Every employer, myself very much included, would be very happy to get personal, private, advance notice that you're thinking of leaving. If you want to do us a favor, do that. Give us a private heads-up. But you don't owe it to us.
Perhaps, but it's also a cowardly and unprofessional way to quit. Every job I have ever left I have had the decency to sit down in person and explain to my boss that I was leaving and the reasons for my departure.
My feeling is that if this person was respectful enough of my capabilities to give me a job that allowed me to provide for myself and my family, the very least I could do as a common courtesy and sign of respect would be to sit down with them and explain why I have decided to leave.
Put another way: would you consider your boss firing you via email a "chump way to fire an employee"? It's simply a matter of giving your superior the same courtesy that you would expect if the roles were reversed.
I had a friend who thought he was getting a pay cut Friday (like everybody else, who got theirs Thursday, but he was working from home) and he was let go without notice.
Call me old school, but the best to worst order of quitting (and on the flip side, firing) is this - face to face, telephone, e-mail only if it's impossible to arrange the first or second.
People have given me notice via email before, and I think no worse of them for it.
Economically, they're paying employees fair value for some specified output. There should be an equal expectation of professionalism on both sides.
I'm not sure I'd use the word "professionalism" to describe this obligation. People have given me notice via email before, and I don't think they were unprofessional for it.
I mean seriously, how hard is it to present your resignation letter in person or by telephone?
In any case, let's agree to disagree, since everyone has different standards.