Leaving job without notice

Charlotte_Ca

I recently left a well paid job on the same day without working my notice. It was a toxic work environment and the majority of the employees were just complaining mainly due to lack of training and then on top of  that the management team had expectations from us. I worked there for 11 months.

One day I became sick and I couldn't recover. Later I've realised that all that were anxiety symptoms caused from stress. I was off sick for 2.5 weeks while at the same time I moved to a new flat. I remember once I finished with the move out I was happy and after returning to work my stress increased again.

While I was getting signed off each week my manager was telling me things like "How do I know that when you return you won't get sick again?". I only lasted a week after I returned and as I couldn't manage my stress at that time I resigned the same day.

I told them I resign due to health reasons. My manager was being weird she was like you have a notice to work and you cannot start another job. I was like I can only work if you let me WFH and she was like this jobs requires you to come to the office. I was like I cannot come to the office so I have to resign. Plus I didn't have another job lined up.

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Does anyone have a similar experience and how did you cope after that?

elsien

Is there a specific question around what happens next, or are you just wanting to hear other people’s general experiences?
You’re asking about how did people cope, do you mean coping financially, coping with getting a new job, coping with benefits, or more psychologically? 

DullGreyGuy

Not personally, a good friend worked out on a job without working their 3 month notice and they then got sacked from the role for gross misconduct (being absent without leave). He'd worked there for over a decade which made finding the next job very difficult as naturally every company wanted a reference from his last employer and he had a few job offers retracted.

He ultimately worked his way out of it via going to a smaller employer who was more lax with checks etc and re-established his standing through that but it was hard going as in our industry 3-6 years of references are generally mandatory

In theory they could also look to recover any actual losses they sustain for your not working the notice (eg having to pay people overtime rate to cover your shifts) but in practice that is very rare.

diystarter7

When I was younger I left a company as there were  many sycophants  resulting in unfairness,
As I would never become a sycophant I decided to quit when the supervisor told me to come on the weekend
and this was just before we finished on Friday. His attitude stunk.  I told him politely that I was sorry but I was busy on the weekend and never did any overtime. He tried to bully me and demanded to know what I was doing as the others at their desks looked up and some were sniggering at me. I said, "I'm seeing my aunt in New Zealand," a guy burst out laughing and the supv woakled away in disgust. As I left I droped a note off at personnel that I was leaving and went off on sick leave for the duration was my plan they contacted me the same day i rang in sick ie Monday and told me not to bother going on sick leave and could leave the same day, I did and walked into another job the day after. (I was young and just a clerk so not sure what would have happened if i was a manager/etc)

General_Grant

Charlotte_Ca said:

I recently left a well paid job on the same day without working my notice. It was a toxic work environment and the majority of the employees were just complaining mainly due to lack of training and then on top of  that the management team had expectations from us. I worked there for 11 months.

One day I became sick and I couldn't recover. Later I've realised that all that were anxiety symptoms caused from stress. I was off sick for 2.5 weeks while at the same time I moved to a new flat. I remember once I finished with the move out I was happy and after returning to work my stress increased again.

While I was getting signed off each week my manager was telling me things like "How do I know that when you return you won't get sick again?". I only lasted a week after I returned and as I couldn't manage my stress at that time I resigned the same day.

I told them I resign due to health reasons. My manager was being weird she was like you have a notice to work and you cannot start another job. I was like I can only work if you let me WFH and she was like this jobs requires you to come to the office. I was like I cannot come to the office so I have to resign. Plus I didn't have another job lined up.

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Does anyone have a similar experience and how did you cope after that?

Was this your first job?

Charlotte_Ca

elsien said:

Is there a specific question around what happens next, or are you just wanting to hear other people’s general experiences?
You’re asking about how did people cope, do you mean coping financially, coping with getting a new job, coping with benefits, or more psychologically? 

It's more like how other people in similar situations felt after leaving the job. And how were they perceived by the next employer. 

For me it was a very difficult decision because I had plans to stay there very long term and everything changed gradually and I was not understanding what was happening. Thinking about it now I think there was some gaslight and the lack of training created a lot of self doubt. 

