Two week's notice - HA!

The BBQ Pit
21

Where and how can we find out what States are “at will” states, and which aren’t? Is California an “at will” state?

I have a related tale, I guess I’ll share. I used to work at a little retail store, the kind with a high turnover in employees and supervisors, and a high percentage of useless employees. I had worked there for about 3 years, and was a steady and reliable employee. One of the understandings I had when I was originally hired was that I would NOT work Sundays. Sunday was church and family day, a day I could rely on to NOT have to work. Unless the store was on fire and I came out to help put out the flames, I wasn’t going to be there. And this was fine for 3 years, through several managers. Oh, they’d fuss and complain a bit, but since I worked a lot of shit hours, hours that other people wouldn’t or couldn’t work, they went along with it. Why not? Everyone who worked there had days or hours that they couldn’t work. Same with me.

Then I had this new manager, who, despite a some obvious flaws, was generally OK. But she just wouldn’t accept my reasons for not working Sundays. Church wasn’t a good enough reason. She often said, school was a good reason, kids, but not church. The fact that I was originally hired with the understanding that I wouldn’t work Sundays wasn’t a good enough reason. (I wrote in my original job application - “Can’t work Sundays”.) This supervisor thought I was “just kidding” about going to church, and she and her assistant manager would sometimes say “Aw, come on… You aren’t REALLY serious. Are you some sort of religious fanatic?” Which I thought was none of their damned business. I didn’t work Sundays, for my own reasons, I didn’t need to get my reasons “cleared” or “approved” by anyone. (What I really should have done was never told them my reasons for not working Sundays, just said it was “personal”.)

So, they kept on pushing me about it. And one day, when the next week’s schedule was posted, there I was, scheduled for a Sunday. I immediately told the supervisor that I couldn’t work it, and she just brushed me off with “You have to do it, this is retail. That’s how things are.” I knew that this had been brewing for a long time. It was no oversight, it was a deliberate thing she was pulling on me. So, I quit on the spot. I gave my 2 weeks notice, was really polite about it, but I flat out quit. Which blew her away. I was a good employee, and I knew that it wasn’t her intent to get rid of me. I could tell by how shocked she was, and how she sucked up to me for the next two weeks. She NEVER saw it coming. She thought she’d “control” me, and show everyone else that I was just full of shit about my insistance that I WOULD NOT work on Sundays. Well, I showed 'em! Good riddance, it was a dead-end, hellish job anyway.

22

CA has no 2 week requirement.

23

I’ve only worked in California, but I don’t think that any place can require you to give two weeks’ notice. Every place I’ve worked would give you notice, or pay in lieu of notice though, if the company decided you were leaving.

If the decision is yours to leave, the companies I’ve worked for expect that you will give two weeks’ notice although it’s not legally required that you do. But if you quit on the spot, they can delay giving you your final paycheque. “Oh, we didn’t expect you to leave! It takes time to print a special cheque!” Actually, I think they just want to “punish” people who don’t give notice.

I believe that a company is required to give you two weeks’ pay in lieu of notice if they want you out right away. They also must pay you for any unused vacation you may have accrued, bit not for unused personal days or sick days.

Ammendment XIV:

I think the 14th Ammendment does not require giving an employer two weeks’ notice. I think that not being allowed to leave a job would constitute “involuntary servitude”.

24

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Unless you sign an employment agreement stating that you will give two weeks notice. An employer can require that.

25

Unless it is an at-will state oldscratch, then the employer can’t put it into a contract.

One that I am curious about is that I was told that noncompetive clauses in CA were either illegal or unforcable. And that you could scratch any such clause out of your contract when signing in CA without reprisal. Any one know if this is true?

26

I’m not sure on that one Narile. I do know of two specific labor laws that are broken in CA constantly. One is that you supposedly can’t speak of your income to other employees. Companies always say “Now this is confidential so you can’t tell anyone else”. Bullshit. Not only can you, it’s illegal for them to even suggest that you can’t.

The other is overtime for salaried employees. Most salaried employees are supposed to be paid overtime but aren’t.

27

I’m a salaried employee and don’t get paid overtime, but I don’t work overtime, either.

Everyday theses bastards I work for come up with news ways of being complete inhumane bastards. The money they’ve wasted in hiring new people could have easily gone to the 3-4 employees that actually gave a shit about their jobs.

My goodbye and fuck-you letter continues to compose itself in my mind. I’ll have to be careful not to say anything that could misconstrued as a threat (ie: you’re gonna pay for your incompetence, etc).

I defy these low-life, scum-sucking, slime-infested, bowel maggots to try and contact me. They’ve got a computer guy (who’s been fucking them for years), let HIM figure out how I did my job!!

28

Mr. Blue Sky, you should really consider writing a polite resignation letter. You should also consider giving two weeks notice. Burning bridges is just not a good philosophy. You can always use more people on your side, even jerks. You never know when you might need a reference, or might run into these folks again in some other way.

29

Just out of curiosity, suppose you live in an “at will” state. If they require you to give 2 weeks notice and you just walk in and say “bite me, I quit”, and walk out the door, what are they going to do? Follow after you and grab you by the hair and pull you back in to the building and throw you in a room and lock you up for two weeks?

