“You can’t fire me—I quit!”
“You can’t fire me—I quit!” is what an employee often says to a boss, either immediately before a potential firing or after an actual firing. The expression became popular in the 1920s.
“An’ of course you can’t fire me because I quit before you thought o’ that” was cited in 1924. “You can’t fire me. I quit” was cited in 1928.
“Suicide is man’s way of telling God, ‘You can’t fire me—I quit!‘“ was said by television host Bill Maher on the first episode of his show Politically Incorrect in July 1993.
Google Books
Collier’s
Volume 73
1924
Pg. 55:
“An’ of course you can’t fire me because I quit before you thought o’ that.”
17 August 1928, San Francisco (CA) Chronicle, Oakland sec., pg. 2, col. 8:
Monkey Quits as
Firemen’s Mascot
Tough monkeys are good climbers, they have no place in a fire department, according to the ruling of Fire Chief William G. Lutkey of Oakland.
“You can’t fire me. I quit,” declared “Spud,” the spider monkey mascot recent adopted by the crew of the fire station at Fiftieth avenue and Bond street.
10 October 1928, Riverside (CA) Daily Press, “Tower of Jewels,” pg. 14, col. 7:
King Victor Emmanuel of Italy may abdicate, says a dispatch from Rome. Probably so he’ll be able to say to Mussolini, “You can’t fire me; I’ve quit.”
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Lumber
[A novel.]
By Louis Colman
Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company
1931
“You can’t fire me,” he said, laughing. ” I’ve quit.”
Google News Archive
2 October 1943, Milwaukee (WI) Journal, “Pilot of My Heart” by Mary Scott King, Victory Edition, pg. 2, col. 2:
“Well, you can’t fire me, because I quit! I’m sick of this stupid job, and I certainly don’t care about the ridiculous salary.”
Google News Archive
30 April 1970, St. Petersburg (FL) Times, pg. 1-B, col. 4:
HOLT SAVES COUNCIL THE TROUBLE
You Can’t Fire Me, I Quit
Google Books
Sugar Plantations & Labour Patterns in the Cauca Valley, Colombia
By Rolf Knight
Toronto, ON: Dept. of Anthropology, University of Toronto
1972
Pg. 89:
The disparity derives, to a certain extent, by a tendency to report terminations due to impending lay offs and discharges as voluntary (similar to “you can’t fire me, I quit”).
OCLC WorldCat record
I wanna be a lifeguard
Author: Blotto (Musical group)
Publisher: New Brunswick, NJ : Performance, 1987.
Edition/Format: Music LP : English
Contents:
(You can’t fire me) I quit—
Urban Dictionary
You can’t fire me because I quit syndrome
The inability to accept the inevitable or obvious after an event has already happened.
Boss: You’re fired!
Loser: You can’t fire me, because I QUIT!
Boss: I don’t know what you’re quitting- I already fired you.
Loser: I QUIT, ya hear?! QUIT!!
Boss (to Secretary): Barbara, call security. We’ve got another case of “You can’t fire me because I quit syndrome”
by Sir Andrew May 05, 2007
OCLC WorldCat record
You can’t fire me, I quit! : the proper way to extricate oneself from representing a client.
Author: Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
Publisher: Mechanicsburg, Pa. : Pennsylvania Bar Institute, ©2009.
Series: PBI (Series), no. 2009-5680.
Edition/Format: Print book : English