In some cases, employees can successfully sue their employers under an exception to the at-will employment rule even if they resigned from their job rather than being fired. This is due to California "wrongful constructive termination" / "constructive discharge" laws. Constructive termination means that a California employer makes working conditions so unpleasant for an employee that s/he has no choice but to resign. The idea behind wrongful constructive termination laws is that, instead of firing an employee in violation of an implied contract or public policy, an employer might instead intentionally create or knowingly permit working conditions so intolerable that the employer would expect a reasonable employee to resign.