Where I work, if I get upset enough to quit, and I am close to it, I won’t give notice at all. I’ll just leave my keys on my bosses desk. The whole place will be in a world of hurt because I am the only person in the whole business that knows how to do my job. It would serve the jerks right. I’ll show them it’s not nice to NOT give a guy a raise in 12 years!! (Actually I have gotten raises, but I have changed positions in the company 3 times and one of them I had to take a pay cut, so now I am all the way back UP to where I was 12 years ago.) Don’t ask, it’s a really long boring story as to why I haven’t already quit. Anyway, the owner of my company is one of those guys that is “going to take it all with him”. You know, always searching for “better” insurance. Ya, for his pocket book!
I’m on vacation next week, and I really hope I find another job. I really want to say, “take this job and shove it, I ain’t workin’ here no more”. No polite resignation letter for me, no sir.

Wish me luck.

30

Oh, yeah, I forgot to give you some background on this company: about 10 years ago the ENTIRE SALES STAFF (10 salesmen) all quit because the bosses were ripping them off on commissions!! About 2 years ago, the entire sales staff nearly walked again because of the same thing!!

Sorry, Bill H., while I appreciate your advice, it just doesn’t apply to the people. I will NEVER need these people again. And if anyone asks why, I’ll be more than happy to tell all.

31

Mr. Blue Sky, it’s really more of an attitude/philosophy/outlook/karma thing I’m referring to. If you smile and walk away, you leave options. If you go out of your way to make things unpleasant, you close doors. And I know, you’re not the one who started the unpleasantness, but you can still be the better man.

I can tell you that I’ve left two positions because things or people were screwed up and I was tempted to flip off the offenders on the way out. Fortunately, I had the good sense to cool down, help train my replacement, etc. One of the losers turned out to be a lousy boss but a decent person in other aspects and got me into another good work situation two jobs down the road. The other one later became a customer for the new company I worked at (because I knew him). It’s funny how life works out.

Anyway, the pleasure of burning a bridge is very brief. The effect lasts forever. Consider being the bigger man.

32

Sorry about the shouting in the above. Unintentional.

33

Bill H. - Who’s to say that I’m not a karmic agent paying these people back for what they’ve done?

34

I picked up this thread after returning from a wedding. The work stuff starts now. Six weeks ago I told my boss about an upcomming wedding I would like to attend. Boss said make a note for the files. I made the note , marked the calender, informed other workers. The week before the wedding I checked the schedule, no time off! Talked to Boss, who informed me that my work had not been up to standards. Boss couldnt tell me this sooner? Made a statement that if I didnt like the job, perhaps I should look else where. Slow burn. I, like many others in this thread, do many things that other workers can’t or won’t. Stayed calm, told Boss if thats the way they felt, heres the keys. “Wait” said Boss, its not that you cant have the day off I just need you to open the store, I’ll be here at 10 o’clock, the wedding was at 11. It was strange to me that the Boss who hardly ever works on Saturdays, would be comming in, why not move up the time an other worker was to show up? Found out the reason from another worker. The person who was normaly scheduled to be there on Sats. at noon had been heard to say that if I got time off she wasnt comming in. A very long talk will happen on Monday morning. MTS

35

There was a case of a newsman in Dallas who switched stations. Apparantly his old contract had some sort of non-competitive clause in it and his old station sued to prevent him from going on the air. The judge ruled that Texas was a right to work state so you couldn’t stop him from getting a new job. If they didn’t want him to work then they’d have to pay him his salary for the year of non competition.

Marc

36

Just gotta toss in another $0.02 here. When I leave I will give 2 weeks notice and I will write a nice letter of resignation. I will do that in order to avoid smoldering bridges.

I avoid those because, while I live in a fairly large town, my field of work puts me in a small pond. If I shit on the floor and walk out it could cost me money. Doors tend to get closed when you do stuff like that. Former bosses hang around a lot longer than you might think and they do chat. Future bosses listen and watch.

I think I can get the point across in my own way, behind closed doors. But I’ll do it in a way that doesn’t shoot me in the foot. Besides, if they cut me loose early, I could use the vacation anyway.

37

If I were to give two weeks, here’s what would happen:

First, they would try to woo me back with more money. Well, if I’m that valuable, they should have given more to begin with. However, money is not the issue. It’s the atmosphere of lies and backstabbing and constant complaining that’s driving me away.

Second, after refusing the money, the semi-hostile attitudes would kick in.

Third, as the two weeks come to a close, the thinly-veiled back stabbing would begin. Suddenly I would go from valued employee to slacker who can’t do anything right and has fucked up repeatedly (of course, it was OK, THEN, but not now).

I’ve seen this happen twice in the past THREE WEEKS!!

Nope, the only way to deal with these people is to walk away. I am reconsidering the degree of hatred I’m going to put in my letter, though. I may just leave at, “I quit” and tell them where all the info relating to my PC can be found, and where to send my 401K & health insurance info.

38

I worked at a pharmaceutical company and after about a month I found out they were doing things that were not only unethical but illegal. So I gave two weeks notice. My supervisor, knowing that I was going to her boss with my complaints, left a “don’t come back tomorrow” message on my machine.

Guess what? That meant I either had to be paid for the two weeks or I could collect unemployment. I got two weeks paid, AND I went to the boss. The bitch got fired.

All was well in my happy little world.