Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be
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See, so the issue now lies in that, his job responsibilities include making sure that the non-technical people can do his job.
That is his new job role, plain and simple.
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@IRJ said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
TLDR OP, but I dont have to because I already know what bloodsuckers like that do!
The worse job I ever had did the same thing. I volunteered to stay an additional two days (my saturday and sunday) and they worked me like a dog those two days. Never being satisfied. On Sunday after 10 hours, I just got up and left.
Then they proceeded to call me for the next the month! Like a dumb idiot, I answered the calls and spent my new employers time trying to help for a little bit. They kept wanting more and more. Claiming it was the last time they'd call, but it never was. One day I stopped answering the phone and never spoke to those people again! Most liberating feeling ever.
Now when I think back on it, the only regret I have is giving them any additional time, or any additional help.
Now here is my TLDR:
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Always worry about YOU. Your employer could terminate you at any given moment for any reason, and they will always do this to save their company. I mean you cant blame the employer for doing what it needs to do to survive. YOU must be the same way. YOU do what is best for your interests. When you have a good employer, your interests align with the company interests 99% of the time.
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Dont be afraid to say NO. Say NO early and say it often. Do not sugarcoat shit and do not do anything for free. With every concession you make, you are weakening your position with the company IMO. Concessions should only be made when there is no other option and YOU are paid for it.
And if you DO take ANY calls....
- Never take time away from your current employer, not a single second.
- Decide on and publish a fee up front. Is $50/hr enough? Maybe $100/hr?
- Make sure that they get in writing that you bill starting when they call you, not when you respond. Just calling you costs them money, they are interrupting you, you deserve compensation even moreso than when you were a salaried employee.
- Consider a retainer so that they can't stiff you. If they don't pay, block their calls. If they try to work around, get a restraining order.
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Frankly, this is just ridiculous to me. I'll be here for the next 6 months just writing stuff over and over that I've already written, while getting chided because IT stuff is too hard for laypersons.
Or was the 6 month line taken from that bit. Where @guyinpv is saying it would take 6 months to rewrite all of this how my crazy ex-boss wants it
Yes, I misunderstood that to be his notice period.
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
I'd honestly just retract the 6 month leave notice and leave today. I know many people can't live without a paycheck for more than 2 weeks but I can get by.
Sounds like there was no notice, so he just needs to find a job, give his notice and GTFO.
So his new job responsibilities if he wants a paycheck now fall under "job duties as assigned" by his manager.
So get cracking @guyinpv you've got a lot of documentation to rewrite.
Yes, but they also lowered his pay, so he can walk away and simply not accept the new rate. That's the problem with forced changes, the employee HAS to accept them. If they don't, then they can just leave without notice because the company, not the employee, severed the relationship. It's a form of firing. All obligations of the employee are gone until they accept the new arrangement.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
She wants me to write up a "function book" where I write thousands of little "how-to" articles for each "function" I perform as an IT person, but written for the layperson so they can do my job "if they had to". All the information about each vendor, plus all the functions I perform at those vendors, what it's used for, how to make changes, when to make changes, how to troubleshoot it, etc etc etc. Who has SSLs, how are they renewed, when, how...
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
See, so the issue now lies in that, his job responsibilities include making sure that the non-technical people can do his job.
That is his new job role, plain and simple.
If so, then he doesn't need to support them anymore. His only responsibility is to "do the impossible" leaving him with literally nothing to do.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
To top it all off, she won't read stuff that's too long. If I send emails that are too long or detailed, she refuses to even read them and then chides me. But if I write stuff that's too short, she complains it's not written for the layperson.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
If I write "right-click the start menu and choose manage" she complains it's too short and written for IT people. What is right-click? Where is the start menu? Is this Windows 10 or 7? Do I right-click the manage link too? ugh
So I write longer, for the layperson, and she complains I write too much and doesn't read it. -
@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
But instead it sounds like she wants me to rewrite everything I've ever written, only in the format she likes, in the way she likes, along with a "layperson" user manual for every vendor and service along with how-to procedures for every bit of work that could be performed with those services.
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
hahahah . . . can we work to get Curtis hired for this company?!
Please please send his resume to them!
No thanks.
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@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
On top of that, since they don't believe they can find a replacement who does everything I do for a reasonable price, they instead tell me I have to find my own replacement and to "use my circles" to track down a technical person.
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@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
I'd honestly just retract the 6 month leave notice and leave today. I know many people can't live without a paycheck for more than 2 weeks but I can get by.
Sounds like there was no notice, so he just needs to find a job, give his notice and GTFO.
So his new job responsibilities if he wants a paycheck now fall under "job duties as assigned" by his manager.
So get cracking @guyinpv you've got a lot of documentation to rewrite.
Yes, but they also lowered his pay, so he can walk away and simply not accept the new rate. That's the problem with forced changes, the employee HAS to accept them. If they don't, then they can just leave without notice because the company, not the employee, severed the relationship. It's a form of firing. All obligations of the employee are gone until they accept the new arrangement.
The issue is he is now forced to accept the new terms or go without money, presumably.
Since we are all still assuming he simply said "I'm looking for a new job I could leave in 3 days or I could leave in 10 years".
Granted his employer can't just go and reduce his pay at will, but he is feeling forced to accept the pay. Rather than going through with just walking.
If the "pay reduction" is in writing I'd walk. They've fired you and are wanting you to work for peanuts.
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@Curtis said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
hahahah . . . can we work to get Curtis hired for this company?!
Please please send his resume to them!
