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Since this is a pseudo-Friday in the US (due to the 4th of July holiday), and Fridays are when WebmasterWorld members are wont to ramble on about random topics... have YOU had used or encountered any unusual exit strategies?
I'll even contribute another one. A few years ago, a field sales guy (in a remote city) got tipped that he was going to be fired. Wanting to maximize the duration of his employment, he didn't answer his phone when he thought his boss was calling. He kept calling in when he knew he'd miss his boss, and left voicemails returning the boss's calls, commenting on customer visits, etc. He kept kept this game going for a week before they finally tracked him down & gave him the official news.
Your turn... :)
You always hear about people winning the lottery and then doing horrible things to their bosses as they quit. Such fantasies have sustained me through a few tough days recently. But I have to wonder, does anyone actually do that?
Someday I'd like to quit a job in a dramatic fashion. I'm thinking something involving a helicopter...
On a side note, where does the word "fire" come from in its verb form? Surely there isn't an ancient English tradition of setting fire to unwanted employees... I'm a language geek and ought to know this one but I don't. Any guesses?
The v. sense of "sack, dismiss" is first recorded 1885 in Amer.Eng., probably from a play on the two meanings of discharge: "to dismiss from a position," and "to fire a gun," the second sense being from "set fire to gunpowder," attested from 1530.
Quitting with high drama is one thing, and there's kind of a satisfaction and a charge to it. Pretty much no one quits without having good reason and sometimes it can call for a grand exit with a flourish.
It can take a lot of creative strategizing to get them to sack you, though. Sometimes it can be like a staring contest. They're waiting for the employee to quit, the employee is waiting for them to sack him, and neither one will give in. Sometimes it's for spite, and that's when it really gets into gamesmanship.
When I handed in my notice to my employer at my first 'proper' job he expressed concern over training my replacement. I agreed to work for an additional month as a trainer so long as I got paid a trainer salary. They were happy and we agreed the deal - verbally.
When it came to my last day I had about 3 months of salary due, including the 'trainer bonus' and holiday pay and I was all set for a couple of months doing sweet FA.
I went to see the personnel manager for my pay cheque who presented me with a written document showing how I owed them £10. Aaaagh!
That was the first - and last - verbal contract for me.
Funnily enough, they agreed to forfeit the £10 because of my good service. How nice. And how creative...
Must be something about restaurants... in another one, our waitress seemed to be taking a really long time to check on us. Another waitress came by and asked if she could help. When we told her we hadn't seen our waitress in a while, she said, "We haven't seen her either. She may have quit." (Er, that's "server" to you PC types... :))
Boss man:"I hear you handed in your resignation?"
Mack:"Yep all done, Hear youre wife had a little girl"
Pause
Mack:"Have you found out who the father is yet?"
Brushed past him as I heard his jaw hit the floor.
Mack.
When i worked nights in a supermarket, i told the store manager that i knew about his "secret". (of the sordid sexual type) and he informed me that i didnt need to resign as i was fired.
Anyway it ended up that i worked a weeks notice, and got my pay etc. so it all worked out well.
Im planning my next exit soon, so any tips welcome ;) I like the idea of a helicopter, care to elaborate on that one dragonlady?
Not sure how servers work so excuse the basic explanation:-)
In Ireland, it is generally 4 weeks as the minimum (although, I believe that legally it is your payment interval).
Having decided he had endured enough domineering behavior from said boss, Jim decided to arrive very late one morning making a raucous entrance past the boss's door.
"Oi!, your an hour late!" came the bellow.
Jim poked his head around the office door and said "No problem, I'll balance it up by leaving an hour early."
Jim was left to work the final days on his own terms.
Onya
Woz
We were short at the tiem and assured him we would pay as we could, all this was very informal.
Turns out most of the data entry work he was suposed to have done was partial and incomplete and caused as a lot of work to figure out what exactly was missing (accounting stuff!).
Now, whenever we meet we're getting along jsut fine, he doesn't mention the money and I don't mention the shabby work. My only problem is my bloody conscience is tugging at me all along. Currently that money would hurt a lot and I can't really pay, but I want to when it'S not so critical anymore.
Anybody have similar issues with ex employees? Although I'd guess employment to be much more formal in most countries/situations.
SN
With the roll out scheduled for less than a month the manager gave two week notice of the move. I gave my two week notice. The business unit became really unhappy when the other guy with detailed knowledge of the system gave notice two weeks later.
The roll out got delayed a couple months so a consultant could come in, call us evil and get up to speed on the system.
One day I flipped, announced that I was going for a walk and kept on walking till I got home! (5 miles). I hadn't planned it but my legs just kept going.
My brother (who worked next door) told me he heard her jumping up and down shouting 'How dare she? How dare she?' when she realised I wasn't coming back!
Heads you walk out now come home and make love
Tails you go back to work.
he flipped the coin and just walked out, two hours late he rang his boss and said " just had the best S3X ever and I not coming back to work anymore, see ya" then hung up.
the funny thing was when he flipped the coin it was tails!
Dave
the funny thing was when he flipped the coin it was tails!
I guess he took it literally. ;)
lawman
I guess so!
I threatened to quit if I didn't get the raise - of course the raise did not go through, so I convinced my boss to lay me off as a favour.
Long story short since I was laid off I was eligable for retraining. The government paid me $30,000 to retrain me for a new career and my living expenses for just under a year. All free and I never had to pay back a dime.
Best move I have ever made! I felt like being very dramatic when I heard that they would not give me the raise, I'm sure glad I bit my tongue though!
When I was in college I worked at a soriety in the kitchen for an hour or 2 a day. We mostly served food, helped the cook, and cleaned up, an easy job in college with some very nice perks!
Anyway at the end of the year, I was handing out a bunch of eggs to some girls for some experiment or something when the cook walked in a fired me on the spot for disobeying his rules. I said fine and walked out with the girls and sat down with them for a nice lunch.
I ate at the soriety for last 3 days of the year while the cook had to do his job and mine. It was great watching my former boss squirm as I went through the buffet line ordering him around and complaigning about his horrible cooking!
lawman
They were REAl MAD when I came in a week later to get my check.
1 hour later, he was indeed no longer working for XXX. :)
The company fell on hard times (poor management - the owner was a nice but inept manager) and really rode his back about workload and being billable.
They finally began talking in secret about laying him off (what's a CAD Manager do anyhow?). He got wind of it and during lunch on the day he was to be let go he enabled the password protection on all 7 computers, the plotter (a big printer) and the fax machine. They fired him right that afternoon and the next day when they turned everything on - they found out what he had done.
His phone was ringing off the hook. I heard he got a raise.
