This company will quit your job for you: ‘Colleagues aren’t worth saying goodbye to’

While the Great Resignation made quitting seem easy, exiting an unsatisfying job has proven to be harder for some overseas, ushering in a new wave of businesses that help workers resign from their roles.

In Japan, companies are cashing in on employees’ hesitancy to call it quits and helping unhappy people leave their jobs.

One such service is Exit, which oversees the resignations of 10,000 people per year and even offers half-off for returning clients.

“Americans may be surprised, but I was too shy or too scared to say what I think,” co-founder Toshiyuki Niino, 34, told the Wall Street Journal. “Japanese are not educated to debate and express opinions.”

Similar services have cropped up across the country, which has 2.7% unemployment and staffing shortages, per The Journal.

At quitting agencies like competitor Albatross, the staff calls clients’ places of employment and declares they are quitting and specifies other details, such as when their last day will be, how to return company-issued tech or uniforms and more.

Albatross staffer Ayumi Sekine, 24, came to work at the agency after experiencing her own difficulty quitting a previous role.

Sekine — who now understands the stress of resignation — faced opposition when attempting to resign from her former job at a gas company, and was only able to leave for good after crying and begging her boss.

While a majority of bosses will accept the notice of resignation from the third-party service provider, a fraction — around 10% — of employers require legal negotiations with a lawyer present, Albatross CEO Shinji Tanimoto said.

Mo Muri and Yametara Eenen are also vying for unsatisfied workers’ attention, some with adverts in public transit, and offer an out for employees at a hefty price tag.

Yuta Sakamoto, who previously sold home improvement projects, forked over $200 to a quitting agency so he could leave his job, where his former boss told him he’d be ruining his career if he ever left.

“I would have been mentally broken if I had continued,” Sakamoto, 24, told The Journal.

Those who can’t afford such services are pretending to be quitting agents to call in their own resignations, the Journal reports. Meanwhile, companies in dire straights with skeleton staffs are reaching out to quitting agencies for referrals for the newly unemployed.

For former forklift driver Koichi Oda — who complained of poor working conditions, low wages and his old boss’ attitude — hiring a quitting agency sent an intentionally strong message.

“This was my way of conveying a message: ‘You colleagues aren’t worth saying goodbye to,’” Oda said.