7 Memorable Ways to Quit Your Job

Sept. 5, 2012

PHOTO: Microsoft employee Karen X. Cheng resigned from her job with an original song, "Bye, Bye Excel and I," which she posted to YouTube.

YouTube/karenxcheng

Quitting a job with flare or giving your boss a piece of your mind may be common fantasies, but the latter may have cost one investment banker $2 million.

After learning that his friend was fired for refusing to accept a lower salary, Jason Selch, a former investment banker at Wanger Asset Management in Chicago, mooned two bosses in a meeting in 2005.

Here's more about Selch and six other memorable ways workers said "bye-bye" to their employers.

Watch more on extreme quitters on "20/20: Work Wars" Friday at 10 ET

Investment Banker Drops His Pants

PHOTO: One Financial Center, the Boston, Mass. building housing the offices of Columbia Management Group, on February 26, 2004.

Steven E. Frischling/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Mooning

Jason Selch was eventually fired for "egregious behavior" when he mooned his bosses and had to forfeit contingency payments worth almost $2 million. After he sued for breach of contract, an Illinois appeals court ruled against him last week.

Selch could not be reached for comment.

Marching Band Resignation

PHOTO: A hotel employee, Joey DeFrancesco, is seen quitting his hotel job with a marching band, in this Youtube video.

Courtesy Joey DeFrancesco

Joey Quits

Last fall, when college student Joey DeFrancesco had had enough of his job at a hotel in Providence, R.I., he asked his band, the What Cheer? Brigade, to accompany him when he quit. He also recorded a video of the resignation called "Joey Quits" and started a website about hospitality workers rights.

Almost a year later, the YouTube video has received nearly 3.5 million views.

YouTube and a Guitar

YouTube/karenxcheng

Microsoft Worker Signs Off With Melody

In the spring, program manager Karen Cheng recorded a heartfelt good-bye to her Microsoft co-workers before she started a new job at a startup in San Francisco.

Cheng strummed a guitar and recapped her three years at the company using Excel lingo, singing, "forever recalc or die" to the tune of "American Pie" by Don McLean.

New York Times Op-Ed

PHOTO: People walk past Goldman Sachs headquarters on March 14, 2012 in New York City.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Goldman Sachs Employee Zings the Investment Bank

In March, a former Goldman Sachs employee resigned from the company in a New York Times op-ed, saying Goldman Sachs had a "toxic" environment that did not focus on clients.

The company responded with a statement, saying it disagreed with Smith's assessment of the company but went on to investigate his claims.

Smith later reportedly landed a $1.5 million book deal with Grand Central Publishing.

Theft

PHOTO: A Walgreens employee in Uniontown, Pa., quit his job by taking money from a register and leaving an I.O.U note.

ABC News

Pharmacy Worker Quits, Steals, Leaves IOU

Police in Uniontown, Pa., said a man stole $697 from his employer, a Walgreen's pharmacy, then quit with a note to his boss and an IOU.

The note reportedly included the message "I quit this place;" "This place is a joke ...;" and "P.S. IOU," according to the Associated Press.

Public signage

PHOTO: A Taco Bell in New Hyde Park, New York.

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

Taco Bell Employee Gets Creative With Letters

An employee at a Taco Bell and KFC in upstate New York made a memorable statement when he left a message for his boss on the restaurant's exterior sign. The message outside the Depew, N.Y. restaurant read, "I quit - Adam/ F**k you" with a smiley face.

Mass Email

PHOTO: The town of Minden, Germany, where a public servant resigned from his job, admitting that he hadn't actually done any work in 14 years.

Flickr/michael40001

Public Official Emails 500 Co-Workers About Work Ethics

This past spring, a German public official retired and told 500 co-workers in an email that he hadn't worked for 14 years, which was leaked to the press.

The man in North Rhine-Westphalia wrote he had earned about $952,860, or £600,000, but he was "not really there," the Daily Mail reported.