Anybody ever quit without something else lined up?

I'd talk to HR and say "why is this policy even mentioned in the employee handbook but yet none of my direct supervisors will even entertain the idea of me using this?"

I think this so called "flexibility" in HR/Employee Handbook is all about family leave. If your supervisor knows your single or without children, they'll want you to work 50hrs a week.

If you've got kids, suddenly you've got all the flexibility in the world. Thats how my company is, and I don't care for the double standard.

PHeller wrote: I'd talk to HR and say "why is this policy even mentioned in the employee handbook but yet none of my direct supervisors will even entertain the idea of me using this?"

Going directly over the head of your immediate supervisors without addressing the issue with them will not keep you in their good graces.

Yes, I did so earlier this year.

I began working with my first employer the summer before my freshman year of high school. I stayed with the company through college graduation, thinking that it could even become a lifelong partnership.

Upon graduation, I took a position in a very different capacity of the company. During the interview, I should have listened to my gut that the leadership and I would not be a good fit. 8 months in, I saw a lot of warning signs that my time there was short. With nowhere else in the company to go, I sold off whatever I could, fired off applications to every corner of the country, and a few weeks later, submitted my two weeks notice.

A week and a half later, I got a call requesting my availability for an interview in two days. That interview became my current position, which resulted in an enormous quality of life boost in just about every category. I certainly acknowledge and appreciate everything that my first employer taught me, and hope that I was able to give equal parts back over the years.

As you can see, most of what I do is ask simple questions that get long answers.

One way to go is showing mgmt you arent a shiny happy person and working with them on ideas that can make the department/company/shareholders/etc more $. Now if you could somehow relate those type things to things that are better for your group as a whole, and maybe even you personally.

Had never heard of pdca before, but continuous improvement is never a bad thing. How can you go about enabling it?

Best case, it works out. Worst case, you get to collect unemployment. Win-win?

Paul_VR6 wrote: Had never heard of pdca before, but continuous improvement is never a bad thing. How can you go about enabling it?

Best way would be to read up on it, figure out the process, then pick out a relatively small problem, go through the steps and go to management with a solution.

No one wants to hear "No we can't do that" or "This is dumb."

Go to management with, "I think we can do X better, here is my study/evidence on why and how I think we can do to do X better."

Having without a job twice for six months each time...no way i would quit before I had something else lined up. There is definitely a stigma associated with being out of work. I was laid off both times and it was like I was damaged goods.

But, it you can keep your head up and project yourself well, do what you gots to do.

It is much harder to look when you already have something. Especially if you hate the current one. I worked at a place where I saw dozens if not hundreds of people who absolutely hated their jobs, but just couldn't look elsewhere. Not sure if it was depression, time utilization or what. A large number of them were fired over the years, and it was the best thing to ever happen to them. They found great new jobs and are now happy people instead of the miserable people I had knows.

I'm in a similar position to you now, and may also have to make the decision to leave without a net.

bigev007 wrote: It is much harder to look when you already have something.

I disagree. It's the 21st century, you don't have to look through various free locals, newspapers, etc to find a job opening.

Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, any number of recruiting agencies.......I've received 3 requests for interviews between Monster and CareerBuilder in just the last 2 weeks.

If you're too lazy to do that, you aren't THAT miserable.

Z31maniac, I agree with you, but understand what he is saying:

bigev007 wrote: It is much harder to look when you already have something. Especially if you hate the current one. I worked at a place where I saw dozens if not hundreds of people who absolutely hated their jobs, but just couldn't look elsewhere. Not sure if it was depression, time utilization or what. A large number of them were fired over the years, and it was the best thing to ever happen to them. They found great new jobs and are now happy people instead of the miserable people I had knows.

From my point of view, it is a combination of depression and time utilization, and they kind of roll into each other making the problem worse. I spend 2 hours a day in the car commuting. That means that I have from about 5:00 to 5:30PM until bedtime, which I try to make around 10:00 PM to apply for jobs. But I'm tired and depressed from work, and I just want to veg out. It should happen on the weekends, but that is when I go to my other job, which I genuinely do love and see that as a release, and as exercise (no, that can't be a full time position).

