

      When I was laid off, I happily accepted the half-hearted offers of a going-away cake party and last-day happy hour (two different events) specifically and solely to put my manager and grandboss on the spot. (Okay not solely because I do love cake and free drinks!) By most accounts, it was a really unpopular decision to lay me off and several senior people went to bat for me more than once to try to keep me, so I knew management had heard allllll about it. I obviously wasn’t leaving by choice, but I liked and appreciated my coworkers and felt they supported me as much as they could.

      The only bit of weirdness during the lay-off conversation was my grandboss saying he had tried to get me (a senior SME who is also a woman) reassigned to a different non-technical role as a way to keep me… The different role was one that only women ever seemed to fill and paid roughly 30% less and had a definite ceiling. I said gee thanks for trying but I wouldn’t have accepted the move.

  83. Elsewise*

    I quit my worst ever job after five months. I had repeatedly told my boss over those five months about specific things I needed to be able to do my job. He ignored every single one. When I quit, he scoffed and said “I don’t understand. Is there something you were unhappy with?” At this point I didn’t want to deal with him arguing every point I made, so I just said that the other job was an opportunity too good to pass up. He scoffed again, said “wow” and hung up on me.

    I quit on a Thursday and my last day was the Friday after next. He completely ignored all attempts to get in contact until the following Wednesday, nearly a week after I quit. It wasn’t until Tuesday of my last week that he even told my coworkers that I was leaving. (He’d forbidden me from telling anyone, and at this point I didn’t care enough to bother.) I had, with much effort, scheduled a training for him and one other coworker on my final day. He hadn’t told the coworker I would be training her, and showed up two hours late. While we waited for him, I asked if she wanted me to show her how to do some other parts of my job. She said “not really. If I know how to do it, he’s going to make me do it, and I don’t get paid enough for that.” Fair enough.

    When he eventually showed up, I walked them both through parts of my job. He visibly had no idea what I was talking about. When the coworker asked him if he understood, he got very hostile and snapped at her that of course he did. When she asked who would be doing which parts of my job, he said “we’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it.” She said she didn’t have capacity to do my job. He repeated that she shouldn’t worry about it. He also added that we could “just put [my job] on pause while we figure out how to recruit someone who will stay.”

    Readers, I was this nonprofit’s only fundraiser.

    2. Ama*

      WOW. (Also, as a nonprofit employee myself I’m laughing at him thinking a fundraising employee would stay anywhere that horrible … fundraising staff are always in demand.)

    3. Pickwick*

      I think we can imagine what happened next, and I hope you got some feelings of vindication from it!

      My dad worked for a small teapot display company that relied heavily on public support, as tickets to the teapot hall barely covered the cost of the space. Additional fundraising events were needed to support the skilled artisans involved even though much of the labor was performed by unpaid and barely-paid interns, and the centerpiece of the tea set was an annual gala fundraiser. Dad spent a few months each year planning this event, reaching out to teapot enthusiasts and local business owners for donations of items to auction, and it brought in a third of the annual budget in its last year.

      But the old leader retired to contemplate the mysteries of oolong, and the two new heads wanted to balance the ledger on the other side. They canceled the gala and stopped reaching out for local support; instead, they cut expenditures by the breathtakingly direct method of no longer paying taxes or sometimes even wages. The Board of Teapot Directors had gotten used to the old tea service, which brewed and poured itself without much reference to them, and didn’t notice there was a problem steeping till after much of the small staff had departed, replaced by a stack of increasingly stern letters from the IRS. (My dad had read the tea leaves and found another job involving local outreach, though he stayed on part-time till the very end, at which point the new heads withheld his final paycheck.)

      Of course, the collapse of the sole local teapot performance space left a hole in the community. The Board investigated, ousted the heads, and tried to put together a plan, but they’d somehow run up a debt of more than $400,000 in a few years’ time and needed to commit to an IRS payment plan, etc. The plan went up in steam.

      So the two heads started a new local teapot dome. Some artisans refused outright to work with them, but they must have found others: several years later, I still drive past its sign on the way to work. Someday, I expect to see dramatic headlines in the paper about its collapse, but I’ll wonder till then how they’ve kept it going so long.

      1. Dr. BOM*

        A smidge off-topic, but I wanted to congratulate your excellent use of terrible puns throughout your story.

  84. melissa*

    Mine is not bizarre but— my manager cried when I resigned. Cried and begged me to stay, promising everything would be better. And I almost caved! I called my husband for advice and he said, “That’s what an abusive spouse does when you try to leave them.” And he was 100% right. I pulled up my socks, went back, and told my manager it was final. I am SO glad I did.

    1. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

      Good job, melissashusband, and good job you! It’s hard not to cave to those sorts of tactics; that’s why people use them.

        1. linger*

          [Explanation for the uninitiated: it’s the title of Murderbot’s favourite soap opera (The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells; I’m currently reading the series following commenters’ recommendations here last month).
          Had to wonder if another serial name mentioned, Lineages of the Sun, was a deliberate inversion of Days of our Lives.

        2. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

          Thank you! I can only hope that some TV executive will see my username and all the people who compliment it and decide to make the show (my pitch: Murderbot TV show with RAFOSM as a show within a show).

  85. lizjennings87*

    I resigned and went through long, protracted convos with my boss, grandboss, and great grandboss to get me to stay. I was burned out and great grandboss in particular kept misstating the problems and offering bad solutions. When I finally got on Zoom with all three of them to say thank you but no, grandboss was super gracious and said I was always welcome back if anything changed. Great grandboss waited a beat and then said, “I hope you hate New Employer.”

  86. he made his point*

    I gave notice at a job that was full of craziness; it was so bad I was leaving without another job lined up, and everyone there that I told that (with a single exception) just nodded like they got it. (They did; turnover was high.) After I gave notice, my boss’s boss, who I had very little to do with anyway, made a point of walking past my desk, when he always used to go the more direct route from Point A to Point B, while very obviously ignoring me. It was both weird and kind of hilarious.

  87. Callie Stenics*

    I was working in retail right out of college. I told my manager I’d be leaving at the end of the month to move closer to my family. She paused for a moment, laughed out loud, and then said, “This is the sign I’ve been waiting for. I hate this place. I’m quitting too.”

    1. Ama*

      Ha. I have this theory that some of these managers who have bad reactions it is because they know they also should leave but decide to get defensive about the fact that their employee left first — yours is like the flip side of that.

  88. Gibby*

    I worked as the office manager for a small company for about a year and a half. (A year and a half too long! But we won’t get into that!) My boss was the owner, when I gave him my resignation, he was furious, he yelled “how could you do this to me?” The next day, as sweet as he could be, offered me 20k to stay, shortened hours and extra PTO. I politely declined but he became furious again and told me “I insist you stay!” It took everything I had to stay for my 2 week notice.

  89. Jo*

    This is barely deranged by the standards of this site but it still made me laugh. I worked at the same place for the better part of a decade. For most of the time there I’d been managed by Kayla, who had been really supportive and a great colleague even after I moved to being managed by Noel. Since Noel hadn’t managed me for very long, he suggested Kayla might like to do the speech at my farewell. Kayla really wanted to do this, but she wasn’t going to be working on my last day as it was right before Christmas. I said hey, no problem, I’ll just have my official farewell the day before I leave. But Paul, who managed both Kayla and Noel, said that wasn’t allowed and I could only have my farewell (literally we’re just talking about a five-minute gathering at my desk to say a few words and open a gift) on my proper final day. Turned out Noel wasn’t going to be there either, so Paul gave the speech, but he had never worked closely with me and didn’t know anything about me, so he literally just read out a list of what date I started and what dates I had moved teams and that was the ENTIRE speech. So awkward.

  90. Psammead*

    I actually have one of these! I told my manager that I wouldn’t be continuing in the role once my contract expired (academic postdoc role, he was trying to get funding to extend the contract). He’d already derailed my internal redeployment attempts by causing people enough hassle that they decided to pull a role that would have been great for me instead of hiring me for it. This was after he’d casually gone “so if they offer you that role, you’re turning it down, right?” He was not delighted with my response on that one.
    I’d anticipated trouble because he was brilliant but also awful at interacting with people in general, and had already had a chat with HR complete with paper trail of his bad behaviour and let them know I wanted out. I emailed over a resignation and then when he said he wanted a face to face meeting I told HR about the meeting and then went in prepped with a strong message of “this is happening so how do we want to handle the hand over?” Instead he spent the meeting trying to persuade me to stay and ignoring what I was saying until I just left the meeting in tears because he wouldn’t listen.
    The next day HR got in touch to say that he’d contacted them to ask them to send me to the university counselling service because I was “making rash decisions”. Thankfully they’d already realised he was not a rational human being about this, and let me handle it how I liked, and gave me a HR contact I could use as a reference for job hunting. I’m now in a role where I’m much happier and can use it as an exciting anecdote….

  91. PricklyPearOverThere*

    When I was working retail, I got a promotion to a different location in our region. At the end of my first week in the new role, I attended a work party for the old location to celebrate our success during the busy season. Several of my old coworkers asked how my new job was and if I liked it, and I made some small talk to the effect of “It’s been a week in a brand new role and things run differently in the new location, so I’m excited to keep learning and growing.”

    Imagine my surprise when three days later, my new boss pulls me into her office to ask if I had anything I’d like to share with her. I was baffled, and said I wasn’t sure what she was referring to. She then picks up a multi-page email she had printed out from one of the managers at my old location. She had written to my new boss saying that I had come to this event and trash talked my new job, saying that “they didn’t know what they were doing” and “things are run poorly over there”, as well as alleging that I had insulted several members of my new team (some of whom I hadn’t met yet because of my training schedule). I was so upset, and tried to assure her that whatever they claimed I said was untrue.

    Later that day, the manager who had sent the email made a comment to one of my old coworkers about how crazy it was that I had said all of those things at the event, and it quickly made its way back to me that she was talking about it. I kept it to myself, not wanting to feed into the drama. The next week, the director of my old location called me to apologize for that manager’s actions and told me that she had set the record straight with my new boss, but I feel like the damage had been done already. I ended up leaving that role after about six months due to other life circumstances, but I still wonder why my old manager went to such lengths to try to tarnish my reputation in my new role.

    2. Cyndi*

      Oh God, this is rough. It’s so unfairly hard to get out from under this kind of crap once someone pulls it on you.

    3. Mister_L*

      Two possibilities: Old manager wanted your new job or old manager had to start actually doing their job after you left.

  92. Jo*

    I didn’t leave the company, but a department…. Got a new boss who was banana pants. Second week, I was HOSTING a conference off site and he was furious I was out of the office. Called me repeatedly on the WRONG NUMBER and then screamed at me for not returning his calls (after we figure out he had transposed the numbers). It went downhill from there.

    Within a couple months, I’d had it and found a position in another department. When I notified crazy boss, his response was about how disappointed he was that I was leaving because we worked so well together, how he had great plans for my development and all his previous employees loved his mentorship which I would now miss, and he was sad that I was letting the company “prostitute” me by taking this new role.

    WTF? Luckily, I didn’t have to interact with him much after that.

  93. Heffalump*

    This didn’t happen to me personally, but still. I was working as a typesetter for a publisher of scholarly journals. I’m going to call the owner Anna, because she really was about as bad as Anna Wintour. She was known to fire people immediately when they gave notice on the theory that they’d commit some form of sabotage, which struck me as a case of judging others by herself.

    It had been known for a few years that the parents of “Bill,” one of the other typesetters, owned a print shop in Alaska, and the plan was for Bill to move to Alaska and take over the shop when they retired. The time had come, and at his exit interview Bill made the mistake of criticizing the way Anna ran the company. I don’t know what his exact criticisms were, but I could certainly have given her an earful in Bill’s place. Anna fired him on the spot. The hell of it was, there was so much workload that we had mandatory overtime, to the point that it was affecting the health of one of the other typesetters, and Bill was an excellent typesetter. The issue was that he’d criticized her, not that he’d given notice, but still.

    I lasted roughly 10 weeks at this company, and when I was fired, it came as a relief. I stayed in touch with my immediate supervisor, who was a thoroughly decent person. When she gave notice a couple of years later, she was told, “You can’t quit, you’re fired.”

  94. Alex*

    I resigned a retail job via a letter left for my boss. It was the only way I could, really, because since it was retail, we didn’t have emails or phone numbers or one-on-one meetings, and I only rarely worked at the same time my boss did.

    He never acknowledged my resignation to me, ever. I know he got the note because he told others that I was leaving, but he completely stopped speaking to me during my notice period, even the two times that he was in the store with me. Whatever, ok. Fine.

    This was a corporate company, with a central HR, and so when I didn’t see my vacation pay show up in my last paycheck (according to law, where I live) I contacted them and asked about it. Turns out my boss had just not told them I was leaving. He was supposed to submit paperwork, etc., but just…didn’t. They had no idea I’d quit weeks ago.

    Another job I quit once was where I was a bottom-rung worker in an office. It was extremely toxic and so I went out and found another job. I gave my 2 weeks notice to my boss, who begged me to increase my notice period. His reasoning? It will be so hard for him to find someone who does as much work as me with so little pay. Way to say the quiet part out loud! Why did he think I was leaving???? And why would that MAKE ME STAY LONGER?

      1. Mouth Money*

        Yeah; I quit after I told my boss I just wanted to be paid what I was worth. He literally said; “Oh, we couldn’t afford that!”

    2. Cathie from Canada*

      In my first real editorial job, in the 1970s, I was in a small unit of an academic dean’s office — the unit was just my supervisor and me, both women. The academic dean to whom we reported once proudly told my supervisor that he had always hired women for these two editorial positions — because, he continued, no man would work for the salary he was able to pay us.
      Ummm . . . thanks?

    3. Mister_L*

      For some reason your second story reminded me of a comedy movie I once saw.
      The antagonists main henchman had finally enough and switches sides, at which point the antagonist asks him: “You have worked so hard to ensure I have a comfortable life. Do you really want to risk that?”

  95. JimP*

    After I gave my 2 weeks notice, I recommended that we have a meeting with the CEO, Operations Manager, and the person assuming my responsibilities (which was everything IT for this small 40+ staffed org – sysadmin, website development, hardware and software support, etc.).

    During the meeting, the CEO screamed at me to move my chair out of their way as they were trying to squeeze past me to literally print out my cloud document of instructions (which had probably 50 or more hyperlinks to other documents). Everyone else in the meeting had their laptops open. I tried to explain printing it out would be useless. I even tried to loan them my laptop in the meeting so they could follow along. Nope, they wanted to print it out (OK Boomer). That was the last time I would be screamed at for such nonsense after 5 years. I quietly left the meeting, went back to my desk, adjusted my resignation letter from 2 weeks to 1 week and handed it off. I indicated that I would keep shortening the time for every screaming incident. Worked like a charm, and left after one week. I now have my own successful freelance IT business.

  96. Anon for this*

    Not so much bananapants as passive aggressive, but when I left my last job (in no small part due to a bananapants response by my boss to my documented request for a medical accommodation,) she sent out the most bare-bones announcement possible to the staff email list, just that I was leaving and when my last day was. But then the heartwarming thing was that several of my colleagues replied-all to say nice things about me and what I’d contributed to the organization. Almost two years out (in a much better job,) I’m still very relieved to be away from that boss and still really miss getting to work with those colleagues.

    1. No longer jumping through hoops*

      I also quit a job mainly over medical accommodations. I was first hounded over officially handing my notice in so they could hire my replacement (I had to tell boss I had an interview and then an offer, for Reasons. I would t recommend it usually!)

      Then I was forbidden from telling a certain client I was leaving as they didn’t deal with change well, which meant that none of the clients could be told in case word got around.

      The boss never actually sent out an announcement to staff either. On my last day, she called an all-staff meeting, and still didn’t tell everyone I was leaving. As I left the building, the receptionist called me back and gave me a bunch of flowers. I got an email in the middle of the next week from the boss apologising for not having said goodbye in person but she couldn’t find me.

      I had worked there for nearly 15 years (10 years longer than boss had!)

      But I’m much happier in my new job, and as a bonus I no longer have to jump through hoops with my medical accommodations, just a quick word with the boss and it’s sorted.

  97. Nea*

    It wasn’t deranged behavior from a human, but I was given a Workday link and temporary code in my personal email to do some kind of tasking after I left. I just stared at it for a while then deleted it, because why am I going to use personal time doing work for a company I don’t work for?

  98. Cheese Tax*

    I worked at a hospital doing data entry for ED charges. My boss was also my co-worker who complained incessantly about how she didnt need me and could do the job twice as fast without me. Alright bet. I was hired away by our parent hospital to take on a benefits role and my boss went banana pants when I gave my two week notice. Screaming at me, throwing patient files at me, tearing down the artwork her kids made her, crying in the hallway about how ungrateful I was and how she couldnt do this job alone…
    This was 20 years ago and it still stays in my mind.

  99. smt*

    I gave my resignation once and she said, “I knew you never liked this job”. For once I had a good response and said, “No, that’s not true! I just do not agree with some of the decisions my manager has been making.” She was my manager. I was a Membership manager and she was the Ops manager. I was hired, internally, for this role before she was hired, also internally, for her role.

    After that she went around to all staff pretending she really liked me and gathered donations to get me a giftcard and they me a cake for my last day.

    Several of the staff let me know and we discussed and I decided to call in on my last day. It felt really good. The rest of the staff also enjoyed it. I’m usually very professional but that place….no regrets!

  100. iantrovert*

    2008: quit a retail job (still with two weeks’ written notice!) because I was going back to college and had a new student job; the store GM had been verbally abusive as well as actively undermining my work (pulling me away from tasks to speak with me about her own personal matters for long periods of time, repeatedly, then penalizing me for not completing those tasks). Because I was leaving for school, I quit at the end of the summer, which was the busiest time of the year and just before Labor Day weekend, the busiest event (even more than Black Friday) for that store. I had been job searching for a while, and gave notice on the day I was offered a new job, and while I knew it was inconvenient for scheduling, I didn’t feel any particular obligation to be extra accomodating to someone who treated me so badly that I was having multiple panic attacks every shift.

    The GM’s response was to pull me into the office and tell me that I needed to work an extra weekend past my notice period because she needed the coverage, and if I didn’t, she’d give me a bad reference going forward. (Yes, this is quite obviously illegal retaliation.) Luckily for me, one of the assistant managers was also in the office and witnessed this. I reported it to the corporate HR and mentioned that the AM was a witness; HR was appalled and apologized profusely to me, and told me that my last date was fine and that they’d handle the GM.

    I worked through my notice period and left. I later heard that the GM had been demoted all the way out of management, and transferred to another store. A few years ago she tried to friend me on FB; I laughed as I declined the request.

  101. pally*

    I worked at a place with high turnover. Employees giving notice was a regular event.

    I gave notice to HR, and even corrected a mistake with the PTO I’d accrued. They did not subtract 16 hours I’d taken a few months prior. She thanked me for my honesty. Then, it was explained to me that my final paycheck would be paid through my last day. Fine by me!

    However, beginning with me, they would be starting a new final paycheck policy: final paycheck will be issued at the end of shift. I was not going to receive my final paycheck at the beginning of the shift like we are normally paid.

    Reason: some of the people who quit, never returned after lunch break as they’d been paid through the end of the shift. To be honest, the thought of doing something like this never occurred to me.

    So I work my two weeks, receive my paycheck at the end of my last day. And I’m gone.

    A few weeks later, another employee gave notice. Seems the “final paycheck delivered at end of shift“ policy had been rescinded. This person received their paycheck at the beginning of their final shift and did not return after lunch break.

    So much for honesty.

  102. Irreverend*

    I used to work as the head of marketing at a rock climbing gym chain (a notoriously bro-y type male dominated environment, if you’ve never been to one), and reported directly to the owners. When I gave my two weeks, the head routesetter (who also reported to the owners) took me aside and begged me to reconsider, saying that if necessary to keep me there he would fire the setters he managed who had been making rude, misogynist comments, interrupting/obstructing my work, and generally making it very unpleasant for me to work there as the only woman in a professional-type role there.

    I was leaving to start a fully-funded grad school program, not because of the jerks. But dang did it feel good to have someone acknowledge how bad it had been (and it was so tempting to tell him yes and then leave anyway).

  103. aebhel*

    Not me, but when my spouse quit his toxic old job to work somewhere else, his former employer called his new boss threatening to sue them if they didn’t fire him. He claimed it was a violation of the non-compete agreement that Spouse had signed when he started working there (which was completely unenforceable anyway: think ‘you cannot take any job in the same field anywhere in the US for ten years after you leave’ kind of unenforceable), despite the fact that it was a completely different field. He said, and I quote, ‘Either [spouse] can work for me or he can spend the rest of his life flipping burgers’. We ended up having to get a lawyer involved to get him to leave us alone.

    (Also, this happened a couple of weeks before Christmas)

    The topping on the cake is that his old boss eventually lost most of his clients and sold his company, is still working for the new owners in some sort of managerial capacity, and recently texted my spouse to tell him there was a new job opening there and they’d love to have him interview for it. The absolute gall of it was astonishing.

  104. AlexandrinaVictoria*

    I gave 4 weeks notice at my job because I was moving cross-country to go to grad school. My manager basically shut me out for the entire month. This workplace had a custom of fairly eloborate going away parties, with collections being taken for gifts and a potluck. My going away party consisted of an ice cream cake (I’m lactose intolerant) and my gift was a paper map of the city I was moving to. My manager had forbidden anything else.

    1. Expelliarmus*

      That’s so petty, and not even in a funny way. Better to give someone no gift than to give them a “gift” that they obviously can’t use.

  105. nycnpo*

    Me, me, me!!!

    I recently resigned and gave just under three weeks notice. Super toxic work environment and frankly the most inept senior staff I have ever worked for. I HAD to leave because I was starting to learn some really bad behaviors.

    Anyway, I quit and here’s what happened.

    -Since me and my coworker were leaving at the same time we scheduled a farewell lunch. Super informal. My boss cancelled the lunch the day of and told my other colleague “I’m not paying for people who are leaving, that’s a waste.” So, we rescheduled for the next day and paid our own way. Cut to getting back to the office and my boss was crying saying he couldn’t believe we would not include him on my coworker’s farewell lunch (completely ignoring it was mine too).
    -Cut to no one speaking to me again for my last week UNTIL it turns out my boss brought on a consultant to “handle my resignation and transition” since he did not want to.
    -My exit interview. I was berated for twenty minutes. I was told it was extremely unprofessional to give only two weeks notice (I gave more) and that these people run in “powerful circles” and I should be very worried to be out in the real world with how I left things. I was also torn apart for mentioning my departure to my good friend before “the organization could message my transition and since so many people had left we had to be very careful not to hurt my boss’s feelings.

    Miserable notice period but I am SO HAPPY to be out of there.

  106. AdminLyfe*

    I’ve never had a bad reaction, exactly, but there was the awkward time I went to our one-woman, very sweet but not very professional HR to make an appointment to resign (I wanted to tell my managers first, but I also knew if it got back to HR before I sat down with her she would have been hurt). Alas, the HR person was so convinced that I was going to tell her I was pregnant that I ended up having to admit the truth on the spot. It was awkward as all get-out but it ended fine.

  107. Roams*

    When I was 23, I was an office administrator for an accounting firm where I was underpaid and just treated terribly. When I finally decided to quit after two years, I walked into my boss’s office, to tell him I was resigning and that my last day would be in four weeks. He said he was sorry to see me leave, and said: “Can I give you some advice? Freeze your eggs. You never know, you may have trouble conceiving when you decide to have kids.” He spent another 5 minutes talking about why I should freeze my eggs, before I walked out.

    1. EMP*

      wtfffff
      how long was he sitting on telling you that!?? “OP is leaving, better give her my wise wisdom about freezing her eggs”

  108. CherryBlossom*

    A slightly weird resignation story: I was working through a temp agency to find a temp-to-perm position, and they suggested an on-call assignment while I found something. I needed the money, so I signed up for shift notifications. Shifts were first come, first served.

    Unfortunately, shifts were always snatched up within seconds, so I never actually worked for them. Three months later, the notifications were bugging me, so I asked the temp agency to take me off the on-call assignment so I could focus on finding proper work.

    Instead, I was blacklisted from the entire temp agency. No warning, no discussion, just a very formal email telling me that if I was unable to “work to the level they required”, it would be best to part ways immediately. My bad for wanting a steady job with steady hours.

  109. Emm*

    For two years, I worked and took online/weekend/evening community college classes to finish my degree. I took two classes per semester. By the time I had all of my prerequisites complete and I could transfer to a 4-year university, I realized that taking two classes at a time cost about just as much as a full semester (flat fee.) My partner and I talked, and we decided that it made more financial sense for us for me to quit my job, go to school full time plus extra classes, and finish as quickly as possible.

    There was some turmoil at my work at the time. My (administrative) boss had just quit, and so did my dotted line (technical) boss. I had to talk to HR to give notice. My grandboss then called me into her office to try to talk me out of it. She tried to convince me that my plan with my partner was not sound because we weren’t married, (grandboss and I were not close. This is the longest conversation we’d had besides a few exchanges in meetings,) and that she had a niece who just graduated from college and got a full time job for $15 an hour, so it wasn’t like I was going to do much better. I was making $15.10 at the time after working there for 6 years. This niece that she was referring to was in her first job ever.

    She also tried to tell me that when she finished undergrad and grad school, her jobs never confirmed that she actually received those degrees, so it wasn’t like they were all that important anyway. Part of me felt like she was implying that I could just lie about it for future jobs, but maybe that’s just because this whole conversation tasted so bitter to me, and I was thinking the worst things about her.

    It was the most un-valued I’d ever felt, and it reaffirmed my decision. I finished my two-year curriculum in three semesters and met amazing colleagues and professors with whom I’m still in touch. I also got to study abroad. My first job after graduation paid $25 an hour, four years later, I’m now making $37.

  110. LindsaytheEngineer*

    I have two. First situation was an independent study that was supposed to turn into a paid research position in college. Lasted one semester, and decided over summer break that I would not be returning. This professor simply did not acknowledge my resignation (invited me to the group Christmas party though?) and never spoke a word again until shaking hands at graduation.

    One of my chief complaints with my first job out of college was the fact that everything was overly rigid, but extremely disorganized. This was highlighted perfectly after I received an exit interview via questionnaire that was required to finalize my paperwork…..one week after serving out my two week’s notice.

  111. DramaQ*

    When I resigned from a job back in 2018 I had to give them only a week’s notice because I ran into a situation where I would have a gap in our health insurance. I covered my entire family at the time including small kids. Not having coverage was just asking for it.

    My manager at the time was 6’3” and I am 5’0”. After we had the meeting in his office he proceeded to come back into the lab and tower over me with his full height and get very close into my face. I was told that me resigning was unacceptable and that I was to call my new employer back and tell them I was not allowed to start until I had given him two weeks. If I lost the job it didn’t matter because I “owed” him for hiring me.

    I walked down to HR about an hour later after I stopped shaking and quit outright. They told me I would be blacklisted from ever working there again if I did that. I said okay I don’t want to work here ever again if that is the type of people you hire.

    Apparently I made an impression. Research is a small world and this person worked with a collaborator of mine at the new job. Former manager apparently spent the entire meeting complaining about his employee who dared to walk out on him without finishing her two weeks.

    Current collaborator’s technician did the math. He told me good job. They hated working with him too but since he was paying for services the university required they continue to deal with him. Technician said he wished he’d been a fly on the wall to see the guy’s face when I stood up to him.

  112. A Paralegal in a Mid-Size City*

    The most bananapants reaction to my leaving to go somewhere came not from my direct supervisor, but one of the partner attorneys at the firm I was leaving. I am a career paralegal, but for a few years, I tried my hand at being the mailroom & copy room manager at a large law firm in town. In the end, I decided I preferred working at smaller firms and preferred paralegal work to managing people, so I found another paralegal position at a smaller firm, and gave my two weeks’ notice at the large law firm. My direct supervisor, the Director of Operations, gave me the standard, “Sorry to see you go, good luck at your next job” line. But a few days later, while I was working out my notice period, one of the partner attorneys asked to see me in his office. I assumed it was for the usual reasons I would have 1:1 meetings with partners – either they had a special project they wanted my team’s help with or someone on my team had made a mistake that they wanted to discuss with me. But, instead, he proceeded to say, “I understand that you are going to work for Attorney A.” I said yes, and he said, “Oh, I wish you had asked me before accepting a job there.” (He did practice the same area of law as the firm I was going to join, but at the large firm I was currently at, it was very much not a thing that a low-level manager such as myself would go speak to a partner attorney for career advice.) He went on to tell me that Attorney A was a drama queen, a pathological liar and a bunch of other unflattering stuff. After what seemed like a ten-minute diatribe about how awful the attorney I was going to work for is, he stopped and there was just an awkward silence as I picked my jaw up off the floor. I had no idea what I was supposed to say, so I just said, “Thanks for that input,” and got up to leave. He said something to the effect of “Good luck, you’re going to need it.” (For the record, the attorney I went to work for was quirky, but mostly lovely to work with. I never told her all the awful things Large Firm Partner said about her, and she seemed to have a generally good opinion of him, so to this day, I have no idea where the animosity came from.)

    1. Bast*

      Also worked in multiple law firms, and I have NEVER heard anyone say anything good about anyone else that I have left for. I think the branch of law I work in has earned a very deserved reputation of being particularly catty. They almost all have something nasty to say behind each other’s backs, but most will smile at each other in the street or the elevator. It’s ridiculous. During my last switch, when they didn’t actually know the place I was moving to but knew it wasn’t quite the same branch of law, so told me, “It looks bad for you to switch like this, you know. It looks like you can’t commit.” after the whole speech about how much they did for me, and how I was betraying them, etc. They only went this route because they couldn’t say anything personally bad about the new firm.

  113. Jolly One*

    About 5 years ago, I resigned as a manager to a very small local company. I did basically all of the front-end work and had been there several years. When I started, I was a single mom, fresh out of a toxic relationship where my partner was cheating on me with his best friend’s wife. My boss was the owner, had seen me have quite a few hard days. He did mentor me and taught me a lot (a whole lot) in a niche industry. The work environment was toxic though, and he really took advantage of me. I rage quit one day, after an emotionally grueling doctors’ appointment for my kid. He was upset because I had left the office cell phone at work while I was at the aforementioned doctor’s appointment. There was a lot of screaming and cursing.
    The next day, when I came to collect my things and final pay, he had actually hired the “best friend’s wife” the ex from several years before had cheated on me with, in my place.
    I never spoke to him or took any of his calls ever again. Sad, as I did think of him as “friend”.
    I did go to work for a competitor and now have much better pay and working conditions/terms. The ex-boss friend did not take it well and called my new employer 5 different times attempting to sway the owner to fire me.
    I still work with the competitor. Happily.

  114. Justin*

    Three jobs ago (it seems like so long), I was working a terrible, no insurance adult ed job – I still work in adult ed but it’s well-paid professional development work now – and they cut my hours because it was always fluctuating, and my boss didn’t seem to like me much.

    So, I had to get a new job because I was about to be out of money. I interviewed at a place in mid-December, found out my hours were being cut, then had a second interview that I was really excited about while trying to ignore how many days it would be before I ran out of money and couldn’t pay my rent.

    Holidays happened, so I just stressed while everyone went dark. (My job closed over Xmas weeks but we didn’t get paid for it.)

    Got called back in for a third interview and it went well. They called and said they wanted to check my references, so I gave them the best people I could find but my most prominent job had been in Korea, so it was really only “colleagues who had been senior to me” as options. They didn’t like that – this was going to be my first standard office job ever – and asked if I could ask my then-current supervisor. aggggh

    So I asked her. She said she’d do it.

    The next day she said, eh, no. So I told the new job and they were finally like, well, we’ll just confirm you did work there when you said you did. And they did. So I got the job. And my first paycheck hit my bank account 5 hours before my rent was due the next month.

    When I told my boss I was leaving she wasn’t surprised, and then told me, “Try to be more professional next time.” I had done nothing unprofessional as far she’d ever told me, so it just felt like a knife twist when I just needed enough money to live on.

    In retrospect, she’d commented a lot on my undiagnosed neurodivergent traits (my clothes, my speech patterns), stuff I was used to so barely noticed by then.

    I got really really lucky getting out of there, making 19k/year in NYC without health insurance is Not Ideal.

    I saw that

  115. Art of the Spiel*

    When I was a clerk for an insurance company, I told them I was looking for another job, so we started cross-training a couple of people on my job. Four months later, I gave three weeks’ notice.

    I had three weeks of vacation and four personal days. I’d used the personal days, but none of the vacation days. My supervisor and the EA went back through payroll records and changed all the personal days to vacation, because vacation was paid but personal days were lost if you left.

    I discovered this about a month later when I got my vacation payout; I called my supervisor’s boss (who replaced the long-time grandboss the same week I left) about it. I explained that a) vacation days had to be used in a block, and personal days had to be taken singularly, and those days had been used one at a time, and b) I had my supervisor’s signature on approval for individual personal days, spelled out as such. He apologized and promised to get it corrected, and I received the balance shortly thereafter.

    Reader, this is back when voicemails were actual tapes, which only held about 15 minutes of messages. After I had my check in hand, I timed out my supervisor’s VM with the longest string of profanity I’ve ever spit out. I was also happy that his new boss was mortified by this behavior.

  116. Josie*

    During peak Great Resignation times, I was in a super toxic job. I got into a screaming match with my boss via Zoom and decided to quit the next day. I was remote in another state but the rest of the team was in person. I sent an email at 9am the next day outlining my reasons and that I quit, and they could decide if today was my last day or if they wanted a weeks notice.

    I heard NOTHING in response for hours. It was wild. I had copied HR so I finally reached out to that contact individually to confirm receipt. I finally heard back by 2pm or so that today would be my last day. I sent the handover materials I had been collecting all day and then logged off and poured some wine.

    When I called the only coworker I liked to tell her, she was like “ohhhhh….that’s why they’ve all been running around panicking all morning.”

  117. Small*

    This one is very small compared to what I’ve seen here, but I called my grand boss to tell her I was accepting an internal job offer, which she had known that I was interviewing for for the past month. I said “I have some bittersweet news” and she responded with “well, that news certainly is bitter” and then proceeded to rant to me about her own leadership failings. Then she didn’t speak to me for the rest of my transition period. LOL

  118. Kelly*

    My last toxic, micromanaging, gaslighting boss told me I was “stabbing her in the back” when I quit after almost four years. She was known to be very aggressive and angry when anyone quit, even with a prolonged notice period. She also was angry that she wouldn’t be able to hire replacements for me and the other staff member who quit at the same time because it was the “wrong time of year.” She got more angry when I pointed out we were both hired at the same time of year she was complaining about and that we had already worked our busiest season.

