People quitting jobs

[Duelist925]

Damn right! That's why I quit doing satellite tv tech support (as long as I live I will NEVER EVER EVER EVER do technical support for cable and/or satellite tv companies again). The stress was ridiculously high not just with the "cusstomers" but also management constantly harping people on making their numbers (specifically their average call handle time) or face getting written up or fired for it. Then there was also the shit-tacular pay and "benefits".

Oh dear GODS yes. I was fired, and I am So damn glad I was. I hated that job with a passion. -_- I was not getting paid nearly well enough for the death threats over fucking snow, the personal attacks, the shrill screaming harpies blathering on about blah blah blah. Gods that job was stressful. i WISH I had quit.

[smileyeagle1021]

I've quit more jobs than I should, but at least about half of them have been for really good reason.
The first job I quit was Carl's Jr. I actually like working there, it wasn't bad for a part time after school job for a teenager... that is until a new manager came in and, my suspicion at least because I can't prove it, was that he would make his profit goals by skimming pay from employees. I never was able to get any solid proof, but I was working the same number of hours and getting less gross pay... so, you do the math.
The second job I "quit" I'm not really sure you can count as quitting, I went into it with the understanding with the manager that I was going to be moving in 3 months and couldn't stay long term, and he was fine with that because he had an employee who would be coming back from maternity leave just before then so it would work out better than if I was interested in long term.
I did just outright quit at a call center when I was in Logan, and that one was really a take this job and shove it moment... we operated in a basement, it was maybe 30 or 35 wide and there was three rows of workstations in there, we had just enough space to walk in between them as long as no one was coming the other way, and our stations were just wide enough for the monitor and phone... oh yeah, and I was making the amazing wage of $6.50 an hour (on average), I was told that $8 was the average for employees there (which was bogus, $8 was the highest you could earn).
The next job I quit was similar to the second, I went in with the understanding that I would not be there long.
The third job I quit shortly after a customer tried to kill me and the manager's response was "do you need to go to the hospital? Well, okay then, it will take SLCPD 45 minutes to get out here to take your report, so get back to work in the meantime" (Yeah, after I left that day I never came back)
The fourth job I quit because I had been told when I was hired that I would be a desk employee, that I would make a base of $9 an hour, plus commission. I show up for my first day of work and "oh, there's been a mistake, we don't have any desk openings, but we do have an opening in our service department inspecting returned vehicles for damage, we can still give you the same pay though" (which really it wasn't because there was no commission). They promised me as soon as a desk position opened up they would move me to it... yeah, 6 months and 4 open desk positions that they refused to move me to later, it was time to go.
The reservations call center I got fired from... totally deserved it though (and totally worth it)
The hotel was a situation where I found another job that was too good to pass up ($1.50 an hour pay raise, plus better hours and turning my 40 minute commute through a construction zone into a 10 minute commute... I'd have to be a fool to pass that up).
When I do finally quit the job I'm at now, it will be because I've found a job in the field that I'm studying for (111 days left until I graduate by the way ), and even then I may go for a transfer within the company rather than try to find a job outside of it (corporate office is nearly impossible to get into, someone has to die for a job to open up there, and (un)fortuntaely everyone there is in good health right now, but I can get pretty close to what I studied for by going to one of the call center management positions).

[Slytovhand]

I've quit a few... and let various people know why (when I was unhappy with what was going on). That included management - who usually knew well before I quit that I was unhappy with them and their policies.

I don't have a problem going over someone's head... which makes me think about some of the things people on here have said. If a manager is bad, and lowers morale (or endangers someone), I want everyone to know that I've pointed it out many times (including those above them), so when some sort of shit does hit, it won't take much finger-pointing to see who's responsible!

Yes, I'm usually considered a 'trouble-maker' - but, I also get a good reputation for being good at my job, taking pride in it, and being reliable... (too bad most managerial morons see that when such as I complain, it should be listened to - not ignored as more 'whinging').

In my current job, I've let it known that many of my students will fail.. and if those above me try to pass them, I'll be letting various others know (such as the 'stake-holders'). They've asked me back for another year, but one of my demands is a set standard for the students... none of this 'everyone passes' BS that is the norm over here.

[Gravekeeper]

While the economy's in the shitter, employers will treat employees like crap. Generally speaking this isn't out of a desire to do so, but because they can keep costs down when the buying public is convinced it doesn't have any money and price is king.

Its a completely different dynamic in the US. US corporations are basically trying as hard as possible to drag the country as close to a serf/lord system as they can. Its not about the economy at all, thats just the excuse on the surface. Meanwhile, CEO pay and bonuses keep going up across the board in the US ( 14-20% increase in the last 4 years as I recall ). While wages at the other end stagnant and stick to a wage level that hasn't kept up with inflation or the cost of living for some odd 40ish years now.

