Under California law, all employees are presumed to be at-will employees. An at will employee is an employee who does not have a specified term or duration of time that the employment will last. For example, a one-year contract. The overwhelming majority of employees in California are probably at-will employees, as presumed under the law.
Contrary to popular belief, when at-will employees quit, they really are not obligated to do much of anything, including giving employers any advanced notice before quitting. Typically, saying something like, “I quit,” on the spot will do the trick. However, as a courtesy, it is common for people to customarily give 2 weeks of notice of a resignation to an employer, usually in writing. But again, this is not required.
One caution is that all employees are required to return all their employer’s property because employees don’t get to keep their employers belongings, no matter how tempting or how much they might feel justified.