When the end of your career with the company seems imminent, or if your working environment has become unbearable, you may be tempted to simply terminate the employment relationship voluntarily by tendering a resignation. Sometimes, a resignation can be helpful. When you apply for new jobs, you can honestly say that you quit the company voluntarily. Your employment record at your old company should reflect that you quit and not that you were fired. For some large companies with numerous affiliates or divisions, an employee who resigns from the job is eligible for rehire with the company at a later date, whereas an employee terminated for cause would not be. However, the difference between being fired or discharged and voluntarily quitting is significant in a number of ways. Whether to resign or be fired is a matter of strategy and depends on the facts of your situation. Before you resign, consult an employment attorney if you can. An attorney will be able to give you specific information about how a resignation will affect your position. The information below gives some of the general reasons that resignation can be either helpful or harmful depending on the circumstances. It may be that your employer wants to fire you and is making life at work difficult for you, hoping you will quit. The company may refrain from terminating you out of fear that the dismissal would be illegal. Under these circumstances, you may be better off not resigning. If you resign voluntarily, you may be unable to claim an illegal discharge. Assume your employer wants you out but doesn't want to take the possibly unlawful step of discharge. You then can increase your bargaining power with your employer by staying and refusing to resign. You can use the company's desire for your departure as leverage for obtaining a generous separation package in exchange for your resignation. In general, you should try to remain at the job as long as you can to increase your bargaining position. Finally, if your company has an internal grievance procedure, you can appeal the wrongful discharge. If you quit you may not have the right of appeal and your chances of regaining your job (if that is your objective) would be greatly diminished. If your employment situation is unbearable because of illegal discrimination, you should still try to remain on the job as long as possible. Meanwhile, contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or the state agency that investigates claims of discrimination. You are protected from retaliation for filing an EEOC charge or contacting an EEOC investigator. Therefore, any plan to fire you may be put aside at least while the investigation is going on, since the employer does not want to appear to have fired you for filing with the EEOC. For more information about filing a discrimination claim, please see our section on discrimination. Ordinarily, when an employee proves that he or she was discriminated against by a former employer, the employee is entitled to back pay, the amount that the employee would have earned at the company had he or she not been discriminatorily terminated. However, if you resign your position because of harassment or discrimination, you would not be entitled to recover back pay unless your resignation is considered a constructive discharge. To prove constructive discharge, you must prove that your employer made your working conditions so unbearable that you had no other choice but to quit in order to resolve the situation. Usually, you have to show that you tried less drastic means to solve the work problems, such as using an internal appeal process or making complaints to people in the chain of command. A constructive discharge is very hard to prove except in cases of truly egregious harassment. Thus, a resignation might seriously affect your ability to recover for an employer's discriminatory behavior. As stated earlier, resignation is a matter of strategy and depends on the facts of your situation and your needs after you leave the company. You must obtain and read all company documents relating to all of the financial issues discussed before you make the offer to resign, and you are strongly encouraged to consult an attorney. Whether to quit a job when you think you might want to take legal action against your employer is too important an issue to be left to chance.