I have a cow-orker who has been miserable with his job for the past few years. He finally took the initiative to find another position in another company and put in his two week’s notice.
He’s always been a bit grumpy and complainy, but it’s become relentless. Several times a day we have to hear how happy he is to be leaving hell and how horrible the place is. The implication, of course, is that those of us left behind are suckers and fools.
Thing is, it’s a pretty great job. I’ve been in jobs I’ve hated before, so I have some perspective. I suspect he will find out what that ‘grass is greener’ cliche is all about.
No, but the choice is simply whether to put up with it, or tell him the more he goes on like this, the happier you’ll all be to see him go. With no send-off drinks or mementoes. And see how much more sulking there’ll be till then.
I don’t know if it was acting the fool, but I gave notice at one job and they made me work the full four weeks out.
And I was actually trying - documenting everything, meetings up the wazoo with everyone so they understood what I was working on and what remained to be done, etc.
My last day I was sitting in an interminable QA meeting on somebody else’s code. 5:00pm arrived, then 5:15, then 5:30, and still we went on. Finally I stood up and said, “As of about forty minutes ago, I don’t work here. Good luck.” My manager said “Sit down - we’re not done here.”
I responded, “What are you going to do - fire me?” and walked out.
It just depends on the job and the person. It’s stupid for companies to expect unhappy employees to work out their final two weeks. Usually if you have vacation time or other PTO accrued they’ll have you use that up in those circumstances. But if an employee is just moving on to something better it behooves them not to burn their bridges, and that’s probably the best approach in any circumstance. Your last impression may be just as important as the first.
I was talking with my mother once about the company I work for. She retired a VP and had been working HR her whole life. She told me that the company I work for has a reputation for having the best benefits around for a fortune 500 company. Been that way for decades!
And I tend to believe her too. The last time we DIDN’T get paid profit sharing was the year after Bush Jr. left Office. Every since then we’ve been getting a 10 - 15% PS check at the beginning of the year.
And STILL, people complain. SMH
My feeling with working a notice period is that it’s a courtesy to the employer. If the employer is not going to return the courtesy, you’re not obligated to appease them. I applaud you for walking out and not being taken advantage of.
Exactly. By warning them two weeks early, you’re giving them the chance to get their shit together for after you leave. It’s a courtesy. You could very easily just walk in, tell them to fuck off, and leave, and there’d be nothing they could do about it. So any employer that abuses that courtesy period ought to be checked pretty hard; they shouldn’t give you any serious lip about showing up late, leaving early, not adhering to the dress code, etc… as you’re doing them a favor, and not the other way around.
I do agree that it’s bad form to put in your notice and immediately begin bad-mouthing the place you STILL work at, but I don’t see a lot of issue with not putting in any more than the barest minimum of actual work outside of preparing your co-workers and subordinates for your departure.
In the Army there was always the guy with Short Timer’s Attitude. People would get a little more mouthy and generally disappear for their last two weeks. Much of that is shrugged at because what are you gonna do? plus it takes a few weeks to out-process, so the disappearing stuff was tolerated. When I was stationed in Turkey, there was a hat that was painted bright colors and had FTA (F— The Army) across the front that was passed around to the shortest guy.
I hated my last job and smiled from ear to ear my last two weeks but I didn’t show any attitude with the exception of telling my manager that I couldn’t work on Saturday. He had me working Tuesday - Saturdays to cover the weekend and refused to listen to me when I asked about changing the schedule. I worked Saturdays because I was the lowest man on the Totem pole and that was it; he lectured me that it was fine that I had a wife and kid (both were brand new) if that’s what I want but he’s been through all that already. My whole point was that I wanted Saturdays to spend with my new family and I was a bad worker because of it.
Eh… so to make a pointless story pointlesser, I was happy to leave and it showed, I wasn’t a dick to my fellow techs because that would suck, and I covered my assignments like I was supposed to. The last Friday was the best as all I had to do was turn in my equipment and leave.
