Switching Jobs
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Reasons?
We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Steve Jobs
i thought it would make the guys in my area chuckle . from what they told me, it did.
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amclint wrote:
just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job.
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks). Of course that was no where near long enough it turned out. I was a one-man-shop, but the business card said "Jr. Programmer" because that was what the owner considered the job worth. His first applicant for the job (and who accepted) lasted one hour, almost to the nose. I introduced him to what the job was, he said, "you mean you design, test, and impliment all the software???????" he paniced and headed for the door. I was chewed out for deliberately scaring away my replacement. There were several others barely worth noting, that accepted, and then turned it down after seeing the responsibilies per income. Then finally came one lady with guts, she stuck it out for almost a week. She handled all the ideas of a one-person-shop well... until the last week I was there, whe was already handling most of the work at that point and I was just shy of late-timers syndrome. She was trained and doing well, and I was ready to go.... and then the computer crashed and took the general ledger with it. She had no idea how to handle the situation.... So I showed her. I went into overdrive, dual terminal browsing through backups and current filesystems, system utilities, and balance sheet programs. By the time I had everything fixed, I looked up and she was no where to be seen. The manager came back to ask me what happened. I said the machine crashed, taking the ledger with it, I fixed it, and showed her the balance sheets and the steps to fix it that I had laid out for the new lady. I asked where she was. The manager admitted she came back to find out what happened because this lady walked back to her office, closed the door, said there was no way in the universe she could ever fill my shoes and asked when she could get a check for her hours working.... They finally got the idea, they hired two people who I trained at consultant wages after hours at my new job.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks).
Before I got my first job in the US, I had a job that required me 3 months notice! I remember telling this over the phone to the guy in charge, he coughed and almost lost his breath, but they hired me anyway :)
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I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
When I started my last office job, I was leaving a place where I was the sole author of a GUI framework in C++ and Python. I spent the last two weeks writing documentation, which they then lost. The job before that was sales, and I spent the last two weeks rewriting their website for them, as best I could at the time ( which basically means a frame on the left, buttons with rollovers. It now looks hideous, it really was a major step up from what they had, but still wasn't spectacular at the time, and last I looked, they were still using it.
Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
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last day last job, i left at noon. but first, i downloaded an MP3 of "Take This Job And Shove It", created a scheduled task to play the .MP3 at 1:00pm, turned up the volume, locked the workstation, turned off the monitor and whistled my way out the door...
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i thought it would make the guys in my area chuckle . from what they told me, it did.
Sounds like you dynamited that bridge, not just burned it!
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
I was an architect for a large publishing company. After the design was completed, and all base classes were completed, I gave 2 weeks notice. From the time I gave notice to the time I left, nobody in my group spoke to me. I spoke with 2 guys that sat near me, but were not on my team. They never said goodbye. That was definitely the strangest feeling at the end of a contract.
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amclint wrote:
just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job.
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks). Of course that was no where near long enough it turned out. I was a one-man-shop, but the business card said "Jr. Programmer" because that was what the owner considered the job worth. His first applicant for the job (and who accepted) lasted one hour, almost to the nose. I introduced him to what the job was, he said, "you mean you design, test, and impliment all the software???????" he paniced and headed for the door. I was chewed out for deliberately scaring away my replacement. There were several others barely worth noting, that accepted, and then turned it down after seeing the responsibilies per income. Then finally came one lady with guts, she stuck it out for almost a week. She handled all the ideas of a one-person-shop well... until the last week I was there, whe was already handling most of the work at that point and I was just shy of late-timers syndrome. She was trained and doing well, and I was ready to go.... and then the computer crashed and took the general ledger with it. She had no idea how to handle the situation.... So I showed her. I went into overdrive, dual terminal browsing through backups and current filesystems, system utilities, and balance sheet programs. By the time I had everything fixed, I looked up and she was no where to be seen. The manager came back to ask me what happened. I said the machine crashed, taking the ledger with it, I fixed it, and showed her the balance sheets and the steps to fix it that I had laid out for the new lady. I asked where she was. The manager admitted she came back to find out what happened because this lady walked back to her office, closed the door, said there was no way in the universe she could ever fill my shoes and asked when she could get a check for her hours working.... They finally got the idea, they hired two people who I trained at consultant wages after hours at my new job.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks).
Out of curiosity: what can they do to enforce such a "requirement"? AFAIK, giving 2 week notice is a matter of maintaining a good relashionship with your former employeer - there is no law that requires this.