    Did I mention at a meeting to discuss our poor morale (I call that meeting “the beatings will continue until morale improves”) that she told us if we were unhappy, after we all “anonymously” rated our morale as poor as well as the person standing next to us at her demand, that we could quit?

    1. Kelly*

      I forgot to mention that we were working a bare minimum of 50 hours a week year round, up to 70+ for salary plus small after hours bonuses. I was making under $20/hr at times as a professional with a graduate degree. She made us beg for our paychecks and wouldn’t use direct deposit because then she wouldn’t be thanked for paying us.
      My new job pays twice as much for half the hours and doesn’t threaten us with more work if we bring up being exhausted and overworked.

  119. Nicosloanica*

    My boss started crying in the restaurant. He was a mid-sixties man and it was my first job out of college – I was maybe 23 or 24, female. I was horrified and didn’t know what to do. In retrospect he was probably under a lot of stress, but whew … what an introduction to the working world. I have always had trouble keeping work and personal separate ever since that job.

  120. Cookies for Breakfast*

    I used to work at a family-owned startup where the secret to success was getting in with a small circle of people the owners trusted (predictably, those who had joined very early on). All was well for me while I was in their good graces, then it became clear that the house was full of bees and it was time to leave. Here are a few things that happened at that point.

    1) The owner, whom I reported directly to, changed my line management twice. Both times, to people who had no oversight on or understanding of my work, and looked after completely different business areas. It was as ridiculous as if, say, the engineering lead was appointed as the receptionist’s manager. “No longer worth my time, must offload employee” is the clear message I got.

    2) I was one of few people they allowed to work from home, with the understanding it was a great privilege they didn’t bestow upon just anyone. But at one point, they changed their mind and started denying my requests. This must be when they realised I would start job hunting at some point. I had many doctor’s appointments and half days off scheduled in those months. My commute was 1.5 hours each way on good days, and even so, on the “appointment” days I was usually able to carry on from home, they always wanted me back in the office for the remaining hours.

    3) My reference process with the new employer took a long time, because the senior managers kept playing “pass the parcel” with it. The owner promised to give me a good reference, then decided he didn’t have time for that and his second-in-command should do it. This guy agreed to it, then never replied when my new employer got in touch. When I followed up on it, he passed the task on to a third manager, who finally gave the reference. I was being gently nudged out the door (not leaving on bad terms, but clearly no longer needed), so it was slightly surprising that they’d delay things. Or it wasn’t, if I remember how much they enjoyed their little power trips.

  121. Jake*

    I have kind of a reverse version of this. I informed my boss that I was going to start looking for another position because of reasons. He pushed back pretty hard trying to get me to drop it and stay.

    He turned in his two weeks notice a week after trying to browbeat me into staying.

  122. Anonymous Reader today*

    HR had no interest in an exit interview beyond covering final paychecks, reminders on NDAs, etc. That is until I had been gone for over six months. Then they wanted me to do a survey or schedule something. I deleted the email. I would have been happy to share my thoughts while being paid for my time. I wasn’t doing it for free.

  123. Middle Aged Lady*

    When I told her, she looked tragic and sais dramatically, “I knew this day would come.” Barely spoke to me for the last two weeks, then, as soon as I was gone, sent me a friend request on Facebook. I ignored it.

  124. Dewey*

    My boss immediately walked into an open, public-facing area and loudly announced my departure to everyone. To which my coworker responded, “I wish I could be happy for you.”

    Still, I gave a very long notice to help finish a project at a different location. Boss and Coworker would disappear to the other location, leaving me behind, even though, as I say, I was staying to finish that project. Boss was just a jerk–she’d snap at me, or pointedly say thank you to everyone but me. Needless to say, I was not sorry to leave.

  125. GD*

    In my first real job after getting my teaching license, I gave my notice in March – teacher contracts are typically offered around spring break, and I accepted a position at a different school. I had been a teacher and a sports coach, building a brand new athletic program over the years I’d been there. Out of all the coaches in this particular program, I was the only one who had played the sport before, and as a result my teams did well in our region.
    My principal was fine and understanding when I told her I was leaving to go teach and coach at another school. My athletic director, on the other hand, was a different story. Our athletic season didn’t end until May. He made up a reason to transfer some of my best players from my primary team to his team (that happened to have a losing season). In May, I emailed all team parents to let them know I was leaving the school and wouldn’t be back next year. The AD followed up with his own email, stating I was “no longer associated in any way” with the school’s program – and he added a few other jabs at my character. He made it sound like I had been fired when in fact it was my decision to leave! I would have never thought someone could be so persnickety about teenagers in a less-popular sport! I ended up having a meeting with the big big boss and talked about slander/defamation. I think we left on neutral terms.

  126. anon for this*

    Asked me on a date!

    I guess my boss had been thinking there was something between us but wanted to keep things professional while they supervised me. They asked me on the date at my goodbye happy hour after my last day, so it was technically not during work time and after I stopped working for them. They had always been a kind, level-headed, and reasonable boss, so I didn’t feel any pressure to say yes to the date. I was able to turn them down in the moment and they took it well, but it was kind of a bananas thing of them to do. They give me good references, I’ve felt comfortable reaching out to them to network, so it’s fine, but it was def weird!

    For added context, I am a woman and was in my 20s at the time. They were in their mid-to-late 40s– I did not see them as a romantic prospect AT ALL. Not that age gap relationships don’t exist or are inherently negative but I was so caught off guard that he was interested in me romantically. I don’t want to ruin any straight man’s fantasy, but if you are an older man considering asking out a younger woman, would keep in mind that it she seems super comfortable with you, it might be because she sees you as a dad-like figure, not because she’s at all romantically interested.

  127. AC*

    My first year out of college, I taught at a small private school. In the spring, I successfully secured a new teaching job with higher pay and closer to home, so I went to the Head of School to let him know I would finish out the semester, but wouldn’t be returning in September.

    Me: 5’1, 23-year-old female. Him: 6’5, man in his 60’s.

    He stands up, towering over me, and proceeds to scream about how by “quitting” I was “ruining my future” and “sabotaging my career.” According to him, I “should have told him that I was looking for a new job, so I could call the new job and tell them I wasn’t able to work for them, because you work for ME!”

    Oh- this is the same guy who would go on to push out a beloved division director and replace her with his own wife. Classy.

    1. BlueSwimmer*

      Here’s another quitting a small private school story. I started my teaching career at a small religious school. We were a FAMILY and had to be at every school event and live and breathe the school at all times for a very, very low salary (for comparison, when I left and went to teach public school, my salary more than doubled). I stayed for three years out of guilt but when my now spouse and I were deciding where to buy a house, we chose a community too far away to stay at the school. I found a public school job and let them know in plenty of time to hire someone else for the next school year.

      My department chair and most of the administration and front office staff would not speak to me during the last month of school and acted like I was betraying the school by leaving. I was the cheer team coach and had to store 80 uniforms and boxes of pompoms at my parents’ house (because the school would not provide storage for them). When I drove them all to school to return them, no one would help or tell me where to put them so I silently carried box after box of uniforms into the main office and piled them up while everyone stared at me. It was the lamest send off from people whose children I had helped with college applications and who were supposed to have been my friends.

  128. Anon-ish*

    Accused me of engineering the downfall/resignation of a long term “missing stair” employee I’d been butting heads with by reporting some comments they made regarding our management team to HR, and then also quitting, to nefariously leave the company bereft of senior employees at this location.

    Didn’t know that they had constructed this narrative, so when I submitted a very respectful, appreciative resignation letter (coincidentally on the last day of Missing Stair’s notice period), I, unlike Missing Stair, was not allowed to work out my two week notice and given a send off happy hour. Instead, I was marched from the office and told by my boss (who literal weeks before had been a happy guest at my wedding, to give you an idea of how friendly I thought we were) to never use him as a reference as he’d only have negative things to say. I was not graceful (cried, wanted to know why he’d say that, etc) but heard later from former colleagues that my crying was reported as me throwing a screaming fit and having to be removed from the premises for that reason. (!!)

    Happy news is my new position was a major pay raise, a major promotion, and has opened many doors professionally. Additionally, working in a sane environment made me realize how true Alison’s saying that working in toxic places will make you toxic. As this company was my first position out of college, I had no idea that their norms were absolutely bananapants. In hindsight, I also felt bad for Missing Stair- she had been a long term employee that instead of having a manager that addressed issues, told her she was doing fine and was supported while complaining about her behind her back. She wasn’t given a chance to grow her soft skills (which were the issues) because our boss never let her KNOW there were issues. Would just commiserate with anyone who complained about her, told me my position would be to take some of those soft skill responsibilities off her plate “since we both know she’s not suited for them” while turning around and telling her he had NO idea why I was asking her to assign XYZ to me, but to assign them to me if she thought I could handle it. We were both gaslit (and I know that term is used liberally and wrongly, but very literally in this case) by our terrible manager. I see my old boss sometimes at industry events, and we coolly ignore each other, but I can’t help but wonder WHY he thought I’d try to orchestrate some great downfall for Missing Stair if I was quitting myself.

  129. I'm new her myself*

    When I left my 1st professional job to go back for my master’s degree, the boss was quite firm that she would not give me a sabbatical leave as was rather usual in our office. A don’t go, but if you do go, don’t expect to come back. OK. Well, I came back after my 18 months in school and got a job down the street and she spent the next five years trying to convince me to come back “home.” And yes the pay would have been better, but, I’d have had to work for a very difficult person, so, no.

  130. juneb*

    Not me who resigned, but I worked for an awful manager who loved to tell everyone that she was hired to make us more “professional” (this was completely untrue. like, a complete lie, as later confirmed by the director). After many formal complaints and resignations from her staff, the director gave her the option to resign or be fired. She resigned, went back to her office, packed her things, and left without saying a word to any of the staff she’d managed for two years.
    Almost everyone in management was thrilled with this outcome, except for one person: Emma. Emma is the reason we know about the “quit or be fired” option, because Emma loudly paraded around the building telling the story, nearly tearing up about how “unfairly” my manager had been treated, how she’d been “silenced” for having different opinions than the director (I like to imagine that one of her opinions is that her staff were peasants, desperately in need of a heroine to guide them to civility). This went on for quite some time, and we got pretty tired of hearing how our horrible manager was such a victim in the situation. Emma’s behavior was brought to the director’s attention, and Emma was later given a similar choice.

  131. sequitur*

    I was working in a customer service role in a call centre facility, though not on the phones. I was ready to resign, and asked my manager if we could have a private conversation somewhere away from the call centre floor.

    This was a place where anyone with even a hint of a brain rapidly got promoted to supervisor, a role that did not come with any additional management training, which I suspect is why the conversation went the way it did.

    First, he refused my request to have the conversation privately. I pushed back at least once and he insisted that whatever I wanted to say, I could say on the open floor (extremely glad in retrospect that I was merely quitting, and not disclosing a medical or personal issue). Then, when I told him I was leaving and when my last day would be, he said “biiiiiiitch” in an extremely weird falsetto.

    10/10 quitting experience, would quit that job again in a heartbeat.

  132. CampusStaff*

    I quit a job in a very small office because of relentless bullying by another employee. I gave detailed examples in my resignation letter, attached research about bullying in the office, and met with the director and the board to make sure they knew why I was leaving in no uncertain terms – not because of the bullying alone, but because of office policies and practices that allowed this employee to get away with it. In retaliation, they refused to pay out my earned vacation time (based on a recommendation from the bullying employee).

    I cut a deal and was happy to just end that period of my life.

    A year or so later, my former boss emailed me asking for a copy of the resignation letter because that employee was, lo and behold, convincing the entire board that he was incompetent and should be fired, and he wanted documentation of a pattern. I sent him the documentation (seriously, he didn’t even keep it in his files?!) and a very healthy dose of schadenfreude. He was forced out shortly afterward.

  133. Daisy-dog*

    I quit my job with no other job lined up which I thought clearly indicated burnout and my inability to maintain the work that I was expected to do. I quit specifically when I did to avoid leaving in the middle of many time-consuming projects – some of the projects had started, but it was a stage where someone else could reasonably take over. My manager had the audacity to complain about how I was “leaving at a really crucial time for your role.” As if that wasn’t the entire point.

  134. Funny Story*

    No resignation but a layoff. The small family-owned company I worked for laid off about 25% of their staff, and that included me. In the separation agreement, I got two weeks severance ( I had been there a year +). They gave me the option to come to work for those two weeks and get paid severance or not come to work and get severance pay. If I came to work, they would be “flexible” if I needed to leave for interviews.

    Me: So, you’ll pay me two weeks’ severance if I come to work or not?
    Old Boss: Yes
    Me: If I work in the office for two weeks, will I get two additional weeks of severance?
    Old Boss: No

    So, they wanted to pay me two weeks of severance but have me work those two weeks. I declined, took the severance, and happily collected unemployment. A friend told me that people stayed and worked out their severance pay. I’m not even sure that is legal.

    1. Mad Harry Crewe*

      I guess on the principle that “if you don’t ask, the answer is always no” – shoot your shot, you might get two free weeks of work out of people.

    2. AcademiaNut*

      It’s common to offer a severance package to employees who work out a specified period, particularly when it’s something like a business closing, or jobs moving to a new location. It’s to encourage employees to stay until they’re not needed, rather than leaving right away, in situations where they can’t hide the fact that there will be layoffs. Of course, if you can get a new job before the end of the period, it makes sense to forfeit the severance in exchange for continued employment.

      It sounds like this employer misunderstood that concept.

  135. CTA*

    This is on the mild side.

    Many years ago, I was working in visitor services at a museum. My only job was coat check. I didn’t have any other responsibilities such as ticket sales or gift shop sales. At that specific museum, there was that separation in visitor services: you either worked coat check or ticket/gift shop sales. After almost 1.5 years, I successfully applied for and received an offer to work in the museum’s library. It was a lateral move, but it was to a less stressful environment (museum visitors can be cruel).

    My department head really dragged out my notice period. Let’s call her Susie. Susie told the person who would be my new supervisor (let’s call him Bob) that she didn’t know when she could allow me to start my new role because her department was short staffed. First of all, it was summer. Sure, visitors still have items to leave at coat check, but that’s the time of year when the museum only needed 2 people there instead of 4 because there wasn’t a lot of visitors that time of year. Second, her department had needed to repost the job since the spring when other staff had resigned. They just didn’t start the hiring process right away because she didn’t need more staff until autumn/winter. And if she needed staff for the coat room, there was precedent for asking the ticket/gift shop staff to work at coat check.

    I thought that she would hold me for max two weeks due to the whole 2 weeks notice courtesy (I’m in the US). Oh, no. She held on to me for THREE weeks. My co-workers in coat check kept asking me when I was leaving so I could move on. Almost three weeks since Susie had been notified of my offer, I happened to bump into Bob (who would be my new manager) in the employee cafeteria and he told me he was glad that I would finally be starting the next Monday. Susie never told me this info. Not even her direct report Steve (my manager when I was in coat check) told me and he was in charge of my schedule at the time.

    IDK what Susie was sour about. Maybe she just wanted to feel powerful.

  136. Pink Hard Hat*

    I resigned from a company that I had worked for for 10 years, and gave them a standard 2 weeks notice. During my notice period they had me working on a project that was just getting started, rather than work on the project I was currently on that was wrapping up, because the CEO was so sure he could convince me to stay during these 2 weeks (I did not).

    The icing on the cake was that my manager, who had been my manager for all of those 10 years, made absolutely no acknowledgement of my last day. He wouldn’t have even spoken to me if I hadn’t gone up to his office to say goodbye. Let me tell you, they did a really good job of making me feel valued.

  137. mp44*

    I once had a manager hysterically sob on my last day. It was kind of flattering but mostly just bewildering to see someone react that way in a professional setting. Despite the big feelings, I have not seen or heard from her since leaving.

  138. missy*

    I quit the job from hell that I somehow had stayed at for 5 long brutal years. this place was absolutely hell. you were paid for 8 hours but worked 10+ a day, you were made to feel guilty and like a criminal if you took your vacation time which you absolutely had to take to keep your mental health.. you were openly berated and yelled at in front of everyone if you made even a minor mistake..and they never trained you. it was just pop you in front of a computer and figure it out. it was horrible especially considering we were doing complex work that involved the federal government and if we made a mistake they’d penalize us tens of thousands of dollars.

    I finally had my fill one day and went for supper with a friend who had escaped earlier in the year. I told her if she found a job at her place to let me know and low and behold there was a current opening. I applied and got the job right away.

    I worked a non standard M-F schedule so I purposely didn’t say anything to my manager until I sent an email saying I was putting my 2 weeks in, at 8pm on my last day for the week. my boss was in the next day and from all accounts went absolutely bezerk when she read it.

    I got called into a meeting on Monday where I was told that they were shellshocked I quit and that I didn’t seem like a “disgruntled employee” and that if I dared to steal any clients that the owner was going to sue me to the ground. I never signed a non compete and I was moving into a completely unrelated industry so I honestly didn’t care. they then told me that I was expected to stop doing any work lest I try to sabotage the business and I had to make process docs instead.

    I had already made process docs for all my responsibilities so my last 2 weeks were spent doing absolutely nothing

    my manager kept trying to make my life hell. she kept trying to get it out of me where I was going but I refused to say anything. she kept telling me how absolutely useless I was and how the new company was going to regret bringing me on and that I’d come crawling back.

    then came the exit interview with our gossip monger of an HR person. I knew there was no point airing any grievances because the company knew what their issues were. we had such high turnover I’d stopped learning people’s names. if you lasted a year you were a long timer.
    so I just sat and grinned like the Cheshire cat to HR all while she tried to grill me or get information from me. I didn’t give her a morsel other than I tested her and she asked my new salary at the new place and I told her they’d never match it
    she pressed again and I told her 100k which was WAY over what I was getting.
    low and behold I found out a week after I left that “somehow” everyone knew I was going to make this 100k.. so yeah.. happy I didn’t say anything of consequence to HR.

    my manager kept being a cow, telling me how awful I was for my entire two weeks and then my department manager came to me on my last day and told me they were surprised I showed up. they apparently had bets on if I’d stay the full two weeks because pretty much everyone just quits and leaves. but I’m stubborn so I stayed.

    I skipped out of there at 4pm drove off giving them the finger the whole way. my mental health has improved a million percent since leaving and even my physical health has improved.

    and to this day they still have a high turnover and the only people left from when I was there are management because they’re so stuck and beaten down they feel they cant leave.

    I now work for a dream company who treats me like gold and pays 2x what I got at the hell hole.

  139. Scintillating Water*

    Pretty minor compared to some, but when I quit my part-time barista job, the boss repeatedly demanded I explain. I just kept smiling and saying “it’s personal” every time she asked. Finally, she called me at 7 AM, demanded that I come over immediately if I wanted my final paycheck, and before she handed it to me said “so you’re really not going to tell me why you’re leaving?”

    Of course, I was quitting because she was constantly yelling at me. I actually expected her to be relieved that I was leaving, because based on her constant criticism.

  140. Happily retired in VA*

    I was working for a company that had a habit of burning out employees — lots of overtime and lost weekends. It was so bad that I rethought my whole career and decided to go back to grad school. I had to be at school in the fall; I had lots of savings; but I wouldn’t be vested in the retirement plan unless I stayed until June 6. I planned to stay into July but I wasn’t sure when I was leaving so I didn’t tell anyone yet.
    My boss came to me in mid May asked me to lead up a horrible project which would have meant a lot of overtime for me and my team through the fall. I really didn’t want to do it but there was no option to refuse. However if I went on the project and then resigned, the chance of the project succeeding were going to be greatly lessened; so that it would be better for the company for someone else to lead the project. I thought about it overnight and decided the risk of being asked to leave immediately was very small so I told her the next day that I was a poor choice for that project because I was going to grad school in the fall. She offered me a large bonus if I stayed through August and successfully led the project. Based upon past broken promises, I asked for the bonus offer in writing. She said great and put me on the project but didn’t give me the written bonus offer. I asked about the bonus offer twice and she said she just needed Grand Boss’s signature.
    On June 6, still no written bonus offer. The project was shaping up to be as awful as I expected and I decided I’d rather have a free summer for once in my life. I put my 2-week resignation in writing and took it to her.
    “But we had a deal.” she said.
    “Based on a written bonus offer which hasn’t appeared.”
    She blurted out: “You know Grandboss doesn’t like you and was never going to sign off on that bonus!!!”
    No regrets and graduate school and new career was the best thing I’ve ever done professionally.

    1. Mad Harry Crewe*

      Good for you! So many people would hold out hope for the bonus to come through anyway, good for you for having clarity about the situation and the people you were working for.

  141. Bluebell*

    At one job, I received a fantastic job offer the night before a midyear review. Not only did I get a better title than I had been requesting for the past year, it also came with a 25% raise. Went into the meeting, and before my boss could launch into my shortcomings, presented her with the letter, which said that my end date could be negotiated. I had only been there for three years, but I offered to stay six weeks to finish up an event I was working on. Her response was “we’ll see” – implying that I owed them longer. She also added that she had been about to announce that they were going to hire someone over me. I went for a walk to cool down and so that she could tell some of senior leadership; when I got back she conceded that timeline would be ok. Luckily, I never had to go back to answer questions from my replacement, because it took them over a year to get a new person in.

  142. Anon Poacher*

    Recently we hired 3 people from a competitor in our industry. That company sent the CEO/Owner of my company a cease and desist letter. LOL. Nothing was illegal, none of the people had non-competes- we made sure before hiring the. Treat your people and they won’t jump ship to a better company.

    1. I Have RBF*

      I’m very glad that in California it’s unlawful for employers to enter into or attempt to enforce noncompete agreements. As of September 2023 noncompete agreements are void in California regardless of where the employee worked when the agreement was entered and/or where the agreement was signed. The big tech companies used to use those, mutual blacklisting, and illegal wage fixing agreements to stifle competitive wages and mobility for employees.

      1. Gumby*

        Wait, really? My company has been honoring a non-compete for one of our newer employees (not that she can’t work for us but that she can’t do certain types of projects for a certain amount of time). Headed to find more details to see if we can start ignoring that now. OTOH, it’s a small industry and maybe we’ll honor it just to not anger people which… is unfortunate.

  143. Elle Woods*

    My friend worked as an account executive at a small consulting firm. She had grown tired of the toxic culture at the firm and had been quietly looking for a new job for a few months when she got an amazing offer from a larger firm with an excellent reputation. She accepted the offer and put in two weeks’ notice. Her boss proceeded to throw such a temper tantrum (yelling, throwing things at the wall), that the occupants of the office suite next door called the cops. She wound up packing up her desk and leaving immediately. She used the next two weeks to decompress and enjoy the beautiful summer weather.

  144. Lauren*

    It was my very first non-seasonal job in college at a retail store. I worked morning shifts in the weekends and night shifts after my classes ended. I purposely took the job during school because I had signed up for a college guided trip to Europe and I knew I would need a couple thousand dollars to do so.

    Well, I went to Europe at the end of spring and summer started. I gave the retail company my two weeks notice because my seasonal employer (think greenhouse) had offered me back my summer position and it was too hard trying to juggle multiple schedules.

    My manager was sad and said they had enjoyed working with me and were sad to see me leave. Well, later that night I got a call from the owner who screamed at me that he never liked me anyway and that I was fired! He said he’d mail me my final paycheck and good riddance. I was young and had never had an adult yell like that before so I was VERY confused! I even asked him meekly “so you don’t want me to work tomorrow morning?” (Haha, I was so naive) He said “NO” in a ‘are you nuts’ tone. I was so shell shocked and cried to my mom about it. But am so grateful looking back. I hadn’t realized it then but he was a very miserable person and ended up in the news years later for under paying his employees!

  145. Someone*

    When I recently left my remote sales job for a competitor, they had me locked out of my computer and all software within 10 minutes, no joke. I was impressed. But they paid me my two week + end of week notice period, and all my PTO.

  146. Brain the Brian*

    I was not the one who resigned in this situation, but management here once forced an employee to work an all-nighter the night before his last day to finish a major client proposal on which he had been the lead designer. (I was the staying employee who stayed up all night with him to double-check and proofread.) In fairness to everyone, the final round of feedback on this proposal took the client three months to provide — so the whole thing should have been long done. Still, an all-nighter right into your last day is pretty awful to be forced to pull.

    1. Brain the Brian*

      (And we can’t forget the time when someone was fired on the spot and perp-walked out of the company picnic for incorrectly setting up portable grills on which a VP was going to cook hot dogs and hamburgers. That one wasn’t really mistreatment *post-firing*, but it’s still pretty horrid.)

  147. Pink Orb*

    At my small nonprofit, a new executive director was hired at the beginning of 2022. He was a disaster—rude, dismissive, hostile, with no background of any kind in the work we did. We did a lot of lobbying and government relations/legislative campaign work, which he had apparently never even heard of before taking the job—he didn’t know a single thing about that aspect of the organization. The Government Relations Director and the new ED obviously ran into serious issues because the GR director was being managed by someone who was an active detriment to her work.

    Eventually, they had a meeting which escalated to the GR director giving her two weeks’ notice. She was a department of 1, so there was no one else in the organization who could fill in the institutional knowledge or crucial relationships with state legislators that she carried. When she tried to log in to her email after that last meeting, the ED had already deleted all of her organizational accounts.

    So she couldn’t wrap up her work, couldn’t create an exit document, couldn’t conclude her external relationships professionally, couldn’t provide a transition plan for the organization’s advocacy and government work, etc. The organization is now doing no advocacy work at all and is a statewide embarrassment.

    I quit a month or so after the GR director did and not a single person who worked there at the time I did is still working there.

  148. Ghost in the Corporate Machine*

    I was a part of an organization that did great work, but the management was chaotic, the workload untenable, and I finally decided to leave. I put in my two week’s notice, which happened to align with another colleague’s last day (She gave several months’ notice, due to different circumstances. We had similar tenure). A few things happened – first, I was told by my HR that two weeks is unprofessional, that it should have been 4 weeks minimum. Then, I was asked not to share the news of my departure widely, that my management would do it for me, but they never actually did from what I heard. Several directors didn’t talk to me again, for the whole two weeks.

    But the weirdest thing is that the whole organization held a wonderful send off party on my and my colleague’s shared last day that was only for her, with food and wine, gifts, and adorable powerpoints which I was invited to attend. To be clear, my colleague deserved every bit of celebration! But during the entire event, no leadership talked to me. I might as well have been invisible. No one mentioned it was also my last day, but since several folks did know, it was a very large elephant in a very small room. Still the strangest departure from a job I’ve ever had.

    1. nycnpo*

      ARE YOU ME?! lol

      I was told the exact same thing about two weeks, ignored in favor of a far junior colleague who was leaving the same week, and also instructed “not to tell.”

      Whew boy, happy to be out of there and glad you are too!

  149. Wounded, erratic stink bugs*

    Not actually deranged at all, but I was just thinking this morning about how surprised ExBoss was when I quit. It was simultaneously super-satisfying and a bit frustrating, since she was clearly oblivious to how bad things were, despite my attempts to diplomatically point out how she was the problem.

    The department didn’t get funding to fill the vacant position I left. Also simultaneously satisfying and frustrating — I want that org to do well, but my boss made it really hard for me to get my job done.

  150. Green Goose*

    I worked in South Korea for about 3.5 years with two different employers. Employers and employees have to pay into the Korean pension plan, and if you are a non-Korean who is leaving the country permanently you are entitled to that pension pay when you leave. We were paid about $20,000-$24,000 annually so the pension money was very welcomed, about $2k per year worked.
    My first employer did the pension matching (as required by law) but my second employer had told me and the other English teachers that they did not participate in the pension matching and told us it was because their school was so small. I believed them because my first employer was a huge chain with hundreds of employees and all the docs were either in Korean or poorly translated.
    When I was finally leaving Korea and collecting my pension from my first employer the guy at the official pension office told me that the second employer had lied to us, and actually forged our signatures on official government documents saying that WE were opting out of the pension matching. One of the teachers had worked there for years so she was losing out on thousands of dollars. She was furious.
    We had a really tense meeting with the director of the school where she acted like we were the ones being awful for being upset. Then she offered to pay us a small portion of what she owed us to just leave it alone and not press charges. We agreed and then when it was time for her to pay she said she changed her mind and would be paying us even less. I was the only one that pushed back and said she needed to pay what we agreed to and she was so angry. She yelled at me, and talked about how awful I was and then refused to speak to me the last week of work. What was particularly stressful was that as part of our contract she was paying for my flight home, but I was so worried she was going to cancel my flight out of spite.
    Then on my last day she brought me a phone number for the airline and said “since we won’t be speaking after today, you can call them in anything happens” which felt like a veiled threat. I asked directly if anything was going to happen to my flight and she made more weird cryptic comments. In the end my flight wasn’t canceled but I spent my last two weeks in Seoul feeling really uneasy and unsure until I actually arrived at the airport to leave.

  151. Js*

    I had a toxic boss who worked at two different offices and sometimes was hard to get a hold of so I emailed him to request a meeting to give my notice. He called me to ask what the meeting was about (which defeats the purpose of a meeting) so I just gave him my notice over the phone. He apparently freaked out because he decided to take the rest of the day off. So I went and shared my news with my coworkers since I knew it would add to their workload and we were all friendly. Boss comes in the next day and announces dramatically to everyone that I’m leaving. He then seemed disappointed that everyone already knew!

  152. Bella ciao*

    When I gave notice because I was moving abroad to live with my foreign long-distance boyfriend, my manager (the general manager) called in the operations director. He was a recently divorced man whose ex-wife also worked for the company and their separation was messy. He gave me a lecture on how love doesn’t last forever and I’m making the wrong decisiom.

  153. Thunder Kitten*

    When people resigned from my old company, the owner would absolutely penalize them. Our role required travel across multiple states, tho most of our work would be in a fixed region of about 40-50mi radius. Those last 2 weeks the resignee would be sent from one end of our region to another (think one day in CT, another in DE, then back to NY the next day, for someone who lives in eastern PA).

    Folks eventually smartened up and decided it was easier to be “fired” by dropping their supplies the morning of, and calling out that they quit.

    This was on top of a 2yr non-compete (yes I know it’s non-enforceable in many situations but the hassle is a deterrent)

  154. VP of Monitoring Employees' LinkedIn and Indeed Profiles*

    Are bosses actually allowed to “ban” you from telling others that you’re leaving? How can they enforce that other than by firing you?

    1. Mad Harry Crewe*

      I mean, there is still (potentially) a relationship to maintain – you want to get good reviews and stuff. It’s not actually enforceable, but why cause extra drama with someone already that dramatic?

    2. Annie*

      People generally aren’t motivated to pursue a wrongful termination case against an employer they planned to leave all along, want to avoid a “fired for cause” or “ineligible for rehire” in their job history, and don’t want to lose out on any pay for telling, so bosses usually get away with it either way.

      Whether or not they’re legally allowed to do that depends on if this crosses the line into “papering” or restricting discussion of working conditions, both of which are definitely illegal.

  155. Elevator Elevator*

    Not deranged, really, just petty and shortsighted – I was a senior team member who singlehandedly trained half the department, and I was poached by another department after a period of being on partial loan to them. When my manager (who hated me) announced to the team I was leaving, she framed it in terms of how I wasn’t contributing much anymore anyway so they probably wouldn’t notice. (Yes, I was in the room for that.)

    She never liked me, and she was always trying to look good to management by volunteering the team for things we didn’t have the bandwidth for, which I suspect is why she chose not to hire someone to fill my position when I left. I think she really did convince herself I hadn’t been doing anything.

    Well, that created a staffing deficit they still haven’t recovered from four years later – nearly everyone I trained has quit or transferred out, every year they seem to be more and more overworked, and without me handling training they’ve gone from an ~85% success rate on training/retaining new hires to under 50%. People have washed out, people have quit from the stress, I’ve heard stories about people bursting into tears in one-on-ones and on routine phone calls with coworkers, and they’ve had several will-we-fire-you-or-if-we-wait-long-enough-will-you-quit-first hires who haven’t worked out.

    I guess I was contributing after all!

  156. Sara*

    While I was still in college, I was working a full-time office job. My manager was a complete nightmare and as soon as I graduated, I was ready to get the heck out of there. Luckily I quickly found a new job and excitedly put my two-week’s notice in. I put together a nice letter of recognition and met with my manager to break the news. I am not sure what I was expecting, but he actually tried to tell me that I was not allowed to quit. Wait, what? He literally refused to accept my notice and said without his acceptance, I was not permitted to resign. I told him that this was not the way this worked and that I was leaving on X date whether he accepted it or not. He was also irritated that he wasn’t contacted for a reference when I was interviewing and demanded to know why and even accused me of applying for jobs and interviewing on company time. He was so angry with me that he refused to acknowledge me for the remainder of my notice period. If I didn’t need that money so bad to pay my student loans, I would have left sooner.

  157. SP*

    This isn’t so much bananapants as it is weird. In 2021, I resigned from my in-person (1.5 hour round trip commute), low-paying, benefits-less job at a very small business for a fully remote higher paying gig at a significantly larger company. I’d worked there for nearly 7 years and ran the office in my state while the business’s owner (my boss) ran operations several states over. I had a good working relationship with my boss, so I was upfront about why I was leaving (no commute, better pay), gave her 3 weeks’ notice, and told her I’d wrap up my projects and document everything as best I could. She seemed stunned, but handled it pretty well. She didn’t make me any sort of counteroffer (which I did not expect and totally understood).

    On my last day there, I was having lunch with my two local coworkers and one of them mentioned she was a little surprised I wasn’t staying despite our boss’s generous offer. I asked what she meant, and she told me our boss had told the two of them that she’d offered to double my pay and let me work from home 4 days a week and that just wasn’t good enough for me! I told them this was the first I’d heard of that offer and that I might have taken it if our boss had thought to mention it to me.

    1. BellStell*

      OMG. Would you have had the strength to call her on speaker phone then and there to ask her about this? I would have.

  158. Catwhisperer*

    I applied for and accepted a position on another team at the same organisation, but had yet to officially sign my contract because there was a freeze in the system during performance review season. My boss, who was hired after I was and who I knew did not want me on the team, knew about this and was supportive throughout the process (because hey, we were both getting what we wanted). The role change also involved moving to another country, so before my move I took some medical leave to take care of a few things with my current doctor. Despite being super supportive during most of the process, my boss did a complete 180 the week before I was scheduled to go on medical leave and started pressuring me to keep quiet about my move, going so far as to tell me I shouldn’t tell my friends and family I was moving or announce the move on social media.

