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Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

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It’s a fact of life that you should never quit a job until you have another one lined up. But have you ever been so unhappy that you’ve just had to walk away from a job before you have your ducks in a row? If so, what were the career repercussions? Did it end up being the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do?

Topic

Define whim

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Have I left a job before I had another job lined up – yes once.

I was working for a small Mac dealer in the late 80s. The owner started to spend less and less time at the dealership, and the staff became somewhat disgruntled. They started to leave. The owner really didn’t seem to care. Business went downhill and there came a point where he didn’t have the cash to pay me. He offered me a computer instead. I made that my sign to leave without having something else lined up. I got another job in two weeks.

Had zero impact on my career.

James

At least a half dozen times.

In reply to Define whim

Any employer I have worked for knows I will up and walk out the door at any time if I don’t like the way things are going.

If I get fed up with a company, for any reason, I’m out the door. I don’t have patience to waste my time working for someone who can’t appease me.

I have quit because I wanted to go camping and was told someone else booked the day off. I just said goodbye and left.

I quit one job because it was sunny and teh beach was calling (good job, nice company but a VERY nice sunny day and I wasn’t interested in working).

I quit another after a year just because I was bored of working there.

You can ALWAYS find a new job, it’s not that hard. I select careers based on what I’m into at any given time. if I want to be in IT, I will get a job in IT. If I want to work hard and sweat out a living, I will go fix cars, frame houses or whatever. If I don’t want to work I will take a few months off and then decide where I want to work after that. Other time I find i get bored of working and fall back into teh music biz full time again.

I sure as heck am not about to dedicate my life’s work to fulfilling someone else’s dream though.

I syndrome

In reply to At least a half dozen times.

Sounds like you have a nasty case of the I syndrome!
throughout your whole reply couldn’t help but notice the IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII. Would have to agree on your last sentence though!

That wasn’t very clever at all

In reply to I syndrome

Due to past experience and study, I understand psychology very well, the observation you have noticed has a reason but you are looking at it in the correct context.

I was not offering conversation, in which case I would have had an obsession of speaking about myself. In that case I was speaking of personal experience, which is what the thread calls for. therefore, I is going to be the main pronoun used.

But you a fair attempt at clever psychological observation all the same.

Why I wasn’t so bothered about being fired …

In reply to At least a half dozen times.

… from my first IT gig.

“I sure as heck am not about to dedicate my life’s work to fulfilling someone else’s dream though.”

I should have that put on a plaque.

The old definition of success.

In reply to Why I wasn’t so bothered about being fired …

Success is defined as; the progressive realization of a worthwhile dream.

WORTHWHILE being the operative word of course.

Seeing soemone else achieve THEIR worthwhile dream and success, is not exactly what I consider a worthwhile career.

So why woul di dedicate MY time and energy into seeing someone else win?

Forget it, unless the dream is worthwhile to ME, you will only get what you pay for, and that doesn’t include marryig my job. If someone else’s dream looks more attractive to me, I’m gone, buh-bye.

Unless the dream is mine, you will only ever get a hired employee that will always look after himself first.

I have, and others

In reply to The old definition of success.

I have walked out on 2 jobs ‘on a whim’ before. no problems or reprocussions that I can think of.

Similarly, I was ‘let go’ once, and I was soooo releived that it wasnt until I was almost halfway home when I realized that I had to start looking for a job.
I dreaded going in every day, cause I was going to get a lot of crap from the boss, which decided that no matter what I did, it was always wrong. Out of the 3 months working there I do not think that I even went an hour of actually doing something right.

Funnier, 2 weeks later they asked for me to come back, and I said no way.

Me! OH! My!

In reply to The old definition of success.

I left a job after 16 years and it was the best thing to happen to me. I realized people actual do pay good money to do IT work. I would still be making half what I make probably, because I was redlined so they said. They also said you will not find anyone to pay you what I do. They were right, everyone else paid more.

I agree with the comment made by OZ_Media about “looking after yourself first.”
Companies have no problem cutting jobs to save upper management bonuses.

Cool

In reply to At least a half dozen times.

Oz_media,
I absolutely agree with you, we should pursue our dreams and dedicate time to what we feel is important & do what we like to do. If the ambience , or work cultute doesnt suit a person he can always quit the place & find another place to work.

Getting fired or walking away…

In reply to At least a half dozen times.

In repy to your last line…
Here’s the take from a militarist’s point of view:(I forgot the originators’ name)

One’s goal in war is not to die for your cause (or country), but to make the enemy die for HIS !.

I follow your method of handling jobs!

In reply to At least a half dozen times.

I too behave in this fashion for work. Regardless of how the economy is performing. I never let an employer dictate how I live my life, operate or how I should feel. Given that they will do whatever is in their power to deter you from quitting should you discuss your concerns its always an option for me to jump ship at anytime without notice. This means a few min’s after arriving at work or after talking to my boss or with no sign at all. I’ve literally said I was going to the bathroom, left my security badge in the top drawer and walked out directly to my car and drove off. I have a theory that I believe I have taken from theory to actual proof: You can determine how bad a company is by just leaving on a whim! If they take hours or days to call you or email you then you know the place was severely hindered with dysfunction and disillusion.

Hardly quitting on whim

In reply to Define whim

“Jim… it’s dead.”

Quitting when the boss has no cash to pay you and offers merchandise instead is hardly “quitting on a whim.” It’s not even quitting on impulse, as I bet the thought had crossed your mind many times as you watched the business slide downhill. It was a good decision on your part, even if the final decision came quickly.