In the first 7 months I had a role in which I was smashing it. I was so good. Even when I started I didn't have good training, but I had knowledge in the industry and once I found the right people to ask questions I learned the systems and was doing a very good job. I was very happy.

Then the company went on a team restructure and at the same time they introduced a new IT system. I was moved to a new manager and team. I was enthusiastic in the beginning to learn, but then I've realised that many people didn't know how to do the job and even themselves were not confident, but they were not admitting it. When I asked from my senior assistance, she just referred me to an online training. I've realised everyone was laid back so I was not stressing either. Until one day my manager called me for a meeting and said that I'm not productive and what is happening. I felt weird when she said this because even she didn't know how to do the job properly. Many times she was like if you need any help just ask the senior because I don't know much either. 

On my return from the sick leave she even put me on a Personal Improvement Plan. Nobody in my life ever put me on a PIP. I felt angry and stressed again. Later I've leaned that everyone was put on a PIP as well. They were blaming the employees for not being able to do the job when at the same time they were not teaching us things properly. 

That manager would comment on people who were chatting a lot or standing up from their desk often. I found this bad. When she was in the office nobody would dare to chat, because they knew she would tell them off. 

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I feel there is this notion that employees need to be able to adapt to changes at work and stay at least a year in jobs, but we are humans and have our own personal life as well. How are we supposed to survive in a toxic work environment along with everything else happening in our own life? 

Charlotte_Ca

DullGreyGuy said:

Not personally, a good friend worked out on a job without working their 3 month notice and they then got sacked from the role for gross misconduct (being absent without leave). He'd worked there for over a decade which made finding the next job very difficult as naturally every company wanted a reference from his last employer and he had a few job offers retracted.

He ultimately worked his way out of it via going to a smaller employer who was more lax with checks etc and re-established his standing through that but it was hard going as in our industry 3-6 years of references are generally mandatory

In theory they could also look to recover any actual losses they sustain for your not working the notice (eg having to pay people overtime rate to cover your shifts) but in practice that is very rare.

What was the reason he decided to leave the company?

DullGreyGuy

Charlotte_Ca said:
What was the reason he decided to leave the company?

The part of the business he was in was in run off and whilst that's still a couple of decades worth of work because of the nature of it it still means headcount will shrink over time, your importance will diminish etc etc so he'd been looking at other opportunities anyway. Also means it's difficult to get authority to replace people that leave so hours are up and so are stresses as teams are understaffed. 

He got new boss, the chap isnt very nice to work with. I never got a full handle on him, but dealt with him as little as possible. He had a tendency to throw people under the bus. Came to a head when he had showed a paper to his boss, about 2 months work, and his boss said it was good to go to one of the exec committees. In the meeting 2 weeks later his boss said the paper was terrible, incompetent etc in front of a number of senior managers and that he'd wasted everyone's time presenting it.

I was in the meeting, to present a different paper, and it was brutal. Anyone with half a brain will have seen the fact it had his boss' name at the top as the sponsor and so go eh? but it was the straw that broke the camels back and he told his job where he could stick the report and his job.

A month earlier his boss had tried something a little similar with me saying we shouldn't be in this position or need the paper but I dont work for him, I'm not even an employee so when he started criticising I bluntly reminded him that it was his decision that had got us where we were but I fully agreed that we were in a hole because of poor decisions prior to the last meeting. Being where we are however... could we agree that the proposals were correct.

MovingForwards

Sign up with agencies, tell them the real reason for leaving, temp for a bit to clear your head / rebuild confidence and get another job.

It's how I've done it.

DanDare999

I left a job with a toxic environment early this year, didn't work any notice. Between deciding to leave and actually telling my line manager found another job and started three weeks after leaving. Haven't looked back.

Charlotte_Ca

DanDare999 said:

I left a job with a toxic environment early this year, didn't work any notice. Between deciding to leave and actually telling my line manager found another job and started three weeks after leaving. Haven't looked back.

What was it that you were not enjoying at that place?