Take This Job and Shove It

Now that's what I call a resignation notice!

"Ya'll better not try to stand in my way
As I'm walking out the door
Take this job and shove it!
I ain't workin' here no more!"

— Johnny Paycheck, "Take This Job and Shove It"

A character is in a job that's making them more and more miserable by the day. Never mind that it's their (probably only) source of income; the plain and simple of it is, the job sucks and is draining them of their energy and patience.

Maybe it's a Dangerous Workplace they're employed to. Maybe they're working for Incompetence, Inc. Very possibly, there's No Such Thing as H.R.; or there is, but they sure wish there wasn't. Perhaps they have perpetual insecurity about how safe their job is, and it's not helped by the overbearing supervisor or office manager they've got. Maybe they just recently got Promoted to Scapegoat or have to put up with an incompetent boss. It could be that they're the Beleaguered Assistant, or the Only Sane Employee in an office populated by those who should rightly be certified insane. Or, chances are good they've been subjected to the Delegation Relay one time too many. Or perhaps the boss is a Corrupt Corporate Executive and the character's morals can't allow them to stick around that kind of environment.

The reasons vary, but the result is the same. Resentment builds... Tranquil Fury is fostered... and then the character's patience goes flying out the window.

"You know what? TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT!"

The recipient may be a jerkass who thoroughly deserved it. The employer/supervisor may also be a parent or relative or somebody who's SUPPOSED to be a good guy.

Note that it doesn't have to be the word-for-word line of this trope's title that is said; the manner of Rage Quit displayed against the supervisor/boss is essentially the heart of the trope.

Be careful, though; if done too often, it may lead others to query why you always leave one job after another (in which case, it might be you who has the real problem). If the person goes on a violent rampage instead of simply quitting, that's Going Postal. If they have to return humbly, that's Crossing the Burnt Bridge.

Compare Screw This, I'm Outta Here (for a range of situations that may or may not involve one's job), Rage Quit (for angrily quitting a game rather than a job) and Insignia Rip-Off Ritual (for examples of quitting or being fired that are symbolized by destroying an icon related to the job). May involve a "Reason You Suck" Speech. A subtrope is Resign in Protest, where a specific action or decision by their organization leaves someone feeling unable to continue doing the job in good conscience and leaving as a form of protest. If the person is forbidden from leaving or is forced back in not of their own accord, it's Resignations Not Accepted or Mandatory Unretirement.

Not related to To Hell with This Infernal Job, though the subject of that trope may very well be feeling this way when they quit their own job.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bokurano: In the anime adaptation, Shinichi Kodaka angrily tells his father that he's quitting when he learns that his father not only intends to develop land that was destroyed in Zearth's previous battle, but intends to make it into a golf course so he can profit off of it.
• Bubblegum Crisis: In the sequel Bubblegum Crash, Priss, a successful rock singer, is offered a recording contract by a major label, and rejects it in no uncertain terms when she discovers they want to turn her into an Idol Singer.
• Gundam Build Fighters: Aila quits her role as representative of Team Nemesis after Reiji gives her a long-awaited opportunity to leave by promising her a spot in Sei's house; she then proceeds to call out everyone on her former team in the process.
• In Idol Densetsu Eriko episode 8, a bunch of Corrupt Corporate Executive Kosuke Tamura's employees hand in their resignations, saying they can't deal with him anymore. When Kosuke tells them they won't be getting any severance pay, one of them gives him severance pay in the form of a fist to the face.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, the real Elan Ceres gives the Peil Technologies CEOs a letter in the final episode, tired of being used by them. It's part of the Humiliation Conga those old hags are put through.
• In One Piece, this is why the ocean-going restaurant Baratie has no waiters; the wait staff got sick of the constant fights between pirates and the cooks, and left.
• In Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~, after spending the entire series working as a secretary for a manager who overworked and underpaid her, Kurumi, finally finds the strength to tell him she quits. When he mockingly asks what she's going to do, she plainly tells him she's going to be Prime Minister of the Palmer Kingdom, leaving the man completely dumbfounded at her answer.

Comic Books

• In Annihilators, Rocket Raccoon already hates working for Timely Inc. as a mail clerk, especially after his boss admits that he was only hired to make the other employees feel better by being a Ridiculously Cute Critter. So when said boss fires Rocket for the crime of defending himself from a killer clown, Rocket responds by shoving a trashcan onto his boss's head and declaring that he quits.
• Batman vs. Bigby! A Wolf in Gotham: At the end of the story, Alfred is furious when Batman returns to the batcave injured. Batman just tells Alfred he'll patch him up again like always, only for Alfred to state otherwise. He states that Bruce pushed him too far this time, and then storms away shouting "I Quit!". Robin is worried, only for Batman to assure him it's okay, and that Alfred does that from time to time.
• Guardians of the Galaxy: In the aftermath of defeating the Badoon, the Guardians go their separate ways. Charlie-27 takes up a job helping rebuild Earth, but the foreman continuously bullies him (even knowing who Charlie is and what he's done. The guy just doesn't care). After a short while, Charlie gets fed up and uses his Super-Strength to wrap the foreman up in girders, and takes a permanent lunch break. Judging by the expressions on the other workers' faces (unabashed glee), they're not going to make any effort to help the foreman either.
  Narration: And so ended "The Day Charlie Told Off His Boss".
• Supergirl:
  • Pre-Crisis Kara had a habit of angrily quitting jobs. In Adventure Comics #424: Crypt Of The Frozen Graves, sick of putting up with a bullying coworker who is being favored by their boss, and feeling her job as a camerawoman is undermining her morals, she hands in her resignation letter and storms out of the premises right away.
    Linda Danvers: Meanwhile, I've got something for you— a little notice stating that I quit as of right now! If you want me to stay the traditional two weeks— forget it! I'm leaving now!
    Geoffrey Anderson: Hunh? But— Now, wait a minute! You can't just—
    Linda Danvers: Oh, yes, I can! I'm sick of the whole rotten news business! My articles and the actions of your favorite camera operator cost a man his life! That's enough for me! I've got better things to do with my life than stay in a business that exploits people.
  • In Superman Family #208, quits her work as a student councilor after a heated argument with her supervisor:
    Linda Danvers: This is it! I'm finished! You can take my contract and stuff it up your nose, Pierce!
  • In Superman Family #222, she cannot put up anymore with the increasing pressures of being a TV star. After one night of soul-searching, Kara realizes she will not be happy again until she quits a job she hates.

