What would Mega Corp Do If I Just Stopped Going To Work?

[e86s54]

This idea had not even crossed my mind, but a few people I know suggested it.

Here's the scenario, I have worked for Mega Corp for 13 years (since its inception), moving to middle management and getting great performance evaluations every year (one but a few weeks ago) and reaching all personal goals set in these. I have decided to retire at the end of April this year but have not communicated this to my superiors yet.

Typically, I have received bonuses and stock grants yearly that equate to about 20% of my gross. In the last two years I (or anyone) has received merit increases and promised that the new stock program would make up for it. Well my stock grants received last week equaled .3% (yes .3 not 3%) vested over 3 years!? Meanwhile the new CEO got 800,000 shares as did the rest of upper management on a sliding scale. This has infuriated everyone and taken as an insult. We (me and staff) have worked hard with very little resources to keep things running smoothly over the last few years and as per the memo, "These grants are intended as a reward for your hard work"!? The only possible reasoning behind this is either stupidity (I know these people and they are not stupid) or likelier is to cause further attrition that the company will not have to pay for (making people quit, without severance). I have formerly expressed this to management and they have been eerily silent on the mater.

So now I'm ticked off and thinking of doing just that...stop showing up at work.

Have you experienced this and or what do you believe will happen? I think it might be fun!

E86S54

 

[MasterBlaster]

This thread reminds me of a story - Who knows if it's true - but I like the story...

I had a friend who formerly worked at Honeywell. The story is - from the friend, is that management was bad so people were leaving right and left for other jobs. One guy decided to take another job and not formerly quit the Honeywell job. he just didn't show up any longer. He also changed his phone number. His paychecks were posted automatically to his bank account.

Well it took Honeywell 2 or 3 months to figure out that the guy wasn't there anymore and to terminate him. The story is, is that he was able to keep all those extra checks.

 

[e86s54]

MasterBlaster,

Yeah...I would get fired eventually. But I believe that if this made it to court, it would be apparent that something went wrong in the course of a few weeks after 13 years as a stellar employee.

If I just got fired and nothing...well that's what I was planning anyway.

E86S54

 

[M Paquette]

One guy decided to take another job and not formerly quit the Honeywell job. he just didn't show up any longer. He also changed his phone number. His paychecks were posted automatically to his bank account.

Well it took Honeywell 2 or 3 months to figure out that the guy wasn't there anymore and to terminate him. The story is, is that he was able to keep all those extra checks.

Heh. At a company I worked for a while back, we had an employee who was generally considered a 'bad hire', close to the Dilbert strip's 'Wally'.

The hiring manager wanted him after interviewing, although no other interviewer did, so he was hired. (Cue Pointy Haired Boss...) This fellow 'went missing' after a few months, but his manager worked remotely and didn't actually notice for a while. (Yeah. That's another fun story.) Eventually attempts were made to track him down and tell him he was fired, but as I recall he collected some paychecks while informally inactive.

 

[clifp]

Well I am not particularly proud of this but. My last 4 months I basically retired in place, surfed the internet, visited with old colleagues, took long lunches and came in late. I think Wally would have been proud. Not bad training for ER

I had come back from my 2nd sabbatical in Nov. my old manager offered me a crap position (something that wasn't supposed to happen after a sabbatical.) My new manager/old friend was nice about it, and I did tell her to make sure to give my stock options and raise to her staff when it came time for performance reviews.

 

[Milton]

Yeah...I would get fired eventually. But I believe that if this made it to court, it would be apparent that something went wrong in the course of a few weeks after 13 years as a stellar employee.

Abandoning your position is certainly grounds for dismissal, regardless of your past excellent performance.

In any case, you no doubt have better things to do than engage in wrongful dismissal litigation. 'Retiring in place' is a better option, although not the most honourable one.

If your employer offers sabbaticals, it doesn't sound all that bad. Certainly that is a perquisite that many employees would like to have.

Eventually attempts were made to track him down and tell him he was fired, but as I recall he collected some paychecks while informally inactive.

Pretty much the same thing happened to my namesake in the movie Office Space (Bob Porter: "I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him about it; but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck").

 

[easysurfer]

I guess you can show up for work physically but not be productive . Kind of like that short-lived TV show "Working" (with Fred Savage) or some of the characters in "The Office"

 

[kumquat]

When I left my government job for mega-corp 25 years ago, I held a poll "If I didn't formally quit, how many (monthly) paychecks would I get before someone realized I was gone?" The winner was 5.

