Career

How to quit your job in style

A cake, a marching band… so many options.

There have probably been a few times throughout your life that you’ve wanted to quit and stick it to your boss in spectacular fashion.

Well, take it from British journalist and historian Matt Potter – he’s seen a whole lot. He’s been studying resignations for nearly 30 years, and has republished his book F–ck You & Goodbye he released two years ago under another title The Last Goodbye.

Telling News.com.au, his lightbulb ‘that’s it, I’m quitting’ moment came when he was working for an unlicensed German labourer.

“I was on this building site in the snow, shovelling somebody else’s human waste. And I just thought, ‘Enough, I’m not going to do this anymore’,” he recalls.

“So I walked up to the foreman and I just gave him a piece of my mind.”

For Matt, the feeling was electrifying. “People call it a career suicide or people call it … falling on their sword as if it’s a death. But actually, it’s a moment of birth.”

Matt says that there are seven categories of resignation, some ranging from explosive and others more refined. But his favourite is the one he originally named the book – F–k You and Goodbye.

“That’s the one where people actually lose all control. So it’s the point where effectively it’s just the explosion of rage, and inarticulately.”

So if you’re really wanting to quit, Matt says: “If you wake up at night, remember no matter how trapped you feel, there are other jobs.

“Walking out is OK: you’re not leaving the story, you’re writing your own version.”

See a couple of creative ways people have quit their jobs:

Airport worker Chris Holmes made this delicious resignation letter.

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Reporter quits live on air

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Guy gets help of marching band to resign

Workers at Chipotle restaurant in Pennsylvania, US, closed the store because of “borderline sweatshop conditions”.

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