Just quit my job (long, boring and self-indulgent)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve never quit a job before, except in 1979, when I was 18, and quit my fast food job because my family was moving from Texas to Tennessee.

Since then, I’ve stuck with jobs until either: a) they ended because they were temporary; b) I was part of a layoff caused by poor business; or c) I was fired. Sadly, c) has happened about half a dozen times over the years.

I’ve been working at my current job since October 2006; it’s a large Workers’ Comp insurance carrier. For most of the time it was a good job because I had an excellent manager. However, the bullshit from upstairs that she had to deal with stressed her out until she left to work in a completely different field.

I gave my new manager a chance, expecting some changes; I can deal with changes in how the job is done. I’m not a problem employee. I just dig in and do the job.

Unfortunately, he turned out to be a terrible manager; worst I’ve had to deal with in 30 years. Petty, vindictive, disrespectful, not overly bright, and, as it turns out, he’d sexually harrassed a friend and co-worker of mine when they both worked at another company (when she was 18), and at the same company had harrassed the wife of one of my co-workers. But, he was already hired.

A few months ago, I felt pretty secure there, with no plans to leave. Worry started to build up in the past couple of months, though. I’ve never had a problem like this with a manager before. I mean, at a previous company my managers were white-collar criminals, but usually they left me alone. I think this guy wants to intimidate his workers. I don’t mind working hard, but doing it with a gut full of anxiety and anger is unhealthy.

Because of a meeting last week, called after I’d attempted to get a transfer to another department, he knew what I thought of him (and I learned that our HR director was useless and willing to lie to employees). For some time, he’d been telling me almost every day something he didn’t like about the way I worked; now I was sure he was looking for “cause” to fire me.

Also, we’d been told that the company was going away from the style of trusting workers to do their jobs, and into a “micromanagement paradigm”. This is based on the fantasy that our clients are switching to cheaper carriers because low-level clerks like me aren’t efficient enough.

Today, he suddenly brought a chair into my small cubicle, and said he was going to “sit in” with me all day. I can’t imagine how he’d have time to do that, but he sat behind me, watching everything I did. I could feel myself screwing up, not working as efficiently as I normally do. After about an hour, we had words, and he abruptly got up and stomped off to his office. I suddenly felt certain that he was preparing to fire me. (Guess I’ll never know for sure.)

I fired off an e-mail, copying him, the HR director and my entire office, giving two weeks’ notice. I dated and signed a resignation letter I’d been carrying in my pocket, walked in his office and tossed it on his desk. I could hear him stomping out after me as I headed back to my desk; by now I was seeing through a red haze, and was (to my discredit) hoping he’d foolishly lay a hand on me.

He followed me to my desk, where I was planning to write up a complete description of what I do, to help out the next guy. (I never had a written job description; just gradually new duties got added; it’s fairly extensive and complex by now for a clerical job.) My manager was very insistent that I leave immediately and not gather up my belongings; so, I took my time gathering my belongings, and went around to say goodbye to a few people. Then I was out of there.

It’s crazy to quit a job in this economy. When I called my girlfriend she did her best to be upbeat. I went through some lengthy unemployment six years ago; can’t do that to her again. Two weeks ago I lost my little cat; a week ago we had another major family trauma; now this.

My former manager has been nice enough to give me some excellent tips and information for job-hunting. I just spoke to a lady she referred me to at a Claims staffing service; sent her my resume, and am waiting for a callback. I’ll be aggressively job-hunting until I get something.

So, I’ve indulged myself by laying it all out here, and now feel a little better. If you’ve read this far, I’d guess you’re also sitting around at home.

Well, I’m pretty sure there are already some threads about job-hunting; I’ll take a look.

2

My husband did the same thing a couple months ago. He had the luxury of going on Social Security, but he’s been catching the stink eye from some people who think that in this economy he should have rode it out.

I disagree. If you’re miserable, you need to fix your situation. If you’re lucky enough to have marketable skills and are flexible about what you do, sometimes you just have to take the leap. Good luck on your job search. I think you did the right thing.

3

Thank you. So far I’ve reestablished contact with a bank’s in-house staffing service I’d worked with before (they remembered me from over two years ago, which is nice), and talked to a lady at another place. I’ve always been shy about talking to people, but for Pete’s sake, I’m jobless and almost broke at age 48. I’d better suck it up.

4

Wow, I would have stuck it out until I found something else. I mean, at least then you could fight for unemploymet compensation. If you resign, you can’t get unemployment comp, can you?

5

This is true. It is sometimes a better tactic to be fired, since you can get UI, than to resign. However, the resignation may preserve your dignity and I did it once myself. I had the luxury of doing it in the late '90s, though…

Depending on your state’s unemployment program, if you were not paid through your notice you *may *be able to claim unemployment for the time period of the notice (e.g., if you gave 2 weeks notice and didn’t get paid for it, in some cases you may be entitled to 2 weeks’ UI).

Good luck!

6

Good for you. You were being treated like crap and you don’t deserve that. I did this once at my first job out of college and it felt so good. I really should have done this at my last job where I was being severely used and abused. I really wish I had. Good luck, and good for you!!

