Is there a proper way to quit a job?

[XJDenton]

I don't know if it was proper or not but I resigned by email today (followed up very shortly by a call with our head of HR. I gave two weeks...but only because the new place can't start me for three weeks.

Dear [boss],

This letter is to inform you that I am resigning from my position as Senior Director, [dept] at [company], effective [soon].

While I have learned a great deal in my time here and am appreciative of the opportunity, I cannot continue to work in an environment which I am not respected, either professionally or personally. 

• Professionally, I have repeatedly put tremendous thought, care and effort into badly-needed processes, only to be blocked, sandbagged, or for them to be rejected after roll-out. I have been told to be quiet when I have raised concerns about gaps in business/program strategy. I have consistently been undermined in any workstream I have attempted to lead.
• Personally, I have been insulted, belittled and denigrated; there has been a pointed lack of apology when these incidents have been raised. Timely feedback has been withheld, only to be weaponized weeks/months later as evidence of my incompetence. Most impactfully, I was told “It’s come back to me that you’ve been saying unkind things about me, and that makes me sad, the same way the GlassDoor reviews did”; this was clearly a message that I am not able trust others to keep confidences, that any concern I expressed would be taken personally, and an implied threat that my job would be imperiled if I did not make management of your ego my top priority. It was also a clearly engineered tactic to trick me into revealing what concern I might have expressed to whom; it is manipulative, controlling, and the farthest thing from [company's] value of “Trust” that I could imagine.
  

I am departing for a position in which I am confident that I will be valued, respected, and not be subject to abusive management.

I will hand-off any outstanding activities/knowledge to the appropriate parties before my departure.

millahhhh 

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

[millahh]

So, I guess it's worth an update to this.  I apparently lit the fuse on a bigger bomb without realizing it.  I had a very pleasant but direct exit interview with our CHRO, about things I've observed that I would want to know if I were in her position. The CHRO then sent what amounted to an abridged transcript to my former boss!  I think the CHRO has had enough of my ex-boss's shit, is putting her on notice and making her move. I look forward to watching from a safe distance with popcorn.

[Lonk]

So, I guess it's worth an update to this.  I apparently lit the fuse on a bigger bomb without realizing it.  I had a very pleasant but direct exit interview with our CHRO, about things I've observed that I would want to know if I were in her position. The CHRO then sent what amounted to an abridged transcript to my former boss!  I think the CHRO has had enough of my ex-boss's shit, is putting her on notice and making her move. I look forward to watching from a safe distance with popcorn.

[Orbert]

Whenever I leave a position like that -- toxic environment, horrible boss, etc. -- I like to imagine the shit hitting the fan after I'm gone.  They'll finally realize that maybe they should look at changing some things.  Except it doesn't much matter to me anymore since I don't work there anymore.  Even places when I feel that I've been totally wronged, I like to think that they realize afterwards what a treasure they've lost (cough), but again, I'm gone and not coming back at that point, so it's a brief little fantasy and then I move on and forget about it.

[Stadler]

Whenever I leave a position like that -- toxic environment, horrible boss, etc. -- I like to imagine the shit hitting the fan after I'm gone.  They'll finally realize that maybe they should look at changing some things.  Except it doesn't much matter to me anymore since I don't work there anymore.  Even places when I feel that I've been totally wronged, I like to think that they realize afterwards what a treasure they've lost (cough), but again, I'm gone and not coming back at that point, so it's a brief little fantasy and then I move on and forget about it.

I always THINK that, but the reality is usually pretty different.  Maybe that's my experience in working with larger corporations, but still.  I've been lucky, in that I haven't burned too many bridges, and I've kept some valuable friendships, but I get no sense there was any radical change or epiphany in anyone left behind. 

[Skeever]

Agreed with the above... working at a large corporation I've seen it countless times. Someone who I'd consider to be irreplaceable suddenly drops the ball that they're leaving, and life goes on. That's just the nature of the beast. Nobody is irreplaceable.

[Orbert]

Well like I said, it's just a brief little fantasy.  The next week or so is chaos, as people realize the thousand little things I used to do that no one knew but now someone's gonna have to do, and it possibly crosses someone's mind that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to let Bob go.  But a day after that, no one cares, and life goes on.