here's something topical but useful to know if you're relatively young: don't ever, ever tell your employer "i am going to quit unless [x]" because, if you do, your employer will ignore everything after the word "quit" and a whole series of mechanical processes start clicking

you can get away with a shocking number of things in most corporate jobs; you can call your boss an asshole to his face, you can no-call no-show, you can do many other things, but this is one of those things you can't do

virtually all companies have interlocking gears that start up from the moment you issue this kind of an ultimatum, and those gears ensure one and only one outcome, which is your termination, voluntary or otherwise

this is a thing that very much sucks, and i wish it were not this way, but it's something every person who works in a corporate job needs to know. never, ever threaten to quit on principle, because you will be fired for it in practice.

one of these days, i'm going to write a manual on unwritten rules in corporate jobs and this is going to be near the top of the list. threatening to quit for *any* reason is functionally no different to 99.9% of employers than submitting your resignation.

it doesn't matter how progressive or forward-thinking your employer is, if you threaten to quit on principle, you are going to be fired in practice. it's like telling your partner, unprompted, that you want to fuck other people. it's a conversation that has only one outcome.

a big mistake that a lot of young (and sometimes old!) people make is thinking that this won't apply to them. it applies to everyone. it does not matter what level you're at, or how smart or talented you are. there aren't a lot of iron laws in corporate dronedom, but this is one.

i've been fortunate enough to have some very good bosses in my career, and i threatened to quit early in it in order to make a stand about something, and the absolute best boss i've ever had read me the riot act about this. you shouldn't expect your own boss to react similarly.

if you feel strongly enough about something that you're willing to quit over it, make them work to find a reason to fire you for it. threatening to quit is a cheat code for your employer that lets them skip all the difficult steps that they don't want to do.

drag your feet, dig in your heels, be a wheel that squeaks on the hour every hour until you get what you wanted, but don't give them a reason to fire you, because the second you do, they will.

i don't blame anyone for not knowing this, because this is the kind of thing you only learn with experience, and there's a whole manual's worth of these kinds of things that everyone should know when they go into any kind of corporate job.