# I Quit!



## rennerbee (Jul 25, 2004)

I gave my 2 week notice today after being with the company for 14 yrs (or it would have been on 3-11)! I have not been happy with my current position for the 2.5 yrs I have been in it and it seemed to be getting worse as the time went on. Although i have been offered several times, I have never accepted a position outside of the company for fear of what my peers would think about me leaving! I finally figured out that I should not be living for the company any longer, I should be doing what I want to do! I had to pay taxes for a state that I don't live in and drive about 65 miles a day for that priviledge too! Did I mention that I never wanted my current position in the first place? I told my manager 3 times "no, I don't feel it is right for me", but she kept pushing so I finally caved in. I finally feel like the monkey is off my back! I am surprised that they didn't ask me to leave this afternoon when I gave notice since this is typical in my industry if you are going to a competitor. I suppose that I will be hearing something about that maybe tomorrow. That would be totally fine with me since I haven't had more than a rare 3 day weekend since going to a family reunion last June. Driving to MT with my mom, dog, 2 kids and hubby was interesting to say the least! And then to spend the Mt time at a family reunion. Montana is certainly beautiful, but not exactly a vacation I want to repeat anytime soon! Ok, i'm going off subject, sorry. Anyway, my new employer says that the current employer is required to hold inurance for 30 days after my last day. Does anybody know anything about this, one way or the other???
Ok, thanks for listening!!! sunny


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

rennerbee - Congrats! I know that feeling well myself. As for insurance, I am pretty sure they will continue the coverage you have until the end of the month - then they need to offer you a COBRA plan. If its a larger company this is pretty much automated once the HR knows what's going on, if they have a HQ you should call the HR to verify. I've moved around state to state enough that I can't always keep rules straight and Oregon is unique at times.

I'd almost guess you worked for a investment/brokerage firm. When I gave my notice at the last Y I was at my board president worked for a firm that did the same immediate dismissals, I stayed on a couple days before he "dropped by" I heard he was coming, gathered my stuff and put it in the car, wrote my last check and said goodbye to my staff. They were shocked and figured I would complete my last few weeks. I was right, and I did the happy dance walking out the door. Best thing I could have done for my happiness and stress, and the move back to the NW was a great improvement for me and a much better Y to work with.


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Not that you plan to dump on anyone but with everything at work these days being done with or by computers there is always a fear that you could be very destructive in your last days. So most companies will show you the door post haste once you announce.

As for insurance you should have minimal coverage at least to the end of the month as Y said but these things are tricky and vary by state to state. Ask you HR department.

Too bad you could not hold on until you could have worked the transition to occur during camping season then you could have taken a week or two between the two to really un wind before putting the nose back to the grind stone.

Good Luck.


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## GlenninTexas (Aug 11, 2004)

Good luck in your new job. Sounds like you've realized something I discovered long ago. You have to balance work with family/home life or you'll never be happy. Keep them separate andnever allow work to become more important than home and family.
As far as insurance, your current coverage should extend to the end of the month of your last paid day of work. For example, if you resigned on Feb 1st with a two week notice, say ending on the 11th, your coverage will end on Feb 28th. Your employer must provide the ability to continue your coverage via COBRA. Of course, this can be very expensive as you have to pay the full cost of the coverage. You should probably make sure your start date at your new employer begins before the end of February.

Best of Luck to you.

Regards, Glenn


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## mswalt (Sep 14, 2004)

rennerbee,

I'm sure the other guys are right about the insurance, especially COBRA. Check it out on the web or with HR.

I congratulate you on your decision to do what you think is right. I don't think there is anything quite so frustrating as working at a job where you aren't happy. We spend at a minimum of 1/3 of our life at work, many much more than that, and not to be happy is just plain....well, for lack of a better word....stupid. You gotta do what you gotta do. And if that mean's quitting and finding something else, than that means quitting and finding something else.

Good luck and know in your heart you made the right decision.

Mark


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## Twins Make 4 (Apr 25, 2004)

I hesitate to do this but here is some benefit info from a Insurance Brokerage owner in CA. Make sure you get something IN WRITING that explains your benefit run-out. It most likely is the end of the month since the carrier will bill for the entire month. Very few health carriers will pro-rate for terminated employees. But be sure to get something on paper to these facts. It generally is considered punitive to cut someones's benefits off mid month. BEWARE, it happens.

