Swaths of people quit their jobs in the aftermath of the pandemic, as workers sought out more money and a greater sense of fulfillment.
Many employers struggled to adjust to the employee exodus, with one in five workers saying in 2022 that they planned to quit their jobs—but for one firm, an uptick in resignations helps business boom.
Exit, a Japanese startup, exists to make resignations a stress-free experience for employees—all for less than $200.
The company says it helps more than 10,000 people quit their jobs each year.
For a fee of 20,000 yen ($144), Exit will contact its clients’ employers to hand in their resignation on their behalf, and can even arrange for employees to quit their job without ever having to go into their workplace again.
Testimonies on the firm’s website explain why former clients used the service.
One user said they employed Exit because they “felt bad about leaving the company that I had just joined,” while another “was so mentally exhausted that I couldn’t go to work anymore [but] was worried about…how I would respond to communications from my boss.”
In an interview with Al Jazeera published on Wednesday, Exit’s founder, Toshiyuki Niino, said many employers in Japan “give you a guilt trip” and attempt to persuade workers to stay when they hand in their notice. He explained that he established the company in 2017 after struggling with his own resignation.
“They try to make you ashamed and guilty that you quit your job in less than three years, and I had a very difficult time [quitting myself],” he told the news outlet.
Niino said the two most common reasons people enlisted his company were that they were afraid of their boss and therefore didn’t feel confident confronting them to tell them they wanted to leave, or they felt guilty about walking away from their employer.
Since Exit was founded, its business model has been adopted by a string of competitors, creating a niche industry that attracts employees looking to avoid awkwardness, anxiety, or embarrassment and move on from their jobs as smoothly as possible.
“It seems like if you quit, it’s like a sin,” Niino told Al Jazeera. “It’s like you made some sort of bad mistake. [So people] don’t usually [tell their company] the true reason that they want to quit, like for example, they didn’t like the boss.”
However, Niino argued that by using his company, people were being empowered to give honest feedback to their employers.
“They usually give a weak excuse, like they have to leave to take care of the family,” he explained. “But through our service, the person who is quitting their job gives their honest opinion why they want to quit.”
Is Japan on the brink of its own Great Resignation?
Last year, a PwC survey of almost 20,000 workers in the Asia-Pacific region found that fewer than one in three Japanese employees were satisfied with their jobs. One in five respondents across the region said they planned to switch to a new employer.
Other research has suggested that Japan is on the brink of its own Great Resignation.
Japan has a notoriously brutal office culture, with employers renowned for expecting excruciatingly long overtime hours while resignations from corporate jobs are rare.
The country is the birthplace of “karoshi,” which roughly translates to “death from overwork.” The problem became so intense before the pandemic that a government-backed survey concluded one-fifth of Japanese employees were at risk of falling victim to the grim phenomenon.
However, the government has intervened in recent years in a bid to rein in the country’s often ruthless white-collar working habits.
Niino told Al Jazeera in Wednesday’s interview that some of his clients had endured suicidal thoughts while working for their company, but using Exit had helped them “stop thinking about that.”
“I have received a lot of appreciation, [but] our world is not that easy to fix or change,” he said. “We have been running this company for six years, and the number of clients is increasing, so I guess that means nothing has changed. I don’t think it will change for the next 100 years.”
