Not necessarily. There are some circumstances that, if you can make the case, will probably get you a negotiated severance.
One of these circumstances is called “constructive termination”. If your responsibilities have been taken away from you and you have been treated so poorly that any sensible person would quit, you may some legal recourse to sue. Most employers will negotiate rather than put up with a lawsuit.
Another is called “promissory estoppel”, but that hinges on whether or not you were recruited from your last job or were out job hunting when you were hired. If you were recruited, you left your last job with some specific expectations from this position and gave up some benefits from your last one based on what was said or written by your current employer. I’m assuming this is not the case for you.
“No, actually I just avoided screwing up so that you would keep paying me. A rhesus monkey on a string could have done this job as well as I did, and wouldn’t have expected you to match his 401(k) payments.”
I’d suggest sticking it out as long as you can until your new job starts. I don’t know the rules about who gets severance, but at least your benefits and paychecks will continue while you stay employed. I’m sure it’s a sucky place to be at the moment, but maybe it will be more bearable now that you have an end date in sight. If it happens that time comes to quit (your new job is coming up) and you haven’t been fired yet, give adequate notice and be professional about it. It sucks that you often have to be more of a professional than your former boss, but it will look good for you in the long run.
If you have a long time before your next job starts, but you don’t need the income or benefits from your current position, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few weeks holiday between jobs. It will give you a chance to start with a clear head and get rid of any psychological baggage left over from your current spot. But do carefully consider your financial situation. There’s nothing worse than having an unexpected car breakdown when you had everything budgeted to the penny and no income coming in for a while.
Since you already have another job, what looks best on your resume (quitting vs. getting fired or laid off) may not be an issue for you. However, on the off case it’s still a concern for you, I’ll give you MHO.
I usually don’t look too highly on candidates who have quit their previous position without another one lined up. It makes me wonder why they couldn’t work things out to the point they’d choose no income and no benefits at all. Exceptions would be someone who quit to relocate (e.g. a spouse moved here and the candidate is following him/her) or someone who quit to go back to school and is now interviewing for something related to that new education. Saying something to the effect of “my former manager was an ass and I couldn’t work with him” would rule you out right away. Unless he’s doing something illegal or completely extreme, I figure we have asses at our company too, so a candidate had better be able to tolerate them.
I really don’t hold it against someone if they’ve been laid off. Our industry has had a number of large layoffs recently, so it’s not really a reflection on the candidate.
Firing is a whole other matter. There’s a lot to consider there. I consider someone being let go in a restructuring to be similar to a layoff: there’s a lot of it going on now in our industry, so you see a lot of very good people who were just unlucky. I’ve seen other managers come into our company and clean house by letting the best people go in order to bring in their own team. So I don’t hold that against anyone. It all depends on how you can spin your firing.
If you are considering legal action (age discrimination, racial prejudice) it is very important to establish that you performed your job adequately. Request copies of your last 3 years reviews, and make sure that they are favorable to you.
Next, get a lawyer skilled in labor relations, and keep him informed. With the knowledge that you are willing to fight back, you can often negotiate an excellent severance package.
I’ve been through this, and believe me, this is NO time to be out of work. The main thing is, be flexible. For instance, they might agree to pay your health insurance for a year…this is worth at least $10,000!
Above all, don’t panic, keep a cool head…and DO NOT sign ANYTHING!