Quitting

I used to joke that "I accidentally quit my job."  I joked about it because nobody would believe I was stupid enough to quit without having another job to go to.

And they certainly wouldn't believe I've done it six times.

The first time I was 18 and working for minimum wage, so I didn't have much to lose when my boss said something stupid and I responded that I quit.  I went to college and got a "real" job and stayed for four years, then changed jobs and was there four years before I was in a meeting and senior management announced some stupid policy and I responded that I quit.

I was 28, had just bought and fixed up my first house, as well as a new car, so it was not the best time for me to interrupt my cash flow.  Bizarrely, the company let me stay until I actually found another job, so it turned out to be a non-issue.

After 18 months in the new job, I'd just been promoted and given responsibility for a major project at Honda, which was 4 miles from my house.  It was practically my dream job, except my new boss was a nightmare.  Other people on the team were also complaining so I took it upon myself to meet the division head and air our grievances.  He looked at me and out of the blue asked if I was going to quit.  I had no idea where that question came from, but fearing that if I said "no" he would not take the issue seriously, I said "yes."  Thus, I accidentally quit my job.

I thought about recanting, but it was the height of the "dot com" bubble and there was so much money being thrown around, I decided to go ahead and become an "independent contractor."  I started looking around and ended up getting a contract at Honda, doing pretty much the exact same thing I was doing before, except for a lot more money.  And my old boss got fired.

The only problem was, I was making too much money.  After seven years at Honda, I had saved enough to restore the property in Pennsylvania.  In hindsight, I probably would have skipped that step, but instead I quit Honda to open a bed and breakfast.

I didn't quit the B&B so much as got divorced, but the net result was the same.  I decided to move to the UK, but to get a work permit I needed 12 months of payslips, and of course being an independent contractor and hotel owner didn't count.  So I got a job and stayed there exactly 12 months, then quit and boarded a flight to London. Again this was during the economic bubble, which burst just as I touched down in Heathrow.

Despite having a work permit, it took me 11 months to find a job, and I hated it from day one.  However, in order to renew my work permit I again needed 12 months of payslips, and I was seriously considering giving up and moving back to the States. On a whim I sent my CV to the company handling IT for the London Olympics, and they brought me in for an interview and made me an offer.  I changed jobs and stayed in the UK.  (If you're paying attention, that was only the second time I quit with another job offer in hand.)

I didn't get to work on the Olympics, and honestly didn't get to work on much else -- in four years, every project and bid I worked on was cancelled bar one. I don't believe I was the cause--but that could just be ego--but after two years I was pretty forlorn, and I stayed out of apathy as much as anything else.  The past 18 months have been the worst because not only were we not accomplishing anything, but I was having to travel 60% of the time to boot.  (I should add that I loved my immediate team, it was just senior management that were leading us down an empty road, and refused to listen or change direction.)

So it was a long time coming, but I still hadn't done any job hunting.  Then on Wednesday I had a meeting with one of the senior managers and he said something stupid and I responded that I quit. It was the same situation as 16 years ago, and apparently I haven't grown up at all.

Whereas in the States a two-week notice period is the norm, in the UK a three month notice is not unusual, so even though I quit mid-May, my final day will be August 15.  Fortunately, that gives me plenty of time to find another job, provided I focus on that instead of updating my blog...