Yeah that was absolutely where I was going with it, I just had a number of people say that it was quite an over-reaction which is why I asked if anyone else had heard of such a response before.
In terms of HR's reaction, there are many jobs where what you said would be considered a defacto resignation by HR/management, aka "you'd be fired on the spot'. Fast food, ordinary retail, and similar corporatized service industries come to mind...i.e. jobs that actually really tend to suck and where workers are considered highly fungible and the relationship between management and workers is not collegial.
Of course none of that applies outside the US.