"The fish are coming with me!" - Five unbelievable resignations

The famous scene from Jerry Maguire where Tom Cruise's character is forced out of the business for his unorthodox views is a great moment in cinema. He takes the goldfish, he takes the girl (or rather, she goes with him in what can only be described as a moment of insane idealism), and the audience cheers.

But what about the real life Jerry Maguires? The employees whose exit we've all secretly wished we could emulate, especially on those days when you're simply over it. These five unbelievable resignations show you how it's done!

Ready for your own epic exit? Click here!

5. Jenny the DryErase girl
In this series of photos, executive assistant Jenny uses a dry erase board to list her numerous  gripes with her boss, including his reference to her as a HOPA (hot piece of.... you know what), bad temper and prolific use of Farmville during work hours.  Her boss responded with his own photo series, mocking her ambition to be a broker, reminding her of the employee agreement she signed and has now broken before signing off that she can soon expect a call from Theresa in legal.

The internet argued over who acted more inappropriately before it was eventually revealed that the entire thing was a hoax. But even after this was revealed, it still struck a chord with people, garnering over 238k Facebook shares and 31k tweets. As the creator of the hoax John Resig explained, "everyone wants to quit their job like this".  

4.  "Farewell and Queen Bey all day!"
This email from an associate auditor at PriceWaterhouseCooper quickly went viral because it is, quite simply, bonkers.  

A hashtag-laden, stream-of-consciousness takedown of her  'phony' colleagues, she calls out the behaviour of her workmates one by one, levelling such priceless accusations as "your cat doesn't care about you so stop caring about it" and "I hear you giving weird remarks that are borderline weird" before ending with a thorough dissection of why Britney Spears will never compare to Queen Beyonce.

3. Freedom fighter?
Medical marijuana is a topic that evokes strong sentiment, but one news anchor gave her colleagues a major shock when she revealed herself as the owner of a medical marijuana resource facility following a story she presented about the issue. She then announced she was quitting live on air before walking off set.

Watch the video here.

2. "You have to realise who you're working for"
This resignation is not the sort we hear about too often. Anand Iyer was earning six figures working in the San Francisco tech industry, but realised he was missing out on the most important thing in his life - watching his 2-year-old girl grow up. Sick of coming home every night to find her already asleep, he made the choice not to miss out anymore, so he quit to become a stay-at-home dad. Luckily for Iyer, his boss could not have been more supportive, reminding him to "realise who you're working for" and put his family first.

While Iyer admits he was fortunate that his wife's salary was enough to support their family and that not everyone is as lucky, it's a good reminder to step back occasionally and assess your priorities. You can read the rest of Anand's story here.

1.  Marina Shifrin
With over 19 million views on YouTube, this exit is so famous it has spawned numerous parodies and  saw its creator become an overnight social media sensation.

Marina Shifrin worked for Next Media Animation, a Taiwanese company that creates animations depicting major news stories.  But after sacrificing her social life and relationships for her job and feeling that her boss cared more about page views than creative work, Shifrin decided to let her boss know she was done in a way that definitely honoured her creativity.  

At 4:30am, she set-up cameras around her office and danced her little heart out to Kanye West's 'Gone', captioning the film with her reasons for quitting before she turns out the lights and leaves. Marina's old company even created a "we're hiring" response video, but surely to the dismay of a company accused of chasing page views, their video only received 4.6 million views.Ready to plan your next move (with or without dancing)? Read our advice on how to resign the right way and make sure to check out our job listings at michaelpage.com.au to find your dream role. Not sure if it's time to move on just yet?  Start by asking yourself these 10 questions to help you reflect on your career.