Quitting my job was one of the best things I've ever done.
I had been working at this place for quite a few months, having transferred from a different branch from which i'd worked for a few years. My level of experience was well up there. I was basically doing the amount of work that 2 people would usually do.

My boss recognized this and pulled me aside one day when one of the other ladies couldn't cope with the amount of work she'd been given and she asked me to essentially swap with this woman, clean up the backlog and manage it.. and the next opportunity for progression that came up would be as good as mine.

So i took this all on with a big smile on my face, pleased to have been given this recognition and did my best to clean it up and manage it. It was expected that cleaning it up would take at least 3 months. It took me about a month to clean it up, which was a huge effort in itself with a considerable bit of overtime put in, and i was praised for my efforts blah blah blah.

Next thing we hear that a new supervisory role was coming up, that there'd be applications to put in and that we should all work really hard in the meantime. Most of the office were expecting that i'd get it no problems. I'd been doing it for the longest, i knew what i was doing and basically it was only natural progression. Plus my manager had given me the "wink wink" about it, so i was pretty pleased - hard work paying off and all that.

Next thing she calls us all together and announces that she'd given the position to someone else, who had absolutely no idea what she was doing, who only worked part time and would constantly have to leave early for a range of bullshit reasons. As she announced this to me and the rest of the team she wouldn't even look at me.. she deliberately avoided looking at me, and then she hurried off afterwards so i couldn't confront her about it.

As you could imagine I was fuming. I almost quit right there on the spot, but instead i gave it the weekend to mull over, with plans of asking for an explanation at the next available opportunity.

When i asked her she said stuff about "ohh well it was a quick decision and I completely forgot about you" and then it was "it has taken you ages to clean up the backlog of mess i assigned you" even when it took a third of the time she'd given me to do it, not to mention the fact that i'd complained about someone about a week previous for trying to bully me in the office, using this as a "conduct issue" when it was clearly a harassment issue. I mentioned the fact that she'd pulled me aside and promised me advancement and asked her if she never had any intention of moving me up the ladder, why the hell had she given me all of the extra work to do. I stood up, shrugged, said "ok" and walked out. She said she was sorry and that her decision had been made, that there'd be other opportunities later on and to keep my spirits up.

Keep my spirits up I did. I wrote my resignation letter straight after that and sent it just before leaving for the day. The letter pretty much outlined how disgusted i was at how this other girl had been chosen for the job when she couldn't even do her own work properly, disgusted at the fact that it hadn't even been officially advertised, and disgusted at the fact that she'd promised me the job, given me all this extra work to do and then didn't live up to her end of the bargain. I explained how hard I'd worked, how I'd gone about using my initiative to help the rest of the team, and how my experience doing this was well above anyone else's level and how it didn't make sense. I outlined that i was giving the job 100% and that it was pointless staying around if my efforts weren't going to be recognized. I had to give 2 weeks notice, so i basically said "unless you can offer me something better than this, consider this email my 2 weeks notice".

Well, the next day was interesting. Upon arrival to work, I noticed the girl who'd gotten the promotion was outside crying. Nothing new.. she'd cry about anything really. She saw me and gave me a death glare. That was new.. usually we'd have lunch together and talk about sex and boys. As soon as my manager saw me she called me into her office, and told me that she'd reconsidered her decision, taken the promotion off this other girl and said i was welcome to it. I asked her if she thought this was a better option, and she said "yes, of course it is, how could it not be? I don't want to lose you.. you're one of my best workers, you deserve it." I asked her how was i supposed to work under her and respect her when she'd taken the job off someone else just like *that* and given it to me, and how did i know she wasn't going to do this to me? I asked her that if i deserved it, why it just hadn't been given to me straight away? She couldn't really give me an answer and i said "sorry, i don't consider this a better option.. you've just compromised whatever integrity you had, and you've upset the entire office. My decision has been made. There'll be other opportunities for these other people to take over my job. My resignation stands. Keep your spirits up because recruiting people is FUN!" And walked out with a huge smile on my face.

She ended up giving the position to 3 people (who had no idea what they were doing) to share. Before I left she tried to ask me to teach these other girls how to do stuff properly. I laughed and said "perhaps you can get C******* to do it.. you did choose her over me, after all. Clearly she's much better at training than I am." I told her i'd do a handover, but that was it.

I left a bit more than a week later. She tried to ask me for a months notice but I said "sorry, my contract only states 2 weeks as the requirement". I didn't have another job to go to, and I had accumulated recreation leave and sick leave and decided to take that during my 2 weeks notice period and look for work. I found another job about a week later that paid considerably higher, that was in the city (big bonus) and was completely different to what i'd been doing, meaning a better challenge.

Quitting your job can be daunting, especially when you don't earn much to begin with and don't want to rely on your abusive partner to support you, giving them another means to manipulate you with. You just have to know what you're capable of and be able to leave somewhere without worrying about money and what could go wrong.

It may not have been a great way to leave, but I don't have any regrets.
(brotagaia, Sat 24 May 2008, 2:46, Reply)