In any case, I've applied to 5 jobs since Monday. So I've got that going for me.

z31maniac wrote: Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, any number of recruiting agencies.......I've received 3 requests for interviews between Monster and CareerBuilder in just the last 2 weeks.

Couple of questions from here: Have they been real interview requests from Monster and CareerBuilder? Did you just post your resume there?

Also, how do you find a good recruiting agency? I'm currently using one, and from what I understand she is pretty good but has a small scope.

z31maniac wrote:

bigev007 wrote: It is much harder to look when you already have something.

I disagree. It's the 21st century, you don't have to look through various free locals, newspapers, etc to find a job opening. Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, any number of recruiting agencies.......I've received 3 requests for interviews between Monster and CareerBuilder in just the last 2 weeks. If you're too lazy to do that, you aren't THAT miserable.

I can't tell you how many resumes and application I've sent out through the internet like that. I have ZERO replies from them. Nothing.

Nick_Comstock wrote:

z31maniac wrote:

bigev007 wrote: It is much harder to look when you already have something.

I disagree. It's the 21st century, you don't have to look through various free locals, newspapers, etc to find a job opening. Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, any number of recruiting agencies.......I've received 3 requests for interviews between Monster and CareerBuilder in just the last 2 weeks. If you're too lazy to do that, you aren't THAT miserable.

I can't tell you how many resumes and application I've sent out through the internet like that. I have ZERO replies from them. Nothing.

Do you have skills that employers are looking for?

In reply to z31maniac:

No

I have sent out a bunch of resumes/applications on sites like indeed.com with no responses. Yes I do have the skills they are looking for. Best I can tell is that I may have too much experience (20+ years as Graphic Designer) and/or my current salary is higher than they are offering. Hard to tell for sure since most won't list the salary range of the job.

81cpcamaro wrote: I have sent out a bunch of resumes/applications on sites like indeed.com with no responses. Yes I do have the skills they are looking for. Best I can tell is that I may have too much experience (20+ years as Graphic Designer) and/or my current salary is higher than they are offering. Hard to tell for sure since most won't list the salary range of the job.

I've had that happen where Recruiters have contacted me, than come back with, "Oh, you have to much experience for them."

I'm not even 33 yet!

mtn wrote: Z31maniac, I agree with you, but understand what he is saying:

From my point of view, it is a combination of depression and time utilization, and they kind of roll into each other making the problem worse. I spend 2 hours a day in the car commuting. That means that I have from about 5:00 to 5:30PM until bedtime, which I try to make around 10:00 PM to apply for jobs. But I'm tired and depressed from work, and I just want to veg out. It should happen on the weekends, but that is when I go to my other job, which I genuinely do love and see that as a release, and as exercise (no, that can't be a full time position). In any case, I've applied to 5 jobs since Monday. So I've got that going for me.

That's exactly what I mean. Sure it's easy to find postings (depending on where you are) but when you're that depressed by your job it's hard to get a resume together, write a cover letter, and it can be nearly impossible to get time off to go to an interview. Quitting and walking away clears your head and motivates you to get back out there. You do a good letter and resume because you want to (which you did before) and because now you have to.

z31maniac wrote: I disagree. It's the 21st century, you don't have to look through various free locals, newspapers, etc to find a job opening. Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed.com, any number of recruiting agencies.......I've received 3 requests for interviews between Monster and CareerBuilder in just the last 2 weeks.

Any tips you want to share, then? I've got resumes on Monster & CareerBuilder, Indeed as well plus job posting sucked off Indeed and emailed to me every day, and I'm not getting actual interviews. All my resumes and my LinkedIn profile describe who I am and what I've done. I get calls or emails from recruiters (nearly always 3rd party, which seem to never actually go anywhere) about jobs but they're looking for some special thing that isn't eluded to by me anywhere. And, long story short, I never get to talk to an actual hiring manager.

So getting contact from recruiters, yes, I'm getting that. Getting into a real interview with a company isn't happening at all. So if you've got some eureka moment style advice to give, I'm all ears, and I bet others would listen as well.

When I got my interview earlier this year, I used LinkedIn job seeker to find the job, but applied directly through the employer. I was going through the interview process with another company as well, where I applied through an industry job listing website.

