Stepping Out

When you leave a job do you feel that its absolutely necessary to give 2 weeks notice or is resigning and leaving one day a viable route. I know that resigning and leaving is looked down upon, but I'm trying to gauge how detrimental it will be for future employment.

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Bl8ckr0uter

NightShade03 wrote: »

When you leave a job do you feel that its absolutely necessary to give 2 weeks notice or is resigning and leaving one day a viable route. I know that resigning and leaving is looked down upon, but I'm trying to gauge how detrimental it will be for future employment.

There is so little that previous employers (as a company) can/will say about you that I have seen that it doesn't matter to much as long as you don't plan on coming back to that job. I think 2 weeks notices are obviously the best way to go (and some companies will not list you as able to be rehired if you do not do that) but sometimes you simply cannot do it. I had a job where I had to give a 1 day notice because I was moving back home that night (and I had to get out of my school apartments so I wouldn't get charged for another months rent). I explained to my boss that day would be my last, went to HR and that was that.

It may also be different based on the size of the company. If you are the a lone admin for the company or if you are thee security guy or thee XXX then I think a lengthy notice is only fair.

apena7

It is never absolutely necessary.

If your employer is 'at-will' then you can be terminated for any reason (or in most cases, no reason whatsoever). However, you can also leave a company at any time and are not required to stay 2 weeks or so.

If you find yourself with a better opportunity with better pay, then I see no problem walking to the HR desk, handing them your resignation, and telling them you're leaving due to a budget increase. Tell them you're sorry and you hope they understand

NightShade03

apena7 wrote: »

It is never absolutely necessary.

If your employer is 'at-will' then you can be terminated for any reason (or in most cases, no reason whatsoever). However, you can also leave a company at any time and are not required to stay 2 weeks or so.

If you find yourself with a better opportunity with better pay, then I see no problem walking to the HR desk, handing them your resignation, and telling them you're leaving due to a budget increase. Tell them you're sorry and you hope they understand

This is kind of the situation that I'm going to be in come the new year, although I'm not really leaving for the money. I just couldn't for the life of me honestly tell them that I'm leaving and work even 1 hour there because it would just be a million questions, tons of begging, millions of dirty looks.

I do feel bad that there are just two of us running the IT dept and I will give the other guy a day or two heads up but thats all I really wanted, I can't be there for two weeks without dying.

Forsaken_GA

You have to be careful. Don't burn your bridges if at all possible, but don't hold yourself back. If I were to leave my current job for another company, I'd ask for 2 weeks (and if I were the senior netengy, I'd ask for a month), but if the company was clear that they needed someone to start earlier than that, and it was a job I *really* wanted, I'd give what notice I could, but I'd still be gone.

The problem alot of people have with leaving a job on short term notice is that you feel like you've let the company down, or that you're creating hardship for them. Especially if you play a key role. But as has been said on these forums numerous times - the company doesn't really care about you (in most cases). If a company hasn't developed enough resiliency to handle churn, that's not your fault or problem. Just turn in your notice, whatever you can give, remain polite throughout the leaving process, be smart in how you answer the exit interview questions, and move on

Hyper-Me

I gave 1 week notice at my previous job before moving to the job im at now. My girlfriend at the time also worked for the same company and looked at my employee profile after I left, and it was marked "not eligible for rehire" due to insufficient notice.

Also, everytime ive ever had a job call a previous employer, those previous employers have revealed information that is beyond the scope of what they are allowed to. Problem is there is basically zero recourse for this (if its bad information)

NightShade03

My only concern with burning bridges is that the company may bad mouth me. The flip side to that is the guy who they would be calling for a reference isn't really the bad mouthing kind (but you never can tell with people). So there is a 50/50 toss up there.

I can say two other things though:

a) I have only worked here since the end of Aug so there really is no vested interest

b) I have no plan to EVER return to this company

apena7

I'm not sure what your responsibilities at this current job are, but it sounds like you don't have much to worry about.

If a company hasn't developed enough resiliency to handle churn, that's not your fault or problem. Just turn in your notice, whatever you can give, remain polite throughout the leaving process, be smart in how you answer the exit interview questions, and move on

+1
If there are only 2 IT guys on staff, then that's the company's problem -- not yours. Most of the time, the company brings this situation on themselves. They decide to cut/outsource IT jobs, stretch any remaining employees to the brink of exhaustion, threaten to fire anyone that takes any PTO for the year, guilt trip anyone that decides to move on in their career, and lowball any prospective employees while increasing the workload and expectations.

As you can see, I follow a philosophy of loving the 'job' but not the company

And no, I'm not this cynical, but I get pissed when companies suck employees dry and casually toss them away like an Otter Pop in July. I've heard too many horror stories from my friends and this board and I'm sick of it...These pretzels are making me thirsty!

