Neil is obviously a great guy, and not just because he can rock a fuchsia dress shirt. No, he also sweetened his two-weeks notice with words like "joy and whim" in addition to all that yummy frosting. I bet every boss wishes their employees would be as thoughtful.However, I submit that this cake is far too well-intentioned to qualify as a Cake Wreck. So for the rest of us - the ones who have daydreamed (or continue to) about telling the ol' boss-person where they can take our respective employment position and place it - I present Patrick's cake:
Obviously, Patrick was not as well-disposed towards his job at a "prestigious interactive agency"*. In fact, he was so fed-up with his boss's brow-beatings that on the day in question he picked up his paycheck, placed this cake on his desk, and simply walked out the door.
Here's what happened next:
"About two hours later, my voice mail, text, and email lit up like wildfire. Other agencies that I've never heard of are contacting me telling me I'm a legend. People are photographing each other with the cake."
Wow. See, now there's a way to go out with a sweet, passive-aggressive bang.And the boss? Apparently he didn't realize this was an insult. HR had to tell him it was a few weeks later. (Not sure what he thought it was before that - a joke, perhaps?)
Patrick tells me that folks in his industry still ask, "Are YOU the one who left the cake?". So maybe you should put this on your resume, eh, Patrick? And then put that on a cake. And then send it to me. And then I will eat it. (Mmm, cakey resumes...)
*I have no idea what that means, so I assume it's high-paying.
|
96 comments | Post a Comment
Wow---that was quick. You have us trained well---soon as we see a cake on a blog or a story about a cake, we think about CAKEWRECKS !!! Yippeee!
I guess it's better than a "you're fired" cake...
So, when someone resigns via cake, how do you reflect the resignation in their personnel file? I guess with this photo!
Or an icing-smudged napkin.
wv: shamen -- this guy is shamen all the other employees with his creativity.
Maybe it's just the angle of the photo, but the flowers on the second cake look rather like eyes. I can sort of imagine the whole thing as a face with "I" as the nose and "quit" as the mouth.
i'm thinking this may need to be how i make my exit.
oh and congrats on the bloggies win!!!
Love them both. :D
The I quit cake is really quite pretty. I like the lilac and the soft butter yellow. They really make the black icing have a very bold effect.
@ Jill: I have one of those, too! Stay tuned.
@xallanthia: I see the same thing. Kind of owlish, isn't it?
I can't read the writing on the cake.
Maybe I'm a little slow, but I don't see the insult. Can someone explain?
but what does the resignation letter cake SAY?? now i'm dying to know!
Congrats on the win!!!
Congrats on the Bloggies! :D
why is this an insult? I would want all my (non-existent) underlings to give me cake when they quit.
It's precisely the anti-Donald-Trump cake. I belive the resignation cake must have taken some thought, and that maybe the "I Quit" cake was an afterthought while he was getting donuts at his local bakery.
Still, both are quite entertaining and I belive both qualify as cake wrecks.
I wonder if that "prestigious agency" was gOOgle or something like that. I bet those two roses have some sort of significance.
Boy, I'd hate to file that resignation in my file drawer. Either of them. Sweet revenge with that last one :)
Why is the cake an insult? (feeling a little slow)
That first picture of "Neil" has to be Photoshopped. Either that or his knuckles drag on the ground. Is it me or are his arms not proportional to the rest of his body? Maybe angle but it looks pretty straight-on to me.
Never mind, I should have looked at the original first. Neil has some crazy-long legs.
Can someone explain though how the 2nd cake should be considered an 'insult'? Other than not giving a notice.
Congratulations on your award!
This is funny, but it cant be true. Look in the first picture. His arms are clearly too long to be real, the cake was edited to be longer than it is.
Congratulations! Just heard on another blog you won the best new blog category at the bloggie awards. Now can you please tell us what the first resignation letter cake says We can't see it close enough but want to so bad!!
Neil is awesome and hot.
Most likely "prestigious interactive agency" = "cut-rate web design mill", complete with 60 hour weeks and the constant pressure of having your job outsourced to an "emerging economy". The pay is usually cut-rate too.
At my last job, I wasn't so creative. In fact, I hadn't intended on notifying the boss just yet, but when they tried to contact me from the office phone, I had just walked through the door at that moment with my "work" ringtone - Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job And Shove It." For the next week (had a new job lined up and couldn't give a whole 2 week notice), they walked on eggshells around me.
In hindsight, had I thought to go the cake route, I probably would have been more aggressive than passive and shoved it in said boss' face.
But I can't read what the cake says.
*whiney voice*
Where can I find out what it says?
Everyone else seems to know what it says?
Is something wrong with me?
*feeling SO left out on the joke*
:-(
If I ever leave my job, I am so considering doing that, at least for my last day.
