Last week Lizzo, the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter currently battling accusations of sexual harassment and mistreatment by former back-up singers, announced on social media that she was quitting her epic career. Fans expressed the appropriate level of horror, so five days later she was back, saying that she was not quitting after all, and denying that was what she meant to convey.
This stunt has become a standard PR tool in the music industry particularly. Singers Nicki Minag, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat (don’t ask me who she is) and others have used fake exits to get headlines, publicity and “Please come back!” messages from panicked fans. One of the most celebrated —in all aspects of the word—examples was Richard Nixon’s bitter public farewell after losing the election for governor of California in 1962. “You won’t have Richard Nixon to kick around any more!” he said. Sure, Dick.
My position on fake quitting, or quitting in anger and then regretting it after the fever passes, has always been “If you quit, you’re done, at least as far as I’m concerned, and there are no do-overs.” The same principle applies to threatened resignations. I had many opportunities to exercise this personal policy as a manager or leader of various organizations and staffs. My response to “Do X or I’ll quit!” is an automatic, “Bye! Good luck in your future pursuits!” When I ran a non-profit health promotion organization, two of the original staffers didn’t approve of my polices (I had taken over from the deceased founder and their friend) and gave me letters of resignation. Later, they came to the office like nothing had happened, and were shocked when I informed them that they didn’t have jobs anymore. Apparently fake quitting had been a tradition under the founder. The indignant resignees even complained to the board. Bye!
Regular readers here know that I apply the same principle to commenters on Ethics Alarms. If I ban you, you can apply for reinstatement, but if you quit, or threaten to quit, you’re out, and permanently.
I’d like to see that attitude toward strategic quitting become a cultural norm.
Ethics Alarms 
Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. I’m still waiting for all those entertainers who threatened to leave the USA because of Trump to board any mode of tranportation for their promised departures.
Oh, but THIS time they mean it!
From your lips to God’s ears.
It’s even worse as there a few of the more TDS afflicted that stated they’d do harm to themselves if Trump prevails in November. From their posts on “X”, a few examples of this are Rob Reiner who publicly stated he’d self-immolate, and Cher stated she’d blow her brains out. Although I can’t recall the name there was another that said he would throw himself into a wood chipper. For them, merely saying they’d leave the country wasn’t dramatic enough, too ordinary. Besides, no one believes any of them are serious, but I suppose they think it scores them “woke” points.
Rob Reiner and Cher killed themselves in 2016? I must have missed that.
I would like to see Jack’s quitting principle applied to those who publicly declared moving to Canada if Trump became President and when exposed as puerile lying liars, they underwent remedial public shaming. This is the corrective good kind of public shaming.
Applying this principle to marriage would have saved me years of heartache.
Come to think of it, it would have precluded the marriage from commencing in the first place. Bye! Good luck in your future pursuits!
We learned this quickly upon establishing our own business, during our first couple of years of being on the hiring end. We talked people out of quitting a few times before we realized that the people we talked into staying quit within a few months anyway. Now, we thank them and wish them well, and we’ve seen more than one, as the kids say, ‘surprised Pikachu face’. Mean what you say, say what you mean. There’s no place for silly games in the workplace.
Bingo.