TL; DR – I feel my workplace is toxic, but worry I’m blowing things out of proportions. There’s a chance I’m getting another job offer soon, but even if I don’t get this job offer, I will be looking hard for better employment . Do I give two week’s notice at my current job if I feel it’s so bad?
Background: I earned a second Masters in 2020 and have had some work in the field since graduating, primarily at one agency I enjoyed but with which I only had a temporary contract due to funding. After looking a while, I found this current job in my field, but which doesn’t actually use my degree. It pays poorly and offers no challenge, has terrible hours (which I knew going in to it, to be fair, but I overestimated how well I could deal with those hours), and is a placeholder job until I find something better, something I always knew it would be. This might not be so awful except because of my hours (weekends only) and because of the workplace’s refusal to hire more people, I am guilt tripped immensely if I call out for any reason, be it illness (including when I showed signs of COVID a few months ago, though ultimately was negative) or even a death in the family (which I gave several days’ notice regarding). Last weekend I’d received an email from my supervisor about my “reliability” because I’d had one sick day and again, two days for a family death in this past month, and I was told it was detrimental to the wellbeing of the weekday staff to have to cover for me in these times (which, hey, their well-being is important too, but it implied mine wasn’t important, especially when I was told I needed to promise I would be in the next several shifts before we switched to summer hours). This is not the first time I’ve been given grief for calling in due to legitimate illness. I haven’t been there long enough to try and file for FMLA, but also I’m not sure how much it would help since I was hired for the weekend, and they refuse to hire anyone else for the weekend except my evening replacement. I dread going into work on the weekends and really want a job with normal Monday – Friday hours, even if it’s part time like what I do now. What my supervisor doesn’t know is I’ve had two interviews at another agency to do a job I’m much more interested in, and I’m currently waiting to hear their decision. That has taken a bit longer than expected to hear from them (they tell me I’ll hear regardless of the outcome), but it has lit a fire under my ass to look for new jobs more in the event I don’t get this offer. I have been so fed up with this current workplace and its apparent lack of empathy that I have considered burning the bridge when I eventually quit by not giving two weeks’ notice. I went for advice elsewhere (not on Reddit) and people advised I swallow my pride and give two week’s notice because I’m still new in this field and maybe I shouldn’t burn bridges. However, I am not new to having a career: as I said, this is my second Masters, and I have references who are both recent and from further back in my career when I was in a different field, so I am not just some newbie without any experience altogether. Maybe I should swallow my pride so I don’t burn bridges, but I guess I just feel so wronged by the lack of empathy regarding my absences when there was a death in the family, as well as the constant guilt tripping for my absences due to illness and the implication that I should only call in “if I’m really sick,” implying that’s not what I have been doing. I just feel fed up with everything. Which brings me back to the original question: to give notice or not give notice?