Do you have a take-this-job-and-shove-it story?
I wanna hear it. I’m in that kind of mood.
I Quit!
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I don’t really have any flamboyant drop-my-apron-on-the-counter-and-slam-the-door stories, but twice I’ve left because I was unhappy, and have let the organization know why I was going.
The first time I was an admin supporting a lot of scientific staff, along with a “print-out-my-email-for-me” kind of section manager (for the record, the printer was literally reachable from INSIDE her office.) Everything was late, rushed, and last-minute – she was just a BAD manager. Worse, I started screwing up, because I couldn’t plan my workload around her and still support the other 23 people in the office who, frankly, had a lot more to do than she did.
So after three months of this I told HR that I wouldn’t be renewing my term. They asked why, and I told them. So they asked if I would stay if they found me a new boss instead. Sure! (New boss was awesome, natch.)
It’s served me really well over the years to know that I have value to my employer, and that I always have the power to put my foot down if I need to. And I’ve always made sure that I have the power to walk away. It’s liberating.
(The second time isn’t interesting, though it is heartbreaking, because I loved the org and loved my boss, but we had a change of leadership and direction – lots of us left and many more are still there and miserable. Le sigh.)
I don’t have one, but I know one person who can give you a perfect I Quit story. She is from Alaska and she is willing to share all the details.
I think it’s an important experience in life to quit one job on the spot and on bad terms, when you are still young and can get away with it. The empowerment of knowing that you can always walk-away will stay with you forever, in every job you will ever have.
When I was in college, I was delivering Pizzas. I had a great Manager, but the District Manager was a real jerk. I had been off for two days, and during that time had made plans to go home for the summer, and planned on giving my two-week notice at work when I got back. When I went in to do just that, I was greeted with the news, that our Manager had quit, and the District Manager was now running the store. I walked to the front of the store, went up to the District Manager, threw my apron in his face, and proclaimed with much zeal: “I’ll never work for an asshole like you!”, then hopped in my car smiling from ear to ear.
2 stories; similar theme. First job out of college was selling ad space in a boiler-room phone sales environment. (I graduated in early 80 during the LAST tough job market– pickings were slim!). We had a pitch, were weren’t allowed to deviate from it, if you weren’t on the phone you’d better be writing up a sale, and even bathroom breaks had to happen when scheduled. I made it through a year simply by virtue of the good friends I made while working there. But it was soul-sucking work. I sat there one day, staring at the phone, willing myself to pick it up, but I just couldn’t do it. The floor manager walked by, screamed at me to get on the phone, and I just looked at him and said really quietly, “I don’t think so”. He sputtered, asked me what was wrong with me, (not in a kindly concerned way, mind you!) and I said, “I can’t do this another day. I quit.” And walked out. Wondering how the hell I was going to eat the next week, but relieved nonetheless. Sales, I knew, was not for me.
Second story, years later, after I’d been working in HR for about 5 years. I was recruited HARD to come work AS a recruiter — the headhunter kind that eats what they kill. (Translate: Straight commission) Lots of my new co-workers made lots of money, so I was easily swayed. But one or 2 days in, I realized that I had landed a job in sales, even though it was called something else. But when I quit that job, the manager apologized to ME and said it was his fault — that my personality profile had indicated that I would not do well but that he hired me anyway because he liked me! He felt so bad he gave me severance! So all in all, a much better “quit” story.
And Tracy, that made me laugh and nearly shoot coffee out of my nose.
The first job I ever had was at McDonald’s my junior year of high school. I was hired in March for a new store that was opening “soon” (took 6 months), and in the meantime we were going to get trained at the other location in town. My orientation was at the end of March; my first training day was in the middle of April, and my first real shifts were the night of Prom and the morning afterwards (beginning of May). Then I didn’t work again for 3 weeks.
Finally, I got tired of not getting to work and called the manager. I said, “I’m not getting enough hours to work here. I’ve only worked 20 hours in 2 months – I quit.” It happened to be final exam week at school, and she responded, “You’re scheduled to work Tuesday and Thursday night this week from 7 PM to close. You’ll have to find someone to cover your shifts.” Boggled, I said, “Excuse me, what part of ‘I Quit’ did you not understand?” Dead silence for a minute, and then, “Oh.”
