Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be
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@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@Dashrender said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Question - did you give two weeks? or did you simply inform them you are looking for other employment and will be leaving when you find it?
He gave six months!
I didn't give any time.
And I didn't tell them I'm looking for other employment. I run my own business, they know that. They know my business is picking up. In fact you might say they knew this day would come eventually.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
When I'm given tasks to do, I use whatever tools I need to get it done. Could be some free app or a little script I write, or a web service with a free account, etc etc. They aren't really aware of these side tools. Obviously I have the passwords stored, but that's about it.
Do they need to be? You had to figure it out, so do they. If you document how you did something, great. If not, no problem. It's their job and only their job to repace you or learn everything necessary to work without you. Period.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@Dashrender said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Question - did you give two weeks? or did you simply inform them you are looking for other employment and will be leaving when you find it?
He gave six months!
I didn't give any time.
And I didn't tell them I'm looking for other employment. I run my own business, they know that. They know my business is picking up. In fact you might say they knew this day would come eventually.
They aren't acting like it. They are acting like they were convinced you'd never die, get sick, retire, or quit.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
The whole "they can't make me teach people" because I'm not a professor and it's not in my job description. That was funny, because nobody who has ever worked here has been able to use the "not my job description" line on them. They would say the job description is whatever they say it is, since they are the boss and you work for them!
Last line in every job description here - additional duties as assigned. - aka we can make you do anything we want that's legal. And frankly - why not? Sure, you may not like it, but then quit and get another job.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
So what they are panicky about is how all these tools inter-relate and what tool is needed to get what sort of task accomplished.
That's just saying that they don't know how to do your job. Well duh. They don't want to do it. That's why they need to hire someone, like every other company on the planet does.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
I started saving passwords into KeyPass with the file saved in an IT folder in the cloud.
The boss doesn't have my LP account pass, nor even the KeyPass master password, because they never asked for it or seemed to care. And I simply didn't offer it out. Nothing in there is stuff they access at all, at least not until I leave.
So I think it's completely reasonable that I can't, or shouldn't, walk out of here with passwords still in my personal LP account, or if they don't know the pass to the KeyPass file.
That's just one example.You need to turn over relevant passwords, yes. Or just print out the KeePass data and hand it over. No one is saying you shouldn't turn over basic documentation. Of course you do. But that's not related to training, teaching, showing how to do things. That's totally different.
When you sell someone a house, you turn over the door key. You don't teach them how to do standard roof repair.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
They need to know my pin to the spare laptop I use sometimes which I just now thought of, since we rarely use the thing. My workstation has a different user/pass than others.
They should be rebuilding that as part of a standard anyway, though. Who cares what your password is?
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@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
They need to know my pin to the spare laptop I use sometimes which I just now thought of, since we rarely use the thing. My workstation has a different user/pass than others.
They should be rebuilding that as part of a standard anyway, though. Who cares what your password is?
I was thinking the same - these are now extra machines - they should likely be rebuilt and preped by the new person.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
There is just a ton of "stuff" I need to hand over, but what she is most worried about is having no idea how it all relates and what it means and how important it is and how it works and how to use it, etc. Which I know, isn't my problem. I just feel a kind of obligation to at least make the data somewhat easy to search, and somewhat organized. It's organized according to how my brain wanted it organized, certainly not hers.
This is an emotional burden that either you've made for yourself or they are hoisting onto you, or both. But it is NOT your obligation, at all. But it is, and has been, hers for eight years (or more.) She clearly hasn't cared till now, so trying to make you care is just plain wrong.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
It's organized according to how my brain wanted it organized, certainly not hers.
She's had eight years to work with you on that, define how she wants it, etc. Anything that hasn't been an issue before can't be an issue now.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
When we dropped a particular service some years ago, I pulled a data dump from the service, which they provided as XML. Well I know how to search through a bunch of XML files for something, but they don't. They've always wanted an "easy" way to search through the old data, which I was going to build into a relational DB on the intranet or whatever. Hasn't happened yet, so they also worried how to access this old data dump, you know, because it's "secret IT knowledge" how to do stuff like that.
This describes how they haven't been prioritizing things, aren't prepared to not hire IT, etc. But they aren't going to hire IT, so they've clearly decided all of this doesn't matter. If it doesn't matter to them, it definitely shouldn't matter to you.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
This is such a pain! I didn't actually turn in a notice or set a last day, which I'm regretting now. But I'm a non-confrontational person. I just want them to be happy and I want to personally feel like I've done a professional job leaving documentation behind. I'm just trying to figure out a balance.
The more you try to do, the worse it will be. You are going to give them false hope and build up false expectations. The more you do, the more they will be upset.
