I know for certain that my boss is going to fire me. He doesn’t know that I know.
Do I wait for them to fire me, or do I quit? (I’d be quitting hopefully soon, anyway.)
Details, man we need details!!!
Why are you getting fired?
Why are you leaving “soon” anyway?
How do you know you’re getting fired?
Do you have another job lined up?
Will you require unemployment pay?
How much do you hate your boss?
How many co-workers do you have?
Do you want revenge?
Are practical jokes an option?
Give us something to work with here, man!
Check the unemployment rules in your state. I’ve heard that in some places if you quit you are no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, whereas if you’re laid off you are. However, I’ve never been unemployed myself, so this is just hearsay. Check the rules before you do anything.
A firing would let you apply for unemployment, which you might need, while quitting would not.
Do you have some references you can use from this place besides your boss? Is the firing going to be “with prejudice” as they say?
Usually, a resignation looks better on a job history, but if your boss won’t give you a good reference anyway and you think you’ll need unemployment wait to be let go. You can spin it to any later interviewers as “position eliminated”, provided you can use a reference that won’t tell them otherwise (like your boss or HR dept).
Good luck. Been there.
If they fire you, you have the possibility of collecting unemployment (depending on the circumstances); if you quit, you don’t.
You need to look at the big picture. It’s a lot easier to find a job when you have a job. You really need to be focusing 100% on getting new job while employed instead of strategizing a pre-emptive strike to leave.
In the main this is true; however there are circumstances under which one may quit and still be eligible for unemployment. For example, if one quits in the face of a hostile work environment (victim of harassment, etc.). Laws vary from state to state on unemployment compensation. You should call your state’s department of labor or its equivalent for more information.
IANAL etc.
Oh yeah, this is a great time to be unemployed. I’d look forward to it if I were you. :rolleyes:
If you know you’re getting fired, and your boss doesn’t, that pretty much means you screwed up somewhere, and it’s only a matter of time until heads start rolling, right? Why not own up to it, try to fix it, all while still looking for a new job?
Agreed.
Consider this option if you are on good terms but “things just aren’t working out” in this job, AND you can afford to go without income for a couple of months:
When your employer is ready to give you the ol’ boot, ask your employer to put you on unpaid leave for a couple of months without benefits instead of firing you immediately. Once the leave expires, you will quit. During the leave, get another job.
You get no unemployment benefits, but you will be able to honestly tell a prospective employer that you are currently employed, which is a huge bonus when seeking new employment. Also, you will be able to look anyone in the eye and say that you’ve never been fired from any job.
When your new prospective employer asks whether it can call you present employer, tell the prospective employer that you would rather not because your current employer does not know you are seeking employment here (which is TRUE, unless you told your old employer you would be applying at that company).
Do anything you can to give the impression to a prospective employer that you are currently working. For example, when scheduling interviews with prospective employers, tell them that interviews somewhere near the lunch hour are best. This way it looks like you can only interview on your lunch hour from your current job. Tell the prospective employer you can start no sooner than two weeks so that you can give your current employer two-weeks notice. Always speak in the present tense when referring to your old job (e.g., I am responsible for various tasks, instead of I was responsible for various tasks). Give a good reason for leaving your old job, such as you want to explore better opportunities for yourself. Do not bash your old employer.
If you get the job, wait two weeks and ask your old employer to end the leave of absence effective immediately. If or when your new employer calls your old employer to confirm your last job, the dates of past employment should be accurate.
Stay nice. If your old employer is willing to do this, it could be a big favor to you.
Can’t give a lot of details right now. But I do have another position lined up. This is not a situation that I can fix. It is a matter of his perception. He’s new and is clearing house of those of us that were here when he got here.
It’s not a bummer for me, personally, because this is a toxic personality that I don’t want to be around. I know from gossip that he has “issues” with me that are not based in reality. I would have been let go as the others were two weeks ago, except he needed me. (Which was too bad. I was hoping I get “laid off”.)
I guess my question is, can I assume if I’m let go that I’ll get a severance? That’s the only reason I’d stay.
