You can take your job...
I have a whole new level of professional dilemma currently.
Usually any professional dilemma revolves around mistakenly hitting reply to all during a game of intra-office slander with like minded colleagues; or trying to smoothly sidle away from the photocopier before its distress beeps get noticed by someone who wants to know who was responsible for melting something plastic around the drum for the third time in as many days.
However this dilemma is entirely new to me, regardless of hemisphere.
Very simply, I handed in my notice four days ago and my boss still has not acknowledged it.
I’m currently temping in a corporate gig. Just after Easter I sold out and got a Real Job because it was easy to get to, the project sounded interesting and it paid well. The organisation also looked easy going enough to be flexible in working conditions which would allow me to still travel a bit. However, it’s been three months and my feet are itchy. Indeed I’ve booked flights to Chicago to go to Lollapalooza and catch up with a mate, and from there intend to go north to the east coast of Canada for a few weeks before booking it back to Aus to reassure my family I am not dead.
My project is coming to a close- and my attention span is starting to wane so after discussion with mates about the best way forward I handed in my notice on Monday.
I’m on a temporary contract, which basically means I could leave at the end of the day and not come back, but I felt it was the professional thing to do to give notice and so I put in my intentions in writing – including the standard sycophantic “thanks for the opportunities… great team…” comments and emailed it to my boss first thing Monday morning.
While I would have preferred to say that a number of my colleagues defy Darwinian Law and that I would sooner swim with sting rays than continue to work there, that seemed unnecessarily harsh. And I’ll require a reference from one of them I guess.
About 11am I got the receipt that she had read the resignation email, and so from 11am-2pm I waited for her to call me into her office to discuss it in person.
However, here’s the rub. Four days later and she’s still not said anything.
As I’ve had numerous face to face meetings with her in this time, not to mention email communication, there has been ample opportunity to say “by the way, got your note…” But the silence is deafening. The adage “elephant in the room” somehow seem appropriate currently.
English mates have assured me that this is normal, as my boss will have presumed this is merely an attempt at contract renegotiation.
I would have assumed a quick “so… do you want to stay” could have resolved that erroneous thinking fairly quickly.
As I’ve been waiting for my boss to say something… anything… to me I’d not told my colleagues, which was a bit awkward at first. But then became quite entertaining. I have said yes to any and every request that has come in over the last 48 hours.
“You need a completely re-designed web site with content written from scratch; fully integrated with flash and using a custom built content management system to be focus group tested it on a reliable sample prior to going live; an entirely new corporate visual sting and copyright cleared photo library and 3 x 30 second television and radio commercials written, produced and ready for airing by mid August all on a budget of £5000 including media buy? Sure, we can do that.”
However today, day four of the Great Office Pout, I took it upon myself to email all those I’ve been working with to let them know that I was edging my way towards the exit sign and that as of July 26 they were on their own.
Colleagues responded in what I’d regard as normal – with the usual “Disappointing… what’re your plans?” kind of stuff.
My boss, however, has continued her original position of “if I ignore it, it may not be true”.
Far be it from me to big myself up, but if I’m interested in my job I’m actually pretty good at it. However, given I spend 80% of my day emailing my mates questions like “what’re you doing?” and am genuinely interested in their responses, I think we can assume I’ve not hit top gear in this current role. I have also lured a colleague in other office into inappropriate use of email/cyber flirting which I’m pretty sure is being tracked by the IT boffins if the smiles they give me when I walk past is any indication.
I constantly wear headphones so I don’t have to engage in any of the inane conversations about family/kitchens/way back when, so it’s reasonable to say I’ve not really attempted to be a “team player”. And when my boss told me after my first week that I was only contracted to a 35 hour week, I realised that my life had suddenly become a lot cruisier. With all this said, I have no idea why my boss hasn’t organised some kind of ticker tape parade to celebrate my imminent departure!
My resignation from my first job in the old dart was out right rejected by my manager. She simply couldn’t let me go, she said, and she pleaded with me to stay another month. She did, however, at least acknowledge that I had no intention of staying long term.
As one mate has said, if they keep paying me after I’ve gone it’s not a bad thing.
