Most distateful separation from employment

A week ago today I submitted a resignation, with two week notice customary to professional business conduct. I have not been happy where I worked. Pay, benefits, problems getting the things I need to be more efficient,condescension, lack of respect, etc.

Today I was told that I should finish the job on which I was working and wrap up my tools and make today the last day. Whatever, so be it. Time to vent:

In March 2010 I moved from my home in Bellingham 300 miles to this desert shithole they call the TriCities. Wages were offered 25% less than I was accustomed to earning. Cost of living was purported to make up the disparity. BS! Gas is more! Groceries about the same. After short-sale of my home in B'ham, I was astonished to find that rental properties were over 99% occupied. You can guess what that statistic does to the rent prices?

The owner lurked around about the time it came for me to load my tools, as if I was suspected of possible STEALING something from him. When I talked to his son about the last pay arrangements, rolling over the 401K, adios, etc, I was asked how I wanted to handle the insurance for the month of May. I do not know what is customary in this case, but as far as I can tell, my 2 week notice was not honored so I was terminated. I told the son that my portion of the healthcare was less than the company's, so paying the premium for May was unnecessary.

The poor feelings started over a year ago when I opened my mouth about starting a little home shop to supplement my income. This was frowned upon heavily.

Glad to be done with this group of backstabbing tightwads!

Any others like to chime in on the fucked-up way they have been sent packing after giving notice that they quit?

It's pretty customary for an employer to immediately release someone when they turn in their notice. They really don't want people working there that are unhappy enough to leave. It may cause problems in the quality/quantity of your work, your dealings with customers, your attitude may adversely affect other employees, etc.

Time to move on!

The poor feelings started over a year ago when I opened my mouth about starting a little home shop to supplement my income. This was frowned upon heavily.

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THAT was your third mistake.....

1st..... moving in the first place
2nd....thinking that "machining" for a pissant shop is a good move.... it never is.... unemployment is better,,,, a HOT DOG CART is better than ALL the above
3rd... you allready know that one...KEEP YOUR big mouth shut....

Sorry your unemployed... but look at it this way...
NOW you have time to look for OTHER WAYS To make a living....

Well, my tale is about when I was working in the outdoor power equipment industry, so not totally within the topic, but interesting none the less. When I started for the company, my new boss had recently undergone surgery to remove colon cancer. Then he was on Chemo during my first year or so. After working for him for 5 years, he came back from the Doctor and was told that the Doc had missed it, the whole last 5 years he had been told he was cancer free, and he wasn't. Well, his health deteriorated quickly and he began not showing up for work. This was no big deal, as within a few weeks of my hire, I was given a shop key(the only employee with one) and was put in charge of operating the store in his absence. During the 5 years, his wife made my daily routine miserable, but when he was there, she didn't affect my routine.

Anyway, once he finally got to the point that he could no longer come in, she came back to the shop and told me that my services were no longer required in the shop. I asked if I should leave immediately or if it was an "at the end of the week" arrangement, and she said she didn't care. I proceeded to clean up my area, and place my tools back into my tool box. Clocked out, loaded my box and left. The real problem came when I went to collect unemployment, as the wife decided to dispute my claim. I had an ace in the hole though, just 6 months prior to this, they had sent me on an all expense paid cruise, to thank me for my loyalty and for a job well done. It was that little jewel there, that go me the unemployment benefits to see me through to finding my next employer.

I am sorry you were treated so poorly, and lied to. It seems there is a lot of that going on across the country. I hope you find something, in a better part of the country than your in now. It sounds to me like it was just a bad deal for you all the way around.

The poor feelings started over a year ago when I opened my mouth about starting a little home shop to supplement my income. This was frowned upon heavily.

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Big mistake, HUGE MISTAKE. Hopefully now now you realize to keep stuff like that to yourself, in fact, tell employers only whats needed pertaining to work, EVER. See what a little bit of sharing extra info does? A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself "Will I benifit from divulging this to the boss?" if not then you will be hampered/harmed by it.

Any others like to chime in on the fucked-up way they have been sent packing after giving notice that they quit?

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Like breaking up with an old grilfriend, you could stew about it, and say stuff you may regret later or you can relax and enjoy the time you have to yourself at the moment. New employers will smell the resentment and thats not a good thing to have on you.

Hopefully now you learned another lesson the hard way, if a company is making excuses for the wages, its to low..........usually drastically to low. "Well, stuff is cheaper here" doesn't hold alot of water when theres a thing called MSRP on consumer goods. No place worth working for should have to, nor will they, make an excuse for their wages.

I am tickled to be leaving this one-horse-town! (By the way, the horse has asthma, allergies, windblown weeping eyes from brutal sandblastings from the almost-constant wind, and a sunburn from April til October!)

