Why I Quit My Job

Posted mainly for Lucas, because she wanted to hear what happened. Sorry it's taken me a week to post about it, but I've been mulling over if I should write about it or not. I figure, what the heck, so here goes.

Preface: I thought I wanted this job so bad. The job description I read online seemed OK and that I'd fit in great there. I jumped at the job without really thinking, mostly due to the fact that I'd been without a job for 7 weeks at that point. I just wanted to start working again.

I should have known that the job wasn't for me from the moment I sat down at the interview. The first thing my boss said to me was "do you have any questions?". Umm...How could I have any questions when you haven't even introduced yourself to me, let alone tell me anything about the job? I should have known right then that it wasn't going to work out. While in there, I wasn't introduced to the two other people sitting at the table, either, which I thought was pretty rude. I didn't know what their role was or how they fit with it all. Later I find out that they are two people who I'll be working with, but why wasn't that said when I interviewed? So weird. She asked me a bunch of pre-determined, standard, non specific-to-the-job questions, all in a monotone drone. The interview lasted a total of 15 minutes.

I was so desperate to take this job, I agreed to a $7K paycut from what I was making in Boston. That's a LOT of money. I figured it would be OK because I wouldn't have to pay for insurance (I'm covered under Phillip's plan) and the commute was easy to deal with, especially with the pre-tax bus pass I could purchase through the job. And, I would finally have weekends off. I hadn't had a job with weekends off in over five years.

During the four weeks I worked there, I felt really out of place. Not only did my boss not introduce me to anyone, the professors and other employees didn't introduce themselves to me. I didn't know what to make of that. I especially didn't know what to make of the fact that for the entire four weeks I was there, the Department Head (whom I saw at least 20 times a day, and walked past me just as many times) never introduced himself OR said one word to me. I'm serious! I only ended up officially meeting two professors while I was there; one was in charge of training me (I met with him for one hour the week before I left) and one of them was super nice and I feel bad I didn't say goodbye to her. But I couldn't tell you the names of the rest of them if you paid me. That's pretty messed up.

One of the things I was pretty specific about when I interviewed was that I like to be busy all the time. I don't like a job that has a lot of down-time. You know the kind...there's nothing to do but shuffle papers around and pretend to look busy. I specifically asked about the work load between April and September; the months where school isn't in session (save for a summer class or two). I was told (not in these exact words) "It gets so busy around here, you won't have a minute to yourself". I was happy to hear that. But the reality was that for four weeks I had nothing to do. It was horrible. The two things I knew I'd have to do every day were sort the mail and fill the copy machine with paper. But that takes all of 10 minutes. I didn't have anything to do to fill the rest of the day. Occasionally I'd be asked to mail something FedEx, or to copy a couple of pages, but other than that, I sat there. No one talked to me, so that made things difficult as well. So by my third week, I'd had enough.

Phillip and I talked a long time about me leaving the job. He saw how miserable I was. And if there's one thing Phillip can't handle, it is me feeling miserable about a job. So we talked it over and decided I would quit at the end of the month. And that's what I did.

On my last day, I went to talk to my boss at 8:10am. She wasn't in her office, but rather next door in the conference room. I didn't see her in there when I knocked on her door, but she called to me from the other room. I told her I needed to talk to her. She wanted me to talk to her while she was setting up a PowerPoint presentation in the conference room. I told her that I preferred to speak with her in private. She said (with a heavy sigh) "Can this wait?" I wasn't going to argue, so I said "sure." 30 minutes later she came to get me. I went to her office and told her that I couldn't continue working there. It wasn't a good fit for me. And for personal reasons, I would not be returning. Her response "Oh, ok." Yes, that's it. Two words were all she could offer me.

So I left there at 4:30 (after turning in my keys and letter of resignation) and didn't look back. After I got that response from my boss, I was pretty confident that I made the right decision. If she didn't really care that I was leaving, why should I? I didn't feel bad about not giving the two-week notice either, because when I was hired I was put on a six month probationary period. That means I can quit or they can fire me with no reason within those six months. And I've heard many stories of people who have lasted 5 months and 28 days. And on the 29th day they are canned. I wasn't going to deal with that. Not that I thought I'd get the axe, but I didn't want to take the chance anyway.

So that's the story. Not very glamorous, I'm afraid. I didn't storm out. There wasn't any yelling or pounding of fists on desks. No paper flying all around. It was very calm and without any emotion whatsoever - by anyone. My boss's reaction to the situation was pretty fitting, since I'm still quite convinced she's a Android masquerading as an Administrative Professional.


on an unrelated note, i had to close anonymous comments due to a mentally unstable troll who frequently comments here. i'm sorry, but if you don't have a registered account, you will be unable to comment. blame the troll for that one.