I worked in a professional field with a local municipality and basically washed out. I couldn't pass my certification exam to save my life. So under the advisement of my immediate supervisor, I quit with two weeks notice. I did this because since I couldn't pass the test, they were going to fire me and the entire municipality has a strict no rehire policy if you're fired. It doesn't matter if you're trying to go to a different department of the local government, you're out forever if you get fired. So to keep that in my back pocket I gave them two weeks and peaced out at the end of the year. Here we are 9 months later, i go back to my former director to ask for a professional reference for a new job. He wasn't in office so I left a message. My former immediate supervisor told me that he spoke with the director and he was told that he won't be writing me a letter of recommendation because of my attendance while I worked for them.
Guys, this was my attendance situation. I found out I was pregnant literally 2 months into my employment with them. My birth control failed. So I had to take time off for prenatal appointments. When it came time for me to have the baby, I was offered 6 months unpaid maternity leave. When I came back after those six months, my ex-husband had a freak accident the week before Thanksgiving where he broke his femur and he had to learn how to walk again. He was in the hospital for 5 days and I had to drive him to his doctor's appointments for three months until he was given clearance to drive himself again.
I had heard rumours that the director wanted to fire me because I “never had any time accrued” because I always had to use it all. I never heard it directly from him and he was always cordial to me and that's why I felt comfortable asking him for the reference. Hearing this has me rethinking my entire time with them, because I thought I was a halfway decent worker. Hell even my immediate supervisor thought I was okay. Not perfect but not so bad that youd turn down writing a letter. Now I'm thinking I gave them those extra two weeks for professional courtesy, for no reason at all because I got nothing positive but the truth.