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Has anyone just said one day enough and walked off? No two week notice, no teary good-byes, no back up plan, just a complex set of circumstances that said to you: time to leap no matter what is at the bottom. Today was my day. This will be the third time I have done it in 24 years, so it might be considered a pattern.
I usually just give a two word notice. Following your intuition works, especially if you have good intentions. (for me at least)
"I quit"? Not what first came to mind...Quote:
Originally Posted by HaiKarate
I must say, I have had a lot of jobs. Sometimes it just has to be that way. I don't as a general method of departure, but sometimes it's best that way. Having spent a lot of time in construction and commercial fishing I've seen it done a lot too. I think if you consider the fact that you were looking for a job when you found that one it should be easy enough to get back to finding another
If you have a career and work in an actual profession where your reputation dictates your success.
Walking away from your employer with no notice can come back and bite you in the Azz.
As an Ironwork, it is my ... given right to quit, and not only quit but to tell them to Kiss My ... as I walk out the door. Now that I am on the other end,(management) I understand better the importance of two weeks notice. Still, in some situations a good old fashion quit is warranted and I was so impressed with the last young lady that quit I was quick to give her a letter of recommendation. You should have seen the show she put on as she left.
I have definitely "drug up" (quit) from a few jobs. No notice just a f*** you! And left.
I work in a profession that has a lot of emotional separations(oilfield) that said most companies don't give you a two week notice so why give them one, now on the other hand my reputation means something to me so , I gave my notice I,m quitting 3 months ago to end on 1 November this year is 9 months enough? It's my first notice , I started here 40 years ago now I want to retire. Sorry about the long story , but I've seen both sides of the notice thing , don't know which is right any more, it meant so much more years ago. Tc
I have to resist the urge to quote Johnny Paycheck every day.
I have to work every day. Every weekend and every holiday. For the meetups I have attended it has taken weeks of prep before and damage control after in order to accommodate my absence for a couple of days. I worked 100--120 hours a week for over a year until my boss offered me a salary equivalent to working 60 hours--without any reduction in my workload. When I refused it, he capped my PAID hours at 60 and told me to better manage my time. This guy works 20--25 hours per week. I've been able to get most weeks down to between 65--80 hours per week. Meanwhile I get to see three coworkers take weekends and holidays and something I hear are called "vacations." They can leave because they are admittedly useless, incompetent, and lazy.
My work is the sole source of income for the company. They literally do not earn anything for the work done by those three. If I don't work or keep on top of it all the company goes under and I don't get paid. The company deserves to go under and it probably would if I left unless they could scramble and find some other expert. I would love to say "I quit" or something much less polite but my wife's job is insecure and lowpaying and we are stuck in this area due to family issues.
I dread going to work every day. I have to bite my tongue while coworkers spend hours on the phone or computer just to be able to write down the hours. I saved the company. Their methods didn't work while mine, that I had to fight to introduce, produce the best product anywhere; yet I've never gotten a raise and have to cut hours off of my time sheet every week.
So, yes, I'd really like to just walk away.
Agreed, but that doesn't apply to me....also no dependents as they are grown.....I do not recommend this action for anyone, just wondering if anyone has been there.Quote:
Originally Posted by pixelfixed
I feel your pain and frustration including what led to you having to be where you are now and the circumstances of 'why' you are there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
When I started with my current employer 35 years ago yesterday (May 27th at 1 o'clock PM I was an Eager Beaver. I was 26 years old
Today I dread going to work, having to put up with the Corporate BS, lack of hours, working with people who have no 'Sense of Urgency' and most of all a lack of what I would consider proper respect for busting my ass so that 'My' NOT 'Their' customers will be pleased and come back with managements Attitude (Well at least you have a job)!
I'm hoping to hang it up next year on May 27th and punch out at 1 o'clock pm. I may die a pauper but I won't die at work!
I had done ironwork for maybe 5 years, a year on a permit and then served my registered apprenticship. Gotten to be a good all round ironworker. It was during the period of the beginnings of the Arab oil embargo. Work was tighter than dick's hatband and if you left a job you were sure to sit in the hall 6 weeks before your name came up on the list again. Prior to the embargo I had started out in 1968 during a building boom. You could drag up and hit the hall in the morning and pick from a bevy of jobs.
