This story is going to be kept incredibly vague, just to avoid unnecessary details.
Basically, after 4 years at my job, I switched to the same role at a different company. New boss was great, but she got moved to a different office after my first year with the new company. Because our office was “new” in the network, we had a lot of staffing issues, so we were continuously shorthanded. We also weren't part of the union. I was one of the only “veterans” at that building (meaning basically everyone except for a couple of other people were fresh hires), and in particular I was the only one with experience in my field. So I knew I had a lot of leverage. The new hires constantly complained about various things, but the two biggest ones were
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All lunches were explicitly stated to be working lunches due to our staffing issues
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Excessively long daily staff meetings (lasting 1.5 to 2 hours) with no changes to our workload or deadlines to make up for it.
Because of my aforementioned situation, I was the only one that felt comfortable complaining to our new boss. And I did so at least once or twice a week. I told him he needs to cut back on the deadlines and give us more time to actually do our work, instead of taking away our lunches.
I also told him that just because I felt comfortable talking to him about these problems doesn't mean it was coming from only me, and that the majority of his staff felt this way but were afraid to say anything.
After about 5 weeks, the complaints to the boss started becoming arguments. He started micromanaging us even harder after that. He was convinced the problem was that we just weren't using our time during the day effectively.
So after two more weeks of arguing with him, I sat down in his office and laid it out bare. I straight up told him that he needs me more than I need this job. I told him that I need an uninterrupted, daily, duty-free lunch. I told him that without that, I'm going to walk away after labor day (the upcoming weekend). I told him the only reason I stayed with him as long as I had was because of the guilt leaving newbie hires in the lurch.
He said I shouldn't stay out of guilt or obligation. He also said that he couldn't budge on our hours or work responsibilities. So I didn't back down. I'm 35 years old, and by now I've learned two things: 1. I need to put myself first, and 2. If you say something like this, you better not be bluffing, otherwise people are gonna walk all over you. I emailed him Friday afternoon, said my end date was labor day, told him to forward it to HR, and that was that.
That was 10 months ago. I have since re-enrolled and gone back to school to get my PhD. I heard through the grapevine that he got moved to a new office immediately after I quit. I still get calls from some of our old clients asking me to come back, or why I left. And I'm unabashedly honest about my experience at that building.
Before you ask why I didn't ask to transfer to a different office, it's because this one was literally only a 10min commute from where I was living at the time, whereas the rest would've been at least an hour, and some of them two hours.