No thanks.
Not you Curtis (it's why I didn't page) but SpiceWorks crazy Curtis.
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
The issue is he is now forced to accept the new terms or go without money, presumably.
Correct, it is like being fired. Which is the best when you are giving notice as they can never claim anything bad about you, you don't have to go through the notice period, and you can start the new job immediately.
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@Curtis said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
hahahah . . . can we work to get Curtis hired for this company?!
Please please send his resume to them!
No thanks.
HAHAHA, there is a famous Curtis who uses a different name here. That's who he meant. The Curtis of this thread...
https://mangolassi.it/topic/10680/programming-printers/
and this one...
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@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Granted his employer can't just go and reduce his pay at will, but he is feeling forced to accept the pay. Rather than going through with just walking.
They can in most states. They MUST tell you ahead of time. And it is obviously a new employment agreement. And you have the right to accept or not. But both parties are allowed to trigger that at any time.
You are free to go into the boss' office and say that going forward you need 50% more money. They can accept or let you quit. But you can't claim that you were fired, you refused to work under the existing agreement, that's quitting. In this case, they are refusing to let him work under the existing agreement, that's firing.
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Also since it hasn't been posted yet.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/pB43k.jpg
https://i.stack.imgur.com/jiFfM.jpg -
@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@DustinB3403 said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
Granted his employer can't just go and reduce his pay at will, but he is feeling forced to accept the pay. Rather than going through with just walking.
They can in most states. They MUST tell you ahead of time. And it is obviously a new employment agreement. And you have the right to accept or not. But both parties are allowed to trigger that at any time.
You are free to go into the boss' office and say that going forward you need 50% more money. They can accept or let you quit. But you can't claim that you were fired, you refused to work under the existing agreement, that's quitting. In this case, they are refusing to let him work under the existing agreement, that's firing.
That goes into the "they can't just adjust my pay". It's a new contract. It's why raises and decreases are always in writing and require both parties to sign on the dotted line.
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@scottalanmiller said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
@guyinpv said in Finally leaving my job, and it's just as annoying as I thought it would be:
What should really be expected of the IT person when they leave? I've heard everything from "hand over the passwords and walk" to "as a cornerstone employee it's your duty to not leave the company vulnerable at all."
Just walk is the ONLY answer. Anyone saying otherwise is out to scam you.
It is the job of your boss to ensure that you can walk at any time without seriously impacting the company. If your BOSS hasn't done that, ALL responsibility for problems is on them, not you (unless you intentionally did something secret to screw them, which is not the case here.)
There is a lot of good motivation in here, thanks to everybody.
I understand this point, but I think it's somewhat slippery slope because in a certain way, they don't know what they don't know, hence the odd "secret IT knowledge" remarks. They are kind of relying on me to make sure they know what has to be known for the company to continue operating. Freaking out that some secret SSL will expire that they don't know about, or some secret fee that is manually paid will go unpaid.
When I'm given tasks to do, I use whatever tools I need to get it done. Could be some free app or a little script I write, or a web service with a free account, etc etc. They aren't really aware of these side tools. Obviously I have the passwords stored, but that's about it.
So what they are panicky about is how all these tools inter-relate and what tool is needed to get what sort of task accomplished.
Let me given an example. I had my own free LastPass account when I first arrived. It was a step up from the previous person who basically just gave me a PDF created from MS Word with some passwords in it.
Eventually I started saving passwords into KeyPass with the file saved in an IT folder in the cloud.
The boss doesn't have my LP account pass, nor even the KeyPass master password, because they never asked for it or seemed to care. And I simply didn't offer it out. Nothing in there is stuff they access at all, at least not until I leave.So I think it's completely reasonable that I can't, or shouldn't, walk out of here with passwords still in my personal LP account, or if they don't know the pass to the KeyPass file.
That's just one example. They need to know my pin to the spare laptop I use sometimes which I just now thought of, since we rarely use the thing. My workstation has a different user/pass than others.
There is just a ton of "stuff" I need to hand over, but what she is most worried about is having no idea how it all relates and what it means and how important it is and how it works and how to use it, etc. Which I know, isn't my problem. I just feel a kind of obligation to at least make the data somewhat easy to search, and somewhat organized. It's organized according to how my brain wanted it organized, certainly not hers.
There are tons of source files like Photoshops and Illustrator and InDesign and Adobe and source video files and graphics and audio and scripts and databases and various kind of tools all used for various kinds of information. It all makes sense in MY head, I know where to look for stuff.
When we dropped a particular service some years ago, I pulled a data dump from the service, which they provided as XML. Well I know how to search through a bunch of XML files for something, but they don't. They've always wanted an "easy" way to search through the old data, which I was going to build into a relational DB on the intranet or whatever. Hasn't happened yet, so they also worried how to access this old data dump, you know, because it's "secret IT knowledge" how to do stuff like that.This is such a pain! I didn't actually turn in a notice or set a last day, which I'm regretting now. But I'm a non-confrontational person. I just want them to be happy and I want to personally feel like I've done a professional job leaving documentation behind. I'm just trying to figure out a balance.
The whole "they can't make me teach people" because I'm not a professor and it's not in my job description. That was funny, because nobody who has ever worked here has been able to use the "not my job description" line on them. They would say the job description is whatever they say it is, since they are the boss and you work for them!
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@guyinpv if they plan on hiring a replacement, even if its an MSP, then the next IT person/company will know how to translate all that "secret" info. If not, then they screwed the pooch and don't really deserve to be in business.