Quitting on a whim is leaving because it’s too nice a day outside to be cooped up inside (see other posts in reply to parent). Quitting on a whim is leaving because you can’t stand the conflicting colors in the suit your boss wore today. Quitting on a whim is leaving because you had a fight with the spouse last night.

Hence my title

In reply to Hardly quitting on whim

I did have alternatives. I could have stayed till I found somehting else, or offered to partner with this guy in turning the business around. The business did have a valuable asset – an Apple VAR license, which in the 80s during the Apple boom was worth something.

Others did quit before things got rough because it was a nice day and they didn’t feel like stressing anymore.

I did leave one place after three weeks, because it was in turmoil (the place where the guy who hired me quit the day before I started) and I had another offer. In hindsight they did get their act together.

James

Didn’t quit on a whim…

In reply to Hardly quitting on whim

…I had plenty of good reasons to quit! 🙂 Even though I didn’t have any job lined up, I have no regrets about jumping ship when I did: the managing director of the place embezzled ten million from the company, and it went down for the count soon after 🙂 HAHAHA!

fo sho

In reply to Define whim

Right around the dotcom bubble peak in the mid-to late 90’s I went from being an IS-Assistant to the Network Engineer of the MN House of Representatives in about a 2 week span. When everyone above me quit, painful transition doing the work of 3 superiors.
Once things settled though it was an excellent position, truly the potential for a career opportunity especially at 22.
Lasted a little over a year and then the challenge kind of got old, so when I came across a tour guide gig across the continental USA, let me tell you I didn’t think twice.
The look on the face of “the Controller of the House” when I came into his office with the letter of resignation stating: “I was going to forgo the here today gone tomorrow life in IT for a more lasting career as a tour guide”.
Took a bit to convience him it was for real, and no money offers would change my mind. To date one of the best decisions I have ever made. Tour Guiding, ahhhh that’s the life.

I avoided agreeing to an extension

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

of a contract once. Left me out of work for the my longest period ever since Jan 81. Two and half months.
I don’t regret not continuing there, I do regret the loss of income though.

Career wise I benefitted, they were complete twonks, not sure I’d call it a whim, it was spur of the moment though.

Yup…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

took a job that I was iffy about, worked with a complete jerk who basically gossiped to me about every person I was to support, there was no budget to speak of, got yelled at for helping a customer (student), and so I quit after holding out for three months.

Did not have one iota of impact on any future jobs.

I think one thing that IS important, if you are planning on a drastic move, is to have your reference ducks in a row, and have as much money saved up as you can. It’s not impossible to leave one job without benefit of having another, whether you leave on your own accord or are forced out. One thing I did when I was laid off from a company was to leave with class. I was very courteous, thanked my manager for the opportunity, and told him if he had any questions not to hesitate to contact me. He was and still is a terrific reference.

🙂

Yes, once.

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I wouldn’t recommend it. But I wouldn’t have done it differently, either.

I spent three months working at a place where the VP of IT spent waaay too much time commenting on my personal appearance, for example (at a size 10, I was too ‘fat’). Whether or not I had on enough make-up, what I wore to bed at night, etc. OR..he closely monitored any personal calls I made. If my boyfriend (my husband now) called, he would berate me for wasting ‘his’ time. Mind you, these calls usually consisted of “What time should I pick you up? Are we going out for dinner or staying in?” 30 – 60 seconds at most. He commented on the size of my breasts in a department meeting. He ridiculed me when I misfed a printer (I STILL suck at hardware). It got so bad so quick that I started keeping notes. I’m usually very strong willed and very much in control of myself and I was amazed (in retrospect) how quickly he harmed my self-confidence. One morning, after being dropped of to work, I walked in the building, went straight to the bathroom and threw up. I decided then and there that I would be making a stop at HR then right back out and I would not return. I took my notes to HR, called for a ride and left. He was fired a few hours later. What I later learned, is 11 other people had complained about him prior to me (I guess I was the only one with documentation).

Trying to find a job afterwards was nearly as demoralizing. I tried being as honest as possible in job interviews, glossing over it as best I could. I could NOT get a second interview. As soon as I just left them off the resume and made up a plausable excuse for the gap in my resume, I had no problem with job offers. About 6 months into my next job, I find out this d0uchebag is a recruiter and has been calling at my place of employment. I knew sooner or later, I was gonna get found out. I went to my boss and explained the situation. His first and ONLY question? “Do you feel like anyone here is ‘bothering’ you?” I couldn’t believe it. That situation truly punishes the victim. I nearly lost my job for lying at my interview. Not even a month after that, my husband was offered a job 3 hours away. I got into consulting after that.

Like I said, I wouldn’t recommend it. You should ALWAYS have a backup. In my case though, I truly couldn’t stand another day.

Its OK to walk out when youve had enough

In reply to Yes, once.

I worked for a insurance company some years ago and was there for only 3 months before I walked out because my boss could not be asked to support me. She made it clear from day one she had no time for me and was not prepared to help me as she did not get to interview me. What I found out was she was told here is you new IT body take it or leave it. So she made it her mission to get me out. For example she would be the only person on the team who could hand out work. And when it came to me I would get the worst jobs and when I would ask for more work she would say have not time for you come back later. I was even told off for using my own mobile to make personal calls in my own time! So when the assistant IT manager would ask about me all I ever got was a bad rep. So in the end I just gave my notice in and left told the assistant IT manager the truth he didnt belive it until I gave him my diary and even then he told me I had made this up. With no job for 3 months it was hard but I learned alot and that you can walk out of a job without fear because there is work out there might take a while but at least you wont be miserable.

