I’ve been at my job for 5 years now. I work 90% remote, supporting a lab on the other side of the country. The lab I support has just 4 employees after 3 quit at the same time a few months ago, and ever since the small team has been really struggling. Management refuses to hire more people, insisting on seeing more money come in first. I’ve told them that we need more people to make more money, so we are stuck in a chicken-and-egg situation (manegment wants more money to hire more people, we need more people to make more money).
This slow down means daily conversations with upset customers who are having their projects delayed, daily sob stories from customers begging to “squeeze their project in”, which means daily conversations between me and the team begging them to stay late / do more. Two of the four people have had mental breakdowns at work, which i report to HR and management, saying the people left are overworked.
Meanwhile, they’ve roped me into helping with the sales team, trying to cram MORE business in while the team is begging me for LESS. I’m also apparently in charge of collections (asking customers to pay their bills), on top of my highly technical job.
I’m the glue holding this site together, and leaving the company will crush them.
Here is where I’m asking for advice:
On managements orders, I’m currently on a business trip with my boss and the sales team, manning the booth at a trade show all week. I’m staying in a hotel, and basically have to hang out with my boss all day. YESTERDAY, I signed a job offer with another job in my home town. I’ll be making more money, doing less, and with a company that isn’t drowning.
Should I tell my boss and corporate RIGHT NOW that I’m quitting? Or wait until this trade show is over and I’m back home?
The thing is, next week is thanks giving, then the week after that my family and I are leaving the country for two weeks for a vacation, then I start my new job.
If I tell them today, it will be giving them like, 8 days notice. If I wait till I’m not literally eating breakfast lunch and dinner with my boss, it will be like 4 days notice.
I don’t want to burn the bridge completely, but on the other hand, fuck them.
Should I suck it up and tell them now, making the rest of this work trip miserable (I’m sure they would ask me to bend over backwards and finish all of my projects on my shitty laptop in a hotel room) and awkward? Or should I wait till I’m home, and give them only 4 days notice before thanksgiving?