Sometimes, the only power you have left in a toxic workplace is choosing the exact moment you walk away.

So, what would you do if your manager showed clear favoritism and dismissed every concern you raised, yet still expected you to accommodate her needs when it came time to resign?

Would you go along with what she wants? Or would you handle it your way?

In the following story, one employee finds himself in this situation and decides to walk away on his terms.

Here’s what happened.

Resigning with timing

My previous workplace was getting more and more toxic. Our manager was a part of the whole problem and never recognized her part in the toxicity.

She played favorites and “one weekend team is better than the second” (we worked every other weekend), basically dooming our team to have team A and team B.

Team A got all they wanted. Members of Team A managed to get a coworker suspended (almost fired), and no testimony from Team B was even considered. They just listened to team A.

Then, our supervisor (hierarchically lower than the manager) even lied about procedures she put in place… long story short, we are contesting our coworker’s suspension and have lots of arguments.

Suddenly, people started resigning.

Months ago, I got news from a hiring process. I knew I was going to be sent to train around mid-October. I didn’t say a thing.

I sent an email requesting leave without pay. Of course, since I was team B, I had no chance of getting it. A coworker from team A got hers..!

Then, I heard about the first resignation. One of my friends was resigning at the end of October. Another coworker was pregnant and couldn’t work with us anymore. Another took sick leave.

He waited for the perfect moment to submit his resignation.

In a single month, out of a team of 15, we had 4 leave.

My manager wanted me to send my resignation ASAP so she had time to resend it to HR in time for the postings to be open in January.

So I waited. I used any day off I had (a few weeks) and submitted my resignation to HR through official channels (while my manager wanted me to send it to her informally, which could have left me in trouble).

The manager did it to herself.

The date for managers to submit their posts to HR is November 3rd. My resignation was made official on November 6th.

So she has to wait 3 months (or more, there is so much delay and so many posting cancellations) to submit it.

If she had signed LWOP, a coworker would have taken my spot for a year with all the benefits entitled to them. Now, it’s a short-term replacement with no benefits.

Yikes! It’s easy to see why everyone is leaving that place.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about situations like this.

It sure does!

Good question.

It almost sounds like it, but maybe not.

He did it the right way!

It’s always best to submit paperwork according to the company policy, rather than as a favor for someone.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.