Monday, May 25, 2026

When Faced with a Running Man, Can You Stop a Quit?

Some employment contracts don't give the employee the unilateral right to quit during the term.  Some even expressly contemplate a contractual obligation not to quit.

Such structures and provisions raise a number of issues.  Would a court really enforce a requirement to work?  Like what would a damages dispute look?  What are the PR implications for the employer?  Maybe there are even 13th Amendment issues?

I have previously asserted that [soft SPOILERS for Robocop follow now] the greatest termination-of-employment scene in the history of movies is the final scene in Robocop.  There, the subject matter related to a more directionally standard involuntary termination by the employer.  Now, we have what may be near or at the top of the heap of quit scenes - or, at least, quit scenes that focus on governing contractual language.

Thus, in the remake of The Running Man, there's an exploration of the kinds of provisions one might see that govern a voluntary termination by the employee.  To wit, see the following exchange:

****
Josh Brolin's Dan Killian - You think you can just walk?

Colman Domingo's Bobby Thompson - Sweeties, please. . . .  Look at my contract. Page 42, paragraph 6. There’s a special clause in the smallest of print that reads, f**k you.
****

I never thought of that one.  It goes in the drafting toolkit, henceforth.

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