Generally, the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior (see the comment about about cheating). You got exactly what you should have expected.
Sure the last job was exceptionally bad. Sure she will behave differently this time. Yeah, right.
Sorry it happened, and that she left you in the lurch. But you shouldn’t be THAT shocked.
Several hundred? Was he faxing them to Nigeria??
No idea, apparently he spent one entire pay period (two weeks) faxing long distance all day. This was told to me by the supervisor, he may have been exaggerating for effect.
(Thanks for reading ‘under’ as ‘hundred’, I need more coffee)
Like others in this thread who have made similar observations, i’m not directing this specifically at the OP.
But employers in general need to recognise that, as long as they and their representative groups are happy to accept a situation where they can let workers go without any notice or any reason whatsoever (as is the case in many states), there are workers who are going to exercise their own option to do exactly the same thing.
Just out of interest, do the people who have been berating the worker described in the OP hold similarly negative views of employers who terminate people’s employment without giving notice? As levdrakon suggested, the sort of actions that are considered “just business” when carried out by employers are, all too often, considered to be a sign of moral or ethical failure when carried out by workers.
Now, i will add a qualification to my argument: i’ve always believed that, despite the fuck-everyone-over attitude that often prevails in business, it is possible for employers and employees to treat each other with respect, and to arrive at a situation which is pleasant and beneficial to all concerned. But this takes effort from both parties, not, as some employers seem to believe, from the workers alone.
Ouch.
I got a call terminating my job before the job before the job I have now when I was on the bus going home after a day of work. I hated that job anyway, but man, that was harsh.
I got that from a temp job too, except I got a call at the job - after a week of training - telling me to go home, that my services were no longer required. When I got home my contact at the agency told me that they would no longer be calling me.
I was pretty pissed at the agency. I had been a stellar temp - offered many permanent jobs, given flowers at my last assignment, everything. I felt they could’ve at least asked me for my side of the story. I did send a letter along to the owner of the agency and was asked back, but I didn’t want to after that.
As for the OP, I hate people that do that.
I have left horrible jobs, including one where I was sexually harassed every day and I still gave a letter of resignation. Waived my two weeks though and got the hell out of there, but at least I gave notice.
I can see your point, but I would imagine it doesn’t bode well for her future with the temp agency. After all, if you get a bad report to your boss (the temp agency) because you left for lunch and never came back, why would the temp agency risk their reputation by continuing to place you with other potential employers?
I would agree my boss handled it badly by telling her and not the temp agency, and by telling her at lunch instead of at the end of the day. But then again, my boss wasn’t the most mature or stable person I’d ever worked for. Still, I would think a “Thank you, I’ll be going now” would be better than lying to me about telling my boss she was taking a long lunch.
I agree. I didn’t mean to defend this particular employee. In a broader sense, it seems business just loves it when employees feel morally & ethically obligated and loyal to “the company.” They also love it when employees have been sufficiently indoctrinated into this “just business” world so that they can be treated like shit, fired on a moment’s notice, and they’ll be all “I completely understand! It’s just business. You’re just being smart and watching the bottom line. Cutting costs and all that. Good for you. Thank you for firing me! I loved working like a slave for you, with the threat of being fired at anytime looming over my head, every day for weeks & months! Well, that’s just the good ol’ wholesome American business way!”
Personally, I can’t imagine not at least approaching my supervisor and informing her I would be unable to finish the day, nor would I be returning.
Okay, that’s worse. 
Temps don’t have to worry too much about burning bridges in this city - there’s approx. 30 or so agencies here. You can burn a lot of bridges before you run out of agencies.
mhendo, my recent experiences with work have made me realize that there are a few human employers out there, but I go in expecting a new employer to try to find ways to take advantage of me, and I’m rarely disappointed. I’m a good worker, and employers get a good, solid day’s work from me, but that’s IT. Not a jot more.
Depending on what type of job you have, and what type of industry you’re in, it can really be highly beneficial to you to give your work two weeks notice. If you’ve worked at a job for a year and a half and then quit without notice, that puts the employee in a bad situation. They pretty much have to use you as a reference, because you’ll have to explain a 1.5 year gap in your resume. And if their new employer calls the old employer, the old employer has no reason to tell them anything other than the truth, that the employee left without notice one day.
Plus, never underestimate the usefulness of networking. Even if future employers don’t care that much that you left without notice (and a lot won’t care), it’s always nice to have those contacts at the old place of employment, and more than likely your old boss won’t want much to do with you if you leave without notice.
Many employers these days have a flat HR policy of saying nothing when called for a reference beyond, “Yes, Employee X used to work here.” Not a word about whether they were a good employee, whether they left with six weeks’ notice or none, nothing. My husband’s company has this policy. The only people he can actually give a reference to are internal to the company; if it’s someone from another company, even one that has employees working directly for him, he can’t say a thing.
So it’s possible to quit one job after another with no notice and still not get a bad reference. And still get hired. Especially if you’re in a job that’s in short supply, like experienced legal secretaries in some communities – I knew one woman who had worked at just about every law firm in the city, and still kept getting hired even though she’d just quit without warning. Nobody was willing to actually say anything to anybody else about it, apparently.
That’s because a lot of former employees have sued for getting bad references that have cost them jobs. Whether the bad references were deserved or not, I don’t know.