When I walked in the following Friday to pick up my final paycheck at the end of the dinner rush, I got an ovation from the rest of the crew there. The guy working the drive-through, who was on work release from juvie, looked at me and said “God, I’d love to be able to do what you did. Good for you.”
The fantasies of up and quitting are so delicious.
My favorite I Quit story is that of a friend who was a copywriter of business text, or she wanted to be. Turns out that the guy who owned the small firm insisted that she do the billing and account management. When she asked to do more writing and he said no, she quit, on the spot. This gave her the freedom to go out on her own and pursue her creative writing.
What happened after that? She’s a best-selling writer.
I love to quit jobs – it’s cathartic.
The first was a crappy telesales job trying to sell broke people expensive vacations (think 30 college students in a single room with computers and phones – total insanity). I made it two nights and after taking an unscheduled bathroom break got yelled at by the crazy manager. As he was still yelling at me I picked up my stuff, shut off my computer, walked to the front door and just said “I’m done”.
The second was a very lucrative waitressing job again during college. My fiance had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, and I thought that it might be the right thing for me to get someone to cover my shift since I was going to have to be there with him overnight. I called in to get a couple numbers of co-workers to see if anyone would cover my shift and the night manager (aka the ogre) told me that if I didn’t come in, I was fired. I replied “ok – I quit”. The owner did call me to apologize… he actually thought that would be enough for me to come back to work… moron.
The third was my first ‘real’ job out of college. I was the receptionist/faxer/sales order enterer/coffee maker/HR rep/etc. and the sales manager loved to yell at people. Just for the hell of it. Such a FUN work environment. Not to mention the pats on the ass. Whatever. He yelled at me one day, and I was just done. I went to the CEO and explained that I was quitting, I would not be here tomorrow, I will not help train anyone else, and that he’s lucky I don’t sue. Then I left. Such a wonderful day! The production and engineering guys actually took me out for drinks that night and I’ve stayed in touch with almost everyone there – which is why I know the sales manager had a heart attack, was accused by a client of inappropriate touching, and was left by his wife…. I love karma!
When I was 19 I worked for a small, family owned florist. I was trying to move out of my parents’ house and had been slowly working my way into a full-time position for the necessary funds. After almost a year of working there, with no problems, I was finally given a day shift, when all of the arrangements are made, the flowers and plants come in, etc. On that very first day shift, the owner – who had a drinking problem – came in and from the minute I clocked in, until the minute I handed him my apron, yelled at me and called me names. About 90 minutes into that shift, after he threw some roses at me, I handed him my apron and told him I quit.
It was awesome.
My “I Quit” story is from when I was in high school. I was 17 and working as a waitress for a diner, a greasy spoon kinda place. The owners were husband and wife and they were effin nuts. The wife pulled a butcher knife out on the husband during one of my shifts and threatned to cut “it” off! They had several more fights like this and the cops were called there on several occasions. I was scheduled to work a 3rd shift on the night of my high school graduation. When I came in directly from my ceremony, the owners were in the parking lot, surrounded by cop cars and screaming at the top of their lungs. I walked up to one of the officers and gave him my waitress smock thing and said tell them their 3rd shift waitress just quit.
I drove away QUICKLY and never looked back.
I was almost done with school and had 2 internships running concurrently and a school job. I wanted to get out of the school job, since it was just minimum wage. So I interviewed with a marketing company for an entry level marketing position that sounded very good. I got the job. Monday I get to my new job and the first warning sign – bunch of people in a huddle, like it is a football game chanting something. Women in short skirts, men in nice suits and ties. My new boss introduces me to my manager. Second warning sign – my manager tells me we should go for a drive. OK, maybe he wants to have an informal intro. So he talks about how excited he is to have me on-board and we are going to do great. Than we stop at a strip mall. Third warning sign – he gets out his portfolio and says: “lets go sell”. Bugeyed I tell him “WTF?” He proceeded to tell me that they “decided” I will do door to door sales. I told him to drive me the heck back to the office, because I quit. He proceeds to refuse to do that. I told him I am calling the cops… that is when he quickly changed his mind. Yep, never took a “marketing” job ever since again.
Now I have another “I quit” story, but I was at a senior level in that company and I will just let Karma take care of that sinking ship.
Too many to recollect– I used to work freelance graphic design.
