Dear Prudence,
I have been a busy person in the last couple years. I have been planning to go to grad school in a new field, and while working part time in my old field, I got another part time job in this new field. Great foot in the door, right? Well, now that I am planning to attend school full time in the fall, I want to leave the old part-time job, and I told my boss as much in December, to prepare her for this eventuality. I would rather work just the one part time job, in the field I actually want to be in, rather than essentially full time work plus school.
I recently gave four-weeks notice. My boss started crying. She likes me and we work well together. She said she would not be able to find anyone else because “no one wants to work anymore” (that old chestnut), she thinks my job requires specialized knowledge that someone else would not be able to pick up, she thinks she could not trust a new person since she has a lot of expensive merchandise at the store, and she is afraid of theft. It is a very small, specialized business (think stamp collecting or something similarly niche), so yes, it does require knowing about the product, and would take some time to learn.
Did I mention I have been her only employee through the whole pandemic? And she doesn’t want to hire someone else as she is looking to retire soon and she thinks that’s not fair to the new person. I told her this is what temp agencies are for but she says temps are untrustworthy.
She wants me to stay on until December, and I reluctantly agreed. But I really don’t want to, and I would prefer to leave in August. I can’t continue to BE her whole business, while starting a new career and school. The job classifies me as an independent contractor as well, so I can leave at any time, but I don’t want to burn bridges since I’ve been there for many years (and I do like my boss, in spite of this!). Help?
— I Know I Gotta Go