Those hard times got me to take any job they offered without asking, how far away, how long will it last, who is pushing ? By the time the recession was over I was a way better ..... as in more skilled, responsible, ironworker than I had been when it started 4 years previous. IOW I was more of an asset to the employer because hard economic times gave me an attitude adjustment. I became more of a 'team player' to survive. On one short job I was working with an old guy that had been a superintendent on a lot of big work. It was just me and him finishing up the punch list on some building.
We became friends and I asked him, 'Lou, I've been doing this 7 years and I'm a good ironworker. I see guys doing it three years and they are running work. What is wrong with me.?" He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "You have to be a good servant before you can be a good master."
I don't know if that has anything to do with your situation. I did learn that, as another mentor of mine would frequently say, "Bring something to the occasion." Business agents used to tell us 'I can get you the job, I can't keep it for you', and 'We have nothing to sell but our labor.'
Whoever we work for invests in us to make them money. That is the only reason they hire people. Assuming they provide decent working conditions and wages/benefits I'll bring a good attitude to the occasion. If I don't like the job, just like the 'little waterboy' in Muleskinner Blues , I'll put the bucket down. When I was an ironworker I would never give notice. If you did the man would probably hit you in the ass with a paycheck that evening, if he waited that long. Anyway, all situations are unique ..... or maybe theyre the same ..... :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3-mh3vXDA0
Jimmy, I apreciate what you posted and you are 100% correct about the attitude and working hard :bow: :tu At my workplace I've seen two department managers and a Store Manager die within a two year period + a department manager retire due to a debilitating stroke . The 'Parts" (Human Beings) were replaced. The machine chugged and coughed but once the New Parts were 'Broke In' the machine continued to run.Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyHAD
I find that sad.
I hope this is appropriate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI0D44zYP-Q
Giving notice these days in the corporate world will tend to result in a box handed to you, instructions to clean out your desk and escorted out before you turn around. Risk management (lawyers) doesn't like employees that have given notice hanging around.
Hey, I recognize there are lousy employers out there. Twenty + years of ironwork definitely showed me that. "If you can't do it, you can't stay," and "All I want to see is azzholes and elbows," was the motto of the first outfit I worked for as a teenager doing ironwork. One of my two fathers (complicated) told me from his experience as a non-union carpenter, that the contractor's philosophy is 'don't worry about the mule, just load the wagon.' Figuratively speaking.
Just to be clear, the post I made before is no reflection on the OP. I don't know what his situation is, just venting in general about the work experience I had. Not directed at anyone in particular. :angel:
I forgot to say...
I wish you the best in your "leap!" Hopefully you will find better circumstances soon.
My friend you are so correct!Quote:
Originally Posted by Splashone
We had a ' helper clerk' (minimum wage) give his two weeks notice and he wasn't on the next weeks schedule. He could have had two weeks of work! And this is at a Union Shop.
Well, I'm glad I'm retired. When I think back to my work days it seems like a million years ago and a different person. To those who can do it, retire. Slow down, relax and enjoy life. It's amazing what happens when all that stress disappears.
I'm shocked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
The very idea of being treated, or more appropriately mistreated like that, sounds like a story from a hundred years back.
Or even more.
I sincerely hope you will get out of that crappy situation and can find an employer who actually values what you do.
That, generally speaking, seems to benefit bot parties...
You shouldn't be. This country is sadly racing backwards to the era of the Robber Barons; really, we're more of an oligarchy now than anything else, and the ones who take it the hardest are working people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Birnando
WW243,
As an Engineer, I've learned that the general attitude of A&E firms or similiar is that an Engineer = Human Battery. When you wear out, they just through you away and get a new one … a younger one.
Good luck on your leap. We've all either been there, or will be there, at least once before we retire.
I became a chemical consultant as a result of walking away one morning from a cushy job as a research chemist in a production lab (BIG money company, all the neatest gear :) ). The inability of a new lab director to make wise hiring choices had resulted in what I'd considered to be literally the best job in the world, the one I wanted to die doing becoming simply Hell every work day. This was making me a crazy person.
On the morning in question, I phoned HR to ensure my patent profit sharing would not be jeopardized. I'd developed some compounds that had proved very lucrative for the company, and to their credit, they did engage in profit sharing from intellectual property derived by their employees. For me, this was no small amount. I then crunched numbers, and considering my military retirement as an additional source of income realized that a 9 to 5 was not necessary for me to enjoy a high standard of living. Told the new director I was through and required an escort out of the building. Happiest friggin' day of my life. Five years later I still consider this to be the case.
I now work periodically as a consultant. But only when I need shaving gear money :).
You KNOW when it's time to move on.
