Quitting Your Job When You Don't Have Another One Lined Up

Or maybe that's just sour grapes...

(like me if I don't get out of here.)

On the plus side, the first few weeks of unemployment are fucking great.

But you can't buy quality of life, and sometimes it IS worth taking a risk for the sake of your sanity.

Never-the-less, it looks like I'll be doing it again!

The smart thing would be to take time off, take a course, get some qualifications etc. etc. as Chris V suggests, which is a very good idea indeed - but that sends me plummeting down into the black hole of WHAT DO I WANT TO DO WITH MY LIFE?!?!? which I've been avoiding since I was 15.

And by the way, I'm not planning to quit my job any time REALLY soon. Probably not until late this year when NA and I have some sort of plan as to if/when we're moving. He just called me and was like, "WHAAA??? You're quitting your job??" ha ha

So, plumbing eh?

I'd still like to work for them, though.

You are too smart to stay at a job you hate, but take away as much cash as you can (when you leave).

I'll keep my fingers crossed....

JUST FUCKING SACK ME ALREADY, I HATE IT HERE AND YOU HATE ME.

It's half-fixed now but we are not allowed to flush when the washing machine is going.

I'm really tempted to do the latter. I'm due to go on holiday next week anyway, I could really do with an extra two days to unwind.

Be very, very careful. I'd recomend securing a job first and being as polite as humanly possible because you may have to take up references to secure the better job. What about constructive dismissal if they're leaving papers out where you can find them? Vicky or Martin to thread?

That said, I didn't bother to look into a JSA claim until I'd been out of work for months.

I'm with Ricky and Mark C on this: first few weeks are bliss, but somehow you just can't keep it up and all the little distractions you devise for yourself lose their appeal and soon you're craving the commute and the paycheck.

That happened to me before, but it was a temp to perm position. Everything seemed to be going just fine and then one day I go to the printer to pick up some letters and I see this memo. My name jumped right off the page. It said something like, "Now that so-and-so has been hired internally, how much longer are we going to need Sarah?" Blah. I confronted the woman who hired me (who was my age) and she said 'oh, I know nothing about that...' so then I went to the head of the department and she was like, "Oh, Sarah, we've really enjoyed having you here... Friday is your last day..."

In other news, if you become a plumber, you can get a job at a water ammusement park!

Sorry.

I quit a job once before, in very desperate circumstances. It took six months of shite to turn my life around and get myself into a career I am happy with. I like what I do, I'm just not getting to do it right now. I'm fairly positive I am doing the right thing rather than stagnating somewhere that isn't right for me at the moment.

Thanks for good wishes folks. and right back at ya for the ones needing it!

i was at a smallish meeting with one of the bosses the other week; i went in feeling absolutely sure i was going to lose it and walk out in a big strop. i didn't; somehow i managed to argue calmly and persuasively. but i've realised there's an ever-growing part of me that's really desperate for an excuse to fuck off out of there, never to return :/

Currently contemplating doing it again... I'm trying to get some freelance things lined up and chasing down all prospects for something better, in a slightly different field. Mostly I just want a month off to not feel so run down and dragged out.

So I don't have any work lined up, but on Monday I have an interview to resign with the temp agency that placed me in this job. Right now I'm simultaneously giggling and moaning.

(you have email, btw)

Good luck dudes!

they got rid of me. cool! i didn't have to hand in my notice.

I am really fucking sick of this place.

But I have a 3 month notice period. This makes me feel a bit trapped. What do I do? Hand my notice in and start looking for a job in a month or 2? Seems a bit risky. Look for a job now and hope my present company don't sue me for breach of contract? Argh.

You can probably get that notice period shortened if you're nice to them, it might be difficult for them to hold you to it.

3 months is a pretty long time!

I feel your pain, Colonel. Is there anyone you can talk to about the likelihood of you being able to leave earlier? We're trying to allow this to happen with someone here at the moment - it's not a common thing, but he's well-liked and has been a good employee, so we'd like to make it work if we can.

