One of your colleagues at work wins the Super-Ultra-Mega-Ball lottery and now has more money than he knows what to do with - He’s never been very happy working here, so he comes to work the next day and tells everyone that he will pay anyone a year’s salary if they just walk out and don’t return to work after lunch.
So you’ve been offered a year’s salary to walk away from your job - do you take it?
Poll to follow…
ETA: in this hypothetical, you have reason to trust the offer, but if nothing could ever assure you, there’s a poll option for that.
Your poll misses “no, that’s a really bastardly thing to do, even if you don’t much like your job”
That is, if I ever walk off a job, it’s going to be because someone there did something really bad and evil, and I’m not going to put up with it any longer
(also, on a really pragmatic note, this sounds like bad strategy if I ever intend getting any job ever again. How do you explain that on your CV?)
Hypothetical, since I’m not currently working for money most of the time
1 year’s salary is fuck-all in my current low-end job and while it would be fun to have a year off I’d be screwed afterwards since I don’t have any desirable skills to get me a better one. It would have to be at least 5 times that for me to start thinking about it seriously.
My financial advisor says I can retire now. I’m hanging around another 12-18 months to await mizpullin’s arrival at the same milepost. So heck yeah I’d take it. I’m about one bad assignment/review from hitting the door anyway.
So am I walking out sight-unseen? Or am I telling my boss “Yo, I’m taking his offer sorry bro” and leaving?
I wouldn’t do the first one because that’s a massive dick move; just walking out and never returning. The second one, however, doesn’t seem nice, but not so bad.
I voted “No, I like my job” but agree with other posters that I wouldn’t do it even if I wasn’t happy with my job. I am getting close to the point where retirement is a major concern and I wouldn’t want to have to look for a new job at this point. I’m only 5-10 years from retirement and I want those years to be pleasant and productive while earning the money I need for a long and eventful retirement. One years salary isn’t enough money to make that happen.
Also, it’s a crummy thing to do to my coworkers, who I like and would leave in the lurch. It’s just not the way I conduct myself at work. If it was 10 years, plus paying for my medical insurance, I’d consider it.
I work for myself but I’ve got several other business that I’m getting lined up currently. I’d take the cash and consult with my current clients for free until their projects were done and then jump to one of my new companies. All in all it sounds like a sweet deal.
I’m not crazy about my job - it’s OK - but I need the money, at least for several years to come. But if I were one year away from my planned retirement date, would I take this guy up on his offer?
No.
Like I said, I’m not crazy about my job, but my coworkers (including my boss) are good people; it would make a mess for them if I departed on a moment’s notice, and I wouldn’t want to do that to them.
No. For one thing I like my job and, more importantly, respect the owner. More pragmatically, looking for a new job wouldn’t be a lot of fun when I can’t use my current job as a reference. And I will need a new job.
There’s nothing to say you can’t start looking for a new job tomorrow. Even if it takes you two or three months to find a new job, you end up with time off & a nice chunk o’ change in your bank account.
I wouldn’t do it simply because I’d just have to find another job in 12 months, and the industry I’m in is small enough that word would get around what I did, affecting my rehire chances.
Now if it was 20 years salary, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I like my coworkers too, but I’ve seen enough people leave with little/no notice to know that no one is as indispensable as they think they are, and companies do manage to struggle through much easier than you’d think when someone disappears.
Why in the world would you want or even try to explain it on your resume? That’s what the interview is for. Your resume lists the date you left a job; it doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) list why you left.
In this economy, getting a new job is quite easy for the average person. As long as you provide some sort of reference, I doubt that most hiring managers will care all that much who it’s from. I imagine that some would even hire you without any references at all.
Consider me gone without notice. As it is I am laid off effective November 30 anyway and eligible for 6 months’ pay as severance, so advancing that schedule by 5 months in exchange for 12 months’ pay gives me a whole month off for free.
Besides, I’m already closing a deal on my replacement job. Going over to The Dark Side to work against insurance companies for a while. Should hear from them any minute now in fact–if they get the numbers right I’ll be gone by lunchtime.
Coworkers: Normally agree, but in my case my coworkers have been completely disconnected from my work product–I’d only be depriving them of my charming companionship. I am endearing if you’re forced to hang with me for any amount of time, evidently.
How I conduct myself at work: Normally, also yes. Be Professional, even in the face of a petty adversary. Normally. But my employer has been much more malignant than “petty” of late. My loyalty has been withdrawn.
I’m going to be 64 soon, I have been working full-time for 40 years and would like to retire. A year’s salary would be the perfect push I need to quit my job and let someone much younger (and cheaper) take over my position (program manager at large tech company). Our company used to have an early retirement plan (1 year’s salary + 2 years health insurance) but they stopped it a few years ago. Some people were taking early retirement and then getting rehired as consultants.