Ha! When I read the original post I prepared myself to tell my story... When it dawned on me, I have never walked out! I guess I imagined it so many times, I thought that I must have.
How very drole! I'll need to remedy that one day. :)
I think you were a structural iron worker, but thinking back in my 9 years of doing concrete work, 6 of which was in a 'composite' heavy construction company, we were building a clarifier at a sewage treatment plant and there were two rod busters supposed to be there tying steel. I did not know any structural steel workers but I ran into rod busters and the occasional pile drivers on some of our bridge jobs...small bridges. So on this clarifier only one steel guy shows up and the foreman tells me to go give him a hand....so for a couple of hours I tied steel and held some rods for him.....the guy did not say a word to me. Rodbusters were tough...seriously tough. Finally I am about a foot from his face and he looks me right in the eyes and says: 'I hate this f___ing job an everyone on it." I can't tell you how many times I have laughed and truly admired that guy for his brutal honesty, something in short supply these days.
Good luck to the OP igot of on my rant and forgot to say that. Earcutter now that you have a job maybe one day you,ll get your chance! Tc
At the rate things are going in a few more years folks in this country are going to be brutally acquainted with the working man's life in the early 20th century.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad
I'm truly saddened to hear that.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad
While I am not an American, and have thoughts and beliefs that collides with some of your nations laws, I have always been and will always be a romantic believer in the core of the US values.
Hopefully the tide will turn and an honest days work will yet again be valued for what it is.
The very building stone of every society...
When I left I was lucky enough to have 44 yrs in. Short story : new director "told"me on a Monday that he was moving me from the job I liked to another that was, and would continue to be nothing but problems. Told, didn't even discuss it.
Asked when it would take place, he said the following Monday. I said fine and walked right to personnel and turned in my retirement for the Friday before the move.
I've Never questioned my decision.
More times than I can recall. My resume looks like a phone book for a small town. Haven't done it since I got married though. Drove trucks for he better part of thirty years. Never quit under a load. Always made the delivery and then tossed 'em their keys. Last trucking job I had, I quit them under a load. Wasn't the least bit happy about it, but I was PISSED. Called the punk dispatcher at home at 6:00A on a Saturday morning and told him he was without a driver. He spouted off and said the freight HAD to be delivered. I told him I'd wait for him out front of the office and if he could whip my ass, I'd deliver the loads.Quote:
Originally Posted by WW243
He said he couldn't do that, told him I knew that but I would have enjoyed busting his chops again. I'd already thumped his head once before and didn't get fired over it.
Thought about it several times since then where I'm at now, but I've got more than just me to worry about now. One of ex bosses got a glimpse of my inner child that doesn't play well with others one day. He steered clear of me for about a week.
Nowadays, I let it roll off as much as I can. I'm not on call anymore so I don't have to bring work home with me. That's a good thing.
I've done it once, but never again. It's too easy to burn your bridges that way. ;)
Back in 1975 I attended a Community College in a class to become an Auto body Repairman. I held a 4 point grade average, I competed at the State Level/placing 1st and then at Nationals. I didn't place at Nationals in Auto body Repair but I did place 2nd in Extemporaneous Speech.
During the latter part of my schooling I was allowed to start work at a local body shop and then full time after graduation. The shop rate was $13 per hour and it was a 40/60 split. The shop got 60% and I go 40%. There were many months that I Cleared $1000 but there were also months that I only Grossed $300.
So I took a position in the mechanical shop directing the work to the various stations. It was lower pay but it was steady and I had my first child on the way.
Everything went well until one day when I noticed that every else in the office had been called into the Managers Office (except Me) right at quitting time I was called into the office and informed that to cut costs 'my position' was being eliminated and that the other members in the office would pick up the slack (at no increase in their wages). The manager said that he was giving me my two weeks notice.
I asked if I could use the phone. He said sure. I called long distance to the grocery store that I'd been working at before I went to school and asked the owner if he needed any help as I was in need of a job. He asked if I could start the next day and I told him that I'd be there.
I hung up the phone and told the Manager that I had a new job and that I'd start the next day. He said; "What? There's paperwork that needs done! How are we supposed to catch up"?
I told him:
"I DIDN'T QUIT YOU; YOU QUIT ME"! The paperwork is your problem/remember everyone else can do what I've been doing"!!
Never looked back! That's the only job that I didn't give two weeks notice!