    I found out part-way through my medical leave that this was because he’d decided to give me a performance rating that potentially jeopardised my move since my new contract hadn’t been officially signed and couldn’t be until after performance ratings came out. He also pressured me to come in during my leave for my performance review, though I was on FMLA and I’m pretty sure that constitutes FMLA interference.

    I logged on to our system the day reviews came out because I was suspicious that something like this was going to happen, and found out that not only did he give me a rating that jeopardised my transfer, his justification for doing so was full of inaccurate information that was easily provable to be false (think: saying I didn’t finish a project when I had screenshots of the announcement I made in our internal system). Even though I was still on leave, I contacted my future boss and HR right away to find out whether I could still take the new role. Thankfully I could and it all worked out, but I also found out later that my boss had told my coworkers they weren’t allowed to throw me a goodbye party like we had for all other people who left the team.

    To this day I still don’t really understand the rational of trying to force me to stay on the team when neither of us wanted me to be on it.

  159. AnonyMouse*

    My last job I quit with little notice because I’d been on medical leave and was out of FMLA but the medical issues were not resolved enough for me to return. I was in communication with HR with my current boss CC’d about this and everyone was in agreement that my resigning was the only option. The day after my last day (when I returned my equipment), I get an absolutely unhinged email from my last boss about how I was “betraying” her, how she had done so much for me (including acting as a mentor), how my leaving was going to delay her plans to retire. The cherry on top was that I’d been promoted shortly before my illness so I’d worked for this woman for approximately 3 weeks before I’d started medical leave.

  160. BellyButton*

    It wasn’t me, but my colleague. She had just returned from FMLA after having cancer. She was still recovering, there were complications, and things weren’t great for her. She decided to resign to focus on her health. She was well respected and well loved in our company. Our boss was so mad he told her she didn’t need to work her 2 weeks and to get out. When she walked out of his office he got up and slammed his door.

    She couldn’t pack her office, she couldn’t lift anything, she wasn’t even driving yet. I had her go sit in my car and I packed up her office while she called her husband to come get her. There was NO reason for our boss to that. We didn’t work in the area of the business with sensitive records or client lists she could steal. It was pure pettiness from a petty petty stupid man.

      1. BellyButton*

        2 months later when he announced he was retiring, I did get a little dig in and said “Oh is grandboss letting your work your notice period?” All innocent and wide eyed. I can be petty too. ;)

    2. nycnpo*

      Thank you for extending such kindness to her. That’s truly heartbreaking. I don’t understand where people get off bringing such unhinged and cruel behavior to a workplace.

      I hope she is doing well and I hope you are too! <3

  161. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

    Okay, this is school and not work, and I never would have thought of it except that it came up in my personal life recently…
    I had a lousy time in High School, and in the beginning of my Junior year I found a wonderful college that would accept me early, at 17, with a General Equivalency Diploma. Just to give you an idea of what it was like, I’d taken enough classes that my senior year was going to consist of Gifted and Gym, but when I told the guidance counselor I wanted to leave early, she said, “but you’ll miss prom!”
    For some reason the Vice Principal was deeply personally offended that I was leaving HIS special school. First he told me I was breaking state law (I wasn’t), then he said I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone my plans (I did), and finally he said the decision required his explicit consent. Since he wouldn’t give consent, I was still going to be considered a student and would be expected in class.
    Y’all, this grown man sent report cards to my family saying I was enrolled in classes and failing them. For a whole year. While I was 8 hours away studying Mandarin and anarchist philosophy, and thinking about him not at all.

    1. Rowan*

      As if your family would be unaware that you were at college, and force you to stop to focus on high school??

      1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

        “Now, Raisin, I’m sure the Indigenous Dances of the Americas class is fascinating, but apparently you haven’t been attending the, uh, Spanish I class… that you already took 3 years ago…”

    2. Rhamona Q*

      How did your parents not respond to that VP like “We did not enroll our son/daughter in your school this year. Please refrain from sending us confidential grade information that clearly belongs to another student, who actually attends your facility. Any further information unrequested by us will be provided to the school board” or something along those lines? LOL

      1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

        I think my parents homeschooling me in 8th grade and seeing just what passed for education made them see the admin there as malignant buffoons. I’m sure the school board couldn’t have cared less- they didn’t care that we learned about the American Revolution every year instead of progressing to other topics, why would they care about the Vice Principal being a bully?
        My dad apparently wanted to send the report cards back after wiping his bottom on them, but cooler heads prevailed.

  162. I AM a Lawyer*

    Two of my managers cried, one of those two would not let me tell my clients I was leaving because I had mentioned my new job was a “good opportunity” and she heard “it is a better opportunity than you’re giving me” (it wasn’t, it was just different) and she didn’t want me to tell clients the thing that she had fabricated that I said. They were totally normal managers before I gave my notice.

  163. Jackalope*

    This is mild compared to the others, but… I was working for someplace that had given us an absolutely insane schedule, and I’d finally burned out. So completely that it took me a couple of years to get myself back on track. I gave my three month notice, which was normal for this employer, but gave it to one of my supervisors since I wasn’t entirely sure who to report this to (fuzziness in the reporting structure because the employer had gone from tiny to slightly less tiny and was still figuring things out). The head bosses had a week-long staff retreat for us a month later, and wouldn’t discuss me leaving until after the retreat was almost finished in the hopes that it would convince me to stay (they did say this directly). Unfortunately for them I was already so done that there was nothing that could have convinced me to change my mind (although I did enjoy the retreat with everyone( it was nice to have a week of not planning or working on stuff).

  164. Penny Pasta*

    My job was slowly laying off all the people in my department. As people left, work was redistributed to make up for the missing people, so we all got bigger workloads. I knew eventually I would be let go as well so I found a new job. I put in my two weeks and the head of my department called me back to her office to ask me why I was leaving. After picking my jaw up off the floor I told her because I wanted to leave ahead of being laid off. She told me that she had a list of the order in which people would be laid off and I was at the bottom. So my job was safe for now. my question was, what happens when I make it to the top of the list and how am I supposed to handle all the extra work in the meantime?

  165. Apples*

    I once had my boss tell me that he was so upset by my resignation that when he went home that evening his children asked him what was wrong. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that comment. He then told me during the notice period that I was dead to him. I promptly responded that, unfortunately for him, I was a very loud ghost. He called me at my new workplace every year for several years after that to see if I was willing to come back yet. He wasn’t normally that dramatic, but I think some people just take resignations personally.

  166. EngineerLady*

    I had 19 years at my last place of employment and had a horrible manager, I’d been warned but had never had a bad manager so I had no idea what I was in for. When I turned in my resignation to go to a competitor he was shocked they would pay me more than I was getting because “we’re paying you the top end of what we would pay someone off the street” which was fascinating since I had almost TWENTY YEARS of experience at that site and obviously was worth more to the competitor. He also was gone the last week I was there. The admin for our department arranged a cake as is customary for people leaving and he called her up to berate her about setting up a going away event because he wouldn’t be there for it…. okay. I told her to just cancel it and ended up having lunch with some well liked colleagues, they kindly paid. No regrets about leaving that place. My new employer is awesome and I get paid more!

  167. Llama Llama*

    The only bad experience I had was when I worked at a fast food restaurant. Somebody stole like $50 from me (basically our purses were left in open areas). I hated the job anyway and the $50 stolen didn’t even cover my shuts for the week. I told my manager that I was turning in my two weeks notice because of the theft. He asked if he could look into it and me not resign. I said no and he got pissed at me. Yelled at me and told me to leave then.

    I was a young 18 girl bawling on my way home because of his hatefulness. I wasn’t even going to pick up my last pay check until the other manager randomly saw me one day and was like ‘You need to come and get your paycheck’

    1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

      I’m so sorry- his response makes it seem like he knew who took the money!
      What are ‘shuts’ that you needed to cover for the week?

  168. Carole from Accounts*

    I once reported in to a CFO whose disrespect and abuse escalated to screaming “NO” and “GO AWAY” when I would come to his office to request tasks that only he could perform, like international wires of bills that urgently needed paying (and I had to go to his office to follow up because he would just ignore my emails). Like, he would scream “GO AWAY” at me before I could even say “hello” or ask my request.

    I was so relieved when I got another job and gave my notice to HR. When HR informed him I had quit, he marched into the group accounting office, and screamed at me, demanding to know why I hadn’t simply come to talk to him if I was so unhappy.

    2. Luna*

      “demanding to know why I hadn’t simply come to talk to him if I was so unhappy.”
      ‘Go away.’ =)

  169. AnonQuitsHurrah*

    I resigned because the stress of the job had literally made me sick – I have crohns and I had been in a flare up for nearly a year, mostly caused by the stress at work.

    So I resigned, citing health reasons, and as per my contract (am in the UK), I gave four weeks notice.

    Two days after I had turned in my resignation letter I was dragged into a meeting with my boss and HR and they did their best to convince me to stay. Cute comments like ‘you can take unpaid leave until the health issue is resolved’. Ummm… no? If I wanted to stay I wouldn’t have resigned, would I? I ended up almost shouting at them that the job was what was making me sick but they were either not hearing or didn’t want to hear what I was saying.

    Anyway at the end of the meeting they graciously accepted my resignation and I spent the next four weeks doing basically nothing, and I think I burned the bridge, nuked the remains and salted the earth when I turned in my exit interview questionnaire. I was brutally honest, but I hope that some of the things I said actually were read and maybe looked at, if only to improve things for the poor souls left behind.

    I couldn’t give a fly, though. This was June last year, and my health has improved immensely. I said to my therapist that it seemed to me like I wasn’t actually depressed and anxious, it was that job.

    So yeah, they tried to make me stay. No sir. I am OUT. I blocked all my former coworker’s numbers and life is a lot, lot better now.

  170. Rainy*

    My first “professional” job was in a small family-owned and -run business that was basically a money-spinner for the owner and also deeply, profoundly dysfunctional and toxic in every possible way. Her niece “managed” the business, mostly via the occasional phone call from a nearby casino, and I kept everything running.

    When I gave multiple months’ notice for my December 24th last day (I would absolutely never do that again) to go back to school, the conversation happened over the phone, because I’d spent a couple of weeks waiting for her to come into the office for more than a couple of minutes so I could resign in person. It went something like this:

    Me: Hi Boss, I was hoping to do this in person, but I haven’t been able to pull you aside for a conversation, so–
    Boss: Rainy, why are you calling me? You know I’m busy! [muffled poker sounds] I don’t like how you have to call me for every single thing, I really need to see some initiative from you or I might have to let you go. [She covers the phone with her hand to say that she’s calling an opponent’s bet.]
    Me: I’m leaving at the end of December to go back to school. My last day will be the 24th.
    Boss: You…what.
    Me: My initiative will not be a problem anymore. My last day is December 24th.
    Boss: How can you possible leave me in the lurch like this? You know I depend on you! What am I going to do?
    Me: …
    Boss: Well, at least you have plenty of time to train your replacement! That’s the least you could do! Write up an ad for your job and put it in the paper–have them send the invoice to the shop and you pay it. Run it for two weeks starting next Monday. Interview at least five people and pick your top two and set up a phone call with them so I can talk to them. We want them to start by November 1st so you have plenty of time to train them before the holidays–set up a training schedule, half days, you know the drill, mornings one week, afternoons the next, start them full time by Thanksgiving so you can oversee their work and correct them before you leave. Great. No, deal me in, I’m playing this hand. [click]

    1. Rainy*

      Oh, and just for context: I was in that role for 3 1/2 years and lasted the longest that anyone ever had–before me, most people lasted about 8 months, basically just long enough to realize it was a radioactive garbage fire and find another job. My replacement made it six weeks before putting the phones on hold and walking out in the middle of the day, quitting via post-it stuck to the middle of her desk.

        2. SUE ELLEKER*

          I did something similar. I worked PT in Asda (UK) and had been off after a knee replacement (work injury) When I came back, I was told I could ask for help pulling stock onto the shop floor, to save the strain on my knee. One evening I asked a new supervisor for help, and was told if I couldn’t do the work I shouldn’t be there. So I walked out mid-shift, leaving my resignation on the office desk.

  171. Kath*

    My last team didn’t react in a deranged way but they were unkind and I find it cathartic to share the fact that none of them spoke to me on my last day – except for one person, who called me at 4.50 to ask me to do more work.

    I did not do the work. Instead I got on the phone with HR to do my pre-arranged exit interview, which ended up taking two hours. I had a detailed list of problems I had experienced and had had no help in trying to fix (a major one was working what I was supposed to be doing, as neither my manager nor my peers could tell me).

    A strange end to a strange experience

  172. I don't mean to be rude, I'm just good at it*

    I was young and dumb and wanted to make a good impression on my “bosses” so I worked my butt off, did piles of overtime and mastered every skill needed in the department. I was given additional responsibilities and became the go to guy.

    A new manager was appointed to our unit and was annoying most everyone, but I was oblivious to office politics and did my thing.
    One hectic day, I got to work at 6:30 am, but didn’t get to my desk to sign in until 9:00 am. The new boss red circled and crossed out my sign in and wrote 9:00.

    I picked up my jacket, walked to his office door and loudly said, “I quit”, and left.

    The division vice-president chased after me and caught up to me a couple blocks away as I was about to go into the subway and begged me to return. I told him to call me later that day with his new plans for my continued employment.

    I got a raise and was made his “personal assistant”, with the same duties but no longer reporting to jerk manager, who disappeared 6 months later.

  173. FATWO*

    I worked somewhere for 19 years in various roles, the last five as the director of one of 3 divisions. We got a new executive director at year 17. I gave it time but we didn’t jive and COVID just made it clear that I didn’t have to suffer with someone who was so out of touch with my division’s purpose and needs. Handed him my resignation letter which he opened in front of me (who does that) and then said “Very well. Do you know anyone that could fill the position?” This was actually in line with his absurd thought processes but I was so shocked. It’s been 3 years and that is still resonates as a traumatic experience for me.

    1. Charley*

      I’m not sure I understand. When I’ve resigned in person the letter was just for documentation, so it never seemed to me like it mattered if they read it in our meeting or not since I was sitting in front of them telling them I was resigning and there wasn’t really a mystery what it said.

  174. Ally McBeal*

    This one’s deranged, but in a sweet way. When I quit my corporate-admin job to take a nonprofit gig at a college, I told my direct-line managers first and then told the CEO’s admin, who was de facto the head of the admin team and also a devoted alumna of the college I was about to work for. We grabbed an empty conference room in the middle of the office. She and I were very close (hung out after work, etc) so she immediately interrupted me to share how bummed she was, then realized I hadn’t told her where I was going. About 5 seconds later, THE ENTIRE OFFICE knew I was leaving because she screamed with joy. I think that might be the nicest send-off I could’ve asked for.

  175. Ex Auditor*

    This maybe isn’t as extreme as others but it still irks me to this day. I worked in a corporate office for an insurance company doing premium audits for work comp policies. I had worked there for a few years and didn’t love it – not exactly thrilling work. I waited until after our busy season was done to notify my supervisor that I was leaving and gave a standard two weeks notice, citing that the new opportunity was something I couldn’t say no. She said she understood but was clearly upset, on the verge of tears. She quickly ushered me out of her office and stayed behind a closed door for the rest of the day. The next day when I came to work I was locked out of the building (one of my teammates let me in) and locked out of my computer. When my boss arrived later that morning she looked shocked that I was there. She put a box on my desk and said to get my things and leave. Wouldn’t look me in the eye and fairly ran away. She then locked herself in HER supervisors office without explanation. I was stunned, my team was stunned, and all I could do was quickly box up my things and say a tearful farewell to the great people I thought I had two more weeks with. While I guess I’m not entitled to work that full notice period, it sucked to have the rug pulled out from under me!

  176. Alex in Marketing*

    When I left a previous job, the Chief Heart Officer (someone who was supposedly there to be an intermediate for interpersonal problems, help employees with professional development, and act as an on-call therapist who ACTUALLY was just a spy for leadership) threatened to tell all of my “secrets” that she exploited from me during our sessions together.

    I deadpan told her if she she broke confidentiality that I would drown the company in lawsuits.

  177. Fishsticks*

    I left a job where the head boss was a nightmare to work for – self-aggrandizing but also inept and incompetent, took credit for others’ accomplishments but constantly blamed his own failures on everyone else (and there were SO MANY failures), repeatedly stepped all over the toes of everyone else, treated grown adults like children, had a personal vendetta against my direct boss that led him to purposefully and consciously try to ruin her career, actively followed me when I went on walks during my lunch break until I had to go to HR to get him to stop, etc.

    I left on more or less good terms, professionally speaking, although by then the work environment was one of tension and distrust where my coworkers and I were having to waste half our work time just trying to keep the boss from wrecking everything around him. Gave my resignation, worked my two weeks, walked away.

    A few months later, my father suddenly died of a heart attack.

    I received an “anonymous” card in the mail telling me my dad’s death was me getting what I deserved, using some… choice phrasing.

    I knew immediately who had made that card, and why. I had to call the police and file a report because of certain threatening statements within the card.

    Thanks to coworkers who were still working at my old workplace, we were able to prove that ex-boss had made the card, at work, using workplace materials and the work copier, to send this anonymous threatening card to a former employee who had left because of him and his mistreatment of us.

    1. Raisin Walking to the Moon*

      It’s amazing the way some people in Christian-dominant cultures think “karma” is a synonym for retribution. Gross.
      I’m so sorry you went through that.

      1. Fishsticks*

        Always fun to call the non-emergency line to the police department, explain your situation, and have the person on the other end of the line go, “… he wrote -what-?”

    2. nycnpo*

      Oh my goodness, I am so sorry you went through that. And sorry for your loss.

      I hope that ex-boss is now an ex-employee and behind bars (if this was a perfect world)

      1. Fishsticks*

        He WAS fired, but they kept it quiet as to exactly why and he made up a whole series of increasingly fantastical stories that locals absolutely believed because he’s a local and the rest of us weren’t from the area, and therefore immediately suspect.

        But honestly, by then I didn’t really care. I had escaped, and he could no longer do harm to my old coworkers who remained.

    3. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon*

      Wow, that is deeply unhinged and cruel. I am so sorry! My eyebrows were already off my face from the following you on your walks at work, and they entered orbit about the card. I hope he got extremely fired and you never had to hear from him again.

    4. JustaTech*

      OMG. I just stared at this with my mouth hanging open.
      I am so sorry.

      I’m glad you got away, and I’m glad he was fired.

  178. Lemon Squeezy*

    At one particularly toxic job, the owner of the small company would ask people who were resigning to not mention that they were resigning so that she could make the announcement herself. Except she inevitably just… didn’t make the announcement. Sometimes she would tell us one or two people at a time, and sometimes she just wouldn’t say anything. Because of this we would learn about resignations as furtively whispered rumors around the office. She was very controlling in other ways as well, so I think this was her way to control the flow of information. A lot of people resigned from that job in a very short span of time (it was a toxic job that had only gotten more so with various staffing changes) and had mixed experiences with her reaction, but when I resigned she was perfectly pleasant– though she did ask me to stay on for an extra week past my two weeks notice, which I declined.

    1. VP of Monitoring Employees' LinkedIn and Indeed Profiles*

      My approach with an inept or toxic boss:

      (1) Draft an office-wide email announcing my departure and any other details.

      (2) Sit down with the boss to discuss the fact that I’m leaving.

      (3) During meeting with boss or immediately after, hit “Send” on office-wide email. This way, I have technically told the boss before telling anyone else while still retaining control of the message.

      1. ICodeForFood*

        Oh gosh… you just reminded me. Many years ago (1980s) I resigned by telling my boss, and then spent an hour walking around the department so everyone would hear it “from the horse’s mouth,” rather than through the grapevine. What were they going to do about me “wasting” an hour like that–fire me?

      2. Artemesia*

        And before she can forbid you from announcing. ‘Oh, I just sent the message to colleagues; I of course waited until I told you, but it has already gone out just a minute ago.’

  179. Michelle Smith*

    I quit the same month as one of my coworkers who was new to the team (I’d been there 4 years and was the most senior person on the team, she’d been there ~6 months). Neither one of us had any performance problems and were well liked by our colleagues, but boss resented that I had disability accommodations allowing me to work from home and would frequently try to make my life difficult by trying to convince me to take non-urgent meetings on Saturdays, purposely messing up court assignments forcing the half of us she didn’t like to do elaborate swaps with each other, etc. Anyone who wasn’t anointed one of her favorites had to pay.

    Boss got coworker farewell flowers and had a dessert party for her. Boss refused to speak with me after I put in my notice (including ignoring me in meetings) and pretended not to see me when I went back to the office less than a year later for someone else’s retirement party. Honestly, I prefer it that way. She was monstrous and I can’t keep flowers alive more than a couple days anyway. But it confirmed that I made the right decision to jump ship when I did.

  180. Zandie*

    Years ago, I accepted a job that I had some reservations about, but was overall excited about. While I learned a lot and met a wonderful woman who became a great mentor, for various reasons, including being shunned (as in you don’t exist) by a co-worker, I knew I could not stay there long. I was offered a job and needed to give my manager as a reference. She was happy to (by now, I had figured out she never really wanted to fill the position, but was told to). She frequently asked if I had the “official” job offer. When I received it, I went to her office (just a few steps from my cubicle) to let her know I had the official offer. She thanked me. By the time I got back to my desk (literally seconds), she had sent out a team wide message announcing my departure.

  181. Ariel*

    When I was ready to quit my last job, I reached out to the company that made one of the programs we used. I got hired and put in my two weeks. Our CEO (who had recently demoted me for being too emotional after I found out my best friend died while I was at work) found out where I was going, called the company’s CEO, and not only threatened to terminate their contract, but to sue for poaching their employees.

    It’s been six years. My original company is still using the program of my new company, but their CEO refuses to interact with me.

  182. Dry Erase Aficionado*

    At a previous job I was friendly with my boss, and shared an office space with a coworker, who along with me, was the other senior member of our larger team. We weren’t hang out outside of work friendly, but more like, “what are you ordering for lunch today? Can I jump in on it?” or, “let’s get blahblahblah for lunch today.” Every day. And someone would place the order for the 3 of us, and everyone paid for their own.

    After I gave notice, and she never talked to me again. About work and transition plans or anything else. But still, every day, she would come into my office and now say pointedly to Coworker only, “what should we get for lunch today?” To his credit, after she left he would always turn around and say, “that was weird. Do you want anything?”

  183. Nonprofit Survivor*

    I put in my notice at a toxic job where the three top execs – CEO, COO and CFO – were frenemies. The supposed BFFs were always undermining each other to staff, then blamed said undermining on whichever employee had recently pissed them off. Because I worked closely with all three, that person was often me. I gave family reasons as my excuse for leaving to minimize the drama that always came with an employee’s departure.

    Despite my efforts, the CEO – my direct supervisor – alternated between ignoring me and being extremely passive aggressive. The COO just became aggressive. The CFO tried to organize a goodbye dinner for me, but it was quickly shut down by the other two. After the longest two weeks of my life, I left at 11 a.m. on my last day because I completed all my tasks and, frankly, couldn’t stand to be there anymore (I had started having panic attacks due to work stress). I promptly blocked all three from my personal Facebook (it was an unspoken rule that you had to be friends with them while working there) and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

    That evening, I got a message on LinkedIn from the CEO saying she wished me the best and noticed I blocked her from my personal social media. I didn’t respond. Over the next two weeks, she viewed my profile no less than 10 times. In the few months after I left, she would continue to view my profile every now and then, which sometimes sent me into an anxiety spiral. I finally blocked her there, too.

  184. Emma*

    This is actually happening to me right now. In my country I am entitled to a tax reduction for all work travels the employer hasn’t paid for. And since my boss never approved my expense reports on time, there are a lot of travels I haven’t gotten reimbursed for. So on my last day at work I saved my plane tickets and travel related docs and some other stuff (my contract, my performance reviews etc) to the cloud. This altered IT who reported me to the legal office who is now threatening me to sue me for stealing confidential material. I have explained that I need it for tax purposes and they have now threatened to go to my new employer and say that I have stolen material and ruin my career, and threatened to sue to new company as well.

    I have offered to delete all the files and instead let the tax authorities audit my old company. They said they would discuss the situation and now I haven’t heard from them for a week.

    Ironically, a colleague form development reached out asking for contacts at my new company as my old company would love to get some funding from the new company.

    I also just discovered that they haven’t paid my social benefits for the last 6 months either. They are just awful people.

  185. The no days off job*

    I gave notice on a Thursday morning after having worked for 37 hours straight during an inclement weather event. It was an office job that involved putting on events, I was an exempt employee and in the year and a half I worked there I wasn’t allowed a sick day or a vacation day. My manager actually showed up to my apartment one day when I had a fever and told me I had to come in.

    In my two weeks notice, I said I was taking Friday off since I had been working for 37 hours straight, and then would be back Monday to get things in order for the transition. I turned my phone off, got in my car, and drove to another state to see some friends for a mental break.

    When I returned I had ten voicemails telling me I was not allowed to take Friday off, it was a regular business day and I didn’t have the authority to make that decision. And my roommate said two of my managers stopped by our apartment to try and bring me to work that Friday!

  186. ProducerNYC*

    In my first job in TV news, I resigned for a job in another state (making 22k to 45k, and moving to a state with no income tax). My News Director was so upset I was ‘abandoning’ them that she refused to come out of her office on my last day. She kept her door closed and blinds drawn. As people came out to say goodbye, as we had goodbye cake and snacks, after I exited the control room for my final show, during all of it she stayed holed up in her office. I thought it was weird and honestly, a bit hurtful, but I was still very young and non-confrontational. About 6 months later she sent me an apology for her behavior that day. Of course I still have the note!

  187. BookishMiss*

    It didn’t happen when I resigned, but on my last day. My boss, who always left early, stayed late “to help me carry my things out to my car.”

    I did not comment on the sage stick sitting on her desk, but one of my buddies confirmed that she did in fact sage the office after I had departed. And no, she has no Indigenous heritage.

    That job was a struggle, and I made it through literally by reading AAM religiously to stay sane. Ugh.

  188. SansaStark*

    When I quit my first job, I thought you had to do a type written letter and hand it to the boss, so I did that (maybe on company letterhead? I don’t remember…) and handed it to my beloved boss. Who promptly laughed out loud, ripped it up, became horrified at his reaction as he realized that it wasn’t a joke and that I was terrified, and offered to put the ripped up one “in my file”. I loved that guy.

  189. Angrytreespirit*

    After six months of unemployment I joined a small consulting firm. I was promised a raise in three months. Then I was told I would get raises if I brought income to the company. I was being paid a starvation wage for the area we worked in. the straw that broke the camel’s back was that he made me in charge of a huge report that was not only several years overdue but not in my field (say I am a giraffe expert and this report was about the Amazon). I started looking for other opportunities and after a four months long process was offered a job at about $30k higher than what this guy was paying me. He was super butthurt about me leaving and had the gall to ask me to stay on part time to finish the stupid report. I declined. I still work in circles with him and to this day he still asks why I left. It’s so ludicrous.

  190. ticktick*

    When I was in my first long-term job, my boss was fairly toxic – intentionally leaving team members out of coffee runs when they’d displeased her, having her assistant do her laundry, hiring her sister and her friend – the list goes on and on. I finally couldn’t take working in that environment any more, knowing that I’d always be considered “junior” while actually carrying the burden of a senior position, so I resigned – but since I wanted to leave on good terms, I gave plenty of notice, prepared detailed transfer memos for every one of my files, and attended meetings where she tried to guilt trip me into changing my mind as “she wouldn’t be able to replace me” (and in fact, she hired 3 people to take over what I’d been doing) and where the CEO told me I was crazy for leaving. I also took the conciliatory step of drafting up a contractor agreement for them to sign in case they really got stuck and needed my services after I’d left, even though I didn’t really want to continue working with them. I printed it out in duplicate, put sticky tabs indicating where to sign, and left it on my boss’ desk before I left.

    The week after I left, I received a message on my home number from my ex-boss’ assistant, telling me that my boss wanted me on a call with a customer of the company, and also asking me to contact one of my co-workers to walk them through all my outstanding files. I took great pleasure in calling and leaving a return message stating that I didn’t feel comfortable being on a call to represent a company that no longer employed me, that they needed to sign my contractor agreement if they wanted me to do this sort of work, and that every one of my files had a transfer memo attached with all the necessary information, so there was no need for a walk through. I never heard from them again.

  191. Skinnamarinky-Dink*

    Please note: this was a retail job. I started job hunting because they wouldn’t withdrew their approval of my planned vacation time, in spite of the fact that I had been promised it by multiple levels of management for a year and a half. This was the last straw in a series of incidents of mismanagement that had been increasing over the course of the previous year, and at the time I actually thought it was part of an ongoing campaign to get me to quit.

    It wasn’t.

    My manager was, it turns out, extremely upset. To the point where he wouldn’t talk to me about any of the things I was handling, even though I was the only person handling them; to the point where he would only communicate with me via coworkers, even if they refused to pass on the messages; to the point where he would literally run and hide in a back office with a locked door if he saw me walking towards him. Yes, this sometimes meant that this grown man was sprinting across the sales floor to escape having to walk past me.

    He wouldn’t even look at me on my last day, but that isn’t the bananna-pants part of the story.

    The bananna-pants part of the story is that he threw himself a little party, complete with cake, that he claimed was for his (months-past) birthday. And he invited every department but mine.

    My department which, just to add some flavoring, was forbidden from throwing any parties (we had a farewell party at a nearby diner, anyway)!

    At the time I was deeply insulted. Now, I just say: how many people do you know who drove their manager so crazy that they threw a party on their last day?

  192. SPB*

    I’m a teacher, and in my country we have a last date we’re “allowed” to announce we won’t continue the next school year, and schools can let teachers know they won’t be asking them back.
    For a week I tried getting a meeting with my principal and she avoided me, so on the last day possible I left a formal letter of notice with her secretary. Then all of the sudden she had time, and stopped to read the letter while I’m standing there, near the secretary’s desk. She then yelled at me because “she just finished setting up the team for next year”, even though she fired another teacher on the same team the previous day, and was interviewing replacements that whole week.
    And then she gave me the silent treatment until the last day of school. As in turning her back to me when I said good morning silent treatment.
    On the last day of school, over a month later, we had an end of the year party for all staff where, in front of everyone, she personally gave me the end of the year gift everyone got and saying how much I’d be missed.

  193. Tinkerbell*

    I had a summer job in the psychology lab in college, throwing rats in a kiddie pool full of paint. (Really.) I had originally told the grad student I was working for that I’d stay through August. Over the course of the summer, he got more and more grumpy about me not doing specific things despite a) he was never there, b) he never told me to do any of these things, and c) I was an undergrad and thus lacked the background to actually do any of the data analysis he wanted. I spent two months stressed out until my then-SO-now-wife told me if she was working in a job she hated for money she didn’t need for a man she couldn’t stand, she’d tell him to go fly a kite. I left on August 2nd.

    Last I heard, my ex-boss was complaining to anyone who would listen about how he should have known better than to hire an undergrad and strongly hinting that hiring a “little girl” was a mistake. (I was 21.)

  194. Elsa*

    I’ve never had a manager behave badly when I resigned. But when I left my previous public sector job for my current private sector job, they threw me a goodbye party in which my manager and others gave short speeches, and each speech was basically: “Elsa was great, we’ll miss her, but we know she needs to go make more money now.”

  195. No Longer a Bookkeeper*

    I was so nervous to resign from Toxic Job because my boss was a nightmare – a total micromanager who enabled the owner’s sexual harassment, yelled at a coworker for taking a package to the “wrong” post office, and kept a hidden camera in the pantry to make sure no one took “too many” free snacks. She was a total creep.

    I was relieved when she was semi-normal when I resigned – but she and another manager took FOREVER to pass on the outstanding contracts for me to set up in billing, so I was rushing to enter contracts in the last 3 days of my notice period. When I was getting ready to go to my goodbye lunch on my last day she had the nerve to ask if I had finished everything, as if she would force me to skip lunch if I hadn’t! I told her I was finished in the snottiest voice I could muster and left. As my mom would say, I wouldn’t help her if she fell in a pit of vipers. So glad to be out of that nightmare!

  196. RJ*

    I’ve done exactly one exit interview in my career and it was one I relished. When the HR specialist went through the standard questions and got to what they could do to improve the role, I said nothing except get rid of the manager as she was about to cost them a department. I then went over a list of things she had done to disenfranchise the accounting/finance folks I worked with. One person aside from me had already given notice to leave after I did. Roughly 75% of the department left within six months and the manager who thought she could do all of our jobs was left holding the bag with upper management not happy at all. Finally, one manager had enough of her blaming A/B/C, had a public yelling session where he blamed her for each of us leaving and why. Finally upper management made the call and asked her to resign. That department is still in tatters five years later.

  197. Ruby Soho*

    I had a hard time finding a job after grad school, and took the first one that came my way with no intention of staying any longer than necessary. I gave my 2 weeks’ notice the day before my control freak boss was going on a week vacation. She left me a long list of things to do, including things like cold-calling potential clients for the 100th time. Obviously, they’re not interested and I did not call them. The Monday she was back from vacation/my first day at new job, I got a scathing email about how I clearly did absolutely nothing the last 2 weeks I was at old job and demanding an explanation why. FWIW, I actually did plenty during my notice period. She tried calling a few times, too. I just ignored her and after a week or so, she gave up.

  198. Blanked on my AAM posting name*

    Called me in for an exit interview with HR, who spent 20 minutes quizzing me on why two members of a different team had resigned a couple of months earlier. I politely expressed my ignorance (I was young and fairly new to the world of work – I probably wouldn’t be so polite and patient now!), and six months later the whole department was closed down for being a toxic dumpster fire, which it absolutely was.

  199. Dogmama*

    It started out well, with my boss saying, “I figured this would happen sooner or later” (I’d been there almost 20 years) and wishing me luck in starting my own business. He even agreed to let me take design files from 2 clients, who he wouldn’t retain after I left. I promised to send production to the old company, we all got drinks to the end of an era.

    A week later he told me not to come in for my second notice week. A month later he’s talking to my clients about “theft of intellectual property” and threatening to bring his (big city) lawyers against me. Never said a word to me. Two months later he’s lost one those clients’ production because his new rep went over my contact’s head to her boss to plead his case against me. He retired the following year.