 

[Gotadimple]

So now I'm ticked off and thinking of doing just that...stop showing up at work.

Have you experienced this and or what do you believe will happen? I think it might be fun!

E86S54

Hmmm . . . so this would be a productive use of your time, notwithstanding you would continue to irritate the aggravation you already feel?

It won't work, you know. There is no way to "get back at them," or "prove a point." Vote with your feet at the appropriate time, and exit as a professional. Leave the small-minded shenanigans to folks with a lower set of standards.

-- Rita

 

[FIREd]

You might have to return to the professional world one day and right now Mega Corp would be able to highly recommend you based on your past work performance. It would be unfortunate IMO to burn that bridge by playing silly games that are, in the end, unlikely to change management at all.

 

[Gumby]

This thread reminds me of a story - Who knows if it's true - but I like the story...

I had a friend who formerly worked at Honeywell. The story is - from the friend, is that management was bad so people were leaving right and left for other jobs. One guy decided to take another job and not formerly quit the Honeywell job. he just didn't show up any longer. He also changed his phone number. His paychecks were posted automatically to his bank account.

Well it took Honeywell 2 or 3 months to figure out that the guy wasn't there anymore and to terminate him. The story is, is that he was able to keep all those extra checks.

Or, it could work out really badly, like it did for this guy.

Daily Herald | Cops: Palatine man took almost $500,000 in pay for job he never had

 

[harley]

At my Megacorp we had a pretty interesting case. I was working in network security, and one of my coworkers (young guy, decent but no work ethic) was suspected of downloading porn during his late shift. This was just after one of our regularly scheduled mega mergers, and we had new management. They were totally incompetent, eventually causing me to leave a job I loved. But in the case of the coworker, they confiscated his PC and told him to go home until they got in touch with him. Then they proceeded to totally screw up the forensics and evidence chain processes, and couldn't prove anything. So anyway, after 9 months!!! with pay, they contacted him to come in for a meeting. He'd been working at a new job for 8 months by then, so he didn't show. So they fired him and he got another month of severence pay! I met him for drinks a few weeks later after work. We laughed so hard. It was totally cathartic.

 

[Nords]

So now I'm ticked off and thinking of doing just that...stop showing up at work.
Have you experienced this and or what do you believe will happen? I think it might be fun!

In the Navy it's called the ROADS program-- Retired On Active Duty Service. You hope they'll be "on temporary assignment" or "at medical" or "at personnel" or "at a retirement seminar"... anything but "at work" keeping everyone else from getting anything done.

Spouse had a command with a pointy-haired leader who was kept on travel and temporary duty for 23 out of 26 weeks. It cost the command a lot of money that they didn't really have, but they felt they'd wasted far less this way.

It also turned out that his spouse was quite happy to have him on the road too...

 

[traineeinvestor]

Generally, a disproprotionately and unjustifiably small bonus is either a message that management does not want you around or that management is totally incompetent. Either way its not a good sign.

I would be careful about burning bridges on the way out. At some point you may want a reference from these people. Also, depending on the size and nature of the industry, you will not want people bad mouthing you after you have left. If you are going to stop putting in 100% at work, I would go with the retire in place approach rather than simply walk out and see how long it takes them to notice approach. Use your sick days, two hour lunches, surf the net etc - it is a lot harder to fire people for this than for simply not showing up.

Make sure you have copies of all the appriasals etc at home before you do anything. You should also make file notes of any relevant discussions.

 

[Onward]

If I were going to quit and burn bridges, a no-holds-barred resignation letter, addressed to key people and saying everything I couldn't say during employment, would be a lot more satisfying than just disappearing.

 

[clifp]

If I were going to quit and burn bridges, a no-holds-barred resignation letter, addressed to key people and saying everything I couldn't say during employment, would be a lot more satisfying than just disappearing.

An even safer course is to write said letter and post it on this forum. Cheaper than therapy and less risky than giving it to your former employer.

 

[militaryman]

I once worked where I, and 2 other co-workers were disregarded for a promotion that was given to an outsider that we then had to train. Within a couple months all three of us left. (I had worked there 13 years) This left management in a real predicament as the individual brought from outside was left by himself to run everything.

