Don’t these people realize that it fucks EVERYONE over?? One of my co-workers walked out after her shift while informing me that she was not going to come back. Ever. So now I will probably lose my day off tomorrow. She was supposed to work Sunday, now I will probably have to, and GODDAMNIT, I’M SUPPOSED TO GO SEE HENRY ROLLINS ON SUNDAY!!! I might miss this because she was a bitch. Fuck her. I hope she is reeeeaaaalllllll happy with whatever she is doing now.
People, please don’t do this. :mad:
Well, if you’re not going to see Henry Rollins, can I have your ticket?
torie, sometimes people hate their jobs so much, that to spend one more single day doing that job might possibly spark some kind of workplace violence killin’ spree. So, instead they quit, never to come back.
I don’t know about you all, but I’d rather live than see Henry Rollins.
:eek:
Esprix
Yeah, I would have to know more about the situation before I start condemning the woman. Some jobs are so shitty that every aspect of a person’s life is adversely affected. In such cases, two weeks is a lot to ask. And believe me, many companies wouldn’t hesitate to dump an employee on his ass without ten minutes notice. Company loyalty only works when the employee can expect some loyalty in return, and that hasn’t been the case for years now. The only reason I think a lot of people give two weeks notice now is because they want a future reference and believe it will help them in getting a good one. Also, when people are looking for jobs in their spare time and finally find an appealing position, or one less loathsome than the current one even, their new employer typically wants them to start right away and doesn’t want to hear that they have to wait two weeks for that person to start.
I can’t really muster up any venom towards your former co-worker, though, because, save for one time, whenever I’ve given two weeks notice at a job – mostly of the summer variety – I’ve gotten shat on for that two weeks. The last place just cut me out of the work schedule for those last two weeks, never thinking that perhaps I might perhaps be counting on the hours in that final paycheck. So I feel for you, torie, and you’re in a a rotten position, but maybe your co-worker’s had similar experiences before and has just decided it’s not worth it.
So why does it fall to you? Are you the manager?
If not, tell 'em “No can do for Sunday. Got tickets. Must go. So sorry!”
I’m going to side with the woman here, unless I hear more info. At my last job, I was let go with no notice and no severence package. At my current job, they cut one of my employees in pretty much the same way, after lying to me about his employment status; with another employee, my boss wanted me to cut him immediately a couple days after he’d given 2 weeks’ notice (he ended up walking out after she gave him some ridiculous assignments unrelated to his job on a day I was out of the office). So, if I had a job offer that allowed me to start tomorrow, I would have no compunction about quitting without notice because I don’t believe my company would give me any courtesy if they were the ones ending my employment with them.
It’s one of those awful situations that is unavoidable in this system we have (altho I can’t think of a way to improve it).
If the company shits on an employee, and the employee shits back, the one who pays isn’t the company but the co-workers left in the lurch. Happens all too often, and there’s no reason for the company to treat people well enough to discourage them to leave without notice, because the remaining employees (torie, and me in a number of instances) will pick up the slack to protect their own job.
It’s disgusting.
Warning: long, rambling post ahead
I know all too well how you feel. I take it you work for a fast food joint. I worked in one for too long. I could never count on actually getting a scheduled day off, especially if I were lucky enough to get one on a weekend (how I wish Caller ID had been around at the time!) I was still living with my parents and my mom screened all the phone calls since half the time it was someone asking me to come in and fill another shift.
Once I became I manager I was the evil one who had to call people and ask them to come in on a scheduled day off. Some of these people had already worked for close to a month straight without a day off, and as much as I hated to do it, what else could I do? The worst thing was when I worked the opening shift and had to call people at 6:00 AM, usually waking someone else and pissing him/her off in the process. It sucked for everyone when an employee just suddenly quit without notice and left us all in a lurch. If it were a closing shift we could all count on being there for another hour having to do the work of the person who no-showed. Our service times and overall service quality would be slower and because of this we all got to listen to the customers bitch and whine, which put everyone in an even worse mood, making the remaining employees feel inclined to not come in the next day, causing the vicious cycle to feed upon itself even more.
As much as it pissed me off to have employees just suddenly quit, in retrospect I can’t really blame them, not that I realize just how shitty of a job it was. They were working for minimum wage and they could easily get hired on at the fast food place down the street, so it’s not like they had much to lose. Some peopel found better-paying jobs and had to start right away, so again, in retrospect I couldn’t blame them. Still, I know it sucks for the rest of the people who have to deal with the matter. For the precious few who did put in a full two weeks notice and work it to the end, I was very thankful and appreciative of their consideration. Out of literally dozens of people who came and went while I worked there, I’d say less than 3% actually give adequate notice.
If you work where you work for any length of time, chances are you are going to deal with this situation over and over again. In most fast food places staffing is a never-ending problem. The high turnover might even drive you to want to quit yourself, and if you do, I really couldn’t blame you. Whatever the case may be, I just hope you won’t have to work in such a place for the rest of your life. Fast food and most other minumum wage jobs suck, the low pay nonwithstanding.