I think I’ve read one posting…

In reply to Yes, once.

…where someone actually left on a whim (it was a nice day and they wanted to go camping). Every other posting has involved quitting for a damned good reason. Better to leave an intolerable situation than snap and Go Postal. Doesn’t anyone here know the meaning of “whim”? Whim != quickly. Whim == on impulse, for no serious reason, not after thinking about it for a long time.

You feel

In reply to I think I’ve read one posting…

very strongly about the whole ‘whim’ thing, then?

If you read the actual posting…

In reply to I think I’ve read one posting…

you will see that it was more then just leaving a job on a whim…we responded to the posting in kind.

That wasn’t a whim.

In reply to Yes, once.

What he was doing was sexual harrassment, plain and simple. You should have filed suit against him and the company. With your documentation (and the testimony of other employees) you probably could have walked away easily with a hundred thousand after taxes and fees.

Okay

In reply to That wasn’t a whim.

The ‘whim’ point has been made already. 🙂 Although, I do contend, that since I went to work that morning, with no intention of quitting, and then, moments after arriving, deciding that I couldn’t do it for even another minute, that it was at least ‘whimish’.

And you’re right, I probably could have sued. However, I was so beaten by the experience, that all I wanted to do was run away. Fortunately, I got over it, and am cruising along just fine. Actually, I gained strength from the whole experience as I am positive that I would never allow myself to abused that way again.

I guess I could go back and fix my run-on sentences..but I think you get the point?

The last job

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I had was the worst that I have had in a long time. It was for a bank and my boss was the general manager, it started out as a contract job for $15 an hour. It was not too bad as a contract and once the contract ran out they hired me. The HR person called me at home and gave me an offer I thought she was joking. She said they would pay me the same. I was contracted in as a network support specialist and hoped to get any where from $21 to $28 an hour.
The lay out for the sever room was the pits 12 servers, 10 were 8 years old and bought used. TWO servers were new, IBM’s with AIX and no one knew any thing about them. But I was IT so I could fix or work on any thing. Their server room and cabling was installed and worked on by five different consulting companies and looked like it. They had back doors on all the servers so they could work on them from the office.
After I took the job I was told I alone would close the bank! Which involved down loading check images from the Fed?s taking the days money and checks from with in the servers and balancing all. I was there until midnight two or three times a week because some thing did not balance. Once I thought I was under $5,000 and could not find out why, the next day my boss who was now called the IT director said I was under $5,000,000!
I lasted nine months there and found out the last three people there who had the same position only lasted two or three weeks.
I had no other job but gave them a weeks notice saying I had a job with Microsoft. And guess what two weeks latter I was on a contract with them.

Yes

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

When you’ve had enough, LEAVE!!!
It’s a less dent on your resume than to be fired. Unhappiness = Bad performance. Bad Performance = Dismissal!
So if it’s that bad just quit and go. I’ve done it before and I’m happy where I am. I left with no new job in sight. Looked for a new job while I was at home. I’m happy where I am right now.
Don’t whine and whimper. Do something about it. Quit when there is no chance of an improvement on your situation.

Jobs available

In reply to Yes

I have taken contracts quickly at a lower rate to leave situations. You can almost always pull this off.

PC Support

In reply to Jobs available

I had a job as PC Support for a large company whose management would not install a Help Desk. Each user should call the support person they personally wanted. And the manager would chew me out wherever he found me, in front of all other employees. Very demoralizing. My husband told me to quit. In the next week I had so many people tell me that they admired that I could quit a bad job without another one in view. I left on a Friday and Monday morning I was substituting for an instructor at the local Tech College who was on medical leave. I taught there part time on one day or one class a semester jobs for the next three years. I was not working steady, but I made more money on an annual basis, and I expanded my skills and knowledge base as I helped students with points that were difficult to them. Did not hurt me!

I held my hand up and said “Pick me”

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I had a job where the company was bought up by a larger competitor. In theory not as a hostile take over according to our companies officers it was to help bring our supierior product to a larger market. I was having a rough time with the job anyway we were getting no support from management at all. When I started there we had 3 people in our group that did customer support and 50+/- customers. At the time of the takeover we still had 3 people but now we had over 300 customers including some larger by themselves then the original 50 that we had. We spent 3 years telling them we needed help and they would hire someone and them move them off to somewhere else in a few weeks. Putting in 60-80 hours every week gets old real quick. The new company decided that we were redundant and only needed 1 person and a backup instead of 3. When they came around to tell us one of us was getting cut I stood up and volunteered.

Up and left

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I got a sweet job doing consulting for a firm in NJ. I loved the work, the people were okay, but the boss was a real slave driver. I mean I was there a week and I was working 12-15 hours a day and he knew i lived 45 minutes away. For example, one day at about 4:50 (I left at 5PM) he calls from the road. “I’m on my way I’ll be there in 20 minutes we need to go over some things to wait there for me.” I figure okay, we’re going over a few things, 20 minutes isn’t much. He gets there and needs to me to do the following –

1) Write a login script for a server
2) Install ISA Server
3) Document an install for a client we worked on

All in all he didnt’ arrive until almost 5:45PM and I didn’t leave until about 9PM.

