I WANT TO QUIT MY JOB RIGHT NOW

Problems with quitting, which I so desperately want to do: I have no idea how to find a job in the aspect of the industry that I am interested in without my boss finding out. Clearly anywhere I applied would want a reference, and if she found out I was jumping ship I doubt she’d be inclined to give a good one. I don’t even know if 4 months of experience is enough to get me another position, or how bad it would look for me to leave so soon. Also, when I signed on, I implied that I would be willing to stay for 2 years (oops). My boss can’t even work the fax machine, so she will totally freak out at the idea of training someone new all over again. My life will almost undoubtedly be an insane hell from the moment my boss finds out I want to leave until the moment that I actually do.

I’ve never quit a job in this manner before and it seems scary and irresponsible but I don’t know how much long I can take it. There’s a lot of other stuff going on in my life (sick parents, recent breakup with bf of three years), and I’m pretty close to just snapping. I cry most days. I used to work at a group home for disturbed and physically violent teenagers and I was less stressed out there. I don’t want to sabotage my chances for a future in this industry, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep doing a job I hate that enables only my poverty. Advice welcome.

Unless your boss LAWFULLY TERMINATES you, which basically means she fires you for being a no-show alcoholic who never calls in or you are found using schedule one substances while on the job, she CANNOT legally give you a bad reference with an aim to prevent your employment anywhere else. You can sue her fucking lights out if she does, even if you get the other job.

Please get out and find somewhere else to work.

But from everything I'm hearing, maybe the whole industry is wrong for me. Maybe I should just become a high school English teacher like I almost did right out of college, and accept that I'll never make a lot of money in exchange for not hating my life. I don't know what else to do.

Is this true?! Holy crap! I'm quitting ASAP.

See section VII, Defamation.

I worked in publishing for a couple of years after I graduated from college and found out it was not for me pretty quickly -- I probably stuck around longer in a job I did not enjoy than I should have. I know things might seem bad right now but I think it is great that you are able to recognize early on that this is something you're not suited for and are getting ready to move on to something else. Good luck, lmn.

Yeah that's kinda why I don't understand what use "references" are in the modern world. I mean they literally can't say anything about you unless you're on record as having broken the law or found in breach of a contract.

well, references can be people you've worked with. it's not quite the same as someone verifying previous employment dates, etc. with your former boss.

Me too.

I am going to school! In MONTANA.

I worked for 2 years in NYC in a crap EA job. I only stayed bc I wanted to stay in NYC and didn't want to do anything else enough to leave. I figured the next job I got would be just as bad as that one. Anyway, when I finally left, my boss gave me a bad reference to the book store I applied to work at, but they hired me anyway. If you like publishing well enough, keep your eyes open for better jobs at your company. If you can stick it out, people can get promoted after a year or so. If you really hate it and don't see the point of sticking around, why not try temping? You'll be doing the same stuff and probably getting paid better.

and just fyi, lmn, you're working for The Crazy Person. everyone i know who has worked an arts-related job has worked for The Crazy Person. he or she is a recognized type. one who will make your life hell, true, but at least you'll be able to commiserate with a lot of other people about technological incompetence, bizarre rudeness, insane demands, and an absolute lack of respect for boundaries.

I think you're safe working 6 months as a minimum -- can you hack another 8 weeks? First (and even second or third) jobs in pub'ing are never lengthy cos it's impossible to find out where you fit except by trial and error. Esp if you're in a position where personality-meshing is expected (ie edit. assistant or working closely with certain agents), you have to make a good match w/ your boss and/or with the style and sensibility of the house or department and BOY that can be a disaster if mis-matched. My first job was as asst to NOT ONE BUT TWO senior eds, each of whom wanted OPPOSITE qualities in an assistant. Hur-fucking-rah.

That said, I hate the NY publishing industry, and there are more bad bosses out there than good ones, so if you're pretty sure you'd like to do something else, run away from it quickly before it sucks you in forever!