7

Damn, dude, that sucks. Will you be able to get paid for the two weeks where you were willing to stay? A lot of companies do that.

8

They actually insisted that you NOT gather up your personal belongings?!

Wow.

I can see a place saying to leave now - many times in a unamicable (is that a word?) split, it is better for everyone if the cord is cut sooner rather than later. But to insist that you not even pick up your personal belongings - thats just crappy. What were they going to do - mail them to you? Refund the purchase price?

While part of me agrees with some others that sticking it out to get UI might have been the better move financially - sometimes money just isn’t worth it. Besides - it sounds like that company isn’t going to be doing themselves any favors by micromanaging that much. It shocks me that a company would come out and say that they want to actually spend more time and resources micromanaging.

Like my high school physics teacher often said - truth really is stranger than fiction…

9

Sometimes in a moment of temporary insanity, we do things a little different than we’d have done it if we weren’t being abused. So it’s not perfect. The fact that you just did it is REAL good incentive to get out there and make it right.

10

My sympathies, Baldwin. Sometimes you just have to listen to your gut when it’s shrieking, "Get out!** GET OUT!

GETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUTGETOUT!!!**

11

I agree entirely with nyctea scandiaca. I was also in a similar situation once. If you’re resourceful, confident, and flexible, and have people to count on, you will be absolutely fine.

As far as the economy, I’d try not to think about it too much–you can’t affect it, so why worry about it? There are fewer jobs available, so it’s more competitive, but if you’re a quality employee you can compete. Good luck!

12

I got laid off last May and was asked to wait until the weekend to clean out my desk so as not to upset the remaining employees. My thoughts were the other employees were going to notice that several coworkers left in the middle of the day and didn’t come back but ok. Meanwhile, my coworkers that needed to be protected from upset rifled through my desk and took stuff that belonged to me.

13

Well, in Georgia at least, you can’t collect UI if you’re fired for cause. When I was fired in 2002, the management of the company I worked for simply lied and said I’d been insubordinate (describing a specific incident that didn’t happen). I pushed things far enough to get a hearing with the State Board, where they maintained their lie, thus committing perjury. As I said, they were white-collar criminals. (Execs of the same company were later caught engaging in price-fixing with various insurance companies. This is a company that lost 300 employees in 9/11 because the HQ was in the North Tower; you’d think the executives who weren’t in New York would thereafter be grateful for their lives and maybe develop priorities other than grabbing as much money as possible by any means available. Apparently not.)

Thanks for the tip about the two weeks; I’ll see what I can find out. Oddly, HR hasn’t contacted me all day.

14

Sometimes you can get UI even if you quit - I quit due to bullying once, and since I had documented it well, not only did I get UI, but the company I quit had some 'splaining to do to the government (I didn’t expect that kind of fallout, but I was gleeful when I heard about it). :smiley:

15

I’ve always thought I’d like living in Canada. I live in Georgia, USA, where corporations get tax breaks and hourly employees are peasants. But, maybe I should apply anyway, just for the heck of it.

16

the us census is hiring like crazy now. try there 866-861- 2010. office staff is the big hire right now, atlanta is a big place and should have 2 or 3 local census offices coming on line very soon. it is long term temporary, but money coming in and flexibility with hours so you can have time off to interview if needed.

good luck!

17

It’s a trade-off for our winters. :slight_smile:

18

I’m proud of you Baldwin. I’ve been in some pretty shitty situations myself over the years but stuck it out anyway. In fact, i was just laid off before Christmas from a job I loved for about a year and a half, and then things really went south. My boss and I were not getting along, and I hated going into work each morning. I was at the snapping point but stuck it out all the same. I am now actively looking for work but feel the least amount of stress than I have in months. It got to the point where I was throwing up in the morning before driving to work.

This all started after our company was bought. My boss went from being available and accommodating to being a micromanaging idiot who would jump all over me for the pettiest reasons. I felt like he was treating me as one of his children and not a competent adult with 25 years work experience. I realize now he was probably suddenly feeling threatened about his own job.

I’m glad to be sitting at home right now in the middle of a snow storm with the wood stove going and a wireless laptop to keep me company.

I have a telephone interview in 10 minutes. Better run.

Good luck. I think you did the right thing. . I wish I would have had the balls.

19

As the spouse of one who did that, although without the micromanaging, all I have to ask it:

Did you have a plan?

If no, then you REALLY need to reevaluate what’s important in your life. When you quit, there’s no unemployment.

20

I’m still waiting for the HR director to respond to my calls and e-mails, and let me know whether I’m supposed to go back into the office to work out the two weeks. I’m guessing the answer is “no”, but I need a separation date before I can apply for UI. (According to the GA Claimant Handbook, the eligible forms of job separation include “quit for a good work-related reason”, so I’m going to give it a shot.)

Kind of an odd situation; there’s no HR department at the Alpharetta, GA office where I worked; it’s all handled through the home office in Omaha, Nebraska. So I’ve never actually met our HR lady.