Otoh, I desperately need to get out of this job I think, and both the long notice, and the whacking great pay cut I'd probably have to take ('he can't even boil an egg' as a pub landlord said of my 'skill set' once) are preventing me. So, er, let me know how it goes.

Yeah they only recently upped it to 3 months. Because they know they need to keep hold of me because I'm the only person who has the slightest clue how anything works at the moment (everyone else who did already left). This came with some more money so I thought I'd stick it out. Am regretting that now.

(That's a professional opinion, by the way, 3-month notice periods are not uncommon but difficult for employers to hold people to, especially if you're not a key member of the business).

xpost - OTOH if you've recently signed up for that it might be harder to extricate yourself from it. If you go to a competitor they'll probably frogmarch you right out of the building and put you on gardening leave.

xpost Did exactly the same thing. They would be f'ed if I left. But I'm finding the idea of that quite sexually exciting right now.

just let new employers know they'll have to wait for you?

then toss yr hair and tell them 'i'm worth it'

Can mean you get passed over in favour of someone who can start sooner tho. I mean, it doesn't necessarily mean that of course, but it's always a bit of a worry.

ah, xpost, yes, that'd do it.

I've had varying experience with hiring people with long notice periods. Most employers have been flexible in as much as as long as your work is not critical for that particular period, you've properly documented what you've done for knowledge transfer, you're being fair etc. then they've reduced it. Others have been fairly brutal. One experience with a major IT org (most of my exp is in IT BTW) saw the company rigidly holding a guy to 12 weeks and threatening him to legal action if he didn't comply. That was sad because he was new and could have been replaced easily (but maybe for more money?). Three month notice periods really do leave it difficult to find something else.

Sounds like yr current work really dont wanna lose you. Is there nothing that would keep you there? You have em over a barrel by the sounds of it!

xpost to colonel.

your work is not critical for that particular period, you've properly documented what you've done for knowledge transfer

Therein lies the problem. There is no way they would put me on gardening leave. We have virtually no documentation for anything.

This is all the company's fault - they've been understaffing and generally treating the IT dept like crap for ages, there's no time to document anything you have to move on to the next "priority" project (yes, everything is a priority project). It's getting pretty ridiculous - 2 people just left my team, leaving me as the sole remaining member. They nearly couldn't get sign off from finance director to replace them! Even then we've only get one extra person so far. Yet sales are hiring left right and centre.

BTW I work for a website. You'd think they'd consider IT to be a fairly important department. Mind you, given that everything is collapsing around us at the moment, they may realise that now.

Ugh Ive worked for several places that dont seem to realise the importance of the long term knoledge of the existing staff, and then let most of em go and scramble to work out how everything is done. Hey guys! Instead of spending money sending us to another state 1000Km away to train all the new staff we're being replaced by why not I dunno... not fire us?

The irony is that putting me on 3 months notice is one of the main things scaring me into thinking I should just quit right now. If I was still on 1 month's notice I'd probably be more inclined to try and ride it out.

I have a 3-month notice period too and I'm not even particularly irreplaceable, it's just standard where I work for some reason. I work for a university and I guess it makes sense for an academic or the lead "architect" of some major, unique project, but it makes things awkward for us IT dogsbodies.

Best of luck, Colonel. Yr current situation doesn't sound much fun at all.

lol it looks like our company must run Jobserve.co.uk as well:

"Your candidate profile could not be updated at this time"

Instead of spending money sending us to another state 1000Km away to train all the new staff we're being replaced by why not I dunno... not fire us?

Ha, this happened to me as well about five years ago. And they kept our office open but with most of the work being done elsewhere, so it wasn't even to save overheads on the property or whatever. I told them to fuck off when they asked me to stay on to train the new staff how to do my job.

Yet sales are hiring left right and centre.
^^
This is typical FD crap. IT is 'a cost to the business' and sales 'generate business' is totally the wrong way to look at recruitment in most cases. In my experience 3m notices are generated by management and HR concluding it will help retention, it rarely works. In a lot of cases negotiation is done with direct line management. If you have a good relationship here and they are willing to let you go early then higher up the chain there is little that can be done. If line manager says 's/he doesn't want to be here so I think it's better he/she left' then they are, normally, carrying responsibilty for efficiency going forward. If they don't back you then it could be difficult. The guy under legal threat I mentioned above worked in a matrix-management set up with managers that were consultants and end clients, nobody would listen.