BUT we all had jobs to go to -- we did not quit and then look for work. Although two of us took temporary positions before later finding permanent ones.

So if you can find something elsse, or if you do not need an income then follow your heart. Let me tell you it felt good to all walk in and turn in our resignations.

 

[e86s54]

Thanks all. I don't think it is in me to just stop showing up...I was rather musing about the problems it would cause. Unfortunately my direct boss is a long time coworker and a good guy. He is just as ticked as I am

I have been showing up in body only for a while now as my retirement (or sabbatical) is imminent. Unfortunately the only ones that will actually feel my leave (in the form of experience and knowledge going out the door) will be my employees

E86S54

 

[Onward]

I have been showing up in body

That's a great phrase. I have to remember that one.

 

[FUEGO]

I vote to just retire in place. Become a master of excuses. About half the folks where I work now have. It's kind of relaxing. It is a little annoying and inconvenient when the bossman bugs you to actually do something, but c'est la vie. I spend a lot of time setting up networking lunches, going to said networking lunches (often 2+ hours), job searching and applying, polishing resume, networking through email and social media, and just generally screwing around. Enough gets done where I don't get too much blowback.

 

[WB52]

I certainly understand your frustration with Megacorp management. I share those feelings from time to time.
However, you are guided by your own internal compass of right vs wrong. If Management steals your bonus from you, are you justified in stealing your wages from them (by not working as you are paid to do)? I assume you would not steal money from the company. This amounts to the same thing.

If you don't like to company anymore, you should leave with your honor.

 

[harley]

If I were going to quit and burn bridges, a no-holds-barred resignation letter, addressed to key people and saying everything I couldn't say during employment, would be a lot more satisfying than just disappearing.

Another fun network security story from my Megacorp. My group brought in a female security engineer as a contract-to-hire position. She was appalled at the lack of security knowledge in our management, and made a few points and comments. So one day they fired her for a trumped up reason. She's a contractor, so she has no recourse. But she gets mad, and about 16 hours later she signs onto her email account through the company VPN and sends an email similar to Onward's suggestion to ALL the management in the company Director level and above. In the email she points out that there's no way she should be able to send this email, since any security noob knows you disable all accounts BEFORE you fire someone, especially someone with root for the whole company. I and all my coworkers got rousted out of bed that night to try to pull the email back out of the various mailboxes in an attemt to salvage my bosses' reputations, but we didn't work to hard at it. Huge embarassment, but they survived it for a few more years. The sad part is that people in the real world think these people are capable of protecting their data and private information.

I really loved my job.

 

[Onward]

she signs onto her email account through the company VPN and sends an email

Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!

 

[audreyh1]

At my Megacorp we had a pretty interesting case. I was working in network security, and one of my coworkers (young guy, decent but no work ethic) was suspected of downloading porn during his late shift. This was just after one of our regularly scheduled mega mergers, and we had new management. They were totally incompetent, eventually causing me to leave a job I loved. But in the case of the coworker, they confiscated his PC and told him to go home until they got in touch with him. Then they proceeded to totally screw up the forensics and evidence chain processes, and couldn't prove anything. So anyway, after 9 months!!! with pay, they contacted him to come in for a meeting. He'd been working at a new job for 8 months by then, so he didn't show. So they fired him and he got another month of severence pay! I met him for drinks a few weeks later after work. We laughed so hard. It was totally cathartic.

So, um, was he downloading porn during his late shift?

Audrey

 

[Texas Proud]

My take is.... it depends... if the company is not huge, or your direct boss does not see you everyday, you can get away with it for awhile...

If you worked for someone with a bit of a brain... they would see that you did not call in and call up to see what is happening... you now either lie, or tell the truth... if you tell the truth, you would be fired with cause... so, no unemployment, no severance, etc.


As for someone getting paid after they left... When I worked in London for awhile, the HR dept was on the same floor... and I knew a few of them. There was one guy who got paid 9 months after quitting... seems they hired a lot of temps and the paperwork just disappeared between one leaving and another coming on.... it took a long time before some finance guy was doing the next years budget and wondered why So and So was still being paid...

I was told there was nothing we could do... I would have thunk that we could at least write a letter and ASK for the money back, but was told 'no' by the lawyers...

Note... I got involved because I was a finance guy and the HR dept budget was under me and the other dept. did not want to take the financial hit... so we got it charged back to us..