Doing the Right Thing: Is it Ever OK to Quit Your Job Without Giving Notice?

Is it ever okay to quit your job without giving notice?

I would say no, except that I just did it

I have never done this before. Left a job after only four months. I gave two weeks’ notice, but then realized that I couldn’t imagine having to work there another week. So, I changed it the next day to just one week’s notice. And even that was a stretch, to tolerate that job for the rest of the week.

So here I am, giving advice to others on how to do well in the workplace, and I didn’t follow my own counsel.

Looking back, I could have survived another week. Maybe I should have survived another week. I definitely burned some bridges, which I always advise against doing.

But I’m still not sorry I left so quickly.

Here’s why:

My staying another week was not going to help anyone. My staff were sorry to see me go (though most of them are on their way out too), but no one else was.  I was very outspoken about what I thought should happen to improve the organization. But it’s a large bureaucracy and doesn’t want to change.

Maybe I should have known better than to accept the position in the first place. I was aware of the myriad problems in that organization, but I interviewed with several other people who were also pretty new to the organization, saw the same issues, and wanted to work together to make the very necessary improvements. They still do and I wish them well, but I had underestimated the stagnant nature of bureaucracy.

Case in point:

There was a “market adjustment” for certain levels of staff. This is usually a good thing, in which an organization realizes that its pay scale is low for certain positions and it makes a correction.

It was all very secretive (never a good sign), and some staff were given sealed envelopes with salary updates. One of my staff came and showed me his letter. It said, in very formal language, that he would be getting a raise of $13 per year. This is not a typo. About an extra dollar each month.

That’s a bureaucracy that can’t correct itself

If your market adjustment deems that someone is $13 dollars short of the right salary, there are only two appropriate ways to handle it:

1. Just don’t say anything. $13 per year makes absolutely no difference to a person and there’s no reason to bring it up.
2. If you absolutely must put it in a letter, then at least acknowledge how ridiculous it is. “Hey John, I know this is silly. I have to put it in writing, but I want you to know that I realize it’s ridiculous. Maybe now you can get that slice of pizza that you’ve had your eye on.”

Most people are ok with work issues that don’t make sense as long as those in charge don’t act as if said issues are reasonable and important.

Another case in point:

We were defining the problem differently

The organizational leaders defined the problem as not getting all the work done because people weren’t staying late to complete everything. “We are short staffed, but people should understand that sometimes they have to cover more than their share of work and should stay until it’s done, including working every weekend.”

I don’t disagree that staff shortages can lead to having to cover extra work. That’s not unreasonable in some cases.

But I defined the problem as chronically and, in my opinion intentionally, not having enough people to do the work.  I wanted to look at the systems that were keeping us from being fully staffed.

The management wanted me to create charts indicating who would be completing the work which was truly just not doable. That was really just setting people up to be scapegoats when the undoable work didn’t get done.

There was no way to win this. It was time to leave.