BTW Jen, you won 3 bloggies :-D
http://2009.bloggies.com/
I don't understand how this blog won a bloggie for best writing?!
Congrats on your Bloggie!!!!!
Oh wait I didn't finish looking at all of them. Congrats on your THREE BLOGGIES!!!!!
The "i quit" cake totally looks like a face!!
Wow, quitting by cake! What a great idea! That's much better than the time our secretary quit via post-it.
I think all those other agencies are trying to scam some free cake. They're going to hire him and then treat him poorly.
Is it just me, or do his arms look freakishly gorilla-like long?
what's the resignation cake say?
I wish I could read what's on the first cake, but it's too early in the morning here... *blink blink*
Yep, the 2nd one looks decidely "owl-ish" to me too.
I didn't know that Hunters Point was still open...I l;ived ont eh base in the mid 60 's as a navy dependent...LOL...wow
Long Time Reader De-Lurking
The cake is definitely scowling at someone!
I know a lot of people who would think what he did was passive-aggressive. However, I can't help calling it anything but genius.
I hope he has a better job now, one where he is happy and has better occasions to bring in cake.
A resume cake - now I know how to make myself stand out in the job market!
Too awesome!!!
I just saw the results of the 2009 Bloggies. Congrats on your THREE Bloggies!!! Way to go!
It would've been a nice touch if the cake had been signed by the ex-employee, don't you think? I mean, what's to stop all kinds (!) of questions as to who really meant to quit: Was it the one who set it down in front of the boss, or was that person just delivering it for someone else? What if someone ate the "QUIT" part (quickly to make the whole thing a mystery), and the boss hadn't seen it yet, and was left with just an "I" cake. THAT would be really weird. Especially with the two bug-eyed-looking roses staring out at whoever.
So it's probably not even official.
Ah, well; at least he's outta that rotten place. I don't know how he lasted as long as he did.
Congratulations on winning all those Bloggies honors today!
I'm feeling the "I Quit" one. I want to give this person a "You're Awesome" Cake.
OH dear... I wish I would have thought of giving my ex-boss an "I QUIT" cake.. and I have to agree with Xallanthia at first glance I thought it was a face-like...
#1: GREAT WALL OF TEXT!
#2: Not too bad, aside from the inky-black, badly placed writing.
WVOTD: frelail -- to flail freely, which is what the worse wrecks make me do.
For those who can't read "resignation cake"- click on where it says "photo" in the text above. That will take you to the Flickr page, and Neil has written out the letter below in the description.
Congratulations on your wins at the Bloggies!!!! They are finding out what we already knew!
If I ever leave here, I'm so quitting with a cake.
I wish to the very depths of my soul that I'd taken my cake decorating classes before I left my previous job. My boss SO would have gotten an "I Quit" cake.
On second thought, I might have replicated the "One of the bon bons is poison" cake...it would have summed up my animosity so much more succinctly.
The roses on the "I Quit" cake really do look like googly purple eyes. How eerily cute.
Word verification: "watis". "Watis this?" said the boss, looking at the cake on his desk ...
It would have been so much better if he worked at a gym or other fitness facility, a diet center... hehehe
But does anyone dare EAT a resignation cake?
To those of you curious about what the 1st cake says: just go to the original source link in the post. Neil has the text written out on his Flickr account.
And for those of you wondering what the insult was on the 2nd cake: I'm pretty sure it was just the lack of notice. So don't worry: you're not missing anything, I promise.
That first one looks delicious. Oh, and so does his cake.
Go Patrick!!
Miss Jen! Ahh! Every time I look at your blog, I get a strong urge to make frosting and eat it. Too bad my frosting sucks... Mmmmmm.....cake....
Congradulations
on your Bloggie "wins"
under neat that
Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)
LOL
Congrats on your bloggies!
So he spent twenty bucks on a cake to announce that he quit? Must be nice to have that kind of money to flush down the toilet.
The flowers and foliage on the I QUIT cake kinda look like the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
funnycide said...
That first one looks delicious. Oh, and so does his cake.
********************************
You little devil!!!
You've got a point there~ heh heh.
With that outfit (egads!), I almost expect to start hearing some boom-dee-boom-type music, and see the little tie come flying off~~then the shirt goes (in pieces)...and then...the cake drops dramatically....
(Be still, my heart!)
Note to self: Snap OUT of it!!
=^OO^=
rotflmao- That's how I'm going to quit my job next time.
Congratulations on your blog award!!! I snort out loud often when I am reading your writings and viewing the cakes!
These remind me of the cake my boss and coworkers made me when I left to go to college. My boss would jokingly fire people all summer (you're fired, canned, pink-slipped, just come back tomorrow am), and they made me a pink sheet cake that said "You're FIRED!"
