'I am quitting [...] effective immediately': Worker quits without notice after watching their coworkers being fired without notice.

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Feb 28, 2023 12:00 PM EST

Treat others how you would like to be treated: the golden rule. Regardless of your religious beliefs or affiliations, it stands to reason that this is a good principle to follow in order to build a moral foundation for one's actions. This "golden rule" or sometimes "ethic of reciprocity" appears universally throughout civilizations and cultures, dating back as far as 2000 BCE in Ancient Egypt.

Despite its ubiquity in philosophy and religion, small business owners somehow seemed to have missed the memo, often expecting considerations from their workers that they themselves would never give to anyone. This brings us to a common problem regarding the 'trust fall' that is notice periods (and the act of giving notice in general) in the United States. With most of the US being employment at will, your employer could send you packing 20 seconds from now for whatever reason they desired, such as manifesting the failure of their business. So, when you go to give them your two-week notice, you might expect them to do the same in return, but they could take that notice and terminate your employment on the spot.

With this in mind, when an employer has proven that, when push comes to shove, they themself won't follow a notice period, you shouldn't either when leaving that business. (However, if an employer has shown you nothing but respect, it would be wise to treat them with the same.)

After watching two of their coworkers be let go without notice or warning, this worker knew that they were going to be saddled with the whole team's work and quickly made plans to make moves and get out of the toxic bakery where they worked.

You might say, after all is bread and done, that the employer has found themselves in a shit show of their own baking. They'll knead to get on their hiring game to save themselves from disaster.

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Screenshots of the text exchange were shared to Reddit's r/antiwork sub, sparking discussion

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The worker, at commenters' request, took to the comments to provide more context to the situation

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