

Take this job and shove it - edw519
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31684119/ns/business-careers/

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stuff4ben
Never, ever burn bridges. Even if you feel you were treated poorly and that
you'll never see your boss again. You never know what might happen in the
future. If you do, your coworkers who are left holding the bag will know who
to blame. It also destroys any credibility you might have had.

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brm
Unless you find yourself in the kind of structure and nice working atmosphere
where they'd have the decency to give you advanced notice that you you we're
going to be fired/laid-off so you can prepare, you probably shouldn't freely
offer to do the same after you quit.

~~~
thorax
So severance pay is something akin to that advanced notice?

~~~
brm
I'd agree with that, my thoughts are if your employer doesn't provide the
people it lets go with a cushion (advanced noticed or severance pay) then the
employee who leaves is in no way obligated to do something the employer
wouldn't do for them

~~~
stuff4ben
Obligated? No, no one can force you to leave with notice unless it was
contractually enforced. However, it is common courtesy. And you refer to "the
employer", who exactly is this? The CEO? Your direct manager? The board of
directors? A lot of times the ones who have to let people go are not the ones
responsible for the decision. Your boss may not have wanted people to get cut
and may have totally disagreed with the way they're being forced to do it. But
being the self-entitled person you seem to come across as, you're gonna stick
it him and the rest of the coworkers you leave behind? That's fine, you're
entitled to do that. But more often than not, karma is a mean bitch and she
will come back and kick your ass.

~~~
brm
Employment is like any other relationship. If it has been a good one that has
run its course, then sure you act with courtesy. However, if its been a bad
one like the ones in the article appear to be then you don't owe anyone
anything.

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nkohari
Employment is a business arrangement like any other. If you screw your
employees, expect to get screwed back.

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buugs
Treat your employees like shit and they won't feel they have any reason to be
kind. I have a feeling this is more closely related to people who do not like
their job but rather work to provide for their families or themselves and
layoffs, cutbacks and everything else threaten that so they get out as soon as
possible.

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dkokelley
There is a certain amount of frustration employees feel with their employers
when the relationship isn't balanced. If the employee leaves on bad terms, the
employee loses any reference he or she might have from that company. It makes
it harder to find employment elsewhere. But, when a company terminates the
relationship, the employee has little recourse. The employment contract states
that either party can terminate and any time for any (or no) reason, but it is
the employer who is in the position of power. I think it is this frustration
that causes such hard feelings from disgruntled employees.

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click170
I've decided that when I resign from my position, I'm writing my resignation
letter on a cake. Whether or not I smear said cake all over my employer's
face, or share it with him at the table is a different matter; decided by how
well s/he treated the people beneath them, including me. I think its important
to differentiate between the things that the people above your boss are
forcing him to do and the things hes doing that you don't like that he's NOT
being told directly to do. For example, at my work, my boss has to come around
every so often to make sure I'm working up to speed, and this is required by
his superiors. What ISN'T required by the higher-ups is that he nit-pick what
I'm doing, ^especially^ when I'm my speeds are above average. When I quit, I
intend to make that clear on my cake, lol. I intend to lay out, "I don't like
that corporate requires this this and this of X (my boss) because it is
counter productive, and I don't like the way X, my boss, does this this and
this without a reason to do so because it is an obstruction to the work flow."
I think communication is a big part of it, but for some reason it seems like
now-a-days outgoing interviews are a thing of the past. You know, where they
interview you about your experience with the company as your going out the
door. Then again, if I actually felt my employer was at all listening to my
suggestions to begin with I probably wouldn't have resigned to begin with, so
I guess that explains that.

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mgenzel
I don't see why you should feel _obligated_ to give two weeks' notice. Now,
it's possible that you want to finish the project you're working on, or for
some other reason you don't mind doing it. But, honestly, most of the time if
you decided to quit, you're mentally checked out or even worse, hostile toward
the company. And it's not as if two weeks is a long time, the employer can't
get anyone to replace you that fast anyway. The company often has no
obligation to give you any notice either. Now, you don't need to be flip about
quitting, you can just say politely that you don't think it's working out for
you, that you can't give 2 weeks notice because you need to use the time to
take a break before the next gig starts, or that you won't be doing a good
enough job or whatever. I think most normal people (co-workers) understand
that you have to take care of yourself. That said, in my past I've given up up
to six month notice, mostly because I've been lucky to work on great projects
and with great people that I didn't want to undermine. But if you're not in
that situation, I don't think that there are any _ethical_ considerations in
quitting ASAP.

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troels
I'm curious; Is the two weeks notice standard in the states? How about other
countries? Where I live (Denmark), the standard is one months notice from the
beginning of the following moth. So effectively somewhere between 1 and two
months.

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erictravers
I have personally been laid off three times. Once two months before my first
child was born from a company I had worked for for 8 years. None of them give
any kind of notice. My current employer fires people on Fridays just before
quitting time. Again, no notice.

I'm of the opinion that what you give is what you get. The employer will let
you go on Friday at 17:00, but then they expect 2 weeks notice? Yeah, right.

Edit: spelling.