Meanwhile I had interviewed for my current job a month prior so that was still in the works. I got sent down to Atlantic City to work on an exchange migration. Takes nearly 4 hours to get there, I’m chewed out for hitting traffic (yup I made the car accident happen) I work for about 8 hours. I get to the hotel and my boss calls me, needing me to convert 3 login scripts from Novell to WSH. I explain that I’m tired and I just worked 8 hours after driving 4 hours. He says, very coldly, “Oh well you can just code int he hotel room.” Mind you, the hotel was 30 minutes outside of Atlantic City (gotta save $$$) and I had to be in work at 7:30AM the next day, the drive back home another 4 hours.

I spoke with my fiance (g/f at the time) and told her, half joking, “If that new job calls I’m leaving”. The next morning they called, they made me an offer. I went upstairs to the office, got my stuff and just left. Turned off the company cellphone. When I got home I put it in an envelope and mailed it back to them.

I regretted leaving the job b/c it paid awesome but the stress of the boss wasn’t worth it. Turns out that’s how he treats all his employees an I’m glad I got out when I did.

part time college job

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I’m a pretty broke second-year college student. Three weeks ago I started working for a software company at $15 an hour, which is insanely awesome for part time work in this corner of small-town South Dakota.

Last weekend I quit. Much unpleasantness with the scheduling and the learning curve. All I really learned is that fixing uneducated developers’ nasty code is not for me. It may have paid well, but I rather thought I had it on very hard terms. And I’ve been catching a lot of hell for quitting on a ‘whim’ like this.

As far as career repercussions, I don’t know yet. They say real professional work during college is a huge boost, but I doubt it would have helped if I started failing physics because my brain already hurt trying to sort out ugly buggy code at work. This was the kind of garbage code that makes you want to disregard the principle of never starting over from scratch.

I still have a job at my school, doing research on the bioinformatics team. It pays well enough that I probably won’t be late on my car and credit card payments, but that’s about it.

I’m telling myself I’m young and bright and have a lot of time to figure out my professional career, but I’m hitting a big block in the overall mindset of college–the “Start now! DONT WAIT! Find yourself! Join up!” coming from every angle. It’s exhausting.

One time because of the office politics

In reply to part time college job

I worked at my first job in NYC for a month or so. Did not care much for my boss. She was the type who walked behind your back and looked over your shoulder to see what you were doing on her way to meetings and held all her cards close to her vest in letting you know what was going on. It was not just me; she did this to all the employees. She was the only one to update anything. She even gave me the job of documenting all her changes by giving me listings and a sketchy writeup of what the program was supposed to do. I had to flowchart the programs, the systems and write up all the operating instructions on her work. At the time I had already worked as a systems person for the computer company they used so I was not a rookie by any stretch of the imagination, just new to the city.

The secretary to the director and I became coffee break friends and she told me of her dislike for the boss’s trying to treat her like a daughter and check on her dates and everything. We came back from the break and she was called in and fired for talking about the boss. We had been sitting at a private table and talking softly to each other on break. Someone listened in and reported back to the boss.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I knew that the poisonous atmosphere in the place would just get me down so I bailed. Got a new job in a week and stayed there for 3 years with no repercussions from that first job. I made sure that when I made up my resumes that job was almost like a footnote. I said nothing about it and just said it was not a good combination of the manager’s style and mine. Didn’t seem to hurt me at all. I did learn how not to manage people from that one. What a poisonous atmosphere!!

Yes- and landed on my feet!

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

It’s a fact of life- every job has its pro’s and con’s. I stuck it out for 5 years, and gave notice when a “quality” suggestion I made on a new system rollout was rejected, and accepted 2 months later when a male made the same suggestion. He got a nice bonus as a “thanks” for his suggestion. (shaking head)

First time in my life I jumped off a cliff and quit with no prospects lined up. Moved to San Diego, and landed a job on my first interview with a 20K increase in salary.

Sometimes, you’ve got to ask the tough questions:
1. Can you “fix” what’s making you unhappy?
2. If “NO”- can you live with it? Really? Be honest, if you can’t make the “attitude adjustment”, then obviously you can’t live with it. It’s time to move on.
3. If “YES”- then MAKE the attitude adjustment. Change your negative thought patterns about whatever problems/issues that bugs you. It may take a few months… be patient with yourself. BUT MAKE THE CHANGE.

The bottom line: We all deserve to be relatively happy when we’re spending 40+ hours a week working a job. Sometimes- it’s not YOU. It’s company culture and fit. You simply need to figure out if you can resolve or control the issues that bug you, and whether you can live with those you can’t. The decision should then be relatively simple. Get out that notepad and start making a list.

Once I Did Just Leave

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I managed a small card and parties store all to myself. I really liked my job. One night, my boss called and said not to bother to drop the cash at the bank depository. He said to hide the cash drawer in the store. I did, but sure enough the next morning the store had been robbed. I had not robbed the store! Yet, I was transferred to the main store and put to work on a project to separate glass and plastic beads by color and type into jars. The beads were all mixed up in jars and lined up row after row on a wide wall. I had to stand on the ladder. I didn’t even have a table. I was seventeen. I got cranky and skipped off to Philly without telling anyone. In a week I came back, but I couldn’t have my job back.

Yes, but …

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Yes, but it was mainly to leave California and all the problems with my smack-addict ex- behind.

A mistake? Probably. Shoulda gotten divorced there, and then gone back into service. I’d be retired now, with my feet up on the desk running a bar somewhere.

