Giving notice

Have decided to give notice at my job at the end of the month so I could have my last day be at the end of May. My problem is that it seems we are doing our yearly reviews this week – in these we go over the past 12 months and plan for the next. It feels really dishonest to make stuff up for the next year when my real goal is to quit. I think I am going to come clean and give a lot more notice than I had planned – they have to give me 30 days notice if they decide my quitting should make them just fire me but I don't really think they would do that.
Any thoughts?

I need a lot more information before I can react to your question! What are you planning to do instead? What will your financial needs be? what do you project your boss's reaction to be? If YOU were your boss, how would you react?
I did give really far-in-advance notice at my former office when I left to go back to school full-time, but I was VERY sure i wouldn't get fired instead; it was a really small family-type office with some dysfunctional family features (long story) and I just knew it wouldn't be an issue. But in a conventional office setting I would not trust people to be understanding. I'd be VERY careful. I would only give notice now if you KNOW that you'll be okay if you get fired now. Otherwise, go ahead and do the goals - maybe the person who replaces you will find them useful. And don't think of it as dishonest. If something cataclysmic happened in the next few weeks - I have no idea what, just go along with me for a minute with this thought… and you needed to keep that job, you'd keep the job, right? You'd find it useful to have stated your goals for the next year, right?
So without knowing more about the situation, I'd vote for keeping your mouth shut and playing along for several more weeks, and I say that with all sympathy 'cause I know and understand the satisfaction that comes with making a clean, symbolic break in order to approach your next career.

That’s a very good point about something happening over the next few weeks. Had not thought of that.
Some more on my situation.
I currently work at the UN. My contract goes through 31 December 2003. They are required to give me 30 days notice if they want me to leave and I have to do the same for them so being fired isn’t so much of a concern, and I will have a few weeks of vacation that they will have to pay me for when I leave. The office where I work has been good about school insofar as they have given me different hours (10:30-6:30 M/Th/F) but pile a lot of work on me that makes it hard to do both work and study. My brain in far too small for this constant splitting.
The review process is fairly individual – what do I want to do more of in the coming year? We are a small office (10 people) and I know I shouldn’t feel dishonest about going ahead with this but I do because the people here all know I am doing premed classes (maybe that should make me feel less dishonest rather than more but anyway) and to be honest it was a grueling process and I am not sure I have the energy to do it and not mean it – hell, I don’t even know what my goals for the year would be. I may just say that – I need more time to think about it and stall for the next two weeks, then if I have it the third week of April it will be five weeks from my dream end date and not so bad…
What am I planning to do? Go to school full time! I have saved up some money, am working to reduce overhead and will be heading into the red (I figure it’s better to be a little more in debt and actually get into medical school).
The good news for me is that the more I do this the better I feel about this decision. I have said this before but if there was anything else I could see myself doing, I’d be doing it. This has been incredibly painful and hard and you all have been so great. I cannot imagine how much harder it is for those of you with chilren. I have a cat and she hates me now. unsure.gif
Seriously, I think I’ll go in and whatever happens, happens. I can be hard to predict!

What if you turn in a few goals, without splitting your head open to make them perfect dream goals? Your whole heart doesn't have to be in EVERY SINGLE THING you do. Sometimes we get so in the habit of having to do everything full steam that it's hard to just phone it in. But sometimes that's an appropriate energy level: just phone it in. Look at last year's goals and shake them up a little to make this year's goals, and call it a day.
EVERYTHING you do doesn't have to be top-notch. Sometimes good enough is good enough.
Good luck, however you decide to handle it!
Denise, who is letting her expensive library association memberships lapse.

perhaps you could list goals that would be appropriate for whoever takes over your duties or for yourself if you were staying - not explicitly personal (e.g. take a class on xxx) but project/task oriented = in that way they might have a life/usefullness to the organization after you are gone- or rather, especially since you will be gone as you would have the most insight into the appropriate direction for the next 12 months.

Thanks for all the help – the phoning it in idea is probably the one that I will go with. You’re right, this doesn’t have to be wonderful.
I still hope I can postpone it! tongue.gif

Denise
I read your post regarding everything not having to be perfect at a great time. The stress of trying to make everything perfect really can get you down, plus it makes you give up on things that aren't perfect, if you even try. Thanks for the reminder.
Kathy

QUOTE
EVERYTHING you do doesn't have to be top-notch. Sometimes good enough is good enough.

That is something I said I appreciated but I have to learn. The review is over, it was horrendously painful. We all think we are great I guess but I have really busted my butt for this place and it hasn't been appreciated and I'd be in a sorry state if I wasn't moving on to better things. I held off quitting but it is going to be one sweet day when I do because this place just sucks the life right out of me.

I did it today. I gave notice. Five weeks from today I will be unemployed.
Wow. Scary!