Last place I worked, I gave my notice and they wanted me off the property within 2 hours. That was their policy because they were afraid of what? sabotage perhaps? and I had no problem with it. It caused them a lot of grief because no one other than me knew how to use the database but that’s not my problem. I had a fun 2 week vacation instead of a frustrating period trying to teach people how to do my job.
Now why would you want to leave a place like that?
I’m retiring as soon as they stop making me offers I can’t refuse, and it was fun to get notification that I should be filling out performance review information. Don’t think so.
Acting the fool would be sabotaging work or not helping in a transition. I don’t think grousing counts - plenty of people do that who don’t leave.
When I quit a certain defunct company back in the early-mid 90’s, I diligently handed off all of my tasks.
At 3:30pm on my last day, with my sign-on revoked and all work off my desk, I was sitting with my feet up reading the newspaper because my asshole boss refused to allow me to leave early. He walks by and yells “We aren’t paying you to read the newspaper!” I smile and say “Yes you are”. He stomped off.
Twenty minutes later, still not being allowed to leave, I walk by his office and he’s in there showing vacation pictures to another manager. I pause and ask “Are you being paid to do that?”
I changed jobs in March. The reason I left the old one was that my boss couldn’t seem to keep me busy. I’d ask for things to do, and maybe by the next day, he’d dig up something. That went on for months, so I started looking around, and eventually, I was offered a job at a company that was busy and that would keep me occupied.
I gave notice on Weds for the Friday of the next week. Slacker boss insisted in the full 2 weeks, and since that took me to Weds, wouldn’t I please stay till Friday? OK, fine. Whatever. And guess what - most of that last week, I had *nothing *to do. I got tired of asking - by that point, I just didn’t care. But I kept my attitude to myself.
As it happened, one guy in our group left a few weeks before I did, and 2 others quit after I did - boss went from a team of 10 to 6 in less than a month. Wonder if the remaining folks are kept busy now??
My experience is that unhappy employees relax and brighten up a bit once they’ve given notice - they’re relieved it’s almost over and want to end on good terms with everyone if they can. This guy sounds very immature and I think you’re right about some important life lessons coming his way.
Heh. When I worked at a bookstore, there was one of the assistant managers who I loathed. He put in his notice…and then apparently, with three days to go, let a friend use his discount (a major no-no and firing offense).
He was fired on his last day of work. I could not have been happier.
Not nearly as fun - but when I gave notice at one large multi-national, I had to turn in my laptop at 10:00 AM, but if I left before 5:00 they would dock my final paycheck. I went out to my car, grabbed a book and sat in my office reading for the rest of the day as people stopped by to say goodbye.
Another company I gave notice, and soon there was a champagne chiller with bubbly at my desk on the last day - people stopped by to have a final drink with me before I left. I left on great terms, and still do some consulting for that firm.
Never burn bridges (though I do love Shodan’s story)
Yup, don’t burn bridges. That frying pan might look very comfy after a month in the fire. There isn’t always or even often an opportunity to ‘undo’, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to slam the door on your way out.
Thanks, but the reason I worked out the full four weeks of notice was that my boss’s boss asked me to work instead of taking the five weeks of PTO that I had built up. And I wanted to be dead sure they couldn’t screw me out of the pay for my built-up PTO.
And I did make a good-faith effort to work during the last month I was there - finishing up what I could, documenting what I had done and what was left to be done, and so forth. But enough is enough.
Maybe it is a better policy to show up at their desk with a box for their belongings ten minutes after they hand in their resignation and walk them out the door. If they needed my work so badly that they wanted to wring four more weeks out of me, they should have listened to me at my last performance review when I told them that I was being underpaid.
I’ve worked in a couple of companies which preferred contractors or temps to internal workers in anything but their “core” positions. It wasn’t uncommon to have “the new guy” be the same person who’d designed the setup he was now being hired to maintain or distribute (I got to be one of those); one dude I knew was in that particular company and project for the third time when I met him and I think the fifth when I was repeating.
Sometimes your former employer turns out to be your next employer.
