Quit My Job

[rtbm]

I just wanted to say thank you for everyone's support whilst I went through my issues at work. I worked for the civil service for eleven years and today I handed in my letter of resignation as I was just so fed up of going in each day, completely unhappy, stressed and not working to a workable system - things had been bad for a long while and weren't going to improve, so I decided to make the brave jump and move on. I am currently using my annual leave to cover my notice, since I had been on long term sick. I feel numb right now and will take some getting used to, but I am more enthused than ever about my future and finding something else now.

[Kati]

Re: Quit My Job

Good luck in the future [MENTION=55791]rtbm[/MENTION] ... whatever you decide to do
Kati xx

[rtbm]

Re: Quit My Job

Thank you Kati, that means a lot. Best to you, rtbm xx

[PAWS]

Re: Quit My Job

Hi Rtbm. judging by your posts you are an intelligent and polite person. I Know you have health issues but It is blinking typical that UK companies and organisations harasses and bully their good employees until they throw in the towel. The workforce, especially the civil service desperately needs people of your calibre and when they get them they treat them like dirt. I wish you the very best for the future rtbm. Keep popping on here as I am sure that after 11 years in the CS you will have heaps of knowledge and I will tell you one thing –We will appreciate you!!!! :_tighthug__by_darkm

[rtbm]

Re: Quit My Job

Hi Rtbm. judging by your posts you are an intelligent and polite person. I Know you have health issues but It is blinking typical that UK companies and organisations harasses and bully their good employees until they throw in the towel. The workforce, especially the civil service desperately needs people of your calibre and when they get them they treat them like dirt. I wish you the very best for the future rtbm. Keep popping on here as I am sure that after 11 years in the CS you will have heaps of knowledge and I will tell you one thing –We will appreciate you!!!! :_tighthug__by_darkm

Thank you Paws for your kind words. I'd like to think of myself as polite and intelligent, without sounding modest. I had health issues which kept me off work for a year, as well as major stress, due to a workplace investigation. When I went back this month, I never really felt that I was welcomed back with open arms. By this, I mean, made to feel valued and told I was missed. None of that happened. Overall, when you consider how they should have operated when I returned to work, it was a poor return for me. Yes, I didn't have the best treatment during my eleven years there at all. It gradually got worse and worse with each passing moment, over a period of time. I knew when I went back recently, it just would never be the same anymore and I couldn't be bothered to take charge as a supervisor in my office again for a prolonged period of time, working under difficult conditions, which could have lasted up to a year. Add to that, as you say, difficult colleagues, little social outlets and being nitpicked constantly for silly things, you wouldn't have had a chance to breathe, let alone anything else. I gave my very best to them and I received very little support in return - I kept convincing myself I couldn't cope but in the end, I knew it wasn't totally down to me. In the end, I took the brave step and made the jump as I had wanted to for a while. Just never had the guts. I have my pride and I know I deserved to get treated with dignity. So many things were wrong when I went back and I tried to tell management about this and they said we all have to work together etc. - sounds to me they just didn't want to face the issue in hand. I just feel in the end, it was 11 wasted years, but I knew it was the time to go but staying 11 years I think is a good innings. I guess over the years, that the chances of actually making a difference were becoming more hopeless by the minute and that for me, was the push I needed to move on as well as the stress and sickness I had experienced in the last year - opens your eyes to things! Thanks for your support, Paws, it means a lot.

[PAWS]

Re: Quit My Job

It is horrendous to go through so much. We know what it is like. I once had to watch my Husband sitting in despair on Sunday nights because he so dreaded Monday mornings. –actually he was like that every evening. He took a 50% pay cut to move jobs and we have never been happier. You can fight your creditors far easier than depression and fatigue caused by worrying about work. Sure, few people like going to work but this is more than that, you feel sick at the very thought of the place. You can’t eat or sleep and inevitably that has an effect on your health. They make you sick and then tut and roll their eyes when you are signed off work! What makes me laugh is that they think that being signed off with stress is a sign you cannot cope with the work when it is their behaviour causing the problem. I will tell you one thing, no one who is brave enough to leave a job after 11 years would buckle under the pressure of work. :high5:
However, their loss is our gain. No years are ever wasted! I know this is going to sound strange but you have a shed load of experience there including knowing what it is like to work with and for a load of:censored: .Someone is going to come on here in the situation you were in and ‘bang’ you will say just the right thing to get them through it and help them make the right choice.
I get very angry when I read about and experience for myself the frustration of having to deal with ignorant :censored: who have no common sense. When organisations realise they have someone who excels at their job they abuse them and colleagues bully them. Then they wonder why they have thousands of customer complaints, high staff turnover and in some cases go down the pan. A company is just a building with stuff in it without the right people. They needed you but were too stupid to realise it. We need you and are glad to have you. It is no exaggeration to say that in many cases the LB bright sparks have saved not just someone’s sanity but their lives.
You will soon be snapped up by a company that will appreciate you and when you have a spare 5 mins you can help people who are in a similar hole. Win-win situation. :whoo:

[rtbm]

Re: Quit My Job

It is horrendous to go through so much. We know what it is like. I once had to watch my Husband sitting in despair on Sunday nights because he so dreaded Monday mornings. –actually he was like that every evening. He took a 50% pay cut to move jobs and we have never been happier. You can fight your creditors far easier than depression and fatigue caused by worrying about work. Sure, few people like going to work but this is more than that, you feel sick at the very thought of the place. You can’t eat or sleep and inevitably that has an effect on your health. They make you sick and then tut and roll their eyes when you are signed off work! What makes me laugh is that they think that being signed off with stress is a sign you cannot cope with the work when it is their behaviour causing the problem. I will tell you one thing, no one who is brave enough to leave a job after 11 years would buckle under the pressure of work. :high5:

I dreaded going into work each day and could feel the stress build in the back of my neck. When I went back, last week, its as if they didn't want me back. I emailed them and told them I was considering a move to another position or handing in my notice, if that didn't come off. Not once did they make me feel that I had been missed, was a valued asset to the company and the colleagues I liaise with most, treated me very badly, not like an equal, but like a junior and I resented that. I don't believe that just because you are a junior or senior, you should be treated any differently. You respect the positions, obviously and do what the senior would tell you, yet still treat you like a member of the team and be friendly. I know I might be sounding more idealistic than realistic, but its not too much to ask, I don't believe, nor is developing a system and sticking to it. More over, I don't believe its ever the company whose at fault, its the mindsets of the people who work there and make it either pleasant or difficult for other people. I do resent the fact I worked for 11 years and it came down to this in the end. Yes, its experience, but I'm not sure its an experience I care to repeat. There are many options out there and next time I get a job, I want to make sure its the right one for me and I want to wake up on Monday mornings, knowing I'm going to be happy and that my job is productive and will see me through to retirement age.

As you rightly say, Paws, there is a major difference between disliking work and going in each day, knowing the job will go nowhere fast and that you are getting daily issues from your colleagues, most of which are unnecessary. They knew at the end of the day I was off sick and I am still sick, just well enough to go back and that it would take time to adapt to my work role again. I mean, I had been away for 1 year and my retraining back on the job was a 10 minute, "Oh, nothing's changed." That's pathetic and my nurse turned around and told me the same thing. They're supposed to be helping and supporting me with my transition back to work but if anything, it was a very negative experience and I think, something which could possibly be taken further, but I think its best to leave bad experiences in the past, now. Its been a very tough last year and now is the time to move on, but I do feel embittered about the way it ended and how I got treated when I went back. On the other hand, I am SO happy I made the jump when I did, otherwise it would have run me into the ground and there was no way I was going to wait months on end for another supervisor to take charge - i'd done that at least twice before and didn't want to go through that again. Just repetitive, I wouldn't have got recompense for it and I am more a worker than a leader, anyways. I am not a manager, in that respect. My mother also says that knowing I had been off ill for several months, they should never have put me back in a position where they knew I could experience high stress levels again and also into a supervisory capacity again - the rules are quite clear: less workload and different jobs, aligned with reduced hours (to be fair, they did this, but they expected me to return to full time within a month, but this went against policy as it was clearly stated it had to be within three months). Therefore, there are a lot of things here where they were playing a dangerous game, in my opinion, so if I'm being honest, I'm still undecided about what I am going to do, but I think the best option is to let it go, otherwise you could make a bad situation, worse.

However, their loss is our gain. No years are ever wasted! I know this is going to sound strange but you have a shed load of experience there including knowing what it is like to work with and for a load of:censored: .Someone is going to come on here in the situation you were in and ‘bang’ you will say just the right thing to get them through it and help them make the right choice.