Toss no health care on top of that and an entire political party devoted to doing whatever's best for the asshole at the top while dismantling every single service that benefits you in any way.....yeah, I can see quitting a job out of disgust at this point.

[Rapscallion]

Ours is a somewhat better system - if you don't get healthcare benefits, there's always the NHS. There has been a move towards hiring two part timers instead of one full timer - partly for the whole felxibility thing, but also for other cost reasons (I think tax is better). We brought in a minimum wage a long while back, and it's kept pace with the cost of living.

We do have some monstrous bonuses, so that's forthcoming, and even the left wingers tend to do sod all about it when in power in case the high earners piss off abroad (I'll wave and not shed a tear - most wouldn't go as they know the UK has the infrastructure they are used to).

Rapscallion

[bara]

Toss no health care on top of that and an entire political party devoted to doing whatever's best for the asshole at the top while dismantling every single service that benefits you in any way.....yeah, I can see quitting a job out of disgust at this point.

At the lawn care place I was at, it was all about getting that next sale and to 'treat' as many lawns as possible.
Every time a lawn was treated they got to bill a customer. This particular company has been on the receiving end of many EPA suits and chemical trespassing suits. The 'best' lawn techs, those who brought in the most revenue admitted to me that they would often ghost lawns. That is they would knock on the door and if no one was home they would just fill out the paperwork and put up the lawn sign without actually doing anything. When I first started and heard about 'nosy neighbors' I didnt realize they were actually being good neighbors.

I cant say I really blame the 'ghosters'. Its a seasonal job to begin with and the lowest performers get laid off first. They were just protecting their own ass the only way they could. I often found myself not giving a lawn the care a customer deserved because I didnt want to be out till 8pm after starting at 6am to meet my daily quota.

The only reasons why we couldnt meet our quotas was because of sales. They would always under measure a lawn and even sell that at a lower price. For instance a 20,000 sqft would be measured as 10,000-15,000 and then sold lower than that price should have been. So, a lawn that I should get over 100.00 on and take 15 minute to treat and do the paperwork would instead take me closer to half an hour and in some cases over an hour and I would only get 40 dollars on.

In addition this practice of under measuring lawns caused our chemical usage to be wrong, so we fuddled the paper work there too to protect our variance. For me, the straw that finally broke the camel's back was when I went to a house and for a change, someone was home. I had treated this lawn twice before. The wife answered and told me they had cancelled twice. A nice woman, wasnt mad at me. But whoever they spoke to hadnt cancelled them like they were supposed to have. I had heard this story at least 12 times before. Always thought they were feeding me a bunch of crap. But this lady had names of who she had talked to. In particular our General Manager. I didnt trust this guy to tell me if it was raining. After I eventually got home that night, I did an internet search and found many many complaints about the whole cancel issue. I quit the next day.

Edit: I dont blame the sales people either. They got shafted harder than the techs when it came to lay offs and firings.

[blas87]

It's something that these bosses just can't get through their thick skulls.

Happy people will work for you happily. Treat people like dirt, give them managers/supervisors/asst managers who treat them like dirt, allow talking down and screaming at them........people are less productive. Sure, people won't NOT work because they don't want to lose their job....but morale can get so low and tension can get so high, work can be worse than a high school cafeteria. Tempers can flare, people will avoid work, low morale means LESS work being done!

But, it's never anyone in charge's fault. The piss-ons just have bad attitudes and don't "understand" how "hard" it is to be in charge, nor do they give anyone a fair enough "chance".

That's what I was told, recently, anyway. I know, right? How dare anyone on the bottom try to get it so we are treated like human beings.

[smileyeagle1021]

Blas, thank you.
When I was at the hotel and there was a change in management, the new manager couldn't understand why all the sudden employees weren't upselling. Well, the previous management respected us, tried to help us when they could, and would give us recognition when we did more than was required. New manager treated us like we should worship him for signing our paychecks and be damned grateful we had a job. His attitude was that you are getting recognition by not getting fired. Oddly enough when we knew no matter what we did we wouldn't get anything better than not getting fired, we started only doing the work to not get fired... fancy that.

[KabeRinnaul]

I've only ever actually quit two jobs, and one of those was because I thought I was getting into a better one. The second was the "better" one which I eventually realized I hated doing, was making no money on (100% commission, no base pay at all), and had been lied to in the initial interviews anyway (on basically every point that was important to me).

