Reasons you've left a job

[Cloo]

I know everyone says the #1 reason people leave jobs is bad bosses, but why have you left jobs? In my case it's been (in chronological order):

• Bullying boss
• New role that turned out not to have enough work to do and few options to take on more
• Redundancy
• Liked the job (I suspect it may end up being my favourite job) but was in a bit of a rut after 9 years and nowhere else to go in organisation
• Redundancy ( was also a new role that turned out not to have enough work to do and few options to take on more so wasn't too bothered)

 

[danski]

My boss was a narcissist cunt.

Took many years but the day I walked off site was one of the best highs I’ve experienced

 

[WouldBe]

Helping out a plumber mate digging trenches for new water pipes. Water board didn't have a clue where pipe was and wanted me to dig a trench around the house undermining the foundations.

 

[Pickman's model]

fixed term contract came to end
firm lost contract which kept it afloat and i jumped
made redundant
did too good a job as a temp, company didn't want their dirty washing laundered
made redundant
quit after restructure fucked what was a really good place to work

 

[Throbbing Angel]

• to attend uni (at 30)
• to go to another job I'd secured
• redundancy

I've walked out of a few part time shitty non jobs that were borderline illegal, run by dickheads, not paying me properly, or, in one instance, all three.

 

[maomao]

Reverse chronological order:

Didn't want to work in a nazi concentration camp or for people stupider than me.
New line manager told me I didn't fit in because of my age and gender, had a new job within a couple of weeks and spent my lengthy notice period being awkward.
Seized redundancy opportunity as managers had been making my life hell for years.
Got the arse after being TUPEd into a company I didnt want to work at. Got a payout.
Shit managers, couldn't take any more.
Got underpaid and left before end of month to even things up.
Left part time job to get full time job.
Disappointed at pay check and fucked off.
Had fight with boss, told him to fuck off and went home.
Workplace romance went bad and left country in a huff (back to UK)
Didn't like it, ghosted them and nicked laptop.
Left to go to China.
Left to go to uni.
Several times moving between companies doing same job in search of better money.
Wanted to go to a festival so didn't turn up.
Various can-barely-remembers.

 

[MickiQ]

I've only had three full-time jobs as an employee and was made redundant from all of them. (the first two companies no longer exist). I freelanced after that and every contract I had ended because a) the project finished or b) the project was cancelled.
About half the time I was freelancing it was for Evil American Megacorp the last company who made me redundant but were still happy to pay me as a freelancer 3 or 4 times what they had paid me as an employee but had made me redundant to save money. The freelancing ended when I retired a little over three months ago.

 

[chilango]

Boredom
Boredom
Boredom
Civil War
Boredom
End of Contract
Pollution & Crime
Baby
Boredom
Depression
Boredom
End of Contract

 

[MickiQ]

Boredom
Boredom
Boredom
Civil War
Boredom
End of Contract
Pollution & Crime
Baby
Boredom
Depression
Boredom
End of Contract

Number four begs the obvious question of which one?

 

[mx wcfc]

More money

 

[chilango]

Number four begs the obvious question of which one?

Sudanese

 

[Silas Loom]

Reversely:

Chronic illness
Wanted to set up my own whelk stall
Redundancy
Receivership
Being offered more money by a doomed startup
Career change
Receivership
Being offered more money by a doomed startup

 

[Saul Goodman]

The last one I left was in Galway, which was either a 3/4 hour drive or 1 and 1/2 hour drive, depending on whether I left at 7am or 7:20am. If I left at 7 I'd get to work at 7:45, and stand around with my thumb up my arse until 9am. Or I could sit in traffic for an extra 3/4 hour, and arrive on time. I lasted 2 weeks before deciding the rat race was no longer for me. That was 25 years ago and I haven't had a job since.
Shortest job I ever had... I started at 8am, and by 10am I'd told the boss to get fucked, then drove to Derwent valley and got stoned. I didn't particularly hate the job, or the boss. I was just feeling a bit tender after a hard weekend partying, and I needed a joint.