I took a job in metro Seattle as a Prototype Machinist. No more second operation BS where there is more material to remove than there is to hold on to! No more dealing with under 35ers throwing the fucking "CNC is the only way" attitude. No more feeling taken advantage of due to the investment in tools and desire for more skill and knowledge that this forum and the camaraderie of the brethren here has afforded me.

Gary, as you may have already gathered I am not an exceptional people-person. I would tell some punk who was dis-satisfied with his hot dog to shove it up his ass, down his throat, up his mothers nose, etc.

Mr. Hickstick (BC, EH?!), That advice is very sound. I will indeed be taking about ten days off before starting my new job. I haven't had a vacation in over two years. (Does moving 200 miles constitute a vacation?)

Sorry if I gave the impression of "woe is me"! I couldn't be happier! Kinda like the day my divorce was final. Emancipation!

I've only ever had 2 "real" full time jobs in my life. The first one ended nicely, I trained my replacement as a "consultant" after my 2 weeks were up, and
I finished up all the fab work I had stored up before I drove across the country and started my new life as a machinist. They even called and offered me
18k more a year to take my old boss's job 2 years after I left.

The second job, that didn't end well. The owner had pissed off a pile of people, including his own relatives who had moved half way across the country to
work with him. They quit. There went my buffer. No material for jobs, nobody telling me there were jobs to do. No money for tools, or repairs, everybody I
hired had to be hired at minimum wage, and if they had 30 years experience, I could add 50 cents to that. No AC, No heat, no ventilation of any sort.

A sociopath in receiving that got his jollies from making peoples lives miserable. I got my ass chewed one day. I hadn't shipped a single thing in 4 weeks,
(production meeting for the other side of the company). Went hauling ass into the office (the boss and sales were in a seperate building, we were shipping/
receiving/warehouse and shop). Almost 40 jobs sitting there that had just been received, just after that little bastard told the owner I hadn't shipped a
fricken thing in a month.

So... one day I went home and started chewing my GF a new one, for no reason what so ever. Stopped myself, and realized I wasn't in the slightest
mad at her, I was pissed at work. Wrote up my resignation letter, citing watery bowels, nightmares, lack of material, pay cuts, and general shittiness.

I gave my notice, intended to work it out and I just couldn't. I didn't care. Went to get my tools and the owner showed up. Read me the riot act, all pissed off.
Told me never to use him for a reference, told him I would never admit to working in such a shit hole to anybody. Told me never to show my face around there again.
I was so pissed off and flustered, when he asked for my keys, I gave him my house keys.

The next morning he was on the phone to my now business partner (who oddly had the same job I did at one point, same shop, roughly same quiting experience) that
I needed to get over there and show the people that were left where all the files where. I did, got what should have been my second to last paycheck. Turned in
the actual shop keys. 3 days later he was on the phone again to my now business partner asking if I could go over and help out.

I got calls for weeks from the guys that worked for me, asking where material was and were was the file on this job. Sadly, no material, no file since we never
knew we had to do it. It'll be 5 years next month, I still get calls, "how do I fix this", "where did we get these tools", "how do I program this". We even do jobs for them.

I like the owner personally, nice guy, good person, just a horrible business man. We were standing at the lathe one day and he's asking me how we are going to make something, wicked bitch of a part that he had underquoted (again). He says "come on engineer man, tell me what to do" So I told him "I never got my degree",
So he says, "I did, I've got a masters in business, you'd never know it though, would you??". I damn near died laughing.

The "starting your own shop" thing does not go over well. The f'd up thing is that I bought a lathe so that I could do the simple shit that we didn't have a manual lathe to do. We HAD one, but it somehow got taken away. So I did the simple stuff at home, back chamfers and back facing, second op stuff. The I realized I could make money on this stupid thing (Jet 9x20). And did I make money.

Anyways, if you're miserable, you did the right thing, get the hell out, flip burgers if you need to.

When I quit, it was a giant weight lifted off my shoulders, and then after I picked my tools and got to vent a little, it was like walking on air. That was the most stressed out I've ever been in my life. Since then I've been flat ass busted broke, had some good times, made some good money. Even the worst of it, when there was no money, as in none, easy by comparison. Would you believe that my hairline actually advanced after I quit. It did.

Bobw said:

... Would you believe that my hairline actually advanced after I quit. It did.

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Mine is always advancing downwards, but I think that is an age thing.

Here, here! Bob needs to share his Rogaine!

Where were you working in Bellingham? I'm not surprised you left, I think there is a law there that trades people can't make more than 10 dollars an hour.

aerodark said:

I am tickled to be leaving this one-horse-town! (By the way, the horse has asthma, allergies, windblown weeping eyes from brutal sandblastings from the almost-constant wind, and a sunburn from April til October!)!