It was fantastic and delicious.
Is it just me, or do the roses/eyes follow you around the room?
Yup. Neil's a hottie in his fuchsia shirt, bringing frosting laden baked goods. Oh, my...I feel so dirty now...
Ooh, Neil is absolutely adorable.
Woohoo on the Bloggies!
Hmmm.... Job hunters may want to try submitting their resume written out on a cake.... they would not forget you at least!
I would love a 'you're fired cake'! Or is there already one lurking around here, and I've stupidly missed it?
Neil seems to be a fine guy, both in intelligence and physical appearance! =D
Neil is cute but those roses on the second one are horrendous. They look like they got started right but turned into doom spiral owl eyes like that scene in Bambi.
I want to take Neil out for a slice of pie! What a cutie.
And clever, too.
Great job winning at the Bloggies!
Congrats on the Bloggies!
I must disagree here. Neil's cake is a wreck if there ever was one just for the sheer magnitude and effort he put into composing a lengthty resignation notice and the fact that he committed it to something edible and time-consuming. Furthermore, the entire act (and the tedd-bear-friendly look on his face in the photo) smack of something so "please don't be mad at me"-icky-sweet, it nauseates me.
I'm the guy who swears the management to secrecy every time I give my notice just so I won't get a cakey send-off. It's a freakin' job. Celebrating a resignation with a cake is equivalent to the potty-training cakes.
Yes, he "sweetened" his two-weeks' notice with words like "joy and whim" used incorrectly. "My tenure at Wherever has been nothing short of pure...whim"? Seriously?
"Prestigious interactive agency" means "We're going to tell you that you are fabulously lucky to be working here in such a fabulous prestigious place. And it will look good on your resume. And we're going to pay you peanuts and suck the life force from you with long hours and no recognition." The end.
Creative resignations. The first one probably took the 'edge' off the resignation for the boss, I hope.
~Amy B.
I'm a little surprised by the critical (to put it mildly) comments regarding Neil. I suppose some people just have to see the negative in everything, even a sweet, well-intentioned cake.
Mad props to whoever piped that sucker out, though. Somewhere a grocery store baker is rubbing their wrist and muttering about carpal tunnel.
The second cake is clearly a very baked owl. (No pun intended.)
Did I miss it, or does no one thing the I Quit cake look like eyes. He must've been so stressed out at his job that his eyes looked like that. I can picture the cartoon crazy eyes! That's awesome! So is the first one! I would so love to eat the resignation cake.
it's also pretty cool that neil resigned on Friday the 13th!
I'm with Charotte.
If I were an employer and had gotten such a sweet resignation cake from a cutie like Neil (who BTW, had the decency to also put his resignation on plain ol' filing-friendly paper), I would be devastated.
Ah well... to each their own, I s'pose.
WV: clide. To verbally scold. All those people who can't see the awesomeness of these resignation cakes should definitely be clided.
About Neil's cake and the negativity: He liked his job and he's going to miss it! It's sweet. I'd make a cake for my last day at my job... maybe not a fancy resignation letter but a cake nonetheless. And seriously-- any excuse for a cake.
And, no, Beckster, you're not the only one who thought the second cake's flowers were eyes. Seriously, it's ok to read other people's opinions.
Class act. I love it!
Thank you for spelling "fuchsia" correctly.
Very cool. But, is it just me, or are Neil's arms disturbingly long?
Must be me ...
TruCelt
What did it say on the cake? Please modify the post to a link with the verbiage. Pretty please?
Thank you!
xoxo
Your biggest fan
LMAO, the roses........they look SO evil! Like those swirly eyes you see in cartoons when peopel get hynpotized.
Love the resignation cake...but am I the only one who is irked by the fact that the cake is in "landscape" when it should be "portrait"? It should be vertical! :)
This is what the cake said:
"Dear Mr. Bowers,
During the past three years, my tenure at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has been nothing short of pure excitement, joy and whim.
However, I have decided to spend more time with my family and attend to health issues that have recently arisen. I am proud to have been part of such an outstanding team and I wish this organization only the finest in future endeavors.
Please accept this cake as notification that I am leaving my position with NWT on March 27.
Sincerely,
W. Neil berrett"
The best part for Patrick is that the "I QUIT" message wasn't screwed up.
--
Bruce T.
I can certainly relate to wanting to leave a job! This is a great idea and I may have to borrow it!
I realize I'm a bit late to the party with these cakes, but wouldn't the implied insult with the "I quit" cake be "Eat it"? That's how I took it, anyway.
I think the boss would have been quicker to realize it was an insult if he'd done the 3 Stooges thing with the cake. Of course, if his boss was that dumb, that's probably why he quit in the first place.