But I did listen to Johnny Paycheck as a kid— the last era of really good country music.
I’ve (thankfully) never had the opportunity to quit with any sense of elan, however when I was but a child, I am told that I quit broccoli in quite a spectacular fashion. As legend has it, I informed a close blood relative that if they liked broccoli, then they could shovel it into their pie hole. Thus began my brothers reign as “the good son”.
I do dream one day of quitting a job through interpretive dance.
I have chortled a few times already, thanks for the laughs. I wish I had one of these to share… I just don’t remember any. I have the nagging suspicion I have done it before (I was a bit of a hothead when I was younger), but I can’t recall any.
I guess this means I am growing up… or I have lost my nerve. Either way, I can’t wait to hear Laurie’s “I’m outtie, yo” story.
@Renee I like your first story & how you were honest. That’s actually healthy & responsible. Now can you print out this blog post for me? (LOL, j/k.)
@Tracy QUIT READING MY MIND. LOL, it’s weird how we find inspiration for our blogs, isn’t it?
@Susanne Your second quit story has a much better outcome than the first. I’ve never quit a job w/o having another job lined up (or getting severance) because of the ‘how will I eat’ factor. That scares me. You must have been scared, too. Glad you made it through!
@Pete It takes a person of great character and strength to work in fast food. Whenever I see McDonalds or Burger King or KFC on a resume, I’m impressed. The pace, the customers, the confusion. You know the person has been put through the paces. Same thing with retail. If you can work there + go to school, you have some magic.
@Melissa Oh, I love stories that end well. Good for your friend!!
@Jen These are great stories. You need an I QUIT blog.
@Jackbuilt I have a theory that many small business owners are drunks. Quiet times during the days. A lull in business. Bullies. Insecurity issues. I wonder if my theory is true?
@TeresaHRGirl I just decided that the best quit stories involve butcher knives, cops, and screaming spouses.
@Apollo OMG, you threatened to call the police? That’s hysterical.
@MattyMat I would not say that Johnny Paycheck reflects the best of that era. While he has the pipes, I’d go back further.
@OMG, you quit on broccoli? I wonder if broccoli quit on you? “I’m done with this good for nothing kid. Fuck ‘em. See what his triglycerides tell him in 2009.”
@George I don’t have an I’M AUDI 50000 story, actually. I’ve always quit with notice and with respect. I burn bridges after I leave.
While still in high school, I worked at one of those steak houses popular in the late 70s where you came down a long hallway, picked up your tray and silverware, and gave your order to someone who announced it over a speaker to the grill staff. I was that greeter/order taker. When we were not too busy, I’d wrap silverware in napkins and stack them in bins. One day my boss came up and grabbed me around the waist from behind. Inappropriate, given that he was a married man in his 40s, and I was 16, not to mention his employee. However, I had a fork in my right hand, and I instinctively stabbed him in the left hand, in that meat between your thumb and forefinger. Needless to say, he did not bother me anymore! I decided that job interfered with my school activities, and ended up quitting shortly after that incident. Thankfully he was smart enough not to fire me! If he had, I might have had to tell my dad and my three older brothers, who would have “explained” the laws of employing their baby sister to the creep!
I do have a good story! Working at the previous job (obviously) I was underappreciated; HR was so far from respected it wasn’t funny. During downsizing I was moved into an Administrative position and any advice/guidance I offered on HR matters was immediately dismissed (read: she’s woman, what the hell does she know).
I found a new job, wrote my letter of resignation (saved to my computer as “Stick It Letter”) to read that I had found new employment where my skill set could utilized to its fullest extent. My boss, the CFO, brought me into his office to discuss the latest round of changes to the accruals for vacation payables. I let the man talk for over an hour about all the changes he wanted to make and what he wanted me to do. He says “Can you do that?” I said “Well, I did want to speak with you about a few things first” and slid the resignation, face down, across his desk. He read it and I swear the color fell out of his face he nearly fell out of his chair in astonishment. He could only sit in his chair and say “oh my, oh my”. HR was a one person show with no back ups and I was leaving in two weeks. Mass freak out – I loved it. What I wanted to say was “here’s what you can do with your vacation payable account buddy….”
First of all: Tracy? L!O!L!
