I’ve been a manager at this McDonalds for a little over a year now. I’ve been with the company for almost three. Need less to say, I’m growing sick of McDonalds. A friend of mine offered me a job, where he’ll be my manager, I’ll be making more that I do currently, and working better hours. So I accepted, and gave my notice to my store manager at McDonalds. This was about 3 weeks ago. Everyday since then, I’ve heard about 8 times how hurt they’ll be when I’m gone.My store manager throws it into every conversation we have. The crew people keep telling me how they’re thinking about quitting, because I’m leaving and the store’s gonna suck after I’m gone. Patriacia, the older woman who does back drive thru at night, begs me to stay, because she absolutely hates the manager who’s taking my closing spot. One of my customers heard me say that I was leaving, and he said before he left that “it’s a damn shame, you were one of the good ones.”
I admit, it feels good to have people love me that much. But I just want to slip out quietly, and not feel guilty! Is that too much to ask? Yesteray, they brought me a going away cake, even though my last official day is next Saturday. I almost cried…this is a really good group of people, and I’m really going to miss them. But I just need a change, at least for a little while…can’t they let me quit without making me feel so damned guilty?
Or more to the point, they’d have made this much of a fuss about you before you gave notice. It’s similar to the way that the only time you’ll ever hear only wonderful, heartwarming stories about a person is at that person’s funeral.
Personally, I think people should show appreciation for their fellow human beings while they’re still around to acknowledge it, not after a fatal diagnosis or the giving of a resignation notice. But we almost never do.
So, basically, what the manager is saying is that you’re valuable enough for him to whine about your loss, but not valuable enough to pay you decently or give you good hours. I sympathize with your coworkers, underlings, and customers, but your manager needs to go stick his head in the fry vat.
Exactly…before I gave my notice, I received a 15 cent raise along with my review, which I neve even saw. After I quit, they were willing to match what I make at my new job, giving me an additional 85 cents an hour. Not a whole lot, but it would have been nice to have back when I got the first raise…
This is typical retail/food service bullshit manipulation. There is this cult of “job loyalty” that places like this try to establish in order to convince people to do incredibly hard work for almost no money. Other manifestations:
The war stories about how sick someone was and how they came in anywy, with the underlying message that it is somehow a heroic, selfless act to pass a kidney stone in the bathroom on your 15 minute break and still come back to work. These stories inevitable come up when some whinner calls in sick just cause she in running a temperature of 103 and has a broken ankle. The unstated message is that you can expect to be talked about if you evr have the nerve to call in sick.
War stories about super-long shifts. "Oh yeah? I once worked 25 hours straight, slept four hours, and came back and covered Suzie’s shift because that bitch wanted us to believe the deoctoe said she couldn’t come back until 48 hours after the delivery . . .Implying, once again, that you must be a wimp for not being willing to pick up a shift after yours is over, never mind that you’ve already been there eight hours, you have a class, or your sister is gettting married. It’s about loyalty.
Lying about overtime. I can’t believe how corporate America has managed to brainwash drudges to the point where they will do this, but I see it quite a bit: upper management say “Absolutly NO overtime under any circumstances” but then agrees to pay for so few hours that if anything goes wrong–if one person is sick–someone has to cover that person and ends up with over 40 hours for a given week. So what do they do? They lie, and subtract 3 or 4 or 5 hours from sonewhere. I can’t stand this–if you closed the store for half a day because it simply wasn’t possible to meet all criteria, then you can be pretty damn surethat criteria would open up.
This perverted form of the “work ethic” really allows retail/food-service places to get away from asking more from a schmuck making $6.00/hr than you would ever ask of someone making six figures. And then these exact same people turn around and openly assume that all thier employees are criminals (odn’t get me started on mandatory bag searches and such at retail establishments.)
Qadgop the Mercotan you would have kicked ass in psychiatry.
Pam- The other posters are right - smile, nod, bear with it, and then RUN for your life. RUN, child, RUN! I’ve been there before! Your former employers are out to get you back - to whack you over the head with guilt until you crawl back to them, apologize, and take your old job back! With a demotion!
::: feeling paranoia invade her sick little miiiind… ::::
Yup, what everyone else said. Also, it might help to remember that any company will screw you at any time if it benefits them to do so. No matter how nice your manager is, or any other good things you have going on at a job. You as an employee are never as important as making profits. Never. Now go, and feel guilt no more.
This happens to so many people I know, especially women - you ask for a raise or a promotion, they don’t give it to you, you get a better job offer, give notice, and suddenly the promotion and raise comes through and they try to make you feel guilty about leaving. I’ve had some friends actually consider staying in their old jobs at that point, purely out of guilt - “Ken really went out on a limb to get me that raise, it would be bad to leave now.” No, bullshit. Be gracious and nice so you leave a good impression, but get the fuck out. You’ll feel guilty for exactly 2 weeks (or whatever the length of your notice is) and then you’ll have a new job and never really care about your old department and its woes again!
funny thing. When you move up to “more professional” jobs. You leave, take all your stuff and then give notice. Or you get whacked when you come back from lunch and a security guard escorts you to personnel.
Don’t know. If I was on the way out, getting in my face would be a good way to get me out quicker.
What everyone else said, plus:
It is really their problem. They were able to run the place before you were there and they will be able to run it after you are gone.
Pammipoo, I speak from experience. After 14 years of managing fast food joints, I also decided it was time for me to get the hell out.
And I had all the same things said/done to me also. Seems like once you’ve been there for a while, they get the idea in their head that you would “never” go anywhere else. Never mind the fact that the 70 hour work weeks, the low pay (and I was one of the higher payed managers in the region), and all the other headaches that go with the job, just isn’t worth it. But also from the other side, they’re losing someone who made their job brighter/easier/better, and they feel it (I’m speaking of the regular crewmembers, NOT upper management, whether it be your franchise owner or district/regional managers, those people are only interested in the bottom line, and well, they’ll do anything to get it, which usually means dumping on the people that actually RUN their stores and make their money for them.)
So Take the crewmembers sayings as praise, and take heart that you will be missed, and anyone else, just hit the mute button and let it fall on deaf ears. And get out while you still can!!! Trust me on this, 14 years in fast food does things to the mind
