Saved by my resignation instead of an all out termination

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
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So I handed in my resignation officially today for a higher paying job. But let me tell you a little bit about this story.

For about a month ago I gave my boss a little notice. Just telling him I?m not too happy here and I don?t believe I?m making enough. I believe it?s respectful to at least give them a chance to try to repair the shit instead of leaving. So anyway, I had a promotion that my boss was trying to get me and it fell through because of budgeting issues. That was the straw the broke the camels back as so to speak. The organization was doing poorly and they didn?t give anybody anything.

So for the past month or so I was going to job interviews and getting offers. This weekend I came in on Sunday (which is permitted) and cleaned my desk out. I cleaned it out to the point where it was so sterile that you couldn?t even tell a human being existed there. I was going to submit my letter of resignation on Tuesday morning. Anyway, I decided to RDP into my work desktop from home on Monday (took off) and got a message ?The following account has been disabled?.

So immediately I was like WTF. I must have been terminated. So for my protection I went ahead and email (with electronic signature) my letter of resignation on Monday at home. I came into work today and my boss accepted it and explained that they have disabled my account for security reasons and just gave me a good conversation of how well I was doing and he was sad to see me go.

So my thinking is if I hadn?t handed in my letter of res I would of probably been termed and go to packing today??? I know they can usually fire you for any reason ?employee at will?.
 
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yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
Aug 20, 2000
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I think you were terminated because you were obviously going to quit and/or go on a killing spree.
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
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Originally posted by: yllus
I think you were terminated because you were obviously going to quit and/or go on a killing spree.

Well it's not a involuntary termination but a voluntary one since I had given two weeks. I'm allowed to leave two weeks from this point. My boss did say that he knew I was pretty unhappy here.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
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Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
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I guess my question was why did they go though disabling my acc.

And since I handed in my res before comming into work today. Would my boss have termed me today if I didn't hand my res in.
 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
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Based on your public displeasure of your job, why would they want you around? Better to get rid of you before you do something destructive.
 

Injury

Lifer
Jul 19, 2004
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Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Based on your public displeasure of your job, why would they want you around? Better to get rid of you before you do something destructive.

No doubt. If the company isn't doing well and you're being vocal about the fact that you don't like the job, then you're setting yourself up to be laid off. Why would they let go of someone who likes the job and wants to stay in favor of letting go someone who hates the job and probably won't be there much longer anyway?
 

buck

Lifer
Dec 11, 2000
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Originally posted by: steppinthrax
I guess my question was why did they go though disabling my acc.

And since I handed in my res before comming into work today. Would my boss have termed me today if I didn't hand my res in.

You can't figure this out?
 

whylaff

Senior member
Oct 31, 2007
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Originally posted by: steppinthrax
I guess my question was why did they go though disabling my acc.

And since I handed in my res before comming into work today. Would my boss have termed me today if I didn't hand my res in.

You cleaned out your desk completely. This is the universal sign of quitting. I'm sure someone noticed and they assumed that you had abandoned your job. If they are allowing you to work out your two weeks, I doubt they were planning to terminate you, as people are usually encouraged to leave immediately if that is the situation.
 

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
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Originally posted by: Genx87
Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.

I matters in the future when someone calls up HR at the company to verify former employment. "His records state that he was hired on... and terminated on..."
 

SacrosanctFiend

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
4,269
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Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: Genx87
Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.

I matters in the future when someone calls up HR at the company to verify former employment. "His records state that he was hired on... and terminated on..."

Considering a resignation is a voluntary termination, it is likely HR would say they same thing. We do.
 

sjwaste

Diamond Member
Aug 2, 2000
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Unless you have a bad relationship with your employer to start, most won't terminate you at any point. They'll give you the opportunity to resign first, which looks like what would've happened here even if you hadn't emailed your letter. They would've called you into the office and either asked you to resign or told you that you were being laid off, but not flat out terminated unless someone really didn't like you. That way, it wouldn't have an adverse effect upstream.

Keep in mind, if you're going for a security clearance, you'll have to explain this situation anyway. The SF-86 asks various questions that probe "save face" resignations or layoffs. It probably wouldn't disqualify you, but its in your interest to fully disclose the situation so nobody comes back and asks why you covered it up.
 

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
14,453
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i'm just wondering, when you're terminated, aren't you usually given severance?

when i was laid off, i got about a month of severance on top of my owed vacation pay. if i had resigned, i don't think i would have gotten any severance.
 

RKS

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: Genx87
Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.

I matters in the future when someone calls up HR at the company to verify former employment. "His records state that he was hired on... and terminated on..."

Considering a resignation is a voluntary termination, it is likely HR would say they same thing. We do.

just to avoid legal issues I bet most HR offices just give the first and last days of employment without any indication of resignation/termination.

 

RKS

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
i'm just wondering, when you're terminated, aren't you usually given severance?

when i was laid off, i got about a month of severance on top of my owed vacation pay. if i had resigned, i don't think i would have gotten any severance.

giving severence is not mandatory but you can usually claim unemployment when you are laid off (if you have been employed a certain amount of time).

 

SacrosanctFiend

Diamond Member
Oct 2, 2004
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Originally posted by: RKS
Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend
Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: Genx87
Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.

I matters in the future when someone calls up HR at the company to verify former employment. "His records state that he was hired on... and terminated on..."

Considering a resignation is a voluntary termination, it is likely HR would say they same thing. We do.

just to avoid legal issues I bet most HR offices just give the first and last days of employment without any indication of resignation/termination.

Depends on how conservative the HR team is. There is no liability with indicating a termination, even with a neutral reference policy.

Most smart offices require all employment verification/employer references to be on paper, and those requests usually include "termination date" or something to that effect.
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
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Originally posted by: DrPizza
Originally posted by: Genx87
Does it really matter if you get terminated or quit? You have a new job. At the very least it appears you were on good standing with your boss for future references.

I matters in the future when someone calls up HR at the company to verify former employment. "His records state that he was hired on... and terminated on..."

Usually most employers when they check your previous employment history they just call HR (who knows little about your personal behavior with your boss) and checks the start date and end date. HR is trained to just give those dates. They don't go any further usually.

I had an offer for example at a bank. The bank does the references though a contracted company. The contracted company called my BOSS and said I was applying for a loan and does X work there.....

When in fact they were calling to verify employment and didn't want to sell me out to my boss.
 

syee

Senior member
Oct 6, 2001
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I'm not sure what line of work you're in, but if you're in a position where you have access to the company infrastructure (any type of sysadmin, IT, etc role), it's common to just pay them the 2 weeks, and escort them out the door ASAP. It's not really meant to be hostile or anything - they usually do it to protect themselves against malicious or vengeful soon to be ex-employees that might go through and destroy the company infrastructure or change passwords to things that he has access to. (just like the IT guy that worked for the city in SF that wreaked havoc by changing the passwords to a bunch of stuff)

I'm sure they'd let you go back in supervised if you needed to get anything from your computer or desk.
 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
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Originally posted by: syee
I'm not sure what line of work you're in, but if you're in a position where you have access to the company infrastructure (any type of sysadmin, IT, etc role), it's common to just pay them the 2 weeks, and escort them out the door ASAP. It's not really meant to be hostile or anything - they usually do it to protect themselves against malicious or vengeful soon to be ex-employees that might go through and destroy the company infrastructure or change passwords to things that he has access to. (just like the IT guy that worked for the city in SF that wreaked havoc by changing the passwords to a bunch of stuff)

I'm sure they'd let you go back in supervised if you needed to get anything from your computer or desk.

I'm sitting here right now back at my desk with full access to my account????

This is how it will be for the next two weeks.