 

[Elpenor]

Often it’s been for more money or just career development but the ones that are more interesting than that:

Didn't want to work for a care organisation that provided forensic services

Realised with week that estate agency is an awful industry to work in and estate agents are tosspots

Realised within a month that law is an awful industry to work in and lawyers are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that chartered accountancy is an awful
industry to work in and accountants are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that financial services is an awful industry to work in and loan sales people are tosspots

Never been made redundant which would have suited when I was younger. I’ve had mates who have had 100k+ worth of redundancy / severance in their career. Was always confident I would have found something quickly (and generally have when walking out of jobs without another to go to, but I have hopefully done that for the last time)

 

[souljacker]

Sudanese

Has it ever come up in an interview?

Mine are:

Financial Mega Corp: Got a better job in a field I was trying to get into. Also bosses were cunts.
IT Mega Corp: Boss was a religious psychopath. Half the staff were insane (there was an 'incident' with a shotgun in one of the other offices that I never found out the reason for). Left for a much better job...
IT UK Corp: Made redundant after 2 weeks
Medium IT biz: I loved working for this lot but they were a bit mad. My bosses kept trying to get me to invest in their schemes and they were always SOOOO behind with expenses. Left for a more mature company.
Another Medium IT biz: Got bought by Capita. Everyone left.

 

[MickiQ]

Often it’s been for more money or just career development but the ones that are more interesting than that:

Didn't want to work for a care organisation that provided forensic services

Realised with week that estate agency is an awful industry to work in and estate agents are tosspots

Realised within a month that law is an awful industry to work in and lawyers are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that chartered accountancy is an awful
industry to work in and accountants are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that financial services is an awful industry to work in and loan sales people are tosspots

Never been made redundant which would have suited when I was younger. I’ve had mates who have had 100k+ worth of redundancy / severance in their career. Was always confident I would have found something quickly (and generally have when walking out of jobs without another to go to, but I have hopefully done that for the last time)

Hate to break it to you but there are tosspots in every line of work

 

[Elpenor]

Hate to break it to you but there are tosspots in every line of work

Yes that’s true - these were - a culture shock though and a difficult transition mid career from the type of people I’d worked with at previous places.

 

[neonwilderness]

I've only had three full-time jobs as an employee

Same for me.

Job 1: The boss was a tight cunt. I started off with a basic admin job and worked my way up, but my salary didn’t keep up with this. I asked for this to be addressed but was brushed off. The boss was then surprised when I told him I was leaving (and leaving them in the shit as there was no one else with my experience)

Job 2: My department was going well, but the company went bust due to some "financial irregularities". They were bought out and our department was moved to another company in the group rather than redundancy. Didn't have good feelings after visiting the head office, so I was the third on our department (out of five) to resign.

Job 3: I'm now back at job 1 with a fancier title and a better salary but basically doing the same job. I've not left, yet

 

[Winot]

1. To get promoted.

(Have only had two jobs, apart from holiday jobs.)

 

[StoneRoad]

Let's see ... [in no particular order]

Made redundant several times either because the firm went bust or as a result of merger / office re-organisation [and in one case some ###t thought the engineers could do their own research & look everything up on t'intranet / internet in a paperless / hot-desking office - as you can tell, that still rankles].
Most of the others were at the end of fixed term contracts.

Bounced between engineering and heritage transport jobs.
But also had some quite long spells un-employed.

Now technically retired and just "consult" in a specialised heritage sector

 

[weltweit]

Various short casual jobs which didn't last
redundant
6 month placement came to an end
volunteered for redundancy
Ceased self employment
Terminated
Redundant

 

[Cloo]

I expect I'll get redundancy at least one more time in my life. I do worry about that happening once I get past 50, which isn't a long way away. Recruiters still treat people 50+ like they're trundling towards the career off-ramp whereas most of us these days are expecting to have to work another 20 years.

If I can stick to my current career after recent change, it lends itself quite well to freelance work so I'm thinking maybe it will be one I could make part time later in life. I think it's the dream to be able to finish of with a p/t role in many ways and ease yourself out - must be easier than just stopping.

 

[Sue]

Often it’s been for more money or just career development but the ones that are more interesting than that:

Didn't want to work for a care organisation that provided forensic services

Realised with week that estate agency is an awful industry to work in and estate agents are tosspots

Realised within a month that law is an awful industry to work in and lawyers are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that chartered accountancy is an awful
industry to work in and accountants are tosspots

Realised within 3 days that financial services is an awful industry to work in and loan sales people are tosspots

TBF, most industries are awful and/or full of tosspots.

