I also quit my job today
Although I didn't get into a blazing row, sleep elsewhere and get drunk- so my story is a bit more boring than thx1138's.
But it still felt fucking great to do it!!!! I've been so pissed off there for the last year or so, constantly getting more and more work dumped on me for no more money, and when my supervisor (and v. good friend) handed his notice
in a couple of months ago I knew time was up. He warned me what would happen and it did literally within half an hour of him leaving the office.
So I've been looking since and thankfully on my second interview I was offered the job. Can't wait to start, it's such interesting work without the superfluous crap involved of my current position.
I've dreamed of handing my notice in and doing something outraegeous but I could never have the balls to do it. Has anyone ever had the gall to do it, or heard of someone who did? There's loads of Urban Legends, but what about "bona-fide I was there" versions
But it still felt fucking great to do it!!!! I've been so pissed off there for the last year or so, constantly getting more and more work dumped on me for no more money, and when my supervisor (and v. good friend) handed his notice
in a couple of months ago I knew time was up. He warned me what would happen and it did literally within half an hour of him leaving the office.
So I've been looking since and thankfully on my second interview I was offered the job. Can't wait to start, it's such interesting work without the superfluous crap involved of my current position.
I've dreamed of handing my notice in and doing something outraegeous but I could never have the balls to do it. Has anyone ever had the gall to do it, or heard of someone who did? There's loads of Urban Legends, but what about "bona-fide I was there" versions
Post edited by Vampyre on
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I haven't quit a job in 11 years! Mind you, I haven't had a proper job to quit since then :lol:
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
Never bloody works though,,,,, :(
My Xmas bonus? $500. Oddly, that year the sons of the owner got $150,000 bonus (and they were a pair of idiots I not-very-affectionately referred to as Tweedledum and Tweedledummer).
Of course, I complained about this, and got told to back down. I then heard through the grapevine that they were looking for someone to replace me within the month (they were not used to people standing up for themselves as they viewed themselves as in a job-starved market).
Within a week I found a contract position and gave them five days notice.
They were not impressed as I was right in the middle of a rush job that would have made them a bunch more money...
Apparently, they're still pissed off about that :)
Andrew
Felt so good, my money was going up 40%, i was on terrible money at the time despite 10 years of great service. The MD tried to persuade me to stay and offered me more money (not tons) but i said to them, if you offered me this money months ago for my hard work etc i wouldnt have ever looked for another job.
Even with their 3 grand raise i would have been underpaid but i would have stayed, now instead they have to hire a new person at the proper rate which would have been much more.
Some companies loyalty just doesnt get you anywhere anymore
Ouch.
I used to write a ton of back-end data-processing systems, working 16-hour days in order to make it powerful enough so that the consultants can do complex analysis at the touch of a button.
So... the consultants got all the credit for the work because they were the ones presenting the reports generated by my systems, they got the bonuses, I got nothing.
I complained, only to be told I should be grateful for having a job there because of the two (or was it three by that time?) massive redundancy sessions in the recent couple of years. The theory was that, as they kept me on, I owed them.
Realising that it didn't matter what I did because I still got paid the same, I spent the following eight months doing my own stuff in the office before telling them to stick it.
Exactly. Don't ever fall into the trap some bosses lay for you when they say "stay with us through this tough time and we'll reward you later."
For one company I worked for, one of the directors walked around the office saying "sorry we didn't give you a payrise or bonus - have a Snickers bar."
Of course, the bosses got raises (and they had the nerve to admit as much), and the plebs who put in the hard work got nothing.
I used to be sooo mr loyal but companies just screw you over and you are sadly just a number. Currently freelance but 'may' join this company i'm doing lots of work for, theyre much smaller though and i think theyre good but still unsure.
But I did it all sensible like cos' I didn't want to lose out on my Holiday pay :D
My last job here though a temp job got their 3 months out of me then cut me loose, bastards I'm sick of that happening.
But on the plus side I have sat around drinking beer and doing bollocks all for the last 3 weeks (apart from my wood painting, which was job number 3, but has now became job number 1, the money for what I do isn't bad, but it isn't enough to live on).
30 year mental note - remember this for retirement speech.
Anyway it got to easter and the store opening times changed one week but because nobody ever spoke to me, I wasn't told so I just came in at normal time.
My fat sweaty bitch of a supervisor decided to give my a dressing down in front of absolutely everyone on the shop floor, she thought she was clever trying to look cool in front of her workmates, the air was blue, the language from her was foul but I just stood there with a plan in mind and waited for her to finish.