I had an employee walk out on me a couple of months ago because “the drive was too far and he wasn’t making enough money.” I could’ve understood that as I’m pretty lenient except:
I had offered to make a plea to the Board of Trustees to increase his wages, and more than likely they would’ve said yes because he’d been a longtime, dependable employee;
I offered to schedule him longer hours but fewer days, cutting down on his gas expenses but upping his money per week;
He left right when one employee became deathly ill (seriously), one employee left without notice and without reason (she had just started) and another left (with notice) to attend school, and I was left with only one employee to run a nursery.
But, if he ever lists me as a reference, I cannot tell the caller any of this. Beh.
This post is mine. Forgot to log in as me. Sorry.
Also forgot to add when MY boss called this employee to ask him why he had left, the employee blamed me for not scheduling him–which was a lie, as I had left many messages on his voicemail (and sent him emails) asking him to come in on a certain day, and he never did.
Well, any of my employees leave on bad terms then their future employes will certainly be told. I’ve yet to run in to any trouble.
Let’s hope you never get bad treatment from an American company, 'cause then who would you work for?
This was in 1992, and from then on I’ve had plenty of bad treatment from American, English and German-owned companies; this was my third assignment in a row at a Japanese company b/c of my smattering of conversational Japanese. It was now more than obvious to me that the typical behavior of a Japanese company in this area of the country (Detroit) and this kind of business (automotive) was to have their most important and stable positions filled by people from their HQ in Japan five years at a time, and fill in the ‘dirty work’ (warehouse, maintenance, assembly) and low level office positions w/ locals who were mostly temps. The locals were disposable to thecompany bigwigs, no matter how nice my Japanese co-workers were to me. (Aside - My grandma died while I was at the assignment under discussion and three of my Japanese co-workers got me the loveliest sympathy card which they brought me together, while my local co-workers did nothing.)
There were many Japanese companies in that area who I could have accepted assignments from but I did eventually want to be hired as permanent somewhere and that was unlikely at a Japanese company’s local office.
Oh, and after I left the German company, I worked for me. 
Can employers really fire someone (not a temp, a regular employee) with the “no notice” described in this thread? I’m not saying it doesn’t happen–just that I’ve never heard of a place that doesn’t give at least 2 weeks severance pay (except maybe when the person doesn’t complete the probationairy period). True, you generally are asked to leave, but I’d rather just collect my severance pay and get on with the job hunt rather than work two more weeks knowing I’ll have to leave.
I’m sorry for the OP. I have had fantasies of leaving with no notice, but, as an adult, I realise those are just fantasies. Regardless of the suckitude of a job, I know I have to give some notice.
For one thing, unless I win a really big lottery payout or have some unknown relative die leaving me mega bucks, I will need another job and that will require references. I know many employers have policies against giving more than the bare minimum information, but people find ways of getting references anyway. Plus, word sometimes gets around without formal references. When I started my current job, I found there were several people already working for the company that I had worked with in previous positions. I know the hiring manager asked them if they’d heard of me and their impressions of my work. Had I really burned bridges there, my candidacy would have been over after the first interview and I never would have known why.
Also, as much as I may want to stick it to the boss, it would affect my former co workers as much as or even more than it would the evil boss! When we’re short staffed, the people at the lower levels seem to end up handling more of the extra work than upper managements does. Leaving with no notice would really put them in a tough spot.
Finally, it’s only two weeks. Unless it was something pretty extreme (like an unsafe work environment or major harassment that would result in legal action), I can suck it up for two weeks.
Severance is not really known in my field at the entry level. It’s possible that management is offered severance, but I don’t know for sure.
I’ve never had to lay anyone off, as we’re growing, but whenever I’ve let someone go (temporary or permanent employee), it has generally been for poor performance or attendance, and they’ve always been warned first. When the final straw is broken, and we make the decision to terminate, we explain why and escort them out. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s for security and stability that we don’t let people go back and cause a scene. We bring them their things, or box them up to pick up later if they’d prefer to leave then.
In some cases, temporary agencies have called to fire people by phone. I’m not a fan of it, but if the temp isn’t showing up to work, it’s not always possible to do it in person. I’ve fired people by mail actually, but that was only for not showing up (I presume they meant to quit anyway) and if they wouldn’t answer calls or messages.
I work in manufacturing, so we get a lot of people quitting after a couple of hours on the job, especially in summer when it’s hot.
We don’t fire people suddenly, with two exceptions: Violence in the workplace or failing a drug test during the initial probation period. Any other transgression accrues warnings. Oh, I guess we would fire over someone flagrantly defying safety rules, but that one has never come up.
I agree that many businesses treat their employees like crap, and I really have no problem with the people who quit suddenly. But telling someone that you’re quitting doesn’t help the employer as much as it helps the other employees–who may get stuck covering for you if no one knows what’s going on. So, for the sake of the other little guy, let someone know!
Yep. When I first started with my current employer this happened all the time. We lived in fear of “the cart.” You could be having a normal day, going about your work, and suddenly you’d hear the squeaky wheels, followed by the sound of books and papers being moved. If you peeped over the wall of your cubicle, you’d see your supervisor emptying your former coworker’s possessions onto the cart (the coworker would have been quietly sent off to HR on some pretense before this happened). No notice, no severance pay, not even a “don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.”
The worst part for the remaining employees is that we were never told why our coworker had been fired. Management always refused to give a reason other than “it wasn’t working out” or “he did something he wasn’t supposed to do.” Nothing like terrifying your employees to boost productivity. :rolleyes: And they wonder why the company has such a high turnover rate.