Walked away...

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Nate

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Joined
Nov 21, 2005
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Anyone here ever walked away from a good paying job simply due to disgust? Just quit my job because of our new President and CEO... he's one of the most self-centered, stupid, and arrogant people that I've ever met in entire life. I refuse to report to this man (and I'm not the only one). Just wondering how many of you have ever done the same. Not sure at what point you sell your soul for a paycheck...

I realize circumstances sometimes dictate your options (kids, single income, etc) and you have to suck it up but, if you were able, would you continue to work for someone who disgusted you both professionally and personally if the paycheck was good?
 
Nate said:
Anyone here ever walked away from a good paying job simply due to disgust? Just quit my job because of our new President and CEO... he's one of the most self-centered, stupid, and arrogant people that I've ever met in entire life. I refuse to report to this man (and I'm not the only one). Just wondering how many of you have ever done the same. Not sure at what point you sell your soul for a paycheck...

I realize circumstances sometimes dictate your options (kids, single income, etc) and you have to suck it up but, if you were able, would you continue to work for someone who disgusted you both professionally and personally if the paycheck was good?

I have done it 2 or 3 times because If im not happy somewhere Im just going to bring home my anger and my wife and kid dont deserve it so I just live by my own philosophy that when the day comes Im not happy working there anymore its time for a change of landscape.
 
I used to be a lawyer helping middle eastern people get into the country (immigration). Pay was good, benefits were great (2 martini lunches, unlimited vacation time- just ask, cute office girls, etc). Downside? What we were doing was borderline illegal (though impossible for anyone to catch or prove).

I let it be known I was ready to be fired. Now I make almost $12 an hour.
 
I have left a few jobs for that very reason, but wasn't able to just walk away. I had to find employment to go to first, but it definitely inspired me to find work fast.
 
I did it once - but simply could not now because of family. I'd walk away, but would need someplace to go before walking.
 
I'd also have to have something else in place first, but I guess I'm lucky that I very happy with my job and I don't have to worry about it.
 
I did the same thing when my wife was 6 months pregnant. Our superintendant quit and the guy that they got to replace him was a total dip****. Sure he had a college degree, but he had no hands on construction experience at all. He was a fuggin joke and we just ignored the guy and did our job.
My partner was the foreman, and I considerd myself his lead man. The guy started coming around our jobs more and more and getting in our way. We told the big boss to get him out of there or we were gone. They had a talk with him and he backed off for about 3 days. Then he came back barking at us worse than ever. My Partner/foreman made a couple calls that night. The next morning we waited for they Superintendant to show up. Like clockwork he was there right on time, trying to ***** at us over something. We just told him to "F**K Off" and handed him our radios, keys and blueprints. We walked out of their and went to do our new hire paperwork with a different company, whom my partner had called the night before.
By the time I got home I already had 3 messages on the answering machine. They were practially on their knees begging us to come back. Too Little, too late.




They have since fired the guy and gotten a new Superintendant.
 
I did it once, but it was easy as I was still in college. Before college, and all through college, I worked in a kitchen at a busy restaurant. I know being a line cook isn't the most glorious of positions, but this place was busy, you had to be good. Anyway, since I had been there for years, I knew how to do what was needed and I was one of, if not the best cook. My kitchen manager and I got along great. He pushed me to do more work, and eventually I was taking over some of his duties. He rewarded me with pay (nothing much, usually .15-.25 an hour). Then, one day, the company decides to open a new location and moves my kitchen manager to the new store to help it get off the ground. They offered the job to me, but I was almost out of college and didn't want to work in a kitchen my entire life. So, they hired some dude off the streets and he came in making changes just to make changes. I think he felt that if he didn't make changes, he wasn't doing his job. So many, many people left and I was the only one who stuck it out for a little while. Our line became very inexperienced, and ineffective. At that point, I started doing things that I considered the right way, and other people saw me doing this and started following my lead. Obviously he didn't like it and we butted heads all the time. After I graduated college I put my two weeks in within a week. I could never just walk out, bu that is the closest I have ever come. I liked the company and the people I worked with, and the pay was fine, but there was no way I could have continued to work with him.
 
Left the decently paying management side of the car biz for a regular 9-5 M-F gig. Big cut in pay, but I bought my life back. Almost zero pressure, spend every night, weekend, and holiday with my family. I told my old boss last week that to go back would mean selling my soul for a paycheck.
 
Boss is never there / doesn't contribute to decision-making / doesn't help us manage our workloads, upper administration is corrupt and idiotic, and generally speaking, we get no respect.

My job is about $4 an hour OVER an entry position in Help Desk, and about $4 an hour UNDER what the same person would get paid if we were on the main Uni campus, not in Lincoln. I'm ready to leave any day, just gotta find somewhere else to pay me a decent wage first. :-(

I am pretty sure I want to switch field entirely, but don't know where to go. ._.
 
I decided a while ago that I would no longer work for a paycheck. I turned down a job that would have paid me double what I get paid now because it would have just been a job with a paycheck. Yes, I need money but my motivation is no longer about money. I accept promotions for the challenge, not the raise. (but it is nice)

I enjoy getting paid but my decisions are not based on that. Of course, there are limits. Enough zeros and my morals and ethics go right out the window.
 
I worked for a mom and pop shop designing patios and driveways and fancy pool decks for a decorative stamped concrete company... I was there for 2 years when the hired a ex-Bell South manager to be the "Office Manager"...

He came in and immediately started changing things, he wanted to make the company like Bell-South and not like a mom and pop shop... I bit my tongue and helped design a new website, set up a network and created most of the flyers they use to this day... I spent countless hours putting together presentation and going to home shows and organizing events that I ran myself ragged...

