Wednesday, August 02, 2006

It's Over

So, ignoring everyone's good advice (and I got some great advice), hunky and I wrote up a letter of resignation last night. After my Risting class, I went to work, cleaned out my desk, and left the letter.

You know you want to read the letter! It's pretty good, if I do say so myself (okay, well, hunky wrote most of it):

Dear Acme Management:

I am writing to you today to officially tender my resignation from Acme Consulting Company effective Wednesday, August 2, 2006.

There was a time that I thought I would never leave such a great company as Acme, but things have changed. I now feel that I need to look for brighter opportunities elsewhere. However because I’ve invested such a great deal of time and energy in Acme, I’d like to leave you with a few constructive thoughts.

In no particular order, I’d like to suggest that you consider the following issues with future employees:

• Growth Opportunities: The position of Communications Manager lacks opportunities for significant career growth. Promises were made regarding the advancement opportunities at Acme, but management did not take an active role in expanding my responsibilities within the company, or provide me with career-enhancing training and education. The lack of solid mentorship was a large factor in my decision to resign, and will doubtless be a problem for others who may hold the role in future.

• Workplace Culture: The culture at Acme focuses too much on issues which are not work-related. Making communication styles more important than productivity is inappropriate. The focus of any job should be on adding value to the company by fulfilling one’s job description, and meeting measurable management objectives.

• Measurable Goals: In many cases, Chris and Dennis assign tasks with no guidance or measurable objectives. The goals are often implicit, rather than explicit. Objectives should be clearly stated upfront, and successful completion of objectives should be measurable.

• Employees’ Right to Privacy: Employees are entitled to a private life, and attempts to regulate what people say outside of the workplace — especially in cases which do not involve trade secrets, proprietary information, or company identification — are protected speech. It is both inappropriate, and possibly actionable, for a company to try to regulate an employee’s private life. It is also inappropriate for employees to share non-work related information with management, especially with the intention of creating workplace friction (i.e. Michelle bringing my personal weblog to management’s attention; contrary to statements made by Chris, I did not personally provide Michelle or anyone else in the office with the website address, as my intention was to express myself and not to cause any unpleasantness).

• Counseling Sessions: If and when it is necessary to counsel employees about workplace issues, you may want to spend more time focusing on creating strategies which lead to measurable success. Pointing out problems, especially in subjective areas such as interpersonal dynamics, without offering solutions or attempting to problem-solve, is destructive to morale.

In closing, I really no longer feel welcome at Acme and any opportunities I may have had in the past are no longer available, therefore it’s time for me to move on. I wish you all the very best of luck and hope you don’t repeat the same mistakes with future employees.

Thanks again for everything.

Sincerely,

PJammy
****

It is finished. Hunky did me a solid, and dropped the keys off at the office and picked up my check.

Now I'm jobless and scared, but at least I'm no longer miserable and scared.

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