Now for my stories. I have two. The first was a temp job I had during a college break. I was in a typing pool (just dated myself) for a insurance agent. We typed forms all day long. I’d found an error or something (this was about 18 years ago, so I don’t remember exactly) and had talked about it with one of my co-workers. Shortly after, the manager of the office called me in and told me with this ridiculous smile on her face, “I don’t pay you to think, I pay you to type, okay?” I said, “Okay! I won’t be back tomorrow.” (Easy to do when you’re working for a temp agency as a college student!)
Then came my first real job out of college. It was a small firm that was owned and run by a married couple (NEVER work for a company like this!) The wife would show up at 8 am every day, but her husband wouldn’t show up til around 10 am. We only had a small wall heater in the place, and it was a converted werehouse space, so it was always cold. Every morning he’d come in make a dramatic show of ripping the knob off the heater and lecture us about his heating bill when it was so hot in there already (yeah, by 10 am! not so much at 7:00 am)
They also had two HUGE, black, slobbering in your face Newfoundlands, and they’d bring them to work every day and expect us to watch these dogs when they ran out or think it was cute when their dogs ate our food right off the table. One day when they were out, the “puppy” was wandering around the building, and suddenly he came sliding through the suspended ceiling above us. Didn’t even phase him since it was a slow slide of his entire bodily length through the broken ceiling tile. We were all cracking up, but the wife was SO pissed when she came back, and we told her the funny story. “God forbid someone keep an eye on him!” Uhhh…YOUR DOG, lady.
The last straw was when I had a work-related injury, and had to do physical therapy exercises in my office. I’d close the door, both because I needed a closed door to secure an elastic band for my exercises, and because I didn’t feel the need to be watched while I did my exercises. The husband of this dynamic managment team gave me a ration for closing the door because he felt like he couldn’t trust me if the door was closed. The next morning, I woke up and thought to myself “I’m going to quit today,” and that’s exactly what I did. Took me a while to find another job since he warned future employers not to hire me or I’d file an L & I claim. That pretty much confirmed that I’d made the right decision.
I have a take that job and “LOVE IT” story instead…my first 8.5 yrs at my current company…(the last yr has been just so,so)…I got to do almost everything everyone talks about doing in most areas of HR, we get respect from the line most of the time too. I used to wake up everyday excited to go to work…The last year has been a struggle with down sizing and the economy, but I don’t want to throw in the towel yet…I am in what Seth Godin refers to as the “DIP”…read the book its great…know when to quit and when not to…Iam playing this hand out, maybe one or two more…if its time to fold I will…theres always another game to play down the road…
Cheer up, look for the good things in life, its short so you need to enjoy it (that includes work)…
god I am sounding like an optimistic (don’t go puking on me)…
M
Laurie, you might be on to something with your theory about small business owners. While I know not all of them are like this (many of them are great) and bad stuff definitely happens in big companies too, it seems like all the most horrific workplace stories I’ve heard take place in small, nepotistic organizations.
I also find it interesting that most of these stories happened when people were in high school, college, or just out of college. While one could hypothesize that people are more likely to have these kinds of jobs when they are younger, I’d counter that people are just as likely to have them later in life as well, but are in much less of a position to be able to quit.
Laurie can probably figure out who this is (I begged to talk about a job I quit) but I’ll do it anonymously to cover my ass:
(1) Had a job in commercial real estate development which is a very fast paced, competitive job (60+ hours a week). Was mid-level, had my own portfolio.
(2) DevilWearsPrada boss in cowboy boots and I don’t exactly hit it off, I replaced his favorite girl in the world.
(3) Office staff shares email access to each others’ emails because blackberries are only so reliable and we share a client portfolio.
(4) Boss called from out of town asking me to look at something in his email about a project he was about to transfer to me.
(5) I see last outgoing email stating that I am a “retard” because I can’t get my “shit” together on a project. You know, the project I hadn’t even heard of yet that HE was fucking up.
(6) I told him my other line was ringing, hung up on him, printed the email and in big red sharpie wrote “I QUIT, YOU ARE THE RETARD. PS: YOU’RE A PRICK, YOU DRESS LIKE A PATHETIC COWBOY TODDLER, AND YOUR DAUGHTER FUCKED TODD ON YOUR DESK.” (Todd was his nemesis in our office, his daughter was in college) and left it on his desk, packed up and left.
