Quit Right or Don't Quit

After reading this post by Troy I got to thinking about times I have quit jobs. My job experience isn't all that lengthy, considering I am approaching the 25th year with my current employer, the public library.

My first attempt at a job was picking cherries for a local farmer outside Cedar, MI, when I was 13. My output was so bad, I was asked to not come back. I didn't argue. Later, at 16, I I was hanging out with some friends at a video arcade after baseball practice and I had no quarters for games. I then got a job at Sugar Loaf, a local ski and golf resort. I had that job, except for one summer at a restaurant, my whole time in high school, until I left for boot camp. I remember receiving a nice send off from the manager of my department, she was my supervisor the full three years I worked there.

After my stint in the Marines, I worked as a cashier for a local convenience store chain, making pretty much nothing but it was what I needed after four years in the service. I made enough money to buy beer and the job didn't require any real effort. That was the first of two jobs I walked out on. In the spring of 1992, my step dad died suddenly of a heart attack. I took a few days off from work because I was devastated, naturally. At one point the manager of the store called and asked when I would be back. I don't remember my response. I do remember being furious. Eventually, I agreed to go back and the store manager scheduled me for a twelve-hour day on my first day back. I didn't go in that day, or ever again, and I didn't call. Instead, my friend Jeff and I went to a baseball card show.

Eventually, I ended up at OfficeMax. I was there for about nine months. It was a building full of young and fun coworkers but the job was horrible. Customers and management treated those of us on the floor terribly. I have never felt more disposable and less respected anywhere. At one point a new employee manual was released and we all were given a copy. It was, essentially, a list of 1,001 ways to get fired. In fact, I wrote that in marker on the cover of my copy of this terrible booklet and tacked it to the cork board in the employee break room. The next day was Saturday and my morning tennis class through CPCC. I was scheduled to work after the tennis class but a group that included a woman I had a crush on, invited me to have some drinks. I readily agreed, had a great time and skipped out on work and that was it for OfficeMax. I remember being told that my quitting that way after what I did with the employee manual was admired by other employees at the store. I guess it was pretty good but I still think it wasn't as impressive as the cashier who went to lunch one day and never came back. A week later she was waitressing at the bar next to the OfficeMax store. Within a month, I was working for the library and never looked back.

I guess the moral is, you should quit properly unless you work for a company that treats you like shit.