But if you do decide to interview elsewhere, I wouldn't tell your boss until you get another job and are giving your two-week notice. This is very, very common practice in publishing, and it's easy enough to sneak out for interviews. Publishing houses and agencies generally won't call your references unless they've already decided to hire you. Stick it out for as long as you can while you look for other positions elsewhere; it's always easier to get a new publishing job when you have one already.

And it's true that if your boss is that crazy (and I'm very, very curious as to who it is), the editor or whoever you interview with will know, and probably won't hold it against you for wanting to leave your current job so soon. Though I second Laurel's suggestion to try to make it for six months -- for some reason that looks so much better than four on a resume. (And Laurel, at one point I worked for two senior editors, too, also with totally conflicting demands. For two whole years. Man, that sucked.)

Good luck!

i think most employers are like this. usually they just want to see whether your information checks out.

I think there's a pretty good chance I might just go give my notice tomorrow that I'm going to leave in two months, which would bring me to that very round number of 6 months. I've been having this fantasy all day where I do that and it feels like the last day of school and Christmas and my birthday at the same time. Maybe I should be more strategic and wait another month before I tell her? Really I just want to do it now while I have the conviction.

I longer work for The Crazy Person; now I only work with The Crazy Person, but if she was my boss I would be seriously unhappy. As it is, she is at the same level as all of my co-workers but acts as if she is our boss. She tried to explain to me how to do something that I am not even interested in learning how to do, nor will I ever need to learn how to do, while I was stupidly taking my dinner break at my desk, and it took two curt OK's before she got the message and left me alone.

Yeah, I wouldn't do this, even though you're desperate-- better to delay gratification in this case. I know exactly the sickly-sweet feeling you're talking about, but Laurel is right-- either you have to quit right now (bad plan if you haven't planned for it and can't afford it) or you have to wait. Giving two months notice is an unworkable half-measure. Resist the temptation to be irresponsible-- working actively now toward finding a new job while trying to make it to or past the five and half month mark to give notice sounds like a much better plan. I think if you have an end in sight to your boss's nonsense, it'll make it easier to tolerate.

Dude email me and explain your method, I would be very interested in buying your book!!!! Cos you forgot the part about "discounted shit"!!

ally, I actually quit 4nn4 su! and now work in a record store in w'burg where I make more than than su!. oh but i kind of have a new job at m4rc j4c0bs that will be starting soon.

I would not continue to work here for all the weed in Amsterdam.

I'm going to start looking for a new job immediately, and I feel great. Thanks for the encouragement, ILX.

so.... where should i move/get a job?! i've been meaning to quit and move somewhere new, anyway!

i feel good, but really nervous.

I'm starting to actually get nervous now, even though I've given TWO MONTHS notice, but I think that's going to happen anytime you make a big change like this. But going back on a decision like this would just make you feel worse than you did before you quit.

And the next thing you do could be a million times better, and you'd never have known if you hadn't been willing to leave a mediocre to bad situation.

HOME STRETCH

38 hours 13 minutes to go!!!

oh hay i did end up getting those 2 weeks of pay! also like, 6 hours of accrued vacation time. man, quitting that job was one of the best things i've ever done.

Oh mortage and pension scheme, you have never looked so much like a golden chain as you do right now...

my thinking:
no kids + no mortgage = i don't have to put up with this shit.

no interviews scheduled yet but i have some resumes out there floating around. money-wise i have 1 week of vacation pay coming, a little in savings and a couple of paying DJ gigs in august. with a little luck (i live in CA) i might pull unemployment even though i quit because they told me my position was "becoming obsolete" and would not give me anything in writing. the fuckers.

but anyway! so happy!! vacation in jamacia at the being august (thankfully already paid for) just gotta get my passport sorted asap.

long shot:
any ilxers @ google/yahoo wanna throw me a bone?

ten days to go

Ten (work) days for me, too! Cannot end soon enough! SO EXCITED YOU GUYS!

i've been high all day.

haha so weird that this thread wasn't revived by the person who started it.