2nd You have 60 days to elect COBRA without paying anything. Basically this means if you have a waiting period for benefits on the new job, you can pay nothing to keep your COBRA benefits in force for 59 days. This is federal regulation unless your employer has less than 20 ees. If you have a need for your medical insurance anytime during the 60 days, you can pay the premiums & you are fully but you pay the entire premium. After the 60 days you'll need alternative coverage. I'm in a similar situation until March 1 & was able to purchase short term coverage for my family at an amazingly low rate.

Whatever you do, don't go without medical coverage!!.

Enough work stuff here, sorry to bore the rest of you. Rennerbee, feel free to IM me, I'm happy to help if possible.

TM4


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

It is true that if you worked at least on day in the month, you are covered for insurance for the entire month. However, your employer can offset your vacation payout (if any) with your share of the insurance costs for the remainder of the month. It happened to me.

I resigned my position at CheapTickets.com on October 1. HR said that I would have medical coverage for all of October. I also had 96 hours of vacation payout. When I got the payout check, there were benefits costs deducted. Here's the deal: If there is a vacation payout, the company will attempt to recoup benefits costs that extend through the month. If there is no vacay payout, you still are covered for the month, but you don't have to pay your share (since there is nothing to offset the costs with).

Basically that means all employees are not treated the same at resignation. If you took all your vacation, you get coverage for free. If you have remaining vacation, you get to pay your share of the month's benefits costs.

Randy


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Brook,
Took courage to do what you did, congratulations and well done.

Looks like there are already a lot of comments on insurance so I'll skip that one.

In addition to my regular job, I'm half owner in a corporation that we try to make fair to our patrons and employees. We are a little tiny business and we are light on the benefits to begin with. However, we offer two things most do not - we pay for insurance for at least one month after the employee leaves (and we don't take away other benefits to do it), and we will cover any existing issues to the extent possible for a new employee (we just brought on one employee and gave her a week off borrowed against her yearly vacation award before she even started working - she needed surgery and she also needed to be able to afford groceries).

As an employer, having an employee leave because they are dissatisfied or angry can be a very nerve racking experience. We had a manager leave and we were concerned with the anger this person had when they left - we worried about retribution by theft of intellectual property, client names and addresses that they had access to, influence over other employees, and even sabotage to our physical plant. All this in addition to the almost assured bad mouthing we'd receive from the employee within our industry which is small to begin with. The employee was dissatisfied with our lack of delivering up on promotion that was 'promised' (we had told this employee that when things started going well, they would be getting a bigger role) - we had been in business a grand total of 8 months and we were nearly out of business due to cash flow problems - could in no way afford to promote anyone and had received no pay ourselves for six months. Anyway, my point is that employees are nervous when they leave but so are employers.

I beleive you did exactly what you needed to do (as I believe our manager did) and I hope your employer will have the integrity to support your decision in an ethical fashion.

Good luck on your new position!

BBB


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Wow Randy I've never run across that situation before thanks for the info. I hadn't realized you had left cheaptickets either.


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

Y,

Turns out the move from CheapTickets was a perfectly timed one. One week after I tendered my resignation (one week into my two weeks notice), it was announced that Cendant (CheapTickets parent) was acquiring Orbitz. Well, that initially sounded good for us here in Denver. Not so. With the acquisition, the CheapTickets platform would be migrated onto the Orbitz platform. Essentially, that means website operations were moving to Orbitz HQ in Chicago (enjoy the windy city, fishboy!)

I appeared to be a master of timing to my co-workers, but knew nothing about the purchase of Orbitz and move to Chicago. I am still doing Data Warehouse development work for another company.

Randy


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## KellerJames (Jan 19, 2004)

Congrat's Rennerbee,
Takes a lot of guts to finally make the move. I've hated my job for the last 2 or 3 years too. While I AM in the process of finding my next move, it makes me very nervous to think of actually making that move. However, it is probably coming in the next few months and will certainly be for the best (I hope). It's a tough decision to make. 
I have no doubt you will feel better in your new "gig". We all hope the best for you.


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Life's too short to hate what you do.


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## rennerbee (Jul 25, 2004)

Wow! Thanks everybody for your insights and well wishes!

I did talk to HR today and they have confirmed that insurance is covered through EOM. Start date will be in Feb, so no lapse in coverage! I have heard that COBRA is pretty expensive but I won't have to go through that thank goodness!