Comic Strips

• The titular Dilbert attempted this once, working alongside Wally in secret on company time to form their own startup, and once the product was ready, revealed this to the Pointy-Haired Boss and began a mockery dance. Then the Boss pointed out that since they used company resources and time for their startup, the COMPANY owned the product.
  • Another strip had Dilbert meet a guy who was taking this trope to such an extreme that he was trying to turn his resignation letter into an off-Broadway musical.
• Retail had an arc where assistant manager Josh lied about a job offer from a competing store in order to get a raise. Marla later found out about this and told this to district manager Stuart. Eventually, Josh figured out that Marla and Stuart knew, so he started looking for a new job before they had a chance to fire him (it was Christmas season, and there was no time to hire and train a replacement). After he got one, he invoked this trope while giving his 2 weeks notice to Marla, bragging about how, in the end, he succeeded with his ploy anyway. Of course, this pissed Marla off, and she promptly fired him on the spot, not letting him work out his notice.

Fan Works

• Brother on Board: Ayako was Forced into Evil by her Uncle Galdino, aka Mr. 3. When she joins the Straw Hats, he initially assumes that she's only acting as a spy, only for her to use her hypnotic powers on him and call him out on all his years of manipulation.
• Crimson and Noire: When Bob Roth tries to force Jagged Stone to change his image or he'll be fired, Jagged tells him he'll just quit. After all, many record labels would be happy to hire the number 2 artist on the chart.
• In Dragons and Swarm, as Mina explains, her demolishing Sector Security's servers with a virus after Dragon recovered the data she wanted is her way of telling Goodwin she's done with him.
• For His Own Sake opens with Keitaro quitting his job as the nominal manager of the Hinata Inn, calling out its tenants on how several of them flagrantly abused him while the rest stood back and let it happen. He also breaks off his relationship with Naru.
• Just another one of those days…: After being tricked into thinking that Brittas has been having sex with Laura, Julie furiously pours hot coffee over his crown jewels while announcing that she's quitting. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, she asks for her job back. Brittas happily obliges, to Laura's dismay.
• Miraculous Ladybug Salt-Shots: Spots of Change follows the fallout of Marinette deciding to give up being Ladybug, as she's tired of everyone taking advantage of her in both her superhero and civilian identities. Downplayed in that she remains the Guardian; however, she transfers to another school in order to get away from her False Friends, and her successor Anatis makes clear to Chat Noir and Alya that she will not tolerate any of their bratty, entitled behavior.
• moral of the story (Nyame):
  • Laurel admits in her Suicide Note that she'd secretly hated working at the DA's office due to how flagrantly corrupt most of her coworkers were. Thanks to some Paparazzi publishing said note in several tabloids, triggering several investigations to be opened. After Laurel is brought Back from the Dead, they attempt to hire her back in a blatant Publicity Stunt; Laurel naturally rejects the offer.
  • After learning the role Oliver played in driving Laurel to kill herself, Felicity quits both her job at Queen Consolidated and Team Arrow, disgusted by her former boss/friend's actions.
• Origin Story: After being traumatized by her battle with Alex, Moonstone quits the Thunderbolts, leaving her moonstone and a note that reads "Fuck you, I'm done" on Henry Peter Gyrich's desk.
• RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In the non-canon story Nightmares Yet to Come, after several months of arguing with Rainbow Dash, Cloud Kicker reaches a breaking point and storms out, after it looks like Rainbow's fired her. Except Rainbow hasn't fired her, she was just suggesting Kicker take the day off in the worst way possible, and in fact the only pony who'd know how to fire Kicker is Kicker herself. When Raindrops goes looking for Kicker, she finds the mare having a sobbing fest, since Kicker actually likes her job. Even Rainbow Dash, not normally an easy pony to work with, seems rattled by how far Cloud goes, and sort-of apologizes. Though Cloud still gets put on stress leave.
• In Return to Sender, Harry has grown increasingly disenchanted with his job as an Auror, while Draco never cared much for his current job in the first place. To cheer Harry up, Draco turns Auror Headquarters into a replica of the garden outside Harry's old apartment building and an overwhelmed Harry kisses him.
  Finch: If you two don't start helping like the others you'll be out of a job!
  Draco: I hate to use an overdone cliché, sir, but you can't fire us, because we quit.
• Soon I Shall Be Indestructible: While Izuku and Mei are supposed to be partners, she drives a wedge between the two of them with her irrational hatred of Shouto, getting pissed off over his friendship with Endeavor's youngest child. When Shouto has his Quirk erased, she coldly declares that's a good thing, pissing Izuku off so much that he promptly quits Project Indestructible.
• Spike's Gambit: Near the end of the story, Twilight Sparkle quits her job after learning that Discord had implanted a GPS tracking chip in her backside.
• This Bites!:
  • The Straw Hats' Roaring Rampage of Rescue during the Enies Lobby arc, which saw them air a metric ton of the World Government and the Marines' dirty laundry, saw several marines defect or quit in disgust. A later chapter reveals that there were more resignations in the twenty-four hours within the incident than there have been in the last two years.
  • The Thriller Bark incident similarly incited several resignations from the Marines — specifically, those Marines that were victims of Moria, and had their shadows returned to them by the Straw Hats. Hell, the first call during Cross' post-victory SBS broadcast was a Marine calling in to do exactly that.
  • The absolute crowner, however, has to be the Sabaody Revolution arc, where Sengoku turns in his resignation after Cross allows Silvers Rayleigh to expose the truth about Gold Roger's capture and execution on the SBS, destroying the Marines' last shred of credibility. After the events of the Marineford Misery arc, he makes good on it and quits his job as Fleet Admiral of the Marines.
    Sengoku: I. Am. Done. The exact instant that Fire-Fist's execution is over and done with, I resign. Find someone else stupid enough to put up with this PR death sentence, because I don't intend to. To put it as politely as possible, I quit, deal with it.
• Two Letters starts six months after Marinette resigned as Ladybug, having grown sick of how everybody expected her to solve all their problems for them while taking her for granted. She passed the Earrings over to a Sketchy Successor she deemed to be "the kind of Hero Paris wanted and deserved." Problems naturally arise when she learns people are trying to figure out the original Ladybug's Secret Identity and track her down so they can make her return to service, insisting that she has to help them despite how they treated her because "That's just what heroes do"...