"the person"

sorry, after all these years I'm still not sure if jess is a girl or a guy

yeah, being an unemployed stoner is so enviable.

i thought she was a hot chick????

xpost beats workin'

not for me!

don't be such a killjoy

original thread post sounds like my life right now :(

original thread post sounds like my life right now :(

1... 2...
YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!

i'm embarrassed by my repeated misspelling of resuscitate above

I wish I could quit. Becoming a semi-integral cog in the family business (without making enough to, like, move out of my hovel) is basically the worst 'decision' I ever fell into.

I've told my boss I'm quitting as soon as I get a new job... lots of applications out there, but everyone's taking a long time to arrange interviews... damn I wish I could afford to just walk out.

I wish I could quit. Becoming a semi-integral cog in the family business (without making enough to, like, move out of my hovel) is basically the worst 'decision' I ever fell into.

-- milo z, Monday, July 16, 2007 7:16 PM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

http://www.frontlinebooks.co.uk/frontline/files/images/covers/0330487191.jpg

some currious kerning going on on that cover.

that sounds like a job... for me!

i just got a new job (transfer, actually).

its like having a new lease on life!

i'm sposed to be writing my resignation letter tonight but i forgot. now i don't feel like it. must give notice this week, though!

grady, where to?

just to the other side of the rock.

but i have a new boss, and for the first time in my life, my boss lives on a different land mass than me.

My boss is 2500 miles away, which is nice. But she doesn't really have any concept of the weekend, which isn't.

Oh jesus christ I don't think I can take this for several more months. I'm going to have to get another job locally before I eve move away from the area.

(Assuming I don't kill myself, which seems like a pretty real possibility at the moment. So close and yet so far from making an escape. . .)

hey dudes i totally quit my job, btw

it's pretty liberating

congrats

what's next?

he got a government loan to post to ILX full-time.

Matthew Lesko comes through again!

he's starting an all tater tot restaurant

military strongman

chef!

opening a pub called the flying dawkins

L&O:SVU consultant

close -- he's replacing Mandy Patinkin on Criminal Minds

congrats, strongo!

I heard a rumor. :)

strongoresume.xls

oh man jess r u doin what i suspect u r doin

one less alt-weekly section editor on ilx. rip.

heaven needed a prematurely embittered bald dude

<img src="http://www.flashreport.org/images/Magic_8_ball.jpg";>

ALL WILL BE REVEALED

oh ffs

hahaha the link isn't even working

FIRED FUCK STICK

take off last "

jess is now writing academic papers on 7th heaven.

"http://www.flashreport.org/images/Magic_8_ball.jpg";;_;

i doubt that his bitterness is premature

ALL WILL BE REVEALED BUT ONLY THROUGH BB CODE

lol learn how to make internets u jerks

http://www.dreammovies.net/synopsis4/Top%20secret.jpg

http://www.headbanger.us/gallerie_a/bilder/acdc_dirty_deeds_done_dirt_cheap_front.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1309/576615382_a501013be2_o.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/295104606_5db2302d92.jpg?v=0

i'm quitting my job to follow any band whose drummer has that kit.

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/lolcat_this_is_mah_job.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/58/173844877_4a7258a1fd.jpg

^^^ my desk

Do you like bunnies?

no

She'd just rather have them where she can keep an eye on them.

Wise choice.

if i liked rabbits, i wouldn't take them to work. why would i do such a horrible thing to something i care about.

your "computer" is clearly a vcr

who the hell do you think you are, jon? stop criticizing my technology.

also u r an aspie and a goth fattey

at least i'm not a blogger

YES YOU ARE

not with that vcr i'm not

whatever, dorito breath

stfu peach pit head

"sassy"

we're ruining jess' special day

http://www.rakemag.com/today/movies/archive/His-Girl-Friday.gif

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESS!

http://www.candylandcrafts.com/images/devonjessbdaycake.jpg

He can't hear you, he's having his super-soldier serum administered.