QUOTE (Calvin -- in a box by the river @ Apr 23 2003, 05:23 PM)
I did it today. I gave notice. Five weeks from today I will be unemployed.
Wow. Scary!

I can only imagine the feeling. I've had my current job for over 12 years now. When I have to finally put in my notice so I can attend med school I'll be VERY scared!!! It's hard to believe I'm going to give up a very good paying job to do this. UGH!
Good luck!

Calvin,
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
And, I am with ya, sister. I mailed in my deposit to the post-bac program today. Five weeks from now, I too will be unemployed. blink.gif To say I’m nervous is putting it mildly. There are little poop stains all over Baltimore city that you can track me by!!!
At the same time, I’m terribly, terribly excited. There are so many incredible things that I get to start learning this June, and I just can’t wait to gobble them up. I’ve taken so long to make this decision that I know I can’t be wrong. So I’m going to jump in with a confidence that belies my FREAKING OUT at the lack of a paycheck, and do what it takes to make med school a reality. The rest will work itself out. If it’s mac and cheese seven nights a week, so be it.
So here’s to being a starving student again! (I could stand to lose a few pounds…)
You’re doing it! That’s damn exciting. smile.gif
cheers,
Vera

Yeah, this has been a roller coaster 24 hours. Now, I still have five weeks of this place and then almost a month of vacay to be paid for and my pension so I am not exactly w/o a paycheck yet but dang, that felt scary. And good.
I feel giddy like a schoolgirl.
I am all about the SNL references.

I realize this is a bit late to be adding, but for anybody out there in similar situations I wanted to add my experience to the list. I used to work for a large national department store company. Over the last couple years I had been cutting back on my hours and going into this semester I was only planning on working Sat and Sun (we were straight commission so it wasn't so hard to live on that). Anyway I had been with the company for 4 years and most of the time the department I worked in didn't have a ranked schedule so much as all part timers were placed on the bottom. At the end of December (right before Xmas) a bunch of people were getting laid off, but they had all been people hired in the last few months. I had the best customer follow through in our department, and while I didn't have the best sales I thought and was constantly being told I was an unexpendable asset to the store and my department. So I told my boss that starting with this semester I was only going to work Sat and Sun vs the Fri, Sat, and Sun I had done the previous semester. Guess what…a week and a half later I was laid off. I felt sooo betrayed. My boss knew for a week and a half I was gonna be laid off and yet didn't tell me. As it turned out, everyone including the manager of the store was fighting to keep me, but because I wasn't full time they were given no choice, but I was never told that until after I was gone. (It was actually the best thing for me cuz I make more on unemployment than I could have possibly made working cuz of the full time still on the time frame used to determine my salary). Even worse, my last day there I had to go through my yearly review and be told that I'm a great asset (in most areas…had a couple room for improvements, but whatever) and fill out this sheet saying what I was going to do to improve myself. I was being laid off with probably no chance of being called back in because the company was returning to their full timers only program and yet I had to fill out this stupid thing and go through the intimadating process of the review!
Moral of the story: Be very careful when giving notice or trying to change schedules if you need to keep your job until you're ready to leave.
–Jessica, UCCS

Welcome to the gainfully unemployed.
I'll be joining your ranks in about 2 weeks.
I had planned on waiting until July to give my notice…but circumstances have been such that I ended up taking a months' leave to cope with some stuff and now I will be extending it 2 weeks and then quitting at the end…I know that it's probably a raw deal for them…but they've already hired a temp to replace me and I don't think they're missing me at all…I'll be really glad when it's all settled…
Congrats to all…
It's been a long time coming.
Andrea

Hi guys,
You are not, I repeat, NOT unemployed but you are premedical students about to junk the pre for the title of medical student. Even those folks who work 40 hours per week have no idea of the job and a half that you guys have signed on for. Sure it’s scary to think that you don’t have a regular paycheck but nothing risked is nothing gained. You are on a mission! You are putting your energy and your attention into your dreams. At the end, you will look back on this time and laugh.
Baltimore isn’t scary except the neighborhood right around Hopkins so bring some big beefy security guards if you park off campus! ohmy.gif Better yet, use the public transportation with a subway stop under the hospital. Fells Point is just beautiful and I long to jog around the Inner Harbor in the early AM.
So it’s a Hi Five and a welcome to the world of medicine as opposed to welcome to the world of the unemployed. Think of yourself like all of those actors that are not working regular jobs. You are just honing your craft! wink.gif
Natalie

Today is my last day at the UN. I feel like I just jumped from a plane and am waiting for my parachute to open.

And tonight you can celebrate with all your OPM friends.
Great timing!
Susan - stuck in Chicago, wishing she could be in DC

QUOTE (Calvin -- in a box by the river @ May 29 2003, 08:22 AM)
Today is my last day at the UN. I feel like I just jumped from a plane and am waiting for my parachute to open.

then there's only one thing to say ...
WHEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!