I would be more than happy to relay my experience to other individuals who have been through the same thing as me. The experience will be a definite plus. At the moment, I am getting over my resignation as I had been there 11 years and it feels weird to have suddenly just gone, but it was definitely the right thing to do. Nobody I knew at work gave me any well wishes on social media or anything, so that tells me all I ever needed to know. Just didn't have the respect of colleagues and certainly work didn't care - if they did, they would have tried to keep me, counter-offer etc. My manager's attitude, I must say, I wasn't impressed with, either. I mean, she comes in the office and tells me "Well this is all it takes to resign," more or less, which I thought was unprofessional, but she did ask what my plans were - I said I didn't really know. It can be important to have employment lined up upon resignation but I decided to give my current job just one last try and one week in, you just know things were not going to get better, you wouldn't be able to make a difference that you wanted to, low morale, getting treated badly by obnoxious colleagues and the same working conditions for months before any hint of a change would be made. As you say, Paws, waking up on a Monday to that and the constant stress it would have brought and unhappiness, wasn't worth it, so I'm proud of what I did, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still slightly shocked at this all and I would miss some of the people who I didn't work with, but that's all. I will get there, but it's going to take some time.

I get very angry when I read about and experience for myself the frustration of having to deal with ignorant :censored: who have no common sense. When organisations realise they have someone who excels at their job they abuse them and colleagues bully them. Then they wonder why they have thousands of customer complaints, high staff turnover and in some cases go down the pan. A company is just a building with stuff in it without the right people. They needed you but were too stupid to realise it. We need you and are glad to have you. It is no exaggeration to say that in many cases the LB bright sparks have saved not just someone’s sanity but their lives.
You will soon be snapped up by a company that will appreciate you and when you have a spare 5 mins you can help people who are in a similar hole. Win-win situation. :whoo:

Yes, it really angers me, the whole working with ignorant managers and colleagues, who don't care about workers. Their systems of we take bullying and dignity of staff very seriously, is a complete and utter joke. You sum it up well, Paws, when you say that a company is just a building without the right people. Yes, for the most part, I agree, but I also know there are jobs out there that do have the right people - finding such a job may be difficult, but its possible. One of the things which irked me most was that I spent so long on an admin project and never got the support, I needed and I spent so long trying to get it right, but nobody really took it seriously, which angered me. It wasn't difficult to get it right, so why was it in such a mess? I think, overall, out of about 100%, about 72% of it, or something, was good. To me, 28% was a bad number. It certainly wasn't a disaster area, but not one which inspired me, either. Also, when you've got idiots who mess with the system without keeping you informed, it makes your job that much harder and there were a lot of broken promises as well, which annoyed me. Also, one of my staff said, "We're not bothered about these things" and I thought, if you're not bothered, why have I spent so long, trying to get it right? In my world, either you get it right, or not right at all, because its not difficult and its not worth the stress for a pittance of a pay I was getting, which I'm sure is the same in many places. I gave my all but in the end, ultimately it came to nothing, but at least it means I can experience other things in life now. I may have even missed out, had I not had the chance to move on, on other careers. I want to do something I'm interested in, yet I feel I might get held back because its not what my parents want, but in the end, its my choice and I don't feel such things should hold me back. I am glad to be here to help other people and if it means preserving their sanity and ensuring they don't go down a dark path, so much the better. In the end, this is the most important thing: a job is just a job and it is not the end of the world if you lose your job, resign etc. Just remember, there are always support avenues and they will see you through difficult times. It is never worth taking drastic measures over a loss of a job, never. If you did, the job won because they took away your identity. You're still you at the end of it all and you are a very valuable person who just had a bad experience in... a job. From that point, move on and you will find that things will get better, given a bit of time and you'll say, "Thank goodness," whether that be in respect you loved your last job but were moved on or if you hated it and you've got a new job. Either way, the loss of a job changes nothing and there are always people/organisations ready to help and you'll be back on your feet in no time - people have several different careers in their lives, so think of it as a stepping stone to something different and possibly a career enhancement. I know I made the right choice and am looking forward to seeing what the future holds, with a new company, given time, whilst not forgetting those who need advice and support, which I will always be glad to offer, to ensure and inspire them that their current situations can move on to a happier ending, which they will.

Thanks for your kind word, Paws, you indeed seem like someone who is very on the ball and is inspired to do well and work in a company who has the right people and work to the same goals and be successful - something I want and I know, reminding myself, that my current job just didn't do that for me, anymore. Its a shame, but I've moved on and I look forward to seeing what the future brings, now. In the end, a job is just a job and at least in the end, I can say that I experienced so many different opportunities in life and not everyone can say that when they've stayed in the same job for 30+ years, so I think I should be thankful for that. All the best, rtbm