From yet another side of the coin (this is one of those magical fifteen-sided coins), I just quit my job and did give two weeks’ notice. My co-workers are getting screwed anyway; this is a crappy job with a crappy company, and me leaving is going to leave my co-workers even further behind than they were already. Bottom line - too bad. The company pushed me so far that I felt my only recourse was quitting, and I regret that my co-workers will bear the brunt, but that is not my problem. The responsibility lies with the crappy company that had no concern for keeping good employees.
I had an employee who worked the 1pm-9pm shift. When she was the last person in the office, she cleaned out her desk and left. At 5AM the next morning she left a voice mail for the HR Director saying she wasn’t coming back to work and to please mail her check home.
Here you don’t have to worry about references. They’re so afraid of lawsuits that they will only give the person’s work dates and final salary as a reference. Managers & supervisors are explicitly told they cannot give any recommendation (good or bad) for anyone who used to work for them.
Given how the culture has changed around here in the last several years, I’d no longer have any qualms about walking out the door with no notice. I’ve seen too many people screwed with (and I’m still waiting for my 01/01/2000 Comp Day) to have any loyalty left to the place.
Count me in the “too fucking bad” camp as well.
As someone said in another thread, “Loyalty is for People, not Companies”. In an era where companies have ZERO loyalty to their employees, it’s hypocritical for them to expect it from their employees.
What you fail to realize is that your cow-orker leaving actually gives you more power, not less. When they call you to work on a weekend when you have plans, as Nancy Reagan said, “Just Say No”. What are they going to do, fire you as well? Sure, it’s your manager’s job to drag your ass in and get the work done, and this person may retaliate against you for refusine, but in the long run, you need to point out to this person that they will only lose your services as well.
OTOH, sometimes a long notice is a fitting revenge. My last company tried to grind me into the ground for refusing to work 80-90 hour weeks, every day, weekends and holidays included. Even gave me a bullshit written warning that prevented me from getting a bonus, as punishment for walking out at 5:30pm on the 4th of July. When I had a date that evening.
So I gave them a month’s notice. And boy don’t you know that they had no hold on me in that month. Nothing they could do or say could make me work more than 40 hours per week, put up with shit from coworkers or come in on the weekends if I didn’t feel like it. Yeah, they could give me a bad reference, and in fact my manager did just that. I could have sued his ass up and down for what he said. But it didn’t matter at all to me. I was free from the nightmare that was working there.
They were literally destroying my mental and physical health. (More than two years later, I’m still dealing with scar tissue along my spine, from a stress related injury for which they had no sympathy or support.) Leaving there saved my life.
As far as that manager, by the world standards, he’s doing well. But he’s 28 years old, has two (maybe 3 by now) children and works 80 hours a week. That to me is a fucking nightmare. I know in my soul that Karma is going to bite him on the ass. His kids will grow up not knowing him, his wife will eventually tire of him not being around and leave him, his “loyalty” to his job will go unrewarded the first time they need a scapegoat and his name comes up, or when his family needs him more than the company does and the company doesn’t like it.
I walked out in the middle of a shift once. I was working in a movie theater. One manager had hired me to work mostly box office and to fill in as needed. Another manager came in and started shifting me around. He wouldn’t let me read during the slack times (he allowed the kids on night shift to do their frigging homework in the box office, though). The new manager put me on all kinds of cleaning assignments, and only put me in the box office if he had no one else to cover. Now, everyone (old manager, new manager, assistant managers) told me that I was the best box office worker they had, as I was very, very fast and almost NEVER came up short. I did come up short once with the new manager, by $20. So he took me off box office.
Now, we did not have true cash drawers, when we needed a break we’d call someone to cover us, and they’d use the same till. We’d usually take a couple of breaks each shift. It turns out that there were a LOT of people coming up short in the box office, and it was always one girl who had given everyone their breaks. Now, I didn’t mind being put on cleaning and popcorn duty while they were figuring out why this shortage was happening…even though the other people who had come up short were working as ushers. I DID mind when the managers figured out who was responsible for all the shortages, and then the head manager decided to schedule me exclusively for popcorn and cleaning. When I heard that the girl had been caught and fired (everyone came in and talked to me while I was popping corn, scooping up a handful of corn and eating it was a perk)(plus most of the kids there and most of the managers seemed to love to talk to me anyway, I was always joking around), I was happy for the whole place. Everyone had been under a strain. When it came time for my break, I looked up the manager and asked him when I was going to start back in the box office. Now mind you, everyone acknowledged that I was the fastest and most accurate box cashier. He hemmed and hawed, and said that I wasn’t really who he wanted to keep in box office. Then I said that if he intended to keep me working at jobs that were much, much harder than what I’d signed up for (I was doing some pretty heavy physical work), then I’d better see not only the raise that I’d been promised for ages, but another raise on top of that. I knew how much he was paying the regular cleaners, and it was at least twice my salary. He said that he couldn’t see his way clear to giving me ANY raise. I basically told him to go screw himself, and quit in the middle of the shift. He was amazed, as he had thought that my family really needed my paycheck. When he first took over the theater, that was true…however, my husband had finally found a good job and we were comfortably able for me to quit AND go back to college. We dickered back and forth a bit, but he wanted to keep me working as cheap janitorial help, and I refused to do that. I was willing to put up with that as long as the cash shortage was being investigated…but since I had been cleared, I wanted my old job back. And if kids could do their homework in the box office, I wanted to be able to read my books in there when it was slack. And I wanted the raise I’d been promised a long time ago. Fair is fair. He wasn’t willing to even give me back my cashiering duties, so I told him that I wasn’t coming back.