NightShade03

apena7 wrote: »

They decide to cut/outsource IT jobs, stretch any remaining employees to the brink of exhaustion, threaten to fire anyone that takes any PTO for the year, guilt trip anyone that decides to move on in their career, and lowball any prospective employees while increasing the workload and expectations.

I couldn't have described my role any better if I tried! There are two of us me (the technical guy) and a manager (less technical more projects type). We manage 400 employees across 5 states and I work 12 hour days easily. Someone I know is making me an offer come Jan as part of a network engineering team, instead of running around and putting out fires all day.

ColbyG

I try to give the standard two weeks. Though, if my future employer told me they needed me in a week, I'd give a week. If they said a day, I'd try to get more time, but I'd do it if I had to.

My concern is less about the company and more about my other team members. If I were to leave tomorrow they would have some issues, and they would definitely be putting in more hours to cover what I was in the middle of or had planned in the near future. I wouldn't want to do that to them and I hope they wouldn't do it to me.

veritas_libertas

NightShade03 wrote: »

When you leave a job do you feel that its absolutely necessary to give 2 weeks notice or is resigning and leaving one day a viable route. I know that resigning and leaving is looked down upon, but I'm trying to gauge how detrimental it will be for future employment.

I have always given a two week notice to keep from burning bridges. I do this for two reason: I believe it's the right thing to do, and you never know how important a good reputation with an employer might be.

On the other hand, I worked for a place that had horrible reputation for how they treated their employees. One very good employee they had gave them a two week, and they promptly fired him. Thankfully he was able to contact his new employer who was more than happy to have him start working two weeks early. My point in telling this story is that there is no reason to give them more than a two week notice, unless you do something really important that can't be easily replaced.

Neeko

For those people mentioning how it depends if you have a job lined up, how exactly does this work? If you are in employment, look for a new role and get the job, does the new company accept that your current employer can't give you a reference? Can you only really do this if you can get a reference from an even older job?

bellhead

Depends on the company and how they treat people. I worked out a company that the policy was the day you gave notice they walked you out within a couple of hours but paid you two weeks. Nice.!!! Another place I seen them walk people out that day. So I would get a feel on the place and how they treat these sort of things.

PS. Being in a position where you have asked them for a raise multiple times and been denied they should have seen it coming.

Forsaken_GA

NightShade03 wrote: »

I can say two other things though:

a) I have only worked here since the end of Aug so there really is no vested interest

b) I have no plan to EVER return to this company

I honestly wouldn't worry about it then, and I'd probably drop them off my resume, since you're only talking about 3-4 months of employment, unless you need that on your resume to demonstrate certain skills.

And hey, if the company doesn't survive the current economic times, then there won't be anyone left to badmouth you

NightShade03

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

And hey, if the company doesn't survive the current economic times, then there won't be anyone left to badmouth you

Unfortunately they are a $200 million company that has been doing nothing but growing so I don't see that happening.

I'd like to leave them on my resume to demonstrate the insane amount of things that I accomplished in the 4-5 month period (because it is alot), I know that most employers will ask if they can contact previous employers though and the company I want to go work for happens to kinda of know the situation I'm in so I don't think it will be to big a deal on their end.

drainey

Sounds like you don't need to worry so much about a reference from your current job if the prospective job knows your situation already. Do you have a secure job offer or is this just a strong possibility?

Either way I'd say once you have a secure job offer give your current employer a two week notice if there's anyway you can make it. It doesn't really matter to this company but it will look good to your future company. It will also look good for any future moves you may make. If you can't do 2 weeks then do 1 minimum. That should allow you to finish as many projects currently in process as possible as well as give you time to transistion the rest to your Mananger/fellow employee in the smoothest manner possible. In the end you'll feel better know you took the high road on your way out.

veritas_libertas

You never told us about the new job. Just curious...

NightShade03

@drainey - nothing in writing yet, but a very strong possibility

@veritas_libertas - well its funny actually a vendor that we worked with lost a project proposal because they were outbid by someone else, but I made friends with one of the guys. We had lunch a few times and one day I was going to ask if they were hiring at all and like 10 seconds before I did he said "we're hiring if ever you are uphappy with your current job" (there is irony for you). So things are crazy at the end of the year but the first week in Jan I'm going to have lunch with him and his boss as more of an informal interview. He said his boss liked my resume though because I'm well versed in alot of technologies.

Just to sweeten the deal too they were looking for a new helpdesk software to use at some of their client locations (they are a VAR) so I wrote him a full helpdesk webapp demo on a linux live cd and gave it to them after I demoed it.

Don't know what specifically I'd do for them yet but the guy basically said I can go any direction I want (Windows, Linux, Networking) because they are such a large VAR.