Once she shut up I went back to work and my next job was to use the really big push along floor machine. I filled the machine up with water (80 litres approx), got my coat popped it on top of the machine and drove the machine into the middle of the store. Looked at my watch, saw it was 5 minutes before opening and that the side door was allready open, popped my coat on, hit the dump lever and quietly walked out of the store as over 80 litres of water poured out, flooding the place.
Soooo funny watching all those miserable fuckers slipping and sliding trying to get to the machine and turn it off. Store was closed for the entire morning as they tried to clean up the mess.
Moral of the story is, I've been in enough shitpile jobs and had enough crap bosses to know every trick under the sun. Treat me right and I won't have a problem, but piss me around and face my vengance
bwah ha ha ha ha
Best of all, I still got my severance pay, holiday pay etc.
With wife, 2 kids and bills to pay, it's difficult to quit a job 'just like that'. I quit my previous job last year and I think I was lucky to find the one that I have now. Hopefully sooner or later I will find the job that will finally allow me to buy a home (sniff).
Companies are just greedy entities. The concept of loyalty is lost on them, and has been since the fifties.
I make it a rule *never* to accept a counter-offer once I've said I'm leaving. If I am worth that money now, I was worth that money before, so why weren't they paying me it? Also, once you've shown you're capable of threatening to leave, you're a marked man... It may take a while, but they'll be figuring out how to replace you with someone less 'troublesome'.
Oh, and ZXBruno: Go to evening school. Seriously... Get some qualifications - even if they're vocation specific, such as Cisco or Microsoft certification... It helps. Especially with the state of the economy right now... Even I'm getting concerned, and I'm pretty well qualified and usually in demand... However, as a consultant, we're usually one of the first to feel the pinch when there is a recession. I'm just hoping that it will either correct itself, or I can squirrel away enough funds to ride it out...
(Not helped when the wife just bought a bloody new car when I was out of town :( grrr... )
Andrew
I pretty much let my wife get away with murder, because she extends me the same courtesy (by which I mean I'll do it anyway).
But if she did that, I'd kick her tits right over her fuckin' shoulders.
Tough one really. I see lots of people with better jobs than me but theyre stressed as anything, working crazy hours. Sometimes i think i would rather just be happy and content in my job rather than be Mr Career and climb up that corporate ladder.
Tough one about degrees etc, i havent got anything like that but have done alright overall. Some companies i know want you to have lots of qualifications other ones dont bother at all as long as you can do the job. The company i'm currently freelancing for (and it looks like a full time job) havent even asked about my qualifications.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
I have no idea how you make it in California with a Wife and kids on that kind of money Bruno!
Go work for a corporation, especially a global one.
You'll never truly feel like a tiny cog in a massive machine until you do.
With credit, a second job, a working wife and a calculator on my hand. Surprisingly, my credit is above average (+-710). I'm never late on my bills and I stopped using credit to buy Spectrum stuff.
I'm going to update my profile at monster.com and see if I can do some part-time work. I can setup sound equipment, edit audio and video, do word processing, desktop publishing, radio mixer operator, etc.
Once my financial situation improves, I'll probably take some certifications, A+, etc. But I can't afford it right now.
And I will go to that Speccy meet-up. I don't know how, but I will!
Andrew, it's interesting that you mention your work. I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'm interested in knowing exactly what a consultant does. One of my customers last week, a consultant, was the one who told me I should start building my own business on my available free time. He also told me I would do a lot more money than I do now, and that Staples would never pay me what I deserve, but other people would. I hope he's telling the truth!
Anyway, I just got another 'Thank you' letter from Staples vice-president and letters from customer with compliments. If I get real recognition here, I have no reason to quit this job (yet).
Well I have actually, one time. That turned out to be a great gig -- free snacks and drinks, free buffet dinner for those who stayed late on Fridays, paid opportunities to take university courses during work hours (they had a satellite classroom where the university lecture was beamed to a giant screen via satellite), monthly team-building exercises that meant paid leisure excursions (a skybox at a baseball game complete with buffet, betting at the horsetrack with seed money, bowling, etc), free trips to corporate head-office at least twice a year, free trips to the school you graduated from if you were selected to be a recruiter (once a year), exposure to many amazingly talented people, and plenty of room for professional growth. My boss was fantastic and competent, always had great constructive feedback from code-review and design meetings and always kept me informed of opportunities in the company.