(7) Three days later when he got back to town and found the note (not having realized I quit days ago), he calls and leaves a message saying “I think we can work this out, I didn’t mean for you to see that email.” No shit? Blame me for your shit, call me a retard AND basically tell me to go look at it? GAH!
There, I feel better. How cathartic.
(Not MY quitting story, but a favorite story of mine nonetheless) When I worked at a university hospital in Oregon, we shared a floor with the Supported Employment group, who helped developmentally disabled adults integrate into the workforce.
“Daniel” was a client that the SE group was working with. He had become self-sufficient enough to handle public transport on his own and he liked doing “paperwork” (i.e. making copies), so I always saved up my easier copy jobs and let him do them. What Daniel did NOT like was cleaning. In fact he hated cleaning (well, don’t we all?)! The SE group tried to get him to sweep the floor late one afternoon when all of a sudden we all heard an almighty “NO, F**K YOU! I QUIT!!!” and Daniel stormed out of the building.
Walls still shaking, I poked my head out of my office, as did my neighbor. “That man is my hero!” said my neighbor and I nodded in agreement.
The next morning, Daniel was back at work, right on time at 7:45 a.m. Things were quiet until about 3:45 when they tried to hand him the broom again. “F**K YOU! I QUIT!!!” and he was off!
This pattern continued for about a week: Daniel would quit when it was cleaning time, then come back the next morning, as if nothing happened. Until the day they handed him the broom and he kicked the glass out of the window alongside an office door. The story was they dropped him from the program, but we all know…he quit!
Never said Johnny Paycheck was any good– just said he was around during the last relatively good era in CM. Of course there was much better back in the day— (My gramps made us watch Hee-Haw, btw.) I’m especially fond of bluegrass—
@Laurie, what led me to tell him I will call the police (though I am a 6’5″ dude) was that he would not listen to me and was pushing me to go sell credit card machine stuff to a “massage parlor” in that strip mall. Yeah…. That was my only “I quit” ever.
On another side, I have some of the best memories from when I told my CEOs in two companies that I am leaving, both 6 months in advance.
@Apollo Nice. Classy. Massage parlors?! (PS — I’ve never given six month’s notice. I don’t have a lifeplan like that.)
@MattyMat No! Way! I listen to bluegrass and I try to enjoy it — but I fail. I really try, every weekend, to listen to some folksy jangly bluegrass on NPR. Drives me nuts. Can’t acclimate.
@Vicster He is my hero. That’s an awesome story.
@Anonymous Whoa, that’s totally cathartic. I’m dying about Todd. That’s awesome.
@Tim You know, that’s a blog post right there. Those are some excellent insights. Sheesh, you really get this stuff. The link between business/people/psychology with a touch of real-life experience. All good stuff, Tim.
@Mark Now that I know you, I understand that this comment is sincere and not schlocky. No barfing. None at all!
@HAria All good stories. I wonder why it’s so hard for people to trust their employees at work. Sheesh.
@adowling I want to scream ADOWLING F__K YEAH! That’s a great story.
@mmpotter Whoa, love it. I’m a big advocate of the fork! That’s awesome.
Scream on sista!
I also have to add to the conversation my vote for the best resignation letter ever written:
http://gawker.com/5017424/stewart-butterfields-bizarre-resignation-letter-to-yahoo
My story happened just last year. I had been working for a non-profit for about 2 years and finally couldn’t take any more of my anal retentive, micromanaging boss who kept taking away my projects.
At the end of my 1st year there, he asked my co-worker and I what our goals were for the next year. We both told him some ideas we had to which he replied: “Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to do any of that.” (As my co-worker said at the time, “Then WHY did he ask us??!”)
I was planning on leaving the organization a few months later than when I quit to go to school but slowly, over the course of a few months, my boss had kept taking projects away from me and doing them himself or re-doing everything I did. It was very frustrating and honestly, I only stayed as long as I did to save money for school.