As for my current job, I honestly like what I do despite my employer's reputation as the monolithic retail beast that consumes all hope (and all competition). The problems are coworkers who don't do shit and managers who don't do anything about said coworkers, and something I just realized today: All of my managers act like the worst kind of hourly employees, and not the salaried professionals they're supposed to be.

As an example, I head into the Management office to get some keys and find two of them talking.
Me: Hey, can I get some keys to get a game for a customer?
Manager A: We're on lunch.

And with that, the conversation resumes and I'm completely ignored. I need them to get the keys for me. They're sitting right next to the box that has the keys. But it's easier to ignore me and let me handle the customer than pause for 30 seconds.

[protege]

Happy people will work for you happily. Treat people like dirt, give them managers/supervisors/asst managers who treat them like dirt, allow talking down and screaming at them........people are less productive. Sure, people won't NOT work because they don't want to lose their job....but morale can get so low and tension can get so high, work can be worse than a high school cafeteria. Tempers can flare, people will avoid work, low morale means LESS work being done!

That's *exactly* it. You treat your employees well, they'll work hard. If you don't, they'll just do the bare minimum. We're going through a bit of this where I work now. My boss has decided that most of us make "too much money," so he basically froze our salaries and is constantly fucking with benefits. In other words, he screws over his employees as much as possible as often as possible.

Then he turns around and screams about "company loyalty" when people leave. Hell, he's even *fired* people for daring to ask for a raise. Sorry, but fuck that. Sure, it may save a few dollars in the short run, but what about the long run? Is high turnover, low morale, and other problems really worth a few more dollars in your wallet?

But, it's never anyone in charge's fault. The piss-ons just have bad attitudes and don't "understand" how "hard" it is to be in charge, nor do they give anyone a fair enough "chance".

That's usually what happens. Management either can't figure out that *they* are the problem, or doesn't care that they're the problem. No, it's always the employee's fault...and said employee has a "bad attitude." Sorry, but fuck that. If there's no reward for working harder, what's the point in doing so? For example, at my job, nothing is ever good enough, fast enough, or even "right." So naturally, most of my coworkers don't give a shit. We figure, we're going to get yelled at anyway, so why bother?

To add to what I just posted, what about this? Some of you might remember me posting on CS about the night my company's server failed. I spent 3 hours (of my own time, since I didn't want to have to deal with it in the morning) fixing that piece of shit. I didn't even get so much as a "thank you" for saving 10 years of sales reports. Instead, I got called into my boss' office the next morning, and screamed at because the server "shouldn't have failed" in the first place. He also turned down my request for overtime on those 3 hours.
Since then, if the server fails at 5:01, it's not my problem. It can wait until the next morning.

I hate to have that attitude, I really do. But, considering that my boss doesn't work for free...why should I?

[Lace Neil Singer]

That is precisely why the manager in the pizza place was shitcanned a few months after I left. The boss, who was a nice guy but not in the shop barring an emergency very often, eventually made the connection between craploads of employees leaving and this woman. A fairly high turnover is expected in a pizza place; it's a shitty job and people only ever get it either as a) a side job for a bit of extra cash alongside their real job; b) something to keep the wolves from the door while they look for something better or c) a job they can fit around college/university. Therefore, people generally don't stay there long, unless they fit into the first group.

However, according to my sources, the turnover for the pizza place was reaching ridiculous proportions and it was all down to people refusing to accept being treated like dogshit on the manager's shoe.

Her method of getting people to work harder was to shout and scream at them, treat them like lesser beings and tell them off in front of other staff and also the customers. Like me, people were just not prepared to put up with that and were leaving. Eventually it got to the stage where there was just two shop staff members and two drivers; all of which were doing the job as a side job.

[blas87]

I hate being so jaded and having that attitude as well. I know I make a gag of it on CS with my username for my notorious "bad attitude" about work (which has even been documented on my permie records!!!!!!), but I mean, I used to be such a happy, vibrant little thing that never let anyone bother me.

And a few times of getting bent over and screwed the wrong way, told I was the problem, told I was at fault, blamed for things beyond my control.......the real problem, the real fault, the real person to blame being the person directly above me, yet the problem totally ignored and even EXCUSED.......made me bitter and angry.

And sure, I abide by the rules. I get to work on time, I watch my break times, I try not to chat too much (though I work for a psycho hen that believes any talking gets in the way of production, to her, breathing interferes with production), just so I don't have any good reason to get in trouble, but I don't go out of my way like I used to. No matter how hard they try to force me to do multiple people's jobs or reach for the stars to make others look good, I figure unless I am in the boss' office being told to work faster or harder, they can deal with it. And if I am ever actually told to work faster or harder, I will promptly pick up an application for a transfer.