I found LinkedIn (which costs money) a lot easier to find relevant jobs than Monster.

z31maniac wrote: Best way would be to read up on it, figure out the process, then pick out a relatively small problem, go through the steps and go to management with a solution. No one wants to hear "No we can't do that" or "This is dumb." Go to management with, "I think we can do X better, here is my study/evidence on why and how I think we can do to do X better."

I understood where you were going with it, just wondering where mtn might be able to go with it Just some poor wording on my part!

Take crap job ? Crap job good Profit

Phone interview yesterday. Crossing my fingers it turns into something real. Because I really feel like I'm getting to a breaking point here at work. Sad thing is that at this point the job is barely tolerable, but my own psyche is causing anxiety and depresssion.

Still applying to at least 1 job day, aiming for 2 jobs.

Anyone in Chicago/Milwaukee looking for a finance/business/whatever guy? quickie non detailed forum resume:
B.S. In Mathematics, minors in Business and Economics
Business Analyst for 1.5 years at Fortune 50 company
Specialized Representative for 11 months at Fortune 50 company
Intern for 6 months at Fortune 50 company
Advanced Excel and Word skills, some [very limited] exposure to SAS, SPSS, MatLab, and Access Ice Hockey Referee for 6 years and counting
Caddie for 10 season

mtn wrote: Phone interview yesterday. Crossing my fingers it turns into something real. Because I really feel like I'm getting to a breaking point here at work. Sad thing is that at this point the job is barely tolerable, but my own psyche is causing anxiety and depresssion. Still applying to at least 1 job day, aiming for 2 jobs. Anyone in Chicago/Milwaukee looking for a finance/business/whatever guy? quickie non detailed forum resume: B.S. In Mathematics, minors in Business and Economics Business Analyst for 1.5 years at Fortune 50 company Specialized Representative for 11 months at Fortune 50 company Intern for 6 months at Fortune 50 company Advanced Excel and Word skills, some [very limited] exposure to SAS, SPSS, MatLab, and Access Ice Hockey Referee for 6 years and counting Caddie for 10 season

My advice would be to look for an entry-level data scientist position.

dj06482 wrote:

mtn wrote: Phone interview yesterday. Crossing my fingers it turns into something real. Because I really feel like I'm getting to a breaking point here at work. Sad thing is that at this point the job is barely tolerable, but my own psyche is causing anxiety and depresssion. Still applying to at least 1 job day, aiming for 2 jobs. Anyone in Chicago/Milwaukee looking for a finance/business/whatever guy? quickie non detailed forum resume: B.S. In Mathematics, minors in Business and Economics Business Analyst for 1.5 years at Fortune 50 company Specialized Representative for 11 months at Fortune 50 company Intern for 6 months at Fortune 50 company Advanced Excel and Word skills, some [very limited] exposure to SAS, SPSS, MatLab, and Access Ice Hockey Referee for 6 years and counting Caddie for 10 season

My advice would be to look for an entry-level data scientist position.

I am, and similar roles.

Warning...

I recently left an intolerable job. There was nothing I wanted more than change.

Unfortunately, I went out of the frying pan and into the fire. I failed to see the good aspects of my old job, and was desperate for change.

My new job is worse.

Be careful. Don't do what I did. You still need to be cautious in your search. Believe it or not, things CAN get worse.

Good luck!

SVreX wrote: Warning... I recently left an intolerable job. There was nothing I wanted more than change. Unfortunately, I went out of the frying pan and into the fire. I failed to see the good aspects of my old job, and was desperate for change. My new job is worse. Be careful. Don't do what I did. You still need to be cautious in your search. Believe it or not, things CAN get worse. Good luck!

Thanks, and I appreciate the warning. It is received loud and clear, and already realized as well. I am hopeful, because this job has 4 major things going against it: Commute, lousy supervisor (not the person I signed onto the job with), drastically changed job duties (not what I signed up for), and an inherintly depressing environment to begin with.

I had those too, with a horribly abusive boss.

But I also had a flexible schedule, and occasional short days.

Now, I have all the same things, plus a 60-70 hour work week with no more pay.

Turns out I saw my family a lot more before.