  200. Mishakal*

    I loved the company that I worked for but the department I was in was very toxic (bro’s club vibe). Being female and standing up for myself got me labeled as a Problem. Since I was considered a Problem, the standard operating procedure within the department was to make your life so miserable that you would quit. One big thing example was that they told me that I couldn’t get promoted unless I train on something different (but slightly related) to what I was currently doing, thus taking me years to qualify for the promotion. I started looking for a new job but was kinda bummed that I would have to leave the company. Out of desperation, I reached out to a different department in my company and they made a opening for me rather than me quit (and losing 7 years of domain knowledge of a number of processes). When my director found out I was transferring he went on a loud tirade at the end of the day in full hearing of the entire department. Once the VP found out I was leaving he decided not to talk to me or acknowledge my existence for at least 6 months. I wound up transferring a week early due to lack of work and them just wanting me to leave. My old manager later asked my new manager about how I was doing and old manager was genuinely baffled that my new manager had nothing but great things to say about me. I still work at the company and have no regrets.

  201. Misclassified*

    I quit a law firm which had been misclassifying me as an independent contractor. I had reported them to the IRS while I was employed, and they didn’t fire me for some unknown reason. Got the determination letter in my favor while still working there. A few months later, I quit to move with my partner at the time to another city after her job relocated her. Upon quitting, the only comment I got was “well, you left us with an office full of employees.”

    Post quitting, I had to apply to be admitted in other states. That required past legal employers to attest to my ethical ability to be an attorney. The firm refused to return these forms, so I had to prepare to truthfully answer questions to state bars about why the firm didn’t respond. Their pettiness really just did them a disfavor.

  202. Acanthus*

    My prior PI was bananapants in so many ways. She hosted a dinner at her house where we were expected to cook. Told a co-worker she couldn’t wear high heels because then she’d be more attractive than her. Stayed out on fieldwork and expected said co-worker to cover her classes because her flight was canceled due to bad weather…the weather that day was fine.

    She had her job because her father was a politician, apparently.

    But, most saliently, she claimed that she was too busy to read e-mails. (While, I might add, producing exactly zero work.)

    And so, when she called for my resignation over something completely bananapants (I was trying to tell her that the data a project would need did not exist out in the world, was completely unobtainable, and we’d need to change the project accordingly, like any good researcher), I decided to see this as a sign, and took her up on leaving.

    I sent her a resignation e-mail.

    The subject line read: My resignation.

    SHE DID NOT SEE OR READ THE E-MAIL.

    Apparently she only found out from the admins, who were pestering her in person to sign the official form. And then she sent me a lengthy unhinged e-mail about how my resignation could actually be the best thing, honestly!

    Even though, you know, I was the sole subject matter expert on this project, without whose knowledge it would surely fail. And there only exist, what, maybe, five of us out in the world. And we all know each other. Oops.

    But the best part was this!

    Since she never read my resignation e-mail, she never saw the part where I asked what she wanted me to do during my notice period. I got no mention of it in the long rambling e-mail, so I took that as evidence she didn’t care, and considered it permission to take a paid two-week vacation. In the country I was living in, the one where the postdoc was based, this extremely aspirational historic European country known for good food, good wine, and plenty of museums.

    After all, what point was there in pestering her about it again, if she didn’t read e-mails?

    Bwa-ha-ha.

    1. Acanthus*

      Just wanted to add in the final grant report she got my job duties and accomplishments completely wrong and I refused to sign off on it.

  203. Scarlett*

    Our department head was like a mother hen (MH) to a 70-person team: people would make up problems so she could ‘help’ solve them (and therefore increase your value to her), she’d approve every hire and would veto people she ‘didn’t like,’ gift giving was expected up and down. Just really patronizing, boundary-blurring stuff. It was fine for some – she’s really family for many I worked with – but also, it’s a job.

    Enter me, IDGAF about any of that so I’m starting at a disadvantage. And while I was really good at my job, there was no way to move up. With the support of my boss and grand boss I found a new role. I (of course) had to set a meeting to resign ‘in person’ with MH (I’d never had a 1×1 before with her but whatever). She reamed me for 20 mins for ‘leaving my team in the lurch’, yada yada yada. She has literally no power over me so I inwardly roll my eyes and am probably a little sassy but grin and bear it.

    You’d think that’d be it, but you’d think wrong. We or COURSE throw a party for everyone who leaves (so, like, weekly parties) and boss, and grand boss, and MH all say some words. So boss says some lovely things. Grand boss steps up and is even more lovely – says what an asset I’ve been, and how she knew I was a badass from day 1 because I had started while having a newborn at home.

    MH gets up, and she says, “You want to know who’s a badass, [grand boss] who was pregnant when….” and proceeded to gush about grand boss. It was painful to watch. For 3-4 minutes MH talks about how much she loves grand boss and finishes with something like, “so she’s a good judge of character and we’ll miss you.”

    As I leave the building I get in an elevator with someone, the doors close and they turn to me and say, “Wow I can’t believe MH didn’t even mention you in her speech.”

    She tried to connect on LinkedIn a few years ago now that I’m running my own shop. I declined the request.

  204. LadyAmalthea*

    The bananapants part about how I left my last job was that I ended up giving 6 months notice for a retail assistant manager job.

    I came back from a vacation in February wearing an engagement ring, and my coworkers knew that my boyfriend lived in another country. my manager saw the ring and asked if I had a timeline for when I would be moving. As a New York City resident in a rent stabilised apartment, I told him that I wouldn’t move until my lease was up, which would be the end of August, and I stayed in my job until mid-late August.

    I must say, when I was running my final training seminar, it was absolutely liberating to, when the guest lecturers got flaky, to not worry too much about making things easier for them super last minute, because what were, they going to do, fire me?

    It was deeply gratifying, also, to not tell some of the really obnoxious customers that I only saw occasionally, but over 15 years, that I was leaving.

  205. Justawriter*

    In the early 2010s, I worked a remote contractor job compiling a daily email of news items from that particular publication. I was not jazzed with the work anymore, and as I was getting ready to go out of town, I thought it would be a good time to make a clean break. I sent the manager an email giving my two weeks notice. Hearing nothing, I sent another email a week later with a reminder of what was going to happen. Fast forward to a week after that, and I was now out of town with no access to the work. I get a frantic call from the manager that morning asking if I was going to work on the email. I said, “I wrote you a week ago, and a week before that, giving my two weeks’ notice.” I don’t know if the emails went to spam (I had a corporate account). Regardless, it was news to him (lol), and you could hear the sheepishness in his voice. He asked if I could still do the email.

  206. My Boss is Me*

    I’m lucky to have never had an employer or manager be weird about me resigning, but I did have a coworker give me complete silent treatment during my notice period. Like when I went in on the last day to say bye to everyone in the office everyone was wishing me well and this coworker just didn’t even look at me. And this was when I learned that the whole “we’re a family” thing can be a problem…

  207. Michael*

    I took another job within the same government agency that required a move 3 states away. I gave 8 weeks notice. Boss didn’t really say much at the time. About 4 weeks in, after I had gotten my relocation orders, went under contract for a house and enrolled my child in school in the new area (school year was starting right at the same time as the new job start date), I asked him if he wanted to sit down and have me help him figure out who was going to take over the projects I’d be leaving behind (at that point, he evidently hadn’t thought about it? I worked on several high profile projects). He didn’t really respond to me, instead he found and contacted my new supervisor and asked to push back the start date to an indefinite later date because the timing didn’t work out for him.

    That turned into a contentious phone call between him, my new supervisor, and both of their supervisors, arguing who needed me more. It ended up with my soon to be former grand boss pulling the plug on the request to push it back once he learned in their ideal scenario that I’d have to send my wife and kids to the new location to move into the new house and start school without me, and he didn’t want to break up the family.

    Since my boss didn’t make any arrangements for help from within the organization to back fill me on my most high profile project, he had to back fill it himself. Which meant my last week on the job was a tense one with him shadowing me to learn the ropes. He did pull me aside at one point to berate me how I was screwing him over and claimed that I conspired with my new supervisor to make the job change a transfer that he “couldn’t contest” (to this day I have no idea what sort of contesting rights he thought he was supposed to have, and after looking over HR rules and asking others who might know, I still haven’t figured it out). He added that he was going to have to work overtime to backfill me and not see his family as much. When I responded it was clear from his actions that he didn’t give a crap about me or my family either, he didn’t deny it. This was after multiple years of working for him with excellent performance reviews. And I was moving back to my hometown to be near family, which you would think everyone would understand.

    On my last day my coworker threw a going away party for me. Needless to say he didn’t bother attending. The high profile project eventually got done, but not before he turned it into a dumpster fire.

  208. Seashell*

    When I gave notice at my first real full-time job where I had worked for about a year, my boss asked me not to tell anyone. I thought it was weird, but figured I should go along with his request to make sure I got my last paycheck and in case I needed to use him as a reference someday.

    As I got closer to my final day, I thought he would tell people himself or indicate it was OK for me to tell. That never happened. I remember telling one person that I worked closely with that it was my last day as we were both walking out to our cars. I can’t remember if I told anyone else (this was over 25 years ago), but I remember feeling very awkward about it.

  209. Redheaded Stepchild*

    Not me but a coworker and friend of mine quit during a spectacular argument at the front desk of our small clinic. The boss’s wife (who also worked there and whom we will call TC) was verbally abusing her loudly at the front desk and my friend refused to suck it up and take it. She was told if she wasn’t going to take the abuse she could not bother coming back…so she didn’t. The most epic part of the whole thing was the next day TC (who easily had 18 inches in height and at least 60 lbs on said friend) showed up with a uniformed officer “for protection” and “to escort her off the premises should she dare to show up”. She didn’t because she reasoned she had been told not to…they fought her unemployment claim and sadly won. But karma had its day because she went right to work for a competitor and took a good portion of the clients with her.

  210. Lavalove*

    I resigned from my job of 13+ years. The VP of my org was the person who had hired me 13 years prior, and was my mentor for the early years of my career. I regularly saved his bacon on crazy projects, cued him in to cross-org leadership priorities, and suffered for years with minimal comp increases in order to lead massive transformative projects that ended up getting him his VP role.

    The day I handed in my laptop I specifically went by his office, and he wouldn’t even acknowledge me with eye contact and did hand-wavy ‘goodbye’. It was such a massive blow to my ego, but I gradually came to realize he was a self-aggrandizing jerk who only carried about you if you were bettering his own career.

    He recently asked to connected with me on LinkedIn and I audibly said f*** you to my phone screen. The dog was very amused.

  211. ijustworkhere*

    I had been looking for a while–my boss (Sam) was a real piece of work and I was tired of his nonsense–he only liked women under 25 who had no skills other than fawning over him. Totally out of the blue, I got a call and a job offer from an organization that was somewhat “work adjacent” to ours–we did some collaborative projects together. They knew my skills and made a role for me.

    My boss was INCENSED–he yelled and raged and said he was going to call the other CEO (Gill) and complain about him hiring away “my People.” I told him that I was not “his people” I was my own person in charge of my own career and I was leaving voluntarily.

    Well Sam called Gill anyway. Big mistake. Gill was GREAT. Gill told Sam that he apparently did not know how to retain a good employee, but that he (Gill) did and he was looking forward to a long working relationship with me.

    I’ve been here almost 10 years, promoted 3 times and am earning more than double the money I did at the previous job. More importantly, my colleagues think I do great work and we have a great work environment. I am so lucky!

    Sam eventually got pushed out of his job and is loping around town looking miserable and trying to stay relevant.

  212. Blanked on my AAM posting name*

    Or the workplace so toxic it drove me to contemplate ending myself – I was out sick for months, just struggling to continue living. After their own in-house doctor offered to testify on my behalf the company paid me a generous sum to go away and not sue them – I went in to pick up a few personal items and a senior colleague seriously asked if I could respond to some emails while I was there because he was “too busy” (because I was no longer covering for his slacking by doing most of work as well as my own).

  213. SheepThrills*

    My boss basically refused to acknowledge that I’d put my notice in, along with a number of other senior leaders. The culture was such that no one seemed to believe I’d go through with it, and I was asked several times to rescind my resignation. This denial manifested in some petty behavior during my going away.

    He ignored everything I did to smooth the transition, and it wound up taking nearly a year to hire my replacement. The folks in the hierarchy above him are unhappy with both my former boss and the replacement, so I keep getting asked whether I want to return.

    A few weeks ago, I was contacted by HR and asked to fill out some paperwork. I guess they think I still work there?

  214. segfault*

    Utter clownshoe I used to do IT for had me try to hand off the role to the bookkeeping intern. He’s one of the reasons I don’t do IT anymore…

  215. RemoteSurprise*

    My worst-received resignation involved tears, recriminations, and what seemed like a heroic effort on my manager’s part to make the transition as bad as possible, but the most ridiculous thing was this:

    During the last week of my notice period I fell ill. I was still working but entirely from home. On the Wednesday morning my manager messaged me that she had planned a surprise goodbye get-together for me at the office for that afternoon, but because I was sick she had to cancel it. The head-scratching detail: I *always* worked from home on Wednesdays, miles away from the office. And so did she!

  216. Volunteer Enforcer*

    Ugh. I know it’s not resigning from an employer but it arguably still belongs on this thread.

    I needed to quit a fixed term tenancy three months early. UK based, it means the rent costs the same for a year but you are tied to a contract.

    The letting agency treated me as though I was serving a prison term. Insisted I couldn’t leave, said I had signed up for a fixed term (they hadn’t given me a choice, it was either take it or leave it).

    The landlord refused to accept my notice. After my Dad gave a circular argument, tricked them into agreeing with him, they begrudgingly accepted 1 months rent as a penalty.

    They first had me on the hook for all the rent for the rest of the fixed term (all of three months), plus costs to repair any damage. All damage had been there since I first lived there, I had repeatedly reported and nothing came of it.

    Plus the “deposit” was questionable – it would not be refunded to me upon my exit and I would still be on the hook for any damages.

    Yeah my anon name is Volunteer Enforcer but in real life I couldn’t enforce my way out of a paper bag.

  217. Bad energy*

    For my first job I worked in a tiny office of about 4/5 people and after enduring temper tantrums and telling me my bad energy had caused my computer to crash and lose all my work, I handed in my notice. Afterwards my boss refused to talk to me directly, and would get the person sitting between us to relay messages. He also got his best friend to call me and tell me I was making the biggest mistake of my life, and in twenty years I’d look back on this moment and realise that. My boss kept eye contact with me the whole way through the phone call, but didn’t say a word. Needless to say, 20 years later I do not regret leaving that job.

  218. Blank*

    The co-owner of the small arts organisation I’d worked for mimed pulling a punch at me when she learned I’d put in my notice after working about four months with them (part-time, evenings/weekends, one of a half dozen casual roles as I found my feet in my industry). Thank goodness it wasn’t any longer, since after I quit I found out they hadn’t been doing the proper withholdings/remittances on my pay, so I got to make up the difference in the months after. Fun! My time there hit every stereotype about a family-run business, and also working in the arts.

  219. M*

    This isn’t that bad, but I’m in retail and awhile ago left a company because they chose to close the store I worked at. When I first heard the news, I planned to stay until the store’s last day because I would’ve gotten a good chunk of money as a separation payout, but a new job fell into my lap (the recruiter literally reached out to me on my way home from the meeting where I was told the store was closing). I wasn’t going to turn down a new job just for the sake of staying until the end, and my boss was okay about it, but all of my coworkers stopped speaking to me the minute I left. For a year or so after that, a group of former employees from that store would organize regular happy hours, and I wasn’t invited to a single one. I didn’t mind that too much, but it was so bizarre to me that they apparently found it that upsetting, especially because they knew that I’d been approached by the recruiter and didn’t just immediately start applying for jobs.

    I also recently had the opposite of what this post is asking about happen: a direct report give notice, and I reacted very calmly and normally (“your last day will be X? Sounds good, congrats on the new job, let’s have you submit the online resignation form”) and I swear they wanted me to be upset/emotional/way more reactionary.

  220. jellyfishmetro*

    When I was in college, I struggled to find a work-study job, so ended up working as a waitress at a local restaurant, with the agreement that because of my class schedule, I would work the same specific shifts every week. After about three weeks (and no paychecks), I was told that I needed to start working shifts that conflicted with classes. When I reminded the manager that I’m simply unavailable then, I was informed either I work the shifts, or I’m fired. I replied that if that’s the case, I quit, and to mail my paychecks to my campus PO box. The owner of the restaurant showed up then, and told me that a) I hadn’t ever provided my SSN so they can’t pay me, and b) if I didn’t finish the first month, I wouldn’t get paid. I finished the shift, waited a few days, and then texted my manager that I had dropped out of college and moved home and was therefore no longer able to work. Two weeks later, I got an envelope of cash (??!) mailed to my campus mailbox. I had to avoid that restaurant for the remaining three and a half years I was in college.

    Was it the best way to handle the situation? No, definitely not, but at least it’s a funny (ish) story now (and I managed to get a work-study job later that semester).

  221. CorruptedbyCoffee*

    I gave my two weeks notice the day after my boss, who was taking a pay cut and more responsibility to leave that shit show. My (awesome) boss had been the only thing standing between me and the increasingly crazy nonprofit meltdown happening at the higher levels. Once I knew he wouldn’t be there to run interference I was out of there.

    All in all, I was the fourth person in that small department to leave due to the org’s toxicity in the past year, and the org itself noted they’d lost 30% of people in a year. We were absolutely dangerously chronically unders
    I gave notice from a really toxic job, the day after my own boss had given notice due to how incredibly toxic it was.

    Cue a coworker slightly above me in a related department who found out I was leaving. I’m naturally a quiet person by nature, and with nothing lined up after this job and only 3 people left at my location I really didn’t want a big celebration. We had no budget for it anyway and I didn’t want it coming out of an underpaid coworker’s pocket. They asked if they could do a cake and a card and I said okay. (Cake and card was a pretty standard sendoff in our org). The people I worked daily with were fine with it, but she was obsessed.

    She brought up that she disapproved of my celebration in a meeting where the other people, including my boss, told her they supported me and I had asked to keep it small. She cornered me in the hall and grilled me about not inviting other departments and setting up a party with a virtual kudos board and announcements and why I didn’t want it. I reiterated that I was a quiet person working with a small group and a cake and card were fine. She went to a management meeting and brought up that she thought my celebration wasn’t correct. They again reiterated that the person going got to choose and everything was fine.

    From that point on she didn’t speak to me. Didn’t sign my card, worked from another location until I left. It was all very bizarre.

  222. seeyalater,gator*

    I left a job that I loved, but was basically told I would never advance in. I understood that I would just never connect with our Executive Director, and therefore would never be promoted to a director position. To add context, I was chair of the social committee, I’d worked there for 13 years, was friends with everyone, and was told many many times that staff couldn’t understand why I wasn’t given the director position when my boss retired. Anyway, I found a new job and gave 3 weeks notice. At that meeting our ED said, thank you, and this will be your last day here. He said he would pay for the three weeks notice I gave (YAY), and I offered to provide a handbook or manual for transition since I knew my job best and nobody was there to replace me and the new director hadn’t even started yet. He was like, nope, we are all good! I was like, peace out, see ya later gator.

    Mind you, a temp who left and came back multiple times got 3 going away parties, I didn’t even get an email.

    Anyway, I walked out and never looked back. My friends who were still there kept me in the loop and basically the new director had to start 2 weeks early, they had to hire 2 temps to handle my workload, and multiple people had to scramble to figure out what was going on, and they had to completely restructure the entire department to try to get things on track. Multiple staff were hired and then quit because things were such a mess. I felt horrible that my friends got stuck dealing with the blowback, all because one person just didn’t like me and want to let me help transition the department, but I had three weeks vacation and a new job which I absolutely love, and was promoted within a year.

  223. Katrine Fonsmark*

    I realize this sounds fake, but it actually happened! I quit a job after 6 months because my boss was a sociopath, and a few months later I found out that 5 minutes after I left on my last day, right after my exit interview, she was fired!! I was the latest in a long string of people who had quit because of her, but I guess I was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.

  224. Kay*

    When I put in notice at my first job out of college my boss refused to talk to me for the entire two weeks; she wouldn’t even communicate via email/slack. The only problem was I needed to transition some of my projects over to her as part of my off-boarding.

    So she would sit in her office and I would sit at my desk while my coworker Bob (who was on an entirely different team) would read off questions that she was sending him about my projects. I would tell him the answer and he would type it up and send it back to her. She’d then ask a follow up question and the whole process would repeat itself.

    Then, as I was leaving the office on my last day, she cornered me and tried to convince me to go to happy hour to celebrate my new job. I was 24 and in shock and said yes. It remains the most awkward happy hour I have ever participated in.

  225. No name just vibes*

    I quit my last job after a supervisor pushed me against a wall in front of five witnesses and a security camera. I reported it because one of them was a 20yo girl and I didn’t want to teach her we do nothing when people put their hands on us. they did nothing. no one even called me in for a meeting. they spoke to one of the witnesses, but not me. something similar happened six weeks later. I reported it and then gave them 24 hours to respond, fire the supervisor, do something. they did nothing again, not even calling me, so I resigned. over the next two weeks I got personal calls from the head of HR and the head of my division asking me to please stay and pretty please not sue them. then on my last day, the manager for the division (who no one has met before. she was very hands off and let the supervisors run the day to day) showed up for a nonsense meeting about irrelevant procedures. I was wearing a hat like maybe 50% of the people there and she asked me specifically to take it off with a subtext of “I caught you in a uniform violation, how generous of me to not write you up”. I took it off. then several minutes later she introduced herself to me and I introduced myself back. the look of terror on her face was amazing. I put my hat back on. (this is not really deranged, but just kind of bizarre and sad.)

  226. bripops*

    Not my boss, but I did have a coworker act out over me quitting by GOING MISSING.

    I was one of two receptionists at a teapot painting studio: customers would bring in their teapots, and the painters would paint what the customers asked for. The other receptionist, Lola, had been working there for about five years.

    I ended up being really good at the job and the customers and painters eventually started to like me more, to the point that Lola tried to get me fired a few times. She always backed off after someone reminded her that I was doing 90% of her work in addition to mine, and it would all be on her if I left.

    I gave six weeks notice when I quit (I was moving cross-country on a specific date and would stay until then) even though every other resignation I’d seen involved a painter just walking out after having had enough.

    Two days after I submitted my notice, on my regular day off, I got a call at 10am from the managing painter, desperately asking me to come in. I wasn’t used to hearing her sound so flustered/upset so I didn’t question it and I was behind the front desk in under 20 minutes. It was absolute chaos to do all of the opening duties while working through over an hour’s backlog of customers, but I sorted it out.

    One of my first questions when I walked in was, “Where the hell is Lola?” but one of my favorite painters just grimly shook his head. By 11am things had started to calm, so the painters had time to freak out. Lola was the queen of last minute call outs, but she ALWAYS called. She was attached to her phone, but no one could reach her. Everyone was really worried.

    By 2pm people really started to panic. A few painters reached out to her family on Facebook, one of them called her boyfriend, and another was ready to start checking with law enforcement and hospitals. They couldn’t find anyone who’d seen or heard from her since she’d closed the night before.

    At 3:30, she called the front desk from a friend’s phone. She’d “lost” hers the night before so her alarm hasn’t gone off and she’d only just then realized she was supposed to be at work. She asked if she could come in at 5 to finish the day (it was her day to work a double) and I put my foot down that I couldn’t stay past 4:30. I let everyone know she was okay and they were all furious, most of them agreeing there was no way that she’d forgotten and that she was doing whatever she could to get out of working the double shifts while she still had me to cover her.

    At 4:15 she called again, asking for another half hour to find her phone. I said no, that I was leaving at 4:30, and she could deal with the painter who would have to fill in until she got there. The painter who overheard the call was SHOCKED, no one ever said no to Lola like that because she’d make life hell for anyone who tried. I was at a point where I didn’t care what she did because getting fired would mean a few weeks of quiet and likely some unemployment.

    She showed up at 4:35, miraculously having found her phone. I’m not sure what she’d expected, but it clearly wasn’t a room full of painters absolutely FURIOUS at her. She thanked me for coming in but never apologized.

    It was the radioactive cherry on the toxic sludge sundae that was that job. People tell me I should write a memoir about everything I went through there, this is actually the mildest story I have.

    Last I heard, Lola had quit about two years later, likely because the writing was on the wall after she’d been caught stealing the painters’ commission on products that their clients bought to maintain their teapot. It had apparently been going on long enough that no one was ever able to come up with an exact dollar amount, but my guess is at least a few thousand dollars.

  227. ChipDust*

    When I retired from a professional consulting job (full employee with benefits, not an IC), I gave 4 months notice since the job required a hard to find series of licenses. Immediately after I filed my paperwork, my work load doubled. I ended up having to cover for multiple leaves for others and was given an additional team to serve.

    This continued through my *last day*. Work poured in even to my last hour. I finally sent out a “you know I won’t be here Monday, right?” Email to my teams. One of my team members confided they were told to “get as much out of you as possible”. Work was still coming in when I shut down for the last time.

  228. AnonForThis*

    I had a manager who had a habit of marking people who left – and there were a lot who left – as “ineligible for hire.” Since this was a large employer, it could be very difficult to get a job there again. I got around this by transferring to another department instead. The other department manager notified my manager about the impending transfer.

    My manager was clearly offended that I was leaving and apparently that I hadn’t come to her before then, being one of the longer-term employees at that point. I was in an interesting job role in that I worked under others in the department and she was more of an administrative, on-paper-only manager. So she said that the administrative office in the department was not hosting a going-away party for me (after years of service), and that if the people I worked to support wanted to, they’d need to do it with their own funding. And so, they did. They had it catered and gave me gifts and were lovely.

    I think my manager got flak for that because the next day happened to be our celebration of that month’s birthday group (we did that instead of separate cakes for each birthday), and it was suddenly also a going-away party for me (in that she told me it was, but there was nothing else to indicate that).

    I had also given 4 weeks’ notice but even the internal posting wasn’t posted until a week before I left. I discovered on my own they hadn’t posted it, two weeks prior to leaving, and had to tell my manager to post the position.

  229. Twix*

    Ooh, I have one that’s not too over the top a reaction, but a pretty wild story overall.

    I went to college for a BS/MS program in a computer-related field, so I graduated at 22 with a Master’s degree. I wanted to move back to the area I grew up after school and did without having a job in the industry lined up, so a friend who worked at a computer retailer, refurb, and service company asked if I was interested in a job they were hiring for – someone to build an online sales department from the ground up liquidating stock from the refurb side of the business that wasn’t retailable. (E.g. stripping irreparably damaged computers down for parts and selling the parts individually.) I ended up getting the job with the understanding that I wouldn’t be staying forever and quickly built a very profitable department that expanded well beyond the original scope.

    The owner of the business, who I reported to, was a guy named “Kevin”. I’m not going to try to armchair diagnose Kevin, but something was clearly a little off about him. On any given day there was about an equal chance of him not showing up at all, showing up to rant and rave about how his not particularly well-paid staff expecting to get paid was why he wasn’t making any money, or showing up with three sheet pizza and 2 cases of Red Bull for an impromptu pizza party to improve staff morale. He also started the business as a computer hobbyist in the 80s (this story took place in the 2010s) and hadn’t learned a damn thing about computers since, but he was one of the most ambitious and hardworking people I’ve ever met and was a hell of a businessman. Working for him was… an experience.

    The office manager, who was also the accountant and who all of the staff except me reported to, was an older woman named “Jen”. Jen was probably in her late 50s at the time and was BFFs with Kevin, which is why he’d hired her. Jen and I hated each other. I hated her because she was a condescending micromanager who was obsessed with things like whether people were clocking in in the 2-minute window around their shift start. Jen hated me because everyone knew I was way overqualified for the job and had plenty of other options, so I wouldn’t let her bully me into treating her like my boss and Kevin refused to make me.

    So eventually I got a job offer from a company actually in my field and gave Kevin and Jen 2 weeks’ notice that I was leaving. The online sales department was in shape to continue without me, so Kevin was pretty cool about it. He said he’d known all along that I would be leaving at some point and he appreciated my work and wished me good luck in my new role.

    Jen, on the other hand, was pissed. She spent my notice period jumping between icing me out and ranting at me about company loyalty. I didn’t understand why she was so upset; I figured she’d be happy to have me gone.

    Well, I left and started my new job and figured that was that. But I later learned that the reason Jen was so upset, and the reason Kevin was always complaining about not making any money, is because Jen had embezzled several hundred thousand dollars from the company over several years. She was upset that I left because online sales were essentially 100% profit and that made it easier for her to cook the books to steal more while still showing the business as profitable.

  230. Healthcare Manager*

    I was only there for 7 weeks but they had high turn over – I wonder why… (previous person lasted 3 weeks)

    Not only did my manager stop talking to me, they told my team that reported to me beofre I did – no idea what they said.

    Then the grand boss refused to pay me until IT equipment was returned, illegal according to my contract and relevant acts.

    No regrets.

  231. Burned Bridges*

    I work in sales.
    I am good at my job, had been at the same company for 20 years.

    Newer boss came in, we did not hit it off. It was probably 20% my fault.

    Also, he brought in his own assistant, who was rather useless, but was obviously an affair partner. Her predecessor was such a help, kind of a shame,

    Anyway at her (their) one year anniversary he did a huge deal of an in office party.

    My assistant’s 10 year anniversary followed, she got an e-mail and $20 gift card, but I made a big deal of it.

    Which got me a reprimand for showing him up.

    Anyway, I had recruiters calling often and I started interviewing and got a great offer like two weeks after my unacknowledged 20th anniversary so I was extremely petty in my resignation letter, and the exit interview had him fuming.

    He yelled after my leaving his office that his assistant was worth 20 of me, and I yelled back “I bet your wife doesn’t think so”

    Things are good for me. I do admit the pettiness felt way better than it probably should

  232. Jonathan MacKay*

    When I left my last job, I wasn’t exactly PLANNING to leave that day, but I was about to pack my lunch when I had a vivid feeling of “I’m not going to need this today.”

    Day went nuts, my supervisor was overly frustrated, and this is when we had the “Two-stepper argument” which I have detailed before in other comments. In frustration, I said something along the lines of “I’m starting to think we should consider today to be my last day.” His response was a “Yeah, I think so too..” AND THEN he called the owner to tell him I had just up and quit – before requiring me to write a resignation letter UNDER SUPERVISION. (So of course I couldn’t exactly say everything I’d have WANTED to say).

    Further HR courses have allowed me to realize that if I had kept better documentation (read: evidence) I could’ve nailed them to the wall for wrongful dismissal.

    I’m just glad to have gotten out of there!

  233. Hokius*

    Once when I was working at a fast food place I was having constant run-ins with the management because I have never been the type of person who will do busywork. We’d finish the rush, I’d clean the entire store, and then I’d squat at my usual station by the drive-thru window because all that standing hurt my feet. If the manager on duty saw me, they’d ream me out and tell me to just clean everything again.

    Anyway, I decided to start job hunting and one morning I had to swap shifts with a co-worker because the interview time would have made me 30 minutes late for my normal shift. When I showed up the owner pulled me into the back office, and demanded to know why I had swapped shifts. The conversation went like this:

    Them: Why were you late?
    Me: I had a personal appointment.
    Them: Why were you late?
    Me: I had a personal appointment.

    I don’t know how many times we did that before I finally got sick of it and just admitted I had gone to interview somewhere else. They told me that I needed to go home then and I said fine, if I was going home, then I wasn’t coming back. They agreed and then demanded I remove my uniform shirt (fortunately I was wearing an undershirt) and yelled at me – in front of the late-morning rush – as I left.

    To this day I still am not sure if I technically quit or was fired.

    That place also had a policy that if you were going to call in sick you had to do it four hours before your shift started, find your own replacement, or show up anyway. I don’t miss it.

  234. NotPablo*

    Worked for over two decades at a hospital, moving from an entry-level position to a senior management role. Supervised a wonderful team that was highly successful. The company itself was successful. All was great! Then, my executive retired and a new one was hired who was absolutely bat-shit crazy. I can’t even get into all the things she did; suffice it to say I was very close to a nervous breakdown when I finally realized I had to leave the job I loved in order to keep my sanity. When I resigned, she informed everyone in the organization that she would be taking over my duties, then proceeded to cancel every training/transition meeting I scheduled. I made sure to leave meticulous notes and documentation, and provided a 30+ page document with web-links, contact info, instructions, etc. Well, after I left, she destroyed everything in my office – emptied out every file cabinet and shredded it all. Deleted electronic documents. Not just mine, but what her predecessor had left behind as well. Told everyone I had done it as one last act of revenge. Informed my former team that if they contacted me for assistance they would be fired. She spent the next year running the business into the ground and fled the state after when the bank accounts were empty. After she was gone, I was contacted by their compliance team and asked to attest to what was remaining in my office and what had been on the shared drive when I left because she had destroyed things that had federal record retention requirements. (I was also asked to return for a hefty salary, which I declined). Several years later the company is still rebuilding. I do hope they’re able to return to their former glory…but if I ever see that nasty woman again I’d have a hard time not punching her in the face.

  235. The Unfrazzled Project Manager*

    One of my bosses threw me out of her office and did not speak to me the rest of the day when I gave notice.

    My last boss did not really give me a deranged response, exactly, but she 100% gave me the shocked Pikachu face and was STUNNED. This was when I pushed back on their constantly changing “you can be remote/no we can by hybrid 3 days a week/actually, 2 days a week/just kidding get your butt in that seat five days a week/well, maybe you can be remote but only for 1 week a month insanity post-pandemic for a job that did not require my physical presence. On my hybrid days, I usually was in a fully empty office suite, and my job was not at all customer-facing. There were many other things that led to me leaving this job, all of which I tried to talk to my manager about, but it was all waived away. Then she had the audacity to be STUNNED (STUNNED) when I left for a fully remote role that had none of the insanity, a role that I’m working at today. It took them over a year to replace me, and they raised the salary 20k during that year while they were looking due to a low number of applications.

  236. Sammmmmmm*

    I had given my boss my two weeks noticed. She was surprised and asked why.

    I gave her all my reasons:
    • 3 years, no pay increase despite my contract stating for the first two years I would see increases. (I was always told it was coming- and she ‘incorporated it into my bonus’)
    • the fact that she demanded I come into work after I had a miscarriage because ‘I didn’t seem excited or want kids anyway’ (I didn’t).
    • she denied my PTO request for a week off when my husband was having surgery for cancer, because it wasn’t a ‘good time’ so I had to go through FMLA. (And I ended up taking a month to spite her— and on that month my phone never stopped ringing).

    At that point I didn’t care, we had my husband year cancer free scans and I had just been offered another job.

    She released me of my duties IMMEDIATELY and threatened to sue me for libel if I told ‘those lies’ to anyone.

    The next day she started calling my phone begging me to come back. She offered to give me a 50% raise and increase my PTO to 4 weeks (I was at 3 and a half weeks). I politely laughed and hung up the phone. She called me over 400 times in the next two days. So I called the cops for harrassment.

