For labor laws context, I'm in the United States, specifically, New Hampshire
SHORT VERSION:
My job is the worst, and I want to leave. I want to quit, but it would be very easy to subtly provoke my boss into just firing me, because he's an unhinged lunatic. In terms of my resume/getting my next job, receiving unemployment, etc., which would be better for me?
LONG VERSION:
For anyone who feels like reading me rant.
I hate my job. A lot. I've put up with how awful it is for this long for a couple reasons, almost all of which either no longer apply or were things I've now already accomplished. Now, it's going downhill faster and faster, and I'm done with it, I'm ready to move on.
I've never left a job on less than perfect terms honestly. I'm young, this is my ~6th job, but my first full time “career” job, first job out of college. I've worked full time before, but always in positions that were understood to be temporary, so there was a natural and expected end.
It's a small company, with two 50/50 owners, we'll call them Chris and Darren (fake names). Darren likes me and I like him, we get along and work together well. Honestly, I feel bad leaving because I have a lot of respect for Darren and I know I'm hurting him and his business by leaving, he's that good a guy. But, the other one, Chris, is the most toxic megalomaniac piece of shit I've ever met in my life, and every employee they've ever has work there has left because of Chris. They've been in business for about 2 years, I'm the 4th employee to be in my position since them, and I'm the only one who's lasted more than a month. 5 other employees have come and gone in other positions, also never lasting more than 1-2 months before quitting because of Chris, or getting fired by Chris.
I hate him, and he doesn't like me. He's so stressful to be around that I honestly can't even work around him, I do my job fine until he's around and then I actually can't do my job properly anymore, so he also thinks I'm incompetent. All of my clients have never had anything but glowing reviews for me, which is why Darren, who is the one who interacts with clients, likes me so much, because I keep my clients happy and coming back. Chris does not interact with clients, for obvious reasons, and usually doesn't work directly with me, so he rarely actually sees the fruits of my labor.
But I digress, because he already thinks I'm bad at my job, it wouldn't be hard to make him think I'm so bad he needs to let me go, or I just need to say like one thing to him to make him mad enough to fire me on the spot, because he has the demeanor and professionalism of a brain damaged chimpanzee who just did a line of cocaine. The only problem with that is Darren, who really likes me, and may try to stop him. Darren is the rational one of the two who also happens to handle finances, and he knows that their company has 2 main clients, and a couple small ones. One client, who Chris, Darren, and my one coworker (there's only 4 people working there), all work for, makes up probably 60% of their revenue alone. The 2nd big one, my client, makes up probably another 30%, and the miscellaneous small clients, who mostly I handle, would make up the remaining 10%. If I leave, they'll most likely lose my client, and a significant revenue stream they've been subsidizing the rest of their business with, because they underpay me (if you're curious, I know for a fact we charge clients $125/hr for my labor, plus $20/hr for the mostly autonomous machines I use that run like 16hrs/day, and out of that they pay me $26/hr). But I know that the 3 people remaining would not have the bandwidth to take care of my clients, and there's no way they find a replacement for me anytime soon, so they'd be forced to drop the clients, losing nearly half their revenue and damaging their reputation in a very reputation heavy industry.
So they actually kind of can't afford for me to leave, and I'm worried they'll keep hanging on to me if I don't just leave myself, but I don't know if quitting is worse for me in the long run. I could sit here and type for an hour about how stupid this is, but I'll stop here. What should I do, quit or get fired?