Not yet…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

But I’m SO CLOSE to walking out of the current job. I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of walking out of here without having something lined up, and so far, the pros are winning. Everyone is telling me to make sure I have something lined up first, but I just don’t know how much more I can take. At this point, I’m waiting 3 more weeks until I finish a class to which I’m entitled to education reimbursement. I figure I’ll wait for the $2100, then bolt. In a perfect world, I’ll have something new lined up by then, but if not, I still don’t think I have much of an option other than to just fly free for a few days and hope for the best!

“Fact of life” is a bit strong

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

While I can agree with others that have made comments that it’s a good idea to try to have something lined up before walking out on a job, I think calling it a “fact of life” is a bit strong. Yes, one needs to think about income, paying bills and handling potentially late payments, etc., but if a situation is SO BAD that it’s severely killing your self-esteem, your sense of well being, your soul, then yes, I think you should leave ASAP. You can always get another job doing something, but damage to your psyche and sense of well being can take months, if not years to repair.

I really sympathize for the poster who worked for the boss who commented on her personal appearance and was intrusive into her personal phone calls (and who was fired hours after she left), and THEN who could not get a second interview after being HONEST with prospective employers. It sounds like a new “fact” to the work place is never to be completely honest with anyone: everyone expects it but no one wants to reward those who are. (And then employers wonder why they can’t inspire loyalty in workers.)

I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule that applies for everybody, because everybody’s situation is different, just as everybody’s financial situations are different, and everyone’s emotional and psychological profiles are different. Some folks with a decent amount saved up could take a hike on a bad boss without a moment’s consideration while others who may be living hand-to-mouth may be too scared to do anything. This, by the way, is an EXCELLENT reason to get out of debt AS SOON AS YOU CAN – debt and the need to pay credit bills is what keeps many people tethered to awful job situations long beyond what they’re willing to stand.

I’m sure most posters to this forum probably aren’t as much thinkers of the metaphysical as me, but my belief and hope is that if a job situation is absolutely horrible, and you make the decision to leave on the spot, something will turn up for you. It does not mean that it will be ideal job, or a logical next step in your career path, that it will pay more than your previous position, or that you may not get the next position in time to prevent any damage to your credit report. But surely your value as a human being outweighs all those other temporary setbacks. (And if you don’t think it does, get yourself to a therapist or clergyman immediately; you have some work on your perspective to do!)

I’ll finish with a story from my own personal experience. I had this one position where I worked, on commission, for a company that wrote resumes. It was a lousy position in that I was in an office that got very little foot traffic most of the time, I didn’t like my boss much, and because I was an inexperienced salesman, saw very low paychecks (I had to hock a lot of personal electronics to stay afloat at one point). There were MANY times that I wanted to leave this position. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, though, I had a serious self-confidence problem and must have believed, somehow, that I “deserved” such a lousy position.

Amazingly, most of the things I feared never happened. I spent a lot of time on the phone talking to creditors, most of whom gave me some sort of break (including my car loan company), and my apartment complex was willing to give me some extra time to pay my rent on several occasions.

Here’s my point: if you need to tell a boss to stick it – and it should be for a really serious situation, not just because you didn’t get a corner office with a window – with some creativity & flexibility and some support from friends or family, you can get through a situation where a sudden exit is a necessity. I highly recommend self-help books or whatever you do that can give you HOPE if you need to leave suddenly.

You get ONE life and then it’s over. When time runs out, are you gonna regret spending YEARS at a job where you’re being treated like crap??

For sure

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Did not recall if it would classify as a whim, but the statement was either do it my way or hit the highway. I picked up my stuff, and walked out. Needless to say that within hours there were many calls with the usual begging.. Screw them, they hired the idiot, now let him figure out what was going on.. Can you spell Format C:

Quit in desperation without new job

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I’m an electrical engineer, and one job so burned me out (far more work than I could fit into the work week – and still have any semblance of a life) that I quit without having another job lined up. I told them that I was going to be an independent consulting engineer. I got my registration as a Minnesota Professional Engineer, and my first call was from my previous employer! Another division needed someone who had my skills, and my ex-employer referred them to me.

I’ve been on my own ever since.

(I still have trouble getting jobs that take way too much time – but they do eventually end, and I take some time to get caught up with my own stuff before looking for more work. That works fine.)

Never on a whim, but due to circumstances…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

The first time I ever quit a job was right after I was just hired. This was one of those jobs that I took, but should have listened to my instincts and didn’t. There was something wrong with the job, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I knew it was going to be bad when I tripped while running for a commuter train. I ended up missing it by 4 seconds,and got yelled at for it. These other people in the department either took the subway in Boston, or walked. My commute was by commuter rail, and if you miss the morning train, you have to wait for another hour. The subways run at 15 minute intervals so these other people could easily catch the next one that came along. The manager understood, and said don’t worry about it, but my immediate supervisor made a big thing out of it. Who was he to squawk? I opened up the doors for them every day, and even put the coffee pot on!

I was working at this place for about three weeks when my supervisor had me installing thick-net cabling. His idea was to put the cable up and over florescent light fixtures and bend the cabling at less then 45-degree angles to connect it to the equipment. He kept wondering why the network wasn’t working!

He and I had a few words about that when I pointed out the tight bend in the cabling. He said that, as my low stature being the new guy, I didn’t have any say on anything and that I was just supposed to get the job done no matter what.

