“I’m out of here.” When storming off actually ends your job

It started with a coffee.

On the busiest morning of the year at a small Sydney mechanical and tyre shop, the owner bought his assistant manager a coffee and asked him to pick up the pace. The worker refused the coffee, said he was going as fast as he was prepared to go, then collected his belongings and walked out with two parting lines: “I’m out of here” and “I will see you in court.”

He did see them in court. It did not go the way he planned.

What happened next mattered more than the blow-up

The owner did not sack him. He did the opposite. He asked him not to go. As the worker left, the owner told him not to abandon his employment. And that same evening, the owner sent a simple text: it’s a shame how things went this morning, checking in to see if you are ok.

No reply. The worker did not show up the next day, or the day after, and never contacted the business again except to collect his belongings. Two days later, the business paid out his entitlements.

The worker then lodged an unfair dismissal claim, arguing he had only stepped away to de-escalate a heated exchange about being asked to work at an unsafe pace, and that being told he was “abandoning his employment” was actually a dismissal. He also pointed out he had won an apprenticeship scholarship the week before, hardly the act of someone planning to quit.

What the Commission decided

The Fair Work Commission found there was no dismissal at all. The test for abandonment is objective: would a reasonable person in the employer’s position, based on what they reasonably knew, conclude the worker had walked away from the employment relationship?

Here, the answer was yes. He refused to keep working, left despite being asked to stay, announced he would see them in court, never returned, and ignored the olive branch text that gave him every chance to say “I just needed to cool off, I’ll be in tomorrow.” Whatever he privately intended, his conduct told a clear story. No dismissal means no unfair dismissal claim. Case over.

The Commission also gave short shrift to the safety argument. Raising a genuine safety concern is protected, but here no specific hazard was identified and nothing was escalated through any proper channel. Saying “that’s unsafe” on your way out the door is not a safety stand.

Why this employer won where others lose

Abandonment claims fail for employers all the time, and they usually fail the same way: the boss declares someone has “abandoned” their job and stops paying them, without ever trying to find out what is going on. Sound familiar? That is more or less how the small employer in our recent Fair Dismissal Code case turned a winnable situation into an unfair dismissal finding.

This owner did the opposite of everything that loses these cases:

• He never said “you’re fired”, even mid-argument, and actively asked the worker to stay.
• He reached out the same day, in writing, with a genuine check-in rather than a legal threat.
• He gave the silence time to speak. The worker had days to come back or explain himself and chose not to.
• He then closed it out cleanly by paying entitlements.

That text message ended up doing a lot of legal work. It proved the door was open and the worker chose not to walk back through it.

What to do when someone storms out

• Say nothing that sounds like a termination. In the heat of the moment, “don’t come back then” can turn their walk-out into your dismissal.
• Make contact, in writing, fast. A short, human message asking if they are okay and when they intend to return. Keep a copy.
• Give it reasonable time and follow up again. One missed shift is a bad day. Days of silence after attempted contact starts to look like renunciation.
• Check there is no innocent explanation. Illness, injury, a workers comp issue or a family crisis changes everything. Employers who skip this step lose.
• Only then treat the employment as over, confirm it in writing and pay out entitlements properly.

Frequently Asked Questions

If an employee walks out mid-shift, can I just treat that as a resignation?

Not immediately. Abandonment is a conclusion their conduct has to earn over time, not a label you can apply the moment someone storms off. You need to make genuine contact, give them a reasonable opportunity to explain themselves, and document the whole sequence. An employer who stops paying someone and declares them gone without doing any of that is far more exposed than one who follows the right steps.

What should I actually say or do in the hours after someone walks out?

Do not say anything that sounds like a termination, even in the heat of the moment. Then send a short, human message in writing, asking if they are okay and when they intend to return. Keep a copy. That message does more legal work than most employers realise. In this case, a simple check-in text the same evening was one of the key reasons the employer won. It proved the door was open and the worker chose not to walk back through it.

What if the employee comes back and says they only left to de-escalate, not to quit?

That is exactly the argument the worker made here, and the Commission rejected it. The test is objective: what would a reasonable person in the employer’s position conclude, based on what they actually knew? Private intentions do not override conduct. Refusing to work, leaving despite being asked to stay, and then going silent for days tells its own story, regardless of what the employee claims they meant by it.

Can an employee use a safety complaint to justify walking off the job?

Only if there is a genuine, specific safety concern raised through the proper channels. Saying “this is unsafe” on the way out the door without identifying a hazard or escalating it through any formal process will not be treated as a protected safety stand. The Commission was clear on this point. If an employee has a real safety concern, there is a right way to raise it and walking out is not it.

So what

Abandonment is not a label you get to slap on someone the moment they storm off. It is a conclusion their conduct has to earn, and your behaviour in the days that follow is what makes it stick or fall apart. Stay calm, keep the door open in writing, and let the silence do the talking.

If someone has walked off the job and you are not sure what to do next, get advice before you send anything. HR Gurus will give you the right words and the right sequence. Get in touch at hrgurus.com.au/contact.