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When should I tell my employer I'm leaving?
UnbrokenEva
HIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered User regular
HIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered User regular
Short version, typed a bunch and realized the details were unnecessary. I work on the IT helpdesk for a company with about 500 employees. Due to a recent departure and an internal promotion, we're down to 2 people where we used to have 4. We barely got by with 4. Due to burnout from being so shortstaffed and a seeming lack of concern from anyone else in the department other than our immediate supervisor that we were being given a lot of extra work when we were least equipped to handle it, both myself and the other half of the Helpdesk are looking for new jobs.
I'm bitter enough at this point that I'd be looking forward to the trouble that will be left behind when we leave, except my immediate boss really is a great guy. He's been trying to find ways to help us get through this until new people can be hired/trained, and I feel bad that he's going to be fairly screwed over when we leave. He's only been in the position for about 6 months, and moved from another province to take it. It doesn't feel good looking for a new job while he's trying to fix things, but I don't have any faith that he'll be given the approval from his boss to make enough changes to make this job not suck any time soon.
My job hunt is going very well. I received an email asking me to do a phone interview the morning after I submitted my resume to one company, and they emailed me again to schedule an in-person interview about 4 hours after the phone one. Normally I'd wait until I had an offer before I'd tell my current employer I'm looking elsewhere, but I kind of want to give my boss a heads up so that he's prepared. Also, my next interview is during work hours, so I'd need to miss work to go to it.
As I see it my options are:
1) Tell him on Monday and ask to take the time off for the interview, and hope that he's cool about it. They can't really afford to fire me right now (at all), but once I tell him I'm looking he'll likely start looking for my replacement. Which is good if I get the other job, bad if I don't.
2) Wait until after the interview. I'd need to call in sick to attend it, and my concern there is he'll know I lied about being sick. I don't want to be dishonest if I have a better option.
3) Wait for a job offer. This gives him the least time to prepare for me leaving, but is the safest option for me.
Thoughts?
I'm bitter enough at this point that I'd be looking forward to the trouble that will be left behind when we leave, except my immediate boss really is a great guy. He's been trying to find ways to help us get through this until new people can be hired/trained, and I feel bad that he's going to be fairly screwed over when we leave. He's only been in the position for about 6 months, and moved from another province to take it. It doesn't feel good looking for a new job while he's trying to fix things, but I don't have any faith that he'll be given the approval from his boss to make enough changes to make this job not suck any time soon.
My job hunt is going very well. I received an email asking me to do a phone interview the morning after I submitted my resume to one company, and they emailed me again to schedule an in-person interview about 4 hours after the phone one. Normally I'd wait until I had an offer before I'd tell my current employer I'm looking elsewhere, but I kind of want to give my boss a heads up so that he's prepared. Also, my next interview is during work hours, so I'd need to miss work to go to it.
As I see it my options are:
1) Tell him on Monday and ask to take the time off for the interview, and hope that he's cool about it. They can't really afford to fire me right now (at all), but once I tell him I'm looking he'll likely start looking for my replacement. Which is good if I get the other job, bad if I don't.
2) Wait until after the interview. I'd need to call in sick to attend it, and my concern there is he'll know I lied about being sick. I don't want to be dishonest if I have a better option.
3) Wait for a job offer. This gives him the least time to prepare for me leaving, but is the safest option for me.
Thoughts?
UnbrokenEva on
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Unless you have at least six months of living expenses saved and feel like a long vacation.
For your interview tell him that you have a personal commitment/appointment that cannot be missed on XX day from A to B am/pm.
My brain agrees that telling my boss before I'm ready to put in my notice is a bad idea.
So new question - how do I not feel like shit? He's trying his hardest to help us deal with the increased workload we've had dumped on us while we wait for the new hires to start/train, but it's already too late. I want to tell him to stop trying. When the new employer asks how long I need before I start I'll say 2 weeks at the minimum, 4 if possible so that I can give longer notice. That might help.
That makes sense. If I can find a way to only take a half day off for the interview I will, but it'll be tricky as my wife takes the car to work. Might spring for a cab for the sake of my conscience.
You're always in the middle of something, you always forget to explain where something is or how to do something to the people you're leaving behind, or that if you want to lock the office door you kind of have to jiggle it a little bit. You get the idea.
