I recently left a company I had been with for about a year. That's a short while for me, as I usually stay several years with a company I like. I applied for a management position, where I was interviewed by the team I believed I'd be leading. Well, the company gave that position to an in-house employee from that team instead, and I got that employee's old job – good old bait and switch. By the time I realized what had happened, there was no way I could return to the previous company. Still, the insurance was amazing (more on that later) and the pay was still better than with the previous company, so I set myself up on LinkedIn, tossed my resume in the water, and waited for a bite.
Now, this place is the corporate equivalent of a self-motivated circle jerk. They love their image, which is ironic because it's so poor throughout the community and amongst those who have made this company their purgatory. The dwindling staff of employees “on the floor” are good people, with the constant mindset of, “fight the power! “. When the CEO lays out a generic raise after requiring its employees to literally write essays and prove they're exemplary within the corporate culture in order to get a higher bonus because it's too hard to go through reviews, of course that stifles that “above and beyond” work ethic. Literally, they sent out an email with the general feel of, “fuck it, here's an extra $1k (at keast for me) a year. That should cover your gas,”.
So, my new direct boss is the kind of person the company wants to run their management: a job scared, ignorant yes-man. I outrank him in both on-the-job experience and educationally. I suppose that I need to explain now that this is a tech job.
On the first week of my employment, the boss comes into my office and says that a TV needs to be installed. He then proceeded to tell me HOW to install it. I kept my cool, which was difficult. Like I said, they seemed to hire ignorant people, but it just got under my skin. It's kind of like the service manager in a garage telling a master mechanic how to change a spark plug. Either way, I ignored it and proceeded to do what I did best, fixing IT problems for people quickly, efficiently, and because I love teaching, I'd throw out a tech tip or two to help people with miniscule stuff.
That company has a program we'll call GEM. What is a Gem? A Gem is an exemplary mark of service, given by employees to other employees because they were so moved by their actions that they felt driven to fill out a form to get an 'atta boy sent to that employee by management. That's a pretty difficult thing to get according to many at the company, but it was my goal to at least get one before I found another job. I got one 2 weeks in. Then I got four more. They kept coming.
… Remember what I said about my boss? He did not like it at all. In the years prior, he'd never once received recognition for exemplary work, and in fact one of the Gems I received was by a manager commending me for my work despite not having been prepared by my manager. He initially refused to put it into my employment record, asking me what I said to generate such remarks, and why I would throw him under the bus. The person who put the form in learned of this and immediately went to my department head, demanding an explanation. The Gem was granted soon after.
As one does, I had doctor's appointments. I kept my boss and the department updated on when I would be out, and rarely took more than a morning to get the visit out of the way. I learned that I'd be needing a procedure, and updated my boss when it would be. I never heard anything back, but as far as I was concerned, I was covered (excellent health insurance, remember?).
It was at this point that the resume did its job and I got “the call”. The procedure just happened to be on my last day of work at the old company. It wasn't planned that way, it's just how my 2 week notice hit. I didn't even think it would be an issue until the request for medical leave was denied after a month, following an email from my boss that not only was I not putting in my 2 weeks, but that my time off was being denied. I called HR, whose response was essentially, “fuck you, policy says you lose all your PTO and how dare you try to pull one on us,” so I demanded to see the policy. She sent it, smug AF, until I found the wording where medical leave was excused with a doctor's note.
So needless to say, I'm cruising into the new job after a week and a half of paid recovery and a solid one-finger salute to those who tried to stop me. Git gud, son.