Preparing for Just Rewards

For myriad reasons that center on “most of my family is there and I need to be closer”, I will be leaving Workplace and Southern Oregon. I have the opportunity to look for a job when I don’t actually need it, which is nice. I could, if I wished, find the new job, tender notice to Workplace, and get walked off the lot.

“Walked off the lot” refers to the Workplace tradition of treating those who tender notice as turncoats, guarding them while they gather their things, and walking them off the premises. The smart thing to do in my circumstances is, obviously, find a job on the sly and then tell them when being walked off would be an inconvenience.

I told the HR director as much. I told her I half expected that I would be walked off, but that I felt that it would take some time to fill my position, and my position was a crucial bottle neck in the office flow. We don’t use our db the way it is meant to be used, and finding one’s way through it is non-intuitive — I’ve spent three years sussing it out. I am the only person in or out of the company who can perform some of my functions. No one else even knows where the guidelines and files are in the system.

I’m not that good. Workplace is just that bad about creating a robust system.

So. I gave them notice that I would, shortly, be giving them notice. I explained that I felt part of my job was making certain that things moved in a stable fashion, and that meant giving Workplace an opportunity to bring someone in, have them oriented for a week or so, and then getting rid of me.

And, as I noted, I told her I expected to be walked off. Virtue is not rewarded at Workplace, but I had the need to feel that I had done what, in the CEO’s position, I would want from my IT goon.

Who knows? Perhaps they will be shamed by my excessive virtue, and demonstrate some of their own.

Meanwhile, if anyone knows of a position in the Portland, OR area, let me know.