It probably helped that I was always 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule so we always got along well. Either I'm a genius or he was an excellent project manager :D Being so far ahead of schedule, it was the most stress-free job of my life. I could kick back and take a nap if I wanted, although that's something I'd never do and it's not like there wasn't work to do -- there always was something but it was always the case that schedules were easily met.
So work in a large corporation doesn't have to be bad.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
Never quit without having another job to go on to.
That sounds rather good! So, why did you quit then?
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
There are lots of different flavours of consultant out there... I'm a computer consultant which pretty much means companies hire me to write/fix software... Usually the latter after it's been screwed up by their in-house team... It's a pretty lucrative business, but it took me a while to build up my CV... I had a couple of lucky breaks back in the 90s when the UK went consultant crazy and anybody who'd even sniffed a computer could get a consulting gig... Luckily for me, I was good at it, and apart from a couple of short breaks during recessions (where I had to retreat to full-time employment for a year or so...) I've been doing it ever since.
Anyway, to summarize... sounds like your customer is a different type of consultant... but it sounds like he was talking sense. If you're in regular contact with him ask him if he knows anyone you could talk to - or who could use your services... Word of mouth is an extremely effective tool.
Andrew
It was good. I left because I didn't like living there and I wanted to complete my graduate degree (they lured me away while I was working on a master's). Those sorts of perks are only available in large corporations so I just wanted to point out that if the company has identified a class of its employees as its bread and butter, they will reward. I had the impression that these sorts of benefits were common in large silicon valley companies.
Write games in C using Z88DK and SP1
I know because thats how I initially met him I was one of the workers...he never told me/us anything we didn't already know or had suggested in the past.
He had to stop working in September because he said 'If I earn any more this year it will screw up my tax bracket'.
The main skill involved in Consulting is being able to bullshit real good in any situation, he is a first class bullshitter.
In this situation, contractors do what they're told... Consultants tell the customer what is best for them based on their needs, and how to do it...
(If they're ethical that is... alternatively, you can screw them for consulting fees... I try not to though... I consider it my job to make myself redundant as quickly as possible.)
Andrew
The tale of the frogs tea party.
Once upon a time in a country far away (well Holland) we had just finished a very big oil refinery design. This was big even by those sort of jobs.
The way these things work is you do the job, finish it, then you sit on your arse for a couple of weeks while a clean room review is done. Of course if they find anything worth while you fix it in those couple of weeks but you never get any real changes.
So what happens is a lot of people hand there notice in and move on to the next job leaving a skeleton crew to do the odd changes.
Anyway I was staying on to do the build and commissioning and I'd been messing about with the printing system to try and fix some problems we had been having since we changed systems.
About half way through the final check I got called to the boardroom "when you've got a minute". So I wonder in and everybody is there, all the department heads and the lot.
The first thing you think about is "how did we miss a screw up this big?"
They have the big GA site drawings scattered all over the table and one of them calls me over.
He points out what look like some bad printing, just the odd pixel out of place but quite a few of them.
Is this something to do with printing stuff you've been messing about with?.
With certainty I could say No.
Can you check out what it is for us?.
Sure.
So I go down to one of the CAD terminals and call up the GA's.
These guys have been looking at A0 drawings of a site about 10 miles long so the scale is roughly 4 foot on the paper = 10 miles in real life. On the CAD I can zoom down to a size of about 1 ten millionth of an inch.
So I zoom down to one of these rouge pixels and all of a sudden you can see a group of frogs sitting having a tea party on top of one of the pipes.
This is where you start to get a bad feeling.
Sure enough every one I zoom into has got frogs doing something. There's a load playing cards and another group who look as if there singing, just hanging off pipes or sunbathing on the top of tanks. All sorts.
The good thing was that at least they could be switched off so they didn't display so I ran off a new set of prints and took them upstairs. I told them the truth, that they had been printed with the wrong filters on, I just didn't mention what I was filtering out.
My departmental head had been with me when we looked at the drawings but didn't seem willing to add to my explanation. He went ballistic later (not with me, I buggered off to the pub at lunchtime and stayed there for the afternoon, I could see what was going to happen) but there was never a chance of finding out who actually did it.
I have always assumed it was a parting present from one of the guys that had left.
That was a great story! Funny thing no matter how serious.
You'd think that any additions or changes would be saved under a diff. rev. number and date/time-stamp ... or according to some similar system. And then each person involved would be held accountable for each change etc.
Oh, well.
Skarpo
:-)