There's always the possibility your contract isn't sound and the notice isn't valid (there was some EU thing about this). You'd need an expert to go through it, though.

Also (disclaimer) my comments are based on personal experience and I don't work in this area currently.

All our IT managers are new, so I don't have much of a relationship at all. I can't think they'd back me leaving early, since it'll be them left in the shit when I'm gone.

I'm not sure of the legal aspects either - I haven't had my actual contract updated, just a letter outlining change of job title/salary/notice period. My friend in HR says that's all they need to do though.

I'm no legal expert here, but I think you have a period to contest any change to your contract. I sought advice a few years ago after I got a similar letter. I told my line manager that I wasn't happy and I'd like to keep under the original t&cs that I signed, thanks. My company got back to me and said that they would get HR involved and it was likely I wouldn't be able to continue my job (i.e. they would find a way of getting rid of me) if I didn't sign the addendum. It wasn't worth that hassle for me at the time.

So here I am again. This time I've actually done the thread title though.

I feel like I did the right thing for my own mental health, and I think I was in danger of getting fired if I hadn't, but now I have a problem in that I don't know how I'm going to get around interviewing for a new job. We currently have a freeze on holidays and the head of IT who also coincidentally is the person I have a problem with has just decreed that people working notice (there are currently 3 of us out of a team of about 10) are not allowed to work from home. So it looks like sickies, but that's going to get well dodgy if it takes me a while to get a job. I have an interview next week so I'll be off sick that day. I got signed off for stress for a week by a doctor a few weeks ago so I'm debating just going back to them and getting a couple more weeks off, but I'd only get statutory sick pay if I did that.

A further complication is that my wife works for the same company so I don't want to alienate them too much, it's just the one guy I hate. I do have HR on my side because they don't like him either. They said I could probably get out of my 3 month notice because it would be up to them not him. So it's not all bad.

A friend reckons employers have to give people on notice reasonable time for interviews but I don't think that's right, I think that might be people who are being made redundant. Can't find anything about it on citizens' advice type websites anyway. Anyone have any experience dealing with this kind of situation?

This seems to be working out slightly better than I hoped, HR have totally got my back and have overturned ridiculous ruling on working from home during notice period AND have said refusing holiday is unreasonable, so maybe getting out of this shithole isn't going to be as much of a nightmare as I thought.

As a small bonus, the disciplinary meeting with the company directors my shithead boss arranged for me has backfired quite nicely since it gave me ample opportunity to stick the boot into him when they asked me why I'm complaining so much. He has been given a bollocking himself, although they stopped short of firing the incompetent moron, which is about the only thing that would've made me think about changing my mind about leaving.

Really, they should sack him, and give you his role! If there were any justice in the world. Which there isn't.

Haha that's not quitting, quitting is hating it enough to be like, "Fuck you I'm walking out" and not having paid work lined up, which is what I thought you did when you said, "I quit my job" and I was like wtf but hey, if it was THAT BAD then congratulations! The congratulations still apply, and I hope you get a better offer soon!

Oh man believe me there have been a lot of times I'd have liked to do that but then I would be up shit creek.

Thanks tho :)

And I found out today another person has also handed their notice in, making it 4, so I am part of a mini-exodus, which is always nice. I already joked I'm working on quitter's row, since all of 3 of us sitting on my bank of desks are working our notice. The bloke sitting opposite me is leaving as well but he's a contractor so it doesn't count.

OK so now I have got another job lined up, but the bastards here are being difficult about my notice period. They let other people go early but because I'm in more of a niche role they don't want me to leave til they've got a replacement. Which as far as I can see they've made no effort to do yet. Am tempted to just tell them to get fucked cos the new job is via someone I know so I probably don't really need a reference, but that seems more reckless than perhaps necessary at the moment...

I did this shit once when I was like 24. I was stupid and set my life back in a couple ways for a long while.