Seriously, people, force your employer to fire you. It’s rarely to your advantage to resign under pressure rather than being fired. Recruiters are going to ask why you left without a new job lined up anyway.
Read these:
And do not write a letter of resignation without a signed legal document stating clearly what you get in exchange for that document.
Sorry for the mini rant. I just got 3 emails today with the SAME problem.
And if you’re the boss? Just go ahead and fire the person (with severance).
But then recruiters will ask why they fired you. There can be arguments for both.
If they’ve been trying to get you to quit, the “reasons” are usually painfully laughable.
If you actually committed a firing offense (punched the CEO, embezzled, assaulted a co-worker…) they wouldn’t bother with the head games.
Why was I “fired”? My job was eliminated. It didn’t legally count as a “layoff” (not enough people involved). But basically, the company decided to eliminate my job. Telling the recruiter exactly what the manager told me (“I don’t know how to manager someone who does what you do.”) or what HR told me in a different situation (“We’ve decided to eliminate your job”.) isn’t a problem. Recruiters nod and say “Hmm.”
For the most recent (there have been 3 of these over 30 years), I just say “I was working at BigCo” and everyone says “Understood” because BigCo is in the news a lot as laying eliminating jobs, teams, projects, and products on a regular basis.
Been there.
Done that.