Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Immature Boss
Hi everyone, I'm new to the 9-5 board but desperate times call for a little venting!
I've been working at my current job for a little over 2 years, and it's my first job out of school. I LOVE the team of people I work with, but I've exhausted what I can learn in my current position and our company is not currently profitable. As a result, they do not contribute to our 401ks, there has been a freeze on all raises for the last couple years and everyone took a 5% pay cut last fall. I've worked my butt off in this job and have learned a ton, and about a year ago started speaking to my boss about development and what my future in the company looks like. At that time, she told me there would be expansion and new positions would be opening up. Not only has that not happened, (which isn't surprising) but for 10 months I had to take on the responsibilities of a second person (we had a vacancy that they took FOREVER to fill) with no extra incentive, despite me repeatedly asking. I told my boss that if I absolutely couldn't receive more $$ or vacation days as an incentive, I would like to be given more opportunities to grow and be promoted. When I inquired about going into sales she shut me down and said she believed "sales people were born, not made" and I just "didn't have the DNA for it." I was extremely disappointed but kept working hard at my current job with the hope that other managers in the company would notice my strengths and contributions, and continued to try to talk to my boss about development whenever the opportunity presented itself.
During all of this, I have successfully developed an awesome reputation and other managers have requested that I participate in projects and as I said I have learned a ton and made some great business connections with people I really respect. I reached out to other managers in other departments about job opportunities and in my discussions with them it became painfully obvious that despite my hard work and stellar reputation, my current company does not have any positions that suit my skills. So I started my job search, found an awesome opportunity, received an offer and put in my two weeks yesterday. That's where this all goes to hell in a hand basket.
1) My boss chewed me out and demanded I give her more than 2 weeks notice, saying that "two weeks is the minimum amount of notice"...I've read the employee handbook, it says no such thing and I'm not on a contract of any sort.
2) Upon my resignation members of my team approached my boss and appealed to her to offer me more money since they felt our department was going to lose money without my assistance...they later informed me she scoffed, told them how much money I made and said I wasn't being offered any more at my new job so she didn't see the need to offer me anything. (I was horrified because 2 weeks notice or not my salary is confidential and I didn't share my offer from the new company with her so she lied to my colleagues about my situation.)
3) She invited herself to the lunch my work friends had invited me to that day and then studiously ignored me and steered the conversation away any time anyone tried to ask me about my new job. The one time she did comment, it was to tell me my new job was going to be very stressful and that the environment would suck. (She also took the opportunity to talk crap about some of our coworkers who weren't present at the lunch.)
4) I later overheard her telling another coworker that I was stupid for taking a job at another company that was the same job that I already had...which is not the case AT ALL.
Yesterday was super emotional because as I said I love the people I work with, and everyone came up and congratulated me, said I was doing the right thing by moving on but that I would be greatly missed. Other managers came up to me and said they were super proud of me, but this was obviously a huge loss for the company...and had there been anything they could have done to keep me, they would have. My boss on the other hand was horrible the whole day- which made everything so much more dramatic.
And I have two full weeks of this left...help! Has anyone had a similar situation? Or a boss who just can't seem to act their age? I'm so frustrated and I'm doing everything in my power to leave on good terms since I've accomplished a lot in my time there and I have so many great people who can back me up but these next two weeks are going to be the worst!
Re: Immature Boss
I would just suck it up for the last two weeks do what you need to do and leave on the best terms possible with all your coworkers. Just ignore your boss, she is clearly taking this personally but she shouldn't be, its business thats how it works. She is not worth you stressing for the next two weeks. it seems that everyone else acknowledges what an asset you are are to the company, so she is the one that will look like an @ss acting the way she is.
You dont owe your boss anything more than 2 weeks that is standard practice, unless of course you signed some random agreement which it doesnt sound like you did. Sounds like your boss is just trying to make you feel badly.
GL in your new job!!!
So I started my job search, found an awesome opportunity, received an offer and put in my two weeks yesterday. That's where this all goes to hell in a hand basket.
Before you leave, cull coworkers for their cell numbers and non-work email addies. it's a good idea to make sure you have references from your former companies, in case you don't like your new job, or you wish to pursue another job in the future, near or far.
These people can vouch for your work.:)
Thanks guys
I made it extremely clear I was ready for new opportunities, and my boss wasn't at all surprised when I spoke with her, which is why the pissy reaction has me a little floored. She even said "I knew this was coming" which is why I'm now like "huunnnnh?"
I used my coworkers as references for my new job, and per your advice will continue to do so in the future. I already told the hubs that if for any reason the new gig doesnt work out I'll have to start searching all over again as obviously returning to my current job doesn't look like an option...stressful times!
As everyone else has said, just ignore her, your former boss has other issues. But being in a very similar situation like this before, I'd make sure that someone in HR hears this story from you. Chances are this old boss will continue to behave this way towards future coworkers and they may want/need to know this. However, this is completely up to you and depending on your relationships, there may be no need to ruffle fleathers before you go. Good luck on your new job!!
Ha- so I had kind of hoped I was overreacting to everything that happened on Friday and that once we both had the weekend to let the prospect of me leaving settle in things would be better.
No such luck- things were super awkward and she ignored me all day. 1 day down, 9 more to go!! Thanks for the support everyone