One job in particular I should have called their bullshit was when the CEO had one (in a long line of) hissy fit and said he was quitting in a month's time. I was trying to keep the company together, but what I -- the senior developer and the sole maintainer of the company's one revenue-generating product -- should have done was send out an email saying "I am taking a leave of absence and will reporting back to work in one time, after the CEO has left. The new CEO is welcome to contact me about an earlier return time."
Because that probably might have actually gotten the CEO out, instead of him running the company into the ground for slow-motion over the next 8 years. (I had a significant ownership stake.) Oh, he stuck around after threatening to quit. It was his only management technique besides yelling.
Yep. Me too. Thanks for distilling something I have often thought.
Even then it's after they have put up with lots of BS and are used to status quo that they rarely ever quit.