It’s no secret that things can be awkward when you put in your notice at work.
They know you’re quitting, you have to stick out your contract period, but everyone is just hoping it can be over sooner rather than later.
OP had a longer contract than most, when it came to quitting.
I was working in an organization that was super toxic. So much so that we were a revolving door- most employees stayed only for a few months.
To counter this, our management put a 3 months notice into everyone’s contract including the existing employees (it’s not strictly illegal where this happened, but very unusual).
I believe the idea behind that was to make it harder for the employees to find a job outside as potential employers didn’t usually want to wait for 3 months.
However this didn’t work as most people simply quit and waited for a month or two before starting their job hunt.
He wasn’t happy, but was working hard for his money anyway.
I was there for almost 4 years. I needed the money, so I put up with whatever abusive crap was thrown at me.
My boss was a guy we’ll call Vince (not actual name). Now Vince was not particularly good, but he sometimes respected the fact that I was the most tenured grunt in this organisation.
Do note that after about 2 years, I was doing a LOT of additional work in addition to my official responsibilities, primarily because I was the only one who knew how to do those (everyone else had already left).
This will become important later.
When a new boss man arrived, he seemed to have it out for OP from the start.
Enter Rajesh (also not actual name). Rajesh was poached from a somewhat infamous company and was literally flown in from a different continent. He was brought in to “Strategically improve” our division. This was quite strange given that our division generated most profits.
Within months, Rajesh made the environment even more toxic. He pulled Vince’s team under him and got Vince fired, and he actively encouraged us grunts to spy on each other.
Rajesh also had it out for me from day one (until today I don’t know why). He started making my life much harder than the others. This culminated in him taking me aside and telling me that I was not pulling my weight.
So, OP started looking for (and found!) a new job – and he couldn’t wait to give his notice.
Now at this point I was doing quite well in the organisation + I have been doing a LOT of additional work critical to our business since only I knew certain systems and processes (see: high attrition above).
So I was quite angry.
I started looking out (I wasn’t still brave enough to quit and start looking). Fortunately I was able to find a job that was willing to wait the 3 months.
So it was my turn to take Rajesh aside and tell him I quit. Boy Rajesh was so mad! He went from denial (“You can’t quit!!”) to negotiation (“what if I give you a raise at the year end”) before acceptance.
Thus I was serving my notice and working away like an honest bee (my usual work + the additional work).
But then HR got involved.
At this point I was called in by HR and told that Rajesh wanted me gone. The insane part was that they wanted me TO PAY THE COMPANY for the 2.5 months shortfall in notice!!
I obviously refused, then went back and checked the contract.
Turns out that a notice of less than 3 months could only happen through mutual consent, and the initiating party (company if they wanted me gone sooner, or me if I wanted to leave earlier) had to compensate the other party for the shortfall.
OP started only doing the bare minimum.
The next day, I stopped doing almost all of my work. I logged in and logged out my hours and did jacksquat. I stopped doing any additional work I have been doing, and started taking it really slow on my primary job responsibilities.
Since no one else understood the details of what I did, I knew it would be very hard for Rajesh or HR to prove that I was doing any of this on purpose.
Then I sat back with my popcorn.
Soon there was a complete meltdown all around.
Rajesh would pull me into meetings and scream and try to bully me, and I would say nothing but smirk to his face.
Also, he forgot how to do some of the duties he’d been covering!
Next they tried to have someone else learn the additional work I used to do from me so that they could do what I did.
Remember I said earlier how I was the only one who knew some of the old systems and processes?
Well, now I claimed I didn’t really remember any of them, so obviously there could be no handover.
Rajesh could do nothing as none of this had been my responsibility or part of my contract, since the leadership had been only too happy to see me do this for free.
Soon my workplace turned into a dumpster fire.
The HR/Rajesh smartened up and offered to buy out my notice if I cooperated and helped transition my work.
I refused.
Then, to twist the knife further, I started having meetings with fellow grunts (remember, everyone was always a newbie) and encouraging them to leave as well (indirectly, nothing that could implicate me).
HR tried to get me to leave twice more, but I ended up serving the full 3 months (remember the mutual consent part?)
Finally, they were able to come to an arrangement.
The top comment says it’s a sad state of affairs.
Eventually they’ll run out of people, right?
Someday they’ll be managing actual cogs.
I never thought about this word choice…
Some people are still waiting for the day they can do the same.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of quitting an awful job.
It sounds like OP will remember this victory forever.
If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.