    You might be thinking ‘why not call HR??’… Because she was the head of HR.

    My form of revenge was taking all the emails she had sent to me about my reasons for leaving and forwarding them to ALL of the recruiters she was working with to fill positions. The company was blacklisted from the top 3 recruiters in the area for 5 years until she was no longer employeed.

  237. SGPB*

    I had a very melodramatic manager who liked to scream. He was in the middle of a big fight with administration/HR/anyone who would listen about him not getting a title upgrade. He would spends hours every day on the phone about this (literally he would talk it about it with anyone, no matter what they called him about)–always with the door open, phone on speaker, yelling. It was a terrible environment. He was getting more and more erratic (“don;t ***** contradict me in front of the press ever again!” was screamed at me) and I knew I had to get out. Miraculously, someone in an adjacent division created a new job that was a perfect transition for me. When I told my manager that I was leaving, he threw his usual fit. I’ll never forget he kept screaming that my new manager was trying to poach all the good employees and he kept repeating the phrase “she’s trying to create a fiefdom! a FIEFDOM!” I told the new manager about it (he was notorious, so she knew all about his issues) and she renamed our conference room The Fiefdom.

  238. Religious Nutter*

    The worst manager I ever had:
    – Demanded _daily_ itemized reports of all of my completed tasks
    – Constantly implied I was lazy or incompetent
    – Constantly threatened to fire me
    – Regularly showed up at 10:30, and left at 4
    – Did no work at all (we were a 2 person department, I knew all our work because I was doing all of it).

    I gave my 2 weeks and he bemoaned that he “Hoped it was a good decision for me”.

    A month after my departure he called me late at night (clearly a drunk dial) to ask me to come back, told me I was one of the best employees the organization had ever had and a top performer, and implied that I’d be next in line for his job if I agreed to return.

    My guy, your management gave me _panic attacks_. You (literally) couldn’t pay me to come back.

    1. It's Marie Not Maria*

      I think we worked for the same company, except it was my completely inept female boss. When we were allowed to change to a compressed work schedule, her four ten hour workdays quickly became four six hour work days. I never could figure out exactly what she did when she actually came to work, but she was constantly berating her Team for being lazy or not knowing our jobs – all while not doing much of anything. She lost two out of three people on her Team, including me, within a month, and I heard through the grapevine she eventually had her position eliminated. She asked me a couple times to come back and I ignored her voicemails. Sorry honey, I am not coming back to do my job and your job too.

  239. #Sweetescape*

    I gave my notice to my boss “Yzma’s” own boss, after being warned by just about everyone to not give it directly to her. I had already lined up and gotten approval to use up remaining vacation time for my two week notice, and since I’d been threatened by Yzma before I was just as happy to give the gobsmacked big boss (who had ignored her behavior and my requests for help) my notice and walk out.
    Then the weirdness happened. Yzma insisted my coworkers continue my research projects for weeks (these projects did not benefit anyone but me), stating I would take over once I returned from “vacation”. My friends there said my office was kept exactly as I left it and they were about ready for her to set up a dummy of me in the chair to continue the charade.
    She never contacted me to order me to come back, so obviously she didn’t have much of a plan to cover it up. We run into each other a few times a year at career events and she will not to look at or acknowledge me, instead swerving across hallways, dashing out of restrooms, and backing out of events. It’s been five years now so I guess that’s just how it is, but boy am I glad to have escaped that level of crazy.

  240. lab rat*

    Reading others’ comments I’m feeling very positive about mine!

    One boss took it personally when people quit, would have security walk them out right away. Then she’d trash their reputation (not quite a company town but close).

    My most recent resignation was just weird, boss wanted to get with me right before I talked to hr so he could remove all my computer access. Which would be ok but my “phone” that I needed to have my exit interview (2020) was a voip program, and if he removed my access, my phone would be gone before I was done needing it. He was Really Put Out about this.

  241. All het up about it*

    Not my personal story, but years ago when I was working at a small, local non-profit, the long time, BELOVED Finance Director got in a horrible car wreck. They obviously needed quite awhile off and we hired a temp in their place. This person had been with the business for over a decade, maybe two even, and had plenty of sick time.

    So the initial timeframe of recovery ended (2-3 months maybe?) and the temp had been hired full-time somewhere else and was leaving. (And she was AWFUL – so no one was sad about that.) So the CEO called our Finance Director and asked about her scheduled return. Fine. But THEN when the Finance Director, you know the woman who was hospitalized with life threatening injuries just a few months ago and was recovering, said they needed more time (which they HAD) and couldn’t come back next week the CEO said “No.” That they had to come back next week. Finance Director said that if they would be forced to come back, they would just retire. This pissed the CEO off so much that she held a meeting to tell us the person was retiring, and then when someone asked about a retirement party she said “You know. Given how this person is leaving, we won’t give them a party.” People were both horrified and livid. Other Senior staff and maybe Board members intervened and there was a party, but I watched and the CEO did NOT talk to the Finance person and someone else gave the thank you speech. It was a crazy level of petty.

  242. Hedgehog O'Brien*

    1) Not me but my colleague – when he resigned, our boss (VP of our department) completely stonewalled him and basically ignored him and/or was very frosty towards him for the entire remainder of his time year, even though colleague was nothing but pleasant and professional. Especially ironic that VP acted like he had felt so betrayed because VP later told me he was hoping colleague would leave because “we pay him too much” (his salary was market rate for the work he was doing).

    2) When I resigned from the same organization (Org A), I left for a position at another organization in the same field, Org B, which sometimes partners with Org A. We are in an events-based industry (this is important to know later). Stonewalling VP had fortunately left by that time, but the CEO did stop by my office to give me the “oh, we don’t want to lose you, sad to see you go” speech, but he also threw in a comment about how “I get the appeal of Org B for sure, only five gigs a year, so you know, I get why that’s appealing for you.” Basically implying that I was only leaving because I wanted an easier job. I also had an 11 month old, so there were definitely shades of “you’re a mommy now, of course you want to cut back.”

    Well. 1) I was leaving because the environment at Org A was unbelievably toxic and chaotic, and 2) Org B actually presents around 40-50 events every year, not 5. Which CEO was either oblivious to despite being a partner of theirs, or knew about but ignored in order to get this weird backhanded comment in. Either way, glad I left that job.

  243. JJJJ*

    Mine is an almost-resignation story from a couple years ago. Nightmare boss at my job (hands-off micromanager). After sticking it out for several years (I’d started to job hunt after 6 months), I finally decided on the drive into work one morning that I was just done and would quit without a new job lined up. Wrote a resignation letter and asked my boss for a Teams video meeting (this was still in the height of Covid distancing). I guess they must’ve had some idea what I was going to do (this was just over a year after the other 2 people who reported to this boss had quit without notice in only 6 months). I barely got started with my prepared speech when they asked what I needed to stay. I suspect they only made temporary adjustments to their treatment of me because they knew (I didn’t know then) that we were going to launch a new system a few months later and I was a key figure in preparing for that and if my role was vacant boss would’ve had to do it all. Despite this, boss wasn’t happy with how I did any of that implementation prep even though I tried my best and we did launch successfully. It wasn’t just me getting this kind of treatment and the 3 of us who reported to this boss (me and 2 newly hired people) were all job hunting.

    The deliciously satisfying conclusion to this is that just over 6 months after my near-resignation, our department got a new head boss, who came in and read the room extremely quickly and accurately. Two weeks later, nightmare boss was gone, new head boss started managing us directly, we were treated like professionals, long-stalled work was getting done accurately and ahead of schedule… I just passed my 6 year mark in this job.

  244. Dawn*

    I’ve got a counter-example: one job, my manager told me he was very surprised that I wasn’t freaking out when he told me he was letting me go. I had no history of doing so.

    Let me back up a bit.

    So that they were letting me go was completely fair; it was the end of my probationary period, the workplace was shockingly toxic (we were working in a contracted cafeteria in a factory, I had one of the factory workers straight up hurl racial slurs at me and also take money out of the till and put it in my pocket (I put it back later) and he was considered “untouchable” just to give an example,) and they wanted to hire someone at a very low wage to do the work of 2-3 people – or at least who could credibly cut corners and claim they hadn’t, and I have ethics.

    So at the end of my three months, the manager took me aside and let me know it wasn’t working out, and my reaction there was much the same there as it was here: “Ok, that’s completely fair, I agree that it’s not working out.” and he was absolutely shocked that I didn’t cause a scene.

    My guy, that probably says more about you than it does about me, that you went into this conversation fully expecting mild-mannered me to throw a tantrum.

    Anyway I heard later that they unsurprisingly lost their contract with that place.

  245. Spero*

    I worked for an agency providing counseling to survivors of sexual violence. Many of the staff were drawn to the field because they were themselves survivors from years prior to working there, and a clinical assessment to determine if they were in a good mental space to work around assault was part of the on boarding. The ED had a track record of blaming resignations on the employee not being able to handle the pressure because of their survivor history using details from this assessment. IE they quit because she was a bad manager, and she went back to their onboarding clinical record to see if there was anything in it that could be the ‘real reason’ they couldn’t handle her expectations. This absolutely sucked and was untrue and unfair even if she’d just done it internally, but there were times where she TOLD THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS that was the reason for the resignation without mentioning the concerns from the actual resignation letter/exit interview. The board had NO NEED to know whether someone was or was not a survivor even if they needed to know about the resignation, and was also being kept in the dark about real management issues because of them being swept under ‘she just hadn’t healed from her trauma.’

  246. Robin Kathleen*

    My close friend gave a month’s notice because she was leaving to work with her husband in his growing business, and her boss burst into tears and blurted out that he has always been in love with her.

  247. Jaina Solo*

    Several years ago, resigned from a job I’d been at for maybe 6 weeks. I gave them 2 weeks notice and continued to work. But after I first emailed my supervisor my resignation, he didn’t acknowledge it until later that day when I pulled him aside and asked him if he’d seen it. He had but was just being weird.
    Then, the owner of the company called me in to see if there was any way they could get me to stay. I told them that I was going to a position more aligned with my experience and that their industry wasn’t really an interest of mine. (The truth is that the whole place was a sh*tshow I wanted to escape.) They told people later, without me, that I was leaving because “[industry] wasn’t my thing.”
    It wasn’t bad but it was definitely one of my weirder resignations. It was also the worst place I worked. And, on my last day, I saw that they were now requiring people to sign out (there was a sign in/out sheet to track time at the front desk) if they left for any reason. I think they realized that when I walked outside to take a few phone calls, I’d interviewed for my new job. There was nowhere in the building to take a private phone call so I just went to my car.

  248. Meg*

    I put in my two weeks when I was four months pregnant. I had awful morning sickness for my entire pregnancy, and accidentally vomited in front of my co-workers multiple times. I had run out of sick time and was planning to stay home when the baby was born anyway, so I called it quits a few months early. My boss (who had taken to scurrying away every time she saw me, telling me not to throw up on her) asked if I could give four weeks notice instead. I declined- on top of the morning sickness I was exhausted and experiencing prenatal depression, and the work environment was incredibly toxic (none of which I shared with her- I just said I could only give two weeks.) My boss was so mad that on my last day when I went to say goodbye to her, she refused to acknowledge my presence. I ran into her years later and she begged me to come back- no thanks!

  249. ferrina*

    Not particularly dramatic
    My boss tried to give me a counteroffer. It was a 21% raise, which would have been nice except
    1) It still put me under market value by $5-10K
    2) I hadn’t had any compensation adjustment in the previous 3 years including when I’d gotten a promotion. Their reasoning was that they couldn’t afford to give me a raise when I was promoted, so I had been doing the higher level job for over a year without any pay adjustment
    3) The new offer I’d gotten was for a 65% increase, and my new title would be the same as my boss. I was already doing my boss’s job for her, so I was just leaving for a place that gave me the right title and pay for the work I was doing.

    I laughed and told my boss the new salary I’d be making. She turned bright red- it was higher than her salary by quite a bit.

    1. ferrina*

      I’ve also had a boss corner me on my last day and offer a raise. I declined that too- I had been bullied by a coworker for the previous 3 months, and my boss had put us on projects together so I had to literally be in the same room as my bully for 6+ hrs/day. I had begged to switch assignments or have my bully switch, but my boss had told me to “find a way to make it work”. The way it worked was for me not to be there.
      (note that when the boss offered a raise, she still didn’t offer to switch my assignment)

  250. Emotional support capybara (he/him)*

    When I quit the job with the boss who kept “forgetting” to come back to the office to do payroll on Fridays, there was to my surprise no drama about it. One coworker asked if he could call me for help on the software we did support for, which I gently declined citing the developers’ robust help system and the fact that I was going to be very busy learning new stuff in a very different job–say, going from teapot repair to personalizing teaspoons. And that was fine! No problem! I had my last day and I was free!

    About a week after starting the new job I had a weird dream in which Old Job Boss came to New Job and brought a bunch of broken teapots for me to fix. “Ha ha,” I laughed upon waking, “what a silly dream! Old Job Boss was certainly full of bees, but that is far too many bees even for her!”

    Readers… I was about to learn how it feels when Apollo smacks you upside the head with the gift/curse of prophecy.

    A few weeks later the phone rang at New Job. It was someone asking for me, by name. “Hi, Capybara! This is Fergus, remember me?” I did. Fergus was a repeat customer at Old Job, and a very nice one.

    “Hello, Fergus!” I said. “What can I do for you? Looking to get some spoons monogrammed?”

    “Um, no, actually… the spout fell off my teapot and Old Job gave me your number here and said you’d fix it. Can I bring it in?”

    They.

    WHAT.

    “Um. No. I’m afraid I can’t. This is peak spoon-gifting season and I’m too busy to do any odd jobs on the side. Can’t Old Job fix it for you?”

    “They said the spout reattacher only works part time now so I’d have to call you.”

    I gently referred Fergus to another teapot repair shop and then somewhat less gently told Old Job not to ever ever ever do that again.

      1. Emotional support capybara (he/him)*

        I was just like… “you told a customer where I work now? and just gave him the phone number?? YOU GAVE A CUSTOMER MY CONTACT INFO AND DIDN’T CLEAR THAT WITH ME FIRST???” At least it was one of the nice customers and not one of the creepers!

        Old Job Boss had no idea who had done that (there were literally only two people in the office who could and would have done that and she was one of them) but she would see that it didn’t happen again. It didn’t, at least!

    2. BellyButton*

      That is so weird! I wonder what Fergus was told to make him think it was appropriate to call you??

      1. Emotional support capybara (he/him)*

        Probably that I would continue to do freelance teapot repair on the side and I
        had given them my blessing to refer people which uhhhhhh… no?

  251. AccountingGal*

    When resigning from my first company after graduating college, my boss told me in no uncertain terms I was committing career suicide (or at least career derailment) to the point I cried (this job was suppose to be 0 travel and an extra 10K a year and they were giving me a sign on bonus). I had a vacation planned so I gave three weeks notice. Upon my return from vacation they counter offered with a “tentative” promotion in which a) I wouldn’t receive a pay raise b) I couldn’t tell anyone that I got the promotion and c) after 6 months if I had proved myself in the roll (which I had already done on a few smaller projects) they would give me a 5K raise and then allow my title to officially reflect the promotion. I am sure to no ones suprise I did not take the counter offer. In fact my mentor at the company when I told him I would be leaving and what they counter offered told me that he wouldn’t advise anyone to take the counter. Surprisingly – the new job wasn’t a good fit but I was able to get a severance to quit, I leveraged the title and pay for my next roll to pay me 5K more and to get a signing bonus from the new job. All in all I feel I came out on top. Been at the last company for almost 8 years.

  252. BostonANONian*

    When I worked at a very small law firm, there were two other associates there with me. Our boss was one of the pettiest people I have ever met. The one who had been there the longest gave me a head’s up before giving her notice (and I applied for what became my current job that very night). She and our boss were close friends – like, they hung out outside of work, the boss attended her kid’s events, etc. Our boss fired her on the spot when she gave notice and freaked out about it to the rest of us. Wouldn’t talk to old co-worker at all after that, and talked cr*p about her to the rest of us. Suffice it to say, when it was my turn to give my two weeks a few weeks later, I made sure to clear out my desk the night before… Since she was short staffed, it took her about an hour to go from “you should finish the day” to “just leave now.” She at least didn’t have a total meltdown. (I will also add that with a normal boss, I would’ve given more than two weeks’ notice, which would be typical in my field.)
    In retrospect, I should’ve filed for unemployment! When she pulled this same thing on the paralegal a couple months later, the paralegal’s claim was successful. So, a word to the wise!
    I’m definitely glad to be rid of Old Boss, though. She refused to provide information my current employer needed when I started at this job, and she refused to confirm my employment dates for my mortgage lender when I bought a house since then. I occasionally see her at court, and I always make sure to loudly and cheerily say HI, OLD BOSS! Making her uncomfortable with unflagging politeness is a small joy, but I hope I never ever have a case against her.

  253. NauticalByNature*

    My first job out of graduate school seemed amazing- it had been really hard to find a job so I was legitimately grateful for the chance. It started of super well- I was promoted almost immediately with a modest raise. Things kind of went downhill from there- the work increased to a pace and quantity that far far outstripped what I was getting paid, people started belittling me in meetings to the point of me having to hold back from crying, and especially the VP of my division who kept taking credit for my ideas to the point where it was becoming hard to make a case for more money. The final straw was when they made an entire department to support a project I designed and had been leading for 2 years and then when they found out I planned to apply to lead the department, they asked me to be on the search committee for my boss instead, since they needed me to train them to figure out how to do what I had been doing for years. So, I applied for a job at a well-regarded institution in a neighboring state, snagged the gig, at a 40% raise. The VP was *mad* and started going around and telling folks about how ungrateful I was for the chance he gave me, and started ghosting me on my projects without a “thank you.” He especially to one of his other “star” employees who he gave the same treatment too, who he moved into my department when I quit. More on that in a second.

    At my going away party, the VP showed up mostly to sulk and continue to tell everyone how ungrateful I was. At the very end, he comes up to me and says in front of a big group of my now former coworkers, “Well, I guess since you don’t have any family here and never made any friends, we won’t see you ever have to see you again, huh?” Everyone was kind of shifting around awkwardly, but I managed to smile and say, “Oh, you never know what might happen!”

    Imagine his surprise 2 months later when I came back to help said said coworker to clean out his desk to move into the house we just bought, sporting my new engagement ring. Guess I made some friends after all!

  254. Simchya*

    When I resigned from my first professional job ( software developer), my skip-level manager, aka one of the VPs ( I was super junior; it was a small and slightly banana pants company), demanded to know what company am I movin, Ig to.
    Naively, I answered her. (the following might explain why I have never done it since)

    She accused me of moving to work for a direct competitor ( it wasn’t even remotely in the same domain. Like apples and oranges level of not same)
    She then said, ” I will make sure you’ll never work in this profession ever again.”

    Being in shock, I didn’t respond at all.

    I have, however, been gainfully employed in that same profession for almost 20 years.
    She moved to work in a nice sounding tangentially related to software non-profit, which I stayed away from when looking for places to volunteer.

    And this has been a great story to tell ever since. So I think I won

  255. Rana*

    I told my boss I accepted an internal transfer to an entirely remote position so I could move closer to my family, as both my dad and father in law had gotten cancer diagnoses in the past few months.

    Her immediate response was to tell me how she would have to mourn her loss of me.

  256. technoweenie*

    Company was on a downward spiral. From fortune 500 to shutdown and some bosses arrested a year after I left (no, I had nothing to do with that :-)

    Told my boss I was leaving, and gave 2 weeks notice. His response was “Well, sh*t! I wish you would have told me this morning before I laid off CoWorker1 and CoWorker2 and I would have laid you off.”

    Downside was that with my longevity, if I had been laid off, I would have gotten around 6 months pay. That’s why I *didn’t* tell him prior to the regular Monday Morning layoffs.

    1. technoweenie*

      Guess I should be explicit. He would not have had to lay off the co-worker, but he sure would not have laid me off since I was leaving. I waited to tell just in case he *was* going to lay me off.

  257. salamander*

    When I resigned from an internship at a locally respected nonprofit over Zoom (my supervisor was working remotely at that time), she took the call in a hotel room with an unblurred background….. with her shirtless boyfriend hanging out in the room with her. Have to say, that didn’t really do her favors while she begged me to stay.

  258. Jules*

    When I left my last job, I heard from my coworker that our former boss (who had retired a year prior to me leaving) said I left too soon after our Most Important Event. I had been offered my new job about six weeks prior to Event, and I could have left then, but I didn’t want to leave my coworkers to put on Event with one less person (tiny staff).

  259. Queer Columbo*

    Haha, oh I have one. I quit a new job after 2 weeks (a true bait and switch, and definitely the weirdest office environment I have ever been a part of. Not a SINGLE bit of office conversation. Silence! Always!) on a Friday morning. I told my manager, who had been essentially completely hands off since I started, that I didn’t feel like this was going to be a good fit, and that my last day would be today. I was not afraid of burning that bridge, and I assure you I was polite and professional. He said that HR requires a 2-week notice, and I said given that I would need 2 additional weeks of training, and was not currently contributing anything, I didn’t think that would be a good use of our time. He then walked away?? And out of the room? I ended up emailing HR, explaining everything, and was given a very short and sweet meeting with well wishes and any paperwork I may need. I didn’t even bother telling my manager goodbye as I left the building, given that there was complete silence, the noise probably would have startled the entire building!

  260. La Triviata*

    Back when I was very young – my second real job, a little over a year out of college – I was working as a legal secretary. My boss was terrible, so I found another legal secretary job. I resigned – gave the two weeks notice. The date was the last day of the month which, as it happened, was a Thursday. (I thought it would be nice to have a three-day weekend.) Well, on Friday morning, the boss came in, found I wasn’t around, and seemingly ran through the office yelling “where’s my secretary”. He had such a reputation that none of the other secretaries would work with/for him – they’d hide out in the very posh ladies’ lounge if it looked like he might be coming their way.

  261. Honor Harrington*

    Bad Boss #1:
    Bad Boss #1 had headhunted me within the firm due to my skills, certifications and reputation, promising to get me promoted if I came over. It turned out to be an awful job, with a set of senior manager who were energized by conflict and thought you didn’t care if you didn’t yell. After 5 months, Bad Boss #1 told me I didn’t care enough, and he thought I should look for another job. I agreed, and had 3 job offers by lunch. He didn’t expect that, but had already signed the internal paperwork to allow me to move to a new job. When I did move, he told me in writing that if I didn’t keep doing the old job unofficially on top of my new job for 5 months until he could hire my replacement, he would ruin my career at the firm and make sure I never got promoted. That email went right to HR, and I had no further problems. I later learned he had 180% turnover in 12 months (no, that is not a typo. 180% turnover)

    Bad Boss #2, the Incompetent Whackadoodle. I had been moved under her as part of a reorg. The new role sounded great, but I quickly learned she couldn’t keep staff. Neither of the 2 people who had held my role lasted a year. When I resigned after exactly 12 months, she sobbed, pounded the table and hurled insults for an hour. I was a traitor who had betrayed her, how could I treat her so badly, I was a terrible evil person. China was thrown. There was begging and pleading. Personal insults about my ethics, character and values. Threats to give me a bad review and cut my pay before I moved to the new job. Luckily her boss’ Chief of Staff sat next to me, and Whackadoodle was screaming so loudly on the phone that Chief of Staff heard it all.

    Luckily I’ve also had some really fabulous bosses. They make up for those 2 bad bosses.

  262. Sanibel Island*

    I had a job with a super small company where my manager scheduled appointments and I would travel to the appointment, using my vehicle and my own money for gas. One week I wasn’t paid for, and my manager acted dumb, no knowing how or why I didn’t get paid for the previous week. Then he ghosted me. I left a message every single day saying, “If I don’t get paid, I will not make it to appointments with clients.” Every day for 7 days straight. On the 7th day, I called all my clients and told them my manager has not paid me and I refuse to do any further work for them and they need to take things up with the manager.

    I never got that paycheck nor was I reimbursed for my travels. Last I heard that manager closed the business and became a real estate agent. I wonder how that’s going with this market…

  263. Jonathan MacKay*

    I have a positive story that I just recalled – and it certainly seems odd, as I don’t recall them doing it for anyone else.

    I gave notice to the grocery store I was working at in 2010, saying that I’d be leaving at the end of August to move up to Kapuskasing, Ontario to take on the role of pastor at a tiny church – (tiny, as in less than 20) people. A cake had been brought up to customer service, and, keeping with my usual duties, I asked if it was a return. I was told that no, it wasn’t a return, it was for a customer who was getting a few other things…

    It wasn’t.

    Due to the distance I was going, (roughtly 850 KM north to where Highway 11 curves towards Manitoba) they got a congratulatory cake for me to give me a bigger send off then I expected.

    Store closed some years later, and reopened as a discount chain

  264. CircusCircus*

    I gave my 2 weeks notice and my Boss ignored me the entire two weeks (except for one moment I discuss later). Boss ignored me in the hallways, at my celebratory farewell lunch, at meetings, all of my emails, and even when I stood in their doorway to speak to him. I did not exist. On day one of my notice he reassigned all my work. I had no actual work for two weeks. It was the weirdest experience of my work life. Typically, on an employees’ last day, the company would print out their last check before lunch and the employee would receive it and go home. He spoke to me on my last day (approx. 9:00 a.m.) to let me know I couldn’t leave until HE gave me my last check. Friends in payroll let me know my check was ready and they were expressly told to only release it to him. After lunch I would cruise by his office to inquire about my last check and he wasn’t there. I cruised by until 5:00 p.m. (the end of my normal work day). No one knew where he went or when he would be back. Turns out, after he spoke to me he left for the day to fly home (his family lived in another state). WHICH MEANS HE KNEW HE WOULD NOT BE THERE WHEN MY CHECK WAS READY. In hindsight, I should have just left and asked them to mail my check to me since they had to mail it to me anyway. I stayed because our mail takes longer than usual. BTW, with this Boss, I received glowing reviews and a promotion. Everything went haywire (a few months before my notice) when I casually mentioned that I thought we made a great team in an important meeting. In his mind, I did nothing to contribute to the positive outcome. It was all his doing.

  265. adult-ish2319*

    I gave my notice and my boss flipped, asked “how could I do this to her? why didn’t you tell me you were looking? I would have matched the offer!” Ma’am, you are the reason I’m taking this offer. I worked for two weeks and took a week off between jobs. She asked me on my last day to stay an extra week and “help out, maybe do some training with my replacement” (replacement never showed). Then she hid in her office with the door closed the rest of the day and pretended to be on the phone when I went to say goodbye.

  266. beachykeen*

    I worked at my local newspaper for almost 18 months (during which time we were bought by a larger company, almost everyone quit, I was the most senior reporter by the end of the year, and we were extraordinarily low-staffed leading to 12-hour days and 6-day weeks for a comically low salary). I accepted an offer with a different publication which would pay 50% more with no nights or weekends and allow me to use my law degree in a more niche area. When I told the publisher I was resigning, she 1) was flabbergasted, 2) demanded – DEMANDED – to know my reasons (“convince me this is a good move for you!”), and 3) when I explained all of the above, she looked away guiltily. She forbade me from telling the rest of the newsroom or my sources until she decided “how they were going to frame this” because apparently I was “a known quantity in the community” (see the above where I was a reporter for my county paper for less than a year and a half! ma’am!!). She ended the meeting awkwardly, rushed into the editor’s office to talk about it, and did not speak to me as I worked out my notice period. This job paid $30,000. I still can’t believe she was shocked I wanted to leave.

  267. I Always Knew You Were Evil*

    I worked in a toxic “mental health” clinic where I could write a book about all the unethical behavior. My boss blew hot and cold depending on who he spoke to last – if someone didn’t like you or they were frustrated because you told them something they didn’t want to hear (our budget got cut, there were delays from the state, etc) and he caught wind of that, he’d be mad at you on their behalf until he liked you again. I’d go from almost being fired for someone else’s error or opinion to him lovebombing and telling me I was up for a promotion because I was so great. It was awful. When I quit I was leaving the field entirely and starting a new career, with different references in a new state. I gave him my two weeks notice and he threw a notebook at me and said “I always knew you were like this deep down. I always knew you were evil.” He blocked me on all social medias (even though I didn’t follow him on any). A few weeks later I found out from a friend he’d called every comparable clinic in four counties to ask if I was hired there and told them I was a garbage human.

  268. Not Again*

    Gave two weeks notice for my paralegal job at a small law firm and let them know I was moving to another local law firm to work directly for the owner. One of the partners, a 50-something, 6’3″ man, repeatedly jumped up and down and then stamped his foot while wailing, “Noooooooo. Why would you leave me for him?” Then he walked out and wouldn’t make eye contact or speak with me for the remainder of my notice period.

  269. Wendy Darling*

    I feel fortunate that the only thing my horrible boss did when I quit was refuse to speak to me ever again. After the meeting where I quit she fully ignored me and had the HR person handle everything, including moving up my last day to like 3 days after I gave notice (they still paid me for my entire notice period though).

    I think she thought she was punishing me but I was quitting because she was so awful, so it was really a gift.

  270. Speedy Leaf*

    Two jobs ago I was hired to work for a local government that my father also happens to work for, although my job and his never interacted outside of him knowing my manager informally for many years. When the job became available after the director’s first choice walked out after a week, the manager texted my dad directly to ask if I was still looking, and I jumped at the chance. While my direct manager and I got on like a house on fire, I also served as the informal personal assistant to the director, who came from federal government and thought himself much more important than he actually was.

    A year into the job a three-month long COVID furlough made me realize I loved the people I worked with, but the job itself and the director were too much, and I got an offer to return to my college town and work in the field my degree was in, so I put in my two weeks’ notice. My manager couldn’t have been happier for me, but the director went completely radio silent and refused to talk to me at all. On my last day he called me into his office and told me that he knew I was leaving (a bit late, but whatever) and that he felt I should know he never wanted to give me the job in the first place, but he did as a personal favor to my dad. Who he’d both never met or talked to. When I told my dad what he’d said, my dad was absolutely livid and wanted to go straight to the mayor to tell him what an asshole the director was. I’ve managed to convince him that it’s not worth it to burn that bridge, but he’s adamant that when he retires in a few years the mayor is getting an earful about who he brings into the city.

    1. BellyButton*

      Of course, there is no way you got the job because you are qualified. Why do people have to sh*t on someone to feel better about themselves!

      1. Speedy Leaf*

        This is the same man who walked across the office to my desk to request a private meeting in his office, which turned out to be a request for a new pen as his had run out of ink. The supply closet door was literally four inches to the left of his office door, so I walked out, turned, grabbed a handful of pens and marched them to his desk. He liked to play power games, but was the stupidest man I’ve ever met.

        Another time he called me panicked to tell me to get one of the IT helpdesk guys because his computer was broken. I tried troubleshooting but he hung up on me, so I went to check it out to see how bad the damage was so I would know which guy to look for. It was a pop-up that his printer was low on ink. “Were you trying to print something? No? Then I’ll add ink to the office supply order this week and you can keep using your computer.” He was the IT Director.

          1. Speedy Leaf*

            It was legitimately the most toxic working relationship I’ve ever encountered, and severely skewed my idea of what a director was supposed to be and do. I wrote in to AAM when leaving that job and have updated once (but need to again, as my situation has changed in great ways!) but I’m happy to report that my working relationships with every manager and director I’ve worked for since then have been extremely positive and uplifting. Weird how you don’t dread coming to work when the person you work for is actually a person and not a lizard in human skin.

  271. Confused*

    After I gave my notice, my boss told me I was ’emblematic’. Readers, what does that even mean?

  272. eb*

    10ish years ago i was working in a coffee shop owned by two brothers. i was quitting to go work at another coffee shop with (supposedly) better benefits, wages, and opportunities. i was sooooo nervous to tell Brother A, because i knew he would take it badly. i was literally shaking when i told him i was putting in my 2 weeks (might have even been 3-4, can’t remember!).

    he looked at me, and walked out of the shop without saying a word. he came back a few hours later and all he asked me was “why are you going to work at [other shop]?” and i said “they have health insurance.” he just nodded and that was that.

    Brother B was supportive and happy for me!!!

    then when i quit the new shop a year later (because it was also a crapshoot), my manager there was THRILLED for me getting out of that place and also allowed me to end my notice early when my plans changed.

  273. ReeCeeRob*

    I served as Interim Upper Middle Manager for over 2 years but didn’t get the permanent position (or even an interview, but that’s its own post) and went back to being Lower Middle Manager. For reasons that had much more to do with him than with me, my new boss was not a fan of me (again, a whole other post) and I quickly started searching for promotional opportunities. I accepted an offer about 5.5 months later, which is phenomenally fast for academia.

    I set a meeting and went to my boss’s office to give him my notice. I told him I accepted a promotional position at a more prestigious institution. He looked at me wide eyed, with utter surprise, and asked me to repeat that. Then asked me to repeat it again, as if he didn’t understand how it could be true. After repeating it several times and giving him more details, he asked me to then send the information in an email.

    I haven’t had to resign from many jobs, but I will never forget the look of sheer surprise and disbelief on his face, which was frankly, insulting, but thoroughly demonstrated the conditions which had me experience imposter syndrome in the months before. Good riddance to the Good Ol’ Boys Club.

  274. N'Grath*

    Close to two years ago I moved to a higher position in a different part of my organization (large academic medical center). When I gave my notice, my then-director immediately asked why I hadn’t told him I was looking elsewhere and then said “if I’d known, I could have helped you get the job, I know the director over there very well!”. I got to point out that I had, shockingly, been able to get the job without his “help” since, you know, I was resigning.
    Throughout my notice period he complained to people, including my new boss, about how I should have let him “help” me.

  275. Jo-Anne*

    I’m a woman and once worked at a very disfunctional place with a horrible (male) boss. When I gave notice, my boss barely reacted to it. At the end of the day, my husband picked me up from work. When my boss saw my husband, he tried to convince MY HUSBAND that I should stay.

  276. Seven If You Count Bad John*

    Not exactly deranged, I think it was just a misunderstanding, but I left a temp placement where I was doing really well—they were wanting to offer me a full time job, which I would have accepted, but we had to move across the country for family reasons. So as soon as I knew we were moving, I let them know, so I gave a good four and a half weeks of notice and they were very sad and promised me good references and so forth.