Anyway, he left me to do yet another install in another part of the building. I had to climb up on a rickety ladder alone and try to heave the very stiff cable over a metal stockroom cage. The ladder wiggled and I fell off. I didn’t hurt anything but my pride, but I was a bit pis*ed over the situation, and went to get some help. He came over to me and yelled at me for asking for help. I quit there and then. He looked at me like I had three heads, and the manager begged me to stay. I told them both to keep the job and walked out.

My hunch was right about the job. I should have listened to my gut feelings. About a month after I quit, the company was purchased by another company and completely stripped. They are no longer in existence anywhere today.

Another time I left was after quite an ordeal. I was initially hired as a computer operator, and worked the swing shift. During my tenure in the computer room, I received the Employee Star Award of Excellence for taking a reactive work environment, and turning into a proactive environment. I developed different record keeping methods, job check-off sheets, and documentation. I documented not just each job, but the whole operations cycle and how each job interacted.

Well after keeping this odd-ball schedule for nearly three years, I wanted out of the computer room. I liked the company, and the job, but I was tired. An opening came up in the PC support side of things, and I applied for the job and got it.

My co-worker and I were responsible for supporting the help desk, the network technicians, and the rest of the user community. In addition to the local office, we were sent off-site to a satellite office in Providence. The job its self wasn’t bad. I liked working with the people, and got along with everyone.

My work partner was odd, and became anal about things. One day he screamed and yelled because the screw drivers got messed up in the draw. They used to roll around when he closed the draw, and he blamed me for messing up the order they were in! OKAY I said to myself, we can deal. The next day I got yelled at again, but because I left a mess on the workbench according to him. All I did was get up to get a cup of coffee, and I was going to put the PC back together. He had cleaned up for me, and through my parts away! Geesh.

After that incident, I worked on my side of the room, and he on the other. He spent most of the time on the phone talking with his buddies about partying and other stuff. I spent the time running around replacing toner cartridges, and helping people with their PC problems. This wasn’t such a bad gig becaue I didn’t have to remain in the office with him.

Then there were moves. Yup at least once a month a department would exchange places with another. Conveniently, he managed to take a vacation for nearly every one of them. I was left coordinating the movers to lift the equipment from one end of the building to the other, and then I was left alone to hook everything up for the next Monday.

In November 1994, I got ill with a flu-like bug that left me completely run down and I ended up with mono. I had asked for vacation time, I had the hours, but couldn’t take them because the other guy conveniently had his time already scheduled every time I asked. I had even requested a few days off before I started, but was denied. I was pegged a quitter and non-team player because I was out. I had doctor’s notes to boot, but that didn’t count.

In December 1994, I got ill again. This time it was pneumonia. Under doctor’s orders, I was to leave work immediately, and go to bed. He ordered some antibiotics that made me heave all over the place, but I was better a week later. My co-worker took it upon himself to call a temp agency becaue he felt I had quit. He even started a rumor that I had quit!

Then it happened. It was early January, and I was sent to the Providence office. As usual, he never could go. I had to make the trip down always. He had told the other people, including the manager that I was cheating on my mileage, and I got questioned about my trip ticket! I looked at the manager and said “Do the math. It’s 55 miles to Boston from where I live, and another 55 to Providence.” He didn’t say a word, and we left it at that.

This kept up, and finally there was a company meeting on a Thursday. As usual, I was sent to Providence, and when I returned to Boston, I found out I wasn’t included in the department-wide meeting! I was deliberately being left out of the loop because “I wasn’t a team player.”

After this I went immediately to the VP of Operations, and told him what was going on. He didn’t say anything useful, and I left the meeting. (He looked like Dilbert’s boss if this says anything).

After dealing with this trash more and more, I had finally had it up to my eyesballs. So two weeks later on January 27, 1995, I resigned. I printed off 7 copies of my resignation and handed it to everyone I could think of including the VP of Operations!

I left work, not knowing what I was going to do, and ended up driving up to Halifax, Nova Scotia with my uncle to visit his brother. I received a call from the HR office back in Boston begging me to come back. They fired the other guy immediately. I told them to stuff the job, and I have never regretted it since.

So these are my two quitting situations. It takes a lot to get me to leave a job. In many cases, I’ve stuck through the worsed phases, and ended up outlasting everyone in the company right to the bitter end.

John

Quitting on a whim?

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Yes, I did quit a job on a whim, and it was the best decision I ever made! I had worked for the company for about three years doing stat work in the finance department. I started out with a great boss who retired. He was a wonderful mentor and inspired me to finish my BSBA, which I did by attending night classes for two years. Well, the wonderful boss was replaced by a (ex-military) man who had a terrible reputation insofar as being abusive to employees. I should have heeded the warning! The stories would make anyone run for cover! I found out the hard way that they were not just stories. Anyway, the last straw came when I was told (by him) that I couldn’t go on a vacation that I had planned long before. He said that my vacation plans would overlap with his. Well, the day that he left for his vacation, I gave two weeks notice. I heard that he was begging for someone to take my place when he returned from his vacation. From there my career moved quickly forward with another company. I had obtained my BSBA with honors and started a new career – immediately increasing my salary – double and triple within the next couple of years. It went up from there. I could go on, but I think this is the gist of the question – whether to guit on a whim? If you are unhappy at work, you should think seriously of moving on to explore a better opportunity. They are out there.

Burned the Bridge; Watched and Laughed

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

This was in my pre-IT days.