we're ruining jess' special day

-- ghost rider, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 5:32 PM (Tuesday, July 17, 2007 5:32 PM) Bookmark Link

mebbe but you are making my hell work day much more entertaining.

you guys sound like a george cukor bitch fest

happy hour at eight

i have to wait on a delivery ;_1

wait unless happy hour is at temp hall then A+++++++++++++

who am i kidding, no one wants to hang out with us, we're annoying

http://zodii.ru/faces/02taurus/Hepburn/KatharineHepburn_Tracy.jpg

ghost rider = morty seinfeld
the schef = jerry's mom whose name i cannae remember

http://www.dvdclassicscorner.net/images/deskset.jpg

tombot = kramer

http://comedycollege.publicradio.org/images/nichols_may.gif

me = george

http://www.tommcmahon.net/images/Smgandb.jpg

Desk Set

Tagline: Make the office a wonderful place to love in!
Plot Outline: The mysterious man hanging about at the research department of a big TV network proves to be engineer Richard Sumner, who's been ordered to keep his real purpose secret: computerizing the office. Department head Bunny Watson, who knows everything, needs no computer to unmask Richard. The resulting battle of wits and witty dialogue pits Bunny's fear of losing her job against her dawning attraction to Richard.

hahaha must see

that one's awesome! in a terrible sort of way, like all of them

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/images/400/notonlybutalso_1.jpg

Jerry's mom = Mrs. Ochmonek.

http://norbizness.com/archives/ducksoup.jpg

tv's the wankette: my 62-yr-old aunt told me she reads you every day but that you're not as good as a-m c (who is evidently from nebraska like my aunt?)

i told her that you're a hotter piece of ass.

yeah i watched one of those tracy/hepburn movies not long ago & it's like.. it's all snappy and lively and stylish but sometimes the dialogue reminds me why i hate gray's anatomy

Katherine Hepburn is in top form as a middle aged head of the all girls research department who feels threatened when a mysterious "efficiency expert" (Spencer Tracy) is sent in to introduce his great invention "EMEREK", the ultimate information source. Now the ladies in research fear that a computer will make their "human brain work" obsolete.

this has got to be more entertaining than painfully terrible right?

no it's pretty awesome, srsly

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/0/01/250px-Musidora_as_Irma_Vep.jpg

that one is v v awesomely art-directed. but yes the "snappy dialogue" is like a ways removed removed in actual wit from 'his girl friday' or something.

lol "special day."

mookie tell yr aunt to buy time magazine if she loved amc so much.

also thanks for reading and all that

maybe you don't make enough references to buttfucking? but i suppose you're not actively courting the nebraskan-senior-citizen never-stop-talking demo, so it's cool

is yr aunt a large-headed gay british millionaire

large-headed y

i am writing resignation letter now! just over 1 month left! i am really nervous about the actual quitting, though. i am the world's worst job-quitter. eeks! but i must must tell them like, tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5apMroe1ykI

awesome. actually this is probably the wrong thread as i really like my boss and i'm not quitting out of anger. the job is pretty boring and i am underpaid but i'm not quitting because of that either! i'm just going back to school.

guys i quit my job and now they want me back part time for better $$$. quitting yr job rules!

how did i miss this thread? desk set is adorable!

FUUUCK 1.5 DAYS.

yo wtf @ boss going home sick while i was in a meeting therefore making it v. difficult to quit! i will still go turn in resignation to supervisor but this makes me feel awkward cause i wanted to have a nice discussion w/ boss lady before word spread.

Can you call her personal tonight or is it not like that? That's what do in that situation if it was my boss but she's very chill.

Tomorrow is my last day at this time waster. Monday is my first day at a real job, arguably my first.

