Not Working Out

I thought this was an excellent e-mail on the TWer list:

-----Original Message-----
From: William Sherman
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 2:27 PM
To: TWer list
Subject: RE: Cover Stories for Job-Hunting Absences

I'm talking about those you want to leave off your resume or do.  These have gone a month or two usually.  One I left a solid long term contract with no end in sight for better pay ($7 more/hr) and closer to home (9 hr vs. 18 hr). Who wouldn't, right?

It fell apart at 6 weeks, when I couldn't get John the manager to move the project I was working on up the queue in typing, even though he insisted it had priority and was a rush job necessary for buy-off of a big contract. It sat there over a week. (Turn-around was normal 1-2 days.) The same day he got it back, his boss called looking for it. John immediately dropped it on my desk and said I was sitting on it. His boss said to get rid of me and put someone on it who could get it out.

Semi-satisfaction came at the end of the week as most of the guys in the group wanted to have a going away lunch before I left the area. They said John was struggling to handle all the work I had produced that now was coming back in to be processed out to the manufacturing area. Now John was having to explain why he cut someone who had produced so much work.  Also, they said John said he wished me the best of luck and hoped there were no hard feelings.

John wasn't a bad guy, just inept. He had only worked in documentation about

6 months and was being groomed by the previous manager to take over the group when he retired in about 5 years. Unfortunately, the previous manager died, and John was suddenly the manager, as he had the most seniority of the work company workers in a group of contractors.  John was not manager material, as he couldn't make a decision to save his life, changing his mind

8 times over what to get for lunch one Saturday.

Another I quit one that probably had another 2 or 3 months in it for another with higher pay in the Carolinas. I thought I'd like to live there and looked like a good opportunity to find out. The first week I noticed not too many talked to me. On the third Monday, I came into work, no one said anything to me, at about 10:30 I had a call from my shop that they would like me to stop by their office at lunch to take care of some paperwork.

When I got there, they asked for my badge and said not to return to work.

I was not happy with the shop at all, as I had walked out at lunch leaving my case with personal papers and stuff on my desk and I had a devil of a time getting my stuff back from them.  I never found out what the problem was.

A shop I worked with several times and had several very successful jobs through offered to move me into a better one. I took it, despite the superstition.  Seven weeks into it, my recruiter called me at home, asking what the heck was going on. He said they called and wanted them to ensure I didn't come back in the next day.

At least this one had a somewhat better outcome later. The lady who went in after me called the recruiter, said she was amazed I could survive that long, had done some great work but didn't understand why the company hated not just mine but apparently everyone's work, and she wanted out.  Two days later, the company told her not to return also. 

That's what I mean about not working out. 

As such, I don't leave anything personal at work. No pictures, no mouse pads, no pens or pencils, nothing.  I also set a file to delete anything I might have on a computer automatically, like timesheet files, pictures for screen saver or desktop.  When I walk out each night, it looks like I don't even work there.

Out of over 30 jobs, many lasting a couple of years or more, having 3 crash and burn isn't too bad. Still, I don't want to repeat crashing and burning if I can help it.

From: Gene Kim-EngSent: Friday, September 14, 2012 3:57 PMTo: William Sherman+Subject: Re: Cover Stories for Job-Hunting Absences

How do you define "work out?"  Length of job, congenial environment or...?

Having worked a lot of start-ups, I'm accustomed to jobs at new companies not lasting much longer than two or three years (my "personal best" since moving from engineering to technical writing has been five years), and it doesn't seem to make any difference whether I decided to leave because the bloom wore off the rose or because the roots rotted out from below and I didn't recognize it in time (thankfully, that's only happened twice in 20 years).

Gene Kim-Eng