Ya that manager probably cut labor costs so he can make his year end bonus quota.Quote:
Originally Posted by cudarunner
I tied rods my first year of ironwork. Working a permit that was about all they would give you. Sent me out for Seacoast Steel, the worst outfit in the local. Only local men working for them were foreman. When I became a registered apprentice I went from the permit man's journeyman's scale, then $6.05 per hour, to $4.89 per hour and I would not take a rod job again. After sitting me on the bench for a week the BA sent me out on a large airplane hanger coming out of the ground. A 2-1/2 year job. Anyway, rods is, as one of my old mentors used to say, 'a hard piece of bread.' :whipped:Quote:
Originally Posted by WW243
Best of luck, hope you find a good job sooner than later. :gl:
I Guess I see things differant.I ran a med.practice for 43 yrs,I hired and terminated maybe 4 employees during that time.
The edict was: you contract with me, I will give you 30 days notice if you cannot tow the line,you give me 30 days notice should you choose to leave.
I had contracts with hospitals that had Iron clad failure to produce clauses and being that there are only about 300 Board certified clinical Perfusionists on the west coast,I could not pull one out of a hat at a moments notice.Positions are few and far between.
They got paid 100% of what I was able to collect from the hospitals,I never made a dime off of any of them,they were all subcontractors.
My final edict was,you fail to give me 30 days notice should you want to terminate,you will NEVER work in the prof, again.
hard core,but it worked.
Never let anybody at work know what your stuck doing. If your stuck they will take advantage of that. Now I need my job but just to keep things going as they are. I could change everything but is it worth it? I don't think so just yet. I am stuck and they know I am stuck BUT they also know if pushed even a little there is a good possibility I could go to lunch and never come back :<0) What does that get me ? I am happy at work. I have a set schedule, they ask me if I can do something for them instead of telling me, and they know I am not there for the money. I am there to have fun. If it is not fun, I will find fun elsewhere. That's my attitude and my motto around work. " I ain't here to get rich. I am here to have fun" Makes them think :<0)Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
They know I'm stuck. My boss and his brother are co-owners of the place I work at and the brother is my wife's boss at a different place that is nearly the exclusive customer for my place. It all overlaps and her job depends on my job. I know I'm stuck and so do they. That's why I get treated like crap by people who don't comprehend the work I do. I despise every minute I work for them and am trying to figure out how to do this work for myself. So far I cannot find a sufficient customer base to set up my own lab. That's the dream.
Well, actually, I'd rather be paid for honing.
OVer here, things don't work that way. Notice is much longer than 2 weeks. In many cases, the company still lets you go immediately if there are conflicts but barring that, you can count on 6 to 8 weeks to transfer your knowledge / projects etc to someone else. You can't leave your company in the lurch. The flip side is of course that you can't be fired on the spot without getting a similar amount of months severance pay. This is to protect people from casual dismissal. The only way to fire without severance is if that person has a bad track record that is documented on paper (performance reviews etc).The long notice period is not a problem anytime, because when you get a new job, the new company knows it has to wait for you to do the notice period so it doesn't have an influence on your career or job seeking opportunities.
Just walking out and giving people the finger is a surefire way to burn your future prospects anywhere, because managers, directors and HR people move around as well. And sometimes if you're hirign people, you might just get called to the HR director and get some word of mouth on one of the applicants.
Here as well, sometimes. My previous position, which I held for 19 years, 11 months, three weeks, and two days, was a professional position which required 6 months notice for both parties. When the decision was made to demolish the building my lab was in, I was moved to a different lab doing entirely different work but at least I was paid and had time to try to find a new job. I accepted one in Baltimore but my wife was offered one in Rochester so I came along with her.
Here, I am a pawn. Despite the long hours I have worked for over three years, I am a temporary part-time employee. That means no benefits whatsoever and no job security. I can be terminated on a whim.
I'm grateful to have any job at this point but I resent the way they are taking advantage of me. It grinds against my nature.
I done moaning now. Well not really but I'll stop anyway!
Let me get thes correct...The brothers buy their own stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian
Going out on your own is the ticket. I don't know what you do but if there is a market for and your good you won't have any problems. Maybe you just need to think outside the box and knock on more doors. Everything can be worked out. And if your working over 30 hours for a certain period of time the law may call you full time regardless of what your led to believe. Sometimes change is hard to initiate but if you plan wisely you can do anything in this world you want. I have proven that to myself and you can too. Just don't do anything crazy.
Of the many self imposed rules I have about work , 1 of the oldest is " Never burn any bridges."