Update: Walked off the job today

[Burt Gummer]

Normally I'd say with some of the worst employment opportunities ever that someone would be nuts to leave a well paying job, but you sound like you have your ducks in a row.

Hopefully your next job will give you some breathing room. When I hear "cubicle" I think death.

For most people, they have no options besides being a wage slave 40+ hours a week in the ponzi economy so you are lucky.

Shocking Numbers That Show The Media Is Lying To You About Unemployment In America

"Go ahead Junior. Graduate college and then get a Master's Degree. You too can wait tables. You too can be a greeter at Walwart." - Gerald Celente.

 

[SonicBlue03]

Laws protect you from worrying about a reference. All businesses can legally do now without liability is confirm that you were employed between date A and date B. Otherwise it becomes a slander / defamation issue.

I used to struggle with people not giving two weeks' notice, but over time I've grown to believe that what's fair for the goose is fair for the gander. Props to OP for doing what's right for him and his family.

 

[bikejunkie]

The fact is a former employer can defame you as much as you want and you'll never even know.

 

[oknow]

Laws protect you from worrying about a reference. All businesses can legally do now without liability is confirm that you were employed between date A and date B. Otherwise it becomes a slander / defamation issue.

I used to struggle with people not giving two weeks' notice, but over time I've grown to believe that what's fair for the goose is fair for the gander. Props to OP for doing what's right for him and his family.

I believe they can answer if they would rehire you also.

 

[cpy911]

Good for OP. I hope it works out well.

Most likely they will find another warm body to replace OP who was looking to jump out of his/her current "bad" job situation and into another. The cycle continues at the "bad places to work".

I suppose people tend to stay at "good places to work" (ha, ha, do they exist?) and the openings there only pop up when someone retires. Unfortunately, I have found mostly "bad places to work" in my area. I can dream though.

 

[Kelzebubba]

The fact is a former employer can defame you as much as you want and you'll never even know.

You can do what I did. You can call in with a Skype account and a fake foreign accent to do a background check for a fake employer. Got a former super fired over it.

 

[Kelzebubba]

As an aside, here is one more tidbit about WA State laws. There is NO requirement for an employer in WA State to payout your vacation/PTO bank. I checked with the State after leaving an employer and losing three weeks of banked PTO in 2004.

Most employers do it, but make a mental note that they are not legally required to pay out your banked vacation/PTO time. So check their policy before you resign, and then plan accordingly...

Peter

I know in the State of TX that if you give a notice and they show you the door they have to pay you through the notice period. Also unless they have it specifically stated in their employee manual or some other acknowledgement, if you have to earn before you burn type of PTO, they have to pay it out. My former supervisor learned that the hard way. He lied and lied and lied to get me written up time and time again with not a single shred of evidence. The HR department was pressured by upper management to blindly side with my supervisor, and when I turned in my notice he told me to hit the door and the HR director called me to his office and told me I was getting paid for my notice period and all of my PTO that was accrued. My super told him that he had just fired me and the HR director smiled and said "He BCC'd me on his two weeks notice this morning" to my supervisor. "Thank you for your time with the company, if you want you may clear out your desk yourself and bring your name tag to me when you are done, me and your supervisor have some further things to discuss." He winked at me and dismissed me. When I went back to turn my name tag in he gave me an exit interview, of which was me turning in about 100+ pages of documentation of some serious unethical practices being done by my manager and his bosses, with a genuine "I am sorry" at the end from the HR director. Needless to say, I got a letter of recommendation from the gent. Now almost 6 months later my super got fired, his boss is on the ropes, and several of their cronies were let go as well.

 

[mjbskwim]

Burning Bridges............................Without a really good reason...............Plain a-- dumb!

Dallas Ken AKA "Wilber Milktoast"

 

[powermad]

Here's the way I see it. I owe the employer no allegiance and did not sign a contract.
I am paid to do a job and I do that job well. Doing my job well keeps me employed.

If I don't do my job well and in a timely fashion I can be let go with no warning.
I have seen guys that do their job well and have been let go with no warning.
Just a check on Friday at the end of the shift. Oh by the way, no need to come back here again.
Thanks for all your hard work, have a nice weekend.

That's a crappy scene to witness. Most guys don't take that news very well.
The last one started to cry. Ugh, I'm glad I'm not the supervisor and have to deal with that.

They have no consideration for us, then they can expect the same from me.

I have been where I am at for 12 years and I am always looking to see what else is out there.
If an opportunity arises then I will be moving on as soon as I am told I am hired.

Burning bridges? Are you concerned about getting dropped from the Christmas card list?
Every job I have left, I did so knowing full well that I would never be working there or associate with anyone there again.
By the end of the week you are barely a memory and in a months time they will have forgotten your name.

 

[Bushman]

Loving my new job, I wish I had left sooner. My old colleagues tell me it's gotten worse since I left and others have left since then. Many are looking. Hearing about some of the new policies, it makes me laugh.

 

[Bushman]

Oh, and they told me my old boss would bend over backward to get me back. They are having some issues. Alas, they will eventually replace me, but it will take at least a year for the guy to get up to speed with company specific knowledge. Makes me laugh though. Worked out better for me, not so well for them.

 

[VancouverKid]

Who hasn't wanted to tell their boss to f off? Good for you OP. As long as you can feed your family, put a roof over their heads, and treat them to a day at the county fair, well take a job that makes you happy.

 

[dolooper]

Burning bridges? Are you concerned about getting dropped from the Christmas card list?
Every job I have left, I did so knowing full well that I would never be working there or associate with anyone there again.
By the end of the week you are barely a memory and in a months time they will have forgotten your name.

Depending on professions, some the bridges you can burn this way lie in front of, not behind, you. The community may be small or well-networked and reputation, good or bad, can spread quickly.

That's not a consideration for everybody, but it would certainly be a consideration for me.

 

[pokerace]

Ok I've got to reply...

Years ago I walked off a job in anger, with good cause.. I'll make this short.

I was a operator of a paper cutter in a print shop. One day I was working away and had just about finished the job i was working on,the
woman Foreman came up to me and wanted me to cut some she had, I ask her to wait a minute so i could finish what i was doing. She said NO right now and PUSHED me away from my maching. Being young I BLEW and cut loose with some choice four letter words. And walked out. I did regreat it to some degree. years later i wen back to work for that co. (diff dept.)

 

[BAMCIS]

Love it Bushman! Your's is a perfect, shining example of market forces at work. Good for you!!

I too left a 6 figure job because the foreman was a dick. To be fair I put him on notice that things needed to change. Things didn't change so I told him I was giving him the opportunity to leave things as they are. His mouth fell open and asked what I meant? I told him I had already put him on notice I wasn't happy and I want to be on the next plane home. I was done with him.

Long story short his boss called me that night offering me another job to stay, working for someone else for the same pay. I politely declined and he offered more money. I still politely declined and was back home a week later.

I no sooner get home and got two job offers to go back. I accepted one because in negotiating I asked for the sky and the moon and the stars hoping to get turned down, but to my disappointment they accepted. But in the end things worked out. The company didn't get the contract and I didn't have to go back to AFG.

Now I'm contracting with my wife, not being shot at, making 70% of what I was making in AFG. Now we are basically professional tourists.