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They sure don't sound like your friends.
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Can I get the TL;DR version?
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
If the "pay reduction" is in writing I'd walk. They've fired you and are wanting you to work for peanuts.
This comment seems to be in relation to what I said about vacation and sick time. Those aren't a requirement where I live, they are a benefit offered by employer, they make the rules.
Technically they are not offered to part time employees, which I currently am. But they let it accumulate anyway, until now. So they just stopped accumulating.
I used to get a cell phone stipend which was kind of a retainer for "please check if we text you or call, just in case something crazy happens." They stopped that, presumably also because my hours are so reduced.
So did they "reduce my pay", well, kinda sorta. Officially their benefits were for full time, but they allowed it for me anyway, then stopped it. So kinda, kinda sorta, bending the rules, playing them a bit.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
The whole "they can't make me teach people" because I'm not a professor and it's not in my job description. That was funny, because nobody who has ever worked here has been able to use the "not my job description" line on them. They would say the job description is whatever they say it is, since they are the boss and you work for them
That's BS. Yes, they can make you do anything legal, but your pay and ability to be judged for being capable are tied to the description as you agreed to it. Can they make you teach? Sure. Can they make you teach well, nope. Can they make you do it even remotely acceptably? Nope. You never claimed to be a teacher. That's a major skill. They can't put any expectation of performance on it. Nor can they ask you to do a totally different job than the one you were hired to do without prompting your ability to ask for a whole new pay package.
There is a huge gap between asking you to take out the trash at the end of the day, and asking you to be better at a job you have no association with than everyone else is. I can't just "tell you" to be an artist, or a musician, or an engineer, or an IT pro, or a teacher. Try this... just tell them that their new job is to be IT.
Is it magic? Did making it their job description make them able to do it? Nope.
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@Dashrender said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
I have a similar feeling as you - I want the thing to run right, etc. But something that Scott has drilled into me over and over again is - IT serves the business, not the other way around. This means if they don't care, you can't decide they should. No amount of caring on your part is going to make them do the right thing. You have to move yourself to a point where you care only about what they care about, and nothing else, - or leave.
Well, they don't care, until they think they DO need to start caring.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
If the "pay reduction" is in writing I'd walk. They've fired you and are wanting you to work for peanuts.
This comment seems to be in relation to what I said about vacation and sick time. Those aren't a requirement where I live, they are a benefit offered by employer, they make the rules.
Technically they are not offered to part time employees, which I currently am. But they let it accumulate anyway, until now. So they just stopped accumulating.
I used to get a cell phone stipend which was kind of a retainer for "please check if we text you or call, just in case something crazy happens." They stopped that, presumably also because my hours are so reduced.
So did they "reduce my pay", well, kinda sorta. Officially their benefits were for full time, but they allowed it for me anyway, then stopped it. So kinda, kinda sorta, bending the rules, playing them a bit.
So they did reduce your pay absolutely in every conceivable way. No kinda, no sorta. You describe it exactly as a reduction in pay. Your pay package just reduced, period. Nothing you mention makes it "kinda" in the slightest.
No one said that they weren't allowed to reduce them, only that they did. Also, we said that in doing so, you don't have to show up any more, either. That's the point. They triggered a "no need for notice" situation.
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@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
And if there is no replacement planned, then you are just... done now?
This was the worst part of our conversation.
I fully assumed that when they heard tell of me leaving, the idea would be to start finding my replacement. Sounds reasonable.
Instead it turns into this "document everything so laypeople can follow your how-tos" and "write an IT functions book" and "we can hire an outside IT company for some stuff but you need to document all the internal stuff for us".
In other words, it wasn't "let's look for a replacement" but "how can we NOT NEED a replacement at all?" And I wasn't expecting that kind of thing.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@Dashrender said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
I have a similar feeling as you - I want the thing to run right, etc. But something that Scott has drilled into me over and over again is - IT serves the business, not the other way around. This means if they don't care, you can't decide they should. No amount of caring on your part is going to make them do the right thing. You have to move yourself to a point where you care only about what they care about, and nothing else, - or leave.
Well, they don't care, until they think they DO need to start caring.
That's the same as not caring. You are playing games trying to find a way to make this not their fault. This is their fault, 100%. And it's not a mistake from long ago that they aren't fixing, that would be unfortunate. But this is a failure going on right this second actively that they don't care about. They decided not to replace you, and are continuing to abide by that decision. At any moment they could say "oh gosh, that was dumb, let's hire someone." If they did that, things would change, slightly. But as they've not done so, their "failure" and their "not caring" are active things happening as we speak.
