I am fairly certain that in the next couple of months I will be fired. While I am not trying to get fired, I feel it coming, and since I have worked with this same boss for nearly a decade, I recognize the signs. I also know that someone replacing me COULDN’T start my job cold- I helped build the company, I set up the majority of accounts, etc. I also maintain our server. As someone who would almost have to help train my replacement, I am fairly certain I would be offered a severance package. If I quit to go to a new job, I can legitimately say “sorry, I’m busy getting up to speed on my new job, I can’t devote a lot of time helping you figure out this stuff.” Being kinda ticked about this makes me lean toward quitting. And quitting looks better than being let go. But I was wondering what the Dopers think. Quit or be fired?
Why would you throw away good money, in form of a severance package, because you’re angry?
Fired or laid off? Big-ass difference here.
I was in the same situation a few years back, and I quit. I regret it, and not just because I missed out on the severance package. The boss who made my life miserable was fired a year or so after I quit.
If the stress isn’t raising your blood pressure, I’d say stick it out, at least until you have another job lined up.
It’s better to stick around, collect as much money you can, look for a new job in the meantime and then get a severance package and unemployment, none of which you will receive if you just quit out of spite.
Echoing everyone else put your pride in your pocket and get all you have coming to you.
To be clear, quitting without another job lined up wasn’t really an option. I think I will continue to suck it up but keep an eye out for a GREAT job, not just settling for any other place to give me a paycheck. I’m just really pissed that I can give a decade of loyal service and be cast aside because the boss’s new gf doesn’t care for me.
Wait for the package. Even if it isn’t much you buy yourself more time.
I disagree that quitting is better. I don’t know how your company will do it. But at my old place, if you were fired, they company informed you that your position was eliminated and agreed not to contest unemployment. The company, as far as you were concerned, laid you off.
Right now its a hell of a lot better to tell a prospective employer that you were laid off than it is to say you quit. Then you have to answer questions about what happened. Why were you unable to cope with the job or with the people?
If you say your company was reorganizing and you were caught in the wave of layoffs, no one will bat an eye. Not in this economy. I bet some of the people hiring may have just gone through the same thing.
That’s a good point. I am reasonably sure any sverance I wouid be offered would be contigent on my agreeing not to sabotage the company - as I implied, I know every password we have, and have access to every file and email as it currently stands. No one else in the company even knows hopw to change their passwords. I can make my agreement contigent on being laid off rather than fired.
Unless the severance package is particularly large, or re-employment for your profession is particularly easy my suggestion would be to focus on getting good new employment rather than the severance package.
Ie will getting a new job while still employed in your situation be easier than finding a job after supposedly being laid off in good standing etc, ie will your employer be a useful reference or not.
Generally its better to start looking right away, but it can vary by individual situation, eg if your employer is going to be useless as a reference either way, that severance pay may help a lot if re-employment is going to be difficult as a result.
Otara
Everyone I’ve ever known has waited to be fired. They then pull unemployment. If they quite, they can’t. So they’ll stay on, even not doing anything, waiting to be officially canned.
It seems counterproductive to me.
How can earning a paycheck be counter-productive?
Stick around. There is a good chance you’ll outlast the boss’s new girlfriend, and the next one may think you’re the bee’s knees.
Ps- the gf works at the same co- and has just been promoted. Not sure if its relevant, but it certainly adds to my stress level.
Echoing the unemployment compensation. If you quit, you can’t collect. If you’re let go, you can. If you quit to take a new job and the new job falls through right away (I don’t know what the minimum length of employment at the new job needs to be to qualify, you should check into it), you still won’t qualify for unemployment.
Annoying as it may be, that’s life. Some companies are loyal to their employees, and some are not; there’s not really anything else to say about it. That said, there’s no reason for them to expect more loyalty from you than they’re willing to extend in the other direction. In your position, I’d do exactly what you said in your second sentence; start looking for a new job, but don’t quit for just any new position that seems acceptable. At the moment, from the point of view of your new employer, you hold most of the cards; they need you (or they wouldn’t make an offer), but you don’t really need them (they don’t need to know that you’re expecting to be laid off/fired in the near future). This gives you the unusual opportunity to do things like highball your salary requirements. That is, don’t tell them the minimum you’d be willing to work for, or even the amount you’d be satisfied to work for. Tell them how much you’d need to thrill you, because you’re not going to jump to a new job for money that doesn’t thrill you. That’s assuming that money is your major concern–if it’s the job, or the company’s management style, or the benefits, then you’d be looking at those, and demanding only the best.
I do not understand the advice, stick around and wait to be fired so you can collect unemployment and get severance.
If you are fired most states you do not qualify for unemployment. What is the differance between your weekly check and UE? In my profession I max out at about two days pay a week. Severance package of some guessed amount from what $1000 to many thousands? And in your area are there a lot of jobs that you are qualified for?
Start looking for new job now. While you have a job you can pick and choose. If the new job offer is a good one with a good company go for it give two weeks notice. At the end of two weeks you are done. If you old employeer had a problem it is theirs not yours. Your job should suport your life not become your life.
I was in a like position 10+ some years ago. My company was bought out and in the buy out there was no good new position. A position was set up for me with a 50 mile commute and a pay cut. If I took the new position I would give up severance and would have still been looking for a new job. My severance was $20,000. I started looking for new job the day of the buyout and kept working until the door was closed.
Remember if you are now working it puts you in a better position to look for a new job.
Another thing when I resigned from a company that cut my pay $2.00 an hour (long story) and called “GOOD NEWS” they called the union to file a grievance because I quit. After he stopped laughing the business agent informed the director of engineering that in the furure if he did not want to loose more of the good engineers he should change they way he treated those who worked for him.:smack:
Now you’re lucky because of the bad economy everyone understands getting fired.
Unless it’s for something like sexual harrassment, you’re better off waiting it out. If you are fired you can still qualify for unemployment in every state. It depend on WHY you’re fired. In today’s economy they are more apt to give you leeway unless you’re fired for something like sexual harrassment or outright theft.
While the economy appears to be getting better, the jobs certainly are not. So hang out till they shove you out the door. Then apply for unemployment ASAP. Always apply for unemployment, even if you’re sure you don’t qualify. Lots of company forget to fight unemployment claims and you’ll win. Or you can win on appeal. You never know so why not?
If you have a new job lined up, I see no ROI on staying until you are fired. However, I would not leave until you have a job lined up.