There may be 50 ways to leave a lover, as the song says, but they`re all easy compared to what it takes to leave a job.
Leaving a job, especially if you need the income, is hard to do.
”Don`t leave your job until you have another one” is the conventional wisdom offered by most career counselers. The experts are probably right, but experts rarely have to quit jobs.
Others say don`t quit, try to get fired-the benefits are better. If you feel you`re being discriminated against, quitting suddenly isn`t the way to handle that problem, either. You should act on advice of counsel.
For a variety of reasons, many women decide they can`t stand their jobs one day more. Since quitting a job is a tricky subject because so much is at stake, TempoWoman asked some human resource professionals and a ”civilian,” who has done it, for advice on how to handle it.
– Judith M. Johnson
Age 34, principal personnel analyst, County of Lake, Waukegan.
”Fortunately, I`ve never been in a position where I`ve had to quit a job, but from my 12 years in human resources, I know it`s a difficult one,”
says Johnson, who reviews job classifications for the county`s 2,000 employees. She earned her bachelor`s degree from the University of Illinois and her master`s in public administration from Roosevelt University.
”If you`ve set goals and you don`t seem able to achieve them or they`re in opposition to those of the organization you work for, you have to reevaulate your position,” says Johnson, who previously ran a county employment training program.
There are warning signs. ”You know something`s wrong when you`re being closed off from information, when the up and coming people won`t talk to you and when little is required of you,” she says.
A bad performance appraisal is not the time to quit, she stresses. ”It shows someone cares enough to say, go back and change this. It`s up to you to make adjustments.”
If you decide to leave, Johnson says, ”don`t burn bridges behind you. Give two week`s notice. If it`s unbearable, give notice, leave today.”
She urges being honest in your exit interview because it will ”set the record straight about why you`re leaving.” If you`re asked to reconsider,
”you will need a corrective action plan and well-constructed goals. And get them in writing!”
Nonetheless, Johnson observes, sometimes the only choice is to quit.
”It`s a very emotional decision and you have to discuss it with your family, colleagues and friends,” she says. ”Deciding to leave takes a toll on your self-esteem. Personally, what I would have to weigh is if it`s harder on my self-esteem to stay than to go. That`s where I`d draw the line.”
– Gladys O. Hansen
Age 67, word processing consultant, Deerfield.
”I`ve had to quit jobs and I`ve been devastated, but each time it`s turned out beautifully,” says Hansen, a private consultant who supplies businesses with temporary help to teach employees word processing equipment.
”It`s important to know what your resources are for taking that next step before you take it,” she says. ”You have to be self-assured enough to know that when you do leave, you can go somewhere else.”
In the early 1960s, Hansen left her job with an employment agency. ”I refused to be a `body mover,` to recommend someone not qualified for the job.” She quit, she says, ”with no regrets,” even though she was divorced and raising four children alone.
She became a executive secretary and in the late 1960s suggested her boss look into office automation. ”I was rebuffed twice and refused a $5 a week raise,” Hansen says. ”I told my boss to look for a new secretary because I was looking for a new job.”
Hansen stayed until she found one and trained her replacement.
”I went into word processing and ran the show for 10 years,” she says.
”Then my boss was fired. His replacement was determined to sweep clean, to give all managers their walking papers after properly humiliating them.”
She began looking for another job so that ”by the time he got to me I had set up a consulting business, had my office ready, my business cards printed, brochures in the mail and my first two clients lined up. That`s when I said goodbye.”
Quitting, Hansen stresses, is not the same as being fired. ”Don`t let people know too much about where you`ve been or the details of what happened. They have a nasty habit of twisting things.”
The consultant says if she hadn`t quit, ”I`d probably be sitting and pounding a typewriter at $7 to $10 an hour. Instead, I`m doing great in business and haven`t felt better in years.”
– Judith Lansky
Age 41, president, Lansky Career Consultants.
”Before you quit a job, you have to be clear about where you`re going in your career and measure it beyond the fact you hate your job,” says Lansky, a private consultant for five years and formerly a counselor for an advocacy group for flexible hours for women.
”My personal preference is to stay in a job until you know what you want to do next, not necessarily having another job, but knowing where you want to go.”
The indicators that its time to move on, says Lansky, who has her Masters of Business Administration from DePaul University, are ”the external ones of not being promoted, not learning in the job, slowing of your salary growth and being left out of what`s happening.”
Internal signs include ”not being able to get out of bed in the morning, being fatigued, bored, anxious and tense. You can`t wait for the day to be over so life can start or you go home so drained you sit in front of the television.”
When you decide to go, ”talk to your boss. Perhaps you`ll be able to get a new assignment that you like, even without more pay. Or, you might be able to negotiate a promotion or raise.”
If not, it is time to quit, says Lansky. ”Take time to sort out what you want to do before you actually quit. It may take a long time both financially and psychologically. Try to be calm. You can go home and lose your temper, but not in the office.”
If you just walk out, Lansky says, ”it might feel very good when you do it, but later it feels very bad. It can be a rash mistake.”
Once you quit in a rational manner, and ”the aches and pains disappear, you`ll be so glad you left.”
”When you find a wonderful new job, then you`ll know you did the right thing. Good things don`t come when you hold on to the old bad ones.”
Send comments and ideas for future questions to Carol Kleiman, The Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Il. 60611.
