<prompt> Human: Hey rpersonalfinance, I need some help here. I am a 23 year old male who graduated from West Chester University in 2014 with a Bachelors Degree in Physics, and minor in Mathematics and Communication Studies. Before graduation, I was lucky enough to secure a full time job working as an Electro-Optical EngineerPhysicist at a small Hyperspectral Imaging company I was the 4th employee with a starting salary of 70k. This was all quite exciting, however having pushed myself for the past 4 years to maintain good grades, dive on my varsity college diving team, maintain a position in the university Honors College, and work 3 part-time jobs, left me wanting to explore other areas of the world for great jobs with a culture that matches my lifestyle. I am extremely outdoorsy and love to rock climb, slackline, cycle, run, kayak, you name it. This job in the suburbs of Philadelphia doesnt quite fit that lifestyle, however I have been working for exactly 11 months and putting in my time to learn as much as possible. While things seem ideal from the outside, the company is a mess. The company has the potential to be extremely, successful since it is still somewhat of a technical startup, but the owner of the companyCEO is very scatter-brained and over-promises on timelines, budgeting, and expectations. For every new project that we start working on with the hopes of making a killing, we end up losing money. When I started working here I knew things werent terrific financially but had hopes that the future would bring profit for the company and a raise for a recent graduate like myself. This has not been the case and the owner has withheld running payroll multiple times over the past year in order to pay off vendors and overhead working costs. Myself and the two other employees have all gone along with this since the owner has promised that he would, take care of us all in the end and everyone would get a slice of the cake once we were making a lot of money. I am currently behind 6 paychecks and get paid 2 times a month. The company owes me over 14,000 and payroll keeps getting pushed at this point because we arent able to deliver some essential projects due to unfortunate technical difficulties. While working here I managed to hire my friend to be the business manager and oversee finances and payroll managementexport licensing and everything. I sat down with him the other day to discuss the hardships of the company and how I was thinking about quitting. He informed me that the company owes me 14,000, my other co-workers 18,000 and 54,000, and vendors over 500,000. At that point I realized just how deep of shit we are in and realized I should probably get out of here. SO, to cut to the chase I plan on putting in my two weeks notice this Friday 9112015 even though it hurts me to do that to my co-workers and I feel very guilty. I plan on calling the owner in to have coffee before the workday and talk about everything and have no idea how to say Im quitting. The awkward thing is that two weeks ago I called him in for coffee to have my 1 year review and spoke about how even though things are going poorly, the future looks bright and Im working hard, etc. I spoke with a friend about this all and they mentioned having the owner write me a recommendation for future jobs before I leave here. What else should I have him do, or co-workers do, or documents to make sure to have signed etc? Also, how the hell can I get my back pay if the company doesnt have any money in the first place? I spoke with a labor union and they said I should file a complaint with them, pending I was okay with my name being attached to the complaint and everything. By me doing this, my fear is that the company will go into bankruptcy and I just have some unsettled guilt I guess. Please just help me figure out what to do here. Thanks guys :TL;DR: Been working for a year, behind 6 paychecks, company owes 600k to vendors, and I need help quitting the correct way.edit: Today is my last day at the company after having put in my two weeks. The reimbursement plan is to have all of my back paychecks in by the next pay period, a 1 interest on the back pay that is compounded monthly, paying out all of the 17 vacation days that I didnt use, AND throwing in another paycheck as a severance bonus. Boss admitted to fucking up and is trying to leave things on a good note. He also took the time to write me a great review on my LinkedIn and is lining up interviews for me at other successful companies on the West Coast. Doesnt seem like the worst outcome.  <response>: Being behind 6 paychecks is enough reason to quit. You dont have to go into the finances, how poorly things are run, etc - just let him know that if he cant pay his employees, then you dont see a future for the company. 