Explosive Departure 3

[KENAT]

Not sure this is exactly the right forum but:

Recently had a fairly senior apps guy leave the firm, basically he was disgruntled with his lot and the management.

Having been escorted off the premises later that day he sent an email to about half the site, in which he blasted management, big time.

Whilst arguably (or not so arguably) unprofessional and certainly burning bridges I couldn’t help but find it slightly amusing.

Anyone have any similar stories worth sharing.

Ken

 

[KENAT]

If I recall correctly in the UK it was almost impossible to give a bad reference. While you couldn't be forced to give a good one, for legal reasons giving a bad one was not a possibility. The most (or least) you could do was say you don't give references and just confirm that the person worked there.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

There is a great book called "How to Work for a Jerk" -

http://www.amazon.com/How-Work-Jerk-Robert-Hochheiser/dp/0394747771.

It's a good read.

 

[ewh]

KENAT,
That is pretty much the case in the states, also. To avoid opening themselves to any liability, dates of employment and position worked are all that most previous employers will give, especially if their true opinion is negative.

 

[ornerynorsk]

About 15 years ago, I simply walked off of the worst job in my life. The boss had serious anger issues, but was just a little guy. As my handle aptly implies, I am of olde viking descent and can be very ornery, although I get along well with "normal" people! I knew that If I stuck around and tried to talk rationally with this guy, the situation would have escalated beyond control in about 2 seconds. He would have been worse off in the short term, but I saw no point in going down that path. I just left, not a word, nothing. Had some rather interesting, angry messages left on my answering machine and my last check was a week late. That's my experience.

 

[HVACctrl]

Not engineering, but:

Right out of the Army (I was like 20 at the time), I worked at a reception hall. One Saturday, several hours before an even, the owner started b****ing about a fryer being broken. She aother lady and I were the only ones there. I had no idea how to fix it. The manager was not in and had never either assigned the task to me or even showed me how to work on it.

I explained to the owner that I would be glad to work on it, but had no idea how. She went off, started hollerig anf proclaime that she would call the manager. I couldn't take it. I went on to mention that now I could see why her kids were so spoiled- because they got it from her.

I jumped in my car, floored it through the parking lot, went a little too fast and didn't quite make it around one of her many gardens in the lot. No problem there, except it scared the h*** out of the gardner!

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[HDS]

One of my coworkers was recently described as "going Jerry Maguire" for a letter he wrote about the processes and performance of our company. (This is a reference to an old movie from the days that people still thought Tom Cruise was an actor)

 

[FOETS]

I have never had the occasion to leave a steamy turd on the bosses desk with my resignation note. But heres a link to some that did. Enjoy

http://www.i-resign.com/uk/letters/

The "funny" section starts half way down the page. Some real pearlers.

Happy POETS day (Pss off Early Tomorrows Saturday)

FOETS
"social drinker with a golfing problem"

 

[SylvestreW]

definitely a burnt bridge - a person who worked here decided to leave and start his own business. On his last day, he sent a company wide email to everyone extolling the virtues of working for his new company, and encouraging people to apply for positions etc etc.

Not really sure what became of him or his company.

 

[winpop123]

Can you post the e-mail your co-worker left so we can all get a laugh? Actual names and places removed of course...

 

[plasgears]

I had plently of notice that my exit was in the immed future. I prepared an exit letter for the top boss, which lambasted my immed boss and his staff of two promoted draftman, none of which were graduate engineers.

I found out later that all these characters were history in the company. Apparently, I was not the only one earmarked for separation. Their actions caused loss of a big contract with Ford. It revolved around a shady plastic gear supplier who was sourcing materials from China.

So much for the 10% per year price reduction.

 

[KENAT]

Sadly I wasn't on the distribution, I was shown it by my manager though which in and of itself I found amusing.

One comment was something along the lines of.

"We've nicknamed my department manager Napoleon. Not after the famed French Emperor but after the character in the movie, Napoleon Dynamite"

 

[josephv]

Mike Halloran makes many good points.

In addition, why give good recommendations for "free" in an exit interview?

If you have good ideas that could help the company, why not try to sell them once you have left the company and can work as a consultant?

Kind regards,

Joseph