RouteThisWay

knwminus wrote: »

There is so little that previous employers (as a company) can/will say about you that I have seen that it doesn't matter to much as long as you don't plan on coming back to that job.

You would be surprised how employers get around this.

For instance, a helpdesk guy we had here was horrible. Treated customers(yes they are customers, love working for fed contractor) like crap, gave conflicting information that wasn't on par with standard security policy, bad attitude, etc. Anyway, needless to say... He was unwillingly let go. Federal guards came, gave him 5 mins to collect his things, then escorted him outside of the facility where more federal guards came and escorted his vehicle off of the property.

Anyhow, about 6 months after this, a headhunting/job assistance IT recruiting company tried to place him in a new position. The prospective employer called the manager who fired him (he listed her as a reference, what? lol) and asked him about him. The manager answered vague questions, ambiguously. I think the one that was a strong negative signal was when the question was asked "Would you hire him again?" and it was put pretty clearly the answer was No. Anyhow, apparently this headhunting/job assistance firm deemed him unplaceable after that since he did receive a bad reference, and they no longer tried to place him somewhere.

Now obviously that is a bit worse than the 2 week notice story, but don't think that everything you do/say at your last employer won't get to your new one. Especially in a smaller city, where the IT community isn't very large.

In my experience, on both the interviewer/interviewee sides, giving a 2 week notice is a plus. We hired one guy who was insistent on giving his employer 2 weeks. We really would have liked to have had him start that week, but we couldn't argue with the notice. He did end up leaving (moved with his wife), but the reverse was true too... he was insistent on giving us a 2 week notice.

That being said, I have walked out on a job with a days notice. 3 years ago, I was washing cards at a car dealership here lol. When I got my first "in" at an IT company, it was a "see yah!" lol.

Just depends on your own situation. I think you know whether it will hurt you or not in the future. As Veritas so wisely pointed out... don't burn bridges!

L0gicB0mb508

I would normally give atleast a week. I gave an employer advanced notice one time (about a month because it was a small shop), and that was probably the biggest mistake of my life. I ended up leaving before the week was out, because they were treating me like crap. I learned my lesson that time. It's good to never burn bridges though. You never know when it's going to come back and bite you.

shodown

I put in 2 weeks notice and I only lasted about a week. They pulled my access(which is funny because I had to contact everyone to shut me down and my RSA key wasn't shut off until I found the guy who admined it). They paid me for the days that I said I would work so all in all I thought it was a good transition. My next employer (I only lasted 8 weeks the job was completely not what was described to me) I put in a 2 weeks notice and when they were walking me out, I was told that I was free to come back and people who just walk out are put on the do not hire list. That is nothing you want to be on in this economy these days. So always put in your 2 weeks. It's easy to suck it up, look on the bright side you will be gone moving on to bigger and better things and they will be in the same place they were at.

MentholMoose

RouteThisWay wrote: »

Now obviously that is a bit worse than the 2 week notice story, but don't think that everything you do/say at your last employer won't get to your new one. Especially in a smaller city, where the IT community isn't very large.

+1
It's a small world...

mikedisd2

Don't you guys sign a contract stating T&C when you start a job? I would drop my current job in an instant, but I signed a contract saying I must give 4x weeks notice.

Forsaken_GA

mikedisd2 wrote: »

Don't you guys sign a contract stating T&C when you start a job? I would drop my current job in an instant, but I signed a contract saying I must give 4x weeks notice.

Georgia is an "At Will" state when it comes to employment, which basically means that either I or my employer can choose to end my employment at any time without any prior notice or for any reason.

In practice, however, we try to give 2 weeks.

bagelwithcheese

You don't have to if you feel it will stress you out. But if you don't, make sure your next employer doesn't find out you left without giving a regular 2 weeks' notice.

apd123

mikedisd2 wrote: »

Don't you guys sign a contract stating T&C when you start a job? I would drop my current job in an instant, but I signed a contract saying I must give 4x weeks notice.

Your confusion is that you live in "the world" where everyone whos employment boggles your mind lives in the US. Seriously though the culture shock between people from Europe or I guess Australia is hilarious when they hear about our lack of vacation time and lack of contract type job security/endentured servitude depending on perspective. Lets just say that when a US employer fires you they will likely stop paying you that minute and depending on the company you will be fighting to get expenses payed. If your company lets you go how much severence do you get out of curiousity?

Sanis4life

Do yourself a favor and give two weeks notice. If the job is secured, then what is the harm in giving them proper notice? It's a professional courtesy. The last thing you want to do is burn ANY bridge! Trust me on that. You never know when you will cross paths again with the company or any of its employees.

P.S. On your exit interview...keep your mouth shut

The less information the better. I learned that the hard way.

JoJoCal19

Sanis4life wrote: »

P.S. On your exit interview...keep your mouth shut The less information the better. I learned that the hard way.

Thats the damned truth.