    Reader, I could NOT get a job. Every offer fell through for months, including signing on with the same temp company (they’re franchises, but they still talk). Over and over—“we can’t use you, you’re not eligible with us”. It turned out that I had a bad reference, and the bad reference was coming from the agency that I’d always had a good reputation with, that I’d worked with for years prior, who knew me personally, and they were running around telling people—get this—that *I hadn’t given two weeks notice*. No, dipshit, I gave FOUR weeks. (There was a complicating factor in that the company that had wanted to hire me had apparently told them I was “ineligible for rehire” as in they wouldn’t have me back, but that I think is because they misunderstood the question—they WANTED me back but couldn’t, *because I had moved away*. And the temp agent—someone I had worked with for a decade and trusted— didn’t trouble to make that distinction when she was asked. (Also, it took a hell of a lot of Mission Impossible-level spycraft to find this out, because all they’d say is “someone said something negative about you, so we can’t hire you” and when I’d say “what was the negative thing, maybe I can explain” they said “it’s confidential”.)

    I finally called my contact in the hiring company directly and asked her. She was baffled and had no idea why they were slandering me like that and told me to use her as a reference directly. Whereupon I promptly got hired for the next job I applied for.

    Like I say, I don’t think this was malicious, it think it was just people taking things a little too literally—but it was close enough to some situations I’ve been in where actual malice *was* involved, that I’m completely paranoid about references now.

  277. InsufficentlySubordinate*

    When I resigned from the job from whence I got my name(after almost 10 years there), my supervisor/manager head-desked (literally, it sounded like it hurt). The VP of our group called a dept wide meeting the next day, and one of the topics was Me leaving for a rival and how awful that other company was and how they would be watching everyone carefully. (If I had not been in the middle of a row, I would’ve walked out to my desk and left then, but alas, I stayed the two weeks.) The VP then had an exit meeting with me where he seemed shocked to find out that I had 1) had 13 different managers (14 if you counted one twice for two different roles), 2) and yes, I had wanted to be promoted, and 3) I would’ve liked to be consulted about my last two transfers to different nightmare clients with 10 minutes warning before the meeting it was announced. After leaving, I had emailed a colleague there to set up a lunch, and received a read receipt from the VP who had not been emailed but had apparently set up with IT to get copies of any emails coming from the Rival company to anyone. So I laughed a lot, and texted the group that I was switching to texting and why.

  278. Goose*

    Background: When I started my college restaurant gig, I learned the manager that had hired me had been fired. No big, I didn’t know the guy from Adam. But the new manager still considered me one of “his” people.

    She couldn’t convince me to quit that whole year by giving me bum shifts (jokes on her, weekend days were the only times I could work anyway with my schedule.) This woman who had tried to get me to quit for a year (I was oblivious) came up with a whole fantasy about me going to work for OG guy and was stealing all of the secrets (???) and was openly trash talking me to other employees.

  279. Kate G*

    When I gave my 2 weeks notice at a company I had been at for 4 years, my boss, the owner of the company wanted to know where I was going. When I refused to tell him, he said he would ruin me. I was also never paid out my remaining vacation days. I lived in fear for years he would make good on his promise to have my blackballed from the industry.

  280. Bluestocking*

    When I was a senior in college, I worked for a small business of less than 10 employees. I often worked directly with the owner and considered her to be kind of a role model as she was successful and had made her passion into a pretty profitable business. I didn’t have enough work to do there and was part time, so after I graduated I found a full time job. My boss did not take it well and would swing between pretending I wasn’t leaving to hounding me about finding my replacement. She told me I wasn’t allowed to leave until I found someone to replace me but was extremely picky about every candidate I brought her. Finally, I told her ‘this is the date I’m leaving, and if you haven’t agreed on anybody, then so be it.’ and that was that! I’m a pretty shy person, so I felt pretty proud of myself for being assertive!

  281. I'm Not Phyllis*

    Ooh I’ll play. A long time ago I was laid off due to restructuring. I was young and still living at home so it ultimately wasn’t the end of the world (this was a government job and I was on contract. It was my first time going through the process of leaving a position, and since my direct manager worked at another site I had to prepare my handover notes, etc. on my own having never done it before. I did let them know right away that I would not be able to finish one of the projects that I was working on before I left (no response as to what I should do).

    Fast forward to about three days after my last day … I was sitting at home looking for jobs, no longer on payroll, and all of a sudden I get an email to my personal account from the manager of the project (how she got my personal email, I have no idea) telling me that we need to work out a timeline to finish the project (no offer of pay or a contract, mind you). I never replied.

  282. WestsideStory*

    Boss: “well, now I have to find someone ELSE to do this work!”

    Me: “Yes, that’s usually how it goes.”

    (For the record, I did give 2 weeks notice, and left documentation in triplicate).

  283. CrazyLlamaDrama*

    My previous employer, when I decided to quit, called a meeting. I just wanted something different than what they were able to offer. At the time I naively assumed it was like an exit interview. Instead, it turned into a 30+ minute tirade that included raised voices, aggressive hand gestures, and implied threats. Some of the things they confronted me about were saying I was bad at my job, that they had no idea what I was doing day-to-day, that I was burning bridges, that they knew so-and-so in the industry (who wasn’t even at the company), and that if they heard about me talking poorly about the company, they would pursue legal action. (Not even inaccurate talk, just talking badly about the company in general.)

    I found out after the meeting, they started spreading misinformation that my work performance was so egregious it was a “quit or be fired” situation; which was not the case whatsoever. I was agog at their reaction; my resigning before the meeting was, in my mind, a low-key standard thing. Afterwards, I was completely soured on the people who spoke with me and acted like that.

  284. lake of shining waters*

    I worked as a contract-to-hire in an adjacent industry to the one I was getting my master’s in while finishing up school. The company had a history of keeping people as contractors for literal years before properly hiring them, which, combined with the poor training and callous management, led to a lot of turnover in my department. When I was interviewed, I made it very clear that as soon as I was finished with grad school, I’d be looking for a job directly in my field of study.

    Well a little over a year later, I got a job in my preferred field and scheduled a meeting with my supervisor first thing Tuesday morning to give her my notice. The offer from my new job wasn’t officially finalized until end of day Monday, and I didn’t want to give my notice before I was sure everything was final. We sat down, I told her I was giving my notice and that my last day would be a week from Friday, and in an incredibly snippy and appalled voice, said, “Oh, so we don’t even get the courtesy of a full two weeks notice?” as though I gave her two hours’ notice instead of one day short of two weeks. I fumblingly tried to explain why I wasn’t able to give her a “true” two weeks, but she just cut me off and said, “Well, I’ve been seeing this coming for a long time anyway” and then offered a very half-hearted congrats on the new position and left the conference room.

    1. EvilQueenRegina*

      In my old job, there was a round of layoffs going on and uncertainty about what was happening with one source of funding because the decision date kept getting pushed back. Initially, our then-manager was telling everyone “if you see another job, go for it”, but when people did start doing that, and it was looking like people were going to be leaving before 31st March (the day the existing funding was to run out) she didn’t like that.

      I might make a separate comment about things that happened with my coworkers that don’t really relate to your comment, but my one coworker and I secured internal transfers to another department, and one of the managers from that team called us on Tuesday 22nd February, asking us to start Monday 21st March, i.e. same as your one day short of the full notice period (I’m in the UK). This was initially accepted by our existing manager, however she’d accepted it in a bad moment having just found out about a screwup by the department accountant, and once she’d had time to think it over, she decided to enforce the one day and keep us in our old jobs on 21st March.

      The best of it was that the one day was so quiet that the old job could have managed without us, although in fairness this was very unusual and not something that could have been known about a month ahead of time.

  285. Rosa*

    Not a job, but in high school I quit jazz band. I was doing too many things, and being in jazz required I join marching band. Wasn’t interested, didn’t have time.

    Teacher “Mr. B” cornered me and had a whole what I think was meant to be a motivational speech prepared, about how he once had a choice too, and how glad he was he stuck it out, etc.

    14-year-old me looked him in the eye and said, “But Mr. B, I don’t want to be like you.” I still remember the look of shock on his face as I collected my things and left.

  286. TG*

    I had a former boss who lied in the interview about work from home option so when I asked which day I could work from home after 90 days as I needed to let my husband and daycare know which day our daughter wouldn’t be there, he acted like this was news to him. Then he said I needed to wait 80 more days. In July I told him I needed to know for daycare and I still had to fight for it.
    Then he’d watch when I came in and left, how long I took for lunch etc.
    After a year I was done and gave notice with glee – he threw my printed resignation letter in his desk and was pissed. He then told my team they couldn’t take me out to celebrate my new role. He then called me into his office the next day and said he was concerned I’d take badly about the company and I was like you obviously don’t know me etc. then he told me to leave so I went to HR and said he’s accepted my resignation so I need my full two weeks check please as he’s asking me to leave today. I walked out with the check and very happy to be rid of him! Liar, micromanager, also said if he’d known my daughter “needed me so much” he’d have rethought the hire etc.

  287. GiGi*

    I was the only person in his office and when I announced my resignation (with two weeks notice) I was no longer allowed to answer emails or the phone. Dude was certifiably banana pants.

  288. GetOffMyLawn*

    Last company I worked for. Family owned and the head of the company was run by one of the sons. So many issues and not enough time in the world to mention. I worked in the maintenance department as Admin. Ya know the keeper of all the records and finder of the paper. I also had the correct license to drive anything out in the lot. And I was the only person who knew the maintenance program inside and out. That program was the reason I was hired btw.
    My boss gave me a heads up about him leaving and where he was going because he wanted me to come to the same company. I waited a week before giving 3 weeks notice because I knew that they had to pull someone over for me to train on the specific maintenance program I used. Didn’t happen. Last day and I packed up the last of my stuff and drove off. No handshake, no good luck. The mechanics and I had planned on getting together after hours but we had a blizzard that day so no party with co-workers either.
    I did get a call a month later from one of the people in accounting. Seems there was a federal document that hadn’t been filed and there were fines starting to accumulate. The figures needed for the doc came from the maintenance program. That only I knew. Not my monkey’s, not my circus.
    Last I heard, he has part time mechanics with no experience on the type of vehicles he has and still has not replace me.
    My current job is the same as old job without driving. I have thrived.

  289. Cookie monster*

    I worked for a financial institution for more than 8 years. the sole reason I was leaving was because I had gotten a boss that I couldn’t stand and after more than a year under her, I gave up. I was trying to leave with integrity and be polite about the situation. After I gave notice she started flipping out, getting angrier and angrier about what I’m not sure. anyway, she came up with an excuse to have me leave a week early and practically yelled at me to get out while I tried to figure out what exactly happened. the thing was, I had my own personal financial accounts there (as we were encouraged to do) and somehow the night I was told to leave, I mysteriously lost access to those accounts. the next morning I had a friend in the company turn them back on as these were my personal accounts as a customer not anything related to my employment. So my former coworker reactivated them and made the comment that the way they were turned off looked odd. that was on a Friday, and by the end of the day they managed to be yet again turned off. I waited for my final direct deposit and closed all my accounts there forever more.

    1. Rhamona Q*

      That’s not cool, to mess with your personal accounts like that. I would hope that there were professional repercussions once IT was able to trace back who turned off that access. But more likely there weren’t :/

  290. Jam on Toast*

    About six years ago, Mr. Jam was witness to a very serious construction accident that ultimately resulted in the death of a colleague he had worked with for several years. I will spare you the gruesome details, but my spouse took contemporaneous notes and photos during the rescue operation and later, made recordings that proved the site supervisors, company owners, and their lawyers were threatening their employees into ‘massaging’ their statements to investigators because they were facing a massive fine from the province, as well as a potential lawsuit from the victim’s family.

    Mr. Jam wouldn’t play ball and the company owners went ballistic. They told him they had the ability to get his trade’s license revoked. They suggested they would implicate him in the accident and that he would be personally liable for millions of dollars in fines as a result. They even threatened us, his family, with harm! It was vicious and unhinged. Of course, he quit instantly, and left the job site office with them howling that they would blackball him with every construction company in the province and he would never work again!

    He got to his truck, blocked every single work number on his cellphone, and then made three texts to industry contacts, letting them know he was looking for a new job. By the time he got home an hour later, he had five! job offers, essentially telling him to name his price, and offering all sorts of perks. He’s been with his current employer going on five years now and they treat him well. The unhinged construction company is, sadly, still in business, but they ended up paying a multi-million dollar fine for unsafe work conditions AND the widow hired a top-notch litigation firm to represent herself and the couple’s young children. Exhibit A in their civil suit were Mr. Jam’s high-quality images, notes and audio recordings that proved the company’s responsibility in technicolour.

  291. canary*

    One summer when I was home from college, I had a job at a pet boarding kennel attached to a vet’s office. I worked weekday afternoons, the manager worked weekday mornings. The kennel manager would call me *at least* three mornings a week asking me to cover for her, tried to borrow money from me all the time, and would leave huge amounts of work for me to do when my shift started. After two months I realized this was not worth it, so I put in my two weeks’ notice with the vet (who had been the one to hire me). His response was to offer me the manager position… despite having worked there all of 8 weeks and going to college in another state (did he think I was going to drop out of school?). It was a pretty tame resignation compared to some of these other stories, but I was still pretty flabbergasted by it.

  292. Uh...you forgot what??*

    My boss just flat out didn’t formally register or report that I was leaving the company after I gave notice (and only the manager can do it, everything else is triggered by that action). The day before my last day, I got suspicious that I hadn’t received any paperwork or equipment return instructions. My last day was a hot mess.

  293. BeeKeen*

    I quit a paralegal job several years ago because it had just become unbearable. I gave two weeks notice and my boss ignored it and never said a word until 5 minutes before I was leaving on my last day. She sent me an email saying I had a mandatory meeting. I didn’t reply and just left, left my office key and everything else behind. Next thing I know, I see her with one of the other attorneys standing at the exit of the parking deck blocking me from leaving! They started banging on my windows to get me to respond. How dare I not attend this meeting?!? Here were two lawyers, both grown women, banging on my car threatening me if I didn’t come back in for the meeting! I had to call the police to get them off my car!

  294. works with realtors*

    I once worked at a place that wouldn’t allow people to tell their coworkers they were leaving, and would only announce departures at 5pm on the person’s last day. Any layoffs/terminations were also only announced at 5pm on their last day. In some cases, an email never went out, and the ex-employee’s email was still active, so there were people that you’d be reaching out to thinking they were ignoring you but really they hadn’t worked there in weeks! This doesn’t even include never communicating staff changes to vendors/contractors/etc, who would start dialing extensions at random and then yelling at whoever did pick up to ask why they were being ignored. It was a nightmare. For all I know, I’m still getting emails and calls there too .

  295. Jam Today*

    I guess maybe the inverse of “deranged” in that…nothing happened. I ran a line of business for five years (and spent 4.5 of them telling our leadership the market wasn’t there and we needed to make a graceful exit, and finally just had to leave myself to get away from the disaster), did four departments’ work for them, had tons of documentation about strategy, roadmap, market analysis, etc., not to mention our contracts with our vendors and partners, and nobody ever made a transition plan or even asked me for access to my documentation. They literally did nothing as I walked out the door after six days (didn’t bother with two full weeks), didn’t even shut off my network access. as I discovered when I got a pang of guilt after business hours on my last day and logged back into the network to send the link to my OneDrive to my grandboss. Two weeks later I got around to going to the office to drop off my computer, discovered that my keycard still worked, and nobody from network security knew that I didn’t work there anymore. (I work in Healthcare IT by the way, which has incredibly strict guardrails around infosec and facility access.)

  296. Cici*

    I don’t think this will blow anyone’s mind, but when I told my boss (over Zoom) that I was resigning, she started crying. To be fair, we were an org of 3 people, and the other person had just been fired… it was just bad timing.

  297. So they all cheap ass-rolled over and one fell out*

    I mentioned this in the thread a few days ago about a new coworker getting hired at a higher title than the LW.
    “When I wanted to get promoted to Senior Engineer, I had to work months at the higher level contribution, which included leading a project with two Senior Engineers they hired in at that title based on nothing more than hour or two of interviews. They lost me over it – they waited just a little long to finally give me that promotion.”

    When I say a little too long, I mean it quite literally.

    After some months of leading people with higher titles than me, my manager finally agreed I deserved the promotion. Then came the waiting. He kept telling me he was working on it for months. Eventually, I went out to the market and got a job offer as a Senior Engineer at a new employer. Before I accepted the offer, I went to my manager one last time to ask the status of my promotion. Once again he said he was working on it. I left his office, called to accept the job offer, and went home for the weekend. Monday I came in to find out he had emailed me late Friday “Congratulations, you’re a Senior!” He finally got me the promotion, literally an hour or two too late.

    When I handed in my resignation on Monday anyways, he was pretty pissed off, and accused me of going for the promotion only to use it as leverage to get a better offer elsewhere. I didn’t bother explaining the actual timing to him.

  298. DeliNoMore*

    I quit a part-time job at a deli eons ago. I went to the owner to tell him I would work the rest of the schedule since he just put it up, but after the 2 weeks, I was done. So, essentially, 2 weeks notice. Granted, this was probably the worst manager I ever had – the owner tried to get me to come into work the day my grandmother died because there was, “nothing that could be done for her today.” Anyway, he told me I wasn’t giving the proper 2 weeks notice required for the job. I was perplexed, since this was my second-ever job. He then counted out how many days I was scheduled, and told me I only gave him 6 days of notice and he just kept getting louder until he just told me to leave on the spot. I was really upset because I thought that meant I was fired, but realize now just how absolutely bonkers it was!

  299. Perfectly normal-sized space bird*

    I discovered the writing was on the wall at my second professional job (promotion to manager from another subsidiary) when there were too many discrepancies showing some shady business. It was a job that came with company-provided housing so my family and I had quietly found a new place to live and had almost finished moving out in preparation for my resignation. I had my letter of resignation ready and was going to turn it in with two weeks’ notice but someone let it slip to someone higher up that I was preparing to leave.

    I showed up to my office the next morning to find a new manager had taken my place, my personal computer had been seized, and I was locked out of my company housing with a notice that I had three days to leave (yes, they gave me three days and instantly locked me out so I couldn’t get the last few pieces of furniture, which is bizarre enough…except I had a master key because part of my job required master access, so someone apparently didn’t read my job description before setting things in motion).

    Then a police car from a state I’ve never been to (another time zone even) showed up to interrogate me about missing funds. Things got weirder after that. Don’t worry, everything came out fine for me in the end.

    More details of the debacle:

    So what turned out from all of this is that the subsidiary of the company I worked for was set up to be a tax shelter for one of the the company’s co-owners to commit insurance and tax fraud and my position had been created to be the scapegoat for if they ever got caught (this is what happened to my predecessor, who was eventually acquitted in court). My boss at the time asked me to look into some records, which is when he uncovered something hinky going on. Someone higher up got wind of what he was doing. Then my boss disappeared, having left me a cryptic voicemail that I should look for a new job and to not tell anyone he had contacted me. That’s when I decided to flee and prepared to resign. The company thought my impending resignation was a sign that I had evidence against them and sent in their flunky to lock me out so they could delete and shred everything, then set up their bug-out plan for me to take the fall.

    That evening, I used the master key to get my personal computer back from the office (along with all the office supplies I paid for out of pocket that they never reimbursed me for) and the last few things out of the company housing, then contacted a lawyer who had perfected the art of being friendly-seeming, but in a really terrifying way. There was a private hearing where the judge was so horrified by the evidence that he chewed out the company reps for a solid 20 minutes before telling them to GTFO and pray I don’t sue them.

    Since I never formally resigned (they fired me a week before I was going to submit my resignation letter), I applied for unemployment, which my former employer contested. So that went to a hearing as well. The tribunal thoroughly reamed them and I still have the letter stating the tribunal’s findings, which I re-read on the anniversary of my firing because it’s glorious.

    My boss eventually resurfaced with a raft of documentation that was submitted to various agencies. Nothing much came of it. The subsidiary CEO (who had been convicted of bank fraud and was hired by this company right out of federal prison) wound up being marked as the scapegoat and now all records of his employment there have been scrubbed. The shady co-owner of the company got off free and the other co-owner left for a new business. The company is still thriving and screwing poor people out of their money and committing insurance and tax fraud. I’d love to name them, but I prefer they don’t remember I exist.

  300. Kristin*

    My employer’s deputy director, a prominent midwestern museum, decided when I have them 5 weeks’ notice to question my hiring instead of paying out my vacation.
    1. I was asked if HR had given me a typing test. (They had.)
    2. I was asked if HR had checked my background. (My supervisor remembered they had as had I.)
    3. They started probing how much money I had made over my 6 years of employment.
    I ended up bursting into tears (like a fox) in the Accounting Department, whereupon the head of Accounting took me into her office. When I mentioned what was happening and asked if I needed an attorney, she became livid and told me to go back to my desk and not worry. (I knew they didn’t have a case.)
    I later overheard the attorney yelling at this deputy director to cease immediately the inquiry into my hiring and to fulfill her obligations, quit making stupid rules (not to say “hello” to one of the trustees, a prominent family in the Midwest practically everyone would recognize, having staff sign a particularly restrictive non-competitive agreement, etc.), and quit making his job “a living hell.”
    That ended the matter. I received an apology via my supervisor and the excuse “they had never encountered this before” (someone quitting?). Oh, but that didn’t stop the then-director from asking if 5 interns – a different intern every day – could take on my job. My supervisor conveyed to me HER apology in time as well!
    I understand there has been a change in admin and high-ranking staff since and the culture is much less dysfunctional.

  301. Wineforcats*

    My last job was admin for a very high-net worth, small office that forced everyone to come in, in-person, and banned masks during Covid. I had just moved to the city and was terrified of being without a job, so I white-knuckled through the pandemic in business formal every day. I have a lot of stories. Anyway once the job market picked up, I began searching and found a great job I’m in to this day.

    During my time at the office my bubble was this group of 8 boomer colleagues, and while the circumstances were objectively awful, I had formed some kind of friendly personal relationship with all of them. So, me quitting was treason. It was so, so tense in the office. Only one person, my boss, was level-headed and kind about the situation, and dragged another executive to my going away lunch and others to my happy hour. The lunch was so painful. His intentions were good but it just wasn’t needed. I never heard from anyone I would say I was “close” to after, which is so disappointing but not unexpected.

    My other quitting time was with a god awful company with a serial sexual-harasser owner, inept CEO and a cartoonishly awful HR villain trio. They tried so hard to fire me (swear to god, one of the items on my PIP was that I was disrespectful and bad at my job…by asking clarifying questions about a task my boss had given me.) anyway I knew this company was seriously cash-poor so I got them back by…filling out my two week notice entirely. It was petty but I knew it would hurt them. No regrets!

  302. TokenJockNerd*

    I worked in a very…niche…youth sport industry, let’s say competitive underwater basketweaving, and my boss was entirely out of step with norms when I resigned to go work somewhere that the owner had a whiff of a clue about the sport!

    He tried to refuse to accept my resignation until it was delivered in X specific format. Or Y. or Z. Then of course “oh you can’t resign til competition season is over.” The competition season that was already over! Then, of course, “well who is going to train your replacement?” (in questions that are entirely out of step with norms). He then demanded all my notes (which is fine, I guess, but going to be disappointing!) and when those didn’t have the steps to teach a child to underwater basketweave he wanted me to write out every drill I’ve ever used. Nope! That is not how this industry works my dude.

    …then he called everywhere in my area trying to figure out who’d hired me so he could convince them revoke the job offer. As he’d failed to pay for a basketweaving contest that my new employer hosted, she laughed at him. As one does.

    Finally he tried to cancel our year end awards party out of fear the families would find out I was leaving (???). When he was talked down from that bad idea he instead came, glared, and stomped around the entire time. He also checked the award certificates for coded messages about where exactly I was going to be coaching next. This made the participants very uncomfortable. Because it was bananapants.

    1. Oh, just me again!*

      This appeared to be like many of the others here, a story of kind of mundane incompetence mixed with petty resentment and then you got to the part about looking for coded messages! That’s a whole ‘nother level weird!

  303. NotHannah*

    I had been working at a university; the leadership in my division changed and became toxic. I resigned. My grandboss had never actually acknowledged my existence in any way, even though I was seated next to him and his wife during a university event. His wife did make chit chat with me, thankfully.
    My office was located inside a building, just off the lobby. On my last day, my grandboss stood in the doorway to my office with his back to me, facing the lobby. For what felt like a long time, maybe 20-30 minutes. He never once turned around to look at me or speak with me. I think he occasionally spoke with colleagues who passed by in the lobby. There was absolutely no reason for him or anyone to stand in my doorway like that — the lobby was vast.
    He left after 14 months, but of course I was long gone by then. I think I’m still mystified.

  304. Katie*

    In my first adult job, I went in to my bosses office to quit (nothing unexpected, I had found a full-time job). He said “Fine. Get out.” and then started screaming and cussing as the door closed. After that, I found myself being put on shifts with the creepy older guy who kept pestering me for rides home at night or cornering me in dark parking lots. I had complained about him to my boss before and we had been kept off the same schedule until I put in my four weeks notice…

  305. WFHomer Simpson*

    Most interesting part of having 3 bosses in my last job was that I got a whole spectrum of responses when I resigned.

    Boss 1 overcompensated with kindness and enthusiasm. He insisted on giving me a big hug (I’m not a hugger), babbled for several minutes about how incredibly super-duper happy he was for me, and then decided that I needed a grandiose going away party that involved our team driving to a city 2 hours away to play Topgolf (I don’t golf). The team did go on this outing of awkwardness, but I mysteriously had a stomach bug that day. What a shame.

    Boss 2 went the cold shoulder route. He stopped acknowledging me in the office, excluded me from emails and meetings in my last 2 weeks, etc. Funniest of all, my coworkers had started a countdown to my departure on the whiteboard in my office. Boss 2 started closing and locking my office door anytime I wasn’t there so others couldn’t see the countdown board.

    Boss 3 went on a campaign to convince me I was making the worst decision ever to leave. He questioned all my motivations, promised new internal job opportunities (funny how I’d been asking for years but nothing could ever be done before), and badmouthed my new employer. My favorite: He claimed new employer was due for a downturn in the next couple years where I’d be guaranteed to be laid off. After I said I’d take that risk, he sputtered that that was fine, because I’d get valuable experience there and then come back to him begging for my job back after the inevitable layoffs, so he’d get me back in better condition anyway. Why he thought admitting I’d get better experience at the new company was some kind of argument in his favor, I have no idea.

    Satisfyingly, I’ve been at new job for over 5 years now and have moved up twice. Old Boss 1 got forced out of the company a few months after I left (he texted me asking for help on his resume, lol). Old Boss 2 has been passed over for the promotion he’s been gunning for for years and is still in his same role as far as I’ve heard. Old Boss 3 ended up unable to keep my position filled and called my current employer a couple years ago to ask if I could be a consultant for them (haha, no).

  306. MaryMary*

    I resigned from a law firm over Zoom during Covid. One partner jerked back in his chair like I had physically punched him, then said “but I won’t get to see your baby grow up!”

    The only reason this sexist, shouty, awful person even knew my son was because he had been joining me on many work calls – because the partners were still making me bill 250-300 hours a month despite having zero childcare during Covid. Which of course is why I was quitting in the first place (among other things).

  307. FionasHuman*

    Not me; my then boyfriend/now spouse. When he gave notice at one employer, the boss actually said: “You’ll be expected to work overtime over the next two weeks to get us ready for the transition.” Spouse came home laughing about that one.

  308. keyw*

    One of my old vendors, Jane, was *very* known for taking everything personally, to a ridiculous level. Like, if someone said hello and didn’t sound “happy enough,” she would dramatically pull me aside and ask what she’d done to upset them. It was A Lot.
    One day, I found Jane in our back parking lot, sobbing and hunched over her car. I ran over to her, and immediately asked what happened and if she was okay. She looked like she was in some kind of awful medical distress.
    Well, she was not. Turns out, one of her team members retired (retired! not even quit) and Jane just could not understand “why she would do such a horrible thing to the business” and “how could she leave ME knowing it will jeopardize everything I HAVE WORKED FOR for the last ten years” and “EVERYTHING will suffer and SHE knows that.” It was wild.
    Shockingly, Jane’s professionalism (or lack thereof) ended up being quite an issue.

  309. Gonna Go Anon For This One*

    In my industry once you give your notice you’re usually walked right then, so everyone prepares beforehand and copies whatever they want onto their flash drives before they even give notice. And everyone in our industry KNOWS THIS.

    I give my 2-week notice on a Thursday and am walked out within 2 hours. Fine. I’m not starting my new job until the next Monday (over a week away) and I had planned for that. What I didn’t plan for was the new-to-me manager having the HR company the Friday before I started my new job (so over a week after giving notice) and demanding that I IMMEDIATELY drive 30+ minutes away and hand over my flash drive. I arrive to that property and….said manager is out sick with Covid and no one has any idea why I am there handing over this generic flash drive.

    So I go back to the property that I work at and go on a TANGENT to my GM about what they’ve made me do and he actually got HR to call and apologize because it was misrepresented that I had a “company flash drive” and not a personal flash drive. While I was railing at my GM, my co-worker who had walked me out came flying downstairs demanding to know how I got in the building (it isn’t locked? It’s a hotel? And I haven’t done anything wrong?) and how I parked in the gated lot (I didn’t, I parked outside the lot) and was just in a complete fit about me being there.

    Joke’s on them because I still have every single damn document I ever created or saved from that place on a separate flash drive from the one I turned over (which was also returned to me).

    1. LJ*

      I want to know what industry this is where copying company files onto a personal flash drive is apparently commonplace

  310. Karma is my boyfriend*

    My second job out of college was for a branch of the U.S. military, as a civilian. Because of this, there was a checklist I had to complete before leaving. Anything I needed from my boss, he refused to do. On my last day, I still hadn’t gotten these items, but had my final appointment with HR at 2pm. The office that I needed to go to after boss signed off/gave me these items also closed at 2pm. So there was no way to do both so I just went to HR and they were super annoyed at my boss, but were very gracious to me for dealing with him.

  311. PoisonPig*

    I had resigned my first ever role to my grand boss and he announced to the rest of the team that I’d be leaving soon in our weekly status meeting. I’m in the UK so it was a months notice per my contract. My direct manager who had been an horrible, unpleasant woman to work with at the best of times leaned over and whispered ‘I want to punch you in the face’ under her breath but in full view of the rest of the team.

    I managed to hold it together long enough to toilet for a tactical cry when the meeting ended. I did tell my grand boss who forced her to give a very insincere apology and all I could think was that I’d made the right choice in quitting.

  312. Leslie Santiago*

    I haven’t had anything like this, thankfully. In fact, when I told the Director of my division I was leaving my most recent job before this one, she said “F@#$” very loudly (which and then congratulated me

    2. Oh, just me again!*

      Kinda sweet to know she valued you – but didn’t think of you as her private possession. Nice one!

  313. The dark months*

    I had a very low key exit from a company. They were kind of shady, our pay-checks were late or not for the full amount, so one day I just…left. I told the people in my immediate vicinity that I would be at home if they needed me – but not my boss, I found him too intimidating- took my company laptop and never went back. Not too long after the company was taken over by new owners and went in to speak with them and let them know I would be happy to help with any info they needed and that I was still owed money. They declined the offer of help, eventually paid me what I was owed and the laptop lived out the rest of its days peacefully on my desk.

  314. NMitford*

    Mine isn’t totally banana pants, just merely petty. Very, very petty.

    I left a job after 8 years, and the company tradition was that your team had a party for you and invited people from other teams that you interacted with in your role. I had previously complained to HR about my boss for a number of valid concerns (one of them was that she wouldn’t respect letting you arrive late/leave early/use your lunch hour to go to doctor’s appointment, so everyone on our team found themselves booking an entire day of vacation in order to do to essential doctor’s appointments, meaning that some people didn’t get much actual vacation time). HR intervened and told her to knock it off, and she was pissed.

    My boss booked the smallest conference in the building and only invited my team. A guy who’d been on our team but had recently transferred to another department called my boss to ask about the arrangements and was told that he couldn’t attend. People stopped me in the halls to ask me when the invitation to the party was coming out, and I’d have to say no, no, you’re not invited. The sales department, with whom I worked very, very closely, was told that they couldn’t attend. So, it was a sad little gathering with my team of six in a small windowless conference with a Hormel cheese and pepperoni platter from the local Walmart as the only refreshments. My going-away gift was a bouquet of wilting flowers from a street vendor.

    The admin assistant for the sales department, to her everlasting credit, figured out where the party was because you could look at the conference scheduling system and see who’d reserved wet, so 30 minutes into the “party” the door flew open and she walked in with a beautiful floral arrangement and a $100 gift card from the sales team.

    I had my exit interview with a new vice president in my reporting hierarchy and told him that I was really disappointed by what happened. I didn’t expect him to do anything, but the next week, when I was at home taking some time off between jobs, there was a knock on the door and there was a florist with another beautiful arrangement. The card said, “Sorry we didn’t get a chance to celebrate you,” which was lovely of him to do.

    It just really hurt to be turned into a pariah on my last day, KWIM?

  315. Anon for This*

    I went to my boss to tell them that because of a family illness, I needed to scale back my effort from on-site 114%* to 100% and hybrid (i.e. 1.5 days on-site, 3.5 days remote). Their response?

    “I can’t justify paying you while you wait for your [family member] to die.”

    I resigned on the spot. This was after they bait-and-switched me on an 10% raise six months before. They really were a terrible boss.

    *Yes, I had 114% funded effort at the time.

  316. RandomName*

    When I returned to work after maternity leave, my bosses started asking me to work more and longer days (never mind my contract), complaining that I was wasting time pumping milk, refused previously planned leave.
    When I pushed back, I was pretty much told “our way or the highway!”, so I told them I’d quit (didn’t have anything lined up).
    At first they looked very happy about it and decided they would shorten my notice period (my contract had a standard 6 month notice period, but they wanted me gone ASAP and figured 3 months would be enough).
    They I think they realised how short-staffed they would be after I left and started telling me I was making a mistake and should stay and agree to their demands. Nope, I’ve found other employment. They started belittling me.
    And then they went off the rails. I tried to discuss how I should transition my work, knowing that there was no way they would be able to shoulder it all. An option would have been to transition some of it to another neighbouring practice. It’s not unusual to do it that way where I’m from, but I still got screamed at. How dare I suggest they go to those vultures ! But they never made time to go over my patients, and also forbade me to tell them I was leaving.
    Although they never really crossed the line, lots of unkind words were thrown my way, some of which still sting years later.
    They tried to find someone to replace me before the end of my notice period. They got only one candidate, and torpedoed their chances when they started laughing at her when she outlined how much she was willing to work (pretty much the same hours as me). Of course it was my fault she refused, even though I had not said anything about why I was leaving.
    Then on my last day I got a catered meal, cake, chocolate… and a request to come and work weekends for them so they could manage the extra workload I’d “stuck them with”.
    Then they went home for the afternoon, leaving me alone for my last half day, asking that I leave the keys in the mailbox.