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I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
One of my previous employers laid off our entire branch office in Dayton, Ohio. The last of us left were responsible for packing things up and shipping them to the home office in California. The very last day, our final paychecks and severance were supposed to arrive in the FedEx shipment by 10:30 a.m. Unknown to us, the home office had arranged for our telephone line to be turned off at 10:00 a.m. You can see what's coming. Our checks didn't arrive in the morning FedEx shipment. We went to use the phones, and they had been turned off. Needless to say, we were pissed. We finally piled into the building's elevator, which had an outgoing phone line, and called the home office collect. At 11:00 a.m. Dayton time, it's only 7:00 a.m. in California. By the time we reached someone in CA, it was well after 1:00 p.m. our time. Some nitwit in the home office the night before had seen a package in the FedEx pile with our office as the destination, and had removed it and set it aside. After all, the office is closing; why send them anything? They ended up putting a secretary on the next flight to Dayton, who hand-carried our checks to us. She arrived about 8:00 p.m. that evening. The poor secretary spent the night in a hotel with no luggage before heading back the next day. She was :cool: about it, though; she took all of us out to dinner on her expense account.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
I gave notice at a place and they offered me a severance instead. It turned out that the 3 months of 24-7 support that I was doing (while revamping that process) was not covered under California Labor Law. I came in to pick up my checks in person to find my self quoted in the news letter regarding too much process getting in the way of innovation. Kinda cool, even if a little late. Another place talked me into accepting a position I was in the middle of declining as I had already accepted another by offering an architecture role, but it turned out that they just wanted another warm body to throw at production to plug the many holes instead of fixing them. I called em' on it in my resignation letter only to be told: "Well, what can I say, your right." And then they proceeded to say they didn't know why I wanted to burn my bridge with them. Duh... they burned the bridge.
What's in a sig? This statement is false. Build a bridge and get over it. ~ Chris Maunder
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Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks).
Before I got my first job in the US, I had a job that required me 3 months notice! I remember telling this over the phone to the guy in charge, he coughed and almost lost his breath, but they hired me anyway :)
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Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks).
Out of curiosity: what can they do to enforce such a "requirement"? AFAIK, giving 2 week notice is a matter of maintaining a good relashionship with your former employeer - there is no law that requires this.
Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:
there is no law that requires this.
true, but many companies make you sign up front a policies and procedures. Violation of that can result in many things from suits for damages (major) to simply putting out a bad word (minor). In my case he already put out the word to everyone in town not to hire me, which is why I changed careers. If no one in town will hire you as a favor to your boss, leave town. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Sounds like you dynamited that bridge, not just burned it!
Software Zen:
delete this;:) maybe.
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One of my previous employers laid off our entire branch office in Dayton, Ohio. The last of us left were responsible for packing things up and shipping them to the home office in California. The very last day, our final paychecks and severance were supposed to arrive in the FedEx shipment by 10:30 a.m. Unknown to us, the home office had arranged for our telephone line to be turned off at 10:00 a.m. You can see what's coming. Our checks didn't arrive in the morning FedEx shipment. We went to use the phones, and they had been turned off. Needless to say, we were pissed. We finally piled into the building's elevator, which had an outgoing phone line, and called the home office collect. At 11:00 a.m. Dayton time, it's only 7:00 a.m. in California. By the time we reached someone in CA, it was well after 1:00 p.m. our time. Some nitwit in the home office the night before had seen a package in the FedEx pile with our office as the destination, and had removed it and set it aside. After all, the office is closing; why send them anything? They ended up putting a secretary on the next flight to Dayton, who hand-carried our checks to us. She arrived about 8:00 p.m. that evening. The poor secretary spent the night in a hotel with no luggage before heading back the next day. She was :cool: about it, though; she took all of us out to dinner on her expense account.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary Wheeler wrote:
They ended up putting a secretary on the next flight to Dayton, who hand-carried our checks to us. She arrived about 8:00 p.m. that evening. The poor secretary spent the night in a hotel with no luggage before heading back the next day. She was about it, though; she took all of us out to dinner on her expense account.
That was a pretty nice touch, considering all of the circumstances. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] I agree with you that my argument is useless. [Red Stateler] Hey, I am part of a special bread, we are called smart people [Captain See Sharp] The zen of the soapbox is hard to attain...[Jörgen Sigvardsson] I wish I could remember what it was like to only have a short term memory.[David Kentley]
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I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
I left a big note on my desk written with a large Sharpie: "The beatings will continue until morale improves!". My cohorts left a lit candle on my empty desk for 3 days...an electric candle because of fire codes, but the thought was there...
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
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Gary Wheeler wrote:
They ended up putting a secretary on the next flight to Dayton, who hand-carried our checks to us. She arrived about 8:00 p.m. that evening. The poor secretary spent the night in a hotel with no luggage before heading back the next day. She was about it, though; she took all of us out to dinner on her expense account.