Now, part of this guy’s problem was that he was of a different ethnicity and religion than many Americans. He didn’t like the fact that I freely admitted that I didn’t defer to my husband automatically, but spoke my own mind. He didn’t like the fact that I was older than him (the manager) either. This manager greatly enjoyed being able to hire pretty girls to work for him, and that’s who he wanted to keep in the box office…never mind that these pretty girls often had absolutely no sense and no math skills, either. In fact, I don’t think he hired ANY guys at all. These pretty little girls would all flirt with him (I think that was basically one of his requirements to get the job). I didn’t fit his idea of what a woman should look like (I was a bit plump back then) or act like.
I was delighted to hear that the theater was being sold out of the chain and to a discount theater chain a couple of months after I left. I really think that this guy didn’t know how to manage effectively. I was one of the best and hardest workers he had, and he practically begged me to quit with his treatment of me.
I was sort of sorry for the people who had to pick up my slack, but I was so pissed off at the manager that I couldn’t stand to be in that place another minute. When I came back a couple of days later to turn in my uniform, he again tried to charm me back into working under his same conditions. I was not interested. If he wanted janitorial work from me, he could give me a janitorial wage. Or I was willing to take my regular wage with my promised raise and work mostly in the box office, and pop corn for a couple of shifts a week. Since we couldn’t agree, I didn’t return to work for him. Maybe I should have applied at another theater in that chain, but I wanted to go back to college full time, and didn’t feel like working unless I really needed to.
Man, I didn’t realize how much of a grudge I still carried about that.
Most companies I’ve worked for seem to have no problem waiting for an employee to come to work, telling them they’re fired, and having security escort them out the door. If that’s the extent of their loyalty for their employees, they shouldn’t be surprised when their workers feel no loyalty towards the company.
I know there are exceptions though, and some companies give generous severance packages (or at least a reasonable notice) and things like that. If I were lucky enough to work for a place like that I’d probably give notice.
I quit with no notice at Kmart. My work ethic at that point was nil and I was constantly calling off, and when I was at work, I’d be in tears all the time. I was miserable and I no longer gave a shit.
So I knew I had to leave. It wasn’t worth what it was doing to my well-being.
My job before that I left in the middle of my shift, but that was because the one manager there was a complete and utter bully. I wasn’t the first one to walk out on him, either.
I know what you guys are complaining about, but, if I may brag, someone else quitting (well, lots of people) actually worked to my advantage. When one dude after another quit (each giving varying degrees of notice), I got sucked into their projects (which probably saved my job as I had precious little to justify my insurance at the time) and now have gotten a significant raise, promotion, learned the hell of a lot and actually got a couple job offers from people who saw what I could do.
Which is not to say that I haven’t worked my ass off and made some mistakes, but, you know…
Another guy in the company who was in danger of getting laid off was in a similar position: he got promoted when another dude quit with no notice, probably negotiated more cash and when he’s finished his project and is in danger of getting laid off again, will have made enough contacts who are impressed with him that he’s likely to get a new job as soon as he asks.
Of course, I realize that in most professions/positions, all some fuck quitting means is that the workload gets redistributed and I figure that the most common reason people quit with no notice is that the workload is unbearable, so you’re screwed doubly. However, if one is in the right position, this can be the best thing to happen to a career. Assuming that you’re willing to work your ass of, that is…
[/I’m OK, you’re OK]
This is what happened with me. One day I woke up and said, “I can’t do it anymore. I can’t go into that shithole again, except to give my notice.” So I did.
Count me in with the others who say too bad.
Companies treat their employees so badly these days that most of them don’t deserve any notice. Why should someone go out of their way to help an employer who won’t pay them a fair wage, treats them like a criminal and talks to them like they’re a dog? Unless I had a boss who I knew would give me a severance package if/when I was ever fired/downsized, I wouldn’t hesistate to walk out if I needed to.
This whole “company loyalty” stuff is garbage. They hire you. You make money for them. They pay you some of that money. You don’t owe them anything for being nice enough to hire you: you wouldn’t have been hired in the first place if they didn’t see something in it for them.
Over the course of the summer of 2003, I worked at three differnet jobs. The first was at McDonald’s, where the manager was an utter dick who refused to train me on the register yet forced me to run the register WITHOUT TRAINING during lunch rush one day so he could go talk to somebody. And then he yelled at me for screwing up. And he yelled at me for mopping wrong. And he looked at all the girls’ asses and called us sweetie. So I walked out.
Then I worked at a grocery store. I left after a few months because I’d found another job which was giving me better hours. I gave two weeks’ notice. They cut me from the schedule completely and immediately.
I have no issue with the person who left without notice. It just doesn’t pay nowadays.