  317. MedievalCat*

    I ended up resigning after the company told me they wanted to add way more work to my workload when I was already doing just a staggering amount of work (when i was hired 10 months before, i was told that they were going to hire someone else in my position as well, which never happened). During the first department Zoom meeting after I resigned, the CEO jumped on the call and gave this teary speech about how it was their fault that i was resigning and they would never forgive themselves and would miss me forever. This then turned into everyone else on the Zoom call saying lots of really nice things about me in some sort of weird open mic compliment-athon. I then had to figure out how to respond to all of this – I think I mumbled thank you or something.
    Obviously, this wasn’t as bad as many other examples, but it really put me on the spot in a super awkward way!

  318. Our Business Is Rejoicing*

    I had completely forgotten about this one; it was over thirty years ago.

    My last couple of years of undergrad, I worked at the university’s bookstore. I’d gotten the job because another university facility had closed and those of us who were employees there got first stab at other jobs with the university. I had worked buyback week twice, so that also gave me an in.
    There was another woman hired at the same time I was, and she quickly became our supervisor’s favourite. She constantly did things that the rest of the employees would get yelled at for, got all the best schedule spots, could wander in ten minutes late without comment, etc. I had nothing against her personally at all–she was perfectly nice. But Supervisor never let me forget that he “had” to hire me, and I always felt like he was just waiting for me to mess up (which I didn’t). I quite loved the job otherwise–good, fun coworkers, books, great location. Anyway, both of us graduated at the same time. I was local, so I stayed on for the summer (my university ran classes) before heading off to grad school. She left after she graduated. When both of us were leaving was well known. When she left, there was a cake and a trip out to the local pub, and we all signed a goodbye card and a stuffy with our university’s mascot was presented to her. When I left seven weeks later–nothing. When one of my co-workers asked what we were doing for my goodbye party, the supervisor said “Oh, that was supposed to be for co-worker AND Our Business Is Rejoicing.” And then, on the final day, he belatedly tried to schedule something for the following week–which was after my planned move date–and just kind of shrugged when he found out I’d be gone.
    My coworkers did at least send a card around on their own.

      1. Oh, just me again!*

        Ah, c’mon! You can’t do that to us! (Or was that why he bit you? Because you had driven him mad by making only cryptic, tantalizing statements for your entire tenure?)

  320. Kaerie*

    I was at my very first teen job for a couple of years, at a small family owned burger place. We had all sorts of fun policies, like a “training wage” that somehow never was raised to minimum wage, and mandatory unpaid staff meetings.

    When I quit because I was getting married at age 18, the owner asked me to postpone my wedding, because “you know that’s our busy season!”

    That was 33+ years ago, and I’m still bemused by his response. And yes, still married!

  321. Aequoria*

    My husband and I married as undergrads, finished our degrees, and moved to a different university city so I could take a research position. Husband worked evenings and weekends cooking at an upscale restaurant while searching for a job in his very niche field of study. When he left the restaurant for a part time position in his field at a federal agency, the chef berated him for making a stupid decision where he would definitly make less money (it was fewer hours but at higher pay, so actually a win). 21 years later, husband is now Chief of his department at federal agency, with no regrets about leaving the restaurant behind.

  322. Silverflint*

    I wrote my resignation in the second hour of listening to my coworker be berated and made to beg for her job in the CEO’s office. My coworker was in the CEO’s office for 2.5 hours, and lost her job when it was over.

    I asked the CEO if she had a minute, and she curtly told me no (I was the small org’s receptionist/her personal assistant, its not like she didn’t know who I was or me asking her for a minute of her time was out of line). So I emailed my resignation to her and CC’d the entire board.

    She immediately called me into her office and tried to bully me into rescinding the resignation. I refused. when she realized I was sticking by the resignation, she told me to be out by 3 pm– less than an hour. 10 minutes later, I was locked out of my org email so I couldn’t even put my work in order (I’d done some while my coworker was being fired, but there were tasks that could have used some notes from me for the next person).

    then she came to my desk and demanded my office keys. I told her I would hand it over after I was done clearing my desk; my keys included a locked cabinet, where I needed to file some of the work on my desk. she stood there and loudly demanded the keys until I handed them over. because I was locked out of my email and filing cabinets, I went to see if my coworker needed help with anything, clearing her desk. the CEO followed me and stood in the doorway to coworker’s office. She had a loud conversation with the person my coworker shared an office with, about how we might try to steal stuff and had to be watched. Talking about us as if we weren’t there or couldn’t hear them.

    We got out before 3. However, the next day she emailed me to ask if we could have an “exit interview”, because she wanted to address my “concerns about org leadership” that I had cited in my resignation. I purposely buried the lede, bc I knew she wouldn’t read the whole email. The board did, though, and some of them contacted her to ask what were my leadership concerns. I told her I didn’t have time for an exit interview as I was alrrady looking for another job, and don’t ask me about this again. I hope the “I ALREADY EXITED, BUD, I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING FOR YOU” was loud and clear.

    That was late 2019. The org was and still is notorious for a weirdly high turn over for the sector. Recently, a family friend had an interview scheduled with the org and reached out to pick my brain about my experience. She got an earful, bc my resignation was just the shit cherry on the bullshit cake there, and decided to decline the interview.

    I’ve heard through the grapevine there’s a lawsuit coming against the CEO for workplace bullying and hostile work environment, from a group of former employees. I’m not in that group but I wish them all well, and a very “fuck you” to the CEO.

  323. stars and mars*

    This has always been so bananapants to me that it sounds fake, but: Just out of college, I started and then quickly bailed on one of my first office jobs for multiple good reasons — the story of my last week at the small family-run company that caused me to leave is its own wild post. But what really solidified this as a good idea to run from this job? When the owner received my notice, she not only told me not to bother coming back for the notice period, but informed me that she would expect me to return all the money she had previously paid me for work already done and that I should send a check within 90 days. She used this phrase, I have never forgotten it: “It is the correct moral and responsible choice on your part to restore our investment to us, for the good of your future career.”

    I later heard through my small-town grapevine that I was not the first or only office employee she’d ever tried this with, especially trying it with other young and inexperienced workers.

    Me, I just kept the money and counted myself lucky to be gone.

  324. Healthcare Alive*

    I was working on a toxic team in a health care setting that provided consultation to hospitals and long term care homes in a region. I had signed on for a one year, temporary contract, but our collective agreement (yippee unions) has a clause that we can return to our permanent job whenever we want. This team was wackadoodle. One of the members (Donkey) was the spouse of an executive director at the organization, who was 2 levels above the manager of our team in terms of the org. chart. As an example, the team would schedule meetings when I was on vacation days or in meetings with other managers, and then be furious when I wouldn’t complete the action item that they assigned me. The kicker being, they didn’t tell me the action item, they wouldn’t distribute minutes etc. They cooked the numbers to make our stats look good. And they loved busy work, ‘let’s take the instructions and re-write them’. Donkey was threatened by my ability, and rising star status, and immediately went to work to undermine and sabotage my performance (for a day long education day they would load everyone’s power point slides, and they changed mine without telling me…). So, I arranged a meeting with the manager and quit, to return to my permanent job. After telling my manager I quit, she asked me a general question about the other staff on the team. I hated working with these people, thinking about them kept me up at night, their passive bullying led to a severe skin disorder, my dentist even asked if there was something wrong in my life because my mouth looked like I was very stressed, BUT, I gave a very professional response outlining how I missed front line clinical work and that the role was not the best fit for my skills. Her response was to tell me that she wouldn’t be able to give me a recommendation because my colleagues had been complaining about me for months, unless I had a meeting with her to express everything that was wrong with my colleagues. She then went on to blame me for my colleagues behaviour. I had the meeting with her and told her everything and she actually apologized. It turns out that she quit her job shortly after I left, because she was being bullied by Donkey. And then Donkey’s wife fired the director of the program!

  325. NewFlora*

    I worked in a department of my current organization that turned really toxic after the arrival of a new executive director. She started firing all exempt staff under her, especially the highly experienced, professional women, and replaced them with incompetent lackeys who would do her bidding. My boss was fired and her replacement was someone who had been previously shunted off into a role where she wouldn’t have to work with anybody else due to her record of bullying other staff.
    I had already seen the writing on the wall and had been applying to other positions, and finally landed one in another department within the same organization. I met with my boss and gave her 3 weeks notice, even though I was only required to give 2 because one of those weeks I had already booked off for a vacation. She simply said “You’re not leaving”. I reiterated for her that this new job was a promotion for me and that I needed to take it for the benefit of my career. At which point she said “You can’t leave until we’ve finished Project X”, which the team had only just started working on and was meant to be finished in 9-12 months, and “I’m going to call (new boss) and tell him you can’t accept the position”. I said again that the position was a promotion for me but suggested that I would be okay to stay for a few weeks longer if she was able to negotiate that with my new boss and if she started to pay me the higher salary I would have been earning at the new position during that time (which I knew she didn’t have the budget for). At which point she lost the plot completely and told me that the only way I could possibly accept the new position would be if I resigned from the organization first, but if I did that she would personally ensure that I would never work in this town again.
    She had to run to another meeting at that point, so I went and immediately called my new boss and diplomatically stated that while my current boss was saying that I would not be able to start for 9-12 months, I was really keen on the new position and would like to start on the date we had previously discussed. He said he needed me to start on that date as I would be eventually replacing someone who was near retirement and that person needed to train me, and said he would talk to my current boss. To this day, I don’t know what he said, but problem boss came back to me the next day and was gushing about what an opportunity it was for me to be able to learn from said near retiree and how of course she wished me well, all in the most sickly-sweet tone of voice.

  326. Big Pig*

    I realised I have a very minor one but I like contributing.
    I was a keyholder (extra £1 an hour when in charge of the shop) at a small kids only shop that was part of a larger ladies fashion brand, actually the site had been a tiny version of the full store but it moved into a larger unit in the centre but had to keep paying the small unit’s lease for a while hence the kid only shop. The unit had no manager just a supervisor as the managers were all 5 mins away at the full store, the supervisor and I hated each other. She was determined to make a career at the company, I was a recent uni drop out trying to work out why I was screwing up my life (ADHD I found out almost 20 years later). We never got on, I was probably very rude to her and she was pretty rude to me. I worked there for about 18 months maybe 2 years. When I resigned I handed my notice to my manager at the main store and, what I now admit was pettily, didn’t tell her. She told me the next time she saw me that I was a horrible person for not handing it to her and refused to let anyone get me a leaving gift. I didn’t really care, I made some nice friends and went on to a ridiculous retail job I later walked out of for many good reasons, but I was pretty miffed when I found out the girl who replaced me and left after 4 months was given a silver bangle that the supervisor made everyone chip in for. I can now admit my faults in the situation but I still don’t like her.

  327. I Have RBF*

    After I left one particularly toxic lab by mutual agreement (I wasn’t even a regular employee, just a temp), I paused at the edge of the parking lot, just over the property line, took my shoes off and slapped the soles together on their side of the line.

    The managers were a toxic dumpster fire, and the workplace safety was barely legal. The fume hoods vented out over the back door, which then sucked the effluent back into the lab, picking up the pesticide contamination from the samples stored willy-nilly in the back room, and spreading it throughout the lab. Some of my current allergy problems are likely from the time I worked there.

    When they had the meeting about me leaving, I’m sure they expected me to cry and beg to keep the job. I didn’t. I was past done with them and was already looking.

  328. Lisa Godwin*

    I worked for a city magazine in Las Vegas back in the ‘80s. The new publisher was awful. He installed video cameras over all the female employees’ desks and watched us from his upstairs office. He traded ads in exchange for strangers to babysit his kids for weeklong trips. He kept trying to get me to go out of town with him “on business.” The list goes on. There was a huge turnover rate (shocker), and everyone knew not to give two weeks (or any) notice when quitting. The publisher simply wouldn’t fork over your final paycheck. When I mercifully quit, I cashed my final check — didn’t even deposit it, or he would’ve stopped payment on it — and had a coworker leave my resignation letter on the asshat’s desk. Oh and I climbed on top of my desk earlier that day and “accidentally” broke one of the video cameras.

  329. avcay*

    I had an exit interview with my grandboss 1 week into my 2 week notice period. I very delicately tried to flag a few ways that my boss had been not doing her job, and possibly embezzling from the company. At the end of the exit interview, my grandboss said that today should be my last day, as I clearly had a personal issue with my boss. I expressed that I didn’t have a personal issue, just thought we had very different working styles. Well, grandboss told me that my boss did have a personal issue with ne, handed me a check, and escorted me out.

    A year later my old boss was fired when it came to light she was 1) not doing her job and 2) embezzling!

  330. Very active listener*

    I was working at an agency that drastically changed my job description. When I expressed my concerns, I was told nothing could be done until the Executive Director returned from summer holiday (she was away for 8 weeks). I’m in a highly sought after profession, so I found a new job and gave the Executive Director 3 weeks notice when she returned. She became so angry at me during our meeting that she told me she could not speak to me any longer and that I had to leave her office. And it should be noted she also told me that I needed to learn to handle my stress better, I thought finding a new job was a great way to handle my stress. Regretfully I did not say that during the meeting. About a week later she yelled to me in the buildings open atrium (she was on the main floor, I was on the second) that she was ready to talk to me now. This pronouncement was met by many quizzical looks from the many staff and clients who were in the area. Never regretted leaving that position.

  331. 1idea*

    When I resigned at my last job, my manager initially told me he didn’t accept my resignation, but not why. It turned out he wanted to put together an offer for a promotion in hopes of getting me to stay. I was startled and flattered by the offer, but it was too late, I had to get out, so I declined with thanks. I told him I would work 3-4 weeks to be able to do training and wrap up a big project I was working on that I was very proud of and also had huge upside for the company. I spent that time… barely training anybody. After I declined the promotion, they promoted my most problematic employee to replace me. They knew about the problems, which were pretty serious; she was ok in the job at best and I sometimes thought I shouldn’t keep her on at all. I tried to train her on what she didn’t know from my work, but she wouldn’t let me, then complained she wasn’t being trained. I told my boss in hopes he would intervene, but he didn’t. (They fired her s few months later.) I had been managing complicated work in several different areas, a lot of which I had also master minded and rolled out in the first place – I’d been there seven years while it was a growing company. Most of it was documented with procedures, and I was fastidious about always making sure to cross-train people on all of it, and made sure other management team members knew what my team and I were doing and why, so I wouldn’t ever be the only one in the know about anything. Well, my boss decided to appoint an engineering intern who had been working on my team for a few weeks to map out my work in all the departments (not engineering departments btw – interesting but unrelated story). This intern was awesome and I loved having him on my team, but he would come back to our office after these transition planning meetings so lost, and I would help him with the information they wanted him to figure out. It was strange – my boss (the head of the company) didn’t seem to want me involved in the transition at all. I did manage to use my other relationships at the company to get the most sensitive tasks and responsibilities transitioned to appropriate parties, and I was happy to be able to wrap up my big project. It was crazy to watch them flounder with things I totally could’ve helped with, though. It’s extra weird because I know they trusted me, they and their auditor gushed about me all the time, and the owners considered me a personal friend as well. My manager just didn’t want my input anymore I guess – or figured it was more important that I finish that major project than that they have a smooth transition when I left.

  332. Mellow Cello*

    My boss started ignoring me. For example, she’d make a point of warmly greeting everyone on the team when she arrived in the morning . . . except me. It was so childish and ridiculous that it was funny and only confirmed that I’d made the right decision to leave. It was the culmination of a lot of crappy unprofessional behaviour from this boss so it was very much in character!

    (The backstory was that I resigned because she’d told me there wouldn’t be funding for my role the next year. I started looking and luckily found a job but they wanted me to start within the month, not wait for the 3 months left on my contract. I felt bad about the disruption to the team but my boss tried to gaslight me and denied she’d ever told me my role would be eliminated. So many red flags.)

  333. Other Alice*

    Reading this, I’m glad my former bosses had mostly normal reactions when I resigned. A few of them took it a bit personally and acted cold during my notice period, but at least my tires were safe.

    The silliest thing that happened is when I left because they were eliminating my role and moving me to an entirely different department. My contract states I have to give 6 weeks notice, but I was hoping that the company would agree to shorten it so I could start the new job early. HR refused, so they ended up paying me for 6 weeks of doing nothing. Everything was wrapped up, the project I’d been working on had been axed, my skills weren’t transferable to the other projects without training and the other teams didn’t want to waste time training someone who was leaving soon. When HR finally noticed what was going on, they tried to get me to shorten the notice period, but by then I had agreed on a start date with the new company and I wasn’t about to lose out on a month’s income just because they’d refused to listen to reason the first time around. They eventually put me on garden leave so someone else could have my office. The entire thing was a bit silly.

  334. Gila Monster*

    The CEO/sole owner of the small company I worked at used to forbid people to tell anyone they were leaving. MAYBE you could say something to colleagues on your last day, but she really wanted an out of office email up implying that you were on some temporary leave and would be back soon. ABSOLUTELY NO transition or wrap-up was permitted, because it would ‘look bad’ or be ‘demoralizing.’

    Of course we all told each other quietly.

  335. Mia*

    Mine got pissed because three of us left within a month, two on the same day. It wasn’t a good team or department. Anyway, she tried to force me to pay for training she sent me to since it hadn’t been a year since I had taken the training. The training was several thousand dollars and given the pittance they were paying me I could not have afforded it. When she lost that battle (the training lead was a decent person who was looking out for me) she brought me into her office, sat me down, and lectured me about how companies expect you to stay a year after they send you to training, etc. I actually haven’t heard that from any other companies I’ve been with. She was just bitter.

  336. SarahBee*

    My boss didn’t do something ridiculous, but she did forget I resigned.
    I work in a position that is notoriously understaffed (healthcare related), so I gave my boss nearly 4 months of notice, hoping that I’d be able to possibly train my replacement before I left. After two months, I hadn’t heard anything, so I stopped by her office and casually mentioned it again, and she had totally forgotten that I’d given her notice. She hadn’t even mentioned it to the associate manager who helped with hiring, let alone started the process with HR to hire someone new.

  337. Aunttora*

    No drama, just oblivious. Had an entry level office job that was Tuesday through Saturday, 1pm to 9pm. Basically no personal life because of how this schedule didn’t mesh with anyone. Got a job with a huge raise (for the times), and normal office hours. When I gave notice the dude asked me what they could offer to get me to stay that WASN’T more money or different hours. Um

  338. Something Witty*

    Not my story, but my spouse’s… he resigned from his job back in December, as he had been offered an amazing role woth $20K hogher salary + $20K potential bonuses (wow!). He gave 2.5 weeks notice. During the initial meeting, his boss yelled at him for a full 5 minutes. At 10pm that night, he got a 5 paragragh-long essay text from the president of the company, berating him for leaving. A few days later, his boss and the president made him attend a virtual call during which they told him the parent company would be pursuing legal action (what?!). A few days after that, they informed him he would be getting a cease and desist letter from the parent company’s lawyers. Finally, 2 days before his last day, a letter arrived via FexEx from the lawyers… with a copy of the “contract” he had signed upon hire, stating that he could not recruit anyone from Old Company to New Company for 12 months. That was it. No lawsuit, no cease and desist, just some generally unenforceable non-recruit language.

  339. Leah*

    I worked at a jewelry store in Boston for a few months while trying to figure out my life. I was one of two new hires being managed by two long-term employees. The store’s owner was a…let’s say eccentric older woman of a very mid-00’s bohemian type: spangled skirts, lots of necklaces, a sincere belief in the healing power of stones. At her insistence, both myself and the other new hire were frequently quizzed on the stones in the various pieces of jewelry in the store.

    My people, I lived for these quizzes. Memorizing information was a huge part of my major, and this was pretty much the only aspect of the job I genuinely excelled at. The other new employee couldn’t tell peridot from jasper, but she was an ace on the register, and we balanced each other really well (a miracle considering we had been hired for our looks rather than our work experience).

    The owner — let’s call her Griselda — also had another jewelry store in a kiosk at a high-end mall nearby. It was short-staffed and, as I was doing well at the main store, she invited me to pick up a regular shift at the kiosk. She made it clear that this would be a completely different job than the one I had at the main store.

    Up until then, I’d had very little direct contact with Griselda. The two managers fawned over her whenever she was at the main store, and I got the impression she was one of those bosses who liked to pretend she was friends with the people who worked for her while requiring them to wait on her as if she was the empress of all Russia. This impression was quickly confirmed during my first shift at the kiosk. As I worked, Griselda asked me increasingly intimate and invasive questions while giving me “advice” on everything from my personal style to my dating life.

    When it came time for my lunch break, she was visibly upset that I was leaving the kiosk. I didn’t even leave the mall, simply went to the food court down the corridor. As I left, she made a dark remark about employees who lacked loyalty not being worth paying.

    When I returned fifteen minutes later, Griselda was on the phone with one of the managers from the main store, loudly complaining about my lack of work ethic. After hanging up, she turned to me and said, “Well?” It was clear that she expected me to apologize.

    I didn’t.

    That’s when things went from bad to crazy.

    Griselda had a very specific way she wanted the necklace chains to lay — a sort of squiggle. I had done the squiggle many times without issue. Now, however, my squiggle was not up to snuff. She made me go from necklace to necklace, re-squiggling the chains over and over again while she criticized my technique.

    Unfortunately for Griselda, I grew up with an explosive alcoholic parent and know how to keep my cool. Frustrated with my lack of reaction, she demanded why I wasn’t getting upset with myself for making such stupid mistakes.

    In my calmest voice, I asked, “What kind of a response would you like from me?”

    She said, “I want you to cry.”

    Reader, she was not joking.

    It was almost closing time, or I would have quit on the spot. Instead I told her that while I appreciated the opportunity, this would be my last shift at the kiosk. I made up an excuse about not having time to work both there and at the main store while applying to graduate school (which was true, but I needed the money and would’ve made it work if she hadn’t been batshit insane).

    I thought that, since Griselda made such a point of telling me that the kiosk was *completely separate*, my job at the main store would be safe. Yeah, I was an idiot. The next morning, just as I was about to leave for my shift, I got an email from one of my managers. I was being fired…for underperforming on the gemstone quizzes.

    It was such a blatant lie that I would’ve laughed if I wasn’t too busy sobbing on the floor of my shitty sublet. I had never ever been fired before. This was my first job out of college, and losing it felt like the end of the world.

    It wasn’t, of course. I moved home and suffered through a slightly-less-awful job at a sports bar before starting grad school. Academia proved to be full of personalities even more delightful than Griselda, but at least no one asked me to squiggle a necklace chain.

    Oh, and in case you’re wondering: I never got my last check. Being 21, broke, and pathologically conflict-avoidant, I figured it wasn’t worth going to small claims court over.

    Writing this story out made me curious about what happened to that jewelry store. Turns out it closed just a year after I was fired. Karma or just bad management? Either way, I hope the employees got their last checks.

    And as for Griselda, I hope she’s enjoying the retirement she deserves.

  340. Moonstone*

    In my second job after graduating from university, I worked in a small (3 person) satellite office of a national nonprofit. During my interview the manger asked me if I planned on either going to grad school or getting pregnant (!) anytime soon because she was looking for someone to stay in the position long term; they were hiring because the person currently in the role was leaving for grad school. I answered honestly that I didn’t have plans for either at the time (and because I was young and too dumb to realize how terrible it was for her to be asking that – but also I was all of 24 and how could I predict the future?!?). Well, after a couple of years I decided to return to school and gave my two week notice. Apparently that was a huge betrayal! She reminded me that she had asked me that when she hired me and would have hired someone else if she knew I’d be moving on “so soon.” Also she had been trying to get me a raise (I had no idea about that) and felt doubly betrayed because she’d gone to bat for me and I was leaving. She proceeded to freeze me out for the rest of my notice period.

  341. Shakti*

    I worked for a lawyer as an office manager/paralegal (not officially, but he called me that) and when I quit he suddenly decided that I had to account for every minute of my day in 10 extremely detailed minute increments for the whole month after my resignation. He would then go over everything minute by minute at the end of the day that I had written down to account for it all. I quit this wasn’t a performance issue and he was happy for a month resignation period because he liked my work. It was so he could spend time with me before I left? I think? He was so upset my last week because I was leaving then proceeded to refuse to speak to me for the last week of work and I do mean completely refused to speak to me. Now this was a very small office as in it was me, him, a part time lawyer, and one other lawyer who would drop in occasionally, but held political office so was very busy so it was a VERY quiet and bizarre last week of virtual complete silence except for clients. It was pretty awkward having to tell him communications from clients, bring him clients etc all while he refused to speak to me. Needless to say I had quit for a reason and felt pretty good about that decision

  342. stratospherica*

    My boss at a place I used to work in was the CEO of the (small) company. He was real piece of work, would fire people arbitrarily or ice them out until they quit, loved to blame other people for his shortcomings and basically micromanaged the hell out of the business I was in charge of.

    When I decided (following a lot of personal and professional hardship that made me want to make a clean break, move halfway across the country and start over) to hand in my notice, he went down a list of employees (and former employees) asking if they’re the reason I’m quitting. About three people in, something inside me snapped and I said “the only person at fault for me quitting is you – this company is rotten to the core and you’re at the heart of it all.”

    He then sheepishly asked if I could make my notice period 4 weeks instead of 2. I accepted, because I didn’t have anything lined up anyway. One day I went into work at the business I was managing and they were packing up furniture, because upon my resignation they decided to close the entire thing down. Couldn’t stop myself from grinning, lol.

  343. allathian*

    I’m so glad that I don’t have any interesting stories to tell this time.

    All of the managers I had when I was a student and worked retail or in call centers took my resignations as they should be taken, professionally and calmly. All of them, even the ones who were a bit difficult to work for, at the very least wished me luck in my future endeavors and most of them thanked me for my service, too.

    The only mildly weird one was at a call center where I was hired on a project basis with no contract and no benefits (unusual here). Because I had no contract, when I got a better full-time job I just told the shift manager that that day was my last day as I left. She said something like “Okay, you know where we are if your new job doesn’t work out.” It’s been 20 years and I definitely don’t miss that place.

  344. Madame Arcati*

    I am unashamed about my part in how my team reacted when a loathed boss moved to another part of the agency (they were a poisonous bully, in short, and the other week I literally ran away round a corner when I saw them in the building].
    Fellow Brits will be shocked, shocked I tell you at our egregious reaction. Maybe sit down and have a cup of tea to hand.

    1) We did not circulate a card nor pass the hat to collect for a small gift.
    2) We did not go for a pint. Even though there was a pub bang opposite the office that would have required no prior planning or thought of any kind.

    I know. I’ve never seen a reaction like it in 25 years of work.

  345. Anongineer*

    I resigned my first professional job working in an engineering firm after around 3 years. There wasn’t any drama, I had just gotten a new job in a different state working on a different aspect of engineering. My leadership didn’t take it well at all.

    My direct supervisor didn’t speak to me at all for my last two weeks. As in wouldn’t tell me what to do, how to document, even what to do with my access cards. On my last day I went to say goodbye, his office neighbor was so nice and praised my work while saying how much I’d be missed while he… left the room and didn’t return.

    His boss was my favorite in terms of reactions. His office was right outside my cubicle. Every. Single. Time. he left his office he would whisper “traitor” or “turncoat” as he walked by. Came out every time someone came to talk to me to say goodbye and talk about how much of a betrayal it was. On my last day he did finally say that I did good work and would be missed, but all in those last days were definitely memorable.

  346. Mister_L*

    Not the boss, but when I quit a previous job for medical reasons and said my good byes to my coworkers one of them blurted out an almost teary “You asshole”.
    The really weird part was that she was relatively new and we had hardly ever interacted at all.

    1. Oh, just me again!*

      I guess you were the only one who treated her decently (or, perhaps, the only one she wasn’t afraid of)!

  347. EvilQueenRegina*

    Mentioned this boss on a reply to someone else’s comment, but incidents involving my coworkers deserved their own. For context, we’d known for months that there was a likelihood of layoffs, but decisions had been dragged out for months due to waiting for the outcome of George Osborne’s spending review and then waiting for decisions about the allocation of one particular source of funding (the date was pushed back several times).

    Initially, our then-boss had been telling everyone “If you see another job, go for it”. However, as time went on, people did start doing this, and once it was looking like several people would be gone by 31st March (the date the existing funding was due to run out), she started panicking.

    This one guy’s wife was due to give birth during the month that became his notice period and she was making noises about blocking his paternity leave until someone told her she couldn’t do that. Another coworker had booked a day off in advance for a specialist medical appointment for her three year old son, and after she’d secured the transfer, this date ended up falling within her month’s notice period. Boss then said that she could no longer have this day as leave and would need to either come in, or work another day that week to make up for it (she was part time and worked Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Coworker appealed to HR, and because boss couldn’t evidence that there was a genuine business reason to rescind that day’s leave, she ended up backing down.

  348. Decidedly Me*

    I gave 2 weeks notice at a contracting job (I was almost certainly misclassified, but that’s a whole other story). They knew I had been looking for other work (and why), so this wasn’t a surprise at all. I had helped build up a whole new department at that company and knew all the ins and outs better than anyone else. Of the two other people that did similar things, one had quit a few months earlier and the other stayed only in support of me, so left when I did.

    During my last 2 weeks, they just wanted me to go along as business as usual. I offered to write up docs, help train someone, etc. and was told it wasn’t needed. The day after I left, I was told the place was an absolute shit show – no one knew how to do the things I was working on (which were critical), major clients weren’t getting taken care of, etc. They told everyone I worked with (internally, not clients) “Decidedly Me really left us in a lurch here. They just bailed without giving notice”. Thankfully, everyone knew better and were more than happy to report their shenanigans to me.

  349. Alexis Rose*

    I work for “government”. When you apply for other jobs within government, its normal and culturally accepted that your current boss is listed as a reference for those applications. Its all internal, robust union, and there is less (not none) of a concern that your current boss will be upset/seek retribution for their staff members exploring or leaving for new opportunities. In theory.

    My former boss, lets call him Rick (although I really wanted to pick a different short form for Richard that rhymes with Rick), wished me luck when I took a couple of hours one day to go to another office for an interview. Didn’t kick up a fuss when I was called back for a second round. Didn’t bat an eyelash about filling in the reference form when I applied for two jobs.

    When I got an offer and wrote him my official “I’ve accepted another position, my last day will be in 4 weeks” he was no longer reasonable. He phoned me and berated me for leaving me before an upcoming busy period, asked for my new manager’s name so he could CALL THEM AND RENEGOTIATE MY START DATE. I held firm, I said no, that’s maybe how it works for temporary positions when someone goes on assignment, but I am quitting, its exactly like if I was leaving government entirely. I gave zero information about my new team. I told him it was none of his business. I was shaken, and very upset, and every fibre of my anxiety disorder was threatening meltdown at any moment. I held it together.

    He then threatened to call the big boss, basically the grandboss of my new manager, because he knew her personally and she would listen to him. I hung up. He then proceeded to call EIGHT TIMES, blowing up my phone, while I had a panic attack on my kitchen floor (it was covid, we were all working from home).

    Fortunately, his boss (John) was a reasonable individual who I had a very good working relationship with, who knew Rick was all kinds of problematic, and who had taken it upon himself to ensure that I was given professional development opportunities that Rick had routinely denied (can you guess why I wanted to leave?)

    I was able to leave on my original timeline, with a profuse apology from John AND John’s boss (Allan).

    Allan and John also both tried to convince me to stay, but in a professionally normal way. I still declined. Its been four years, Rick is still in the same job, I’ve moved up another two levels and now I make more money than him.

  350. Captain-safetypants*

    Two jobs ago when I gave notice, after eight years with this supervisor, she could barely keep the glee from her voice. I conscientiously gave 4 weeks notice as I was in the middle of a bunch of things. I later found out she had a) had me removed from all the company and department mailing lists and b) sent out an email blast announcing my departure to the entire department *before we had gotten off the phone*. On my last day when she was supposed to meet up with me to collect my computer, badge, etc., she instead went to her cabin up north and had her assistant meet me in her place. A couple of years later she got laid off in a reorg and by all accounts was incredibly bitter about it. I did not feel bad for her.

  351. Muse*

    my first teaching job was at a very small private school whose principal was the owner. It was a truly horrid place.

    When I resigned and wouldn’t tell her what my next plans were she asked me if I was in trouble with the law and said this is why I don’t hire young people. she also refused to let me ever tell my students goodbye.

  352. NotSoRecentlyRetired*

    I was hired in California by a US Company and they paid for my move to Germany in December 1990 to work for the US company on a US army base. I was only marginally qualified to the job they hired me for (not imposter syndrome, but I could have done a lot better at the job if there had been more support from my coworkers).
    When annual reviews came along in September for everyone (as the company was on the same Oct 1st start-of-year date as the US Government), I was told that my minimum-one-year-contract would not be renewed. I negotiated an extension for mutual benefit as they had had such a difficult time filling the position with me and did they think they could find anyone else willing (read stupid-enough) to move to Germany right before Christmas to replace me?
    One of the three software developers I managed (or at least tried to) pulled me into an office and said that he was ok with my leaving because he never followed any direction from me anyway. He had two reasons: one that I was a woman, and second because I was younger than him!
    That was the nearest I’ve ever come to putting a fist into another person’s face. And he was 6 ft tall to my 5-3.
    I had found another job in another town and was able to stay in Germany another year, but that job ended poorly, too.
    Periodically over the rest of my 30 year career, I never succeeded in my intermittent attempts applying for management positions.

  353. canananada*

    Awhile back my husband took a new position at a higher rank in our industry, after managing a team that was unionizing for awhile. He fully supported the union, but the owner did not. So when he left his role, the owner responded by completely closing that branch, with three week’s notice for the remaining staff. It was a mess.

  354. Rainy Cumbria*

    This isn’t bananapants but so inappropriate. I resigned a few weeks after another member of the team. My manager freaked out and decided to call every other member of the team to tell them I was leaving and to ask whether they had any plans to leave.

  355. GladImNotThereAnymore*

    Not as bananapants as others, but had a longer tail.. I had been for over four years at a company that if a miracle didn’t happen was told by the head sales person that it would be dead in six months (company had already shrunk from 100 employees to 50 in the time I was there). I also worked for a micromanager, the head of software development – for example, after I talked to someone in the sales department he would literally walk over to them, tell them not to talk to me directly, and then ask me what I had talked about with them, even if it was just a social chat. Several of us engineers were already contemplating leaving, and a friend I had previously worked with at a different company had recommended his current company – I interviewed and was hired (and where I still am 18 yrs later).

