Hi! I am a new grad in my field and I received a job contingent on passing my fields board exam which I did. I have worked for this job for about two months now and I hate it. It’s not the place for me at all. As a condition of my employment as a new grad, they enrolled me into a mentorship program required of their new grad hires which includes a slow ramp up of your caseload.
I decided this was not the right setting for me (was having panic attacks and dreading work every day). When I was hired I signed a letter saying if I quit before 18 months, I’d need to pay them back for training (5k). I thought I was going to love this job so I signed it. Due to my declining mental health, I quit. Because doing a job that’s making me miserable is not worth it.
At this point, I haven’t even made 5k working here, but they still requested I pay this amount back to recoup training and being in this mentor program. Basically I said “I’m a new grad. I don’t have 5k to pay back. I have student loans to pay so paying you guys 5k would financially ruin me. I also had unexpected vet bills for my pets surgery. You are a huge national company and I am one person with no money and a lot of loans. Please can you not do this.”
Eventually they did waive the fee but my manager called and basically lectured me on reading things carefully (which I had done, expected to love the job, but needed to leave for my sanity’s sake).
My question is, if they had tried to enforce the 5k payback for this mandatory training, would I have had legal ground to fight it? Or no because I signed the letter? I’m just curious as this seems like a real shitty practice- especially to target at new grads.