That was a pretty nice touch, considering all of the circumstances. :)
Chris Meech I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar] I agree with you that my argument is useless. [Red Stateler] Hey, I am part of a special bread, we are called smart people [Captain See Sharp] The zen of the soapbox is hard to attain...[Jörgen Sigvardsson] I wish I could remember what it was like to only have a short term memory.[David Kentley]
I think the dinner was more her idea of being gracious in a bad situation. She told us at dinner that they were initially going to just blow it off, and send our checks via normal mail. Our former office manager (who had been moved to the home office a few months before) heard about this and went ballistic. He told the company owners that they would either put our checks on a plane right f***ing NOW or they would see his ass walking out the door, permanently. He was a good guy, and one of the best people I've ever worked for. The secretary volunteered to carry the checks to us. I think she felt somewhat responsible for the fiasco, since she normally handled the outgoing FedEx stuff, but had handed it off to someone else that day.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I think the dinner was more her idea of being gracious in a bad situation. She told us at dinner that they were initially going to just blow it off, and send our checks via normal mail. Our former office manager (who had been moved to the home office a few months before) heard about this and went ballistic. He told the company owners that they would either put our checks on a plane right f***ing NOW or they would see his ass walking out the door, permanently. He was a good guy, and one of the best people I've ever worked for. The secretary volunteered to carry the checks to us. I think she felt somewhat responsible for the fiasco, since she normally handled the outgoing FedEx stuff, but had handed it off to someone else that day.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:
My last job required 4 weeks notice (not a typo, repeat four (4) weeks).
Before I got my first job in the US, I had a job that required me 3 months notice! I remember telling this over the phone to the guy in charge, he coughed and almost lost his breath, but they hired me anyway :)
Was that part of your employment agreement, or that is what they wanted you to do?
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I'm switching jobs, Monday being my last day at my current place...just curious if anyone has any funny stories about their last days at a job. I gave my two weeks notice over the thanksgiving holiday so everyone was out of town except me and one HR person I handed my letter to. I didn't intend on it working out like that, but what happened is that by the time everyone got back into town it was more like 1 week of notice.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
I worked for a printer company that had a satelite office at which I worked with all of the other software developers. Three of us were sent to the company headquarters in Chicago for a two day training seminar with other employees in the company. This training was held on company grounds and it was actually pretty cool. At the same time, corporate was sending out some accountants to renegotiate the lease with the office space we were currently in. The morning of the first training, we decided to go find and meet the hardware engineers that we always talked over the phone with but never met. One of the managers was shocked to see us, and reacted kind of weird, "Why are you here?" So we went on to the training that day, no big deal. The next day (Friday) we arrived at the training at 9:00, and around 10:00 a note was passed to the instructor that someone wanted to meet with the three of us at 10:30. We called our office to see if they knew what was going on. I joked around that maybe they were calling us in to tell us what a great job we were doing. My co-workers didn't buy it. The guy from HR came to get us, and he asked us to follow him through a maze of hallways. The first thing I asked him was "we still have our jobs right?" He didnt understand me and said "What?". I repeated my questions, and he said what again. So I said it a 3rd time real slow and real loud "WEEE STIIILLLL HAAAVE OOOUR JOBBBBBS RIGGGGGGHHHTT?" He turned around and started walking really fast. When we got to a private conference room, he told us they were shutting down the office and gave us our severance terms. They didnt let us return to our training. So while we were waiting in the office with debriefing, two of us went back to the lobby. They had a printer where you type in your name and you get a visitor badge that says "Hello, I am Paul". We made new badges that said "Hello, I am Unemployed", and we walked around the office for a few more minutes until they kicked us out. Then we decided to go to downtown chicago since we had the rest of the day to kill. We went to the Sears tower and then some sports bar and got the best feast we could find and expensed it to the company. We got back to our offices the next day, and there was a security guard looking over the office. We talked her into letting us in to grab our personal stuff. All in all it wasnt a bad experience, but it sure was weird and they had no idea we were in Chicago at the time, and it was such a shock to them when we showed up in the
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ROFL, why would anyone give 3 mo notice? That seems very peculiar unless you are in an executive position.
if (!interested){return false} amclint
Here, this is a government regulation. Notice length is written into law, and depends on the type of position you have, wether it's full-time, or long-term, and certainly other factors. -- modified at 3:34 Saturday 2nd December, 2006
amclint wrote:
ForumThe Lounge Subject:Re: Switching Jobs Sender:amclint Date:15:27 1 Dec '06 ROFL,
You're right ROFL too :)
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Was that part of your employment agreement, or that is what they wanted you to do?
Actually that was not part of my employment agreement, that was part of the law in this country. And yes that's also what they wanted me to do. They really had a hard time letting go. They talked to my new employer, and even though I was several thousand miles away, they wanted me to keep on working for them, through my new employer! You don't get that on Dilbert.com, do you? :)