I've done about 1.5 hours of actual work today, and none more has been offered, despite my begging. HELP ME.

oooh i have officially given notice to manager! still have to talk to people i work directly for, though, so more nerves!!!

would love a job w/ 1.5 hrs of work a day ... would do free time w/ work i actually want to do for myself + ilx

Good luck tehresa! We're striking tomorrow, so the entire office (apart from scabs) is in doldrums and walking about like they all want to quit right now.

hay anyone want my job? spv wants me to help w/ interview process & train new person because she doesn't actaully know what i do.

good luck w/ strike, stet!

i will take your job

gr80,

Here is a checklist of things I need you to do before you leave tomorrow and few suggestions.

To Do List:

1. Organize 13 past months of Files in the back file cabinet behind your desk.
2. Turn in keys and parking card
3. Clean desk and top compartments and organize materials in top cabinet
4. Communicate with us on any last minute changes that are emailed to you.
5. Input billing for next week's event.

Suggestions:

1. Walk through offices upstairs and let the team know verbally that you have been promoted.
2. Drink the Beer that will be provided to you at 4pm or earlier after all work has been accomplished

Thanks,

Boss

xpost to cio thread but my manager apparently sent out a mass email saying i was leaving when i told her i wanted to talk to my direct bosses personally (but they are out til next week). argh. now i feel like a jerk.

ally, you better jump on it cause she called and said there's a temp she's thinking of giving it to! i can train u and mold u in my image lol!

gr80 yer boss sounds great! i want beer! i am actually already trying to get things in order for my departure that's a month away and doing all this backup docketing for myself in case things get overlooked.

ummm they just gave me my last check. arent they supposed to do that at the end of the day?

Not if they're going to be in a hurry to leave themselves at quitting time.

I WANT TO QUIT MY JOB RIGHT NOW

INSTEAD OF NEXT WEEK

i am set to talk with big boss today (first day he's back) and secretary has tipped me off that he may offer to let me stay and work fridays only. conflicted! do i just say goodbye and go to school and not look back, or make that few extra bucks each week and be more tireder/busy? if he even offers, that is.

I'm BORED with being unemployed [Started by DG, last updated 15 seconds ago] 17 new answers
I WANT TO QUIT MY JOB RIGHT NOW [Started by jess, last updated 25 seconds ago] 15 new answers

-> Roffle

Yeah these two threads need an exchange programme.

yeah i just had that conversation and the 'i would really like to keep you even if only part time' came up and i definitely said i might be able to do that... i am probably getting in over my head here.

So, I did this yesterday. Utterly freakin' fed up and tired of being trapped in Orange County (sorry Ned, you're lovely of course but the landfill's a sty). I gave my boss 6 weeks notice, nothing lined up to go to and hoping nothing turns up until maybe February (an attitude I'll no doubt regret later).

(sorry Ned, you're lovely of course but the landfill's a sty)

It's a landfill! Who could blame you!

Anyway, sounds like you needed to do this for your sanity, so good on you. Let's have a celebratory farewell-and-to-heck-with-this-place dinner after your last day.

But it always looks so nice on Ned's photos.

Photoshop

Quitting my job was one of the best things I did this year.

Of course, I found another one first. One of those things where time has given me wisdom.

Photoshop

Tsk.

Oh, I can always fall back on consulting when it comes down to it. I make more $ and have more freedom that way, but being an employee has other perqs (like health care benefits). The new light rail system is looking for someone with my quals, that could be fun. (xpost to PP)

Congrats -- hope the transition doesn't stress you out!

Was your boss shocked? "I had no idea that 20 days on/3 days off was stressing you out! Why didn't you tell me?"

Better the light rail than the bus, my dear! Congratulations on what must have been a very satisfying decision; sorry about the next six weeks.

yeah lol you still have to work there for six weeks

I've got 2 weeks of vacation embedded in those 6 weeks :)

Boss is indeed very sad, and for that I do feel bad because he has been a great person to work with. It's powers above him that made things untenable.

Just quit my job! Start another one in three weeks!

So very very stoked. It feels like someone just loosened the screws on my whole being.

Hurray! Hurray! Calloo callay! (raises a glass to B.L.A.M.)

Thankee, thankee. Pretty damn stoked out here. Been a long time coming.