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I'm talking about those you want to leave off your resume or do. These have
gone a month or two usually. One I left a solid long term contract with no
end in sight for better pay ($7 more/hr) and closer to home (9 hr vs. 18
hr). Who wouldn't, right?
It fell apart at 6 weeks, when I couldn't get John the manager to move the
project I was working on up the queue in typing, even though he insisted it
had priority and was a rush job necessary for buy-off of a big contract. It
sat there over a week. (Turn-around was normal 1-2 days.) The same day he
got it back, his boss called looking for it. John immediately dropped it on
my desk and said I was sitting on it. His boss said to get rid of me and put
someone on it who could get it out.
Semi-satisfaction came at the end of the week as most of the guys in the
group wanted to have a going away lunch before I left the area. They said
John was struggling to handle all the work I had produced that now was
coming back in to be processed out to the manufacturing area. Now John was
having to explain why he cut someone who had produced so much work. Also,
they said John said he wished me the best of luck and hoped there were no
hard feelings.
John wasn't a bad guy, just inept. He had only worked in documentation about
6 months and was being groomed by the previous manager to take over the
group when he retired in about 5 years. Unfortunately, the previous manager
died, and John was suddenly the manager, as he had the most seniority of the
work company workers in a group of contractors. John was not manager
material, as he couldn't make a decision to save his life, changing his mind
8 times over what to get for lunch one Saturday.
Another I quit one that probably had another 2 or 3 months in it for another
with higher pay in the Carolinas. I thought I'd like to live there and
looked like a good opportunity to find out. The first week I noticed not too
many talked to me. On the third Monday, I came into work, no one said
anything to me, at about 10:30 I had a call from my shop that they would
like me to stop by their office at lunch to take care of some paperwork.
When I got there, they asked for my badge and said not to return to work.
I was not happy with the shop at all, as I had walked out at lunch leaving
my case with personal papers and stuff on my desk and I had a devil of a
time getting my stuff back from them. I never found out what the problem
was.
A shop I worked with several times and had several very successful jobs
through offered to move me into a better one. I took it, despite the
superstition. Seven weeks into it, my recruiter called me at home, asking
what the heck was going on. He said they called and wanted them to ensure I
didn't come back in the next day.
At least this one had a somewhat better outcome later. The lady who went in
after me called the recruiter, said she was amazed I could survive that
long, had done some great work but didn't understand why the company hated
not just mine but apparently everyone's work, and she wanted out. Two days
later, the company told her not to return also.
That's what I mean about not working out.
As such, I don't leave anything personal at work. No pictures, no mouse
pads, no pens or pencils, nothing. I also set a file to delete anything I
might have on a computer automatically, like timesheet files, pictures for
screen saver or desktop. When I walk out each night, it looks like I don't
even work there.
Out of over 30 jobs, many lasting a couple of years or more, having 3 crash
and burn isn't too bad. Still, I don't want to repeat crashing and burning
if I can help it.
From: Gene Kim-Eng [mailto:techwr -at- genek -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 3:57 PM
To: William Sherman
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Cover Stories for Job-Hunting Absences
How do you define "work out?" Length of job, congenial environment or...?
Having worked a lot of start-ups, I'm accustomed to jobs at new companies
not lasting much longer than two or three years (my "personal best" since
moving from engineering to technical writing has been five years), and it
doesn't seem to make any difference whether I decided to leave because the
bloom wore off the rose or because the roots rotted out from below and I
didn't recognize it in time (thankfully, that's only happened twice in 20
years).
Gene Kim-Eng
On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 12:36 PM, William Sherman
<bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com> wrote:
I'm superstitious. I have never left a job for another and had the next one
work out, so I simply don't anymore.
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