Quit by Proxy -- it must be a cultural thing
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In Japan, embarrassed employees pay agencies to quit for them
Companies like Exit handle resignations on behalf of Japanese employees who are too nervous to confront their boss.
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So began Exit, a startup that handles the awkward business of handing in your notice on behalf of Japanese employees who are too ashamed or embarrassed to do it themselves.
For a fee of 20,000 yen ($144), Exit will contact the client’s employer to inform them of their decision to quit, allowing the employee to avoid any anxiety-inducing confrontations with their superiors.
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I think that especially in Japan, your company functions as a extension of your family. So quitting your company is a bit like quitting your family. Big loss of face.
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I've probably told this story before, but I had an employee who showed up at the head office 35 miles from where we both worked to tell them he was quitting after working a solid 6 weeks for me. I only found out about it 4 hours later when my boss told me.
The hilarious thing was that a few years later he applied to work at a different location for the same company, presumably thinking nobody would know, but they told me. I begged them to interview him and invite me to attend, but they weren't having any of it.
