For context, I'm a temporary employee for a government institution, working on a 3 year contract. My industry has a lot of temporary employees in this kind of position – as a profession we're notorious for poorly paid, temporary work.
I've been at my job for about a year and a half, so I'm halfway through my contract. Like a lot of government work, my job has been poorly organized and minimally supervised – I've really only had one consistent project in spite of trying to get a few others off the ground. After about 8 months, I realized I was better off using this time to more or less coast rather than trying to start new projects.
I work with one coworker, Lewis, on this primary project. We have a big final presentation coming up in June. We had another coworker, Emma, who was coordinating several of the technical details of that project. Lewis went on paternity leave in August and will return in January.
Here's where I messed up – I've essentially done no work since Lewis went on leave. Emma quit in September, and I was tasked with doing her portion of the presentation (I am truly out of my element and at a loss for how to do it, if I'm honest). Even my initial part of the project remains undone, however. I have lied directly to those checking in about my progress, though these check-ins have been few and far between.
I'd like to quit my job for something with better pay, and I'd like to do it before Lewis returns so my unfinished work goes unpunished. This would put Lewis in a really tough spot, in a precarious profession, to finish out all of mine and Emma's work on his own. I feel particularly bad because Lewis is a new parent, and a good person and coworker. It's possible that I could scramble over the next two weeks to have something to show Lewis when he returns, but it wouldn't be great work.
I've been poorly managed, given very little direction on this project, and I know if I died tomorrow my job wouldn't care. At the same time, I don't currently have another job lined up and I worry about the consequences of leaving under these circumstances. Should I give notice before someone picks up on this unfinished work, or should I stay and try to make it right?