One Sunday, a co-worker in another department texted me to say that my boss told him (NOT another manager; one of my PEERS) that if I didn’t leave soon, he was going to fire me. Well, I beat him to it. I got to work very early Monday morning with my letter already typed up, cleaned out my desk and left the letter on his keyboard. It was a short and sweet letter, only 2 lines long. It said something like, “Due to the scarcity of projects lately, I have decided to resign now instead of in two months so I can prepare for school.” (or some BS like that)
Now for the best part: A few weeks later, I had drinks with my old co-workers and got their version of events. My boss had told them I quit by leaving “a note.” When they asked him what happened, he would just say “She left a note.” He led them to believe that I had quit via Post-it note! We laughed for hours over the thought of me writing, “I Quit, Sucka!” on a bright pink Post-it note. One of these days, I might actually quit a job that way.
I was briefly a teller for a very large bank. (The hardest, most under-paid, thankless job in the world.) I worked there 3 months for a Dragon Lady. Working Saturdays was pure hell. DL took every Saturday off because of her seniority. One Friday, she brought in a cake that said “TGIF” – Great for her -because everyone else had to work the next day. I could have pushed her face in it.
When I found another job, I quit (with notice – I just couldn’t walk out.) To my delight, the other two tellers quit the same week leaving no one but DL to work the line. I do believe she had to work the next month of Saturdays. The other plus was I had worked 91 days – which entitled me to have braces for my son – paid for by the bank. It was an even swap. Indentured slavery for braces.
One of my first jobs was counting out pills in the pharmacy at a CVS. On my first day, I was shown the bathroom and the toilet brush as well as the cleaning schedule – and my name was on it. I went out for lunch and never went back.
Laurie,
What a great topic! I actually wrote two whole blog posts on this subject; I’ll share an excerpt here.
In The Devil really does wear Prada I shared some of Evil Boss Lady’s awesome rules. Working for her was kind of like in the movie Psycho only more rabid and scary.
And now for your further enjoyment and reading entertainment following is a detailed timeline of the day that I quit.
Evil Boss Lady was conveniently out of town the week that I was to be paid my quarterly commissions. I did a whole lot of nothing that week although I did organize my office and computer meticulously so that Evil Boss Lady would be aware of future sales appointments already booked, etc. It was the least I could do since I was never going back. This resulted in Evil Boss Lady later telling the people who had not yet quit and were continuing to be abused that I was obviously suicidal but OH WELL.
It was a Friday morning.
6:00 am Woke up and immediately checked my bank account to be sure that the quarterly commission funds were there. I transferred the money to another account so that Evil Boss Lady could not try to reclaim it. I am not sure if this is possible but I was not about to take any chances.
11:00 am Took box of my personal effects out to my car. Took all pictures but left all plants because it was too much of a pain to take them. This factoid will be important later.
11:45 am Took Evil Boss Lady’s admin Stella out for Mexican and margaritas to thank her in advance for the impending doom she would face on Monday when Evil Boss Lady came back in to the office after being out of town and found out that I’d quit.
1:30 pm Went home and reveled in my freedom. I think I called everyone I knew because everyone I knew was aware of The Plan and was summarily waiting to hear how it had gone. So far as smooth as glass.
This is where it gets good.
Ok, so that I don’t hijack your entire comments section here is the link to the complete blog post: http://www.radiantveracity.com/2009/06/casualties-of-war-my-worst-job-ever-part-ii/
Thanks for allowing us to share!
Stephanie
@Vicster BizzarrrrrrrrO
@Megan I’d love for you to quit by post-it note. If you do it, let me know. That would ROCK.
@Sue LOL, what we do for kids!
@PC I don’t blame you!
@Stephanie WHOA! Thanks for sharing. PS – Everyone go check out Stephanie’s blog!
You want bizarre “I quit” resignation letters??? Not kidding– just received this email this morning:
“Subject: Re: Meeting concerning Backup Project and current status.
David,
I just told ApXXX that I am resigning. I love you and Mike but I need direction and a purpose. I wish you and your family the best.
Thanks for opportinity,
Chris.”
This person had only worked there for a week. I think Dave dodged a HUGE bullet on this one!! ……creepy-funny
btw– there’s is some good bluegrass out there– my best friend in high school had an old, cantankerous uncle that played fiddle in a bluegrass band ((yes– with chawin’ tobakee stains comin’ out the side of his mouth)) and his music sounded so “deep from the old south” it was amazing to listen to.
And to wake my friend up to go to school, he’d blast a shotgun outside his window. Now that’s bluegrass!!!
I read so many of these, that I just had to share. However, my industry is too small, and it is probably a good thing to stay anonymous for a while.