Films — Animation

• Bolt: After the agent suggests using the fire for publicity and showing no concern about Penny almost dying, Penny and her mom quit right away, with Penny's mom punching the agent out of the ambulance for good measure.
  Penny's mother: We quit.
• The Incredibles: Bob's patience with his humdrum insurance job and his Obstructive Bureaucrat boss Mr. Huph finally snaps when the latter threatens to fire Bob for wanting to stop a mugging that was happening outside his office. Mr. Huph gets Punched Across the Room and through several walls and winds up in a full-body cast.
  Bob: I'm fired, aren't I?
  Rick Dicker: Oh, you think?

Films — Live-Action

• This is what Woody Guthrie does in Bound for Glory after his radio station tries to make him play non-controversial, non-political songs. The fact that it's The Great Depression and the radio job lifted his family out of poverty and got them a house does not bother Woody.
• In Bridget Jones' Diary the eponymous heroine is cruelly cheated on by her boss Daniel Cleaver, with whom she had just started an exciting and passionate relationship. The environment in the office quickly becomes toxic. Daniel tries an Anguished Declaration of Love, threats, and finally professional flattery with a promise of advancement to prevent her from leaving. Her parting shot at the last attempt is quite something.
  Bridget: Thank you, Daniel, that is very good to know. But if staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse. (power walks out of the office to Aretha Franklin singing "R E S P E C T")
• In Demolition Man, Lenina Huxley (played by Sandra Bullock) finally grows exasperated with her police chief and tells him to "take this job and shovel it." John Spartan (played by Sylvester Stallone) points it out moments later:
  John Spartan: Take this job... and shovel it.
  Huxley: (uncertainly) Yeah...?
  John Spartan: (Beat) ...close enough.
• Destroyer (1988): Sharon Fox, after getting deliberately shocked in the electric chair to get a better performance out of her for a scene that they were shooting, angrily chews out the director for what he did and quits the movie.
• Part of the backstory of Dogma: Loki, the Angel of Death, got very drunk. As a result of this, he let his friend Bartleby talk him into leaving the position — meaning tossing down his flaming sword at God's feet, declaring that he quits, and giving Him the finger. Unsurprisingly, this gets both of them banished from Heaven for all eternity. This also has the side effect of also banning angels from getting drunk, which Metatron laments.
• In Gambit, Harry Deane hates his job as an art curator and plans to use it to scam his boss out of approximately 12 million pounds sterling with a forgery. At the end of the film, after his scheme has failed, he's offered his job back, and he refuses it, telling his boss exactly what he thinks of him. It was all part of his plan to steal a different painting.
• Ghostbusters (1984): Janine comes close to this but doesn't quite go through with it after being forced to work for two weeks without a break, then getting snarked at by Venkman when she points out that he's failed to follow through with his promise to hire additional help.
  Janine: I've quit better jobs than this.
• One of the most famous scenes in Half Baked is this trope.
  Scarface: (at random co-workers and customers) Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, and FUCK YOU! I'm out!
• High Noon: Even if totally wordless, when Sheriff Will Kane rips off his sheriff's badge and tosses it to the ground before Riding into the Sunset with his wife, sickened that almost everybody in town was a Dirty Coward who refused to stand up to Frank Miller and nearly got him killed, he definitely means this Trope.
• Hustle (2022): Stanley Sugerman works as a recruiter for basketball players, a job which has him constantly travelling and being away from his family. During one of his travels, he finds a talented amateur player called Bo Cruz, and decides to become his trainer. When his boss, Vince Merrick, tries to force Stanley to stop training Bo and get back to scouting for new players, Stanley calls him out for his smarmy, dickish behavior before announcing that he's quitting his job.
• James Bond:
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service. When M takes Bond off the hunt for Blofeld due to lack of result, Bond dictates a letter of resignation to Moneypenny and is genuinely hurt when M accepts it without question. It turns out that Moneypenny altered it to a request for two weeks' leave. With (as is revealed after Bond leaves the room) M's connivance.
  • In Licence to Kill, Bond is confronted by M for trying to avenge Felix Leiter:
    M: This private vendetta of yours could easily compromise Her Majesty's government. You have an assignment, and I expect you to carry it out objectively and professionally.
    Bond: Then you have my resignation, sir!
    M: We're not a country club, 007!
• Maria Full of Grace: It occurs offscreen, but Maria quits her job at a rose plantation when her boss denies her a bathroom break and she ends up vomiting all over her workstation. It does not help that he does not show any concern for her welfare.
• In Mary Poppins, after being speechless throughout his dismissal, George Banks decides he should say something to his superiors: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
  Mr. Dawes, Sr.: What are you talking about, man? There's no such word!
  Banks: Oh yes! It is a word! A perfectly good word! Actually, do you know what there's no such thing as? It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there's no such thing as YOU!
• This was the attitude of most of the characters in Office Space, although most of them ultimately end up back in similar jobs. In fact, the song "Take This Job and Shove It" was sampled in the closing credits track "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee".
• Quadrophenia: When hauled up in front of his boss for being AWOL from work after his arrest and charge for being involved in the Brighton riots, Jimmy is effectively put on final written warning. In response to his boss telling him that "many people would give their eye-teeth for your job", Jimmy tells him to "FIND ONE, THEN!", and continues "You can take that mail, and that franking machine and you can shove them RIGHT UP YOUR ARSE!"
• A literal example happens near the end of Rush Hour when Detective James Carter is offered a job with the FBI by some FBI officials-a job that he considered "a dream come true." However, he has this to tell them:
  Carter: Why don't ya'll... take that badge... and shove it up your ass. All up in your ass. I'm LAPD.
• Take This Job And Shove It (1981), starring Robert Hayes. Its title was taken from the Trope Naming song (which, incidentally, was part of the movie's soundtrack; see the music section below for information on the song).
• Terror Birds: Dr. Slater, after having had enough of working on getting the birds to reproduce, as well as the rather unethical things they've been doing to keep them healthy, decides she's had enough and leaves. She gets fed to the birds for it.
• That Thing You Do!: Jimmy quits the band in the middle of a recording session by singing "I quit... I quit... I quit, Mr. White!"
• In Wanted, Wesley quits his job in a spectacular fashion; slamming all of his co-workers and breaking his keyboard across the face of a particular one who'd been sleeping with Wesley's already unfaithful girlfriend.
• At the end of Welcome to the Jungle, Chris is offered a promotion for his efforts to save the company. Having learned what jerkasses the majority of them are, he decides to quit instead.

Literature

• Artemis Fowl - The Opal Deception: Holly gets framed for the murder of Commander Root and after her innocence has been proven, Ark Sool prohibits her from attending Root's funeral and clarifies he'll wait for Holly to make a slip-up. Holly declares she'll quit the LEP rather than work under Sool and decides to open a detective office along with Mulch.
• Atlas Shrugged: John Galt's origin story is that, after watching his hard work and accomplishments go to waste at a dysfunctional company that treated him like garbage and was being run into the ground by both his bosses' misguided idealism and the increasingly extreme demands of the workers' union, he angrily walked out the door and told everyone to go to hell, vowing to "stop the motor of the world".
• In Berättelse om herr Roos, one of the first things Valdemar does after winning 2Million Swedish kronor is quitting after working for 28 years for Wringmans Elektriska. After that, he still pretends to go to work every morning to his family.
• It's the central plot of I... Don't Want to Work Anymore I Quit Being An Adventurer. Even if You Treat Me Better Now, I Won't Do It. I Will Never Work Again. The protagonist Aix was horribly exploited by his guild, to the point of being treated like a slave. When his guildmaster outright dares him to quit, Aix happily does so, and utterly refuses to return no matter what kind of offers they try tempting him back with. They've burned every bridge with him, and he won't go back, even if he has no other prospects, at all.
• Shtum: After Ben forces Valentine to work overtime one too many times, he leaves a letter at the office saying, "I QUIT. VALENTINE. P.S. FUCK YOU!"