Never been made redundant which would have suited when I was younger. I’ve had mates who have had 100k+ worth of redundancy / severance in their career. Was always confident I would have found something quickly (and generally have when walking out of jobs without another to go to, but I have hopefully done that for the last time)

I've been made redundant twice. First time, I'd not been there very long so got nothing. Second time, the company went under owing us all money. After about six years of legal wrangling -- while the receiver, of course, was getting paid -- I got a cheque for £20 or something. So it's not always lucrative. (In fact I suspect in many cases, it's anything but.)

 

[weltweit]

I expect I'll get redundancy at least one more time in my life. I do worry about that happening once I get past 50, which isn't a long way away. Recruiters still treat people 50+ like they're trundling towards the career off-ramp whereas most of us these days are expecting to have to work another 20 years. ..

I did a job hunt when I had turned 50. It did make a difference though I tried to hide my age both on my CV and in interviews.

One interviewer said I could easily do the job but that the team were all a bit buzzy, my agent took that to be agist, another interviewer asked me directly how old I was? - I told her I was 50 and she said all the team members were in their 20s, as if I could care about that? Then she asked me what my star sign was and I was frankly glad to get out of there.

The interviewers that made a big deal out of it - well would I really want to work for them anyhow? Eventually I found a vacancy where they valued my experience and I got the job.

 

[marty21]

First full-time job , realised banking wasn't for me , reapplied to uni & fucked off.

Next one , boredom I guess , did the same thing and applied for a PGCE & fucked off .

Got appointed as a manager , then that was overruled by a director , so I fucked off.

I wasn't a good fit , so fucked off after a year.

We got taken over & I hated my new boss , so fucked off

Had a management committee , rather than a boss , got fucked off with them & fucked off.

Somehow I've stayed at the current job for 15 years , despite regularly being fucked off. More difficult to fuck off in your 50s I guess.

 

[maomao]

Hate to break it to you but there are tosspots in every line of work

You can always tell the biggest tosspots because they have 'manager' in their job title.

 

[shifting gears]

Wanted to set up my own whelk stall

Aaah, we’ve all been there

 

[Puddy_Tat]

oh heck...

1 resigned. bloody awful environment, heavily racist and just generally shitty
2 place went bust the first week i was there. i am confident this was a coincidence.
3 resigned. crap money.
4 got the push, allegedly redundancy / them wanting someone who could drive a van
5 resigned - needed to get out of parents' home and couldn't afford to stay in london
6 short term thing but it had accommodation included
7 various temporary / casual things, then got offered something on fixed term rather than casual
8 series of fixed term contracts at same place ended
9 resigned - job security wasn't great (council on the brink of 'bankruptcy') and wanted to move in with partner rather than do weekend commute thing
10 eventually resigned after spending too long fighting to stay where i wasn't wanted
11 TUPE transfer out when outsourcing contract re-tendered (although company wanted rid of anyone over 40 / in the old pension scheme)
12 voluntary redundancy from firm i got TUPEd to
13 (overlapped with 14) - wasn't a full time job
14 temporary thing pending closure of an office
15 resigned - pissed off with commuting to london and new job was more local
16 resigned - had decided to move back to london
17 resigned - london job was a mistake, and organisational issues there meant job security was limited
18 still there at the moment. not entirely sure it will survive the coming round of tory government cuts.

with 4, 8 and 10 i can't prove it but fairly sure there was management homophobia involved.


career - to move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way. e.g. "the coach careered across the road and went through a hedge"

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Recruiters still treat people 50+ like they're trundling towards the career off-ramp whereas most of us these days are expecting to have to work another 20 years.

depends. yes, there is still prejudice out there, and some employers who haven't really grasped the race / sex discrimination laws that came in 50 years ago let alone more recent bits of law.

but i'm over 50, i've gone for 4 things in the last year or so (i'm not entirely settled where i am, and not sure about the long term security of it, but not in urgent need of something else, if you see what i mean) and been offered 3 of them - each had enough reasons why not to take it...

 

[Cloo]

I think things are improving as it gradually dawns on people that 50 somethings have plenty of career left and are perfectly tech savvy thanks.