After leaving one job, I got a job at a fast-food pseudo-Italian chain. The first two days I learned what to do as far as prep-work goes (making the sauce, measuring out pasta, etc.). The third day they decided to put me on the line preparing the orders. Then came the lunch-rush. There were 3 ‘managers’ on duty, and all three were sitting in the office cutting up and haveing a grand ole time while I was busting it up trying to get all of the orders out. I already had another job lined up but it wasn’t going to start until the following Monday.

By 1 that day I was getting slammed and no one would respond to my calls for assistance. So I took off the apron, clocked out, and headed to the back door to get to my car. I was intercepted by two of the managers, yelling at me and telling me that I’d never be able to work anywhere in that chain again if I just walked out. I laughed and told them I thought I could live with that and kept walking.

Way back when…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I was in production and pretty much a pushover, but had gone through a painful divorce and became a very angry man- went in to work one day and found the shift supervisor had scheduled a builder with much less seniority on MY machine yet again. (A common occurrence since I was a pushover) I had taken it long enough, slid(threw)my lunch bucket to the office, clocked out, and was out the door.
Walked in the door at home and my new wife was on the phone with my department manager who was quick to remind me of how I practically begged for my job 6 years prior… yes, right, but that doesn’t give you the right…
Anyway, I accepted the offer to go back the next day and went to the plant manager who apologized and cordially asked me to return and respectfully returned my right to have my machine as it should have been; guess I wasn’t so much a pushover anymore… ho, hum, I’m now retired, 24 years later from the same job.

Oh yeah

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I quit a job, warehouse logistics, when they brought a new manager in who didn’t know his job from a hole in the ground. This was a well known mattress company and they had special orders that I babysat from start to finish and this MORON would send them out to regular customers without even thinking. Mind you, these were clearly marked in several different places with sticker and large handwritten letters (at least 12″ high) as to who they were for.
I told him for three weeks what he was doing and how it was affecting customers and the company. His “this is my warehouse and I am going to do what I want” attitude finally got to me and I yelled at the top of my lungs “take this job and shove it right up you ***!” in the middle of the warehouse, and walked out. Mind you, I could not afford to be off for a day let alone a day.
Best decision I ever made concerning a job. I was not happy, I was stressed to the max. Next week got a job that I absolutely loved, more pay, less stress and people who really cared what they were doing.
It can work out, but there can be problems sometimes. At least this one wasn’t.
I say go with your gut feelings. If it isn’t right, why stress yourself out that much. You were looking when you came and you will be looking when you leave.
Thanks!

30th birthday

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I worked at a Circle K in the 80s. On one side was welfare housing with drug dealers, pimps, etc. On the other was a park where people went to deal. Lots of violence.
The manager was a short 60ish woman who had seen it all. She chain smoked then went to the back room to take a puff from oxygen tank. But she was loyal to her employees.
On my 30th birthday after 4+ yrs I was assistant manager and filling in for the manager on the day shift. The executives had put her on the graveyard shift temporarily as punishment because our inventory was short. In our neighborhood that was normal.
The owner of the company inspected our store that day. I was in uniform.. shirt, dark pants and shoes. My pants were the “new” cargo pants. The owner told the executive to make me change them. He didn’t look at me. The exec came over and we talked. I pointed out that since they put my manager on graveyards there was no one to relieve me unless he would like to. He looked around at the neighborhood and I could see he didn’t even want to be there.
Within the hour my manager was back on days and in the store. I went home and changed into “normal” black pants and returned. Everything happening and thinking about being 30 made me realize I wasn’t going to get out of there unless I just quit. I gave my 2 weeks notice because I felt loyalty to my manager.
The next night I am working at an even worse store. The execs doing, not my old managers. 3 nites, 3 fights. Involving knives and guns. The 4th day I was working at a car lot for minimum wage and wondering why I hadn’t done this sooner. Things really did start looking up since then.
Sorry this was so long. The topic brought back old memories and I felt like getting it off my chest.

Not me, but my wife

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

She was young and went through jobs fairly quickly. She had just started a new job at a chinese restaurant, and an hour & a half later she was home. When I asked, she said she had gone into the kitchen & just walked straight out the back door. She quickly started crying about how horrible the owner was, and listed off the mentally abusive things she had endured during that first hour.

Three months after she walked out, the owner was on the news. Rather, the news had a story about his murder, one of his employees finally had enough and knifed him.

Quit – Yes Whim – No

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Not me but my spouse who was in an intolerable situation. I encouraged it. We are not making as much money but are much happier. It was worth it.

Sort of

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I moved to Florida and found two pyramid scheme jobs back to back. I never seen this before and learned quick. The first one was selling imposter perfumes. During the orientation I realized it wasnt a job, but owing them money to sell their junk. I walked out and the speaker tried to call me out to embarrass me infront of the other 40 people. I stopped in my tracks and told him off that I wasnt a sucker to be had by his scheme. I told everyone that this isnt a job, its a scam. As I walked out most followed. I felt great.

The other was a job in marketing. I had my friend come with me. I went in for the interview while he stuck out in the office. I came out and they were going to have me come in for my first day in a few days. AS we left he told me the secretary’s only job was sceduling interviews, nothing else. I showed up and there was three other new hires. We got paired up with a trainer. They wanted us to hop in their car to a remote site where we would promote a business by word of mouth. I agreed to go but I had to drive my car. I used the excuse that I was in a horrible accident and dont trust other drivers. We went down the street for a few miles where my trainer pulled over and asked me if I really wanted this job or not. I looked at him and said “no I really dont. I find it funny that the secretary doesnt do anything but schedule interviews, all of the employees are guys right out of college, and you claim to make $50,000 a year of this job and you drive a twenty year old Monte Carlo that has a busted tail light and isnt worth $1000, so no you and your buddies are full of crap.” I rolled the window up with his mouth a gape and drove over to McDonald’s drive thru. It was the best McDonalds I ever have.