They'll be ok. Yeah things might suck while you're replacement(s) are being trained, but the world isn't going to end if you decide to go elsewhere.
There's no reason to feel bad about this. It's not your current immediate supervisor's fault that your situation sucks, but that lack of responsibility cuts both ways. You're not quitting because he sucks and you hate him, you're quitting because the work environment sucks and you want a better one.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Seems like the perfect time to be negotiating for a raise and/or bonus. Maybe some extra vacation time thrown in to the mix. You're not only ensuring the company's continued operation, you're doing the work of two people! You're an extremely valuable asset too the company, and you need to be fairly compensated for that.
oh, a lot is going to break. Even with the new hires, there's only a poor excuse for a knowledge base in place. Without us in the same room to teach the new guys what's what there are going to be a ton of known issues that they will need to rediscover fixes for.
I've thought about negotiating for a raise. The problem is I don't believe things are going to improve for a long time if ever in terms of quality of life. I don't believe they'll be willing to pay me enough to make the stress/burnout worthwhile. I kinda hope that having the two of us leave (and explain our reasons for doing so in our exit interviews) will be a wakeup call.
Please don't do this.
I'm sure you'll try to phrase it professionally, but anything other than, "I decided to pursue another opportunity to advance my career" will be interpreted incorrectly.
It's the first part of the verbal contract that they meet when the next place you apply to calls asking about your performance. They say, "Good attendance, left on a positive note."
In other words, they know they're fucked up, and don't need you to tell them that.
The way to go about this is to keep absolutely silent about the job hunting until after you have actually been hired. Not an interview, not a verbal offer... you wait for a signed paper offer with a hiring date and your salary on it.
You shouldn't feel bad at all, and negotiating for higher pay can be a very mixed blessing if you get it, because once you get the new guys trained, they can totally afford to fire you and hire someone way cheaper.
And stop thinking of yourself as somehow irreplaceable; you're not. It'll be a pain in the ass for a few weeks when you leave, maybe, but they'll manage, one way or another.
I completely understand what you mean about not believing the company can change for the better. In cases like that, even with increased compensation, leaving for a less dysfunctional place is the better option.
As for your second question about leaving gracefully, I disagree with the other posters. In general I agree that you shouldn't let your boss know you're quitting before you have the job offer in hand, but you have a somewhat unique situation considering how critical you are to the company at this moment. You leaving, while the right thing to do, will leave your supervisor holding the bad when all the shit goes south, and I think that's not a nice thing to do. I think you can make your supervisor an ally in this. He's already fighting upper management on your behalf, and if he's a sensible person he'll understand how shitty it is for you.
I would take him aside, let him know how much your appreciate what he's doing for you two, but the workload is killing you and it's clear the higher ups don't have your team's interests in mind and aren't going to change anytime soon. Unfortunately you are forced to do what's best for yourself and look for opportunities elsewhere, but for your remaining time here you want to work with him to make the transition to new employees as smooth as possible. What can you do to help?
It's a slightly riskier tactic. But if your supervisor is sufficiently frustrated with upper management himself, and reasonably understanding, it's not much riskier. And it is the most respectable way to go. People generally try hard to do good to the people around them. It's why you care about not screwing over your supervisor, and he cares about you guys not getting killed with work. Management are dicks simply because they're more removed from you - they see budgets and man-hours, not individuals. You won't get sympathy from them, but you probably will from your supervisor. I would let him know.
We had numerous exit strategies planned at our last place. Highlights were: Running through the halls naked, Deleting the orders for the day nationwide or alternatively marking them as PAID, making some 'special' coffee in the stalls, and just tipping over all the water jugs as we walked out (no looking back).
Don't actually do these.
A friend of mine has just done that.
I should read them before I put another giant gif here, or a moderator will give me a profile infraction.
You need to give two weeks notice to get your last paycheck on the day you leave; you will always get all of your benefits, and always be paid for all of the time you have worked, they just don't have to do it the day you leave if you don't give two weeks notice.
I've considered something like this, as we've had a couple people retire over the last year and then just keep working as consultants at higher pay.
I'd like to do more in the way of technical writing, depending on how my boss takes the news that I'm leaving I might offer to write up a proper knowledge base for them on the side. They've had me writing training material & policy docs as part of my current job anyways.