I've been working with a small company for about 3 years, and over time it has become an extremely abusive, toxic environment. My direct supervisor is the owner of the company, and I'm not exactly sure what caused the major shift with him, but he's a wildly different person than when I first started. He drinks every single day at work, to the point where he is inebriated, he is seriously verbally abusive, screams daily, explodes over the smallest mishaps, calls us horrible names and slurs, promises pay raises that do not come (and promises new employees rates higher than what they actually end up getting paid), asks us to do dangerous tasks outside of our required skillset and threatens and retaliates with majorly cut hours if we don't follow through, goes through my vehicle when it's unlocked, along with many other things.
I have been on a job hunt for some time now, and finally landed a much more stable gig with a startup company. The launch is this upcoming Monday, and I found this out last week. I was initially going to let my boss know in person that I will be leaving immediately, but he repeatedly kept leaving early in the morning and not returning, without notice. So I sent him an email with my resignation, effective immediately.
He did not respond right away, and when he did he said “You need to come in on Monday morning so I can debrief you for your exit, and cut you your final check. I would have much rather received this notice in person than over email.”
I thought about going in and talking to him, but I need to start my new job tomorrow morning and won't be available, and to be honest my anxiety is seriously heightened by the idea of going in just so he can scream in my face and there will be no proof of it. How can I respond to this, and do I need to go in and have a face to face conversation?