I am quitting a job I have hated for six years. How should I do it?

tl;dr

Civil and polite. That's the answer.

It's a long distance resignation, by letter. You won't witness the reaction to whatever you write so.................

Details to vague to make me care. You sound like a drama queen though, so I imagine you want to go dramatic.

The classic Flaming Bag of Poop on the Doorstep sounds suitable in this circumstance.

Burning bridges is worthless. Just be happy that you'll be able to turn in your letter of resignation with a smile.

Call your boss and have courtesy to tell them on the phone if you can't do it face to face then follow up with your resignation letter. If there are specific issues that could be helpful to be addressed, talk to the HR person there about it.

Doing it the other way and you are no better than what you claim they are and could still come back to bite you. You have already done the wrong thing by waiting a week before you are supposed to come back to let them know you are quitting even though you have been out of work since January.

Okay, I disagree some with the preceding poster. Yes, you should have contacted them before, but you can't change that.

Send them a simple letter. It literally does not need to have more than two sentences: "Please accept my resignation. I am moving to another opportunity."...or words to that effect.

Make sure you send the letter immediately, because time is so short. Or maybe, because of the short window, you can send them a "formal" email (just as terse, just as polite as the letter) so they know your situation immediately, but still *send a physical letter* as well. And AVOID a phone call, because you'll be too tempted to vent.

You paid a price for six years' work, and you were paid well in return--even steven. Let that be the end, and focus ahead--on stuff you *can* change--and not on the past, which you can't.

[Also: why would you want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they were fucking you over for six years? Don't grant them that kind of power over you!]

As you may guess, most of this advice stems from experience...

Even if you don't use them as a reference, future prospective employers may call them. Leave professionally.

Slip em a mickey... Costanza style.

The short term satisfaction of going out in a blaze of glory will be severely outweighed by the long term knowledge that you're no better than they are if you pull some stupid stunt in an attempt to exact some sophomoric revenge.

You clearly work in the oil industry, seasonalish, possibly 2 weeks on 2 off (or 6 on, 1 day off to comply with policy...) sort of arrangement.

People leave these jobs other than politely all the time. Screaming profanity at boss/coworkers. Down in flames with felony convictions. Throwing punches. Simply disappearing never to return. You cannot possibly do something interesting or memorable from afar.

But you might as well throw a tantrum. The nature of these jobs is such that once the price of oil is high enough, they'll hire anyone with 6 years experience in the field no matter what bridges they burn, how many dui convictions they have, or how illiterate they are. By going out complaining you'll have a funny story to tell your future coworkers, when you return to this type of job a year or two from now.

Were you working on oil rigs in ND by any chance?

TLW wrote:

Were you working on oil rigs in ND by any chance?

A fracking, fracker?

Just quit politely. (Since you already haven't gone postal.)

i agree with t78o

something like this "Please accept my resignation. I am moving to another opportunity."

You'll be surprised how things may get back to burn you later on.

I like it because you haven't thanked them, haven't praised the job and have paid only the barest amount of respect.

you won't regret writing that but i think you will if you write a scathing message

Your letter will be kept by the company. Keep it short and simple.

If you want to call your boss, I don't see why, he won't even remember in two weeks, it will be your word against his. Just remember to identify yourself, if you don't, he might not even know which one of his employees quit until he gets the letter.

OP

A short and concise email will satisfy all involved. Do not burn the bridge. You might see them in a store some day and will not want to turn the other way. you want to have the upper hand and walk up with a smug smile of success and pat them on the back. Without really saying it, you are saying " Hi, I'm better off away from you.."

raison d etre wrote:

You clearly work in the oil industry, seasonalish, possibly 2 weeks on 2 off (or 6 on, 1 day off to comply with policy...) sort of arrangement.

Impressive. You must do similar work. I wasn't directly in the oil industry but peripherally involved.

I'll probably go the brevity route. "Please accept my resignation." I like the idea of not giving them the satisfaction of knowing what annihilation they caused in my life. Also, this is a faceless major corporation. I've never even met or seen the HR woman to whom I'd be tendering my resignation.

It is rare though that people actually notify they are quitting, from this particular gig. Like the guy above mentioned, most people who leave simply leave and don't come back. So my notifying them at all would be a step up in gentility. And frankly I'm considering simply telling them nothing. Vanishing. Just slice the cord clean. My desire to notify them has nothing to do with the company or my feeling I owe them anything. If the situation were reversed, and I've seen it happen, they'd have no problem laying me off on five minutes' notice. I once flew literally halfway around the world to go to work, was there four hours, then they decided they didn't need me there just then. Sent home. Half a day's pay. Zero consideration. I watched them lay off about 50 people last fall on ZERO notice. Came in, called a list of names, had security escort these people off the place. Some of them had just quit good jobs just TO come work there. They'd hired new people in full knowledge that they were going to have to lay people off.

Frankly I'd love to see the whole company go under. I won't name the company, but they've been in the news several times the last few years for major fucups.

No chance of my running into anyone in the store. I live way outside the USA.

Anyway thanks to all. I'll either go super brief and dry, or not at all. Though toying with them does feel tempting. "This is his mother, he's had a terrible accident, he's in a coma..."

minong wrote:

The short term satisfaction of going out in a blaze of glory will be severely outweighed by the long term knowledge that you're no better than they are if you pull some stupid stunt in an attempt to exact some sophomoric revenge.

Fully concur.

Burning bridges is dumb. You just be polite, let them know you are quitting, and part ways. The only benefit of burning bridges is that slight rush of adrenaline from doing so. They will look at you weird and carry on as usual. You'll feel like an idiot after the initial rush is gone.