Memorable job resignations
Most memorable job resignations by men
Apparently, Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner had more to wrestle with than his diet. On April 26, he became the first-ever contestant to quit "The Biggest Loser." We all have days when we just feel like walking away from the job forever. Most of us call those days Mondays. But, like every other thing worth doing, quitting your gig is worth doing well.
Who: JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater
How he quit: When a passenger insulted JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater at Pittsburgh Airport in the summer of 2010, Slater grabbed the intercom and responded with a foul-mouthed tirade before concluding: "I've been in the business 28 years. I've had it. That's it!"
Grabbing a beer from the galley, he activated the plane's emergency exit, slid down the inflatable slide on to the tarmac and caught a bus to the terminal. As job resignations go it's pretty much a stroke of genius - even if Slater was later arrested.
Who: Heavyweight slugger Riddick Bowe
How he quit: Only the criminally insane would have stepped into the ring with Lennox Lewis in his prime, so Bowe was clearly in full control of his marbles when made a dramatic gesture during a press conference rather than face the Londoner.
Who: 1950s Tonight Show host, Jack Paar
How he quit: Paar was one of the biggest names in TV -- until an editor changed one of his gags and he snapped mid-broadcast. "I'm leaving The Tonight Show," said Jack. "There must be a better way to make a living than this, a way of entertaining people without being constantly involved in some form of controversy."
Jack then stormed off and left a startled announcer holding the mic.
Who: Aussie games developer Jarrad Woods
How he quit: Computer programmers are not generally regarded as the sort of crazy wild men who blow their stacks and go off the rails. But that's without reckoning on Woods who created a unique game to tell his boss he'd had enough.
Who: Chief exec of a global computer giant, Jonathan Schwartz
How he quit: As a prominent CEO. you'd expect Scwartz to close the door behind him with dignity and a safely banked golden handshake. Not a bit of it.
When Sun was sold in 2010, its top man let the world know he was calling it quits via a Twitter haiku
Who: Canadian thrill-seeker Bill Eustace
How he quit: The taller a building is the more likely someone will be to leap off the top clutching a parachute. Yet Eustace didn't even wait for Toronto's CN Tower to be completed. As a construction worker on the site, he was able to reach the top of the tower and jump through the scaffolding, earning himself the title of 'most dangerous job resignation ever' in the process.
Who: Aussie Rugby League legend Mal Meninga
How he quit: Rugby is all about getting your retaliation in first, but Meninga went one better when he turned his hand to politics - by resigning pretty much before he'd started.
Better still, he did it live on the radio, saying "I'm sorry. I have to resign," just moments into his first political interview. How long did his political career last?
