When's the right time to leave?

[Crippled Potato]

I've been working as an engineer at my current job for a year and a half now and I've been struggling to enjoy it for these past few months. The design team in my office is about 12 people in total (plus management) My main role is designing products like the rest of the engineers but me and my senior colleague "Brian" do a huge amount of technical assistance for the computer system that we use throughout the company. We're often the first people to approach for problem solving for lots of departments. The main reasons i want to leave are:

• The commute is too long, spending almost 3 hours every day in the car driving
• There's incredibly poor employee retention. ~50% of the original team including the management have left or are leaving since I've joined. There's also a large dependence on contractors rather than permanent staff.
• Brian has just gone on 3 months paternity leave, leaving just me and a huge amount of pressure and technical assistance to plug throughout the company. (I prefer design rather than technical assistance)
• Struggling to time keep my work effectively. I often end up doing overtime to keep up while most of the team can leave on time (leaving later significantly increases my commute home)
• Annoying office environment. Some of my colleagues just talk verbal diarrhoea all day which is a huge frustration when I have to go out of my way help them.
• Unlikely to get a pay rise this year as I've got a new manager.

The main sticking point is Brian being on paternity leave. I'm on a 3 months notice and i don't have anything lined up yet. This is also my first job so i don't know the formal approach for handing in your notice. One other issue that i learned from Brian is that his annual bonus is linked to my performance during the paternity leave. I really don't agree with this as it wasn't discussed with me when setting objectives for the year. I don't want to create a situation where Brian loses money because I have handed in my notice.

So do i hand in my notice in now? Or wait a few months? I've been feeling this way about my job since Feburary, but decided to slog it out for a few more months to be sure.

 

[Crippled Potato]

Sorry for the delayed response, been ridiculously busy at home and at work. I've decided that I've now reached breaking point and that i want to hand in the notice in now. I've been constantly shifted around projects and pulled to support other departments by managers that it's become significantly detrimental to managing my workload efficiently. There doesn't seem to be any push from anyone to train or help me out even though there is a clear resource problem.
I've just done a modest workout of my workload for all my deadlines for next week and it's about 60 hours worth of work my manager has put me down for. Several of my colleagues have joked that i'm getting so overloaded in work that I'm about to hand in my notice in...

There's an element to truth to that so i'll oblige them.

The question i have though is what do i do to hand in my notice? What do i write etc? keep it short and simple? I've never done this before.

The employer is obviously not going to ban office banter either.

It's not office banter really. I happily have chats over a brew for 10 minutes but a few people that i work closely with don't do work for hours at a time and I often have to plug in the gaps in their work. It's the contrast of work that I have to do compared to my colleagues work which is a big source of my frustration.

Have you tried putting forward suggestions to making your department/team more effective, exciting and/or productive?

Are you willing to try and make a change and would you be willing to put the effort in? It's a good opportunity for you to step up and shine if you wanted to.

What about professional development - are you a "real" engineer? If so, start doing some work towards getting chartered or professional development.

The commute is something that only you can solve. In my first job I travelled a lot, often around the world - I thought it was awesome, but I also missed out on a regular group of "mates" in the UK since I was away so much. Hasn't stopped me thriving moving forward. My daily commute is around 3hrs also - but I don't resent it, I love my job and I'm well paid.

I'd still push for a pay rise though irrespective of manager.

You have got to make your own luck, and push the boat out - I'm not suggesting that what you have is fun, but only you can make changes. Either find a new role somewhere closer to home that appeals to you then hand in your notice, or do something about how you work and what you're achieving. Only you can do this. We've all worked in roles/environments we didn't like, however, you either grit your teeth and get on with it, or you vote with your feet.

I am a "real" mechanical engineer . But since I've joined there has been no indication of progression to chartership. I think handing in my notice will give me the boost to just get on with it and line a job quickly rather than let this situation drag out.

 

[Crippled Potato]

It's primarily conveyor design for the food industry. The pay isn't particularly impressive for the amount of work that I'm having to do to keep all the projects moving along.

I had a 40 minute chat with my department manager about my intentions to leave. He appreciated my reasons and agreed with me that the way my work is structured is impossible to achieve. He estimated that I had to put in 70 hours to acheive my deadlines for next week, rather than 60 which i initially estimated and the way that I'm constantly being shifted around makes life very difficult. Also we both agreed that there's little that either of us can do to resolve the commuting issue.

My manager has said that after this weekend he will do what he can to clear my schedule which is great and it will make my life easier. He also said that he wanted to do as much as he can for my personal development to keep my job attractive enough to stay. Even though I appreciate his response (It's a shame he's leaving too ) I have doubts that the expectations on my work will change in the long term if it stay. I can see myself slowly creep into the same situation again. Currently, only my department manager and myself know about my departure. I haven't had any discussions yet with my immediate team leader.