Y-you were relatively close to the field. It is in the financial field and is very competitive, especially in our local area, as I guess it probrably is everywhere. And my managers boss called me and asked the typical "Is there anything I could say or do to change your mind?" kind of questions. She mentioned the promotion I received at my review last week and the raise that I was going to get (6%), but stated that she couldn't top what they had offered me (10% plus bonuses







based on my own work). But I wouldn't have stayed anyway. The worst part for me was not being able to go through the decision stage without my best friends help because 1 is a Manager and the other is the Asst to the Area Manager. Obviously I didn't want to have to put them through the "do I stay loyal to my company and tell them that she's thinking of leaving or do I stay loyal to our friendship and not say anything?" and also because I didn't want an "insider" trying to persuade me. That has happened too many times before.

KellerJames-I'm right there with you. Why be unhappy if you can don't have to be? It was affecting my "non work" life with the family and I can't let that happen any longer. It was **very** nerve wracking (sp?) but I do believe that if you stay true to yourself and think the opportunities through all the way and go with your gut, it all falls together in the end (hopefully!). I hope that you are able to make your move soon and that it works out for the best. Man, I really feel like if I can do it, anyone can!!! Best of luck to you.

I hope nobody got the impression that I disliked the company, because I do have the utmost respect for all of the management and how they treat their customers and employees and for as for as huge as they are (146,000 employees) they sure do do it well. I just had a problem with my position and what it involved mainly and the fact that I felt like I needed a change. I get to go out and explore the world off the Stagecoach!

The news hasn't hit outside of just a few people yet, and I am dreading when it does. **it is going to hit the fan and there are going to be a lot my officers who rely upon me (a little too much I think sometimes) who are going to be calling me about it and possibly feeling betrayed. Especially since i'm going to a competitor that everyone is VERY upset with due to the fact that 3 of our highest producing officers left us to join them within the last couple of months. I am not sure how i'm going to explain it to them, but if they are truly my friends in addition to colleagues, then I suppose they will understand and not harrass me too much. I really hope.

Did I mention that they want me to stay and work out my 2 weeks? Oh man! I really wanted a vacation before starting! Oh well. I guess that it says something good about their trust in me since I do have access to such confidential information along with their equipment-laptop, cell, ect... Or maybe their just trying to torture me, hmmmm...









My fingers are saying "Time to get to sleep" and my head is saying "Nobody is going to read this whole thing, so just stop now, would ya?" I think i'll follow both and let go now. If actually feels good to let it out. Sorry for making you all my board. Or should I say "Sorry for making you all bored"?!!!!









Thanks again for the support!

~Brook


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

Brook,
Read every word. Change is tough; I hope sleep is easier now.

BBB


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Brook

Ditto BBB - read every word. I glad your able to embrace change as well as you do. I know that things will work out better. You can never go wrong with spending more time with family & friends.

Thor


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## summergames84 (Mar 6, 2004)

Way to go, Rennerbee. If your co-workers are truly your friends, they will be happy that you are making a move that is the best thing for YOU. I just had my best staff person leave (imagine a better job than working for the Great State of Texas!) but it was the best move for her, and I supported her 100% even though it broke my heart to lose her. I wish you much happiness and success at the new gig.


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Brook congrats, sounds like things are going to allow you to exit on good terms - after leaving several Y's over the years I still talk to all but one and leaving on good terms made the difference.

It wasn't boring at all, I am happy updated us all on how things were going... and yes like the others I read it all!

Dang need to go sign paychecks... back to work!


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## rennerbee (Jul 25, 2004)

Great News! I got pulled aside today and was told that tomorrow is my last day! I get a vacation after all!!! Actually I did get a bit teary when it sunk in and my mgr was making a list for me to remember to do...change vm, out of office asst, leave laptop, key fob, cell phone, keys to building/office/desk, parking pass. She is not telling our team until the afternoon as she is sure it is going to "cause a disruption". I got to discreetly pack a few of my things, but left awards up til tomorrow as I am sure it would have been noticed if they were down. They are also letting me send an email out to the officers that I work with to say goodbye (none of them work in the office with me as they are out in bank or sales branches) but not until the end of the day also because I don't want to be bombarded with calls about it. Trying to slip out quietly (imagine that!) and gracefully but I know it is going to be a blow to them all. Ok, I had better start thinking about the email and what to say. I'll let you know. Tomorrow's going to be hard, but I think it's going to be for the better overall. Thanks for listening. (Hey, did I just sound like Frasier Crane right there???)


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## Thor (Apr 7, 2004)

Saying good-bye shows alot of class.

All the best

Thor


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