Live-Action TV

• Early on in the pilot episode of Breaking Bad, Walter White worked as a cashier at a car wash for additional income where his boss Bogdan constantly has him wipe down cars, which Walt detested. As soon as Walt receives his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer later on in the episode, Walt completely snaps at Bogdan when he tried to make him wipe down cars again, and then storms out the door.
  Walt: Fuck you, Bogdan!
  Bogdan: What?
  Walt: I said FUCK YOU, and your eyebrows!!!
  (Walt angrily knocks down air fresheners from the wall display)
  Walt (grabbing his crotch): WIPE DOWN THIS!!
• Chuck. The title character said this to Emmett at the end of the show's second season. At that point, Chuck had realized he didn't need his cover at the Buy More since he was intersect free. He also had a lot more experience so he could easily find another job. Casey also quit too. Though despite this, he always manages to find himself back at the Buy More. Because the CIA manipulated things so no other company but Buy More would hire him.
• The Drew Carey Show has this when Kate is offered a job elsewhere and quits being Mrs. Fowler's assistant, including a song and dance where she repeatedly says "I hate you" as she leaves with a big smile on her face. When the job doesn't pan out, she manages to trick her boss into taking her back.
• Happens several times on Drop the Dead Donkey, particularly to Henry when an old friend dupes him into thinking he has been offered a BBC job which turns out not to exist, and in the final series where Globelink is shutting down and some employees believe they can get better payouts if they get fired rather than simply laid off.
• One of the episodes of the final season of Family Matters called A Pain In Harassment had Harriot having to deal with an unruly supervisor who constantly belittled his employees and rejected any suggestions they made. No one dared speak out against him for fear of losing their job. However, Harriot eventually gets fed up and tells him off, leading to this exchange.
  Boss: You're fired! Ooh, that felt good.
  Harriot: I quit! That felt better!
• This is essentially Geoffrey's reaction on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when the kids fake his winning lottery ticket.
• In the Here Come the Brides episode "Loggerheads," Joshua is angry that Jason isn't taking his ideas seriously and starts giving the other lumberjacks instructions without Jason's knowledge. Jason says, "If you were an employee of mine, and you did what you did last night and this morning, I'd fire you." Josh snaps, "I'll save you the trouble. I quit!" and storms off.
• Discussed in How I Met Your Mother. In "The Chain of Screaming", Marshall is tired of getting screamed at at his Soul-Crushing Desk Job. Ted suggests he scream back at him and quit, but Marshall points out that he can't afford to be out of a job. Eventually, Marshall gets fed up and finally screams at his boss that he's quitting. This happens:
  Marshall: I don't want any of this! This is not why I became a lawyer! This is not the person I wanted to be! I quit, Arthur! I QUIT!
  Arthur: Well, thank you Eriksen, I needed to hear that.
  Marshall: Really? Cause I didn't mean to attack you personally, it's just that—
  Arthur: No, no, no, the part where you said "I quit". Now we don't have to pay you a severance package. Security's gonna rough you up a bit on the way out.
• Modern Family: Mitchell Pritchett becomes increasingly frustrated at his work when he keeps missing quality time with his daughter, Lily and partner, Cam. When asked one-too-many times to put in extra time he silently but ceremoniously abandons the job.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: At the end, Monarch operative Tim resigns in protest after losing faith in Verdugo and the organization.
• The Prisoner does this with his espionage job during the opening credits. It's apparently what causes his former bosses to capture him and send him to the Village.
• In Review Forrest is asked to review the experience of quitting a job. His producer arranges for him to get a job which he instantly quits with a grand speech, before concluding it doesn't qualify unless you've worked there first. So he starts working at a coffee stand, overhauls how the stand runs, makes it much more successful and himself indispensable while getting along well with his co-workers, and was clearly happy to keep working there indefinitely until his producer reminds him of the point of the exercise. With obvious discomfort and guilt, he repeats the same speech before walking out. Quitting your job didn't get a very good score.
• In an early episode Roseanne quits her job at the plastics factory this way. Her entire section of the factory follows suit and walks off the job behind her.
• In one of Seinfeld's most famous stories, "The Revenge", George does one of these, only to gradually realize he's made a big mistake since he has no other prospects or skills. His (ineffective) solution is to go in on Monday and act like nothing happened. This was based on Larry David's having done the same thing when he was a writer for Saturday Night Live.
• The Spencer Sisters: After being ignored yet again and punished for pursuing a lead she was right about as a police officer (against orders), Darby angrily quits after chewing out her superiors for how they acted to her.
• The episode "Alice Quits" of Workaholics gives us two examples of this trope. First, Alice Quits, telling Travis to "Fuck off and eat a dick!", and then Jet Set quits in an even greater example.
  Jet Set: What's happening here? This is not the Tel America Corp that I used to know. I look around, I recognize nothin'! Where's all the smiles, the giggling? Can someone tell me where the giggling at, huh?
  Travis: Jessie, if you wanna talk, step into my office.
  Jet Set: Travis, before you got here, we was all friends. Work was fun. We used to love to walk through that door. But now, since you been here? This place is silent!
  Travis: Jessie, calm down.
  Jet Set: Bitch, my name is Jet motha-fuckin Set! But you can call me Patrick Swayze, cause guess what? I'm ghost.
• Young Sheldon: In "A Clogged Pore, a Little Spanish and the Future", upset that Wilkins was offered the head coach position behind his back, George Sr. goes over to the principal's office and quits immediately rather than play out the rest of the season.

