I Quit My Job and Management Lost Their Minds: Inside the Corporate Drama

It’s 9 AM, and the office is buzzing. But not in a good way. A 31-year-old translator, who has been with the company for five years, just dropped a bomb. She resigned. And management is shocked.

She has a degree in translation and speaks six languages. She started working at 23, and she has been at this company for almost five years. She moved from a coordinating role to a sales role about 18 months ago. It was supposed to be a horizontal move, but reality is different. Her title says 'Sales Advisor,' but she is constantly listening to people who are mad at the accounting department, at this, at that. There is not a lot of sales. She is basically doing customer care.

Read nextകമ്പനി പാർട്ടിയിലെ ആ ഒരു രാത്രി, ഒരു അതിഥി, പിന്നെ ഓപ്പൺ ബാർ എന്ന ആനുകൂല്യം എന്നെന്നേക്കുമായി ഇല്ലാതായി!

In January, she took over a very important and difficult customer portfolio. They doubled their numbers, so she is doing the work of two people. She can leave on holiday with four ongoing cases and come back with fifty. She did overtime. She worked on weekends. Her supervisor liked her, but he was honestly shitty to her team. He would say things like, 'You guys are just advisors,' or, 'It’s a good thing person A didn’t get the promotion otherwise you would all feel so superior.' When she asked for a development plan to become a sales manager in a few years, he told her, 'You don’t need that for sales.' So, she started one herself and asked HR. They scheduled a development center to see her competences.

Over the summer, she felt discouraged. Work was not great. She was stressed about her cases and stressed about having to pick up the phone constantly. At the start of this month, someone from the competition asked her if she wanted to apply for a Sales Manager job. She went in expecting nothing, and after a few rounds, she got the job. She doubted a lot because her current employer was doing the development plan for her. She told her N+2 manager: 'Listen, I don’t want more money and I don’t want a new job in a few months or a year, I just have a few questions: 1. Why is no one from my team evolving? 2. How do you see my development?'

Immediately, it went to: 'I know people your generation are impatient to grow, but patience is key.' 'The grass sometimes is greener on the other side but sometimes it isn’t.' 'We have 5-6 good people on the team' (while later they told her she was a top performer). 'We have bad people on the team but if we fire them we have a person less so…' 'You had a good year, we are satisfied.' 'We can’t stop you.' A few days passed, and she had her assessment feedback, which was good, but nothing about their earlier conversation. After long thoughts, she realised that she had to try, so she resigned.

It is as if she dropped a bomb or set the office on fire. Her N+2 has been telling other management members that they are completely shocked and blindsided. They say she is too ambitious and she should have waited some more years. The worst part: they were comparing her to some guy who left them for the competition and was fired after two months. On the other hand, her N+2 and other managers are telling each other how furious they are with her leaving and don’t want to tell their manager. She is not an idiot. She is just tired. How does she ride this out? They will blame her for this, and she will have to pretend to be kind to them for the following two months.

But there’s more. She found out something crazy about tech jobs. Get this, there are jobs available outside FAANG. No really. She knows, it blew her the fuck away as well. But apparently, there are thousands and thousands of companies out there that have some kind of technology in-house. And they need humans (for now) to run that technology. And they’re not all located within a 30-mile radius of San Francisco. Some of them are even outside California. Look, she knows she sounds like a lunatic. And believe her, she had to ask herself the same question: am I having some kind of hallucination or mental breakdown or something? But no, it’s real. These jobs exist. These cities outside of SF exist. There’s this whole world out there.

One commenter said that if they want you to work for your notice period, just keep your head down, do your job, and say nothing. They are 'shocked' because they are bad managers and you do such a good job that they want to keep you where you are. Good luck! And Congrats on the new job!

Another argued that not telling them where you're going is crucial, as it is shocking how often an employer will try and get your new offer rescinded. Just do the work quietly and go home, no overtime.

Someone else stated that their issues are what we in the industry call 'Someone else's problem.' You stay your notice time, you do what you absolutely have to do, and you walk out and don’t look back. At some point, maybe in the next few days, they’re going to counter-offer you. The answer to their counter-offer is 'NO.' They had their chance to make things right for you, and didn’t. So, don’t be a solution for them.

One person shared that they once had a conversation with their manager who talked about staying at the same company for 20+ years. That manager was good, but they left, got a few years experience at the next place, and left again. They quadrupled their salary in less than six years. If they had stayed at the first place, they wouldn’t have a tenth of the experience, or be making half as much as they do now, 10 years later.

Another said to just be smug. You are leaving.

Someone else noted that focus on your new job is key. People taking different and better jobs is one way that forces companies to get better.

One person advised to only keep one thing in mind: do not accept a retention offer. They are already mad at you, and once things stabilize, they will look to replace or fire you.

Another said to ride it out with minimal effort until you punch out. These people have no interest in mentoring or developing you.

One person asked why on earth anyone is on a 2-month notice period. That is far too long. Two weeks is great, four weeks is a stretch. Eight weeks is just not right, doesn’t matter how long you’ve worked there or what clause they stuck in your contract. Two months of guilt-tripping, blaming, whining about you leaving, all while they probably will make no realistic attempt to hire anyone or meaningfully upskill someone to cover your workload. No way!

Finally, one person advised to always look out for yourself. Your coworkers 99% of the time are not your friends. Your managers aren’t necessarily smarter or wiser than you. The company won’t miss you. People-pleasing is toxic for your soul and growth. Do what you need to do to get through, and to hell with what they think.

The hosts of ക്യൂബിക്കിൾ ഡയറീസ് dig into this story on the podcast, debating whether the narrator made the right decision to resign or if they left too soon. They explore the 'hidden tech world' and the 'FAANG' mindset, offering their verdict on the best career move.