EXIT Services: New Companies Offer Professional Job Resignation Assistance

Do you want someone else to quit your job for you? Well, in Japan companies like EXIT will do just that for a fee.

Maybe this is just a cultural thing. In America, people are used to seeing that old cliché in the movies and on TV where someone storms out of an office and basically says to the boss, “You can take this job and…”

However, the fact is that quitting a job, like breaking up with someone, can be hard to do for most people. People ordinarily prefer to avoid a confrontation whenever possible.

Think about “quiet quitting,” which refers to when employees are doing just enough to keep their jobs but are no longer going above and beyond. This can be described as sort of a passive aggressive way to quit. It’s like when people start calling in sick a lot or taking long lunch breaks in hopes of getting fired.

Founded in 2017 and based in Tokyo, Exit is part of a startup run by two childhood friends, Yuichiro Okazaki and Toshiyuki Niino.

Exit is a service that helps Japanese workers quit their jobs without having to face their bosses directly. On a designated day, Exit will call the worker’s boss to say that the employee is resigning and will no longer be taking phone calls or emails. Most Japanese workers have enough paid leave saved up to cover the two-week notice period, but some take unpaid time off to prepare for their new jobs. Exit seems to have resonated with some discontented employees in Japan. According to Niino, about 10,000 workers, mostly male, inquire about Exit’s services every year, although not everyone ultimately signs up. The service has also inspired several competitors.

Yuichiro Okazaki once told The Japan Times “There’s definitely demand out there. Personally, I’m perplexed as to why people find it hard to quit, but I do sense that this atmosphere is prevalent in Japan.”

Toshiyuki Niino added, “Quitting jobs can be a soul-crushing hassle. We’re here to provide a sense of relief by taking on that burden.”