I was just out of grad school and still deciding to try on specific job lines when I was offered an internship at a start up. One of the founding engineers was an undergrad from my own school, so we had a great rapport. This guy is really smart.
A lady from a big company who used to be a manager of sorts was hired to be VP (go figure) and his boss. We were doing R&D – this was a startup, so no money, etc., right. Well she was from a big company – so her burn rate was awesome!
For everything that went wrong, she would simply talk of hiring experts and hire expensive folks, she did with no holding back. Eventually, the CEO held a meeting saying that a lot was wrong about our product in development and we all had to do more to “fix” things.
Being young and what have you, I decided our lab setup needed a thorough going over. We used to run 12 – 15 experiments a day. And by run, I mean mindlessly run them. I decided we need to re-jig our equipment, etc and fix things. What ended up happening was, she did not like the idea. Having been a manager, she was always used to just “running” things (Kinda like the “I did not hire you to think, because I was not hired to do so either”).
She had brought one of her minions with her to run the lab as a lab manager – a major emotive psycho with no skills. This lab manager was more like her “Fink-in-waiting” who reported back on things.
So, when I was making these changes, while the original engineer who had done all the work to build the company was happy, the fink told her boss, who was out of town. The boss, our VP, sent me an email “We need to meet when I am back”.
I knew what was coming, so I waited for the meeting and while she was still like “Things are not going the way we want, and we may not need…”, I said, “Yes, I quit, thank you”.
She gave me two weeks to tie things up – tie what up?
Anyway, two years later, she had single handedly helped burn through the company’s funds which had been into millions. The company went aground and from what I gather, even the basic IP assets could not be sold.
Preemption rocks!
I was in college and working at a clothing store in the mall and I hated it – the manager had it in for me for some unknown reason – she was nasty to me from day one so I always wondered why she had hired me. I worked on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and received a job offer from a restaurant after I got off work that day – which I enthusiastically accepted. So – I thought I would be nice and work a two weeks notice. I was scheduled to work at 1pm on the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday. I arrived at 1245 so I could give the manager my notice and as soon as she saw me, she started screaming at me that I was supposed to be there at 1230 and was late and on and on. I picked up the schedule book, threw it at her and said – I am scheduled at 1, not 1230 – but good luck with that because I quit. Another person quit that day as well so the manager had to work a full 5am to 1am day. I still smile when I think of that day.
I have a great QUIT-Shove It Where It Dont Shine Story!!
I still had roughly two weeks til I actually give birth to my newborn son Rock, when I get a text from my boss! The text read: “when are you coming back? we need you”. I text back “Still havent given birth sorry but no worries i’ll be back!” All was silent for the next month, I give birth and two weeks later my boss texts me again, it read: “You were gone for too long and so (xxxx) had a chance to shine, but I want you to be in the representative position? nothing is concrete just strategizing!” My whole face expression had changed, my boss had wanted me to go from a supervisor to a representative, nothing wrong with the position but it is a step downward. “ok!” I replied. Went back to work very happy afterall, it was in the same dept and I’d def make more commission money. I was asked to go into my boss’s office to “speak” casually he begins with a “welcome back! you are now to do file management b/c your responsibilities have been spread to your two subordinates and your position has been dismantled.” HOW BOUT THAT FOR A WELCOME BACK? So I grinned and bared it for two months, asked the controller if I had any vacation time, I did and said “I’m going on vacation next month, but I’ll be back!” I haven’t gone back since and its been two months. Yes I still got paid my vacation time and my fmla (since i went back earlier), also ended up getting a new job before I went on my vacation!! I’m still getting text messages from my boss asking me when will i come back?
SWEET
@MattyMat I’m always worried when typos accompany expressions of love!!
@Anon Whew, what a story. I don’t blame you for being anonymous. What a mess. Glad you kissed that ugly baby goodbye.
@MTHRGirl Ah, revenge is best served with a double-shift!
@K2 OMG, that is a funny and sad story. What a shitty, shitty boss.
‘Well D—, it’s been a slice.’, pat patting him on the shoulder, passing over the Blackberry, and walking out the door.
Simply orgasmic.
Spend the $5 for the NAMBLA newsletter to be delivered seasonally to the boss at the company’s corporate headquarters