Dear Prudence,
I recently found out that my employer denied my transfer request, leaving me with no other option than to quit my job. I am moving to a new city to be with my boyfriend of eight-plus years who is starting a graduate school program. My work is remote, and I only visit my home office a few times a year. Not only did my company deny my transfer request, but they took more than six weeks to deliberate and then offered little explanation as to why my transfer was denied other than the fact that they could not effectively supervise me in the new city, despite the fact that my job has been remote for two-plus years. It feels like they are forcing me to quit without being legally able to fire me for requesting the transfer. Now they want to throw me a going-away party. How do I decline the invite while getting the message across that a party won’t make up for their lack of consideration or care for my well-being?
—Party Pooper
Re: Go to the party for future networking options.
I am loathe to support the practice of 'remote but not really' but at the same time you can continue to be supportive of your colleagues, document everything pertinent and ensure that on paper you're leaving without bad blood.
Also, the 'going away party' is likely their ruse for getting you to bring in your company equipment and turning it in.
But yes, this person should suck it up and head in for the party. Have a slice of cake and tell everyone goodbye. You literally never know when you're gonna need a contact. Leave the spite for venting at your partner.
This has happened every time there's a layoff and they even tell you when you're getting laid off to not start talking about it. I've always given a heavy eyeroll because, like, seriously? But yesterday, I saw people posting and tagging people in the posts and I was like, "I will not be risking my severance over a social media post." IDK if they could do anything, but why even chance it? I would love to burn things down, but I'm not stupid.
And the company may or may not be a bunch of jerks for how they handled it but also know that if you're asking for them to deviate from a set precedent then what they did was deliberate and confirm that they cant' set a new precedent.
lol at the entitlement that your company exists to care for your well-being.
The hours were brutal and I finally had to quit, even though I didn't have another job lined up yet. It actually wasn't the long hours that bothered me so much. But the company had the same schedule for each management position, which meant there wasn't any flexibility. I had to work a second shift on Friday nights. That was the ONLY second shift that asst. managers worked during the week (major eyeroll). But then still had to be there on Saturday for my o'dark:30 morning shift. I'd be luck to get 4 hours of sleep on Friday.
The manager at my store was a hot head. Employees at his previous location had banned together and filed a lawsuit against the company because of his harassment.
So obviously he was fired, RIGHT? HAH! He was transferred to my store, SMH.
But back to the crux of what happened. I walked in for my normal shift and asked to speak to him for a few minutes. I told him the Fri./Sat. schedule issue (which I'd complained about to him, the previous manager, and the regional manager) had become too much and was negatively affecting my health. I told him I was giving him my two weeks' notice and handed him my resignation letter.
He blew up! Screamed at me. Told me I was fired (important point here). Crumpled my letter and threw it on the ground. Then stormed off to another area of the store.
I...uhhh...surreptitiously picked my letter back up. Quickly shoved it into my purse. Said good-bye to the other employees. And went to the unemployment office! Because I had just been fired without cause, lol. Suck on that, Troy.