Onward
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2009
- Messages
- 1,934
No, I'm not going anywhere.
I ran across the resignation letter I wrote on leaving my penultimate j*b. I was afraid it was lost, but it turned up today in an old "sent mail" folder, and I would like to share my joy with you.
On the day I resigned I sent this email to the company owner and other key managers and colleagues.
All,
As some of you may already know, I resigned from ****** today. I consider all of you friends of mine, and I don't want to leave you in the dark as to why I left. More importantly, I don't want my reasons misrepresented.
It has been two full years since I've had a review, raise, bonus, or even a pat on the back. In January I requested a long-overdue review from my manager, Steve *****. Three months later I am still waiting for some kind of reply. I believe this is known as the mushroom theory of management: keep 'em in the dark, feed 'em ****, and hope they grow.
I'm tired of Steve's disregard for my technical perspectives, which he often treats as an irritation to him, even though I have more years of professional software experience than any member of our team, including him. In late 2004, for example, I advised him against trying to synchronize our products with Microsoft Authorization Manager (AzMan), an unproven product that I felt was not designed to be "synced" with. Steve overruled me yet again, and the result is the mess we have at ********* and other customers today.
In June of 2005 I took a much-needed, unpaid sabbatical. A week before my trip Steve informed me that I would be required to pay my own health insurance premiums while I was gone. After almost three years of hard work, no bonus or reward in recent memory, and with my annual review already months overdue, he did not have the class to cover a few months' worth of health insurance. This is the Apache theory of management: ride your horse hard until he dies, then eat him.
Since I've returned from the trip, Steve has been especially gruff and impatient, even less open to my technical ideas, and more prone to temper tantrums and verbal intimidation. He seems to resent that I ever took a sabbatical at all. At least twice he has flown off the handle and addressed me in a tone normally reserved for naughty pets. In one case it was during a conference call with a third party. Needless to say, I was shocked and embarrassed. When I spoke to Steve afterwards and insisted he speak to me more professionally, he reluctantly said, "I'll try." A bold pronouncement if ever there was one.
I've reserved the last jab for myself. Lately I haven't lived up to my normal level of productivity, and I apologize to each of you for it. I hope you'll understand that it has been extremely hard to be motivated or productive under the current conditions.
If you're reading this, you're someone I've enjoyed dealing with over the past three years, and I want to thank you for your friendship and wish you well in the future. I hope you'll take this email not as sour grapes from an ex-employee, but as an honest report from someone who at last can speak the truth without fear of losing a paycheck.
-[Onward]
I ran across the resignation letter I wrote on leaving my penultimate j*b. I was afraid it was lost, but it turned up today in an old "sent mail" folder, and I would like to share my joy with you.
On the day I resigned I sent this email to the company owner and other key managers and colleagues.
All,
As some of you may already know, I resigned from ****** today. I consider all of you friends of mine, and I don't want to leave you in the dark as to why I left. More importantly, I don't want my reasons misrepresented.
It has been two full years since I've had a review, raise, bonus, or even a pat on the back. In January I requested a long-overdue review from my manager, Steve *****. Three months later I am still waiting for some kind of reply. I believe this is known as the mushroom theory of management: keep 'em in the dark, feed 'em ****, and hope they grow.
I'm tired of Steve's disregard for my technical perspectives, which he often treats as an irritation to him, even though I have more years of professional software experience than any member of our team, including him. In late 2004, for example, I advised him against trying to synchronize our products with Microsoft Authorization Manager (AzMan), an unproven product that I felt was not designed to be "synced" with. Steve overruled me yet again, and the result is the mess we have at ********* and other customers today.
In June of 2005 I took a much-needed, unpaid sabbatical. A week before my trip Steve informed me that I would be required to pay my own health insurance premiums while I was gone. After almost three years of hard work, no bonus or reward in recent memory, and with my annual review already months overdue, he did not have the class to cover a few months' worth of health insurance. This is the Apache theory of management: ride your horse hard until he dies, then eat him.
Since I've returned from the trip, Steve has been especially gruff and impatient, even less open to my technical ideas, and more prone to temper tantrums and verbal intimidation. He seems to resent that I ever took a sabbatical at all. At least twice he has flown off the handle and addressed me in a tone normally reserved for naughty pets. In one case it was during a conference call with a third party. Needless to say, I was shocked and embarrassed. When I spoke to Steve afterwards and insisted he speak to me more professionally, he reluctantly said, "I'll try." A bold pronouncement if ever there was one.
I've reserved the last jab for myself. Lately I haven't lived up to my normal level of productivity, and I apologize to each of you for it. I hope you'll understand that it has been extremely hard to be motivated or productive under the current conditions.
If you're reading this, you're someone I've enjoyed dealing with over the past three years, and I want to thank you for your friendship and wish you well in the future. I hope you'll take this email not as sour grapes from an ex-employee, but as an honest report from someone who at last can speak the truth without fear of losing a paycheck.
-[Onward]