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Sounds about right to me, but you forgot to mention the glowing in the dark part too
Sorry to hear about the employment fiasco. The description of the area sounds accurate, certainly not flattering, but accurate. One man's hellhole is another man's home sweet home, must have to have it in your blood I guess. Good luck on the move.

It's pretty customary for an employer to immediately release someone when they turn in their notice. They really don't want people working there that are unhappy enough to leave. It may cause problems in the quality/quantity of your work, your dealings with customers, your attitude may adversely affect other employees, etc.

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My wife is retiring. She gave her boss THREE MONTHS notice. She's under 26 days now. They threw a Retirement Breakfast for her yesterday, and there's more to come she doesn't know about yet. It has to do with the kind of employee one has been and how the announcement is handled. It's also pertinent that she has a very difficult, demanding job that no other person knows in its entirety. She's been training at least five people to take over various tasks.

Jim_Lou said:

My wife is retiring. She gave her boss THREE MONTHS notice. She's under 26 days now. They threw a Retirement Breakfast for her yesterday, and there's more to come she doesn't know about yet. It has to do with the kind of employee one has been and how the announcement is handled. It's also pertinent that she has a very difficult, demanding job that no other person knows in its entirety. She's been training at least five people to take over various tasks.

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Oh I get it, I am a thorn in the side of the employer! Funny how other former bosses have been very upset when I moved on.

John Welden said:

Where were you working in Bellingham? I'm not surprised you left, I think there is a law there that trades people can't make more than 10 dollars an hour.

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I only worked IN B'ham for short stints. I agree that wages there suck A$$! Had one owner tell me that the wages were so much lower than the Seattle area due to "quality of life"! I told him in order to have ANY life one had to survive! Quit within a month of that conversation!

I commuted down to Everett, Woodinville, and even Redmond! I most liked the job I had in Shoreline, but the commute and 8-4:30 schedule M-F killed the joy of that job.

That said I really miss Bellingham. Beauty, small-town feel, and like-minded people for the most part! Eleven years there. Shit economy forced me to move ($3-4/gallon gas put the kibosh on the commute!)

Was definitely a nice place for a 30-something single dad to raise three teenagers.

The comment wasn't directed at you, and I'm sorry that you took it that way. I was responding to the Steve45 statement that I quoted. I would note, however, that if a person has made himself indispensable to the operation he'll be held onto as long as possible.

I might also point out that there a lot of Richard Edwards in the world, and that many of them have made it to a position of power.

It's worthwhile getting someone to check any old job references you have: a friend and I have an arrangement to do this and you'd be surprised at what some old employers say. Maybe it's a local thing here but both of us have been badmouthed by a former boss who thinks he's talking to a prospective employer, only to get a phonecall from the ratbag boss later offering a job!!! . I had a researcher that I had trusted give an employer a very half hearted and unconvincing reference, simply because he was going through a bad patch himself, fortunately it was made up for by another three really good ones. So...check your references beforehand in case you get a nasty surprise.

Jim_Lou said:

The comment wasn't directed at you, and I'm sorry that you took it that way. I was responding to the Steve45 statement that I quoted. I would note, however, that if a person has made himself indispensable to the operation he'll be held onto as long as possible.

I might also point out that there a lot of Richard Edwards in the world, and that many of them have made it to a position of power.

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Fair enough. I think "indispensable" and "held onto" are both very subjective. Some have more willingness to take less than market rate for their labor than others.

FWIW, my workload has been near nil for the past 6 weeks. Coincidence?

USMCPOP said:

Mine is always advancing downwards, but I think that is an age thing.

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Not advancing down the back of my head, actually started regrowing hair.. down my forehead, towards my eyebrows. Stress does some funny stuff.

SAG 180 said:

It's worthwhile getting someone to check any old job references you have: a friend and I have an arrangement to do this and you'd be surprised at what some old employers say. Maybe it's a local thing here but both of us have been badmouthed by a former boss who thinks he's talking to a prospective employer, only to get a phonecall from the ratbag boss later offering a job!!! . I had a researcher that I had trusted give an employer a very half hearted and unconvincing reference, simply because he was going through a bad patch himself, fortunately it was made up for by another three really good ones. So...check your references beforehand in case you get a nasty surprise.

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People giving bad references like that are setting themselves up for a defamation case.

The only reference I'd give to someone I didn't find satisfactory was to state that X worked for the organisation from dates A to B. Nothing else. It's up to the person asking for the reference to figure it out.

I never believe references from people unless I know them anyway. Plenty of ways to skate around a bad one. 5 of us quit one place in less than 6 months because none of us could stand the manager any more. No way we would have gotten a good reference from him so we all quoted each other as referees. Worked out fine.

PDW

Isn't your insurance covered by COBRA? You are supposed to be able to carry on with the same insurance (albeit at a high rate) for 18 months.