Music

• The Trope Namer is a song of the same title by David Allan Coe from his 1978 album Family Album. The song itself conveys the bitterness of a man who has worked long and hard at a thankless job, and The Last Straw comes when his wife leaves him. It has been covered by Johnny Paycheck (which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the country charts, making his version a case of Covered Up) and the Dead Kennedys, and sampled by rappers Canibus and Biz Markie on "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee".
• The Lancashire Hotpot's Resignation Song:
  You can stick your job, that's what you can do,
  You can whistle if you think I'm doing any more for you!
  You've made my life a misery, now I've had to draw the line,
  So take your job and stick it, where the sun don't shine!
• The song "Last Day at Work" by Mikey Mason has the narrator playing a lot of pranks on his soon-to-be former workplace after finding a better job.
• "Fire When Ready" by Perfect Stranger:
  Does it bother you to have my feet on your desk?
  Please take it as a sign of no respect
  Your office was open, thought we'd have a little talk
  Here's somethin' you can stuff in your suggestion box
  You're a bonehead jerk, yeah, I said it
  I've been doin' all the work, you've been takin' all the credit
  Shootin' me down, ridin' me steady
  Come on, boss, fire when ready
• The protagonist of "White Collar Holler" by Stan Rogers imagines doing this:
  Someday I'm gonna give up all the buttons and things
  I'll punch that time clock till it can't ring
  Burn up my necktie and set myself free
  Cause no one's gonna fold, bend or mutilate me
• Wesley Willis says this in the song "Fuck You".
  Take this job and shove it!
  I'm not working for you anymore!
  Stick it up your ass!
• The Your Favorite Martian song "Eff this job" is all about Puff and Cartoon Wax singing about how they’re going to quit their jobs.
  It’ll feel so good when I’m walking out
  Imma give them something to talk about
  Yeah
  Fuck. This. Job!

Pro Wrestling

• In the late '90s, WCW was hell for all those who weren't Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, or one of their friends. It got so bad that one day after winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Chris Benoit gave it up to move to the WWF with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko, and Perry Saturn.^note Benoit and the others had asked for their release before he won the title but after Kevin Sullivan replaced Vince Russo as booker, as there was serious bad blood between Sullivan and Benoit thanks to Sullivan's wife leaving him for Benoit (and the other 3 just didn't want to be there anymore). Sullivan booked Benoit to win the title in an attempt to convince Benoit that he would keep it professional and not bury him over their personal issues (which may very well have been genuine), but Benoit and the others found a lifeboat off of the sinking ship and they weren't passing it up. This was one of the strongest signs the promotion was circling the drain, and it was finally bought out by WWF shortly thereafter.
• CM Punk during "The Summer of Punk II" in WWE. Punk, sick and tired of all the crap he had to deal with in the WWE despite being one of the greatest wrestlers in the world (if not THE greatest), decided to walk out the door the moment his contract expired on July 18, 2011. He also decided to take the WWE Championship with him. However this was an in-story example and he came back to the company again to challenge John Cena just as soon as Cena had been reestablished as WWE's new Champion. He would later do it for real after being eliminated from the Royal Rumble in 2014, simply refusing to come back to work because he was sick and tired (literally sick, as it turned out) and just couldn't face doing the job any more, leading to a retirement from the ring that lasted for 7 years until he returned to the business in 2021 to join All Elite Wrestling.
• Adam Pearce and Colt Cabana's seven levels of hate feud concluded this way when they learned that Bruce Tharpe had successfully sued the NWA, followed that with a hostile takeover, named himself president and restricted the privileges of member promotions. They washed their hands of the body, leaving the world heavyweight title belt they had been feuding over vacant.
• AJ Styles, much in the vein of Punk, did the same thing to TNA in storyline (in fact, it was a rehash of Punk's storyline and really poor one too), and in Real Life at the end of 2013. By that point, even he was sick of all the bullshit the company had put him and his coworkers through — trying to get him to re-sign with a forty percent pay cut was the last straw.^note In TNA's defense, the lowball offer wasn't intended to insult Styles, it's just that they were broke. Of course, Styles probably responded with something to the effect of "You wouldn't BE broke if you didn't spend the last 10 years doing the same idiotic garbage that killed WCW with the exact same people!", and he was right. They tried to make amends in 2015 by offering him a huge sum of money to wrestle one last match at Slammiversary along with being inducted in their hall of fame (making him the only inductee to have actually earned his fame in the company rather than somewhere else), but he turned them down flat, citing ROH and NJPW as his main priorities. Everyone else who read between the lines knew what he was really saying (as one writer put it: "Duck Fixie").
• In 2022, WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Naomi reached the end of their rope with the booking they were being subjected to. Winning the poorly-regarded tag belts and resolving to establish them as a prize to be taken seriously, both women were very upset when creative, instead of pushing them as a tag team, instead expected them to job as individuals to the Womens' singles champions. This eventually culminated in a backstage argument before an episode of RAW where they were expected to both take part in a Six-Pack Challenge to determine the #1 contender to Bianca Belair^note where according to some reports, one of the WWE officials directed sexist and/or racially charged language at them which ended with both women walking into the office of Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis, throwing the Women's Tag Team belts onto his desk, and walking out of the company. WWE uncharacteristically buried both women on commentary as "unprofessional", pretty much solidifying that they didn't think there would be any possibility of smoothing things over, and Sasha and Naomi would go on to rebrand themselves and redebut in other companies, as Mercedes Moné in World Wonder Ring ST★RDOM and as Trinity in Impact Wrestling respectively, where both would win top women's singles championships in short order.

