Cool, creative ways to quit

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Job quitterI must admit that, while I've resigned from a few jobs over my career, I never applied my creative juices to the task. That certainly wasn't the case with these five advertising agency refugees: 5 Amusing Ad Agency Resignations.

I think the fifth, and final, resignation is the most original. It's also the oldest, having occurred in 1918. In case you don't have the time to read it, I'll sum it up. An ad man quit, joined a newspaper and then sent a letter to his employer, written in the third person and suggesting that, he, the author, be terminated. Brilliant.

The coolest, most creative resignation I ever witnessed occurred at the late, not-so-great Earle Palmer Brown. For reasons known only to him, the CEO had hired a business development director who had been a huge star at a prior agency. But, his snarky, condescending and abrasive behavior immediately alienated him from one and all in our New York office.

The biz dev demon lasted about a month. One day, he was summoned to the agency's headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and summarily fired. But, and this is the beautiful part, he decided not to fly back to New York on the shuttle. Instead, he called the agency's limousine service, order a stretch fully loaded with alcohol and had himself driven back to the Big Apple in style. The final bill easily topped $1,000, and the tale became the talk of the town.

So, how about you? Any classic or creative quitting stories you care to share? I'd go on, but I'm trying to develop a witty way in which to inform myself that I've had it with Peppercom.

13 thoughts on “Cool, creative ways to quit”

  1. James Cameron was interested because, as you may have heard, he likes to make movies that involve mother ships. The deal fell apart when the King of the World’s people found the RE broker to be insufferable and not representing his clients’ best interests.

  4. Nice! I really like that one, Greg. I remember someone once telling me about a particularly nasty break-up between two founders of a PR firm. As is often the case, one was a majority shareholder while the party of the second part owned a smaller percentage. After the split, the party of the second part sent weekly installments of the buy back in quarters. Amazing stuff.

  5. Maybe we can thank L. Ron Hubbard, as I think the term “mother ship” is commonly used in Scientology. I’ve never seen that turkey of a John Travolta movie, but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear it.

  6. He was indeed one of the true oddballs I’ve met over the years. I used to love the way he called Bethesda the mother ship. ‘Now, let’s keep in mind this has go through the mother ship.’ They just don’t make them like that anymore.

  7. I remember that incident all too well. It’s the most exciting and creative thing that biz-dev genius ever did @Earle Palmer Brown.
    I also remember you telling a harmless joke to a group standing around. The guy reacted with a scary change in his face that resembled Jekyll/Hyde; I thought he wanted to kill you. It still gives me the heebie-jeebies after all these years.

  8. Nice! I really like that one, Greg. I remember someone once telling me about a particularly nasty break-up between two founders of a PR firm. As is often the case, one was a majority shareholder while the party of the second part owned a smaller percentage. After the split, the party of the second part sent weekly installments of the buy back in quarters. Amazing stuff.

  9. hat’s pretty cool, Book. Thanks. On the flip side, I’ve had some interesting termination meetings. One guy refused to accept the fact I was firing him, and kept trying to suggest alternatives (ie ‘How about I work part time?, etc.”). Took me 45 minutes to finally break through and convince him there were no other options. Another occurred at the nadir of the dot com bust. We had to lay off seven people in one day. As you might expect, I was dreading each and every one. But, one of the victims strolled into my office, closed my door and asked, ‘Am I being fired today?’ I nodded my head. She said: ‘That’s cool,’ and proceeded to gather her things and leave. Amazing.

  10. This wasn’t a separation from the company but we had a sportscaster who had received a cash advance for a trip and when he returned he needed to complete a detailed expense report. When it was determined that he owed money to the company, instead of writing a check, he brought in a bag full of pennies that amounted to more than $100. I don’t know who got stuck counting the copper.

  11. Well not necessarily creative but we had an associate attorney here (approximately 35 years old still living with his mother) who left a yellow pad piece of paper with me and said type this. Rude a-hole that he was, I first threw it in the circular file but then I got curious. It was his resignation. He was never heard from again.

  13. I was witness to the last one, a true work of art. I was thinking of it in paragraph one and you closed with it. Brilliant. Johnny M.