Long time listener, first timer caller:
Today I put my two week notice in at my job that I've been at for 8 years. I'm in my mid-thirties and I honestly would have stayed here for another 20 years until I retired. I work(ed) for an electrical distributor, we mostly sell things to electricians and I've met some great people in my eight years and have honestly learned a lot about the electrical world. My commute was five minutes from my house, and I got to go home everyday for lunch to hang out with my kids. I made ok money, not great for the SF bay area, but my wife works also and she is the main bread winner. Honestly my current job was mostly used for health benefits for myself and my kids, and for a good portion of my career there I put 30% of my paychecks into my 401(k). So here is the reason I am quitting.
Back in October I applied for a position at our parent company. It was at a local distribution center and more operations based. I am not a salesman by any means, and hate trying to upsell people for no reason. I don't mind asking if people need things like if I see someone buying pipe, I ask if they need the connectors to go with it. If they are buying all black wire, I ask if they need phase tape to go with it, but I won't ever try to sell something to someone that they don't need.
I interviewed with the parent company and the person I interviewed with loved me. His exact words at the end of the interview were, “if you want the job it is yours.” I told him I wanted the job. So he pushed me forward and contacted HR on his side and my side to get me over there. About a week goes buy and I call and see if there is any news yet, he says that he hasn't heard back from his HR yet and still just waiting. I figured no big deal, we had lost a couple people at the branch I work at and just assumed my HR was dragging their feet not wanting to lose another person. Another week goes by and I call again, this time he told me he was very surprised that someone from my HR hadn't contacted me and I said no why? He said that someone from my HR contacted his HR and said that I was ineligible for the position. I asked if they were given any reason and they said no.
I call my VP of our region who also handles small HR stuff down in California, since our corporate office is in another state, and he seemed surprised as well. Before I interviewed my direct manager pulled me aside after I told him I was applying at our parent company and asked what I needed to stay in my current position. I told him a number, honestly pretty high because I figured they would counter me, and he ran it up the chain as well to the same VP. My manager came back the next day and said that corporate said no to my raise, no counter offer, just flat out no.
So when I was talking to the VP about my ineligibility, I told him that it seems pretty convenient that I don't get this promotion and you guys don't give me raise. He says that I wasn't given the raise I asked for because he thought I would be getting the promotion. I said so did I. He tells me to call corporate HR and they should know what is going on.
The next day I call corporate HR, and tell her everything that has happened so far, she claims to not know anything about it. At this point I'm not surprised, I've had issues with her in the past that I'll get to later. I try to play their game a little bit and tell her I need to know why I am ineligible for this position and what I can do to become eligible. She still claims to not know anything, but rest assured she will find out for me.
I end up finding out the name and contact info for the parent company HR and give her a call and email. I figure she has to know what is going on because this is who was told that I was ineligible to work for them. She also claims to not know anything. At this point I am absolutely furious. I tell her that I need to know who said what and why and that I feel like at this point I am being lied to by someone or everyone. I tell her I feel like you guys are hindering my growth within this company (always gotta use HR buzzwords) and that someone does not want me to succeed. She says she will get to the bottom of this and let me know. A few days go by and I have to call her again, she claims she still doesn't know anything. At this point I had started documenting all my emails and calls with everyone on this. I even tried emailing and calling the original guy I interviewed with and he has ghosted me. I believe that they told him to not contact me for any reason. I tell her again that this is absolutely ridiculous and that if I have to get a lawyer involved with this I will. I think just hung up on her.
A couple days later she sends an email to myself and my boss saying she wants to have a meeting with both of us. We do the meeting and now the story is that they just went with an candidate. I told her if that was true then why was I told I was ineligible. She started getting upset with me asking why I kept using the word ineligible. I said that is literally what the interviewer said that HR had said. She then does on to stay I was never given an official offer letter and they just went with an candidate. This had been going on about two months now from date of interview to this meeting with us three. I'm pretty sure they contacted their lawyers and asked what to do in this situation and like I said before they told the interviewer to go no contact with me.
I still have not been given an answer on what happened and figured I never would get an answer. Also a couple weeks after our last meeting my boss pulled me aside and had to have a chat with me. The parent company HR reached out to him and said she felt very disrespected with how I talked to her and that I was very unprofessional. He said he wasn't officially writing me up, but that he did have to send something to corporate saying we had a chat about my unprofessionalism. I pretty much rolled my eyes and said whatever at this point, and let everything go.
So back to my employer's HR. Back in July of 2020, we had a regional guy come into our office and help out. A couple days after he leaves we find out he tested positive for Covid. Well I freak out because I had two small children at the time (both under 5 at that time), plus my 60 year old mother-in-law watches them for us. So I call my wife and immediately start looking for covid testing sites and a hotel to stay at. Also it was damn near impossible to find a testing site which I thought was insane. I ended up finding one and got a test. All this time I'm keeping in contact with my HR letting them know what I'm doing and telling them that I think my company should have to pay for this hotel stay since someone who does not normally work in our branch came into the branch (for what its worth, we've all been good with masks, but they were still doing a lot of traveling between states and branches, which I didn't agree with). She told me that wouldn't be possible because I didn't ask about it before hand. I told her I was sorry that I didn't think about getting it okayed with corporate, and was more worried about getting my family sick and other workers sick. I let her have it as well saying that this company doesn't give a fuck about its employees all they care about is making money. My test results came back positive, and I stayed at the hotel for 3 days before I went home. We couldn't afford for me to stay at a hotel for ~$300/night. My mother-in-law was a nurse for 30 years and I asked her advice on me going home. She told me most likely everyone at home has it and I should just go home, because my family needs me at home.
A couple days later, I get a call from urgent care I took the test at and they told me it was a false positive. Apparently they machine they were using got contaminated and it threw out around 50 false positives. I never told my work, I took my two weeks off with sick pay and hung out with my kids for two weeks.
Now onto my new job. My new job is with the government at a city near mine. I'll be in charge of their electrical warehouse. Basically reorganizing and becoming like a buyer for the city electricians. I am absolutely stoked for it. Somewhat nervous, because I don't like change, but it'll be good. It was more money per hour, but at the job I am leaving we get a type of profit sharing. So all in all the new job is actually a paycut, but at this point the cut is worth it to me. The new job is also part of the IBEW union, and I am thrilled to be part of a union. I figure the new pay, plus benefits and holidays, it'll probably be about even. I'll have to driver further, but its not a terrible commute.
Sorry if there are any grammatical errors or spelling errors. English is my first language, but I'm just bad at it.
TLDR: Being treated like shit isn't worth it. Be happy, do good things, and take care of you loved ones.