Urban Legends

• There's an Urban Legend about a prank played on a guy by his co-workers. While out at dinner, they copied the numbers from his lottery ticket and gave them to a waitress. The waitress then came up and said the winning numbers had just been announced, if anyone was interested, and read out the numbers they had given her. The man checked his ticket, double-checked it, and then announced that he was quitting. He then went on to thoroughly insult his boss, all of his co-workers, and also announced that he'd been having an affair with his secretary. End of job and end of marriage. This may have inspired the aforementioned example from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Video Games

• In Banjo-Tooie, Klungo stays loyal to Gruntilda Winkybunion for most of the game, despite the beatings he receives from her for failing to defeat Banjo and Kazooie. With each beating he receives, he looks more and more beat up. After he loses to Banjo and Kazooie a third time, he realizes that each beating he receives makes him less and less handsome, to the point where his wife won't find him attractive anymore if he keeps working for Grunty. Also realizing that things will only get worse for him if he continues to work for Grunty (he won't get any chance of a promotion, days off, or pay), Klungo quits, turning to Banjo and Kazooie's side and pursuing a career in making video games (which he actually does in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts).
• In Bendy and the Ink Machine's audio recordings, Wally Franks threatens this trope so frequently that his catchphrase is "I'm outta here." He complains about frequently-bursting pipes, having to deal with the music director when he loses his keys, and low workplace morale, among other things.
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2: After having to put up with J. Jonah Jameson as her boss all game, and just after being freed of the Scream symbiote, Mary Jane decides to dial him up. His voice immediately comes on the line demanding to know when she's going to bring him some apple fritters. MJ's response: "Jonah...kiss my ass. I quit." Followed a second later by her hanging up in his ear as he starts to scream in outrage.
  Peter: ...you're so cool.
• In Koumajou Densetsu/Touhouvania II, one of the stage bosses, Reimu, Lord of the Scarlet Devil Castle (who is under suspicion of mind control and/or outright being the Big Bad), quits her job in the middle of a cutscene.
• Mass Effect:
  • Mass Effect: Conversation with Garrus reveals he nearly did this in the past at C-Sec, after an organ smuggler got away with some hostages, going right to the organisation's head and threatening to quit. He didn't at the time. When he gets an opportunity to quit and go off with Shepard, it's apparently a much quieter affair.
  • Mass Effect 2: If you bring Miranda with you to the Final Boss and chose to destroy the Collector base against the Illusive Man's wishes, Miranda, having developed loyalty to Shepard that supersedes Cerberus, refuses the Illusive Man's orders to stop Shepard and tells him "Consider this my resignation."
• In Night of the Consumers, the guy who was supposed to be training you runs into the back room to get away from the ravenous costumers. Once there, he makes it very vocal that he's had enough with the job and quits. He DOES however hand you notes on what to do.
• This happens offscreen in Persona 5. After you change the heart of an abusive boss, Mishima, who gave you the request, will text you to inform you that the boss was fired, and while the student working part-time (who'd brought the issue to Mishima's attention) was offered money to stay quiet, he refused and quit his job.

Web Comics

• Bug Martini calls this the "Blaze of Glory" method.
  Boss: Mooning me was sufficient. You didn't need to write "I quit" on your butt.
• In Cigarro & Cerveja, Cerveja's resignation letter is a very Cloud Cuckoolander-ish take on this, rather than an actively malicious one.
  In the name of Thor, god of thunder and disco, I hereby abdicate my position of corporate lackey to my boss, who happens to be bald.
  Smiles and lollipops,
  Cerveja Goose
• Liz does this pretty early on in Dead Winter, one she's fed up with the asshole customers and her assholier boss. Immediately after this, though, she realizes she's in the middle of a Zombie Apocalypse, making her dramatic exit sort of pointless (and dangerous, since later on her boss goes completely nuts and, as promised, starts hunting her down with murderous intent).
• In one Kevin & Kell strip, Wilbur from Charlotte's Web is running an ad agency ... until he sees Charlotte's written this message in her web.
• When Matt quits his hated job on Mac Hall, he first announces it loudly and proudly, then immediately backtracks, detailing that he'll finish up his two-week notice, and leave his information in case someone needs to contact him.
• In PvP when Robbie wins a massive lottery jackpot, he first heartfully thanks Cole for almost 10 years of employment and support despite both Robbie and Jase's near-total uselessness and slacker attitude...
  Robbie: That said, you can take this job and cram it.
• Questionable Content:
  • Dale decides to announce his leave from his pizza job (which was mostly just soul-destroying rather than actually evil) in style.
  • Later, Roko has enough of being a police officer.
    Roko: Oh my god FUCK THIS!
• In Weak Hero, Wolf gets his ass handed to him by the protagonist. Afterwards, he declares that he's sick of working for Donald Na, sick of acting like his lapdog, and wants out of the Union. Donald doesn't let him.

Web Original

• On the Dream SMP, Quackity did this in the middle of the Manburg Rebellion arc. When Schlatt ordered that the White House be taken down, a massive argument occurred between him and Quackity, who regarded it as the last straw for him to stay in Manburg. Quackity eventually told Schlatt during the argument that he could "find [him]self another Vice President", and went on to shoot Schlatt, taking his second canon life (out of three total), before fleeing the country and later joining Pogtopia.
• In Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged, Tom is an eager news anchor who does his job with aplomb, up until the WEAPONs break out and he has to report on it. He becomes increasingly angry over the fact the WEAPONs have been rampaging for a week, but when he has to report on Meteor, he decides he's had enough.
  Tom: ... I'm done. I'm out. I'm f**king out. F**k you and f**k the news.
  Sam: (in tandem with Tom) ...Tom? ...No! No, don't slow-roll away! ...Damnit. At least the censor guy was on point. ^note Censor Guy: YOU'RE F**KING WELCOME!
• In Helluva Boss, Fizz suffered constant abuse under his boss and the Sin of Greed, Mammon. When he's finally had enough, not only does he quit during a national live competition Mammon expected Fizz to win, he does so in the form of a Cluster F-Bomb/"The Villain Sucks" Song aptly called "Two Minutes Notice".