Usually any professional dilemma revolves around mistakenly hitting reply to all during a game of intra-office slander with like minded colleagues; or trying to smoothly sidle away from the photocopier before its distress beeps get noticed by someone who wants to know who was responsible for melting something plastic around the drum for the third time in as many days.
However this dilemma is entirely new to me, regardless of hemisphere.
Very simply, I handed in my notice four days ago and my boss still has not acknowledged it.
I’m currently temping in a corporate gig. Just after Easter I sold out and got a Real Job because it was easy to get to, the project sounded interesting and it paid well. The organisation also looked easy going enough to be flexible in working conditions which would allow me to still travel a bit. However, it’s been three months and my feet are itchy. Indeed I’ve booked flights to Chicago to go to Lollapalooza and catch up with a mate, and from there intend to go north to the east coast of Canada for a few weeks before booking it back to Aus to reassure my family I am not dead.
Lollapalooza, Chicago 3-5 August. Another festival wrist band to add to my collection.
I’m on a temporary contract, which basically means I could leave at the end of the day and not come back, but I felt it was the professional thing to do to give notice and so I put in my intentions in writing – including the standard sycophantic “thanks for the opportunities… great team…” comments and emailed it to my boss first thing Monday morning.
Sample resignation letter from www.mycareer.com.au
While I would have preferred to say that a number of my colleagues defy Darwinian Law and that I would sooner swim with sting rays than continue to work there, that seemed unnecessarily harsh. And I’ll require a reference from one of them I guess.
About 11am I got the receipt that she had read the resignation email, and so from 11am-2pm I waited for her to call me into her office to discuss it in person.
However, here’s the rub. Four days later and she’s still not said anything.
As I’ve had numerous face to face meetings with her in this time, not to mention email communication, there has been ample opportunity to say “by the way, got your note…” But the silence is deafening. The adage “elephant in the room” somehow seem appropriate currently.
English mates have assured me that this is normal, as my boss will have presumed this is merely an attempt at contract renegotiation.
I would have assumed a quick “so… do you want to stay” could have resolved that erroneous thinking fairly quickly.
As I’ve been waiting for my boss to say something… anything… to me I’d not told my colleagues, which was a bit awkward at first. But then became quite entertaining. I have said yes to any and every request that has come in over the last 48 hours.
“You need a completely re-designed web site with content written from scratch; fully integrated with flash and using a custom built content management system to be focus group tested it on a reliable sample prior to going live; an entirely new corporate visual sting and copyright cleared photo library and 3 x 30 second television and radio commercials written, produced and ready for airing by mid August all on a budget of £5000 including media buy? Sure, we can do that.”
However today, day four of the Great Office Pout, I took it upon myself to email all those I’ve been working with to let them know that I was edging my way towards the exit sign and that as of July 26 they were on their own.
Colleagues responded in what I’d regard as normal – with the usual “Disappointing… what’re your plans?” kind of stuff.
My boss, however, has continued her original position of “if I ignore it, it may not be true”.
Far be it from me to big myself up, but if I’m interested in my job I’m actually pretty good at it. However, given I spend 80% of my day emailing my mates questions like “what’re you doing?” and am genuinely interested in their responses, I think we can assume I’ve not hit top gear in this current role. I have also lured a colleague in other office into inappropriate use of email/cyber flirting which I’m pretty sure is being tracked by the IT boffins if the smiles they give me when I walk past is any indication.
I constantly wear headphones so I don’t have to engage in any of the inane conversations about family/kitchens/way back when, so it’s reasonable to say I’ve not really attempted to be a “team player”. And when my boss told me after my first week that I was only contracted to a 35 hour week, I realised that my life had suddenly become a lot cruisier. With all this said, I have no idea why my boss hasn’t organised some kind of ticker tape parade to celebrate my imminent departure!
My resignation from my first job in the old dart was out right rejected by my manager. She simply couldn’t let me go, she said, and she pleaded with me to stay another month. She did, however, at least acknowledge that I had no intention of staying long term.
As one mate has said, if they keep paying me after I’ve gone it’s not a bad thing.
Yellow Brick Road