No, not really, someone pushed me…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

…and this must be the case most of the time. Employers do not want to have to justify arbitrary firings. They would rather bully someone out of his mind. In that way, they are immune to prosecution.

pushed=bullying=>big time win

In reply to No, not really, someone pushed me…

When the employer promotes a “hostile work environment” seems to me that it is time to call out the ambulance chasers. (And you thought they were only good for foundation fill……) It can take a while but sometimes even the feds will help out on those. Just depends. Sometimes though, even being over 40 doesn’t help if the ones abusing you are more minority protected than you…

complaint + retaliation => long time pain

In reply to pushed=bullying=>big time win

I complained about it, but the same thing happened all over again countless times when I finally got other jobs. Once, some people made the rounds at a cocktail function I attended telling anyone who would listen how much I had cost my former employer in severance pay. Needless to say, I did not get many job leads there. And if the law protects me against harassment and wrongful dismissal, no law can force an employer to justify not hiring me. Also there is the dearth of witnesses in my favor. People afraid of losing their own job will not testify against their employer. They will think about such things as their mortgage payments and stay put.

Yep – do it again too!

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Yes I did – and I went from Manager of a computer store to a director level of a company.

It was the best decision of my life

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I quit a job 16 years ago and moved out to Hawaii. I knew no one here, had no job lined up, lost all my money asfter a month, worked a lot of sh_tty jobs to make ends meet, and have never been happier. I finally met my wife after 3 years, had a son soon after, went back to college, got a degree, good job (software engineer), lost job, got into public education, and love the work, hate the pay. Quitting was th best thing I ever did for myself; I had the money, apartment, car, job I thought were supposed to make me happy; I was miserable. I was scared to jump out, but better poor in paradise than rich in Hell.

Message has been deleted.

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

Wow, strike two

In reply to Message has been deleted.

for this jerk

I’ve actually done it twice…

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I worked at one place as a bench tech for four days and one evening got in a car accident, the next day, as I was calling in to work, decided I didn’t want to work there anymore and told them I quit and they could mail me my first and only check.

The other, I was working as a relay operator for the deaf and the company was messing with my schedule, so I went in and said, “I came in to give my notice… you’ll notice I won’t be here anymore.” THAT was the most fun I ever had quitting a job.

edited to add:

I didn’t have jobs lined up after either of these places, but I don’t think either one had any effect on my [i]career[/i].

Hired to do one job then asked to do a different one

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I had been working for one employer for almost 10 years. For many reasons I gave notice and then found a new job before my last day–which seemed really lucky to me as I would not have any gap in employement.

In the meantime I was offered another position–the job as it was offered to me was data analysis, writing technical documentation and helping out the COO with projects–which I have actual job experience with. The day I started the new job they told me they really needed me to learn to be a Filemaker developer–because that would be my new job. Now I can develop in MySQL, Access and even in Oracle so I thought I could probably learn that. Alas, no.

I’m not sure why that was so impossible. They had used Filemaker to do horrible things–their data was a mess, they had been developing bits and pieces on the fly for years, abandoning code in places only to recreate it again somewhere else later. But to me Filemaker just seemed like a pile of junk.

I told my new boss that they needed a developer and that was not me. They told me to “just work faster”. I then said I don’t have the skill set. They said “just ask more questions”. I was totally demoralized within 3 days.

On that Friday I told them this isn’t working and that they did not get the right candidate. I said “I will not be coming back on Monday”. And I left.

The freakiest part was they clearly ignored me that day. The next week they called my former employer, my emergency contacts, all my references asking why I hadn’t come back to work that Monday. Thank god I had already shared with most of those people the fact that I had problems and was leaving the new place.

It took me months to find another job and to get back my confidence.

Had to do it….

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

After 8 and a half years the culture of the place was crushing me. It was unbearable. It was affecting my health and I was not advancing either by salary or position. I needed to regroup. I found a new job within 12 weeks. More pay, new responsabilities and a respectful work environment. Was it worth it heck yes. Unfortunately I find myself back in the job market after being downsized. My state of mind is much better than it would have been and I know that the next job will be even better then the last. Health must be the first priority.

my opinion

In reply to Had to do it….

Times a gotta do wat he gotta do. If one gets so sick with a job rather than continue till u are totally down, i believe quitting wont be a bad idea. Its just that most employers dont have their peeps at heart. Mine is a long story but am kinda happy i did wen i did. Couldnt have felt better!

Serial Quitter

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

If you truly feel justified to quit on a whim, just beware of how it will look on your resume if you become a serial quitter. At least have a good explanation ready, because if you are ever granted an interview that will be the first question.

I have walked out many times!

In reply to Have you ever quit a job on a whim?

I’ve always had a F-U mentality towards employment, especially when I discover the company culture is deceitful or immature in some fashion. I have a college degree in Marketing and over the last few years I’ve walked out on numerous sales jobs. Usually I walk out within the first month on the job once I find out the companies management is lying or withholding information that would otherwise deter potential employees from taking the same job.

If you’ve had a new guy start at your company, stay for a few weeks and then disappear after lunch only to never return – it was probably me!

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