Did the other people who were let go get a severance?
I don’t know. I’m going to try to find out.
I was just hoping that I’d be let go under the guise of a lay-off, because now I fear Ickmeister will fabricate some “cause” to fire me.
Hi. Glad to hear that you’ve got something lined up.
If you have something lined up and know when your starting date is, use that in your wait/quit strategy. If you need the current job for, say, a month or two more, wait to get fired and try to negotiate an extra month or two. Even if you go immediately but keep the benefits (esp. health insurance) for another month, that’s in your favor.
If, however, it would not be in your favor to wait, then give notice and go on to your next job. Avoid the psych games and the BS and just focus on your next gig.
I wish you good luck!
See if you can work out an agreed termination (so that you don’t have to say you were involuntarily terminated on a resume) without actually agreeing to quit yourself ahead of time. Many employers are afraid of discrimination or other lawsuits such that they will give a severance package if they fire you (you will likely be asked to sign a waiver of claims).
If you quit voluntarily, there is no reason to pay severance. The only reason to go voluntarily is if you want to be able to say, “I quit,” and do not believe you will be able to talk with your employer regarding a mutually agreed reference that you left voluntarily.
If you have another job lined up, get it in writing, resign with two weeks notice, and go. There’s no reason to make this complicated, and it will look good on your resume. No one likes to fire anybody (or almost no one) and if you are going to get fired your boss will be happy in letting you go - that way everyone can pretend that things are fine.
As for severance, it depends on the company. Look around the HR website. Often there is some sort of action plan program, that might give severance - but only after a long period. I wouldn’t count on getting anything unless this is a formal layoff, which sounds unlikely. Don’t be greedy - just go and you can all pretend they are sorry and you are sorry that you are leaving.
As someone who was in a similar situation (although the company was going out of business), I have to say: for the love of God, don’t quit! Not only will you not get unemployment, but they might keep you around longer than you were expecting, meaning you will get some more pay in the interim.
Congratulations on the other offer, I second the getting it in writing, although that didn’t help me…
You also have to differentiate between getting fired and laid off. They are two separate things as far as unemployment is concerned. Laid off is when you don’t have enough work and getting fired is when you screwed something up. Generally speaking, you don’t get unemployment when you’re fired.
That’s not something that can be stated in general terms. I’ve been on unemployment twice. Once I was “laid off” or if you will “downsized” and the other time I was “fired.” In both instances, I was interviewed by the unemployment division who made a determination that I was eligible to receive benefits. You don’t automatically forfeit your eligibility for benefits because you’re fired. Here’s some information from Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development on both the quitting question and the firing question:
In my times on unemployment, in the case of the layoff the employer contacted the DWD ahead of time to advise them of the closure and to get someone in to help us file claims and take advantage of other DWD programs. In the second case I had a fact-finding interview by phone, my former employer failed to respond to the DWD inquiry and the determination was made in my favor.
Well, that wouldn’t be the first time that my [former] employer told me something that wasn’t correct. What I was told, and had others tell me (again, none of whom were lawyers), was that if one lost their job through no fault of their own, then they would be elligible for unemployment. I think this is where the confusion lies: if one was fired because they were stealing, fighting, cheating, etc., then they would not be elligible (“misconduct” as your cite says).
I probably shouldn’t have used the term “incompetent.” I don’t know that the Dept. of Employment Services makes that determination. I assume that if one hires someone who is not misconducting (?) themself, and fired for poor performance, it’s the company’s fault for hiring them in the first place. I suppose however, if one misrepresented themself during the interview…
Well, when I was fired, the examiner asked me things like “do you feel you did your job to the best of your ability?” Good god, how do they think anyone is going to answer that?
He doesn’t want to fire you. He wants you to quit. If he fires you he’ll have to justify it to his boss. Like Voyager says, if you quit everyone can pretend things worked out for everyone.
Find another job, quick. If he really wants you out, he’ll find ways to make life hell for you that you can’t even imagine.