Well, it would have been fine and dandy, but he took all the credit, he spoke as if he did everything himself and he even received awards and was interviewed for home magazines... and not once did he mention that I did everything...

So, an outside company came to me, they saw my work and my resume, made me an offer and I accepted.

I left a company doing what I loved b/c I was underpaid and unappreciated, I am willing to work for the not-so-great pay as long as I can do what I love - designing, but when people don't appreicate it and treat you like scum... that's where I draw the line...

Having a family now I have to swallow my pride sometimes and make due... but I think this move was for the better... it's been a year now and there has been no looking back.

Best of luck man.
 
I'd leave too, but only after I secured another job. It's much easier to get a job if you are currently employed.
 
I left a job with nothing lined up and a poor job market to boot. I just couldn't take the BS anymore so I left. I did give them 2 weeks just cuz I didn't want to burn any bridges, ended up being the best decision of my life. After being out of work for 2 months, I figured out what I really wanted to do in life, went back to school, and now I couldn't be happier in my professional life (most days anyway).
 
I've done it twice (I won't count leaving the Navy, as it didn't pay well). Left a IT/network job at a major bank when they forced my manager out and replaced him with a nano-manager, who thought networking was licking his manager's @$$.
 
EdWort said:
I'd leave too, but only after I secured another job. It's much easier to get a job if you are currently employed.

def wise words of wisdom wisely spoken.

hehe...

but in all seriousness, i spent the last month of my last job scouting out a few places and trying to line something up before I walked out... it's easier having a place to go afterward... if this company hadn't found me, i'd probably still be there getting my balls handed to me...
 
I walked out of the B.J.'s Wholesale Club in my hometown. That place was so poorly managed it was a joke. 4 GMs in less than 2 years tells you what kind of store that was. One of the things where I knew how to run the store better than they did. I couldn't work for stupid people, and just walked out one morning.
 
Having been on the hiring end before I have to say that I was always more comfortable hiring someone who was a) currently employed and b) not willing to start in less than 2 weeks.

Someone willing to walk off a job always had an uphill climb with me because I had to be convinced that they wouldn't get frustrated and leave me hanging down the road.
 
I walked out once. Was over worked and felt I was getting shafted by my boss. His boss called me and talked me into coming back after taking a two week vacation. The company moved me to a different store and I stayed with them for another two years or so.

My last job, my boss and I started butting heads. I decided to go out on my own and started my own business. I was on commission and we decided since I would be in competition with him, I didn't need to work out a two week notice. One of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. I have a wife, 2 kids and a mortgage. Going out on my own with no future income lined up was difficult, but my job was in sales and I really didn't have anything lined up with him as it was 100% commission anyway. Best thing to happen in my work life ever. Been a hard 3 years, but it's gotten better every year.
 
Dude said:
Wow, good luck with that Nate!

I've wanted to walk out for about 10 years!


Thanks... a lot of mixed emotions with it. Pretty scary right now but check back in a few weeks. :D
 
Wow this brings back some memories...

Way back in 1993/94 I worked at Computer City's flagship store in Wilmington, DE (no sales tax and close to 3 different states). We consistently cranked out the most sales in the company and had a thriving business sales office. At age 18 and within six months I went from cashier to customer service rep to "order expediter" in the business sales department, only getting one raise. I was up to a measly $6.50/hr but I was doing pretty good; shared a cheap apartment with a coworker and managed to get by after dropping out of college (mostly because I sucked).

Well it turns out that we had a 400% employee turnover rate during the year that I worked there because Tandy did not know how to properly manage anything and we were all treated pretty much like crap. We weren't allowed any overtime but were expected to "put in the extra effort", we were constantly under the microscope of loss prevention, and they put the fear of god into us with secret shoppers and unannounced visits by the dozens of regional corporate "top brass" who we were expected to recognize and fawn over on sight. I guess this took its toll on my manager because one day I caught him in the shipping department, jumping up and down in a giant cardboard box, tossing styro peanuts all over the place, shouting "Ship me away! Ship me away!" I guess maybe he thought he was being funny but nobody was laughing.

Even though I was stiffed out of another raise I was promised at six months ($.50/hr woo hoo let the good times roll!), I stayed on because I had actually built up a clientèle that I was loathe to leave, plus nobody else knew how to do my job at all. (I organized shipping stuff to and from our store from other stores to complete purchase orders.) Plus I was only 18 and had few other prospects, plus I felt that by working at a computer store I was somehow working on the "leading edge" or something. Anyway. At about the 9 month mark I started carrying my two-week's notice in my jacket pocket...

One day I stopped to help a customer on the sales floor (we all wore yellow shirts and I wasn't a prick, I actually cared) and thus I was "late" getting back from a break. My manager flipped out and started literally tossing Mac Power PC's around the office--I was stunned that my actions had precipitated this. Speechless and wide-eyed, I stood before him, shook my head, reached into my pocket, pulled out my notice and gave it to him. As I was walking out of the store he came running after me, fawning all over me, begging me to stay, he was sorry, etc. etc. No way dude, I was out.

I never even bothered to go back for those two weeks, and I'm sorry to say that I probably left a lot of people in the lurch because of that; however it was the first time I'd actually done something like that and It. Felt. GREAT. I went on to work two jobs (plant nursery and telemarketing) for a couple of months before I finally decided enough with this, I need some actual education, and the Navy seemed like a good prospect.

I cannot tell you how happy I was the day I learned that CompUSA had bought out Computer City (1998), and then again, just recently when I learned that CompUSA was going out of business. Oh happy days, those. I'll save leaving the Navy after ten years due to other micro-managing incompetent nitwits for another thread.

Thanks for letting me share, it's always cathartic to tell that story. Good luck OP.

Cheers~
 
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