Western Animation

• In the last episode of Beast Wars, Waspinator decides enough is enough and he opts out of the Beast Wars altogether.
  Waspinator: Waspinator sick of being evil, sick of being Predacon! And Waspinator especially sick of GETTING BLOWN TO SCRAP ALL THE TIME! So, Waspinator quit! Hmph! As of now, which means Ant-Bot and Two-Head can just pucker their mandibles and plant big, wet juicy one right here on Waspinator's big, fat, stripey—
  [Inferno and Quickstrike shoot Waspinator for desertion]
• The Biker Mice from Mars episode "Test of Friendship" has a woman affected by Evil Eye Weevil's hostility ray scream "You can take this job and shove it" as she picks up her boss and throws him out the window.
• Parodied in the DuckTales (2017) episode "The Richest Duck in the World!", when Zan Owlson, former CFO of Glomgold Industries, and now of Louie Incorporated following the events of the previous episode, decides she's tired of being the Only Sane Woman in the world of Duckburg business, and dramatically quits while they're in a plummeting plane. Then clarifies that she will be serving out her notice and training her replacement, because she is a professional.
• One episode of Family Guy has Peter winning it big in the state lottery, and plays it up like he did this. Then subverts it. Then double subverts it.
  Peter: Angela, I just want to thank you for several extremely pleasurable years working here. Certain events have created a situation where I am no longer in need of employment. But I would be remiss not to thank you and there is a giant poo on your desk.
• Jem: In "The Talent Search Part 2", Shana leaves the Holograms to be the costume designer of a famous actress, only to learn how bossy she really is, and finally quits near the end.
• Done by Bob on The Oblongs:
  Bob: You can take this job and post it! As vacant! Because I quit!
• Turns up on Oh Yeah! Cartoons in the Super Santa short "Naughty" when Elmer Scrooge's servants turn against him.
  Servant: Scrooge, you can take this job and— [fires laser at Elmer Scrooge]
  Elmer Scrooge: Ingrates.
• A Brodax-era Popeye cartoon had Popeye getting a construction site job with Brutus as his foreman. After a spinach-fueled tussle causes the site to collapse to so much rubble:
  Brutus: You're fired!!
  Popeye: Oh, yeah? Well, I quits!!
  Brutus: (to camera) I quit, too.
• The Owl House episode "Labyrinth Runners" features a coven scout named Severine who is repetedly belittled by her superiors. Eventually, it proves to be too much and she quits, throwing her mask on the ground and storming off after the mission is a failure. There's also a bit of Biting-the-Hand Humor involved, as she was voiced by series creator Dana Terrace, who was almost certainly using it as an opportunity to air her grievances about the show being Screwed by the Network.
  Severine: You know what? It has been a rough year, and my self-esteem can only take so much! I quit!
• The Simpsons:
  • In "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer gets the chance to work his dream job at the bowling alley and so decides to quit the power plant by...putting a drink on Mr. Burns' desk without a coaster and dumping his trashcan (which contains a single wadded paper ball) on the floor. However, he thoroughly leaves Poke the Poodle territory by putting Burns in a headlock and playing his head like a bongo drum ("Oh, I should be resisting this, but I'm paralyzed with rage...and island rhythms!"). But since this is a Flashback episode, he had to return somehow.
  • When Homer was working at the Kwik-E-Mart to pay for Lisa's pony, after Lisa gives up the pony, he tells Apu, "You can take this job and restaff it!" Referencing the song, but not the exact quote.
  • In "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", Grandpa Simpson is working at Krusty Burger. He eventually quits after he starts complaining with his friends about what's not on the breakfast menu, plus the fact that he's supposed to be old. As he puts it:
    "The good Lord allows us to grow old for a reason: to gain the wisdom to find fault with everything He's made!"
• After the election of Barack Obama, Randy Marsh of South Park triumphantly quits his job, telling his boss this. After all, Obama's going to make everything better, so he doesn't need a job anymore!
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In the episode "Can You Spare a Dime?" Squidward gets fed up with Mr. Krabs after being accused of stealing his first dime and quits. He obviously comes back to work after Mr. Krabs discovers the dime was in his pants the whole time, resulting in him accusing Squidward of putting it in his pants.
  • In "Nature Pants", SpongeBob angrily quits his job at the Krusty Krab, throwing his hat onto the ground and storming out to start a new life.
• The Undergrads episode "Work Study" has a subversion of this, as Nitz wants to leave his work on good terms, and Rocko steps in and does this trope for him.
  Nitz: Yeah, see, somethings come up and I kinda don't need the work anymore, but you guys were cool to me, and I certainly don't want to burn any bridges—
  Rocko: He ain't working for the man no more, so you can take this job and cram it with some sexual harassment on top!

---