Resigning

[BYTEr]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and how you felt.

Bit of background:

I left my job as a vetting officer on the HPC project in January due to coming to the end of my 6 month contract, and although I was offered an extension, the job had become boring, mundane and although the benefits were quite good there was no real opportunity for progression or development and therefore I felt it was best not to take the offer of a contract extension.

At the beginning of March I then moved onto my current role, a compliance and risk officer for a law firm in the conveyancing department which is a new role for the department; it's been interesting and challenging and I do feel there is more work to do, however the salary I feel is quite low (20% less than my previous role).


A couple of weeks back I went for a birthday drinks do with some friends and an old boss of mine who I got talking too, in fact he was my first boss after I left uni, and to be honest, he was brilliant to me, seemed to really care about my development, exposed me to as many things as possible and I really felt like I was getting somewhere with him, unfortunately, 9 months in he was moved and my new boss basically wanted me to be a robot, had no interest in my development and actually took work away from me and wanted me to basically be his PA, so at the end of my 12 month contract I left to do the vetting officer job (again, turning down a contract extension).

Anyway, it turns out that my old boss had also now left and has joined a new company and was singing their praises and believed the company would be perfect for me and convinced me that I should have an interview with them to see what I thought. A couple of days later he managed to get me an interview and after 2 interviews lasting over 3 hours they've decided to offer me a role which I've accepted. It's a junior management role in their operations department and I will essentially be working full time on projects and continuous improvement initiatives which is exactly up my street. The company will be much more down my street too, flexible, care about output rather than the amount of hours you work, no dress policy, clear progression and pay opportunities etc.

The only problem is I fell a bit weird about resigning where I currently am as I've only been here 14 weeks (only just passed my probation), I don't feel like it's 'job done' so to speak and as it was a new role for the department quite a few changes have happened, I told my line manager this morning about the job offer and although she acted happy for me I could tell that she wasn't pleased, she did ask was I certain about the new role and if there was any room for negotiation to which I basically said that I'd consider any offers on the table, but I feel the new role will bring more opportunities, suits me more, better terms etc, so I think she knows that unless she offered to double my salary then there's no point in trying.

I'll be handing in my resignation tomorrow, which will be the first time I've resigned since graduating, the other two roles I simply declined a new contract and both of those I felt it was the right time to leave, I'd learnt/developed as much as I could and it was time for something new.

I think resigning and taking up the offer of this new role is the right decision for me, it just feels weird to be resigning from a job which I've only just joined, who have made changes to accommodate me and where I still feel I could improve things, on the other hand I should be excited about this new opportunity which I am and really looking forward to starting.

Anyway, has anyone ever been in a similar situation? How did you feel?

Thanks,

 

[peterwalkley]

Its natural to feel guilt, but ask yourself if they would truly care were circumstances the other way round. I doubt it from your description.

Probationary period cuts both ways after all. Do what's right for you.

 

[fastwunz]

Yeh it shows that you are a good person by your feelings. But, the fact remains that you have to keep your own best interests at heart. Short of family or loved ones, nobody else will.

Do what’s best for you, make as much money as you can and be as happy as you can possibly be.

If that means leaving after 14 weeks then so be it. You are not a charity.

You have one shot at life.

 

[Hades]

You were on a probationary period. But you should also get into the mindset that the company was on probation with you. You've decided the role isn't for you and a better offer is available elsewhere. It's better to let them know sooner rather than later (ie let them know after a few weeks of starting rather than a year and still being unhappy).

 

[Lopéz]

Hades is right - probations are two way things. They'll be disappointed obviously, but ultimately you must act to protect your own interests and do what you think is best for yourself.

 

[Lartyconshayo]

Life is short. You obviously care about the new opportunity. Pursue it.

 

[ivrytwr3]

You owe no loyalty to who you work for, if the shoe were on the other foot ie redundancies etc, they would have no hesitation in letting you go. From your post it is also obvious which role would be most suited to you, so hand in your resignation, thank them for the opportunity, move on and forget about them.

The big takeaway from your post is, why did you tell your LM about your dilemma? She is not your mate and her interests are having a team to work for her. If you were using this an opportunity to negotiate a better package then fair enough, but if it was a genuine dilemma, then to say to your LM you are thinking of leaving will show no loyalty and will most likely see you off during your probation anyway as you will now be seen as looking for the first opportunity to bolt if a better offer comes along.

 

[BYTEr]

Thanks all,

You're all correct in that at the end of the day I must do what's best for me.

TBH, I was very surprised to be offered the role and I had doubts at the start. In my interview I made it very clear that at this early stage of my career I want to feel as if I'm learning new skills or developing existing ones, that career progression is important for me and I can't feel like I'm 'stagnating'. I also made it clear that I'm not the type of person who can do the same mundane tasks day in day out and that I need to be involved in projects, or help bring in improvements etc. I was assured in my interview that as it's a new role, I'd be the lead for several areas and they are looking for someone to come in with a fresh pair of eyes and to implement new processes, procedures etc which sounded great.

Unfortunately, it turns out that essentially I've been brought in to do a singular, but time consuming task to ease the workload of the supervisors, despite this I've tried to bring in changes, however the firm are very much in the frame mind of 'doing what it takes' to get the job done, in a constant state of firefighting and therefore not interested, there's no culture of continuous improvement or data analysis, or having a goal and working towards it etc.

Also, as I'm the compliance officer, I'm met daily with an adversarial attitude from the team, as the whole team think compliance is a massive pain, timing consuming, invites complaints etc, so again because they blame the requirements rather than the working practices the only change they want is to relax the requirements.

Also, the company aren't who they promote to be, in my interview and induction they were promoting 'anti-presenteeism' saying they don't care how many hours you put in and that it's all about your productivity and output, that they promote working from home and being flexible etc, however in my experience none of that is true.

Basically, it does not appear that I'm suitable to work at a law firm ha.

My new company are a total opposite, you only have to work 36.25 hours between the hours of 08:00-18:00 Mon-Fri, so you can start and finish when you want (obviously sometimes will depends on meetings etc), there's no dress policy so you can walk around in shorts and flip flops if you want, they're massively into CI, even having a 'KPI Room' where they display all metrics, scorecards, projects etc.

Also, discussing why I told my LM first thing, I suppose, just out of respect, I didn't want to just hand her my resignation letter without telling her why, I've only told her that I've found a new role I think will be better for me rather than listing the negatives above, I was always going to resign and I've made it clear that I'm happy to do whatever to make a smooth handover possible.