    Was going to give my manager my 2 weeks notice, but he happened to have left on vacation that day. Gave it instead to his boss. Several of the others who were considering leaving were proactively let go when the company discovered their intention, but he said I could be “salvaged” (er, no, I’m not property) and that it was in the works for me to replace my manager as head of software but they hadn’t told me. Er, thanks, but no. For my last two weeks I ended up on a make-work project that wasn’t able to be completed anyway – desire was to extract info from a sales database but it turned out that the sales/shipping folks had used it incorrectly for years, so required info (such as names and addresses) weren’t in proper fields and instead randomly entered anywhere there was a text box and differed from order to order. Just one more indication of company dysfunction.

    My last day coincidentally was the day my manager came back from vacation. He was surprised I was leaving, but was cordial. Apparently my development skills were desired – shortly afterward my old company asked my new company for software help from me, but they never paid after I completed the work. Later, my ex-manager applied to my current company and I was asked about him since I had worked under him – honestly couldn’t recommend him as he was competent in his narrow field, but that wasn’t general enough for what my new company needed, so he wasn’t hired. A couple of years later he tried again and was hired without me knowing, but he didn’t last long. Surprise, surprise.

  356. merida*

    My boss – who was known for being a verbally abusive tyrant, and a big part of why I was leaving – was NICE to me after I put in my notice. That felt pretty deranged to me, haha! The first day or so after resigning she gave me the silent treatment, but the few interactions I had with her after that she thanked me for sticking out my notice period and flowered me with praise. She’d never given me positive feedback before – in fact she’d (unsuccessfully) tried hard to fire me just a couple months before I left! On my last day she even told me she’d miss me and told me to visit the office and say hi anytime, and even made a light-hearted comment about wanting to re-hire me if I’d ever want to come back. Another colleague had predicted that as soon as I put in my notice people would suddenly start being really nice to me because they wouldn’t want me to leave during my notice period and leave them in the lurch with the work I was doing for them… it was actually pretty hilarious to witness how true that was. The last thing my boss said to me (right after she said she’d miss me and such) was a wistful “I guess I’ll have learn how to fill out my own expense reports now…” Sure, her “kindness” had an agenda (and it felt rehearsed) but hey, not having her yell at me for two whole weeks was great!

  357. HSE Compliance*

    At my Most Full of Bees Job, my boss was….. bananas. She behaved like I was her daughter. Tried to set me up with her son (who was not interested, and also – I was married during all this). Graphically described her son’s birth story multiple times. Belligerent with our customers (primarily local contractors).

    I gave notice, and she cried big ol’ crocodile tears, blubbering, how could I leave the department, we’re like a family here, she’ll never forget me (??)… then proceeded to ignore me for 2 weeks, while generally slamming office doors and stomping around.

    About 3 years after that (and now living/working 6 hours away), I was almost subpoenaed because after this she put *my name* on a permit we issued while forgetting to use any of the documentation forms that I created to streamline & appropriately record the process, because the landowner and contractor were suing for negligence. Thankfully they decided not to subpoena me because I told them exactly where to find what the process should have been and what documents should have been filled out, along with timeline of when I left and where I had left my closing binder of notes. Turned out everything was still exactly where I remembered it being. I’m still salty that she tried to pin that on me.

  358. Paralegal Part Deux*

    When I quit the law firm I’d been at for 16 years, I actually wrote in to AMA to see if I needed to give a longer notice period (answer: no). So glad I didn’t give 4 weeks. Once I turned in my resignation, it was hell. I was told every single day that I was going to be fired from New Job, that I was going to fail, that my “quirky family issues” wouldn’t go over well (I live with and take care of my 73 year old mother and help my single mother sister with her kids at times), that I wasn’t going to squeeze another dime out of the firm when I told them I was making more money. The firm’s president’s DAD even got into it and told me I was family and making a mistake. I should have just cut it short and started new job sooner.

    I still think I have PTSD from all that.

    New Job is a dream abs love it here.

  359. skeptic53*

    I was a primary care physician in a very successful private practice in a suburb of a large West Coast City. It was a delightful place to work, we all got a long, our employees stayed for decades, etc etc. But we could not recruit new providers as people retired or left, and we had to merge with a Mayo-clinic-like outfit in the city. The merger was OK until the pandemic, then the new overlords panicked and started micromanaging us from the downtown hospital. Despite being on the front line, wearing the moon suits etc. to care for COVID patients, our pay was cut 3 times. (The CEO was making $16,000,000, he took one pay cut). Then *they* merged with a huge Catholic hospital-based organization based in the Midwest. It was the usual chaos, they got rid of long-term managers, changed procedures, micromanaged, and cut our pay. By the time I was getting ready to retire after 35 years, almost half of our providers had left. There was no one to whom I could hand off my patients. People who had been coming to our clinic for 30+ years were told they couldn’t be seen there any longer. I was not allowed to refer them to other local clinics outside the system. (I did so anyway, no way suburbanites were going to drive to the downtown location). The mid-level managers were so short-staffed I was basically ignored. Two days before my last day there was a cheap sheet cake from the nearest grocery and a card signed by employees. My last day I just left as usual. No exit interview, they never asked for my keys or my ID badge, and didn’t disable my door code for 9 months. I didn’t try logging into the computer, the software was horrible and one of the reasons I was happy to retire. But I bet they didn’t disable my access for a long time. In the past, retiring providers were invited to and honored at the annual holiday party. Two holiday seasons have gone by since I retired and I’ve not been invited either year. Corporate medicine really sucks.

  360. Russer*

    This is small potatoes compared to many other stories, but: a while back I quit on a toxic, bullying boss without notice. I didn’t ghost—I left all my work stuff at the office over the weekend (keypad access) and sent an email saying that unfortunately I couldn’t keep working because of a serious health concern.

    This was a client-facing role, and I was popular with the clients, so they started asking Bully Boss where I was. Per my remaining coworkers, BB told everyone “oh, Russer isn’t here at the moment but he gave his two weeks’ notice so he’ll be gone at the end of the month.” And kept saying that for the next two weeks. To be fair, this was a job where you spent part of the day off site with individual clients, so the lie wasn’t totally unbelievable. But still!

  361. cactus lady*

    I was 17, a senior in high school, and I had my first job at this TERRIBLE bakery that hired high school students but didn’t offer them any sort of guidance on how to operate in a work place (they didn’t go over things like breaks and lunch and when you can take those, for example), and then yelled at you for doing things wrong. It was 2001 and I ended up quitting right after 9/11 because it was overwhelming to have a job where I was always getting yelled at, dealing with college applications, AND the world had turned upside down. The owner completely LOST IT and had a fit, throwing things, when I told her I couldn’t continue to work there. You would have thought I destroyed their business or something, and while she stopped short of becoming physically violent, it would not surprise me if she had. I was actually afraid to ever get another job after that! I didn’t work the rest of high school but getting my first job in college was really scary. I thought all work places were like that.

  362. The Analyst*

    So late to this but I love this story.

    My small non-profit cut salaries live on Zoom the day before Christmas 2020. We were broken out into department groups to discuss further and then invited back to the main Zoom room, where my coworkers went “around the Zoom” expressing their gratitude for the transparency and opportunity to keep working. I spent the entire meeting, then the rest of Christmas, frantically applying for jobs to keep my family afloat in a pandemic. I happened to get a job offer January 5, 2021, and told my boss…January 6, 2021. Yes, THAT January 6.

    Even before the first window broke at the Capitol, my boss took news of my departure very poorly. He lambasted my unprofessionalism for only giving 3 weeks notice for such a strategic position for the organization, and when I challenged him that if I was so vital to the operation, why was I not present in the meeting about salary cuts (every other people manager had been; they simply forgot me. On a staff of 15.) and why was there no succession plan for my role (the leadership had just undergone a round of formal planning for key departures, not bothering with mine), he stopped speaking to me. He pouted for the rest of the day. As the news at the Capitol broke, he then blamed me for my exceptionally poor timing. As if I had personally decided to resign on the day of a coup. As if I had foreknowledge of the event (I very much did not).

    We’ve repaired the relationship on a superficial level since, but that was a rough few weeks for me and not the way I wanted to leave a job I had loved for five years.

  363. Bell*

    My partner’s former employer sued her, as well as my partner’s new employer, for leaving, because they were mad that several clients followed her to a new firm. Relevant – she didn’t have any kind of non compete in place, and didn’t actively recruit clients to leave, but was honest and told people she was leaving when they asked her where she was going.

    One of the things they alleged in the suit was that she had stolen specialized knowledge, but they weren’t able to provide specific examples on what they meant.

    The new company ultimately settled the lawsuit, even though the lawyers were confident they would win, just because of how much potential additional legal fees that would have been incurred if the case dragged on (hundreds of thousands of dollars, in addition to the $100k already spent). It was illuminating to me – how annoying your employer can make your life, regardless of guilt.

    It came out later that the former employer was in the midst of a merger, and were worried that the number of clients leaving would torpedo the merger. We suspect that they wanted to discourage other employees from leaving. The merger happened successfully, but the new parent company did eventually dissolve the original company and laid everyone off, including the person who had spearheaded the lawsuit.

    As a side note, as part of the suit, my partner’s work phone and computer were analyzed, and it’s possible for IT wizards to pretty much trace any keystroke ever made or website ever visited, texts sent, things deleted, etc. There was also a suspicion at some point that the former employer was logging in to my partner’s personal email (because my partner had saved their personal email password on the work computer), and reading/deleting things (before my partner realized, and signed out of all devices). We were even concerned that they may have been reviewing our banking information (that wasn’t founded in anything, it just seems like something they could have done).

    It’s definitely made me examine my own work device use.

  364. Rina*

    I was working under my prior supervisor for 15 years. He was a total jerk, but it got really bad the last 6 years or so when I started standing up to him and his bad behavior. He would lie to others and say I did my job wrong when I could prove I didn’t. He set me up to look bad in front of customers by relaying false information to me so I repeated the wrong thing and looked incompetent. He would throw me under the bus with customers, again when I had proof it wasn’t my mistake (and sometimes it was his mistake instead). He was sexist and racist and made comments about me being able to go home early when it got icy out because I had a Va***na and he didn’t as well as made fun of the Asian employees. The company had no HR and the president of the company told me to my face that my supervisor was irreplaceable, so I could leave if I didn’t like working with him. (The president did nothing about the comments and told me I was the one who had a personal problem with my supervisor. Yeah, extremely toxic company.)

    The last straw was when my boss emailed the president and told him I wasn’t doing my job and he was sick of “an employee telling him what she was and wasn’t going to do.” What my supervisor said was a lie and what I did was stand up to him professionally and explain that I was not going to do his job for him anymore as the job was assigned to him by the president as well as assigned to other supervisors. It was something that was not to be delegated as it was a personal report that was to be submitted by each supervisor and mine had me filling it out for years…until I found out I was NOT supposed to be doing it. My supervisor didn’t like being told, “no,” and I feel that’s why he started to target me. I believe he felt like I was a thing to be used and to do whatever he wanted without question because HE was the supervisor.

    A month later I turned in my two weeks’ notice. I had been a stellar employee and got positive feedback from coworkers and other supervisors and as I said worked with this supervisor and others for a whole 15 years! My supervisor refused to speak to me for the entire two weeks, literally. He ignored me. Then out of nowhere a day before I left, he sent an email to everyone in the company telling Them to congratulate me on my new position and moving on and that I was a good employee. I was furious because his email made it seem like he was such a good boss for telling others to congratulate me and such…all the while he was still ignoring me! When coworkers called me to tell me how lucky I was to have a supervisor that cared, I told them the truth that he’d been ignoring me and treating me like up crap for years. I turned in my keys to my supervisor on the last day and said, “See ya!” He took my keys and said, “Yep.” And that was the last words we spoke to each other after being in the same office for 15 years. It blows my mind how terrible it was to me and how much abuse I suffered there. I should have left so much earlier, but at least I’m out now.

  365. David*

    About a year after getting married my wife was promoted out of state. She was the higher earner so I gave a month’s notice for my upcoming resignation/relocation. My grand boss called a colleague to ask how happy wife and I actually were and if I would stay behind for a pay raise. Amazing coworker just laughed at them and laughed the whole time they were relaying the story.

  366. Rowan*

    This was well-intentioned but pretty awkward… Years ago I was in part-time work when my wife got a fantastic job offer that required relocation, so we decided to move. I figured giving notice would be pretty straightforward, as it was only part-time and we had a fair bit of seasonal turnover. However, upon realising that I was queer, my manager concluded that obviously this relocation thing was a polite fiction covering for my quitting as a result of homophobic harassment, and made it his mission to stamp it out, bless him. I had not, in fact, received any harassment at that job, so we just went round in circles with him begging me to tell him who was causing problems and what he could change to make me willing to stay, while I tried to impress upon him that no really, I had packed my bags and sold my furniture, I was not going to commute by plane, this could be the perfect workplace and I’d still be leaving, it was not anyone’s fault. An overreaction, but a sweet one.

  367. Jayne*

    I thought I didn’t have one, but I realized that last time I resigned (26 year ago–academia, man), I handed in my resignation letter to the Dean and he asked me why I hadn’t come to him for a counter-offer. I rather undiplomatically told him that they couldn’t afford me. True, but rude. Just the bumped up contribution to my retirement from 4% to 10% of my salary made it worth it much less the actual salary increase.

  368. MommaPeabs*

    I didn’t resign, but was fired (w/o cause or notice). When I returned to the office to pick up my last paycheck: 1- it wasn’t ready, she didn’t know she had to give me my last paycheck and vacation payout within a certain number of days and 2- asked me to tell her where the checks were! My response, “I can’t do that. I don’t work here anymore.” She looked so mad and said, “Really?” “Uh, yeah- you fired me, remember?”
    Come to find out- she was in a meeting with my coworker- who was giving her notice…. because I was fired.

  369. Airkewl Pwaroe*

    A few years ago, I left a startup where I had no room for growth or advancement, and was being wildly underpaid.
    My boss was thoroughly professional about it. He said he would do what it took to keep me at the company, and when that didn’t work out, he was gracious and supportive to the last day. We’re still in touch.
    The CEO on the other hand, lost their mind. There was an hour-long counteroffer call that included a promise to fire my boss and promote me in his place, followed by a solid minute of cussing me out, even before I turned it down.
    I always remember this, every time I hear someone exalting founders and CEOs.

  370. Ainsley Hayes*

    She told me she was glad I had found the confidence to go elsewhere. And then, after beung one of the lonest-tenured employees, I was told to work remotely and not given any send-off because “people would be uncomfortable”.

  371. Catabouda*

    I moved within the company to a new department. My old boss sent my new boss an email with a task list of things she still expected to be done by me until she hired a replacement. My new boss was in awe of her banana pants craziness and ignored the email.

    The old boss escalated the email to new boss’s manager to complain about the tasks not being completed.

  372. Giga*

    I was good friends with a coworker who was an executive assistant but had been going to nursing school – everyone knew, it wasn’t a surprise. When she graduated, found work as a nurse and gave notice, the boss was so incensed he strode out to the parking lot in his khakis and began trying to uproot her reserved parking sign.

    I guess he had considered it a real honor for her to have it (most of us didn’t because honestly, parking was not too hard to come by there). It’s an indelible image that we still talk about, him trying to dig up that sign. I also gave notice a few months later (to work at the same place as my nurse friend, in fact) but he did not tear anything apart, which I take as an insult!

  373. Lionheart26*

    my colleague resigned this week from our horribly toxic company. Our manager retaliated by firing the rest of the team, effective immediately. I got a form message sent at 5:01pm saying my access to the company servers had been revoked as I was no longer employed. Colleague is now serving her notice period in a team of 1. I guess as a kind of punishment?

    Thank goodness I hated that job and didn’t really need it (They were just one of my freelance clients and I was planning on dropping them soon; now I can take on more and better work). If this was my main income that would SUCK.

  374. Bookworm in Stitches*

    I was on maternity leave (unpaid) for the first four months of the school year at a private school. A new director had been hired. I was told he started his very first faculty meeting by telling everyone to “shut the f—- up”. In November a co-worker called up, ostensibly to ask how the new baby was, but then asked if I knew my teaching assignment had been changed. Nope, I didn’t know. I had been in a dual academic/vocational position and neither supervisor nor anyone in HR had said anything. I was casually browsing job postings and came across one for a part-time position in a public school. Perfect for a new mother. Applied, interviewed, and was hired to start in January. My private school was furious. They called a staff meeting and said any staff member who was looking for another job was REQUIRED to let them know. Mind you, this school didn’t give us any type of written contract. I also made more money working part-time at the public school than at the private one.

  375. ChiGuy78*

    I worked for a non-profit theater company and in the course of a few months everyone in my department save me and the director was either let go or quit. Our director was under pressure from the head of the company and spent a lot of time in her office with the lights off. I gave my notice after receiving and offer with another organization, and she snapped when I told her—laughing hysterically, rocking back and forth, spouting all kinds of nonsense. She told me that everyone at the new organization were “hookers and thieves” and that they would lure me into an alley to attack me with baseball bats. She completely ignored me from then on out, going so far as to walk into group settings and make a big show of NOT talking to me. On my last day she asked me to lunch as if nothing had happened and told me she’d been planning on taking me with her to her next gig. Dodged a bullet there!

  376. Doc*

    I worked for about five months for a very bad micromanger in a very niche, physically demanding industry. The job was terrible for my mental health and was making some physical health issues flare up very badly so I began interviewing for industry-related but less demanding jobs and received an offer. The day after, when I received a call from my boss to discuss the day, I asked if we could meet in person later so I could give my notice face-to-face. She told me she was too busy to meet until later that day, then called me back about ten minutes later to tell me she couldn’t possibly wait and made me give my notice over the phone, which made her cry. She didn’t give me the chance to discuss the specifics of my notice, but my new job was going to let me have three weeks before starting which would take me until the end of the month and that was what I planned on giving her. Three days later, still not having discussed the specifics of my notice period, she proceeded to spend 11 minutes on the phone telling me how badly I had treated her (I had never done anything less than my best for her and she had repeatedly over-the-top praised/lovebombed me my entire time there), how I needed to speak to a doctor she knew that was *on the board* for said place of employment (horrifying!) because my previous doctors had never been able to diagnose said health issues, and how if I didn’t get someone to figure out what was wrong with me I “deserved what I got.” Part of my employment package included onsite housing, so once I stopped hysterically crying and realized that I’d only been there five months and I clearly wouldn’t be getting any sort of reference, I promptly packed my things, loaded my car up early the next morning, and moved back into my parents’ house like I had been planning on. I had a wonderful week off, started my amazing new job, and am getting set up for a much better living situation by the end of spring!

  377. Tegan Keenan*

    Left my last job solely because of the demonic ED who had been hired 6 months earlier. I gave 3 weeks’ notice, presented a matrix with all of my tasks, suggestions for how they could be reassigned, guidance documents, and offers to train coworkers. Also recommended a former employee who was doing consulting work could help on a temporary basis. Demon Spawn (DS) screwed around until my last week before doing anything or asking me any questions.

    On my last day, there was a gathering at a local restaurant. DS was not invited. Of course there were many negative things said about them. The HR Director had been invited but declined to come because they thought it might get weird. I liked HR Director and felt they were stuck between a rock and a hard place in the overall situation.

    One individual who was there apparently shared some level of information with DS and HR about the gathering (including, apparently, the seating arrangements!). I’m still not certain who it was or exactly what they shared, but they claimed that badmouthing was directed toward both DS and HR. (It was only directed toward DS.)

    Over the next few days, I heard from multiple people who attended that they had been individually called into DS’s office to answer for their alleged badmouthing and harassed to confirm who was there and what was said. I thought it was very possible DS knew only that the event was happening and made it all up to try to get people to turn on each other. I did contact the HR Director to assure her that she was in no way included in the dishing.

    It was completely bananapants, but sadly barely a footnote in the encyclopedia of insane things DS did. I loved my job and the organization and was sad to leave but so glad to get out of DS’s orbit.

  378. Matth3w2*

    I had a difficult job in an insanely high-cost-of-living place, which paid me barely enough to rent an apartment and cover food and utilities. The office was very small physically, and we had 4 employees including the director.

    I gave two weeks notice and the director had a look on her face like I had just run over her dog. She let out a long sigh. You wouldn’t think someone could ignore you and give you the silent treatment in such a small demanding workplace but she managed it over the next two weeks. Shortly after I started my new job, I ran into her at a community event. I said hello and she made a snide noise at me and turned around and walked away without a word. I later found out that she bad-mouthed me at a board meeting and to all of our community partners. Fortunately my job was in a different city and I could put it all behind me.

    It was incredibly unprofessional and completely changed my opinion of this woman, who I thought had been a good boss and an effective organizational leader.

    1. Matth3w2*

      One other time, I worked at an organization where the director (my boss’s boss) set up her email so that all bounced messages came directly to her. This woman was NUTS.

      I interviewed for a new job on the other side of the country; while I was still there, the hiring manager emailed my boss for a reference and misspelled the address, so it landed in the director’s inbox.

      My boss called me, drunk, that evening. (Very unlike her.) She told me that at 4pm, the director had come screaming into her office HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN ABOUT THIS??? WHY IS HE LEAVING??? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO???? and was making an absolute spectacle of herself. My boss had to get up and just leave because she didn’t feel responsible for calming her own boss down. She went straight to a bar.

      I (and everyone else) already had a very low opinion of this director, and I wish I could have witnessed her having a meltdown.

  379. Pixel*

    This one isn’t quite so bananapants — I worked for a small computer retailer/local ISP after the contract I was previously working had expired and they weren’t allowed to hire me for real due to a freeze. Retailer – owned by the wife. ISP – owned by the husband. I worked for both of them, 50/50. Spouse was taking a job for a startup that required moving halfway across the country. I gave several weeks notice to both of them. On my last day he called me (his office was upstairs where he couldn’t scare away customers) late in the afternoon and said “Not today, but sometime in the next week or so I want you to write up a list of what you do.” I took great delight in saying “Boss, in about 45 minutes I don’t work for you anymore.”

    Ok, on second thought, he was kind of bananapants. He wasn’t allowed to be alone with the children because when the first child was a baby, his wife (who was her own kind of special) came home to find the child in the CLOSET, crying. Child was in the closet because Boss was on a phone call and the crying was disturbing him.

  380. TerrorCotta*

    Not my resignation per se, but…I was warned during a temp agency placement with a NY publicity agent “We absolutely will not hold it against you if you leave after only one day. No one ever makes it more than three with her.”

    The owner/agent was a woman in her 60s and as about as stereotypically “New York Agent for Soap Opera Stars” as one could imagine. There were two other temp admins in the office, one a young man who’d apparently quit, came back, quit and came back again. I made it through the first day, but the entire second morning was spent watching those two scream at each other, the fella announced he was once again quitting AND HE AND THIS 60 YEAR OLD WOMAN LITERALLY STARTED SLAPPING EACH OTHER. Full open hand slaps!! Before he stomped out he threw a phone at her while she was shrieking about him never working in this town again.

    I was on the phone with Susan Lucci at the time, which just seemed wildly surreal and yet appropriate.

    (Boss then very sweetly asked if I had any interest in becoming an agent. I didn’t come back from lunch.)

  381. Pureoaknut*

    I was desperately unhappy at one job after only 2 years. My boss compared me to her previous employee. I’d had enough. Earlier in the week, her hygienist walked out on her. AT 9 am. I ended up giving her my notice on Friday. She begged me to stay, as she secretly told me she was in talks to sell her practice and the buyers wouldn’t buy if her employees were all gone. I promised not to reveal her plan to sell to her remaining employee (she only had 3 to start with), despite my feeling that this employee should be told. Anyway, I handed her my resignation letter and she kept pushing it back at me. The conversation was emotional and heated and overwhelming. I’d never had anyone react this way before, I was a taken aback. When she left the office to run an errand, I told my remaining colleague my intentions. We began talking and I discovered that she had told her the same thing—she was planning to sell and the others don’t know bull. I was PISSED. I continued my duties, which involved going to the basement to tend to a compressor. I found myself unable/unwilling to return upstairs, knowing she was to return to the office. I called my sister and told her what was happening. She was gobsmacked. “She HAS to accept your resignation, she can’t NOT take your letter.” We talked a bit more, then she said, “Would you like me to talk to her?” OMG, yes I said. SO SHE DID. I also had some words with her, and I said I would work my final two weeks as is customary for the time I was in her employ. The look on her face while my sister spoke to her was the moment I realized she was just a very frustrated, sad woman who needed to retire. I almost felt sorry for her. The next two weeks were uncomfortable, but I was very proud of myself for being professional. She even said so on my last day how impressed she was with me. I believe she managed to sell her practice without a problem. And I believe she is retired now. IF I were to run into her on the street, I’d be glad to see her, because she wasn’t a terrible person, or even a terrible dentist, she was excellent, but she wasn’t a great manager/owner. And that was too bad.

  382. Need a new career*

    I was interviewing with different school districts and one required the reference call to be with a current principal. I explained to this director that if she did that, my current principal would fire me immediately (he had a history of doing that). She insisted it was district policy so my principal got a call and what do you know, the next day I was locked out of my google drive, email etc. Before I even accepted the offer. Sent me email later that day saying I was looking for a job so he wanted to make sure the school was staffed for the start of the school year (in a month). Cherry on the cake- two days later he sent me an email asking me if I’d “provide direction to the new science teacher on the curriculum”. That email went straight to trash.

    Protip for teachers- keep all your curriculum and lesson plans on your private drive.

  383. JennHi*

    I gave the appropriate notice as outlined in my contract. My then-boss called my soon to be new boss and begged them not to hire me, after I signed a contract. That new boss called me and relayed the conversation. The words “tortious interference” were brought up, and HR called and gave me 3 months salary to leave that day and not sue them. It was a win/win for me.

  384. Peter Gibbons*

    Things got so bad, I finally quit without a new job. But I gave a month’s notice, to help my coworkers finish a project. A week later, my manager said that “Bill” (the CEO) wanted to see me.

    Bill said I should stay because the poor economy meant I’d have trouble finding a job elsewhere. I was definitely leaving—but to be polite, I said I’d take a few days to reflect on this. The CEO immediately replied: “It doesn’t take a few days to say, ‘You know, Bill, you’re *right*.’”

    Within a year, company-wide headcount dropped 50%. Several more quit without a job; this became known as “Pulling a Gibbons.”

  385. Sputnik*

    I worked for a tiny agency in the sleazy personal coaching industry where the company provided absolutely no value 95% of the time. The two founders would bicker openly with each other. Every time a client left — every time! — they’d go out of their way to make it ugly, arguing and begging for another shot. All ex employees were deemed incompetent in retrospect.

    Anyway, I gave notice, they gave me the silent treatment for two weeks, and refused my offer to hand off clients to a new account manager. I was basically a golden goose employee — they promoted me twice but also gave all their clients to me and paid no attention while I struggled to keep them on board with the crappy boilerplates that didn’t work. A week after I left, I got a furious email saying that three of their clients had left them and cited me as the reason. Why they left AFTER I left, but also BECAUSE of me — well, the logic doesn’t work. My ex employer told me I was lucky they didn’t sue me. Good riddance.

  386. screwemboth*

    Not me, but my ex-manager. She gave her two weeks notice, but she was forbidden by her boss to tell anyone else. It was to be announced at the department head meeting that week.
    She got ‘permission’ (lol) to tell us, her direct reports, so we could prepare.

    She told us later that at the meeting, he tried to make it sound like she gave like, a week’s notice (or less? I can’t remember). I still don’t understand why–what did he think would come of that? But she corrected him and called him out in the meeting.

    She was awful of her own accord, and a part of me always wished I stuck it to her and quit on the spot the last time she made me cry at work. But I’m also proud of myself for how I’ve done since she left.

    And I’m glad she told us this happened, because it was all I needed to know for sure that I was right to not apply for her position after she left. She was awful, but I always suspected her boss was also an a-hole.

  387. Work from home or bust*

    My job genuinely forgot they were trying to fire me! When my job decided we all had to return to office, I filed for an ADA accommodation – respiratory stuff has always wrecked me, and after a year of comfortable, productive work from home, I had no desire to catch covid because HR was lonely. They override the ADA paperwork and told me to return to office ASAP or face termination. Really ought to have forced that one just for the lawsuit, but I was fresh out of straws for their nonsense.

    As it happened I had another job offer in my pocket, but I had to wait until the next quarter and make a substantial move to take it, so it hadn’t been super desirable at time of interview. I opted to move forward on the offer, and then asked my boss and HR if I could have two months of continued work from home to prepare for project hand off. They never responded, but they also never followed up. I checked in twice more and started living as lean as I could in case they told me no out of the blue and to pack it in by end of day.

    A month passes, and my boss asks me if I’m meeting with a client who will be in town on what I had slotted as my last week. I point out that it would be better for my successor to meet and hey btw, I know I’ve asked before, but when can we schedule a meeting to talk about who that will be? And he is perfectly confused, what do you mean, what are you talking about, and I’m equally baffled because he sat in on the disciplinary meeting and I had thought he was just being passive aggressive and not completely airheaded about this.

    He asked if I could extend my departure by another month and was not particularly amused when I asked if I could work even more remotely since my lease was going to be ending about a week after my last day.

    I’m still in touch with the person I ended up transferring everything to in my last week. Helped her edit her resume while I was at it; she found a much more organized place to work within a month. Their office remains empty, but not for the reasons they’d anticipated.

  388. Peaceable Kingdom*

    I am still waiting for my last pay stub, my W2 and my PSLF form that I asked to be signed from my previous employer. I left full-time in November and worked two prn shifts as a courtesy for them in December.

    The HR person also refuses to sign my loan forgiveness form saying that working on call is not “work,” and that the hours I worked I did not work. He was also very, very angry that I wouldn’t continue to work prn for them in spite of a long history of them not wanting to pay me for the different rates (call, OT and so on). They were awful, awful to work for and here it is almost February and still no paystub, and no W2 and no PSLF form. I am waiting until after Jan 31 when the IRS will very gladly contact them and force them to produce the documentation (W2), and the State dept of Labor will also gladly force them to produce my last pay stub. Why do people act like this?!

  389. Josh B*

    I worked at Walt Disney World two separate times. I have Tourette syndrome, and I found out they’re a terrible company to work for if you have a disability. The first time, I had found a job that better suited my living arrangements and paid way better. So I gave my two weeks and one of the managers decided this would be my last day, and he’d have me marched out of Epcot like a felon with security and he’d follow. He was generally a prick the entire time I’d known him. Well, we were almost to the door of the Cast parking lot and I had a tic. He decided to tell me that “that’s why (I’d) never amount to anything!” I filed a complaint, and Disney promised to look into it and paid me for the two weeks I’d given. If they did anything at all, it wasn’t enough. The turd in question still works at Disney at the Magic Kingdom. Someone I know said that he told her that her period pains were nothing and to get back to work. That tracks.

  390. HeraTech*

    Back when I was in college I worked second shift in a factory to pay my way through school. When I was ready to leave that job because I would be starting an internship through school I gave two months verbal notice. I was a machine operator and damn good at my job, I wanted to be helpful and be able to train my replacement. But for some reason my supervisor didn’t post that there was a machine operator opening in his department. When I got to three weeks before my planned last day, I gave him written notice that I was leaving AND that the week after I left I had planned to go on vacation with my parents. He still did not post that there was a machine operator opening.

    My last day at work, my supervisor made some comment to the effect of, “You’re not really leaving us are you? I’ll see you on Monday?” At which point I had to remind him that I was in fact going leaving for vacation the next day and would not be in Monday, AND had given him two months warning that I was quitting my job .

    Apparently he was so sure that I’d be back that he put off submitting my termination paperwork. For two months after I left that job I kept receiving paychecks in the mail for zero dollars and zero cents (which also means that the company was still paying for my health insurance!).

  391. Nicky*

    I had a boss who toxic to say the least – I once made a doctor’s appt at 6:30 am, booked months in advance, because I knew she wouldn’t allow me to go during work hours and I only had 5 vacation days a year. A week before she emailed the whole team to tell us she wanted to do hour long “team touch base” calls at 6 am EVERY DAY. I replied to just her said I would do it except for this one day when I had a doctors appointment. She replied, put the entire team back on the email, and told me I wasn’t dedicated to the job and I should “rethink ever telling her no”. Ask me about my opinions on how the nonprofit industry is held together by the extremely underpaid labor of terrified 23 year olds.

    Anyway, I was obviously desperate to leave and was interviewing anywhere I could. I was leaving an interview I was sure I’d nailed and she just so happened to be walking out of the coffee shop across the street and she asked me what I was doing and I said “I had an appointment” and walked away. She came into the office a couple of hours later, screaming that she knew I was a liar and I had been at a job interview and threatened to take legal action against me for lying about being at an appointment. And I was like “you know what? I quit” and started to gather my things and walked out.

    This was the start of a deluge of emails. They came at all hours of the night and I replied to the first one and told her I wouldn’t join her in her extremely childish antics but I didn’t respond to any others. She sent me a string of emails with a family lawyer (hers, I assume) telling me I was a “dumb, fat b*tch”, which she also said everyone was thinking about me and she was the only one brave enough to say it. This wasn’t shocking to read, I’m plus sized and she often loudly bragged about never eating more than 800-1000 calories a day and running at least a 5k every morning and I’d long suspected she had terrible options about plus sized people, but she said that in a email with her lawyer on it! She threaten to sue me again for “lying” to her and said she was going to tank my career and badmouth me to everyone in our city/field. She sent an invoice for like $3,000 for the “time and energy she put into training me and didn’t get back”. They eventually stopped. I got a new job (though not the one I had been interviewing for) about 2 weeks later.

    This was in 2016 and my career is doing much better without her. If she badmouthed me, it wasn’t to anyone who mattered (shock!). I went to therapy after this and my next employer was one of the most kind, thoughtful, and friendly people I’ve ever worked for. It was a nice palate cleanser after working for, truly, one of the worst people I’ve ever met. My coworkers from this job and I have stayed in touch (our group chat is called Trauma Bond) and she regularly reaches out to them asking to get coffee even though she talked mad shi*t about all of them when they put in their noticed. She doesn’t ask me to get coffee, thank god.

  392. Jo*

    My boss, who at one point yelled at me to “Stop complaining!” when I was talking about something I needed help with, started complaining that a 2 week notice was too short and in other countries the standard was higher. I said that when my previous boss was laid off, no one bothered to tell me that day, only bothering to let me know 2 days later, implication being that even minimal standards of notice are sometimes missed when it’s the other way round (employer to employee). There was a silence, and then this boss – who usually belittled what I had to say – said quietly “That’s bad.” That was the first sympathetic thing I got from him in the 2 years I’d worked for him. Too little too late though.

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